The Christian’s Attitude Toward Death Taught in 1st and 2nd
Timothy
INTRODUCTION:
1. 2 Timothy 4 contains some of the very last words written
by Paul; certainly the last written words that have
survived.
1. He is writing perhaps within days, but more likely
within weeks of his martyrdom.
2. He knew that this imprisonment would be his final one,
from which he would escape only by martyrdom.
1. When Paul was first brought to trial in Rome, none of
his fellow believers stood by him. 2 Tim. 4:16.[1]
1. He was the spiritual progenitor, directly or indirectly,
of perhaps most of the redeemed souls in the Gentile world.
2. But during his time of greatest personal need, he sat
friendless in a dark, filthy prison, facing Nero’s certain
sentence of death.
3. He was not bitter, but, like his Lord, prayed that it
might not be held against them.
4. 2 Tim. 4: 17-18 – 17 But the Lord stood with me and
strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might
be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might
hear; and I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. 18 The
Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me
safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever
and ever. Amen.[i]
2. It was a difficult time for him in two respects.
1. His own life.
2. The spiritual predicament of so many of the believers
for whom he had poured out his heart and life.
3. Yet, despite his troubled heart and deep concerns, his
final words reflect the eloquent calmness that comes only
from settled confidence in the Lord.
3. For about 30 years without intermission he had labored
as an apostle and itinerant evangelist.
4. Truly as he writes here, he has fought a good fight,
finished his race, and kept the faith.
1. The end was near and he knew it.
2. Paul, the aged warrior, is laying down his arms that
Timothy may take them up.
5. Now he awaits his reward – the crown of righteousness
that has been laid up for him in heaven.
6. This is Paul’s legacy to the church.
1. They breathe an atmosphere of great solemnity.
2. It is impossible to read them without being profoundly
moved.
2. Paul has already taught us that our salvation is firmly
rooted in Christ. 2 Tim. 1:9-10.[2]
1. Abolished death.
1. Death is the one word that summarizes our human
predicament as a result of sin.
2. That Christ abolished death clearly does not mean that
he removed it from our human experience. [3]
1. Physical death is no longer the ogre to us that it has
been and remains for many.
1. Heb. 2:15 – and might free those who through fear of
death were subject to slavery all their lives.
2. 1 Thess 4:15 – But we do not want you to be uninformed,
brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not
grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
3. It has been rendered so innocuous that Jesus said that
the believer, though he dies, shall never die. John
11:25-26.
4. It has been rendered so innocuous that it has become one
of the things that belongs to us when we are Christ’s. !
Cor. 3:21-23.[4]
2. Spiritual death has given place to eternal life which is
communion with God begun on earth and perfected in
heaven.[5]
2. Christ brought life and immortality to light through the
gospel.
1. In order to appreciate the full force of the Christian
affirmation, we need to call to mind who it is who is
making it, who writes so confidently about life and death,
about the abolition of death and the revelation of life.
1. It is one who is facing the imminent prospect of death
himself – any day expects to receive the death sentence.
2. Already the final summons is sounding in his ears.
3. In his imagination he can already see the flash of the
executioner’s sword.
4. Already the anchor is being weighed, the ropes are being
slipped from the pier, and the boat is about to set sail
for another shore.
2. And yet in the very presence of death, he can shout,
“Christ has abolished death.
1. This is Christian faith triumphant.
2. Paul’s words to the Romans were more than theoretical.
Rom. 8:33-39.[6]
3. One of the most searching tests that can be applied to
any religion concerns its attitude toward death.
1. Words of dying men are usually stripped of hypocrisy and
reflect accurately their true beliefs and feelings.
1. Napoleon – I die before my time; and my body will be
give back to earth, to become the food of worms. Such is
the fate which so soon awaits the great Napoleon.
2. Gandhi – My days are numbered. I am not likely to live
very long – perhaps a year or a little more. For the first
time in fifty years I find myself in a slough of despond.
All about me is darkness. I am praying for light.
3. Tallyrand, French statesman – Behold, eighty-three years
passed away! What cares! What agitation! What anxieties!
What ill-will! What sad complications! And all without
other results, except great fatigue of mind and body, and a
profound sentiment of discouragement with regard to the
future, and of disquiet with regard to the past.
2. How different are the words of Paul.
1. Some years previously he had said to the elders at
Ephesus, where Timothy was now laboring, “But I do not
consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that
I may finish my course and the ministry which I received
from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of
the grace of God.”[7]
2. Some 30 years after his encounter on the Damascus road,
he looks back over his ministry without regret or remorse
in every regard that matters.
3. With an economy of words known only to the Holy Spirit
inspired writer, he not only affirms his own spiritual
triumph, but also offers forceful motivation for every
believer to live a life of faithful service to Christ.
3. In these beautifully moving words, he reveals the
Christian attitude toward death.
BODY: WHAT DOES THIS GREAT APOSTLE TEACH US ABOUT THE
CHRISTIAN’S ATTITUDE TOWARD DEATH.
