The Lord stands by our side

                                                                                                       By Samuel S Boye/ Pastor
A preacher in my church mentions a saying of a British theologian Geoffrey King that he observed the Trinity as a bird. Geoffrey King observed that God has identified Himself with three birds in the Bible:“ God the father is like an eagle. He majestically cares for us ( Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11; Isaiah 40:3). God the Son is like a hen. He longs to guard and protect us like a hen protects its chicks (Matthew 23:37). And God the Holy Spirit is like a dove . He wants to descend on us with power and purity (Mathew 3:16).” This is one of the most interesting illustrations that gives us an understandable picture about God's protection. Each one teaches us some things of God's care and concern for us. One of the characteristics of God is His protection. We have a place of refuge because of the presence of God with us, and we feel secure and soothe ourselves. That we all want to feel secure is right. God designed us to need a safe place and a condition of refuge. He also designed us to love our refuge. God wants to be our refuge—not anything else.

Each one of us as a Christian living in the world, faces many trials and disappointment in our life but God keeps and protects us from all evil conditions. Many are the affliction of the righteous, but the Lord delivers us out of them all.

The apostle Paul had faced many hardships such as loneliness, insult, persecution, imprisonment, and beating and in the same time he experienced the protection of God in his ministry. One of the passages in which he tells us how God protected him from all evil conditions is 2 Timothy 4: 9-18. The central message of this passage is found in verses 17-18:

Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known , and that all gentiles might hear : and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

This is Paul's farewell message to Timothy. “A few years earlier in A.D.64, Nero had ordered the torching of his own capital city of Rome which burned furiously for six days and nights. Not only the wooden shacks of the poor, but also the stone mansions of the rich, the massive public buildings, and magnificent pagan temples and shrines were gutted”.¹ “During Paul's first incarceration in Rome, he was under house arrest. Within those confines, he apparently was free to preach and to teach. But by the time of the epistle of 2 Timothy, he was in chains, laguishing in a Roman prison and treated as a criminal; his imprisonment in Rome was difficult and he expected to die soon”.² He (Paul) was in Rome and he was about to became a martyr for the gospel. He would die in a persecution of Nero very soon after this letter was written. He knew his death was coming. He had his defense in a Roman court, according to his statement in verse 16.

Now the apostle Paul was in the time of additional hardships. It is good to read the passage from verse nine through eighteen to get a clear picture and to understand its full context. I observe two main things in the life of Paul from this passage and it is completely related to our situation today.

