Finishing Well

Intro:

Today, we recognized our graduates. What a momentous occasion for Leo and Grace as they move on to the next phase of life. All across this country young men and women have completed their High School or College educations and have walked across the stage and received their diploma or degree.

During every graduation ceremony, there are some young men and women who walk across the stage and receiving their diploma or degree that just barely made the grade to graduate. And then there are some young men and women who excelled academically. What we can say about the first group is that they finished; and what we can say about the second group is that they finished well.

Maybe you are here this morning and at the time of your graduation, you fell into the category of “finishing by the skin of your teeth”. I want you to know that it is not to late to finish well.

Maybe you are of the group that, at the end of high school or college, finished well… that is great! We need smart people to answer the difficult questions… I hope that your efforts to finish well didn’t stop after receiving your diploma or your degree.

As we recognize the graduates of Pierson Bible Church this morning, I want to mention that over the course of 2020 there were several folks, that were close to us, who made it to their final graduation. Many, if not all of us, lost friends and family members due to various different reasons… among those, were Two faithful members of Pierson Bible Church; Ray Borema and Steve Ziny… What an amazing graduation party they had waiting for them when they reached the gates of Heaven.

As we gain an education from this “academy” that we call life, when it comes time for our final graduation, will we be able to say that we finished well?

Meat:

The Apostle Paul, towards the end of his life, gave a charge to young Timothy and basically gave him the answer to a question that, at times, we may find ourselves asking…

How Do We Finish Well?

Lets look at what Paul tells Timothy… 2 Timothy 4:1-8 (Read)…

I see 3 specific guidelines for Timothy to follow in order to finish well… And if we desire to finish well, when it comes time for our final graduation, then we would be wise, to also, follow these guidelines.

The first guideline to finishing well, is to...

1. Focus on Scripture vv. 1-3a

God’s Word should be the center piece of our lives. Our lives should revolve around this (Hold up Bible). It is not something that is an after thought, or just a book that we carry to Church on Sundays.

Paul Said vv. 1-3a “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,...”

Some may read these verses and say “Oh, this isn’t for me to follow… It says to Preach the Word, so this is just for preachers and I am no preacher”…

As I stated before, this was Paul’s final charge to Timothy, who at the time was a young preacher. But when you look at the actual words that Paul uses here, he is telling Timothy to “Proclaim the Message”. What Message?… The Message of the Gospel.

Paul tells Timothy that he needs to Proclaim the Message of Jesus Christ. His birth, His life, His Ministry, His Death, burial and Resurrection, His ascension into Heaven… “Proclaim the Message”

Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 NKJV

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

(Slide - 1. Focus on Scripture)

Christ is telling His Disciples the exact same thing… “Proclaim the Message”… What is a disciple? … According to the Lexham Theological Wordbook; “Discipleship is the process of devoting oneself to a teacher to learn from and become more like them. For the Christian, this refers to the process of learning the teachings of Jesus and following after his example in obedience through the power of the Holy Spirit. Discipleship not only involves the process of becoming a disciple but of making other disciples through teaching and evangelism.”

To put it plainly; If you are a follower of Christ, then you are one of His disciples… and as a disciple, you are called to “Proclaim the Message”… or as the NKJV translates it, you are called to “Preach the Word”.

This is why it is so important to focus on Scripture… How can you thoroughly proclaim something that you know nothing about? Paul tells Timothy that you should “Be ready in season and out of season. And he should be able to.. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

Why is this so important… Because  the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,...

The American Banking Association once sponsored a two-week training program to help tellers detect counterfeit bills. The program was unique never during the two-week training did the tellers even look at a counterfeit bill, nor did they listen to any lectures concerning the characteristics of counterfeit bills… All they did for two-week was handle authentic currency, hour after hour and day after day, until they were so familiar with the true that they could not possibly be fooled by the false.

We need to focus on God’s word until we are so familiar with it that we cannot be fooled by anything less than real truth. We need to make sure that we know Scripture well enough so that we are not tossed around by the ever so changing winds of false doctrine.

This leads right into our second guideline, which is…

2. Don’t be Distracted by the World vv. 3-4

Paul wrote this letter sometime around the years 65-67 AD. They didn’t have T.V., they didn’t have internet, radio, cell phones… If you wanted to go anywhere, you had to walk most of the time… And yet Paul tells Timothy, Don’t let the way of the world distract you…

vv. 3-4 “3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”

I like the way the NASB translates these verses “ 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

Paul tells Timothy that “there will come a day that people will be offended by sound doctrine. They will be offended by the truths of Scripture and they will only want to hear things that tickle their ears…”

You see, the problem is, people are mistaking or replacing conviction with offence… If you are sitting in a Bible believing, Bible teaching Church, which, I am certain, Pierson Bible Church is… If you here something from God’s Word that “Offends” you, then I would encourage you to study it out for yourself. Don’t take my word for it, I am human and make mistakes sometimes… But study God’s Word and see what it says, because your feeling offended may very well be the Holy Spirit convicting you of something that needs to change in your life.

