Title: You’re Not Down Yet!
Text: II Timothy 4:6-8
Thesis: Sensing his impending death, Paul gives us a motivational model for living our lives in anticipation of finishing well.
Introduction
I-70 originates in Baltimore, Maryland and terminates at Cove Fort, Utah. Here in Colorado I-70 crosses
the eastern plains, passes through Denver and then wends its way through the Rockies to Grand Junction.
Coming from west to east, in addition to seeing natural beauty at its best we also see a couple of engineering wonders. In Glenwood Canyon engineers somehow, someway managed squeeze in a railroad line and I-70 along and over the Colorado River while preserving the beauty of the canyon. At one point the interstate is suspended over both the Colorado River and the Union Pacific Railroad Line.
The Eisenhower Tunnel is the longest, at 1.7 miles in length and highest point in the interstate system where I-70 crosses over the Continental Divide. (I read in the paper yesterday that a $10 million fire suppression system has been approved to increase safety in the tunnel.
When traveling home from having been in the mountains I am always glad when we pass Genesee and begin our descent down Mount Vernon Canyon toward the city. It’s along this stretch of interstate we know as Floyd Hill that we see a memorable sign: “You Are Not Down Yet.” “Trucks, Don’t Be Fooled – 4 more miles of steep grades and sharp curves.” I like that sign. “You Are Not Down Yet.”
In other words drivers need to continue to be diligent and pay attention. You can’t just breathe a sigh of relief and recklessly let the horses run.
In our text today we hear the Apostle Paul at the point in his life where he has made it all the way to the bottom of Floyd Hill. He has lived his life and his death is imminent. But as we read this text we need to read it in light of the fact that we are not down yet. So we need to remind ourselves that there are still 4 more miles of steep grades and sharp curves ahead of us. We are not down yet and until we are we need to be diligent in the way we live as people of God.
So what can we learn from the Word of God today about living?
I. Plan to die well!
As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time for my departure is near. II Timothy 4:6
Jerry Seinfeld jokes about how the #1 fear of most people is public speaking while the #2 fear is death… suggesting that it is better to be the deceased than the person giving the eulogy.
Isaac (Eye-zek-i-mov) Asimov, well known science fiction author once said, “Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that is troubling.” Woody Allen once said, “It’s not that I am afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
For many, death is something to avoid at all costs. But the fact of the matter is this: Everyone is going to die. In light of that fact, Paul gives us a window into his life and impending death that may be helpful to us.
While the Apostle Paul may have realized that the Roman government would soon execute him… he chose to see his impending death as the end of a life being poured out as a sacrifice to God. They were not taking his life from him, he was giving his life for God.
We can die well when we know we have lived life as a sacrifice to God.
A. View life as a sacrifice to God… my life has already been poured out as an offering to God.
Gk. Spendesthai: to pour out a libation to the gods
In Roman culture, historically it was common for the host to pour out a cup of wine as an offering to the gods at the completion of a meal.
In Jewish culture a cup of wine would be poured out over the sacrifice being offered on the altar. When the wine was poured over the sacrificial lamb it is said that a sweet smelling aroma would rise up from the altar as a special gift offered to God. Exodus 29:40-41
In Leviticus the bible speaks of sacrificing a grain offering of four quarts of flour moistened with olive oil along with a quart of wine as a special offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Leviticus 23:13 and Numbers 15:4-10
In Numbers 28:7 it says they were to offer along with their burnt offering a present a quart of alcoholic drink with each lamb as a gift with a pleasing aroma to God.
The Apostle Paul considered his life to be as a liquid or drink offering slowly being poured out to God.
This is not a new concept. In Romans 12:1, the Apostle Paul pleads with his readers to, in light of all that God has done for us, to give our bodies to God as living sacrifices.
We place a high value on heroism. We honor those of sacrifice their lives for others be it a soldier on the battle field or a father dying to protect his daughter in a rockslide. But while we honor martyrdom we also know (God) wants our bodies as living sacrifices, not corpses. (Vance Havner, from The Vance Havner Quote Book/On This Rock I Stand. Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 16.)
In Psalm 6:5 the Psalmist asks that God rescue him and save his life arguing, “For the dead do not remember you. Who can praise you from the grave?”
Similarly in Psalm 88:10 the psalmist is in desperate strait and praying like a maniac for God to help him. And as leverage to hopefully move God to act in his behalf he asks, “Do the dead rise up and praise you? Can those in the grave proclaim your unfailing love?”
In Isaiah 38 we read the story of a king named Hezekiah, nearing death begs God to restore his health arguing, “I have always been faithful to you and served you single-mindedly…” Then it says he broke down and wept. The bible says God heard his prayer and extended his life b y 15 years after which Hezekiah wrote a poem of praise in which he says, “This anguish was good for me, for you have rescued me from death and forgiven all my sins. For the dead cannot praise you; they can’t raise their voices in praise. Only the living can praise you as I do today.” Isaiah 38:17-10
It is in living that we pour out our lives as living sacrifices to God.