II. Rejection of friends and deficient at the time of hardship. v.9-16.
1. His rejection by unfaithful co- ministers and friends( v.9-10).
God stands with us when we are forsaken and rejected by our friends and ministers. Most of the time we trust in our best friends and our co- ministers and have confidence in them. Some are faithfully standing with us at the time of need, but sometimes they cannot keep on because the situations go beyond their capacity. Some times we are rejected and neglected by our closest co workers. Some times we also face mistreatment from our near friends. Even there is the in which we were forsaken by our families because of our commitment to Christianity. I know many of my church members who are pink-slipped or dismissed from their family because of the condition that they decided to follow Jesus. It is so difficult to comfort Christian brothers and sisters who are being exposed to such situations. Comforting and helping people who are in lonely condition is one of the difficult task that I have experienced in my pastoral ministry of the church. There is the time we are left behind our self alone in the time of need. Loneliness is a very serious and an increasingly common problem in our life. It can be defined as being without company, as not feeling comforted in love as feeling cut off from others and not feeling come into oneself from others and experiencing sadness. There is no doubt that one of universal challenges facing us is lacking friends in the time of need. Some times our hearts are full of distress and disturbance when we see ourselves alone in the time of risk. The apostle Paul longed to see Timothy there in Rome because his friends had already forsaken him. Paul's difficult situation is highlighted by his beginning with Demas who had deserted him because of his love of the present world. Demas was one of Paul’s co- ministers and closest associates whose name is mentioned in Colossians by Paul; but he was not available to Paul at the time of risk. At the time when risks and persecutions increased, Demas’ resolve decreased because he loved this present world more than he loved the Lord, His people or the Lord's work. This kind of situation is quite difficult for us in ministry when our friends in the church and in the work of mission forsake their first love to Christ and His gospel and forsake and forget us by falling in love with the world. Love of this present world is often the cause of apostasy from the truth and ways of Jesus Christ. Why did Demas go back to the world? The term “the present world” may stand for seeking prosperity and the longing to become richer than other people around. May be he went to the present world by seeking popularity. Popularity is not bad in itself, but by what do we ensnare ourselves by longing to be popular? Many Christians today have been doing such wrong things, have left undone right things because of the fear of losing a too-much prized popularity. “Present life – the habit of looking at all things from the view point of the present”.³ Three others have left Paul, although their departure seems to be for positive reasons. Crescens has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia. Both these appeared to have gone on ministerial assignment, but we are not told the exact reasons that they left Paul alone. Paul himself sent Tychicus to Ephesus; maybe he delivered the letter of Timothy to Paul. “The closest associate of Paul at that time was only Luke the beloved physician who was with Paul during his first Roman imprisonment and a model of faithfulness and commitment to Christ.”⁴ Nevertheless, Paul is expressing that he feels loneliness at Rome. It was the time of taking the risk of loneliness for Paul at Rome. But Paul was very sure for God stands with him, keeps from all evils, and strengthens him. This is what we are to learn from this passage. Loneliness is a serious problem even today in our lives when the people who are our coworkers flee from us and when they hesitate to confront hardships with us together. Many of us fall victim to loneliness in our life and ministry and we may sense the pain of loneliness and we may not be able to resist it. We face such risks in our lives, sometimes in the ministry of the church, in our residing areas, in our working place and so and so forth. Sometimes we are in the need of people who can do the work which needs to be done. And we are not able to find committed ministers who meet our needs. To be forsaken by a close companion, especially in the time of harsh conditions, is much more painful. However, God is there standing with us at the time of need of company. If it had not been the Lord Jesus Christ who on our side ,we would have been perished and would have not been stay in the ministry of God.
I have had an experiences of facing loneliness throughout my ministry there in Ethiopia. Eighteen years ago, I was planting the church in one of rural areas in Ethiopia. It was a Muslim and a traditional worship dominated zone. Because the size of the church I started planting was so small , everything that we were facing was beyond our capacity. There were some aggressive people around us who strongly opposed our activities among the community in which our church was going to exist. Their children were throwing stones at us as we were worshiping the Lord . One day an unexpected thing happened which was ugly for me. One of the attendants of the new beginning church came to me to tell me about another person whose name is Almaz. She told me that Almaz had fallen from the first floor at her working place, and she had crushed her head and was now unconscious. Almaz was carried home by her friends and now she was half- dead. We did not know where her family was living nor where her native area in the country was because she came to that city from another far district. I went to Almaz's home and the situation I observed was extremely shaky and gloomy. Some anti- Christian people of the area surrounded the house and insulted me with their evil words. Almaz was living alone in one rented room in the house of an old woman. That woman asked me to take Almaz away from that premises before she died. Then, I phoned my co-ministers to come soon to take Almaz to hospital. But no man appeared except one young lady who was my church member. I asked men from another village to cooperate with me in putting Almaz into the carriage to take her to hospital. But only two women came to me and it was difficult for me to carry her with ladies because Almaz was a huge young adult. The ladies helped me in putting Almaz in the carriage and I took her to hospital. She died after five hours of treatment in hospital. The other problem I faced after her death was reporting to the police according to the law of the country and conducting her burial ceremony. No Christian brother appeared to stand by my side in that awful condition. I stayed for one day and night by myself alone with the dead body of Almaz. When I study the life of apostle Paul in his Rome imprisonment , I remember how loneliness is an awful and terrible condition in ones’ life. These kinds of situations continue as we serve the Lord in the church and live a Christian life in this world. But God's faithfulness enables the us to overcome all afflictions and trials. The faithful God stands with us and He never forsakes us in awful situations.

