Finish the Race

It’s been a rather somber week here at Calvary with the passing of Marion Henry. Her husband, David was on the search team that brought me here to Calvary just a few years ago. Marion served as an assistant in our worship ministry for many years, and was known as a woman of great prayer. She would pray for you. She played a vital part in Calvary’s history of faithfulness. She was very encouraging to me over these last few years, although she did say I preach too fast. She’s right. I do preach too fast. I’ll miss her. Over the last few years, I’ve had a chance to talk with Sharon Bjerkass about her husband, Dick, who along with a few other historic leaders of Calvary, passed away in the summer of 2021, just before I arrived here so I didn’t get a chance to meet him or them. There’s a great video that Dick narrates on the history of Calvary and the moves that eventually led the church to this plot of land here on the north side of of town. Did you know that we used to be a South Side church? Many of you do know that. Many of you were part of that church. But I would guess that a lot of you didn’t. Maybe even the majority of you didn’t know that. The church kept growing, and the leadership kept asking, what do we do with the growth that God has given us? Same question we are asking today.

So many leaders have served this church throughout the decades. Gary Larson was a worship leader here and passed away this year. We recently lost Sharon Lainsworth. Ken LeVoss passed away shortly after I arrived. Ray Wiens, Julie Nelson, Merle Bany, Steve Wasicek, Carol Thorne. I didn’t get an opportunity to meet most of these people, serve with these men and women who have made Calvary what it is today. But I know their work because their work is here. It’s in you. It’s in the legacy of this church they’ve left behind. I bring up these spiritual leaders, these saints of the faith, because they are great examples of handing the church to the next generation. Usually we think about today. That’s usually how far our minds go out. We think about today, what’s going on today, maybe this week. What are we doing this week? What’s going to happen in the next season? What’s going to happen between now and Christmas? That’s usually the scope in which we see things. How will this affect the world around me today? How will this change me today? Interestingly, this is not how we think when we think about our kids. See, parents have a future focus. They have a legacy view when it comes to investing in their own children. We want our future generations of our family to thrive.

And so what do we do? We save money, right? We we invest time. We want to see a nice, bright, secure future for the generations to come in our family. Scripture tells us this is the way that we should see the church. You can you can hear it when Paul tells Timothy to raise up Godly leaders who will in turn raise up what, more Godly leaders. That’s what he wants to see. He wants to see more Godly leaders raised up. You can hear it when Peter is talking to the crowd on that day in Pentecost and he says that the promise of Christ, the promise of the gospel that he’s just shared with them, he says it’s for you and for your children. It’s for that next generation that’s going to come. The gospel is an investment in the future kingdom of God. And the church is a legacy that we leave to the next generation of the church. As he closes out his final letter to Timothy, this is probably the oldest letter we have that Paul wrote one of the last letter that he wrote. And in this letter, Paul knows that his time on earth is about to end and that he’s entrusting everything that he’s done, all the ministry that he’s done to the leaders, young leaders like Timothty, Titus. Now, he’s not quite done, as we’re going to see today. He’s still got some fight in him. He’s still got some things to do. He knows that to live is Christ. To live means you’re still part of Christ’s mission. But he knows also that he’s near the end. His time on stage is short. He’s about to exit stage left and leave the gospel to be told by younger leaders. And the way he signs off gives us the church today, no matter your age, the motivation for ministry. We strive today to preach the gospel and build the church because of the crown of Christ’s righteousness that we will receive from the Lord when our race is over. That’s why we do it. So if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to 2 Timothy 4:6. It won’t be on the screen today because it’s a longer passage. So if you have your Bible, go ahead and turn there. 2 Timothy 4:6. Here we have one of the most beloved images of a well-lived life. It’s a motto for the Christian life, especially for those of us who want to end well. Okay. It’s a great motto. And right after that, we’re going to see that while Paul is near the end, he is not at the end. So there’s a balance between looking forward to eternity and what a Christian should be doing right now. What does it mean to be involved in Christ’s mission as I look forward to eternity? So I’m going to read this in full and I want you to look for that balance. Okay. The balance between I’m about to be there with Christ and what does that mean for me right now? And I want to especially challenge you this morning if you are older. You define older i’m not going to do that. I know better do that. So you define older okay. You self-select into that if you want to. But I want I want to challenge you this morning if you find yourself in that category. Because if you find yourself resonating, as Paul describes, the finishing of the race and your heart starts to long for that, you go, yes, that’s where I want to be, that’s how I feel, I resonate, I long for the ending of the race. I want you not to tune out when Paul shifts gears and suddenly he’s back in the race. Okay, so bring all that together as we read this. Verse six,for I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up 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 loved his appearing. 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 defense, 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 for ever and ever. Amen. Greet Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill at Miletus. Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

