2 Timothy 3:10-4:8
Finishing well….
As we come to the end of yet another year, I would like us to think about how we can finish this year well.
What would finishing the year well, look like for you?
Is it making sure all those loose ends are tied up?
Is it just limping to the end of 2024, hoping this year will soon be done with and we can start afresh in 2025?
Well, today, I not only want you to think about finishing this year well, but I want you to reflect upon how you might finish this life well, because today, we are going to have a look at how the apostle Paul finished his time on earth.
We are going to consider, what he was eager to pass on to the next generation as he was preparing to pass into the next life.
When all is said and done- how do you want to finish this life?
And I hope you don’t consider this a morbid kind of question, but I hope it may be a question that helps us how we live our lives now.
We can see in the scriptures that the apostle Paul often thought about the life to come, and as he did, it helped him to live a more focused life in the present.
I wonder how many of us, just drift through life without making the most of it, and when I say making the most of it, I mean making the most of every opportunity to glorify God in all that we do, and all that we say.
What lasting words would we want on our tombstone.
William Shakespeare had this written on his tombstone
“Good friend for Jesus’ sake forbear, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, and cursed be he that moves my bones.”-
William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare was dark to the very end.
Martin Luther King had this written
“Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty I’m free at last.”
For King, he struggle with slavery was over at death.
Or what about this one?
“She always said her feet were killing her, but no one believed her.”
Anyway all jokes aside, as we come to our passage from 2 Timothy today, what are the lasting words that Paul wanted to impress on his son in the Lord- Timothy?
Or if Paul was preparing his words for a tombstone, what would it have said?
Well, I think, we could sum up this passage, with the words……..
“Trust the bible and live by it”
“Trust the bible and live by it”
In Timothy’s context this was absolutely vital, but it is also vital in your context, in my context in everyone’s context- we must trust the bible and live by it.
For pastor Timothy in the first century in the city of Ephesus, he was surrounded by people who not only didn’t trust the scriptures, but people who were telling others not to trust the scriptures and to trust something else, some sort of life code or philosophy.
Look at verses 3-4 with me:
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Sound familiar?
All generations since Timothy have been living in the same context.
We live in this context today- perhaps more than any other generation, now we have the internet.
You can accumulate teachers that will suit your own passion when you scroll through Facebook or Instagram. If you are not happy with what you read, just scroll on.
There are many teachers out there, spouting their own teaching which will tickle your ears.
Just google a famous celebrity, a billionaire or a political figure and they will have some live advice for you.
Then again…………. don’t…………. let us heed the words of the apostle Paul that he passed on to his son in the Lord Timothy- Just trust the bible and live by it.
But why?
Why would we stake our lives on trusting a book and living by it?
Well, the apostle Paul gave us the answer in chapter 3 verse 16.
Look at verse 16 with me:
All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction, and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work
Friends, when we trust the bible and live by it, we are actually trusting God himself, because God is the author of the bible.
All scripture is God breathed, which means in layman’s terms, God spoke these words and humans like Paul, Peter and Moses, to name just a few, wrote down the words of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so that we could all listen to God speak to us through the scriptures. God spoke these words to these people by the Holy Spirit. The very word breathe in Hebrew is “ruah” almost pronounced like a breathe, and this word ruah also means spirit, and so it could also be said that all scripture is God spirited……
2 Peter 1:21 says this….
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit
And so we know, according to the scriptures, that God spoke to the prophets and apostles by his holy Spirit, and these prophets and apostles, by the holy spirit working through them, wrote down these words of scripture for us. It wasn’t words which the prophets and apostles had made up by themselves, but it was words that were inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Now, I could spend a lot of time trying to defend the truthfulness of the bible, as we look at archaeological evidence, historical accounts and so on, but I am more of a Charles Spurgeon thinker when it comes to defending the trust worthiness of the bible.
When Spurgeon was once asked whether he could defend the trustworthiness of the bible, he answered:
“Defend the bible, I would rather defend a lion, it is just better to let it loose and it can defend itself”
I would rather trust the words of scripture and live by them, than the words of Elon Musk, or Morgan freedman, or whoever…..wouldn’t you?
Paul made it clear to us that we can trust the bible, because it was written by God, and he also said that we can also live by the words of the bible because it brings us life.
Look at chapter 3 verses 14 and 15 with me:
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from who you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
For Timothy, it was his grandmother Lois who taught him the scriptures as he was growing up, it was his grandmother Lois who introduced him to Jesus, and it was his mother and the apostle Paul who continued to teach him the scriptures.
Some of us, have been blessed to have been raised in a family where our parents taught us and impressed on us the scriptures. This was the case for both Kari and I. But for others, it wasn’t your parents who taught you the scriptures and introduced you to Jesus, it was someone else. But whoever first taught you about Jesus, and taught you the scriptures, Paul’s advice for you, is to keep faith with what you were first taught.
I have said this many times, but I will say it again, we are saved through faith alone in Christ alone through scripture alone.
This is why Paul wrote in verse 15 that the scriptures are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, because if we are being taught the scriptures correctly, we are being taught more and more who Jesus is, because all the words of scripture from first to last, point to Jesus- it is all about Him.
Paul was not just a teacher who taught Timothy how to trust the bible and live by it, but he was a person who showed by his life, what it was like to trust the bible and live by it.
Friends, as we draw to the end of another year, can you look back on this year and show evidence by your life this year that you trusted the bible and lived by it?
If perhaps, you, like me have fallen short this year, maybe we can ask God to help us, by his Holy Spirit to live by his word next year. May be we can ask God to help us live by his word, even when it may cost us. Even if the world may perceive us as the bad guys, even if the world may think we are soft, delusion, cruel, whatever, may we have the courage to trust God’s word and live by it.
The apostle Paul wanted Timothy to know that those who trust in the bible and live by it, are going to be persecuted.
Look at chapter 3 verses 10-12 with me:
10 You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted
Paul trusted the words of scripture and he lived by them, and for that: he suffered, and yet Paul tells Timothy here, as he told many, that the suffering was worth it.
Paul told us in 2 Corinthians 11 that he suffered than most people for desiring to live a godly life, that is a life that trusts in the words of scriptures and lives by them. Imprisonments, beatings to near death, 5 times of 39 lashes, 3 times beaten with rods, once stoned, 3 times shipwrecked, a night and a day adrift at sea, danger from those outside and inside the church- many sleepless nights.
Paul suffered for trusting in the bible and living by it, he suffered for desiring to live a godly life, a life that pleased God, and yet it was all worth it, and why?
Because he knew there was better to come.
Look at chapter 4 verses 6-8 with me:
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
Paul was willing to suffer for the sake of trusting the bible and to live by it because he knew that a crown of righteousness was awaiting him in heaven.
This crown of righteousness is the crown of the righteousness of Christ which is given to all believers, all those who keep the faith-all those who trust the words of scripture and live by them. It is the gift of eternal life. It is believing that as Jesus died on the cross, he took our sins and gave us his right standing with his father. This crown of righteousness- this eternal life is nothing that we earn, but it is a gift we receive through faith in Jesus.
When the apostle Paul was passing on his last words to Timothy, he wanted Timothy to know that he had kept the faith, he had trusted the scriptures and lived by them to the end, and he desired Timothy to do the same.
Friends let us finish this year well, let us trust the scriptures and live by them, come what may, and may we continue in that faith all the days of our lives.
Let us pray.
Comments