Annual Sermons Volume 12 Sermon 1
2 Tim 3:10
DEMAS IN MY MIRROR?
Demas was a fine follower of Christ for years. With Paul in his first imprisonment, Paul calls him his “fellow worker” (Phm. 24) and puts him right beside Luke (Phm. 24; Col. 4:14). Now, in his last imprisonment, five years later, Paul writes, “Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me. . .” (2 Tim. 4:10). Preachers are hard on Demas. Every message I read pictures him as unsaved, an out-and-out man of the world, who turned his back on Christ. One famous author even imagines him holding political office in Thessalonica and sentencing Christians to death. This could be true. Men and women who have looked and acted “Christian” like Judas have turned from the faith with a vengeance, even to the point of opposing it.
The Hard Circumstances Around Him.
There is another possibility. Demas might be like most people in our pews and pulpits today. He ran from the hard demands of living in the will of God to the comfort of a church. It might be that Demas left Paul but did not leave Christ. It might be that he did not desert the faith but the hard demand of God’s will, which was for him to stay with and minister to Paul and to a lost world. We do not see here the harsh words the New Testament uses for those who desert the Christian faith either in false belief or filthy behavior. John called people like this “antichrist”. Peter says they are dogs returning to their vomit. Paul says “their god is their belly.” Here, more broken hearted than stern, Paul says, “Demas. . .has deserted me” (2 Tim. 4:10).
When we look at what was going on we will see it would be tempting, it would be downright easy to leave Paul. Nero was on the Roman throne from A.D. 54-68. He began his reign with such kindness that Seneca said he was “incapable of learning cruelty.” But power or something else corrupted him and he became the cruelest of the cruel. He murdered his brother, then his mother and then his wife. He turned his fury on the Christians of Rome, blaming them for a great fire some accused him of starting. He put Christians inside animal skins and let dogs eat them. He nailed Christians to crosses and set them on fire to light his gardens. As people watched them burn he walked or rode up and down, cheering. And now Paul was in the hands of this madman. With a flick of his filthy wrist he could have Paul and all those associated with him put to death. Application: Now I ask you. If you were in Rome, with Paul, in A.D. 67-68, wouldn’t your home town of Thessalonica, hundreds of miles away, look inviting? Wouldn’t it be easy to hear the Lord calling you to minister there?
Illustration: There was a cute little French poodle who despised the huge Doberman that trotted by his house every day. Seeing him the poodle would jump from his chair, jump down the steps, run down the walk, jump on the chain link gate and with his paws and nose pushing against the holes, growl and bark and bite and scratch at his huge enemy. The Doberman would just glance his way and trot on. This was repeated hundreds of times. On this particular day, the scene unfolded, the little fighter jumped up on the gate AND IT SWUNG OPEN! Having waited patiently for such a day the 110 pound Doberman unleashed his pent up frustrations for about a minute and then went on his way, smiling. The poodle, a mass of scratches, blood, mud and dog saliva, without a bone that didn’t hurt, limped back to the porch and said, “WHO IN THE WORLD LEFT THE GATE OPEN?” Folks, it’s easy to stand and fight and be brave WHEN THE GATE IS LOCKED. But when the gate is open, when the hounds of hell are unleashed, when Christianity requires unbelievable costs, it is not so easy. Think first of leaving. . .
I. SALVATION? (Jn. 10:27-28; 1 Jn. 2:19)
When we think of deserting church members, I must remind you that a true, justified born again person cannot desert salvation. Once we are TRULY saved we are ALWAYS saved. Listen to Jesus in John 10, “My sheep. . .follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish (See John 3:16, perish = be lost and go to hell); no one can snatch them out of my hand” (Jn. 10:27, 28). We are given, in the new birth, permanent, eternal life. If it can end and we lose it, it is not eternal. We are given the promise of Jesus that we who are truly saved will never perish, be lost and go to hell. When a person like Judas, who looks and acts like a Christian, goes away from the faith or from faithfulness into a filthy, disobedient life, listen to what God says about them through John, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” (1 Jn. 2:19).