So let’s start with the finished race. It is interesting how Paul jumps to the end of his life in verse six, when you know that he’s plans to keep going because of verse nine. You read it, you go, well, verse nine, he’s going to keep going so why does he jump to the end of life in verse six? It’s almost as if his motivation for today stems from his vision of the end of his life. Don’t you see that? Don’t you think? I believe that’s exactly what he’s saying here. If you want to do anything, well, you got to put the goal out in front of you. We all know that, right? You want to do anything well, in this life, you got to put the goal out in front of you. That’s why architects create computer models and pictures of finished buildings. You’re not going to be motivated to pour concrete because of a vision of dry concrete. Right. That’s not what you envision. You pour the foundation because you envision a completed house that you can see in your mind, but does not yet exist. That’s why you do it. You train because you picture yourself crossing the finish line. You battle because you picture the enemy defeated. And so here Paul sees he’s near the end of his life, and he knows that he’s about to receive the prize for which his entire Christian life has been lived. Not unfortunately his entire life, but certainly his entire Christian life. He says he is already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of his departure has come.

A drink offering was one of the sacrifices that God’s people would make on an altar as a form of worship to the Lord. Numbers 28 talks about a strong drink that they would pour out onto sacrificial animals. Even before the law was was brought by Moses, Jacob poured out a drink offering in Genesis 35 on an altar. So it’s always been a part of God’s people’s worship. The imagery is pretty profound here. See, you pour out a drink offering for the Lord and when you do it, it’s gone. It’s gone. It’s used up. Nothing remains of it. It’s totally and completely given over to the Lord. And so clearly, Paul knows that he doesn’t have a lot of time left. He’s about to be that drink offering. He’s about to be completely used up. He’s sitting in prison and this time it’s not like the Philippians when he was pretty sure he was going to get out. No, this time he’s pretty sure that he won’t get out. He’s on death row. So where does his mind go? Where does he go when he’s in that moment? Where does his mind go off to? It could go into a frenzied get me out of here panic of a desperate man trying to hold on to his life because his life is the most important thing to him. I could picture myself in my mind going there, but because his eyes are on the future, he’s not afraid of what’s going to happen to him right now. His mind instead goes to the fact that he is about to complete God’s assignment for him, and he’s about to be received into the presence of Christ. The Greek word order here is a little bit different, and it emphasizes the finality of this statement. He says, the good fight I have fought, the race I have completed, the faith I have kept. Now, we don’t write it like that because that would sound like Yoda. But you can hear if you flip the word order around you can hear the completeness when you read it like that. He has fought. It’s completed. He has fought the good fight. See, when you live a life of faithfulness to Jesus, fighting hard for the kingdom of God, fighting hard for the glory of Christ with your life, death means the fighting is over. The fight is done. He has finished. It is complete. He has finished the race. When you get up every day and you strive for the prize of the upward call of Christ death means that you cross the finish line. There’s no more striving. There’s no more racing. And in fighting and finishing this way, Paul knows he has kept the faith. He has kept it. It’s complete. He has kept the faith. All the fighting and striving. You know, all that could have stopped a long time ago if Paul had simply decided, you know what? I’m just going to coast through this life.

