IITi.4.12-18
“The Lord of Help and Hope” 2 Timothy 4:12-18
Monday>Read all of II Timothy 4 to get a context for verses 12-18.
Introduction: Do you ever wonder where God is? Do you ever look at your circumstances and say, “I want to believe that God is near, but I don’t think I see Him now. I sure don’t feel His presence and I strain my ears to hear His voice, but it seems that there is only silence.”
And so we begin to look for people to be a surrogate Messiah. We cling to them for help and hope. And inevitably, they fail us. Our grief and discouragement deepens. Our faith withers.
Beloved, God gives us objective truth that we might secure our hearts to it and by it. I fear that many in the church, who supposedly believe in the authority and inerrancy of the Scriptures, refuse to believe what is written there.
These things are written for our comfort and encouragement that we might be a people who in the face of overwhelming difficulty and suffering HAVE HOPE.
Listen to the personal testimony of the apostle Paul at the end of His life and ministry.
Questions: What is it that is causing you or someone you know to struggle with the reality of God’s presence and the need to walk by faith? According to Mark 15:34, did Jesus ever sense being forsaken by God the Father? Are you finding comfort and assurance that as Christ prays for you He knows what you are going through?
Tuesday>Read and consider II Timothy 4:12-16.
I. People are not the Believer’s Help and Hope (4:12-16).
A. People often do us harm (4:14-15).
1. Alexander . . . did me much evil.
a. Much evil: harm
b. Greatly withstood our words (15).
1) to oppose someone, involving not only a psychological attitude but also a corresponding behavior[1]
2) “strongly opposed our message” (ESV)
c. While we cannot be sure of this man’s identity or even the specifics of his harm to Paul, this metal worker stands accountable to God for his actions.
2. Believers must respond in faith.
a. The Lord reward him
b. ἀποδώσει: to recompense someone, whether positively or negatively, depending upon what the individual deserves[2]
c. Notice how Paul makes room for God’s vengeance.
d. Rom 12:19 (NKJV) Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
3. be thou ware
a. φυλάσσου: (be on one’s) guard against, look out for, avoid[3]
b. Alexander remains a danger to Timothy.
Questions: Can you think of someone currently trying to do you or someone you know harm? Have you asked God to enable you to believe and obey Romans 12:19? If necessary, have you shared Romans 12:19 with a brother or sister in Christ wanting to get their own vengeance?
Wednesday>
B. People often fail to give us help (4:16).
1. no one stood with me: to come to the assistance of someone; to come to help or aid
a. first answer: to speak on behalf of oneself or of others against accusations presumed to be false[4]
b. Where was everyone?
c. 1:15 records that all those in Asia turned away from Paul, particularly Phygelus and Hermogenes.
d. There is some thought that “several leading Christians in the province of which Ephesus was the capital had been asked by Paul to come to Rome in order to appear on the witness-stand in his favor. However, with the possible exception of [Onesiphorus] no one had complied with the request. In all likelihood fear had held them back.”[5]
e. It seems reasonable that Onesiphorus and Luke had not yet arrived in Rome.
2. All forsook me
a. Those who should have and could have stood with Paul deserted him!
b. How utterly disappointing this must have been for Paul.
c. After all, Acts 20:18 mentions that when Paul arrived in Asia he went first to Ephesus. And 20:31 indicates that there he labored no less than three years, night and day, with tears.
d. And now no one comes to his defense?
e. Point: People often fail to give us help.
Questions>Give careful attention to point “3” for today’s questions.
3. Believers must respond in mercy.
a. May it not be laid to their charge (v. 16).
1) The individuals who failed to stand with Paul before the court are culpable.
2) They deserve blame and punishment from God.
b. What distinguishes them from Alexander?
1) They are not among those who oppose the Gospel.
2) Paul, knowing the weakness of his own flesh, also considers the weaknesses of others and rather than praying for God’s just recompense, prays for God’s mercy.
3) Just as he wrote in 1 Cor 13:5, love “does not take into account a wrong suffered.”
4) This reminds us of our Lord’s response from the cross “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
c. Q: Are you responding to fellow believers who hurt and disappoint you with this kind of mercy and forgiveness? As long as you expect from people what only God can give and be, you will never know the joy of saying in the face of hurt and disappointment, “I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.”
Thursday>Why could Paul write such remarkable words of mercy as found in verse 16? Investigate verses 17 and 18 for answers.
II. The Lord is the Believer’s Help and Hope (4:17-18).
A. The Lord gives help for His purpose (v. 17).
1. The Lord gives the help of His presence.
a. παρέστη: to be in proximity, to stand near
b. “The Lord was there for me.”
c. Q: Do you know the personal presence of the Lord?
d. Can you look back at certain defining moments and say, “the Lord was with me”?
e. Think of the evil and harm that has befallen the people of God through thousands of years.
1) Where was God when Cain killed Abel?
2) Where was God when Abraham failed Sarah and gave her into the hand of Pharaoh?
3) Where was God when Joseph’s brother sold him into slavery?
4) Where was God when Tamar was raped by her brother?
5) Where was God when Gomer left Hosea?
6) Where was God when Anna’s husband died after only seven years of marriage?
7) Where was God when Herod ruthlessly murdered the little children of Bethlehem?