I just finish Empty Mansions: The spending of a great American fortune. It is the story of the youngest daughter of copper tycoon and politician W.A. Clark. When Huguette Clark died at the age of 104 in 2011 she left approximately 500 million dollars in her estate. Among all that was left were mansions she had never seen, much less lived in. During much of her later years she had a private nurse/companion named Hadasseh Peri. Before Huguette died there was a flurry of activity to see if any of those closest to her were taking advantage of her… after her death they found that Huguette had given her private nurse/companion 30 million dollars and left her an additional 15 million in her will. When confronted by the court she defended having received those millions of dollars and stated that she deserved the money saying, “I sacrificed my life for her.”
I don’t think that is what the Apostle Paul was thinking when he spoke of living his life as a sacrifice to God. Real sacrifice is “pouring out your life for God is giving when you feel like keeping, praying for others when you need to be prayed for, feeding others when your own soul is hungry, living with integrity before people even when you don’t receive any reward, hurting with other people even whey your own hurt cannot be spoken, keeping your word even when it isn’t convenient, it is being faithful when you want to run away.” (John A. Holt, Leadership, Vol. 10, no. 1)
In other words live in such a way that you can look back and say, “I poured out my life as a sacrifice to God.
Another way we can plan to die well is to understand what death really is.
B. View death as a departure to God… the time for my departure is near.
The choice of words in this passage is important. He could have simply said, “The time for my death is near.” He could have said, “It won’t be long now before I die.” But in place of the word death he used the word departure. Paul thought of his death not as the ending of this life but the moving into the next life.
GK. Analusis: Departure
Culturally his readers would have immediately understood the word as it was used in several contexts. In his little Daily Bible Study Commentary, William Barclay gives us some vivid images that give insight into the word departure:
1. Unyoking a beast of burden. The word departure was used as unyoking an animal from the cart or the plough. When I was a little boy my Grandpa Newton bought his first tractor. Until then he had farmed with horses… big draft horses that were bred to pull or haul heavy things. There are many kinds but we are familiar with Clydesdales and Shire Horses. In those days when a work horse had pulled and ploughed about all he could pull and plough they simply turned the horse out to pasture to live his remaining days at ease.
Perhaps Paul thought of his death as something of a relief from the hard work of living.
2. Setting a prisoner free. The word departure was also used in the context of removing bonds or chains or fetters to release a prisoner and give him his freedom.
Perhaps the Apostle thought of his death as a release from the things that held him prisoner in this life… maybe failing health or maybe even being released from a literal prison. I sometimes say, “There are things worse than death,” and there are. Death can be a sweet release and relief from the suffering in life.
3. Loosening the ropes of a tent. The word departure was also used in regard to pulling up stakes and moving to a new place.
4. Loosening the mooring ropes on a sailing vessel in port. The word departure was also used when sailors would loosen the moorings of an ancient sailing vessel. As the ship would drift from the pier they would hoist the sail and as the wind filled the sail the ship would move out into the open ocean.
Perhaps Paul thought of his departure as setting sail from this life into the next. I often use the poem, Sailing Home in funeral meditations to illustrate how death is not death but rather a departure from this life into the next.
Here it is: Sailing Home
I stand up on the shore.
A sailing ship drifts from its moorings.
They hoist her white sails and the morning breeze carries her out to sea.
She is beauty. She is life.
I watch and just as she disappears on the horizon, someone at my side says, “Look, she’s gone.”
Gone from my sight that is all…
She is still just as deep in hull and high in mast as when I last saw her.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at that moment when someone at my side says, “Look, she’s gone!”
There are others who are watching, and seeing her appear on the horizon,
Take up the glad shout, “Look, she’s coming home.”
Conclusion
The bible teaches us that this life is a temporary life and that beyond this life is an eternal life. From Paul’s perspective this life is to be poured out as a sweet smelling offering to God. And death is merely a transition into eternal life… it is simply moving on.
I think maybe the whole purpose of camping is to make a person long for home! When our kids were still at home Bonnie and I decided we would take a camping trip to Colorado. We got a nice big tent, sleeping bags, a camping stove, lantern… we were all set. We landed at a KOA near Woodland Park and from there we did day trips to the Royal Gorge, we went white water rafting, we visited Cripple Creek, Pike’s Peak and some dinosaur bone place, Cave of the Winds and other stuff…
We had a wonderful time every day but every night we were living the dream and the dream was a nightmare. It was cold. It rained. It was dark. It was scary. I began to think fondly of home and wished someone would cut to the chase and ask, “Why don’t we go home?” Our little foray into the wilderness was fun while it lasted but ultimately we just wanted to go home.
I think that is what the Apostle Paul was thinking… life’s been good. I’ve lived well. I have served God and others and now I think I’d just like to go home. Ultimately we are not made for time… we are made for eternity.
