Friends and Foes

2 Timothy 4:9-22

    It's time for us now to come to the study of God's precious truth and I would like you to open your Bible, if you will, to 2 Timothy chapter 4.  We come to our last lesson in this rich epistle, looking today at verses 9 through 22.  And in this particular section at first glance, it appears as though it's a bit of odds and ends at the end of an epistle, at the end of a chapter, at the end of a letter, at the end of a life, really, because this is the last writing that Paul ever did under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  And perhaps it is often ignored and overlooked because it seems to be rather mundane and of little consequence.  And yet for the faithful student of God's Word, everything that is God's Word is rich and deep and profound and moving and compelling and I trust that you shall find these verses to be just that.

     As Paul faces the last days of his life, as he closes out his last epistle, last chapter, writes his last paragraph, people are on his mind, people who made up his life, people who shared his ministry, people who were crucial and vital and critical and essential to everything that he did.  And what we have in these verses from 9 through 22 is Paul's...to put it in modern terms...network of people. And we are reminded in this particular passage that none of us who would minister for Christ can do so alone.  We are not islands.  The better able we are to be dependent, the better able we are to delegate, the better able we are to understand how critical it is for us to work with and alongside people the more effective we'll be in the Lord's service.

     The modern business world tells us that networking is vital to success.  And they have very sophisticated networks involving suppliers, customers, government agencies, stockholders, employees and management.  The human body is perhaps the most graphic visual and intimate demonstration of networking as we live and move in an incredible network of organs and muscle and tissue and blood and flesh that functions in such perfect harmony.

     Paul had a network.  He had a team.  He had people who were his life, people on whom he depended, people to whom he delegated responsibility, people in whom he trusted, people who were faithful, people who were unfaithful, people who were friends, people who were enemies, people who were old friends in his life, people who were new friends, people who were consistent, people who were inconsistent, people who were always ready to volunteer, people who were never ready to volunteer. They were all a part of his life.

     And as he faces the axe that will cut off his head and knows his life is about to end, those people are on his mind.  Remember he's writing this epistle as well as 1 Timothy to pass the mantle of church leadership to Timothy.  And part of his passing that mantle is to inform Timothy about what's going on with all the people on the team.  He's like an old coach turning over his team to a young coach who wants the young coach to know where everybody plays so he can step in as the team leader with a minimum of trauma and difficulty.

     Some of the people he mentions here he wants to come and be with him in his last days for comfort and to assist him in the ministry he continues to do.  They are namely Timothy, Luke and Mark.  Some of them whom he mentions he just wants to greet and share his love and his concern because they're his friends, Prisca, Aquila, the family of Onesiphorus.  Some of them he sent to serve in strategic places to keep the work strong, Crescens, Titus, Tychicus, Erastus and Trophimus.  Some of them he mentions as sending greeting along to Timothy, believers in the Roman church, Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia and others.  And some of them he mentions because of the grief they brought him, Demas, Alexander and a whole group of anonymous deserters.

     And so as he writes from prison what is his final words, he thinks of his people.  He thinks of the network, the team that made up so much of his life.  And we learn so much from this.  We are almost here seeing living illustrations of the principle of the function of the body described in 1 Corinthians 12:13 through 37, how that the body works in perfect harmony, so does the body of Christ and here we see that working going on.  It's less than perfect in the sense that the network is always, always the victim of unfaithful people.  But it's as close as we're going to get to an illustration of how we are to do mutual ministry, depending and delegating and working together.

     And I believe it was so important that the Holy Spirit put it here and not just incidentally but instructively.  He wants us to get a look at the people in Paul's life.  He wants us to get a look at what's on his mind as he faces death and what's on his mind is not programs but people because they are the vitality of ministry.  People are the most precious treasure we have.  They are the most valuable commodity there is.  They are our greatest resource.  And Paul had the happy privilege of knowing the fulfillment of 1 Samuel 10:26 where it says about Saul, "There went with him a band of men whose hearts God had touched."