I know what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m just going to coast through this life. I’m going to be unfaithful to God’s call on my life. I’m gonna only be faithful in the easy ways not really in the hard ways. He could have stopped fighting a long time ago, but he refused. He knew an eternity in the presence and the love of Christ is worth the relatively short lifetime of contending for Jesus in a world that rejects him. And so he lived for that. He lived for that hope. Henceforth, he says, we don’t use the word henceforth a lot. And if you do, you probably should stop, actually. But henceforth it means from that time in the future forward. So there’s going to be some time there’s a place it’s not right now, but there’s going to be a time in the future. And from that point in the future and forward, there is a crown of righteousness that is waiting for me. I will have righteousness waiting for me there. Now, a little bit of a caution here. This crown of righteousness could sound like a prize that you receive for righteousness the crown of righteousness. You could read it that way. Just the phrase on its own could make it sound like if you behave well, then God gives you the good behavior crown. And frankly, there’s a lot of people who think like that. There’s a lot of people who think that’s how it works. In fact, that’s where their hope is right now. Right now, they see themselves as one day standing before God, and they will answer for what they’ve done, because God will see they’ve been pretty good, and it’ll be okay for them because they’ve been pretty good. They’ve lived a life well enough. That is not at all what Paul is describing here. In fact, that’s the opposite of what Paul is saying here. See, when Paul says that he has kept the faith and that because of that, he receives the crown of righteousness. In both cases, he’s talking about not earning God’s good behaviour prize. You have to know what Paul means when he uses the words faith and righteousness. So let me take you quickly over here to Romans one verses 16 and 17, so that you can see how Paul uses these terms in relation to the gospel. He says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

So the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, provides salvation from sins for everyone who believes. So when you stand before God as your judge for the sins that you’ve committed, it is not your good works or good behavior that God looks at to make his judgment. What he looks at is belief. If your belief is that Jesus is your substitute sacrifice, that on the cross he took the punishment for your sins, that faith qualifies you to receive God’s righteousness. To be declared righteous requires sinlessness. And if you follow that logic, you can already see the problem, right? Righteousness requires sinlessness. We need to be declared righteous before God but we can’t. Because why? Because we’re all miserable sinners. That’s why you don’t need any more proof than just how you lived this last week to know that you do not stand before the Lord righteous on your own, having earned any favor from him. You’re not sinless before God. So the righteous standing that we need, we need to have it has to come from outside of us. It’s got to come from somewhere else. And since we don’t deserve it, it’s going to have to be a gift. It’s going to have to come to us by grace. That’s the gospel. That’s the gospel. Jesus takes our sin and he gives us his righteous standing before God that we didn’t earn because he earned it for us. It’s not that it wasn’t earned. It was earned, but it was earned by Jesus who could actually earn it because we can’t. We can only receive it by surrendering ourselves before God, repenting of our sins, trusting in Jesus. So when Paul says he’s going to get the crown of righteousness, he’s not saying that he’s earned it by being such a good Christian. What he’s saying is my belief, my faith has persevered. My faith has held on through it all. Through all the hardships, the beatings, the ridicule, the long days of walking, long nights in prison. Through all of that, he has kept his eyes on Jesus, and he’s kept his trust in Jesus. His faith makes his salvation sure and now here at the end of his life, he’s close to standing in the presence of Jesus. He’s close to receiving the crown of Christ’s righteousness. I don’t think this is a literal crown. I don’t think you get an actual crown. I believe this is a poetic way of saying Paul’s faith in Christ’s righteousness is going to become sight. He’s going to see it. Sin’s going to be gone. Sanctification is going to be complete. There’ll be no more striving, only resting and basking in the presence of Christ.

You know, all funerals are sad. Funerals are sad because death is an enemy. But do you want to know why funerals for Christians are not hopeless and can even at times feel a bit celebratory? It’s because that’s when life really begins for our brother or sister in Christ who’s passed away. That’s when eternal life takes on sight. You can see it. Death is the end of the worst part of life a Christian will ever live. The worst part’s over. Now, don’t get me wrong. Life is precious and joyous. We are made in the image of God. God made his creation good. There’s a lot to enjoy in this world. Friends and family are great blessings. We can work hard for the glory of God. This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. It is good. And it’s also the worst part of the eternal life we will ever have with Jesus. This is it, this is the worst part. The rest is great compared to what we’re going through right now. Marion Henry, Sharon Lansworth, Gary Larson and all those people I mentioned earlier are doing a lot better today than we are let me tell you that. They’re doing a whole lot better than we are today, because they now walk by sight, not by faith. They are experiencing Christ in a way that we long for as we walk in faith and not by sight. As Paul says here, everyone who has faith in Jesus will receive that crown of Christ’s righteousness. All who love his appearing as the way he puts it here, meaning all those who loved that Jesus came for us the first time and are loving the fact that he’s coming back for us the second time. All who love his appearing, all who are trusting in Jesus, can have an end that has a sure hope in the crown of righteousness that is Christ Himself.

