A Disciple is Vulnerable

There once was a church that was looking for a pastor. A pastoral search committee was formed and began to look at resumés. One day the committee received a letter from a man who was applying for the position. The letter went like this:

Dear Committee Members,

Understanding that your pulpit is vacant, I would like to submit my application. I am generally considered to be a good preacher. I have been a leader in most of the places I have served. I have also found the time to do some writing on the side.

I am over 50 years of age, and while my health is not the best, I still manage to get enough work done to please my parish.

I am somewhat handicapped when it comes to references. I have never stayed in any church for more than 3 years. The churches I have preached in have generally been pretty small, even though they were located in rather large cities. In one or two of them, I was forced to leave, as I’m afraid that my ministry created some major disturbances. Even when I stayed, I didn’t often get along very well with the other clergy in town, which may have some bearing on the kind of references these places will send you. I have actually been threatened and physically attacked, and have gone to jail three or four times for my convictions.

In spite of this, I feel that I can bring a solid ministry to your church. I must add that I am not particularly good at administration and record-keeping. I have to admit that I don’t even remember all those whom I have baptized. However, if you can use me, I’d be honored to be considered for your position.

When the letter was read aloud to the committee, they were aghast. How could anyone think that a church like theirs would even consider hiring a man who seemed to be nothing but a trouble-making, absent-minded, ex-jailbird - and an old one at that? What was this guy’s name, anyway?

“Well,” said the chairman of the committee, “the letter is simply signed… the Apostle Paul”.

When we think of the apostle Paul, whose writings make up a large portion of the New Testament, we tend to think of a man whose life was so touched and used by God that he was just - well, different from us. We put him up on a pedestal and think of him in terms of superlatives. He was a super-apostle, a super-preacher, a super-saint. And because he was so far out in front of the rest of us, he essentially was a loner. We see him in our mind’s eye alone. Alone on Mars Hill debating theology with the Athenians. Alone on trial before Felix and Festus and Herod. Alone in a jail cell in Rome.

But this view we have of Paul is not biblical. For when we turn to the pages of Scripture, we do not find a loner. We find, in Paul, a Christian leader who was surrounded by a group of men and women who were his friends, his traveling companions, and his fellow-workers in the ministry. Sometime you should flip through the pages of his letters in the NT. Look especially at the salutations and the closings of those letters. Count how many different names are mentioned as being close associates of this man. I think you’ll conclude that Paul was a people person.

And because he was a people-person, Paul had allowed God to build into his life the very quality of discipleship we want to look at today. The quality of vulnerability. A Christian whose life is truly going to touch others is going to have to be vulnerable to being hurt by the people he is trying to minister to.

In 2 Timothy 4:9-15, Paul mentions no less than 8 individuals (9, if you count Timothy, to whom he was writing). These were people who had been involved in Paul’s life in some way. Their names were Demas, Crescens, Titus, Luke, Mark, Tychicus, Carpus, and Alexander. If you’ll look closely, you’ll see that two of them in particular were a source of real pain to Paul: Demas and Alexander.

Let’s look at the others first, and come back to these two later. Crescens is a man of whom we know nothing save what we read here. It says in v.10 that he went to Galatia, which is located in modern day Turkey. However, a couple of early manuscripts state that it wasn’t Galatia, but Gallia - or Gaul, which is present day France. There is an early church tradition that says that Crescens founded a church in France.

Then we read of Titus, who went to Dalmatia - which is present day Yugoslavia. Titus was a real helper to Paul. I like to call him “Titus the Trouble-shooter”, because Paul was always sending him off to solve church problems. He sent him several times to the church at Corinth and also to the church on the island of Crete, both of which were struggling with severe church problems. Titus accompanied Paul to the church council in Jerusalem where the apostles discussed whether Gentiles had to observe Jewish customs and laws when they became Christians. So Titus was a valuable old friend. It’s just unfortunate that, at the end of Paul’s life, when he needed some company, Titus was off on another trouble-shooting mission.