2. God stands by our side when we are Lacking help and personal belongings at the time of need. V.11-13. In addition to human companionship Paul asks Timothy to bring two items, his books and his cloak. The books could have referred to a papyrus scroll that contained the Old Testament books. Some of them might have been his own letters, copies of which he kept. The point is that he was not finished reading, studying and writing, and he wanted his books and his papers. The second one is the cloak that he left at Troas. We do not know the historical circumstances surrounding the cloak's being left behind, but Paul wants it to keep warm. Why did Paul want this cloak? He was in need of material things at this time in the jail of Rome. As many preachers have exposed, the winter was coming. I assume that a cloak was a heavy-blanket like garment made out of wool with a hole in the middle for slipping it over the head , like a bicycle cape. “It could have been made of black goats hair that Paul made himself because we remember that he was a tent maker.”⁵ “It was put on over the head to keep off the rain and keep out the cold. They could even use it like a bed”.⁶ They just folded themselves in it almost like sleeping bag . And the winter was coming and the dungeon was dark and cold and Paul needed his cloak. This kind of cloak is produced in Ethiopia and is called a buluko. Paul did not have any other options to satisfy his own needs at Rome. He was now asking his co minister Timothy to bring the cloak which was left behind at a far distance. His request tells us a little bit about his economic condition and maybe about the economic condition of the church. He could not send some one to the local store buy him the cloak that he needed but I believe that he was not able to do so because of the economic conditions he was facing. Hence, he preferred to ask Timothy to bring the old one from another coast. We are not sure about whether Timothy brought it or not.,What if Timothy forgot it and the clock was left behind again? Can we imagine that Paul was able to purchase another new one from the local store at his area? I do not think so. This is what we are to learn , sometimes the ministry of God demands us to pass through this kind of economical deficiency and material shortages. The history of many missionaries in Ethiopia is the same as apostle Paul's financial position in Rome. They did not have enough food supplies or means of transportation, and they had a lack of medication. They also had no shelter of their own and were wandering from place to place like nomads, sometimes spending many nights under shadow of big trees. There are both blessings and challenges in the ministry of God as we commit ourselves to His work. This might be the same to each one of us in our ministry. We may have been encountering economical and martial deficiency as we serve the church of God, lead the congregation as a pastor or an elder, manage other para churches , and taking care of our family. However, we know that God stands by our side and gives His grace and strength so that we overcame all hardships and carry out His purpose in our lives.

3. God stands with us at the time of mistreatment and abuse from outsiders or foes ( v.14-15). Mistreatment by others is sometimes a real test of our faith. We find out what we really believe when others mistreat us; sometimes the real test of our faith is what we do not do. Sometimes we will be better Christians by not saying anything at all. We are called to follow the bloody foot prints of Jesus leading us directly to the cross even though they may lead to mistreatment by the world. In our day we hear much talk about claiming our blessing and victory. Most of our problems stem from claiming only our blessing. But the Bible turns that upside down. We are not to think of only a smooth life of Christianity; we are to think of hardships and trials, especially mistreatment from our foes because of our devotion and commitment to our beloved Lord Jesus Christ. But now I encourage you all to keep in your heart that God stands with us when we are being mistreated by outsiders and our foes. . Our God is faithful in the time of persecution from outside. The apostle Paul was mistreated by a person called Alexander. This man was a copper-smith in the city of Rome and contrived a charge against the apostle. Maybe he made idols in Ephesus, like Demetrius did out of silver. Maybe he too was an idol maker whose trade had been interrupted by Paul’s preaching in Ephesus. It is likely that he was in Ephesus; he did Paul much harm perhaps not only in Ephesus but maybe elsewhere, I do not know. Timothy needed to be on guard against him. If this man might have been among the Christians, he would have known what was done, what was said , what was thought and he could easily entrap the other Christians as he had entrapped Paul. He did great harm to Paul. Alexander might have been a dangerous man even to all believers in the city, because the apostle Paul warns Timothy to guard against him on Timothy's own trip to Toras to retrieve Paul's belongings. Paul wants Timothy to be on guard against him so that his work might not be unduly hindered. Alexander strongly opposed the message of Paul which fact indicates that the gospel is Paul's primary concern rather than his own personal difficulties, confrontations or safety. The greater good of the gospel drives us,Christ's servants, forward when we face opposition; the fact that we will be vindicated on the day of judgment gives us comfort and hope. I received a very surprising letter from my best friend when I was at the evangelical theological college of Addis Ababa. He was living in Besheno, one of the cities in Ethiopia. Christians in the Ethiopian city of Besheno are being harassed and physically abused after Muslims posted notice on the doors of Christian homes, warning them to convert, to leave the city or face death. Three leaders of the Christian church were forced to leave the city and their families were wounded . In this city with a Muslim majority, the entire evangelical Christian community consists of 30 believers . Evangelist Kassa Awano remained in critical condition after Muslims attacked him. A few days after the attack, nearly 100 Muslim surrounded a vehicle carrying Christian leaders on their way to negotiate for peace with Muslim leaders. Two men, Tesema Heirago and Negussie Denano ( who is my best friend in the theological college), were seriously wounded and other leaders suffered with minor injuries. One of the elders of the church was assaulted with a knife after he testified about the attacks in court. The local Muslim officials of the city refused to protect the Christians, and they ignored the appeal for justice, declining repeatedly requests for the place of a building and a cemetery. An old Christian mother was forced to bury her deceased daughter out of the town, more than12 miles from Besheno city due to the absence of a cemetery for Christians. Christians in that city appealed to different diplomats in Addis Ababa such as the USA embassy, the Uk embassy, Canada , and Germany so that they would intervene in the situation . But there was no solution at all. This kind of experience is there in different countries in the world because of the gospel transmission. When people oppose us due to our ministry of the gospel, no one can secure us but the Lord Jesus who gives us strength by standing with us. The Christians in Besheno city are without any governmental assurance and security but the gospel work is highly advanced because of the grace of the Lord. The strong opposition of our adversaries cannot prevent our gospel from being transmitted at all. The more the antagonists oppose us and persecute our gospel, the more our gospel expands our vision because of the tangible and concrete presence of our Lord Jesus with us. For instance, the number of Christians in the Ethiopian city of Besheno is rapidly growing because of the power of our gospel during persecution. People may vigorously oppose our teaching and preaching ,they may show us much ill treatment both physically and mentally, they may do us much more harm and they may stand against the truth and the gospel. However, we are secured and safe because the Lord Jesus Christ is always standing with us.