Now, wouldn’t that have been a great end to this letter. You can hear the finale, right? The fireworks are going off. Crown of righteousness. We’ve made it! Finish line! Kept the faith that had been a fantastic place for Paul just to put his name and be done. Grace be with you. Let’s get to the next book. Right. But that’s not what he does. That’s not how it ends at all. Verse 9, do your best to come to me soon. Why? Why didn’t he just sign off? Why would he want Timothy to come to him soon? I suppose our first thought here might be well to come say goodbye. Right? That’s what we would do if one of our loved ones was was passing away. We would want to go. We travel a great distance, if necessary, to come and to to say goodbye to them. That would make sense to us. But that’s not what Paul says at all. He tells Timothy to be sure to bring Mark along because Mark is useful to Paul for ministry. He’s got more ministry. He needs Mark to help him carry it out. In fact, he also tells him to swing by Troas and on his way and find Carpus and get the books and the parchments from him that Paul had left there. If you were about to be gone, would you start a big old book? Probably not. Get especially the parchments. I need those things. Get them over here to me. I thought the credits were rolling on Paul here. I thought this thing was over. But that’s not what Paul is saying here. Paul was saying that the day for crowns is henceforth. Forthwith he wants Timothy, Mark, his cloak and his reading materials because he’s got stuff to do, and he doesn’t want to get chilly doing it. He even says, come before winter I need that thing. I’m cold, but I’m not done. I got things to do and I don’t want to be cold doing them. Look at everything Paul says here. He gives you a very strong sense of what he knows he needs to be doing right now with his time. Since he’s stuck in prison he needs help in accomplishing his ministry goals. But he doesn’t have the helpers that he needs for various reasons. Some are good reasons. Some are bad reasons. Some guys Paul assigned to various places to make disciples. Crescens, Titus, Tychicus he says he’s sending to Ephesus, which is probably him telling Timothy, who’s probably reading this letter in Ephesus, it’s okay to leave because your replacement is on the way. He’s heading on out there. He says, I sent Erastus to Corinth. Do you see what’s happening in Paul’s ministry? It’s growing. His ministry is growing. He planted all these churches, but now his ministry is growing. He’s become a regional disciple making director of sorts. And now what he’s doing, he’s arranging to make sure all these churches have good young pastors who can follow up with those ministries. He’s also saying that there are dangers waiting for ministry out there, and he’s tackling those too. And there are at least three dangers that are that are referred to here. There’s Demas, a guy who was apparently very close to Paul. He’s mentioned in Colossians and Philemon as a close companion of Paul. Demas left Paul and went to Thessalonica because he was in love with this present world. Now, we don’t know exactly what that means. We don’t know exactly why it is that Demas went to Thessalonica or what he was after. The way this is phrased, it doesn’t have to be something sinful. The word just simply refers to something in this age. And so what he’s saying is Demas has got his eyes on things in this world. He’s got his eyes on things in this age. He doesn’t have his eyes set out where they need to be in eternity. He doesn’t have eternity in mind, so maybe it was something like he wanted a business or he had a business opportunity. Maybe he was tired of going with Paul to various places and getting beat up and thrown out of town and you know, doing prison work and all the hard labor that comes with all of that. So maybe he just decided, I want to go do something a little bit more lucrative. Maybe he met a girl who wanted to go start a family. It’s impossible to know. And those things that I just listed, those are not bad things on their own. Unless they require you to turn away from your commitment to be faithful to Christ. Whatever this was, it caused Demas to break his commitment to Paul and to the ministry. And that’s really the problem here. Demas is an example of what can happen when worldly pursuits become more important to Christians than eternal pursuits.