8) Where was God when Lazarus died the second time?
9) Where was God when Paul was falsely accused of crimes against the state?
f. 1 Cor 15:56 states emphatically that “the sting of death is sin.”
1) It is the profound realization that we did this to ourselves!
2) The sting of an abusive relationship is man’s sin.
3) The sting of broken marriage is man’s sin.
4) The sting of all the ugliness on earth is man’s sin.
g. In the midst of this profound and vile ugliness, stands the Lord, near His people.
1) Many believers falsely assume that union with Christ means exemption from the ugly sin in the world.
2) Our union with Christ does not guarantee immunity from the evil and harm existing on earth.
3) Our union with Christ guarantees that we have a Redeemer who will never leave us or forsake us, that we have a Lord who stands near to us when all others forsake us.
h. The Lord stands with His people!
2. The Lord gives the help of His power.
a. ἐνεδυνάμωσεν: to cause someone to have the ability to do or to experience something[6]
b. Q: How often have you said, “I can’t do this!”
3. The Lord gives the help of His perspective (v. 17).
a. The full proclamation of the message: the Apostolic preaching (see Rom 16:25; 1 Cor 1:21; 2:4)
b. The Lord’s purpose: that Gentiles might hear
c. Point: There is something more important in this life than my comfort: the message of Christ to the world.
d. God delights to strengthen those who are pursuing His will.
e. God does not promise strength to those who seek their own way.
Questions: Is there something more important in this life than getting out the message of Christ? Also, thoughtfully examine yourself in light of point “4.”
4. Application:
a. Some of you are angry at God this morning because He hasn’t bailed you out, but the truth is you’re not serving Him, pursuing His plan and purpose for your life.
b. The hardship you face today is the discipline of the Lord. He is like a loving father who resists the rebellion and willfulness of a child with stern rebuke and measured discipline. It looks like a power struggle on the surface, but that father is intent on seeing his child walk a good path in life.
c. God’s loving discipline is intended to bring you out of the self-willed way, to minimize the harm you would do to yourself by remaining in this path of rebellion.
Friday>Read verse 18 and review Paul’s encouragement in II Timothy 1:6-12. God is not only delivering us but also preserving what we commit to Him.
B. The Lord gives hope for our future (v. 18).
1. I was delivered
a. Probably a reference not to literal lions, but “complete deliverance” (Hendriksen, 327).
b. After his first imprisonment, Paul was released for more profitable Gospel preaching ministry and mission.
2. I shall be delivered:
a. Shall deliver: (ῥύσεται) to rescue from danger, with the implication that the danger in question is severe and acute[7]
b. It is only a realistic expectation of people and an experience of God’s presence that births such a response.
c. will preserve: (σώσει) to rescue from danger and to restore to a . . . state of safety and well being[8]
d. unto his heavenly kingdom
1) God’s kingdom is the sphere or realm of His sovereignty.
2) The heavenly kingdom refers to that eternal state ruled by God where His people are free from indwelling sin and the temporary control of earthly powers and evil.
3) Paul is thinking about a day when there will be no Nero to call him into court. A day where he will face not opposition and difficulty, but glory and the full experience of grace and truth.
e. No wonder he would explode in praise, “to whom be glory forever and ever! Amen.”
Questions: How recently have you praised God for His deliverance from difficult circumstances or the harmful efforts of others? How recently have you praised God for the assurance of an ultimate deliverance into His kingdom when you will fully be free from the effects of sin? Take some time to just praise the Lord and join Paul in saying, “…to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Saturday>Read II Timothy 4:12-18.
C. Conclusion:
1. Ill.: When asked what people could pray for, one young missionary replied: “Humility/Brokenness--usually this comes through pain; and as much as I hate pain, I know I grow close to him when I am living at the end of my resources. I want to know what this means. Thanks to [God] that he is graciously readjusting my thinking about myself, my reputation, my purpose, my future. In case you are wondering if there is anything specific I'm referring to here--not really, I’m thinking more about the fact that he wants weak vessels, jars of clay--that don't have to have things figured out--but that make it their aim to please him, rejoicing in his steadfast love, rather than in the works of their hands. It seems that I have put such a premium on having myself and God figured out.”
2. No person on this earth can provide for us the kind of help and hope that the Lord Himself gives.
3. Get your eyes off of others. Stop looking to people to deliver and preserve. And open the eyes of your heart that you may see the Lord Himself in such close proximity that you will wonder how you have ever missed Him and doubted His steadfast love.
4. What a wonderful Savior and Lord! He is the help and hope of His people.
Questions: For hope and help, are you looking to someone else besides the Lord? Why not use the prayer request above as a guide for asking the Lord to affirm His steadfast presence, love, and strength to you today? Perhaps you can offer this same request for another brother or sister in Christ.
Sunday>Consider again II Timothy 4 in preparation for the morning message.
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[1]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996, c1989). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament : Based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition.) (Vol. 1, Page 491). New York: United Bible societies.
[2]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A.
[3]Arndt, W., Gingrich, F. W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (1996, c1979). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (Page 868). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[4]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A.
[5]Hendrikesen, New Testament Commentary, II Timothy, 238.
[6]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A.
[7]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A.
[8]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A.