Keep sharing good news without ads.
Reading 2 Timothy 4:13-14 where Paul asks Timothy to bring some personal items, including parchments so that he can do some more writing. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Among the final requests that Paul made of Timothy, he asked for parchments, that he may continue to do some writing while he was in prison. What Paul wrote, we'll probably never know exactly, but we have a general idea when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text, as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt .com.
Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. We finish up our study of the book of 2 Timothy this week, and today we're in chapter 4. I'll be reading verses 9 through 18. Paul writes to his servant Timothy, Do your best to come to me soon.
For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.
Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all, the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds.
Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. At my first offense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.
So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. There's actually quite a bit of grief that is expressed in some of these closing comments here and it's Paul experiencing his last moments of grief before he is to be martyred and he lets go of this body and he goes home to be with the Lord.
So this is kind of expressing his heart is ready to go. This world has been hard. It's been difficult. This road has been complicated and full of persecution and hardship. But it is to the glory of God.
And because Paul has been faithful to the very end, he knows that God is going to deliver him into his eternal kingdom where there is laid up for him, as he said back in verse eight, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award me on that day.
And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. So though Paul does express these things in his, in his own body, these final laments as he's letting go of, of the earthly realm and, and ready to go and be with the Lord in a heavenly dwelling.
These things are also meant to be an encouragement to Timothy for the same reward will be extended to him if he endures to the end. And so we can receive that the same way as the Holy Spirit continues to speak to us 2000 years following the writing of this letter.
We know, and we have a confidence in the spirit of God that on the day of the Lord, we will receive the same heavenly reward that the apostles received. And we will dwell forever with God if we endure to the end.
If we have believed in Christ, our savior, by whose death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave, our sins have been forgiven and we've been granted right standing in the presence of God and are able to dwell with him in his heavenly dwelling because of the righteousness of Christ we have been given.
So as Paul continues to minister to Timothy in these final moments, he also desires that Timothy would come and minister to him, which is why he says in verse nine, do your best to come to me soon. Demas has deserted me, Crescens and Titus, they've gone on to fulfill some of the missionary duties that they have.
Only Luke is here. And Paul has said these things so that it would motivate Timothy all the more to come to him quickly. And when he comes, get Mark, bring him with you for he is very useful to me for ministry.
And we talked about that last week. So then in verse 12, Paul says, Tychicus, I have sent to Ephesus. And the reason for this or the reason for Paul saying this might be because Tychicus is coming to relieve you of your duties that you have there at the church in Ephesus.
That was where Timothy was in the Ephesian church. So Tychicus is going to take over the responsibilities that you've had there. That way you can come to me. And Timothy couldn't can leave post haste.
He can he can go right now because Tychicus is already in route to arrive in Ephesus. So Timothy can gather up the things that he needs to take with him and he can get on his way before winter comes or before Paul finally goes to his death.
So Tychicus is on his way to take over there in Ephesus. And when Timothy comes, verse 13, Paul says, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas. And one of the reasons Paul says that is because, again, winter is on the way.
It would be a little warmer for him there in prison as he is awaiting his martyrdom if he were to have his cloak with him. Also the books and above all the parchments. Now the books are what you would expect a book to be.
It was multiple pages that were bound together and these books could have included anything from history to philosophy. It might have been other things that other apostles had written, could have been things that Paul himself had written.
Whatever it was, it was to assist Paul further in his writing. And then he mentioned mentions the parchments. And he says above all the parchments, the parchments were large sheets of papyrus that Paul would write on and they would be rolled up.
And inside those rolls were Paul's writing utensils. So what this suggests to us is that Paul had some other things that he wanted to write. What perhaps did he write? Well, we may never know. Not on this side of heaven anyway, because any other writing after this letter, after Second Timothy is lost to history.
There's simply no record of it. And anything that he did write, if he wrote, if he had the chance to write anything else, wasn't considered to be significant enough for the church to preserve. So it could have been, this would be my theory, that Paul wrote some more letters to some individuals similar to Philemon.
Philemon just happens to be one of those letters that was preserved because it was delivered at the same time that letters were sent to Colossae and to Ephesus. And so since Philemon was kind of in that grouping, it was among the prison letters that Paul had written, there was some significance to it and it was preserved.