Church, we have to constantly be asking whether we are pursuing the priorities of the Kingdom of God. These are questions you should be asking yourself regularly. Am I using my time and energy on things that will matter for eternity? Now, I’m not saying that you’ll be able to draw a straight lines between everything in your life and eternity. Okay. We own a dog. He’s a good dog. I can’t explain how the care and feeding of this animal is an investment in eternity. I have no idea. I’m not suggesting that I should be able to explain it, or that you should be able to explain and draw straight lines every time for every thing that you do. But you will know much more clearly in the big choices. What are you doing with your life? How are you using your money? What education are you pursuing and to what end? How are you using your abilities to help make disciples of Jesus here in your local church at Calvary. How are you using your empty nest years, parents? How are you using those? How are you using your retirement years? Are you working through your limitations to find a way to serve the Lord or are you using limitations as an excuse for why you can’t serve the Lord, or why you don’t have to? Then there’s Alexander the coppersmith. This guy gets a really bad rap in Scripture. This is probably the same guy referred to in one Timothy one as a blasphemer, who Paul had to remove from the church. So two bad mentions, at least in Scripture. Paul says Alexander will be repaid by the Lord according to his deeds. Meaning, when he stands before the Lord, he won’t receive the crown of righteousness. He will be punished for his sins, at least in his current state, and unless he becomes repentant, he’s a strong opponent to the gospel. But why mention him here? Why list him here? I mean, he’s no threat to Paul at this point. Paul’s in a completely different city. He doesn’t have to worry about him here. Why mention him? Well, it’s because Paul hasn’t set down his job, his role as being a protector of the church, even where he is, even with his limitations, he’s not set down that role. He’s still shepherding. He includes this here as a warning for new leadership. Beware of Alexander the coppersmith. He’s still out there, and he’s still a threat to the gospel and to the church. Now, Alexander the coppersmith died a little while back. He’s no longer a threat, but there still are plenty of people out there today, outside and inside the church who strongly oppose the message of the gospel and would work to try to undermine it and to weaken the church. Which means the next generation of the church is counting on this generation’s church to be aware of that, to call out the errors, to preserve the gospel like Paul is doing here. And then there’s a mention of Paul being all by himself in this critical moment of his trial. Paul says everybody left me. Why mention that? Is Paul just now wallowing in his feelings of abandonment? That doesn’t really sound like Paul, does it? He mentions this here probably for a couple of reasons. First, it’s a another warning of what can go wrong when the church doesn’t stay committed to the mission. So Jesus disciples left him. Remember that? Jesus went to the cross, all of his disciples, all of his closest friends. They all left him when he went to trial and to the cross. Paul stood trial alone, too. He’s now telling us we need courage in this Christian life calvary. So of course, yes, Jesus and Paul both forgave their disciples who fled and left and in their moment of greatest need, they weren’t there. They said, I forgive you, but we need to learn from their example to us church. We need to learn from this lack of courage. It’s going to take courage, and we’re going to need to stand up for the gospel. But the second reason that Paul talks about this abandonment, I think is far more important. And we can tell it’s more important because it’s what he goes on about. It’s what he talks about here. Paul was able to experience the strength of the Lord when he stood there testifying. He was on his own, but he was never alone. At times the church is going to fail, but the Lord never fails. He never does. He is always with us. He will never abandon us. He will always accomplish his purposes in us and through us. Church, any one of these obstacles, any of these things that Paul talks about here at the end, could have caused Paul to say, you know what, I think I’ve done enough. I think I can retire. Boy, these things are really piling up. I’m getting abandoned by my closest friends. People are leaving me. They’re not helping me anymore. Still got Alexander out there. This is enough. I’m done. I think I can retire, I think I can stop using my gifts now. I can let others do the work. People who are more capable, people who have not nearly the limitations that I do. Prison, opposition, abandonment, age, some kind of thorn in his side that he doesn’t even tell us what it is. And of course, being so close to the end, and being able to look back over all of his life that he’s accomplished all these things, that he’s accomplished. Any one of these factors individually could serve as an excuse to put down the call to give Christ everything, to put down the call to be in ministry. But that is no way to live the Christian life. That’s no way. We don’t waste this time. Overcoming the obstacles might even turn out to be the way you experience the power of the Lord in an even greater capacity, like Paul did. Church the crown of Christ’s righteousness waits for everyone who has believed and trusted and rested in Christ. And we’ll get that crown the moment the Lord wants us to have it. But every moment up to that moment is our day to invest in the church that will be left to the next generation Let’s pray.