Luke was the only one with Paul at this point. As you know, Luke was Paul’s doctor. He was a Greek, probably from the city of Philippi. What you may not know is that Luke was a very brilliant man in his own right. He actually wrote more of the New Testament than Paul did, if you count the words. His books of Luke and Acts - which form a two-part history of the life of Jesus and the early church - are written in some of the most elegant language in the Bible. He and Paul must have had some wonderful discussions of theology, philosophy, and history late at night! What a blessing for Paul to have a companion like Luke who stuck with him to the end.

Then Paul mentions Mark. Surprising that he does, because there once was a time when Paul had little use for Mark. Mark had deserted Paul and Barnabas on their very first missionary journey. When it came time to go again, Barnabas wanted to give Mark another chance, but Paul wasn’t having any of it. They argued so sharply about it that Paul and Barnabas split up; Barnabas took Mark to Cyprus, while Paul took Silas back to Asia Minor.

We don’t know what happened to Mark in the interval. Maybe he had matured. Maybe Paul had mellowed. Maybe both. Whatever, Paul was now able to say about Mark that he was a real help in his ministry. That’s a beautiful statement of reconciliation. All was forgiven and the two men were united in the cause of Christ. The deserter had become a disciple.

Paul mentions Tychicus, another helper to him. Tychicus must have been a very trustworthy person. He was the man Paul put in charge of sending from Rome to Asia Minor, carrying not one, not two, but three important letters to the churches there. Two of those letters became Scripture - the books of Colossians and Ephesians. What’s more, Tychicus was put in charge of seeing that a runaway slave named Onesimus returned to his master. Onesimus carried with him on that journey a letter from Paul to his master, which of course found its way into the Bible as the book of Philemon.

Finally, Paul mentions Carpus, a man who had given hospitality to Paul at Troas. Paul wanted Timothy to come from Ephesus to Rome by way of Troas so that he could pick up his cloak that he had left there. This cloak would have been something like a poncho - a circle of cloth with a head-hole in it. Paul must have been very cold in that dungeon in Rome, so he urges Timothy to do his best to get there with the cloak before winter in v.21.

But cold or not, and in prison or not, Paul still wanted to study. That’s why he urges Timothy to pick up his scrolls and parchments. The word for scrolls is “biblia” from which we get the word Bible. They were written on strips of papyrus - a paperlike substance made from the reeds of the papyrus plant. The parchments - a different word in Greek - were written on vellum, the skins of animals. These scrolls and parchments would have been copies of the Hebrew Scriptures - the Old Testament. They might also have contained some of the sayings of Jesus Christ. You must remember that there was no New Testament yet when Paul wrote this.

So Paul had many friends and helpers. But he also had people who had let him down or who had fought against him. He mentions two of them here - Demas and Alexander. Look what he says about them:

2 Timothy 4:10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.

2 Timothy 4:14-15 Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.

Paul talks about two kinds of hurt here… the hurt of a friend who turned his back, and the hurt of an enemy’s frontal assault.

Just as Mark was a deserter who became a disciple, Demas was a disciple who became a deserter. We read about him briefly in 2 other places - Col. 4 and Philemon 24, and in both places, he is part of the team. But now, with Paul in prison awaiting execution, and things looking pretty grim for Christians in Rome under Emperor Nero, Demas decides to leave. And look at why he leaves…

because he loved this world

When Demas counted the cost of being a disciple of Jesus Christ, and weighed that against what the world had to offer, he decided to go for the short-term gain. His love for the temporal transcended his love for the eternal. Look at the contrast between what we read in v. 8 and what we read in v.10:

2 Timothy 4:8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

2 Timothy 4:10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me

Paul was looking forward to an eternal reward. Demas was looking for his reward in the here and now. Paul was willing to wait for the Lord, the righteous Judge to give him his reward. Demas wanted to have it now, so he went off to look for it in Thessalonica.

There’s a little bit of Demas in all of us, I guess. We’ve all felt like throwing in the towel. We’ve all looked at the world and the things that it has to offer and been tempted to just chuck our faith in God and make a grab for whatever we can get, however we can get it.

