Demas, Why Did You Quit

• Possibly, Demas struggled with some of these things and was disillusioned with his own wrong motives or lack of spiritual growth, especially when he compared himself with the great Apostle Paul, who seemed to always be “on target.”

Paul’s words in Philippians 3:13 might have helped: “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.”

Sometimes we beat ourselves up, not realizing we’re playing into Satan’s hands. Paul said he had not arrived in his spiritual life, but he didn’t wallow in self-flagellation and self-condemnation. He put his past sins and failures behind him and looked ahead to the goals before him in the future.

V. ANOTHER POSSIBILITY IS THAT DEMAS GOT TIRED OF PERSECUTION

Hey, I can understand that: Traveling with Paul was an invitation to disaster! Everywhere he went with the Apostle, trouble was soon brewing. When they went into a new city, Paul would probably send Demas over to the local prison to check out their accommodations! Perhaps after a few beatings, a few eggs in the face, a few times crowds taunted and made fun of and ridiculed and disrupted his preaching, he figured—“Am I crazy or something? Whatever was I thinking when I joined up with Paul?”

Peter could have counseled Demas well.—He said in 1 Peter 4:12-14 – “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. 14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy [are ye]; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.”

Illus. – I remember a story about John Wesley. Early in his ministry, after being barred from preaching in the Church of England, he followed George Whitefield into the meadows and hillsides to preach the Gospel—BUT NOT WITHOUT GREAT OPPOSITION! EVERYWHERE he was dogged by ridicule, disruption and persecution. It was routine for hecklers to be planted to disrupt his sermons. On many occasions, stones or rotten vegetables were thrown at him.

Once, a brick hit him on the forehead, producing a gash above his eye. Very calmly and gently, he pulled out his handkerchief, wiped the blood away and continued his sermon right where he left off. There are several accounts of the ruffians causing the trouble getting converted in the very meetings they tried to disrupt.

One day Wesley was riding his horse when it dawned on him that three days had passed in which he had suffered no persecution or opposition at all. Not a brick or an egg had been thrown at him for three whole days! Alarmed, he stopped his horse, and cried out, “Can it be that I have sinned, and am backslidden?”