1. Paul describes his life as a sacrifice.
1. The word refers to pouring out a libation to the Gods.
1. Every Roman meal ended with a kind of sacrifice – a cup
of wine was taken and was poured out to the gods.
2. Numbers 15:1-10 –Paul was already making his final
offering, just has he had offered his life. Rom. 12:1-2.
2. It was as if Paul was saying, “The day is ended; its
time to rise and go; and my life must be poured out as a
sacrifice to God.
1. He did not think of himself as going to be executed.
2. He thought of himself as going to offer his life to God.
3. Ever since his conversion he had offered everything to
God – money, scholarship, time, physical vigor, acuteness
of mind, the devotion of his heart.
4. Only life was left to offer, and gladly he was going to
lay it down.
3. His departure was at hand.
1. The word departure is a vivid one.
2. It has many a picture in it and each tells us something
about leaving this life.
1. It is the word for unyoking an animal from the shafts of
the plow.
1. Death to Paul was rest from labor.
2. Spenser said, “Ease after toil, port after stormy seas,
death after life, are lovely things.”
2. It is the word for loosening bonds and fetters.
1. Death for Paul was a release.
2. He was to exchange the confines of a Roman prison for
the glorious liberty of the courts of heaven. Phil. 1:21 –
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
3. As the Lord commanded, Paul had taken up his cross and
had never laid it down, in the certain knowledge that –
53For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and
this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But when this
perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this
mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about
the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in
victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where
is your sting?” 1 Cor. 15:53-55.
3. It is the word for loosening the ropes of a tent.
1. For Paul it was time to strike camp again.
2. Many a journey he had made across the roads of Asia
Minor and Europe.
3. Now he was setting out on his last and greatest journey;
he was taking the road that led to God.
4. Paul faced his departure with no feeling of futility or
hopelessness, or despair, but with the divine assurance
that his real life was only about to begin.
5. Just as he had faced life without fear, he faced death
without fear.
4. It is the word for loosening the mooring ropes of a
ship.
1. Many a time Paul had felt his ship leave the harbor for
deeper waters.
2. Now he launches into the greatest deep of all, setting
sail to cross the waters of death to arrive in the haven of
eternity.
2. He describes life as a well fought contest.
1. Argon – the word for a fight in the arena.
1. When an athlete can honestly say that he has done his
best, there is deep satisfaction in the heart.
1. Paul comes to the end and knows that he has done his
best.
2. There is no greater satisfaction.
2. It is the word used in:
1. Luke 13:24 – 24 Strive to enter through the narrow door;
for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be
able.
2. Col. 1:29 – 29 For this purpose also I labor, striving
according to His power, which mightily works within me.
3. Col. 4:1 – Epaphras, who is one of your number, a
bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always
laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may
stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.
4. 1 Tim. 4:10 – For it is for this we labor and strive,
because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is
the Savior of all men, especially of believers.
2. Battle scars are the mark of a faithful soldier, and
Paul had them in abundance.
1. 2 Cor. 11:23-28.
2. It had been a fight against Satan; against the
principalities and powers, the world-rulers of this
darkness in the heavenlies; against Jewish and pagan vice
and violence; against Judaism among the Galatians; against
fanaticism among the Thessalonians; against contention,
fornication, and litigation among the Corinthians; against
incipient Gnosticism among the Ephesians and Colossians;
against fightings without and fears within; and last but
not least, against the law of sin and death operating
within his own heart.[8]
3. The supreme mark of a faithful soldier is to give his
life in battle, and that mark the apostle was now willingly
prepared to receive.
1. He was not like those who “For they all seek after their
own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.” Phil. 2:21.
2. To the contrary, “4 although I myself might have
confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to
put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the
eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6
as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the
righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. 7 But
whatever things were gain to me, those things I have
counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I
count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that
I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a
righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that
which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which
comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of
His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order
that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Phil.
3:4-8.
3. I have finished the race (course).
1. Marathon – world’s most famous race.
1. It takes its name from the Battle of Marathon, one of
the world’s most decisive battles.
2. In it the Greek met the Persians; if the Persians had
won the battle the glory that was Greece would never had
flowered upon the world.
1. Against fearful odds, the Greeks won the victory and,
after the battle, a Greek soldier ran all the way to Athens
with the news.
2. Straight to the magistrates he ran and gasped, “Rejoice,
we have conquered.”
3. He fell dead even as he delivered his message.
4. He had completed his course; he had done his work.
5. There is no finer way for any man to die.
2. Our modern marathon derives its distance from the
approximate distance that the Greek soldier ran.
4. I have kept the faith.
1. Two possible meanings.
1. It is taken from the background of the games (Olympics).
1. On the day before the games all athletes met and took a
solemn oath before the gods that they had done not less
than the 10 months training and that they would not resort
to any trickery to win.
2. Paul may be saying, I have played the game; I have kept
the rules.
3. Rosie Ruiz and the Boston Marathon.
4. He had not transgressed the rules in the race of life.
2. It is a business phrase take from the background of the
market place.