I think that Paul understood that about Demas. But it didn’t ease the pain he felt in being deserted. If you are going to serve the Lord, and minister to people, you are sooner or later going to feel the same pain that Paul felt. You are going to be deserted by people you thought were your friends. And they’re going to desert you because their priorities are different than yours.

Then there is another kind of pain - the pain of facing the attacks of an adversary. We don’t know much about this Alexander in v.14-15. There is an Alexander mentioned in

1 Timothy 1:18-20 Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

Evidently, when Paul was preaching in Ephesus, these two people opposed his ministry. They put up roadblocks, they stirred up dissension, they made all kinds of trouble. There are people like that in every church. They’re like skeletons rattling in the church closet.

Some of them are jawbones. They’re the kind that are always jawing and gossiping about things in the church and keeping the pot boiling.

Then there are the wishbones - people who are always wishing for better things to happen in the church, but never willing to work and pray for them.

Then there are the funnybones. You know that bone in your elbow. When you bump that bone, your whole body goes crazy. There are people like that in the church. Whenever they’re hurt, they throw the whole church into an uproar.

Then there are the dry bones. They’re the people who are as orthodox as can be, but they’re deader than fossils.

You know how Paul dealt with these two guys? He kicked them out. Paul had to put Hymenaeus and Alexander right out of the church - that’s what he means when he says that he handed them over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. That’s what church discipline is all about.

The church is a sanctuary from Satan and his power. If you’re in regular fellowship in the church, then you enjoy a good measure of protection. That’s why every good Christian ought to be a member of a local church. But if you get put out of the church for persistent sin, then you’re out on Satan’s turf. And that will have one of two results. If you’re a born-again Christian, that’ll scare you so bad that you’ll repent of your sin and ask to be taken back into the church, or it’ll solidify you in your sin and reveal that you were never a born-again believer in the first place - you were just faking it. Church discipline reveals a person’s true colors. And, in the process, church discipline protects the purity of the church.

If anybody thinks that a pastor or a deacon somehow enjoys having to discipline a church member, you’d better think again. There is nothing so draining and spiritually exhausting than this process. Paul felt this pain. And it must have been made all the worse by the fact that Alexander didn’t repent. He continued to oppose Paul. But look at what Paul says about him in v.14

The Lord will repay him for what he has done.

Paul was content to let justice rest in God’s hands. When you are attacked, and unjustly accused or slandered, the natural tendency is to spring to your own defense. You want everybody to know that you’re innocent, and what this person is saying about you is wrong. I have come to learn that a man is at his worst when he’s defending himself. It’s better, like Paul, to leave the matter in the hands of God. He can defend you better than you can yourself.

So Demas and Alexander hurt Paul. One was a close friend, the other a church member. Not the kind of people you would expect would hurt you.

When you get hurt like this, there is a temptation to put up your defenses so that it can’t happen again. Next time you’ll try to keep people a little more at arm’s length. After all, if you don’t let them into your life, they can’t hurt you so bad, can they? So you become a little more withdrawn, a little more aloof. You become a little bit more of a loner. And if this becomes a pattern, pretty soon you find that your life as a Christian is making zero impact on anybody.

Some of you may be struggling with this tendency because of scars that you bear from your childhood. Perhaps you were badly hurt by a parent, and you’ve grown up wearing an emotional suit of armor so that it can’t happen again. You don’t trust anyone anymore.

But there is one person who will never hurt you. That is Jesus Christ. He loved you so much that He died for you. If you open up to Him, He’ll always be there for you. He’ll never let you down. And if you open up to Him, He’ll teach you how to begin to open up to other people.

If you are truly going to follow Jesus Christ, one of the things that is going to happen is that you begin to open up your life to deeper relationships. It’s risky. You’re letting yourself become vulnerable. Like Paul, you’ll become a people person, and because of that, you may get hurt again. But if your life is based on a relationship with Jesus Christ, then that won’t stop you. His unconditional love will see you through the hurts that people can give you.