Sermons
A Message by the Rev. Harvey G. Throop
Palisades Presbyterian Church
San Diego, California
March 29 , 2009
(19) The Apostle:
The Journey's End!
(Acts 28:14b-15, 30-31 and 2 Timothy 4:1-8)
" …the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith"
(2 Timothy 4:4)
What kind of legacy you would like to leave behind when your earthly life is ended? What will be the most obvious memories of you that will come to the minds of your loved ones and friends?
Whenever I sit down with a family to plan the memorial service for a loved one who has died, among other things, I ask the family to reminisce with me about their loved one, to think back over that person's life and to reflect upon that person's most distinctive qualities and accomplishments. It can be a fascinating experience.
In earlier days, this kind of remembering was sometimes done for all to see on tombstones – sometimes with humor and oftentimes with amazing blunt candor.
For example, on one grave in Nova Scotia are the words:
“Here lies Ezekiel Aikle
Age 102
The Good Die Young”
One epitaph that is well known and often appears in collector's books on epitaphs is this one:
“Here lies
Captain Ernest Bloomfield
Accidently shot by his Orderly
March 2nd 1789.
Well done, thou
good and faithful servant.'”
Near the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool, England, there is a marker that reads:
“G. Wilde
Not worth knowing or remembering.”
Finally, in a cemetery in England, there is this poem on a tombstone:
“Remember me as you walk by,
As you are now, so once was I,
As I am now, so shall you be,
Remember this and follow me.”
What do you think? At the end of your earthly life, what will people say about you?
Today, we have come to the end of Luke's account of the life of the Apostle Paul as recorded in the book of Acts.
Last week, we focused on Paul's shipwreck off the island of Malta. At the time, he was being transferred from Caesarea to Rome where he would stand trial before Caesar. The ship he was on, however, encountered a terrible storm called the northeaster , which the ship's crew battled for some two weeks. By the end of that time, the ship had run aground and had broken up due to the force of the fierce waves. Yet, all on board made it safely to the shore of the island, Malta, where they stayed for some three months, until winter passed. At that time, they boarded another cargo ship that eventually reached the mainland of Italy.
Some time prior to this trip, Paul had written the Christians at Rome about his expectations for his visit there. He wrote: “ For I do hope to see you on my journey and to be sent on by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a little while … and I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ” (Romans 15:24b, 29).
He had not anticipated coming as a prisoner, however. Nevertheless, word had reached the Christians in Rome about Paul's present circumstances – his arrest, trial and appeal to Caesar -- and they wanted to give him the hero's welcome they believed he deserved. And they did! A deputation of believers was sent to greet him. "On seeing them," Luke tells us, "Paul thanked God and took courage" (Acts 28:15).
Luke then writes that three days after he arrived in Rome, Paul called the leaders of the Jews together. Now that, in itself, is a rather remarkable thing. For more than thirty years, the Jews had been doing everything they could to stop Paul and even to kill him. One would assume that the Jews would be the last people he would want to see.
But this was Paul, and Paul's self-proclaimed mission in life was to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He believed the hope of Israel was with Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Even though Paul had done no wrong, it was because of the hope he preached that he was now in chains.
The first meeting with the Jewish leaders was concluded with their expression of willingness to hear what he had to say. When the second visit began, Paul got down to the essentials. All day long, from morning until evening, Paul explained and testified to the true meaning of the kingdom of God and the fulfillment of the prophets and Moses in Jesus as Messiah.
The result of Paul's sharing was mixed. Luke tells us that some were persuaded and “some disbelieved.”
Paul's purpose was to show the leaders that they had come to the dreadful stage of religious dullness. As the Jews left that day, Paul quoted from the prophecy of Isaiah, telling them, “the Holy Spirit was right in saying what he did to your ancestors” (Acts 28:25). They heard words but did not understand; they saw truth but would not respond; their emotions were insensitive; and their ears were weary of great ideas that they had not lived. The tragic result of their faithless familiarity was that they were no longer able to receive truth and live their lives around it. Most of all, traditions and customs, rules and regulations had been substituted for God. There seemed no longer a desire or need for God's healing love and forgiveness.
Luke concludes his account of the life of Paul with these words: “He lived there (in Rome) two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (Acts 28:30, 31).
What did he do during that time? He was not idle. It was there that he wrote many of his letters, including those to the Philippians, the Ephesians, the Colossians, Philemon and to Timothy.
Nor was Paul alone. Various believers called on him periodically and there was always a guard – a soldier – present. We can be sure that Paul and the soldiers talked for hours on end and it is more than likely that some of them became believers because of Paul.
Luke does not tell us about the very end. Undoubtedly, Paul was tried, sentenced and then executed.
