If your days were clearly numbered, what would you write in a letter to your family and friends?
Well, that's precisely the assignment that Paul was given. Chained in a Roman dungeon, abandoned by his allies and maligned by his enemies. Paul wrote a blazing letter of hope, courage, and purpose. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl shows us how Paul's dungeon talk offers the ultimate blueprint for how to deal with adversity. Teaching from 2 Timothy chapter 1, Chuck titled his message, Shackled, Deserted, But Still Undaunted.
Paul is unwebbing the last few hours of his life and he's reflecting back to those earlier days. And he said, For this reason I remind you, verse 6. Kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you. Verse 7, for God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and of love and of discipline. Verse 8: Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his prisoner.
This is the first of the five references to his being a prisoner. Join me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God. Verse 13. Don't be careless with the truth that's been invested in your life, Timothy. Retain the standard of sound words.
Verse 14: Guard the treasure. This seems to set Paul off into a series of exhortations, and I can count six of them in the second chapter. The first one is in verse 1: Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Timothy 1. Preach grace.
Live grace. Be strong in grace. Second, be faithful to deposit the truth. In others. That's verse 2.
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. I call this the relay of truth. Paul got it from the baton of another. Paul took the baton and gave it to Timothy. Timothy takes the baton and hands it off to others.
Timothy, don't drop the baton. Don't stop the relay. Be faithful to make the deposit. The third is to be brave as a soldier. That's in verses 3 and 4.
Suffer hardship. as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Be brave like a soldier. Then he turns to the picture of an athlete and he says, Be disciplined as an athlete is disciplined.
If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rule. He's training and then he goes into the race, or whatever may be the responsibility of his role in athleticism, and he carries it out. It takes discipline to do it all. Timothy, be disciplined as an athlete. Verse 15 is the fifth exhortation.
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed in accurately handling the word of truth. Be diligent as a workman, and finally, be gentle like a servant. That's verses 24 to 26. With gentleness, verse 25, correcting those who are in opposition. Talk about a checklist for living faithfully.
That'll do it. Be strong in grace. Be faithful to deposit. Be brave like a soldier, disciplined like an athlete, diligent like a workman. Gentle like a servant.
And the warnings in this letter appear in the first part of chapter 3, where he becomes realistic when he says. Uh realize that things will go from bad to worse. Difficult times will come. It was future to Paul, but it's present to us. The world now is much worse than it was in the days of the Apostle, and the Apostle is warning Timothy that there will be an erosion of the standard.
There will be a departing from the truth. There will be a living. in compromise. There will be hypocrisy and duplicity and lies and deception. It'll only get worse.
See verse 10: You followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me in these places.
Now, verse 13: evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse. Timothy. Be alert.
Now, when he gets to verse 14, there is a strong contrast. But you listen to me now, Timothy. Two things. Are to guard your steps. First, Continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of knowing from whom you have learned them.
From childhood, you have known the sacred writings. He starts with the wisdom that comes from other people. Continue in the things you have learned from those who have been older and wiser than you. And continue in the things that you find written on the sacred manuscripts. Both provide you with the kind of strength and wisdom you need to survive in a world that's lost its way.
Both. Dr. John Walvord, for many years, the president at Dallas Seminary, in fact, 34 years. Said at one of the graduating classes, I forget which one, that he had a concern about our graduates. He made the comment, I fear that we may be graduating people with too many beliefs and not enough convictions.
Paul mentions both. Continue in the things you have learned, those are your beliefs. But continue in the things you've become convinced of. Things that you believe are many in number, but things you're convinced of are things you'll die for. They become convictions.
They become the very pillars of your life. and you would not bend if you had to face a firing squad. You die for that truth. How are your convictions coming along? You pick up beliefs from a message like this, but you don't pick up convictions.
Until you digest them. and make them your own. And verse 15 tells us he had another source of truth, and it was from the Word of God. From childhood, wouldn't that have been a blessing?