1. It is the regular Greek phrase for “I have kept the
conditions of the contract; I have been true to my
engagement.”
2. He had engaged himself to serve Christ and he had stood
by that engagement and never let his Master down.
3. “I have kept by faith; I have never lost my confidence
and hope.
4. In thick of thin, freedom or imprisonment, in perils of
land and sea, and now in the face of death, he had never
lost his trust in Jesus Christ.
2. Unlike Schubert, Paul left no unfinished symphony.
5. There is a crown of righteousness laid up for me.
1. Laid up.
1. Matt. 6:19-20 – Do not store up for yourselves treasures
on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves
break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys,
and where thieves do not break in or steal;
2. Heb. 11:6 – And without faith it is impossible to please
Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and
that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
2. In the games the greatest prize was the laurel wreath.
1. With it the victor was crowned, and to wear it was the
greatest honor that could come to any athlete.
2. One historian wrote that many a little town in those
days took down a piece of its wall in order that its son,
crowned with the crown of the isthmus or of Olympia, might
enter by a gate unused before.
3. But was great as it was, in a few days it would wither.
4. Paul knew the crown awaiting him, described as
righteousness, would never fade.
1. 1 Co. 9:24-27 – Do you not know that those who run in a
race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such
a way that you may win. 25Everyone who competes in the
games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it
to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
26Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box
in such a way, as not beating the air; 27 but I discipline
my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have
preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
2. Jas 1:12 – Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial;
for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of
life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
3. 1 Pet. 5:4 – And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you
will receive the unfading crown of glory.
5. In that moment Paul turned from the verdict of men to
the verdict of God.
1. He knew that in a very short time he would stand before
the Roman judgment seat and that his trial could have only
one end.
1. He knew what Nero’s verdict would be.
2. He also knew what God’s verdict would be.
2. The man whose life is dedicated to God is indifferent to
the verdicts of men.
3. He cares not if they condemn him so long as he hears his
Master’s well done.
6. It is easy to begin and hard to finish. (Cut across in
440 in intramurals in college).
7. The one thing necessary in life is staying power.
8. Many a fine life has been wrecked by some closing
failure.
9. It was Paul’s claim that he had finished the course
(race) – there is deep satisfaction in reaching the goal.
CONCLUSION:
1. It is also reserved for all who love his appearing.
1. All who wait with expectation for the coming of the King
may share.
2. It is as if he said, “Timothy, my end is near, and I
know that I go to my reward. If you follow in my steps, you
will feel the same confidence and the same joy when the end
comes to you.”
3. The joy of Paul is open to every person who fights that
fight, finishes that race, and keeps the faith.
2. Who loves his appearing?
1. Those who recognize that we are in a spiritual struggle
(fought a good fight).
2. Recognize that the cause for which we fight is a noble
cause (good fight).
1. Thus we do not seek our own things. Phil. 2:21 – For
they all seek after their own interests, not those of
Christ Jesus.
2. Phil. 3:4-10 – although I myself might have confidence
even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put
confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the
eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6
as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the
righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. 7 But
whatever things were gain to me, those things I have
counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I
count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that
I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a
righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that
which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which
comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of
His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
3. Acts 20:24 – But I do not consider my life of any
account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course
and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to
testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.
3. Recognize the need to avoid to avoid wandering (finish
the course).
1. Must assert self discipline to say on the appointed
course until the finish line.
2. Prov. 4:25-27 – Let your eyes look directly ahead And
let you gaze be fixed straight in front of you. 26 Watch
the path of your feet And all your ways will be
established. 27 Do not turn to the right nor to the left;
Turn your foot from evil.
3. Hebrews 12:1-2 – Therefore, since we have so great a
cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside
every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before
us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of
faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of
the throne of God.
4. Recognize the need to treasure time. Eph. 5:15-16 –
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as
wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are
evil.
5. Recognize and be faithful to the sacred trust given to
us regarding the word of God (kept the faith).
1. Eph. 4:3-6 – being diligent to preserve the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one
Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your
calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and
Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
2. 1 Tim. 6:20-21 – O Timothy, guard what has been
entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and
the opposing arguments of what is falsely called
“knowledge”— 21 which some have professed and thus gone
astray from the faith. Grace be with you.
3. 2 Tim. 1:14 – Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells
in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
[1]16 At my first defense no one supported me, but all
deserted me; may it not be counted against them.
[2]9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own
purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from
all eternity,
10 but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior
Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel,
[3]27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once
and after this comes judgment,
28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the
sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation
without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
[4]21 So then let no one boast in men. For all things
belong to you,
22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life
or death or things present or things to come; all things
belong to you,
23 and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.
[5] 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says
to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the
second death.’
[6] 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is
the one who justifies;
34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who
died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand
of God, who also intercedes for us.
35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 Just as it is written,
“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer
through Him who loved us.
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
[7]Acts 20:24.
[8]William Hendricksen, New Testament Commentary;
Expositions of the Pastoral Epistles [Grand Rapids: Baker,
1965], 315.