     Paul had a band of men whose hearts God had touched, too.  They labored together.  If there's been any one joy in my ministry, this has been my joy, to have had a band of men whose hearts God has touched, who are my own team of friends, co‑ laborers, each playing a vital part in life and ministry.

     So Paul wants us to meet his team.  He wants Timothy to know who they are and where they are and what they're doing as he takes over.  Let's begin at the beginning in verse 9.

     Now when I was in seminary they told us that basically if you want to be homiletical and you want to really stick within the confines of proper oratory, you have three points and a poem.  I want you to know I have 13 points and no poem.  This is a very difficult passage to outline.  But we're going to see the friends of Paul and some foes anyway.

     First of all, we meet the faithful son Timothy in verse 9, and though not mentioned, obviously, the statement is directed to him, "Make every effort to come to me soon."  Timothy is the object of the letter as he was 1 Timothy.  He is Paul's true son, Paul's reproduction, Paul said of him that he was his true child in the faith.  He identifies him as his son in both the first and second of these epistles. 

     In writing to the Corinthians of his tremendous concern for them in all of their sin, he said to them in 1 Corinthians 4:17, "For this reason I have sent to you Timothy who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church."  I'm sending you Timothy, he's a clone, he's a reproduction, he's a carbon copy, he'll remind you of my ways and of everything I teach. 

     In writing to the Philippians and unbearing his heart, chapter 2 verse 19 he said, "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition for I have no one else of kindred spirit."  He had the heart of Paul.  He had the habits of Paul.  He had the theology of Paul.  He was Paul reproduced, the faithful son. 

     And as Paul sits in a cold dark dungeon, he longs to see his dear friend, his beloved son in the faith, Timothy.  He says in chapter 1 of this epistle, verse 4, "Longing to see you even as I recall your tears so that I may be filled with joy, I want you just because I love you, I want you because I enjoy you.  I remember your tears, I know you love me.  I remember your compassion.  I want you here."  And surely there was some work to do as well.  And surely there was so much more to say to Timothy who would take up the mantle of leadership in the church and Paul knew he was facing death, wanted so much Timothy to come.

     Oh there were some Roman Christians in the city but that wasn't like Timothy.  And Luke was there but Luke could never take the place of Timothy, nobody can take the place of anybody else in a person's heart.  And he wants to see Timothy once before he dies, at least to pass on the mantle, the baton.  He knows, according to verse 6, that the time of his departure is at hand, it is imminent.  He will not live long and if Timothy doesn't come now they'll never see each other this side of heaven.  So he urges his faithful son to come.

     He says, "Hasten," the verb means to make every effort, to be quick, to be in a hurry, to be fast.  He uses the word "soon," speedily, be in a hurry, be fast, get here quickly. There's an urgency in this because time is of the essence.  Paul doesn't have much time before he'll die.  Timothy doesn't have much time before winter, as we will note in verse 21. And when winter comes he can't make the journey because the seas are too rough.  And there's so much to say and so much to share.  Paul wants Timothy by his side.

     Most...most great men in the ministry are linked to a mentor.  They're linked to somebody either afar or near whose heart they desire to emulate.  For Timothy it was Paul.  For Paul his child in the faith was Timothy.  And mutually they had pulled their lives together by God's wonderful grace and been a strength to each other.  It is one of the richest things that we will ever know in ministry when God gives us the privilege of raising up Timothys, those who desire not only to hear what we say but to emulate our heart's desire.  Timothy turned out, by the way, to be a faithful product of Timothy, a faithful son who himself, according to Hebrews 13:22 was in prison for his faithfulness.  And you and I can thank God if He in His grace has given to us young men who are Timothys, who are reproductions hopefully better than we were, more devoted than we were, more godly than we were, but who catch the vision of our heart and who make the commitment to live to the glory of God and carry on the work which was so much a part of our lives.  And so we meet the first person in his network that he mentions, Timothy, the faithful son.

