2 Timothy 4:6-8
Finishing Well
Did you know the human condition is 100% fatal? How about that for a sermon starter? But the truth is, unless Jesus returns first, we will each reach that moment where we cross over from this life to eternity. What will it be like? Will we be at peace? Will we be ready? Will we be able to say in respect to this earthly life, “I have finished well”?
In today’s passage, it almost seems like the Apostle Paul is preaching his own memorial service. Did you hear about the three guys who were talking about their own funeral services? They were wondering what people might say when they walked by the casket. The first guy says, “I want them to say, ‘He loved his family so much!’” The second guy says, “I want them to say, ‘He always loved God and served people!’” And the third guy says, “I want them to come up and say, ‘Look, he moved!!!’”
Whenever I speak at a memorial service, I organize it around three activities: to celebrate the life of the one we love, to look ahead to the heavenly home to which they point us, and to worship the Lord. In today’s passage, the Apostle Paul does the same: he celebrates his life, he looks ahead to his heavenly home, and he worships the Lord. His outline is simple. Paul speaks of his past, his present, and his future. As we look at each, let’s contemplate our own lives to prepare in advance for that great transition when it comes.
First, Paul begins in the present. I read somewhere this pithy statement: “All we really have is today, and that is a gift; that’s why we call it the “present.” God has given Paul some clue that he is presently at the point of transition from this life to the next. Paul’s death is imminent. He writes in verse 6, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering...” Here he borrows imagery from the Old Testament system of sacrifices (Exodus 29:38-41; Numbers 15:1-16). For the drink offering, the priest would pour wine around the base of the altar as an offering to God. Paul envisions his own life as “already” being poured out, the word “already” telling us that he anticipates death soon.
Paul also says, “The time for my departure is near.” The Greek word for “departure” originally referred to the loosening of something, such as the mooring ropes of a ship or the ropes of a tent. Later by association it came to mean “departure.” When we reach that moment of transition from this life to our heavenly fate, we are loosened from the restrictions of mortality and freed at last to depart to heaven.
History proves Paul is right about his fate. This is his second imprisonment. About five years before he was on house arrest, but this time he’s in a cold dark dungeon. Around AD 64 Nero stepped up to fearful heights a wave of persecutions against Christians. This crazed emperor tortured Christians by crucifying them, by wrapping them in animal skins and turning his hunting dogs loose on them, and by burning them alive—as human torches—to illuminate the games in his garden. And tradition tells us Paul did indeed die a martyr’s death around AD 67 or 68, probably shortly after the writing of this letter.
But Paul writes that his life is not in waste; no, his life is being poured out as a living sacrifice to his God. So Paul can live up to what he wrote earlier to the Philippian church, when he said, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11).
As Paul suffers in a dungeon, approaching death, he somehow grows closer to Jesus through his Lord’s own sufferings. Paul’s faith grows stronger through adversity. I wonder if we can imitate his attitude in saying: “Jesus, help me not to wallow in self-pity, but to grow closer to you as I suffer alongside your suffering. Let my suffering remind me of how much you suffered for me.”
Rick Warren writes, “If you’re alive, there’s a purpose for your life.” Even here at the end of his life, Paul is using some of his last breaths to compose a letter that we are reading some thousands of years later. Your life is not over until it’s over! And God will help you, even through your suffering, as you reach out to him.
As Paul reviews his present situation, approaching the great transition, he considers his past. I can imagine him thinking back over 30 years of ministry as an apostle of Jesus. He uses military and athletic images in his OER support form. In verse 7 he says, “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race.” Paul gave it all he had. He gave 110%. He went the extra mile. And he concludes, “I have kept the faith.” He has lived up to his beliefs. He has walked the talk. He has accomplished through God’s power all that the Lord has called him to do. So he is at peace. He is ready. As someone once said, “Better to burn out than to rust.” Paul is used up, burned out, fully fulfilled. He has completed the life God had for him to live on this earth.
Can you identify? I know some of you felt used up a long time ago. And some have deep regrets, wondering why your life has turned out the way it has. If you don’t know a lot about Paul, you might assume he had the perfect Christian life from birth. But he didn’t. Paul grew up with a strict religious upbringing, like some of us, but he lacked a personal relationship with God. He tried to follow God’s law but he never really knew God. He was a typical Pharisee of the day: stuck on religion but lacking relationship. So he found himself zealously persecuting and even killing Christians—members of this strange new cult. That is, until one day Jesus showed up, blinded him (temporarily), and got his full attention. Think Paul ever had regrets?
After his conversion, though, he became one of the greatest missionaries the world has ever known. He became God’s messenger to bring the gospel to the non-Jewish world, preaching Jesus crucified and risen again and starting churches all across Europe. And in his letters to these scattered churches, Paul ended up writing more than half of the New Testament.
Paul didn’t have the perfect life. In his writings he labeled himself the “least of the Apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:9) and the “chief of all sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). Yet, towards the end of his life, he knew he had surrendered all of his sin, all of his disappointment and regret long ago to Christ and received God’s perfect forgiveness. So now he can write, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Paul is at peace with his past.
And that prepares him for his future. You see, Paul not only wants to identify with Christ in his sufferings, but also in his resurrection power. Remember the rest of the verse from Philippians 3? “Becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” Paul knows without a doubt where he is heading. He spells it out in verse 8, “Now there is in store 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 longed for his appearing.”
For the word “crown,” Paul uses another athletic image: the plaited wreath or garlands placed on the heads of winners in a race. Earlier, in his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul says, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:25).
We don’t know exactly what Paul meant by a “crown of righteousness.” He could be referring to the righteousness he gained by keeping the faith over a lifetime of following Christ. Or he could be talking about God’s gift of righteousness. We know that our ultimate righteousness comes from God alone. None of us deserve heaven. None of us is without sin. Yet like with Abraham God declares us righteous.
Various New Testament writers mention crowns God will give us in heaven. In addition to Paul’s “crown of righteousness,” James talks about the “crown of life” (James 1:12) and Peter the “crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:4). John quotes Jesus as giving us the “victor’s crown” (Revelation 2:10). And John gives a beautiful picture in Revelation 4:10 of the elders laying down their crowns before Jesus as if saying, “All of our best is nothing compared to your goodness, because you are the very best of all!” Life, glory, righteousness, victory—all are gifts from God for those who will trust their lives to him.
Does your life—like Paul’s—belong to Christ? Have you given your past to Jesus, all your accomplishments as well as your regrets? Have you trusted your present to Christ—living every moment in thankfulness for the life he has given you, becoming a living sacrifice for him to use? Have you trusted your future to him, certain that he will come for you in your appointed time and take you safely into your glorious future? If not, why not trust him today? Why not give yourself to the one who calls himself the “resurrection and the life” (John 11:25)?
Let us pray: God, today, we commit to you our past. Please forgive us of our sin. Help us to fully give it to you, to start afresh today, making the peace where we can and leaving the rest in your hands. Help us to consider our present, that every moment of breath is a gift from you, an opportunity to serve you in some way. And help us to rest assured in our future, that you will come in your perfect timing to bring us to our heavenly home. We are yours, O Lord.
Help someone today who does not yet have a relationship with you to surrender themselves to you completely in this moment, to ask Jesus to come in and forgive their sin and help them live for you as your child. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