Hans Finzel, in his book Empowered Leaders , tries to describe the place where Paul spent his final days. He writes: “On an obscure side street a few kilometers from the Vatican, there is a small building thought to house the prison cell where Paul spent his final days. It is a cramped hole beneath the ground … cold, damp and musty. A small grate in the ceiling allowed a little daylight to shine through.” It was there, in a rugged rock-walled dungeon, that Paul spent his last days.
“Yet, Paul was ready for the end. Though he sat in his cell looking older than his years, bruised from the tortures of the past, scarred from the beatings and the stonings and the shipwrecks, he was strangely content. The letters he wrote with crippled hands and poor eyesight were tender and filled with compassion. Search his writings through and through, and one will not find even a trace of self-pity, blame or bitterness. He expresses no regrets. He knows that the time of his departure had come” (Swindoll, Paul , W Publishing Group [Nashville, 2002], p. 318).
Without a doubt, the most poignant words to come from his pen in that final period of his life were those he wrote in his second letter to Timothy: “…the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:4).
Most commentators believe that Second Timothy was Paul's final letter and that it was written just a few days before he was executed by Nero. Paul wrote those words when he realized that his days on this earth were coming to an end in order to comfort his friends and to summarize his life in a single sentence.
He wrote, “I have fought the good fight.” The word fight in the original Greek was agon , which gives us our word agony . Here, it means “I have given my all, I have stood tall for righteousness and goodness.”
It's the picture of an athlete leaving the field after having given a total and complete effort, physically drained, but knowing that he or she has given their best – their all. Paul was saying, “All that I am and all that I have, I have given to Christ and to his service; I have fought the good fight.”
For what are we living? What were the goals with which we started out in our lives and careers? Have we stuck with them?
Every one of us needs to be careful in the midst of our struggles, lest somewhere along the way, our ideals are lost and our commitment when we were younger to "change the world" is downgraded to commitments to pay the bills. Rather than make a difference, we just want to make a salary. Rather than look forward, we want to look back. Rather than to look outward, we prefer to look inward. So Paul wrote, "I have fought the good fight..."
We have all had the privilege of knowing some true Christian saints in our lives. Some of them were courageous in public arenas – standing tall for what is right and good! Others were courageous in behind-the-scenes places, giving of themselves in a spirit of love and grace – in the Spirit of Christ – helping the poor, the sick and the hurting. Both are examples of what it means to “fight the good fight.”
The apostle Paul knew that Nero's “lynch mob” would be coming for him very shortly. Yet, as he looked back upon his life and all that he had done, he did so with the recognition that he had given his all.
What is to be the meaning of your life? Will you be able to say with the Apostle Paul, “I have fought the good fight” at the end of your days?
Second, Paul wrote, “I have finished the race.” No one can understand and appreciate that comment more than a marathon runner.
The Christian life is something like a marathon. It is not a competition to outrun or outdo everybody else. It is a commitment to keep on running even when it is difficult – to run all the way to the finish line!
To "finish" is one of life's primary challenges. It is always easier to start than to finish. How does that one saying put it: "A beginning does not a finish make." A well-lived life must have staying power.
William Barclay, in his commentary on Timothy, tells of a famous man who would not allow his biography to be written with his permission while he was alive, saying, "I have seen so many individuals fall out on the last lap!"
Paul wrote: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race…”
Third, Paul wrote, "I have kept the faith!" Paul made it clear to Timothy that as his life was nearing an end, he had "played by the rules." He says simply, "I have kept the faith." The Greek phrase from which this is translated is also a business phrase: "I have kept the conditions of the contract; I have been true to my engagement" ( Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles , The Daily Study Bible Series Commentaries, Westminster [Edinburgh, 1955]. p. 242).
No faith can be "kept" if it is not both believed and then obeyed! Faith is not an intellectual exercise but a lifestyle. And living by it is not always easy.
Faith encounters difficult times. It is challenged by our moments of personal despair. It is confronted by our times of disillusionment.
When Paul wrote, "I have kept the faith," he was saying that through thick and thin, in freedom and in imprisonment, in all his perils by land and by sea, and now in the very face of death, he had never lost his perfect confidence and trust in Jesus Christ. Within his heart was a hope that never flickered, but that burned throughout all life.
"I have kept the faith," wrote Paul.
When Paul wrote those words to young Timothy, he meant that he had been faithful to his Lord and had demonstrated his commitment to Christ unwaveringly.
Well, that brings us now to us. Whenever it was that you and I joined the Church, we made a commitment to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We promised to follow him and to obey his Gospel in all that we do.
How has our discipleship played out? Have we demonstrated a tenacious obedience to our Lord?
What do you think? At the end of your earthly life, what will people say about you? What are you doing that will outlast your living? Will we be remembered as ones who fought the good fight and finished the race and kept the faith?
Someone once wrote, “We will be remembered most for things to which we may have given the least thought.”
Those words are worth pondering as we journey through this life.