     Secondly, we meet the unfaithful deserter in verse 10.  We go from the most faithful to the most unfaithful.  Verse 10 says, "For Demas having loved this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica."  Why is it that the verse begins with the word "for"?  That's an interesting statement, "For Demas," it's as if Paul is saying...Would you please come soon because Demas is gone.  Could it be that Demas was of strategic use in ministry that his place needed to be taken by Timothy?  The implication here is that Timothy was coming not only for the sake of the heart of Paul but for the sake of the work of Paul which heretofore was being done by Demas. 

     We don't know much about Demas.  The first time he is mentioned is in Colossians 4:14 where he is mentioned as one of the esteemed and intimate companions of Paul.  While Paul was writing the Colossian epistle from prison in Rome, Demas was there.  Probably Paul wrote Philemon within the same few day period and he was there as well, Demas was, when Paul wrote Philemon and is thus mentioned in Philemon verse 24.  So he was intimately acquainted with Paul, had been for some years, was there during that time of that first imprisonment in Rome.  Must have had some kind of outward ministry of importance, he is called...by the way...in Philemon a fellow worker of Paul.  He was a partner in suffering to some degree, must have been a partner in prayer, must have been a partner in some kind of ministry.

     He was a man in whom Paul had invested much.  He surely knew much.  And when he deserted Paul, there was a void.  And just the fact that it says, "For Demas having loved this present world has deserted me," indicates that Timothy was going to step in to something Demas had been doing which gives you an idea that Demas was a pretty strategic person and at least on the outside was carrying on a ministry.

     The verb "has deserted me" needs our attention for a moment.  It is a very strong verb.  It starts with a root verb meaning to leave and then it compounds it by adding two prepositions at the beginning of the word which makes it doubly intense so that it has been translated in sort of an American slang "leaving me in the lurch."  And it is the idea not just of leaving but deserting in the midst of a dire situation, leaving at a most inappropriate time.  Perhaps the deprivation had gotten to Demas, perhaps the difficulty, the suffering, perhaps he could see the handwriting on the wall, Paul was going to lose his life and he wasn't about to lose his for that cause.  He wasn't that committed.  Maybe he was caught up with Paul because of the noble cause, because of his emotion, his feeling, but never really counted the cost.  He may well be one of those seeds that fall on rocky soil and pops up for a little while but when tribulation comes, dies.  He may be a little bit like the weedy ground where there is a sprouting initially and then the love of the world or the cares of the present age choke out the life before any fruit can come.  It would seem to me that he probably was no true Christian at all because it says "having loved this present, ion, age, world, world system, all the aims, ideals, opinions, values, motives, morals, impulses of the present passing age," they were the things that he loved.

     He's much like Judas.  He fell in love with the world and apparently never genuinely had a love for Christ and the cause of Christ through Paul. On the outside he ministered, but Judas did, too.  But on the inside there was not the commitment.  And he, like Judas, deserted Paul.  Jesus had a deserter, Paul had a deserter. In a sense, it's kind of comforting, isn't it?  To know that there will be those who will labor alongside us until the time when they decide they've had enough and they are gone. Having loved the present age, it says he left and went to Thessalonica. 

     Why did he go there?  We don't know.  We can surmise that that probably was his home.  He is listed in Philemon verse 24 with Aristarchus who according to Acts 20 verse 4 was a Thessalonian. So maybe they were kind of a duo from Thessalonica and he was going home.  But the point here is not so much where he went as why he went and why he went was because he loved the world more than he loved the things of God. And 1 John says if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not...what?...is not in him. 

     I received a letter this last week from a man who used to work alongside me and who loved the present world and departed and wrote me to tell me in the letter of the disaster of his life, the devastation of his personal life, the destruction of his marriage as a result of that.  You will have in your life a Demas or two or three or more.  Somebody you pour your life into, somebody you think is on the team, somebody outwardly doing ministry, who brings you deep hurt and deep pain and sometimes deep confusion because all of a sudden it becomes apparent that they love the present world and they leave.  Demas is a part of your network, too, and mine.