There will come a day when people will be convicted by sound doctrine, they will move from congregation to congregation, until they find a teacher that only tells them what they want to hear.

“they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

Warren Wiersbe says “Once people have rejected the truth, they turn to fables (myths). It is not likely that man-made fables will convict them of sin or make them want to repent! The result is a congregation of comfortable, professing Christians, listening to a comfortable, religious talk that contains no Bible doctrine. These people become the prey of every false cult because their lives lack a foundation in the Word of God. It is a recognized fact that most cultists were formerly members of churches.”

There are so many more distractions that flood our culture today, that we need to be mindful of and watch out for… Some of those distractions can come in the form of hardships. And that is our final guideline this morning… We need to be willing to ...

3. Stand Firm in Difficult Times v.5

v.5 “5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Paul doesn’t say “if afflictions come”… He just says “Endure Afflictions”. Paul has been in ministry for 30+ years when he wrote this letter. He has seen first hand some of the afflictions Timothy may need to endure in the future…

Here is a list that still falls short of all Paul suffered. It comes from 2 Corinthians 11:23-33:

in labors more abundant

in stripes above measure

in prisons more frequently

faced death often

from the Jews five times he received 39 stripes

three times he was beaten with rods

once he was stoned (and not because he shopped at the new store in Sand Lake)

three times he was shipwrecked

a night and a day he spent in the deep

in journeys often

in perils of waters

in perils of robbers

in perils of his own countrymen

in perils of the Gentiles

in perils in the city

in perils in the wilderness

in perils in the sea

in perils among false brethren

in weariness and toil

in sleeplessness often

in hunger and thirst

in often fastings

in cold and nakedness

besides the other things, that came upon him on a regular basis… Everyday he dealt with a deep concern for all the churches

As the infomercials would say… “But wait, there’s more!”

He was Given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him (2 Corinthians 12:7).

Abandoned by all his friends while imprisoned (2 Timothy 1:15).

Despaired even of life (2 Corinthians 1:8).

I think we all get the picture.

He even wrote this letter while he was in prison waiting to be executed for preaching the Gospel…

He tells Timothy to stand firm in difficult times… “Endure afflictions, Fulfill your ministry”…

Why was Paul able to Stand firm through these difficult times? Because he knew the promises of God. How would Timothy be able to stand firm through the difficulties he would face? By standing on the Promises of God… How can we stand firm when difficulties come our way?… (say it with me yall) By Standing on the promises of God!

There are times when we catch ourselves thinking “I have had enough and I just want to give up”. Perhaps it was a while ago … or a month ago … or a week ago … or yesterday. Maybe you have that feeling right now. “I’ve had enough and I just want to give up”.

We struggle financially.

We struggle emotionally.

We struggle physically.

We struggle spiritually.

Just because we say we belong to the family of God does not mean that everything will go smoothly. There are some days when we feel we have given our best, but our best doesn’t seem to make the grade. We find ourselves going through times when all we can do is count the sacrifices we need to make for the sake of the Lord; and the blessings seem to be out of reach.

Why would Paul continue to endure through all of the hardships that he faced?… Why would he encourage Timothy to endure through whatever hardships come his way?… And, Why should we endure the hardships that come our way???

Because folks, we have a Saviour who has endured for us. We have a Saviour who willingly gave His all, including His life, so that we can “finish well” as we choose to follow Him and continue the journey He started for us.

When we are tempted to give up that is what we look towards. We look towards the fact that Jesus has begun the work and now … and now Jesus is relying on us to continue that work.

The next few verse are titled in my Bible as...

Paul’s Valedictory vv. 6-8

It says “6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

Paul’s valedictory helps us realize that our main objective is to finish what Christ has started.

We are expected to be drink-offerings: This was often water or wine, that was poured out as a sacrifice to God. Romans 12:1 says “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

That means… As as a Living Sacrifice…

We are always before God.

We have been set apart for service to God.

And Our purpose is to please God.

That is our calling.

Closing:

Paul said “I have finished the Race”… We are all running this race of life. No one knows when their race will end… and I want you to know that, how you started the race does not matter… we all started it the same way… we all started as sinners destined for hell.

Unfortunately, there are some who finish the race the same way that they started. But we don’t have to… God sent His Son to die in our place. He sent His Son as a sacrifice for us. And anyone that repents of their sin and puts their Faith in Christ is now running this race, still as a sinner, but as a sinner who has been saved by Grace.

May we fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, so that when it comes for our final graduation we can say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”

May we all “Finish Well”

Prayer