Some of you were thinking, since you were not raised in a Christian home, from childhood, Timothy, you have known the sacred writings which were able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Again, if I may. dig a little deeper. Are you feeding yourself? On the Word of God.
What you feed yourself is far more important than what you hear from me. It's what you dig out and prepare. In your time with the Lord. That's what will stay with you. You'll soon forget what I share.
But you won't forget what you study. and dig out on your own. You see, one of the signs of maturity as we grow up is that we learn to fix our own meals. We learn to feed ourselves. And we're not dependent on someone to make the meals for us.
You have known the sacred writings, which were able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation. Oh, Timothy, as the last days come, all the more reason for you. to stay in the scriptures. Let me pause and add, trust me on this one. No person condemned to die, spending his final hours in a dark dungeon.
Is going to pass along information that isn't reliable. or exhortations that really didn't matter. When you're where Paul was, You've gotten rid of all the silly playthings of life, and you're coming down to the nubbies. You're addressing things that Are matters of life and death. There are no time wasting pastimes here.
The blade of the axe being sharpened can be heard through the window of one of the barracks. The time of his departure. is at hand. Pay attention. With that exhortation in mind, Paul leaves the greatest statement on the inspiration of Scripture found anywhere in the Word of God.
All scripture is God-breathed. All scripture is profitable for Look at the list: teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness. All scripture will cause you to be the man of God. adequate and equipped for every good Work. Believe it now, Timothy.
Believe it when I'm gone. Believe it when you're dying. Pass it on to the next generation. All scripture is profitable. It will teach, it will reprove, it will correct, it will train in righteousness.
Dig into it, Timothy. Feed your souls on it. Feed your soul on it. It will equip you for every good work. And with that, he comes to his final eighteen sentences.
Eighteen sentences, some of them rather brief. And he states them at the beginning in a way that grabs your attention. Listen. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom. Would that get your attention?
I think so. Timothy, I solemnly charge you. This isn't a series of helpful options that you can pick and choose. These are charges that come from my pen, my heart, to your soul. Listen to me, Timothy.
What is it he's to listen to? What is it he's to do? He begins with the first of several staccato commands. Keruk Santan Lagon. He writes.
Herald the word. Proclaim the truth. Don't try to reinvent the theological wheel. Don't attempt to be so creative and cute that folks miss the truth. No need for meaningless and silly substitutes that entertain but do not convict and convert.
Preach the truth. Preach it, Timothy. Preach it for the rest of your years. For as long as you're on this earth, preach the truth. Preach the word.
Press it home on all occasions, convenient or inconvenient. Never lose your sense of urgency, writes the New English Bible. Love the way that reads. Never lose your sense of urgency. Where does that come from?
Verse 2. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. But earlier, he says, preach the word, be ready. Be steady. Stay at it in season.
Out of season. This sounds like he's giving us the okay to jam it down anybody's throat whether they're ready to hear it or not. If you want to hear it great, if you don't want to hear it great, I'm jamming it down today and you're on the bus and you jam it down, the person sitting next to you, and you get on the plane and you ram it there. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. This is not for the hearer, this is for the speaker.
The one who is to do this and to be ready to do it in season, out of season, is a speaker. I think John Stott clarifies this. This injunction, he writes, is not to be taken as an excuse for the insensitive brashness which has sometimes characterized our evangelism and brought it into disrepute. We have no liberty to barge unceremoniously into other people's privacy or tread clumsily on their corns. No.
The occasion which Paul has in mind are probably welcome or unwelcome, not for the hearers as much as for the speaker. Be on duty at all times, convenient or inconvenient. It seems then that what we are given here is not a biblical warrant for rudeness, but a biblical appeal against laziness. Don't be lazy, Timothy. Do your homework.
Don't stand up and start with an apology that you didn't quite have enough time that week to prepare. It doesn't work, Timothy. I often remember the story that Stan Toussaint tells. He worked alongside a man he called Rolf. It was German.