     Thirdly, and the next person we come to is the faithful unknown...we'll call him the faithful unknown.  Verse 10, "Crescens has gone to Galatia."  Now we know absolutely nothing about Crescens.  However, in spite of that I have a few things I'd like to say.  Evidently Crescens was a fairly capable man.  And I say that because Paul sent him to Galatia.  Now Galatia was an area in which Paul had labored extensively.  He went there on his first missionary journey, his second missionary journey and on the third one as well.  Each time going back to Galatia, evangelizing, founding churches, building leaders.  The fact that Crescens was sent to Galatia could indicate that he had the capability to work with a strong church, that he himself therefore must have been a man of some kind of strength, of some kind of spiritual experience in order to be sent to strong churches with strong leaders to work along with them.  Yet he is absolutely unknown.

     We know nothing about him.  This is the only time his name is ever mentioned.  And so he represents what we call the faithful unknown who make up the ranks of everybody's network, behind the scenes, no one knows they even exist, no one knows their names but God knows and somewhere in His own knowledge there is a fullness of reward for that person.  The quiet unknown hero who comes along in spiritual maturity and spiritual strength to stand behind someone and do the work unseen. Thank the Lord for the faithful unknown who are gifted, who are called and who in doing their duty are content to be unknown.  God bless them, we are all indebted to them.  They're all around us.

     And then there is the faithful well known in verse 10, the faithful well known.  He mentions Titus has gone to Dalmatia.  Titus appears 13 times in the New Testament.  Even has a letter written to him, the epistle of Paul to Titus which, by the way, was written between first and second Timothy.  He seemed to be able to flourish in the area of a new challenge.  When Paul would go and evangelize an area, Titus was the kind of person who could go in and get the church built and build the leaders and strengthen off of that evangelistic effort.  In fact, when Paul wrote the epistle to Titus, Titus was on the island of Crete where Paul, by the way, had preached.  And he says here, "To Titus, my true child in a common faith," Titus 1:4. Then in verse 5, "For this reason I left you in Crete that you might set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I direct you."  Apparently he was an equipper.  He was a leader builder. He could go in and take sort of what was there and frame it and shape it and mold it and build it into strong churches. 

     He had been with Paul, by the way, for years.  He was in close and intimate work and fellowship.  No doubt he had left Crete where he was when Paul wrote the letter of Titus.  He left just before this and was now headed for Dalmatia.  Now the only thing we know about Dalmatia is there are dogs that came from there, or got named by that name.  But Dalmatia was on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, north of Macedonia.  Paul had preached in Dalmatia, according to Romans 15:19, so the gospel had sort of dusted that area, too.  And that's a perfect setting for Titus to go in again and pull it all together, strengthen the church, build the leaders.

     Titus 3:12 indicates that he came and met Paul at Nicopolis and left from there for Dalmatia while Paul was taken to Rome.  He apparently was excellent at building leaders.  He was the faithful well known or the faithful equipper.  And we thank God for those who come alongside of us who are very gifted builders and leaders and equippers.  Every person in spiritual service needs not only the quiet, behind‑the‑scene unknown but those who can take a forward place who are strong, who are builders of men and women, who are leaders.  He was such.  He came behind Paul to pour his life into men and women who would lead the church.

     And then fifthly we come to Luke the faithful companion...Luke the faithful companion.  In verse 11 he says, "Only Luke is with me."  Now some have suggested that in such a statement he's sort of depreciating the character of Luke.  "Please, Timothy, hurry up and get here, only Luke is here...implied...and you can imagine what that's like."  But we don't want to express ourselves in that way, that wouldn't be fair to dear Luke.  Luke is a unique person and I want to just mention to you that he is only spoken of two other times in the New Testament...Colossians 4:14 he is named and called the beloved physician...Philemon 24, he is a fellow worker of Paul, beloved physician, fellow worker.

     But though only three passages name this man, he is a dominant character in the New Testament.  He wrote the gospel of Luke which is the longest of all four gospels...though it only has 24 chapters and Matthew has 28, it has more verses and more words than Matthew.  And then he wrote 28 chapters of Acts, 52 chapters of the New Testament were penned by the beloved physician, fellow worker of Paul who was an able historian.  He chronicled the life of Christ under the inspiration of the Spirit and then he chronicled the life of the early church under the Spirit's inspiration. 

