Back To School-Paul's Final Message Series

(Based on a sermon preached at First Baptist Church, Chamois, MO; not an exact transcription)

Introduction: Paul had been convicted and sentenced to death. Before this happened, though, he wrote this second letter to Timothy. In keeping with our August “back-to-school” theme, we could say that Paul is giving Timothy either an introduction to what’s happening; or, Paul’s giving Timothy a wrap-up before Paul’s life ends.

Maybe there’s some of each in this letter.

Let’s read the text, beginning at verse 1:

Text: 2 Timothy 4:1-12, NASV: 1 I solemnly exhort you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

5 But as for you, use self-restraint in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 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 course, I have kept the faith; 8 in the future there is reserved 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. 9 Make every effort to come to me soon; 10 for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Take along Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.

<Opening prayer>

1 Paul’s remarks and testimony

We notice the chapter, at least these first verses, have two separate thoughts. The first section has a recap, we might say, of Paul’s testimony and coming events. He first gives a “charge”, as some versions have it, or an exhortation, as this version translates Paul’s original word. And that charge or exhortation is, then, now, and always, to “preach the Word”!

And not only that, Paul tells Timothy to be “ready in season and out of season”. I have never really understood what that really means, and there is a lot of variation in some of the comments and commentaries. It’s only a guess but to me this could mean Timothy needed to be ready to share or preach the Word at any time the opportunities rose, not just at the regular times of worship and praise.

Paul next urged Timothy to “correct (“reprove”, King James Version), rebuke, and exhort with great patience and instruction.” One reason for this is that new believers and even weak believers would need to be reminded of our Lord’s simple Truth. Another is that even in these early days of the Church, there were several false teachers bringing false doctrines. Paul mentioned some of these earlier in this letter plus in other Epistles or letters. We still have any number of false teachers even these days, don’t we?

Part of the reason for this is that people, generally, like to hear pleasant things. I don’t know of very many who want to learn something that would make them more accountable or more responsible for what they hear. That’s one reason why, I think, people who preach (however defined) easy stuff or bland messages full of platitudes seem to have larger audiences than those preachers who preach the entire Word. Take another look and see how Paul knew even then that some would reject the truth (of the Word) and latch on to myths!

Now that Paul seems to have grabbed Timothy’s attention—and who wouldn’t be alarmed by reading something like this—he moves on to give Timothy some additional information.

2 Paul’s instructions for Timothy

I have to confess, Timothy doesn’t seem to be the kind of guy who needs urging to use self-restraint! After all, Paul had just written him to “correct, reprove and exhort” and, as I understand this, these are all in the sense of “begin to do this and then keep on doing it”. In Paul’s mind, then, Timothy wasn’t doing any of those and needed to start. The same thing is true of Paul’s charge for Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist” and to “fulfill [his] ministry”.

Now Paul gets into the real, unvarnished truth of the matter. He now explains to Timothy that he was “already being poured out as a drink offering”, alluding to, I think, the drink offerings mentioned in Exodus, Numbers, and even Joel 1:9. There are too many to list—Strong’s concordance mentions the phrase “drink offering” 64 times!—but it was real, and Paul knew that he, too, was near the end of his days on this earth.