Stan was the song leader, and Rolf was the preacher. Don't know where it happened, probably Hinkley, Minnesota. And he said, He said, Rolf would often turn to him and say, Sing more. God hasn't given me his word lately. He hasn't given me his word yet.
So he'd sing another song. And he'd say, Sing another song, Stan, that God hasn't yet revealed what I should say today. And sing another. He said, One day, in a moment of unusual honesty, the old preacher said, Yeah. You know, Stan, the Lord has now spoken to me, and he has said, Rolf.
You're lazy. If I'm not prepared to preach when Sunday morning comes, it is my fault. It is my responsibility to be ready. In season or out of season. Hot or cold?
Headache or feeling great. Up or down? Discouraged are on top. My job. is to proclaim the truth.
And to do it in a way that it's Sticks. And stabs you awake. And won't let you sleep through your sin. and holds you accountable to God, not to me. But to God.
Because his truth is what reproves and rebukes and exhorts. I am to do it with great patience and instruction. Then his spirit rolls up his sleeves, if you will. and keeps you awake. It won't let you turn it off.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. May I change it again to this thought? The time has come when they do not. Endure sound doctrine. Wanting to have their ears tickled.
They accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. And will, in fact, turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside. To myths. I ask you. Have we come to that time?
Have we come to an hour? In our history, when that kind of thing is occurring. Churches have become entertainment centers. People are being told what they want to hear. With the idea that's the only way you can get the growth to happen.
We water it down and we make it palatable so that they will like what they hear. And I can't find a place in the scriptures where I'm to tell you what you are to like. that you like what you hear. I can't find it. I'm to tell you what you need to hear.
And what I need to hear. And the problem has come to a little pathological ailment called itching ears. And As a result, We work very creatively. to keep you coming back. Nonsense.
Your coming back is Your responsibility before God. My job is to tell you the truth. And you can count on this till the last day of my life. That's what you're going to hear. Yeah.
Walt Kaiser writes this nicer than I would, so let me read his words here. Regardless of what new distinctives and emphases are periodically offered, that which is needed above everything else to make the church viable, authentic, and effective is the declaration of the scriptures. with a new purpose, passion, and power. Too often, the Bible is little more than a book of epigrammatic sayings or springboards that give us a rallying point around which to base our editorials. Where did we get the audacious idea that God would bless our opinions or judgments?
Who wants to hear another point of view? As an excuse for a Bible study or a message from the Word of God. Who said God would bless our studies, our programs for the church, or our ramblings on the general area announced by the text? Surely this is a major reason why the famine of the word continues in massive proportions in most places in North America. Surely this is why the hunger for the teaching and the proclamation of God's word continues to grow year after year.
Men and women cannot live by ideas alone. No matter how eloquently they are stated or argued. But solely by a patient reading and explanation of all Scripture, line upon line, paragraph upon paragraph, chapter after chapter, book after book, where are such interpreters to be found and where are their teachers? Paul. My friend.
The time has come. You were exactly right. But you, Timothy, Be sober. Endure hard shit. Do the work.
Fulfill your ministry. And with that, He becomes very personal. It's a touching closing. I'm already being poured out. Maybe he heard the latch at the gate.
Maybe he heard him rustling with the grate above him. Maybe he heard the soldiers' boots on the cobblestones of the street. The time of my departure has come. The good fight I have fought. The course I have finished.
The faith I have kept. And look at where his thoughts are. In the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day. And not only to me, but to also, also to all who have loved his appearing. Make every effort to come soon.
Verse 21, come before winter, verse 22. The Lord Be with your spirit. Grace. Be with you. He folds up the letter.
He pushes it through the bars to give it to Luke. And Luke takes it ultimately to Ephesus. For Timothy is to unroll the scroll. And listen closely to the voice. He has learned to love.
