Focus: Beware of loving this world as you fight the good fight and seek to finish the race.
Function: To confront the people with Demas’ sin and to call us all to follow Christ wholeheartedly.
Texts: Colossians 4:14; Philemon 23,24; II Timothy 4:9-18
If there is one thing that has struck me time and again,
it’s Israel’s inclination to follow the ways of the world and its culture. The
prophesies of Hosea are vivid reminders of how strong the pull of the world is;
Hosea also shows us the severity of God’s objection to his people’s idolatry
and worldly ways.
How is it possible that Israel with such a rich history
of God’s miracles and promises and divine deliverances can so easily stray from
loyalty and obedience to their God? The O.T. is full of stories where God’s
people rejoice in God’s blessings—and where Satan weeps in his failures to lure
the Israelites away from God. But there are also plenty of stories where it is
the church—the people of God—who are weeping and where Satan is laughing.
My grandfather raised 10 children. Five of them embraced
the Christ and the Christian faith; five of them slowly but surely turned their
back toward Christ and his church. They came from the same womb; they were
spiritually nurtured with the Scriptures and the doctrines of the church; they
learned the rhythm of public worship. Yet, some of them hooked off.
It’s painful when that happens in our families. And each
one of us, no doubt, can share stories of faith and faithlessness. And many of
us are praying for the rebirth or transformation of sons and daughters, or of
grandchildren.
Listen to Hosea’s closing words to the people of Israel: (Hosea 14:9b) “The ways of the Lord are right; the
righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.” These
words keep ringing in my ears as I consider Israel’s history, our present-day
experiences, and the N.T. scripture readings for this afternoon. Let’s beware
of loving this world as we fight the good fight and finish the race of faith.
Did you catch the shocker in the Scripture reading today?
The Apostle Paul is writing to Timothy, who is pasturing the church in Ephesus.
Paul is in prison, in Rome. He writes his final letter to Timothy and the
church of Jesus Christ, and he says: “Do your best to come to me quickly,
for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to
Thessalonica.” Now there’s a shocker to the early Christian church:
Demas? Demas has deserted Paul? Demas has turned his back to Christ and his
church? Demas?—No!!!!!!! Satan is laughing. The church is in shock.
Shockers
happen in the church. God’s Word tells us so, for a reason. Christians must
beware of loving this world as we fight the good fight of faith and, like the
Apostle Paul, seek to finish the race. The Scriptures confront us today with
Demas’ sin, and call us to follow Christ wholeheartedly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let me tell you a little bit about Demas. First, I’ll
point to Demas as the convert who became a witness; then, I’ll move to Demas
the witness who became a deserter.
It appears that the City of Thessalonica is Demas’ home
town. That’s where the Apostle Paul met Demas. Demas heard Paul preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul’s message of “Christ has died; Christ is risen;
Christ will come again,” struck Demas to the core of his being. Demas
became a convert to the Christian faith.
More than that! Demas showed leadership qualities and a
passion for God’s mission to seek and save the lost. Demas had the ability to
tell other people that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and
only Son, that whoever believed in him, shall not perish but have eternal
life.” And thus Demas became an evangelist—a teller of the gospel.
The Apostle Paul observed Demas’ passion for the Lord
Jesus and the gospel message; so Paul recruited Demas as a co-worker and
assistant in his missionary journeys. Demas, the convert, turned witness. Satan
weeps; the church rejoices; and Paul makes use of Demas to spread the gospel.
Demas is a faithful companion of Paul. When Paul ends up
in prison, waiting to stand trial before the emperor of Rome, we learn that
Luke, the medical doctor and Demas, the convert turned witness are with Paul.
For it is in Rome, around A.D. 61,62 that Paul writes an encouraging and optimistic
letter to the church in Colossae, and Paul says: (vs.14) “Our dear friend
Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.”
Surely, Demas is a close companion of Paul, so much so
that Paul writes another letter, this time to Philemon and again, Paul refers
to Demas saying, “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you
greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers.”
Surely, congregation, Demas, the convert turned witness, is a blessing to Paul
and to the gospel ministry of the church. Satan is weeping; the church
rejoices.
But now the shocker. About 4 years later, Paul has come
to the end of his life. Because of his fierce persecution of Christians in AD
66, 67, emperor Nero is about to snuff out the life of Paul and many other
Christians. Paul now writes his final letter to Timothy.
After
4 years of hardships, persecutions, trials and threats, after 4 years of
miracles and wonders and gospel preaching, after 4 years of the Holy Spirit
blessing the work of Paul and his coworkers, including the work of Demas, Paul
writes this pain-filled sentence of lament: “(Timothy) Do your best to
come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and
has gone to Thessalonica.” In other words, Demas, my convert and
witness of the Lord Jesus Christ has become a deserter. The church is shocked;
Satan laughs.
What happened? Did Demas have to attend to his business
ventures in Thessalonica? We don’t know. Did his family or relatives call him
back home, perhaps? No, that does not seem to be the reason. Did Demas loose
courage in the face of persecution and possible death in Rome? Did he become
AWOL (absent without leave) because he feared death with Paul in Rome?
