As you go through your mental filing list of people that you have
deeply loved, people that you have had unpleasant partings with, people that you remember from long ago, what goes through your mind? Paul was in
prison in Rome, and as a prisoner he had a lot of time to think about people. This
final chapter of Paul’s second letter to Timothy, and indeed this final correspondence of Paul contains a list
of people, some whom he remembers fondly and others with great concern, alarm.
Paul is always surrounded by
people. He knows someone in every town. He is connected. There are 17 people listed in this ending.
Paul ends this letter to Timothy, pastor in Ephesus, on a
very personal and touching note, and with a few requests. Here we find Paul, a
man portrayed with the same human desires and longings and discouragements that you and
I face.
I wanted us to see that this great, revered apostle and contributor to a
third of our New Testament had a very
human face. I wanted us to see that he was very much a human being like you and I, feeling the need for
human company and comforts and intellectual stimulation. He experienced the joy
and pain of human relationships as you and I do. He flourished and suffered
because of these relationships. In one sense nothing in life gives more joy
than our relationships. But it is also
true to say that no experience in life
can be harder and more taxing than
broken relationship. But in the end, what
counts in all the hardships, is the knowledge that God, the never changing, ever faithful heavenly Father, throughout all his many trials stands by Paul, strengthening him in his spirit
and in his work.
As always, I direct your attention to the text and discover
what is there, learning the lessons that
the Holy Spirit intends to teach us today (cf.
2 Tim. 3:16,17)
1. Paul longs for Timothy’s company: v.9 “Do your best to come to me soon”. In v.21 He says ‘Do your best to come to me before
winter’. Paul needed to see him
soon- before winter, before the sailing season in the Mediterranean was over,
and bad weather set in (see Acts 27).
At the beginning of this letter, in 2 Tim
1:3 he tells Timothy, “I long to see
you, that I may be filled with joy”. Among the people that Paul longed to
see was this young man, now pastor of the church in Ephesus. Here was a man
that filled Paul’s heart with so much joy. Do you have people like that in your
life? People to whom you write and say, ‘can’t
wait to see you’? The temptation is to think of Paul as someone
that is very aloof. He always helps others, and gives advice to others, but he himself
doesn’t need help. Not so. Paul needs
people, and particularly at this time. He wants Timothy to come. Luke, the doctor, and travelling companion of
Paul, the human author of the Gospel and of the Book of Acts alone
is with him (v. 11), and surprise,
surprise, he is asking that Timothy
would bring Mark with him, ‘for he
is very useful to me for ministry.’ You will remember that Paul and Mark (i.e. John
Mark) had not always been on great terms. In fact, Paul and Barnabas have a
sharp disagreement and a separation because of him in Acts 15:39. Paul felt let down because John Mark had deserted them
during their first missionary journey in Perga, Pamphylia (Acts 13:13). On the second
missionary journey when Barnabas wanted to take him along, Paul disagreed and
they parted company. But
clearly now (and isn’t that great?), relationships have been restored, and Paul
says to Timothy, “bring John Mark with
you, he is useful!” It is wonderful to see in these closing verses how
important people are to Paul. Treasure
your relationships!
2. Paul is lonely and disappointed by
some whom he once worked with and
who have either deserted him or
have left him otherwise in a lurch, when he needed them: Demas
is mentioned in Colossians 4:14 and
in Philemon 24, but he has now fallen in love with the present world (v.10). People drop out of our lives. Sadly these things do
happen. In addition Paul mentions the loss of company of two others, but not in
any way like Demas. Crescens (not
named elsewhere) has gone to Galatia
(v.10). Titus,who was formerly on the island
of Crete (Titus 1:5) is now reassigned to Dalmatia
(in today’s Croatia). Tychicus
has been sent to Ephesus. It is
likely that he was going to stand in
for Timothy at Ephesus, once he came to visit Paul. Isn’t it interesting how
Paul remains the ‘director of missions’ during his imprisonment? In vv.14,15
we see some of Paul’s deepest hurts expressed: “Alexander the coppersmith, did
me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of
him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.“ He might be the same Alexander that is
mention in 1 Tim. 1:20 and in Acts 19:33. Whatever he did we cannot say, but it deeply
affected Paul, and he needed to warn
others concerning him. Sadly so, some people that we rub shoulders with have become toxic, and from Paul’s
perspective it is they who, after having followed the gospel for a while, now
become enemies of the gospel e.g. 1:15 (Phygelus and Hermogenes); 2:17
(Hymeneaus and Philetus); 3:8 (Jannes and Jambres)
3. Paul needs creaturely comforts. He needs his cloak which he left with Carpus at Troas (v.13). He needs warm clothes. You can imagine. He is
in prison, and it’s cold. Paul, even
though he has said that he has finished the course and fought the fight and run the race, anticipating his heavenly
reward, is aware of the possibility that he may yet have to spend another winter in prison. We are immortal until our work is done.[1] And so, on a very practical note, he needs his coat! We
have lived through two Klein Windhoek- Avis (where we
live) winters by now, and we are very happy to have warm cloaks and a winter duvet!
