This morning our Scripture lesson comes from 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 19-22. This is the Word of God. Greek Presca and Aquila and the household of Onysiphorus. Asteros stayed in Cornuth, but Trophimus I have left in Miletus sick. Do your utmost to come before winter. Ebulus greets you, as well as Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. May the Lord bless that fine reading of the sacred book this morning. Well, after 20 installments, we finish our series in Second Timothy, Lord willing, today. And it has been, at least for me, a very helpful series, averaging five sermons per chapter. And next Lord's Day, Lord willing, we will open a brand new series on the book of Ephesians. You might be surprised to know, I was looking at my own records, I don't think I've preached from Ephesians in 14 years here. So it's really overdue. Never had a series in it, and so it is a very, very Christ-centered, Gospel-centered, Church-centered book. And I'm sure we will be enormously blessed by the great book of Ephesians. But before we think of Ephesians, let's not forget to finish up 2 Timothy. And before we do that, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for your Holy Spirit and your grace and your kindness to your people. Father, you haven't left us here in this world without hope, without Jesus, without your covenant, without your church, without your spirit and your ordinances and your day and your worship. You've given us everything we need, purpose to live, reason to be here. Grant now unto us, Father, open hearts, open ears, open minds, that we might be translated more and more into the very image of Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. Christian love is the sermon topic today, and it's a lot different than the world's love. Christian love is based on heavenly principles that come from God and that are otherworldly and supernatural. Christian love can never really be explained in purely human or normal terms. Christian love differs a lot from the world's love in that the world's love is very self-centered. Everything really is about how I can benefit by the use of someone else or something else. where Christian love is God-centered first and then human being-centered second, viewing people as the pinnacle of God's creation. The world's love is more concerned about the creation than it is the people that populate it. But not Christian love. It cares about people. It reaches out to them and it seeks to meet their needs wherever they are. No matter how bad their situation may be, nothing is impossible for God. We see many examples of that in the New Testament. The demoniac, the Gadarene man, full of demons, is released from his prison, from the chains that bound him by the grace of God. There is nothing that God cannot do, and he uses his people to do it. Christian love is unique and special. It's not ordinary, common variety, common grace love. Which a lot of people in the world have a lot of that. Sometimes you'll see even more of that in the people of the world than we will in the people of faith. But that's not really what we're talking about. We're talking about something singular, unique, special, and completely divine. The kind of grace love that would send a savior to the earth to die for sinners. That is Christian love. Now, everybody in all the world spends their entire life, whether they realize it or not, seeking out this special treasure that we are referring to as Christian love. And they will spend all their fortunes, all they have, all their energy on trying to find it, but never find it because it can't be found outside of Jesus, and hence, as well, his church. And on top of that, many people in the world have been tricked and slipped up and tripped up and misled in disillusion through lots of contact with false forms of Christian love. And then that becomes a real snare for them. They can't identify the real thing. They see the false thing and they feel like maybe the real thing doesn't exist. Or they throw out Christianity altogether because they rub shoulders with some very poor forms of it. This is in many respects one of our greatest challenges in our culture as we do evangelism. Because everybody knows a lot, but few people experience the real thing. And you are a part of a blessed community wherein that real thing is not perfect, but it's real, and it's there, and we ought to be thankful for it. Now, in light of all this, our goal this morning is to grow in our understanding of and practice of Christian love. With that in mind, we're going to look at 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 19-22. And you know, you have the outline there, and if you wish to use it, the title is Christian Love. Christian love is demonstrated through real care for people. Now, real care differs a lot from other forms of care, which can be legitimate, can have a real place. But the kind of care we're talking about is a care that really reaches all the way to heaven. It's the kind of care that wants the best for people. And sometimes when you want the very best for people, some things that are good may seem subsumed to what is best. We pray for someone. When we have someone in the hospital, someone in our family connections, somebody we know, we're concerned about their physical condition. Genuinely concerned. But we ought to be more concerned about their spiritual condition, their soul state. And only Christian love takes that into account. After all, is that not the highest form of love? Now, note with me how Christian love is demonstrated through real care for people first, which is initially manifested in church. There is no heavenly or Christian love that is not in one form or another brokered through the church. That's just the way God operates. He doesn't go around the church. He doesn't supersede it. He operates through it. Heaven comes down. All the things start on the top and come down and they're brokered through the agency of the church, its ministrations, its offices, its people, the formal and informal