     But he was humble and he was content to come alongside a great Apostle.  He was a constant companion to Paul, faithfully at his side.  He was with Paul on missionary journey number two at Troas and Philippi.  He joined Paul at the end of missionary journey number three and went with him to Jerusalem.  He was with Paul on the ship that crossed the sea and was wrecked, according to Acts 27.  He was with Paul in both of his imprisonments.  And you read in the book of Acts periodically the pronoun "we...we...we," we call them the "we" passages of Acts and the "we" is Luke including himself in the travels of Paul.

     But while he doesn't want any prominence and he doesn't necessarily want to be well known, he was Paul's servant.  His heart was to come alongside Paul and serve his personal needs. And if anybody ever needed a personal physician, Paul did.  Beaten with rods, stoned, whipped, shipwrecked, thorn in the flesh, all that he suffered, he needed a first...a first‑class personal intimate friend.  And the fact that he was a physician was of tremendous use...tremendous use.

     He wasn't a preacher.  We don't ever hear him preach.  We don't hear him teach.  He doesn't appear to have been a theologian.  He was a friend who acted, perhaps, as a secretary to Paul and certainly as a historian to the Holy Spirit.  The fact that he says "only Luke" does not depreciate his value but simply means the only person I have here is my personal attendant and my personal servant and I can't do the work that needs to be done. He needed someone in addition to Luke to get the work done.  Paul was not sitting in the corner of a dungeon waiting to die, he was still at it.  William Hendrickson writes, "There were not enough reapers, perhaps not even a sufficient number to provide adequately for the spiritual needs of those believers who were still in Rome," end quote. And, of course, many of them had left Rome because of the Nero persecution.

     Beloved, I suggest to you that ministry is greatly enriched by a personal confidant.  I don't think there would probably be anything in Paul's life that Luke didn't know.  I don't think there would be anything in his life that he didn't know.  He nursed him when he was ill.  He was with him all the time.  He saw him in every kind of response.  It wasn't a nine‑to‑five association, they lived together for years, day and night.  And he was his companion and he was his friend.  And he ministered to him the simplest of needs though he was an articulate and godly educated gifted man.  He was content to come alongside the great Apostle and give his life in service to his personal needs.  The faithful companion.

     Let's look sixthly at the unfaithful companion...the unfaithful companion.  "Pick up Mark and bring him with you for he's useful to me for service."  Mark, John Mark.  His home, Jerusalem, Acts 12:12 tells us.   The church in Jerusalem no doubt met in his house.  He had accompanied Paul and Barnabas, he was selected as one of the bright young lights in the Jerusalem church.  And he was accompanying Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey.  But Acts 13:13 says as they started on a difficult part, he abandoned them.  It was too much for him.  He didn't have the courage for it.  He didn't have the character for it.  He didn't have the commitment for it.  And Paul had no stomach for weak men.  And he had no stomach for cowardly men.  And he had no stomach for uncommitted men.  And he didn't want to saddle his life with a lot of unnecessary baggage that he would have to keep pushing along and pushing along.  If you couldn't stand it, he really didn't want you around.  And so it registered in his mind when John Mark left that he didn't want him back again.

     And approximately, according to some calculations, about seven years later Paul and Barnabas were about to set out on another journey and Barnabas said to Paul, "Let's take Mark," and Paul said, "Absolutely not."  Acts 15:36 and following discusses the argument between Paul and Barnabas over Mark and because of the unresolved argument, they split and Barnabas took Mark and Paul took Silas.  And the parting of the ways between Paul and Barnabas was over Mark.  Barnabas thought he had been rehabilitated, Paul didn't want to take a chance.  Mark had failed and in Paul's eyes even though it may have been seven years later, he had proven himself to be unworthy of the difficult rigors of ministry and he wanted no partnership with a weak man. 