"So, Timothy if you come (and please
come before winter) pass through Troas and pick up my cloak which I left with Carpus.” We live somewhere between
acceptance of everything that God allows us to go through and a desire to
improve ourselves and our conditions. Paul was in prison by God’s appointment. He
writes to the Philippians from prison, “what
has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel . . . that now as
always Christ will be exalted in my body whether by life or death” (Phil
1:12-20), and yet he can say, Please bring me that cloak.
4. Paul needs books! V.13b ”bring the books and
above all, the parchments…” Spurgeon, in a sermon on this very text says, “ He is inspired, and yet he wants books.He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants
books. He has seen the Lord, and yet he wants books. He's had a wider
experience than most men, and yet he wants books. He had been caught up into
the third heaven and had heard things which it was unlawful for a man to utter,
and yet he wants books. He had written the major part of the New Testament, and
yet he wants books and parchments.” What
an important reminder of the fact that God has given us a book to read. Do you
read your Bible regularly? Do you read good books? Reading Christians are generally
growing Christians. What were these
books and parchments? In all likelihood
it would have been a copy of the Greek Old Testament, and perhaps
also his ‘notebooks’, the parchments, things which he might have written (or half written). Paul, even in prison, facing death wanted to learn, wanted to be stimulated. Start reading!
5. Paul
testifies to God’s
comforting presence in prison (vv.
16-18) Notice what he says: “The Lord stood by me” (v. 17). Evidently some preliminary
trial has already taken place (v.16)
and some deliverance had happened. He tells us that like Daniel in
Babylon he has been delivered from the lion’s mouth (v.17), and again in v. 18,
“The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed
....”; and then in the closing benediction he says, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you”. Here is the
apostle Paul in this terrible situation,
alone and abandoned by many, but he knows that he is not alone. God is there. He is tangibly present.
Welsh
Pastor, Geoff Thomas, now retired, tells
the story of Pastor Sandor of Romania who
was imprisoned in the 1950s. Kept in an overcrowded cell he longed for time to
be alone with Jesus, for deeper prayer and an increased spiritual usefulness.
And then, for helping a weaker prisoner he was sentenced to a lengthy spell in
a below-ground punishment box where he could hardly sit, enduring insufferable
heat, no sanitation and minimal food and drink. Initially he was despairing and
confused, and then he remembered what he’d been praying for, and realized that
Jesus was with his spirit there, that he has been given two weeks of
undisturbed fellowship with the Lord. He always afterwards blessed God for that
wonderful cell. There he knew this presence, this real, protecting,
transforming, faith-enriching, holiness-developing, wisdom-granting,
preacher-emboldening presence that would sustain Timothy and enable him to stand
alone in Asia Minor and triumph over all these adversaries in the world and in
the professing church.
So, what is the Holy Spirit saying to us in this section? When we
are lonely we need friends. Poor relationships affect us and
trouble us. When our body is cold we
need clothing. When our mind is unoccupied we need reading matter. We are
human. These are legitimate human needs. But when everything is said and done, and
nothing has become tangible for us, God is there, an ever present help in trouble (Psalm 46)
I close with this story about William Tyndale (1494 -1536),
that great English Reformer. He was the author of a number of books and of the Tyndale
Bible. There is only one letter that has
survived.[2]
It was written while Tyndale was a prisoner at Vilvoorde Castle in Belgium,
about 10 km’s north of Brussels. There he was being kept in a cold and dingy
dungeon. Let me read it to you: “I believe, right worshipful, that you are
not ignorant of what has been determined concerning me. Therefore, I entreat
your Lordship, and that by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain here during
the winter, you will request the Procurer to be kind enough to send me from my
goods, which he has in his possession, a warmer cap, for I suffer extremely
from cold in the head, being afflicted with a perpetual catarrh [inflammation
in the nose or throat], which is considerably increased in the cell. A warmer
coat also, for that which I have is very thin; also a piece of cloth to patch
my leggings: my overcoat is worn out; my shirts are also worn out. He has a woollen
shirt of mine, if he will be kind enough to send it. I have also, with him,
leggings of thicker cloth, for putting on above; he has also warmer caps for
wearing at night. I wish also his permission to have a candle in the evening,
for it is wearisome to sit alone in the dark. But above all, I entreat and
beseech your clemency to be urgent with the Procurer that he would kindly
permit me to have my Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Grammar, and Hebrew Dictionary, that
I may spend my time with that study. And in return, may you obtain your dearest
wish, provided it is always consistent with the salvation of your soul. But if
any other resolutions have been come to concerning me, before the close of the
winter, I shall be patient, abiding the will of God to the glory of the grace
of my Lord Jesus Christ, whose spirit, I pray, may ever direct your heart.
Amen. William Tyndale
Just as Paul did in 2 Timothy, Tyndale asked for his cloak and
for his books. He would be led from the castle and martyred on Friday, October
6, 1536 through strangulation and burning.
THE GREATEST NEED IS
FOR THE LORD AND HIS GRACE TO BE WITH US.
Paul's closing words from a prison cell are comforting: “The Lord be with
your spirit. Grace be with you” (v.22).
This is what Timothy must have.
This is what we must have, actually more than friends,
warm clothes and books.
After all is said and done, we must have the comforting presence and fellowship of the Lord Jesus with our spirits.
[1] George
Whitfield : letters p.1
[2] https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/tyndales-only-surviving-letter/
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