Philemon, the recipient of that letter, found it important enough to preserve the letter. But some of the other letters that Paul wrote to particular individuals outside of the pastoral letters, First and Second Timothy and Titus, those recipients may not have considered those letters significant enough to preserve or to keep safe.
So they would not be destroyed by some of the conflict that was going to be coming against the church in the coming years. But it's a blessing that we have these letters that make up the epistles of the New Testament and it is by the sovereign ordination and power of God that these letters have been preserved for our edification, that we are able to read from them and glean the truth that the Spirit means to communicate to us through these writers, the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New Testament.
Remembering once again what we read in Second Timothy, chapter three, verses 16 and 17, all scripture is breathed out by God and it is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
As the apostle Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 15, for what was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. And very specifically there in both Second Timothy 3, 16 and in Romans 15, for Paul is referring to the Old Testament, where there's a broader context that would include those things that had been written by the apostles as well, but that canon had not been established yet.
The Old Testament was written and it was done. So as Paul was referring to the scriptures, very specifically, he's talking about the Old Testament and the Old Testament points to Christ. Even in the Old Testament, we see revealed to us who Jesus is and what he accomplished by his life and his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave, which the apostles expound upon more specifically in the New Testament to explain what it was that Jesus did and what he fulfilled.
Peter equates Paul's letters to scripture in Second Peter 3, 16. So there certainly was an understanding among the apostles that what they wrote was scripture itself. But where Paul is saying here to Timothy that scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching reproof, correction for training in righteousness, he's making a reference back to the Old Testament.
That's valuable, too. And we should not dismiss what we have written down in the Old Testament right now. In some of the catechism that I'm going through with my kids, we're going through the Ten Commandments.
So I'm teaching my kids the Ten Commandments that they would have them memorize, but also understand what they mean. It's more than just thou shalt not this or thou shalt not do this or thou shall do this.
It is understanding exactly why God has commanded these things and how they apply to us as believers, as Christians, not as Old Testament Israel, but as the true Israel of Christ. All those who are followers of Jesus are the true Israel.
And those commandments that were given to the people of God still apply. It's still the law of God. And as Paul said to Timothy in the previous letter, the law is good if one uses it lawfully. So how does understanding the Ten Commandments apply to us as Christians?
And that's one of the things that catechism helps to teach us. Have you ever stopped to consider what murder is? So then one of the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not murder. And you've heard it said your entire life, perhaps you could go up to somebody on the street and you could say to them, name for me just one of the Ten Commandments.
And that's probably the one they're going to give you. They're going to say, well, thou shalt not murder. OK, so you've heard it said and you kind of take for granted that you understand what it means.
But has anybody ever asked you to define what murder is? What is murder? What does that mean? How do we know how to follow the Sixth Commandment? Well, this is where catechism is helpful. So going to the Baptist catechism, which is what I'm teaching my kids out of what is the Sixth Commandment?
The Sixth Commandment is thou shalt not kill or you may have thou shalt not murder, depending on how updated or current modern language the catechism is that you are using. So then the next question, what is required of the Sixth Commandment?
The Sixth Commandment requires all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life and the life of others. What is forbidden by the Sixth Commandment? The Sixth Commandment forbids the taking away of our own life or the life of our neighbor unjustly or whatsoever tends thereto.
So in that you would find the definition of murder. Murder is the taking away of your own life or the life of someone else unjustly. I love that those who have thought these things through and have come up with catechism like this have added that word, have made sure that word qualifies or helps us to understand exactly what the Sixth Commandment forbids.
So the Sixth Commandment would not prohibit somebody from becoming a police officer or a soldier to occupations that might require somebody to have to take a life. If a police officer is coming up against some sort of criminal that is threatening the lives of other people, and so in order to protect people, that police officer has to put that man down, maybe even to protect himself.
That officer has to kill another person. Well, that would be a just act if a police officer has to kill somebody who is a threat to the officer or to other people. So they would not be violating the Sixth Commandment by carrying out those duties that are expected of an offer of a peacekeeping officer, whether you're talking about a person who is a cop or you're talking about a person who is a soldier.