4. Loneliness at the time of defense (v.16). Loneliness is the most bitter element of our earthly Christian life and experience. Sometimes yearning for companionship with others is one of the deepest of all our yearnings. Even when we are walking with Christ, we may have our experiences of loneliness in this world. Even with sympathetic companions all about us there is an inner life which we live alone. We must make our own choices and decisions. We must meet our questions and answer them ourselves. We must fight our own battles endure our own sorrows carry our own burdens. Yet we are not alone because the Lord stands with us and by our side in times of need. God is our only faithful friend who can really meet our soul's deep need and desire. Human friendship my help us at a few points but the divine friendship has its blessing for every experiences. We never shall feel alone when we have Christ and He stands by our side. When other friends and helpers fail and comforts flee, the Lord Jesus will ever stand close beside us. When the faces of others fade out of view, the Lord Jesus' face will shine out with gentle love, pouring its light upon us. God is faithful and He stands with us even when we are defending our faith in a speculative areas like the curt of Rome .

The court of Rome was one of the risky places at the time when Paul defended the gospel there. There was no help from anyone else at the court defense. The court is normally full of people and yet no contribution from anyone else was permitted before the arbiter of the respected court. Paul had already defended himself before the Roman court. And no friend of him stood with him and he was forsaken to himself alone. We can imagine how difficult that was for Paul. He knew that his court appearance was coming and that it would probably mean the end of his life. That is the context in which we must read verses 17-18 as he looks back on the first defense and forward to the dangers in front of him. Jesus Christ our Lord stands with us in times of bad situations as a very personal and precious friend.

We should learn from the life Jesus Christ our Lord. Our Lord Jesus Christ was left to Himself alone during the time of risk. When the Roman soldiers were coming to arrest Him, there was not even one disciple of Jesus with Him. He was forsaken by the people who were well served by Him in the wilderness , who ate the blessed fish and bread, who were healed by His ministry. He went to the cross and asked His Father, “ Eli, Eli,Why did you forsake me?'' The hardships what we struggle with were in the life of Jesus and was persecuted. To be mistreated by others because of our Christianity and our ministry is not a strange thing in our life. Our great Lord Jesus had experienced and He taught us that the disciple is not above his master , nor the servant above his lord , it is enough fro the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his lord. ( Mat.10:24). It is great blessing for all of us to be persecuted by others because of we are disciples of Jesus. We are not exempted from hardships , trials and oppositions but the Lord never forsakes us alone. We all may face rejection as we serve the gospel on this world. There are special experiences of defense in every life such us in ministry in the church, marriage, in old age and so forth. The more we defend our faith the more we mistreated by outsiders and even by the officers of the government. But we do not wonder in vain because the Lord Jesus stands beside us and He never leaves us alone. He faithfully will be with us.