Knowing that the ending of his life was too emotional a thing for me to simply try to tell. I've written the details and Several paragraphs. Alone and without fear, Paul stared directly into the eyes of the execution squad. Several held rods with which they would beat him, one held the axe. with which he would sever his head from his shoulders.
They marched him through the heavy gate and beyond the stone wall that surrounded Rome. Past the pyramid of Cestius, which still stands onto the Ostian Way. Toward the sea. Crowds journeying to Rome would know by the rods and the axe that an execution would soon transpire. They would pass it with a shrug.
It happened yesterday. It will happen tomorrow. The manacled prisoner walking stiffly Ragged and filthy from the dungeon. was not ashamed or degraded. The squad of grim-faced soldiers never noticed as they frowned and stared ahead.
But there was a faint smile on their prisoner's face. He was en route to a triad. The crowning day of his reward. For as he had written to him Living was Christ and to die is gain. No axe across the back of his neck would rob him of his triumphant destiny.
In fact, it would initiate it. They marched Paul to the third milestone on the Austrian way to a little pine wood in a glade. The place of the tombs. known now as the Trefontaine, where there stands an abbey in Paul's honor. He is believed to have been placed overnight in a tiny cell.
near the place of his execution, At first light the next dawn, The soldiers took Paul to a stump. The executioners stood ready, stark naked in Roman fashion. axe in his hand. The men stripped Paul. tied him kneeling upright to the low pillar.
which exposed his neck. The lictors beat him with rods for the last time. He groaned and bled from his nose and his mouth. Then, without a hint of hesitation, the executioner frowned. as the blade gleamed in the morning sun and fell swiftly.
Hitting with a dull thud. In the head of Paul. rolled down in the dust. In that brutal moment. The soul of the great apostle.
was immediately set free. As his spirit soared. into the heavens. Absent from the body. He was at last at home.
With the Lord. Thank you, Father, for giving us a life like this one. Who helps us think deeper? Stand more confidently alone. Live better.
Grow taller. Thank you for his courage to the end. His submission to your plan. Brutal though it seems to many, Thank you for his quiet. Resolve.
We look forward to meeting this man. and talking with him face to face. In the meantime, Father... Find us faithful. May we praise you with our lives.
May we live for you. The rest of our days. In the strong name. of Christ our Lord and everyone said Amen. Shackled, deserted, but still undaunted.
That's the title that Chuck Swindahl assigned to his message. It's the final study in his 22-part series titled Paul, a Man of Grace and Grit. This series, which started back in April, concludes today.
So now's the time to contact us here at Insight for Living to take advantage of some of the companion resources we offer. For instance, did you realize that Chuck wrote a full-length book about the Apostle? It's titled Paul, a Man of Grace and Grit. Any serious student of the Bible should be well acquainted with Paul's remarkable story. He had a sordid background.
He was once a Christian hater. But God redeemed his life, and he rose to become one of the most prolific writers of the Bible. We're confident you'll be inspired as you take a fresh look at Paul's remarkable story. To complement your study of Paul, we've created a comprehensive workbook that's part of our Searching the Scriptures Bible studies. This spiral-bound workbook is great for Bible study groups or for your devotional times in God's Word.
The Searching the Scriptures Bible Studies are among the most popular resources we offer. To purchase a copy right now, go to insight.org slash workbook. Or call us at 800-772-8888. You know, Insight for Living wouldn't exist if it wasn't for listeners just like you. These daily programs and the study materials we produce are designed with you in mind.
In that same spirit, as you measure the value of Insight for Living on your life, would you be willing to reciprocate with a much-needed donation? Your gift will become a blessing to someone who hears this program and perhaps for the first time understands God's love and grace as never before. To support Insight for Living, you can send your gift in an envelope addressed to Insight for Living. Post Office Box 5000 Frisco, Texas 75034. You can also call us at 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org/slash donate.
I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindahl begins our next series, this time on Jonah the Reluctant Prophet. That's Thursday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, shackled, deserted, but still undaunted, was copyrighted in 2001, 2003, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc.
All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