These acts that must be carried out that are orders that must be followed. These are not breaking the Sixth Commandment, for it is a just act that a person has to be killed that is otherwise threatening other people.
And this is a loving thing to do. It is loving to protect people from a person that would otherwise want to harm others. For Jesus said that all the law and the prophets can be summed up this way. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
And even the Apostle Paul wrote that love is the fulfilling of the law. So how would love be the fulfilling of thou shalt not murder? Well, the most common answer that you get to this is if you just love people, if you're just focused on loving others, well, then you're not going to kill anybody.
You're not going to hate somebody else to the point that you would destroy that other person. So as long as you love people, then you're fulfilling that commandment to to not murder since you wouldn't be murdering anybody.
You are loving other people. And sure, that's the easy answer. But when you start throwing in other scenarios into the mix, it becomes a little bit more complicated, especially when you are considering self-defense or whether or not a person can serve as a police officer or a soldier and would not be breaking the Sixth Commandment by doing their duty.
So, again, this is where catechism becomes helpful to understand these things. What is required in the Sixth Commandment? The Sixth Commandment requires all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life and the life of others.
And by doing this and fulfilling this aspect of the Sixth Commandment, we are therefore showing love to our neighbors. Why is it that we would want to talk somebody out of suicide? Well, because we know that every life is valuable.
Having been made in the image of God, we know that if a person were to kill themselves, they would be murdering. They would be destroying that which was made in the image of God. And also because we want to take every lawful endeavor possible to preserve life, that those who hear the good news of the gospel proclaimed would turn from their sin and worship Christ and therefore save their own lives because they repented and worshiped the one who can raise the body from the dead.
And so this is a way that we show love to other people and save lives whenever we proclaim the gospel. Now, why did I get into this? How did I get into this talking about the Sixth Commandment? I mean, was this just a rabbit trail?
What does this have to do with what we read today? Well, it's because when Paul says that he has more things that he wanted to write, when he asked Timothy for the books and above all the parchments, which again, I see indicating that Paul had more things that he wanted to write.
This was what Paul wanted to do. He wanted to explain the scriptures more. He wanted to take the opportunity that he had as an apostle of Jesus Christ to teach through letter writing. And it could have been letters that went to churches.
There may have been some other letters that he wrote to the churches. But by and large, I think that some of the things that he had to write were going to be to individual people, encouraging them to continue to share the gospel and have an understanding of who Christ is and what he fulfilled with his life and death and resurrection.
And we have an understanding of these things according to what we read in the scriptures. This is first and foremost, our authority, catechism or creeds and confessions. Those things are not the biblical authority.
Those things have been written by men, but they've been written by faithful men to help us understand the scriptures a little bit better. Ultimately, our authority is the word of God, Genesis to Revelation, everything that was written down from the prophets and the apostles.
But what we have here is, you know, over 750 ,000 words. That's a lot of words. And to get things summed into those key points that we need to remember and write upon our hearts and exercise on a daily basis, we have through creed and catechism.
Those things are helpful to us to continue to encourage us in our understanding of what was written down for our instruction. And Paul still had a few more things that he wanted to write before he died.
As we continue these final couple of days in Second Timothy chapter four tomorrow, we're going to talk about some false teachers. As Paul mentions, Alexander the coppersmith who did him great harm and some other people who deserted him in his hour of need.
But he says so graciously, may it not be charged against them. Similar to words that Jesus said from the cross, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And that's where we'll go next tomorrow.
Let's conclude with prayer. Our wonderful heavenly father, we thank you for the word that you have given to us through your prophets and apostles that we may know the mind of God and we may know the knowledge of God that has been revealed through your son, Jesus Christ.
All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ, as Paul wrote about to the Colossians. And so may we consider this like opening up a treasure chest every time that we open the Bible and get to know something more about your heart and your mind that you have meant for your people to read and study and understand and and grow in the knowledge of that we might be made more and more like Christ.
The more we read this word and the more it is written upon our hearts. So I pray that we would also know how we can communicate this to other people, help to teach them in the knowledge of the word of God.
And you have given some great teachers to us to help us to understand these things. May we not take those things for granted, but look for ways to understand your scriptures all the more and teach these things to your people and also call sinners to repentance that they may come to a knowledge of Christ and be saved.
We pray and ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.