II. God's faithfulness at the time of hardship. V.17-18

1. For the purpose of the advancement of the gospel ( v.17). God does not work with us without purpose. He is the God of purpose and aim. He stands with us in the time of need and persecution so that His eternal purpose with us would be fulfilled. Paul is on trial for his life, in persecution and in hardship. He stood before the Roman tribunal perhaps before Nero himself. The place is jammed with the people who are spectators. No one is there but Paul, no one to come to his side, and he says “ The power of the Lord began to strengthen me for the purpose of proclaiming the full gospel.” To preach the gospel fully with the power of God in an hazardous environment is so admirable. God is so faithful when others prove faithless. He will not allow His purposes to fail. God's purpose entails the proclamation of the gospel through Paul. When Paul says that he was rescued so that the message might be fully proclaimed and all the gentiles might hear it, he certainly does not mean that he has preached to every gentile in the Roman world. The meaning is, rather, that his trial give him the opportunity to proclaim Christ in a major metropolitan area, indeed in the gentile capital, to a wide audience.⁷
   The most important work in of our life is preaching the good news of Jesus to our neighbors. Other tasks are very important but proclaiming the gospel is the most important. And God has stood by us to strengthen us to proclaim His word. I had been serving the Lord for 20 years in Ethiopia. There were 1040 Sundays within 20 years. Amazingly, I did not miss even a single Sunday morning service because of uncontrolled conditions such us sickness, lacking money , losing relatives, missing transportation or oppositions from foes. I did not have a car and there was big transportation problem in the city but I was not late for even a single Sunday service for 20 years because God strengthened me to perform His purpose by my life. I became sick many times but that did not make me leave behind the ministry of the gospel because the Lord Jesus stood by my side and strengthened me to serve His people with His purpose. I lost my mother and my father within nine months but that was no reason for me to leave behind my ministry because the Lord Jesus stood with me so that the gospel could be fully done by me. I was not able to resist especially the sorrow of the death of my mother, but at the day of her burial my brother asked me to preach the gospel at her burial ceremony and I did it because the Spirit of God filled my heart with comfort and great joy. The gospel message I preached was very usual and familiar but the condition I was in there made it so powerful. Paul goes with his testimony, “The Lord stood by me and gave me strength to proclaim the message fully.”

God also rescues us from every evil thing as we serve him. Paul tells us that he was secured from the mouth of lion. The idea of being rescued from the lion's mouth is a metaphor for escaping extreme danger. In this context, the sense is that Paul had temporarily avoided death so that his gospel ministry might continue. Paul knows that death awaits him, as verses 6 and 18 of this chapter indicate. But for now God has made it possible for him to carry on the work that He has called him to do , namely taking the good news of Christ to the gentiles.

2. For the salvation of others. Paul was very conscious of being entrusted with the task of proclaiming the gospel to Gentiles. He had a deep desire for his people to reach them with the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul clearly knows that God brought him out from every difficulty of life so that he might advance the gospel,which was his calling. His preaching is not only behind the pulpit but he knew how to address people on the street, in the court and in market places. His desire here was for the gentiles, the emperor himself, and the great men who would never have heard Paul preach if he had not been brought before them. The situation was so convenient for him to preach to all of the gentiles around him. For this reason God delivered him out of the mouth of the lion. That might be Nero himself or some other judge. This opportunity gives him great pleasure and joy because he might have an opportunity of preaching the gospel to Nero and to the other judges. He gives glory to God rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. The apostle Paul speaks here with the sense of satisfaction as he anticipates his death. He is certainly no sadist and does not relish what lies ahead. But he knows that his death is certain. In the light of that, he looks backward and forward with confidence. We have to be confident as we preach the gospel and in the time of hardship because the Lord Jesus stands by us and He delivers us from every evil. The puritans believed that the goal of the minister was to teach his people how to live and how to die.⁸ This passage teaches us how to live in a way that enables us to face even death with dignity and hope. We should confront hardships with confidence when we commit ourselves to the glory of God, the honor of Christ, and the furtherance of His kingdom. Whenever we face trials in our life and in our ministry, the Lord Jesus stands with us and,He will strengthen us, in a time of difficulty and danger, and His presence will more than compensate for the absence of friends. When the Lord preserves us from great and imminent danger, it is for eminent work and service. In any evil conditions, the Lord Jesus delivers us out of danger so that His work would be fulfilled by us . Glory to Him forever, Amen.

Bibliography

Barcley, William B. A study commentary on 1 and 2 Timothy. Darlington, England; Webster, N. Y.: Evangelical Press, 2005.

King, Guy Hope. To my son : an expositional study of II Timothy. London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1944.

Knight, George W. The Pastoral Epistles : a commentary on the Greek text. Grand Rapids, Mich.; Carlisle, England: W.B. Eerdmans ; Paternoster Press, 1992.

MacArthur, John. 2 Timothy. Chicago, Ill.: Moody Press, 1995.

1John MacArthur, 2 Timothy (Chicago, Ill.: Moody Press, 1995), x.

2George W Knight, The Pastoral Epistles : a commentary on the Greek text (Grand Rapids, Mich.; Carlisle, England: W.B. Eerdmans ; Paternoster Press, 1992), 30.

3Guy Hope King, To my son : an expositional study of II Timothy (London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1944), 126.

4William B Barcley, A study commentary on 1 and 2 Timothy (Darlington, England; Webster, N. Y.: Evangelical Press, 2005), 196.

5King, To my son, 133.

6Barcley, A study commentary on 1 and 2 Timothy, 296.

7Ibid., 300.

8Ibid., 292.