     About a dozen years later we find Paul in prison in Rome.  And guess who is with him?  Mark.  Many years have passed now.  And apparently Mark has proven himself and he's back with Paul.  And while in his first imprisonment Paul wrote Colossians and in Colossians 4:10 he refers to Mark, and he wrote Philemon and in Philemon that same verse, 24, he refers to Mark again.  And so after all of those years, Mark was back in the good graces of Paul...an unfaithful companion restored. 

     After that, by the way, according to 1 Peter 5:13, Mark spent some time with Peter.  And at the request of the Romans he wrote his gospel which meant many believe to be a gospel which reflects the testimony of Peter more than the others.  After Peter's death, Mark was back with Paul and served him well and probably even assisted Timothy so that he was well known to Timothy also.  So 20 years have passed and Mark is faithful and loyal and Paul says, "Pick up Mark and bring him, for he's useful to me for service."  Literally, very useful, for diakonia, the word from which we get deacon, service.

     Well what use was he?  Well he had been in Rome.  He knew the Roman church.  He was acquainted with the people.  He could be of great help.  I think that's one of the great joys in Christian ministry, by the way, to see an unfaithful person restored.  And sometimes it takes a long, long time...a long time.  But the Lord does build the weak up again and make them strong. 

     All kinds of people are part of the network, aren't they?  Faithful sons and unfaithful deserters, the faithful unknown and the faithful well known, faithful companions and unfaithful companions, in this case restored.  Let's look at a couple of others.

     Number seven, the faithful messenger, Tychicus.  Verse 12 says, "But Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus."  He, by the way, is mentioned four other times in Scripture...Acts chapter 20 verse 4 tells us that he was an Asian from Asia Minor who accompanied Paul to Jerusalem with the offering for the poor saints there.  He is a faithful associate of Paul.  He is mentioned in Ephesians 6:21, Colossians 4:7, Titus 3:12 and here.  And his special task seems to be to deliver the letters that Paul wrote.  He took Ephesians to Ephesus.  He took Colossians to Colossae for Paul. And I believe it's best to assume that he probably is taking 2 Timothy to Ephesus to give to Timothy.  So he was Paul's messenger, Paul's delivery service.

     Perhaps we could identify the statement, "I sent," or "I have sent," as what is called an epistolary aorist which means I am sending.  And very likely he was sending him to Ephesus where Timothy was with this letter.  He was a faithful man to deliver the Word of God.

     How vital was this letter?  It was vital because Timothy had to know what Paul was saying if he was going to set the church right.  How vital was this letter?  Timothy had to know what God expected him to be.  How vital was this letter?  Timothy had to get the letter and read that Paul wanted him to come and come immediately before winter.  So that he had a very important task, did Tychicus, to get the letter there.  He must have been a man of great responsibility.  Maybe not a teacher, maybe not an articulator of truth, but a messenger with the truth.  And we have those kinds of people in our network.  I thank God for the people around me who facilitate the Word getting out, whether it's in the printed page or through letters or through tapes.  Whatever it is.  Faithful messengers who go, take the Word.

     I think of that every time I see those precious ladies who box those little tapes and send them out, those young men who package the Word of God and mail it all over the world.  The Tychicus of the network of any servant of God, those who take the Word.

     And then there's Carpus, number eight.  While Tychicus was the faithful one who went, Carpus is the faithful one who stayed.  You say, "Where did he stay?"  He probably stayed home, just a conjecture, in a sense, from verse 13, he says, "When you come bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus and the books, especially the parchments." 

     Apparently Carpus, we don't know anything about him at all, but he lived obviously in Troas and perhaps that's where Paul stayed.  In fact, likely he did stay there.  And what he is saying to Timothy is, "Look, pick up Mark on your way with you and when you come, go through Troas and get my cloak and my books and parchments."  He would go from Ephesus to Troas overland, across the top there down in to Macedonia, across Macedonia to the sea and then he would catch the ship that would go to the city of Brundisium on Italy's east coast and then overland to Rome.  That would be the path he wou