No,
that’s not the problem either. Paul does not hold it against his fellow workers
that they have left the city of Rome now that it appears inevitable that Paul
will die in Rome. Paul does not lay a guilt trip on anyone who flees
persecution and serves the Lord elsewhere. Remember that Demas is not the only
one who has left Paul. Paul tells us that “Crescens has gone to Galatia,
and Titus to Dalmatia.” Only Luke is with Paul.
The
shocker is NOT that Paul’s closest workers have scattered, away from Rome. The
shocker is that Demas has deserted, abandoned Paul “because he loved this
world.”
I don’t think it’s likely that Demas said farewell to
Paul, explaining that he is leaving the gospel ministry of Christ and turning
his back to the church and her mission. I don’t think that he said to Paul: “I’m
hooking off, and leaving the church, because I love this world so much.”
If he did say farewell to Paul,
he might have said, as I have heard over the years so many wayward or
non-active church members say to me:
“I’ve had it with the church! All the church wants is
my money!” Or, “I don’t want to be part of the church anymore. Most
church members are hypocrites!” Or, “I can dig Jesus, but I can’t stand
the church, with its rules and regulations and demands on my life.” Or, “Pastor,
I’m going to spend more time with my family and friends. I believe that I can
be a Christian and worship God on the beach, or in my cabin up North, or in the
woods just as much as I can worship him in church.” Or, “You know
Pastor, the church fails to meet my needs. I’m hooking off.”
No, I think
that Paul sensed the real reason for Demas’ desertion or hooking off from the
Christian faith and church: “Demas loves this world.” That is the
shocker! That is Demas’ sin. And that’s why Paul shocks us with this news: “Beware
of loving the world as you fight the good fight, as you seek to finish the
race.”
We don’t know what has become of Demas when he went back
to Thessalonica. There is a Christian tradition that says that Demas went back
to paganism, that he became a temple priest in one of the pagan temples at
Thessalonica.
But
no one knows for sure, other than what the Scriptures tell us--that Demas loved
this world and that therefore he deserted Paul, the church, the Christ, and the
mission of Christ in this world. Satan laughs; God in heaven and the church on
earth weep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My friends, following Jesus Christ and being a member of
his church and being witnesses to Christ’s mission of restoring and renewing
all things, of bringing salvation and eternal life to all who seek him—that is
glorious but also serious business.
I want you to see the bigger picture of you and me, and
Christ and the church, and our task as members of the church and our mission in
the world. I want you to see the truthfulness and the effect of Jesus’
statement at work in our world today. Jesus has said, “I am the true
vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in
me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so
that it will be even more fruitful.”
Why does Paul shock us with the news of Demas’ desertion?
On the one hand, it is to warn us NOT to love this world, like Demas did. On
the other hand, I think, it is because we must recognize that God the Father
prunes the vine. Non-fruitbearing branches he cuts off, so that the vine, the
church may continue and increase its fruit bearing by spreading the gospel in
power and in truth more and more.
God the Father prunes the church, so that we may increase
our love and sharpen our focus on Christ and his rule in our world. We must NOT
love this world to the point that we hook off from Christ and his church.
Rather, we must reclaim this world and bring it under the Lordship or rule of
Jesus.
We
are called to follow Jesus and put his imprint, his seal on this world—your
science, your knowledge, your politics, your business and economics, your
possessions, your every aspect of life is mine, says the Lord. Joyfully we
declare the mission of Christ—that he is bringing all things under one head, under
one rule—all things in heaven and on earth. That is the world, yes, that is the
inheritance that is to come; that is the world we love and long for.
Whenever the church and individual Christians focus on
that mission and that world, Satan shudders and weeps; and God and his angels
rejoice.
Did you notice? When Paul tells the shocker to the
church—that Demas has become a deserter because he loved this world—Paul tells
in the same breath that two other co-workers scattered to other places in the
world where the gospel had not yet been heard: “Crescens has gone to
Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.” The church rejoices; Satan weeps.
Picture this: Here is Paul, in chains, forsaken by his
friends, certain that he is to die very soon. He is alone in his prison
cell--God’s missionary par excellence. Paul looks ahead—at the mission field.
He will not be able to go to Galatia to spread the gospel; he will not be able
to preach in Dalmatia. The fields are ripe. But who will go?
Now that Paul is about to die and now that Demas has
deserted the church and the Christian faith, is the great mission of the church
now lost? No!
God
prunes his church. It’s true! People hook off! But God raises up men and women
and children who will go to the utmost ends of the world to share the good news
in word and deed: Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia…and members of Calvary
Church ministering to their neighbors and their world at large.
Satan
weeps; God in heaven rejoices. And the church perseveres in her mission to lead
people to a growing and committed relationship to Christ and his church.
Do
not be a dead branch in the church! Let it never be said of you and me: They
deserted Christ and the Christian faith; they loved this world!
Rather,
invest your life in Christ and his mission to redeem this world. Stand up for
Jesus. Finish the race. Live and act in the power of the Holy Spirit. For we
are more than conquerors. In Christ Jesus, we are heirs.
Beware of loving this world as you fight the good fight and seek to finish the race. With Paul, with Crescens, and Titus, and with all the saints throughout the ages, we shall finish the race. We shall welcome the renewed creation.
In
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.