Application: When we look at ourselves we can see how this works. We cannot change what we BELIEVE and we cannot change our BASIC PER-SONALITY. We each have a basic personality, formed by genetics and environment, before we enter first grade. We are what we are in the core of our being and that core can be made worse or better but not fundamentally different. Even the New Birth doesn’t change our personalities, it just makes them good. True Christians believe in God, in His Son, in His sacrifice, in heaven, in hell and in the fact that we will stand before him. We cannot change that any more than we can change our color. And belief determines behavior. If we defect and go into sin, two things happen. We will be ashamed because God is love and we will be afraid because God is holy. Either His love will draw us out of sin or fear of His judgment will drive us out of it. Whatever Demas did, he did not leave true salvation, if he ever was a Christian. A true Christian can defect from:
II. SANCTIFICATION (1 Th. 4)
We can leave God’s command that we give up individual sins and live holy, separated, growing Christian lives. In 1 Thessalonians 4 the Bible says, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified. . .(and then the list of what this means, begins) that you avoid sexual immorality. . .(that you). . .love each other. . .work with your hands. . .” (1 Th. 4:3, 9, 11). It’s like the movie star, about to have surgery. She said, “TAKE OUT EVERYTHING THAT MIGHT CAUSE A PROBLEM!” Are we doing that in the Christian life? Maybe Demas was tired of the strict life he had to live around Paul or as a minister of the gospel. Maybe he wanted to make more money, watch videos Paul wouldn’t approve of, play golf five days a week, etc.
Application: One of the saddest facts about the American church is that most of it is A.W.O.L., has run away from the commitment to live the Christian life. Half of our members never darken the door of the church. Of those who come, 20 percent do the work. The George Barna poll reveals that even when we do come, it doesn’t change much. Regular church attendance has little or no effect on moral and ethical behavior. Regular church attenders are just as likely as those who do not attend to cheat in school, to lie to the IRS, to steal from employers, to fail to pay debts, to have an affair, etc. In other words, we are just like the world. Or as Paul put it, we are in love with this present world.
Conclusion: In every church, in the pulpits, in the pews and in places of leadership we have Demases who love this world and are so much like it that they don’t even deserve the name “Christian.” But even moral and ethical, Christians can defect from:
III. SERVICE (Jn. 4:34)
When Jesus went against Jewish prejudice and went to Samaria and witnessed to an immoral woman by a well, He called this His “food.” He said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me” (Jn. 4:34). The food of most church members is to do our will and stay out of Samaria. Demas left his service out in the world and could have run to serve “in his church.” He could have been afraid of what Nero might do to him. He might have been worn out, homesick, tired of traveling, tired of fighting enemies, tired of foreign missions, tired of Paul’s snoring. Who knows? He might have gone home, set a moral and ethical example of the Christian life and even served in his home church. If so, what he left then, was God’s special call to his life. He left the world he was called to serve and witness to. You are faithful to this church. You are honestly and earnestly trying, with God’s help, to live a Christian life. You cannot leave salvation. You have not left the fight for sanctification. But are you serving God, doing what he wants you to do, where He wants you to do it, NOT IN CHURCH IN YOUR THESSA-LONICA but OUT THERE IN THE WORLD, in Rome, where it isn’t easy to be a Christian.
Satisfied with going to church and trying to be good, like Demas, we are afraid to serve Christ out in the world and unwilling to make sacrifices. I believe, because of Nero and the rigors of life on the road, Demas retreated TO THE COMFORTS OF AN UNCOMMITTED LIFE. And most of the church today is right there with him. It doesn’t take a Nero or the threat of death to get us to run and hide in our home church - people laughing at us, not including us, or just our feeling of being “different” because of our Christian convictions - will do the job. We trade comfort for cross bearing; cushioned pews for costly commitment; pleasure for pain; fellowship for "follow ship"; worship for witnessing; Sunday School for soul winning; attending for action; goodness for Godliness.
This is CHURCHIANITY and in it we do not find the motivation and strength to meet the needs of missionaries like Paul or of a lost world. We find a place THAT MEETS OUR NEEDS. The prime pursuit of the world is PLEASURE and it can be the same in our churches. We have re-cast Christianity into a self centered way of life that does not cost us anything except a little time and money and which does not interfere with our busy schedules. Our favorite song is: Must Jesus bear the cross alone/And all the church go free/No! Others Lord should do their part/But right now, don’t call me/Praise God from whom all blessings flow/Praise him all creatures here below/Oh, loud my hymns of praise I bring/Because it doesn’t cost me a thing.”