factors and ministrations of the church locally and as the universal body of Christ, if you will, the invisible church. Now this is true both on the front and the back ends of God's love. As mentioned earlier, God's love comes down to us from heaven. It doesn't grow out of the ground. It comes from heaven. The great expression of that is Jesus being incarnated coming down to us, descending to us, becoming a man and becoming like us so that he can die for us. And he comes to the body of the church on earth so that that community would distribute and disseminate to all people everywhere the gospel of grace, the goods of God, the best things that God himself has to offer. That is, if you will, the front end of Christian love. And then Christian love goes out from the church in its proper order. First to the believers therein who have our needs. We have a little group with our Sunday school class. I'm having a very good time with the Sunday school class. You ought to sit in on it sometime. Age range is 12 to 17. That gets a little interesting. And we have a lot of fun. It gets a little loud, but a lot of fun. Our verse for this class The ministry team of Redeemer is Galatians 6.10, which reads, therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who are of the household of faith. So when we're thinking about, well, what could we do as an act of love, an act of faith, as something that we can be active in, participate in, we want to first consider, well, is there anybody in the body right here that has a particular need? And once we've taken care of that, then we're in a position to take care of those outside as well. It makes a lot of sense, but it's the way God has set it up. It's actually impossible for you or me to love anybody in the Christian sense of the word, be it God himself or anyone else, if we do not funnel this love through Christ and hence as well his body, the church. So Christian love is demonstrated through real care for people, which is initially manifested in church, but which then spreads throughout the whole world. I'm sure you picked that one up as you are filling out your outline. It is impossible to hide or contain Christian love when it is unleashed by the Holy Spirit on the fallen universe. There are many examples in history of even pagan peoples, unbelievers, who marveled at the church and its love for each other. One great example is that horrible Roman emperor who said, behold how much they love each other. It's a transforming thing. It's something that people are attracted to. And we're going to consider that a little bit later. Christian love will inevitably change everything in its path and in its wake. Either redemptively in genuine salvation of souls, redemptively, that's the greatest form of it. Remember, the only force on earth that does any ultimate good is the Holy Spirit's work through the church, bringing Jesus to the world. And therefore, Christian love, properly expressed, changes everything in the landscape, whether you see it or not. And you are the agents of that. You folks are particularly the agents of that. You must never lose sight of how high and holy your privileged position and calling is. It does it either redemptively or it does it civilly, Christianizing whole civilizations. Doesn't mean that everybody's a believer, doesn't mean that everybody is saved, but it does mean that people act in certain ways that reflect the truth of Christianity, whether they realize it or not. And there have been entire continents conquered that way in the history of the world. And it's still happening even today. Now the way this works is in the following manner. First, God saves souls through the grace of Christ apprehending this ministry of salvation, forgiveness of sins by faith, not by works or law or rule keeping. So we're saved from our sin. Then the Lord puts these individual folks who've been redeemed. He doesn't leave them as atomized individual lone rangers, but he puts them together in local communities called the church. Then, the church goes forth and prays, and seeks to act in ways that are commensurate with the same grace of the gospel that they have received, and also the clear instruction of the holy book, the word of God, acts and prays in ways that are gentle, gracious, kind, loving, and sweet even, toward those outside. Promoting Jesus, his gospel, his grace, and his church, through gentle kindness, through wise words, through helpful instruction, through sensitivity to people. Trust me, people will listen to us. Helpful deeds and tender hearts. This, my dears, is the essence of Christian evangelism. If you wish to know what Christian evangelism is, that's basically it. It's a heart that seeks to meet the needs of people with the love of God, which will manifest itself in one form eventually or another in words, where we bring the overt gospel message to people. And ironically, we must not forget the base. We can't all of a sudden start a church, go out there and make a difference and forget the base. We have to constantly come back to the base. Well, we do that every Sunday, don't we? God brings us back so that we are united again, we spend time together again, we reacquaint each other, we encourage one another, we hear the word, we enjoy the ordinances of God and the blessings of Sabbath. And then we are encouraged to go out again into the world, the valley, verdant, fertile, ready to be reaped for the glory of God. Christian love is demonstrated through real care for people. Now, from the text itself, observe with me how believers show Christian love. The last four verses of 2 Timothy 19-22 of chapter 4. Paul's very final written words promote simple but profound expressions of how God's churchmen are to treat each other and think about each other and act toward each other. and therefore affect the world. So let's consider how believers show Christian love, verses 19 and 20, by ministering to souls and bodies. Greep Prisca and Aquila in the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus stayed in Corinth, but Trophimus I have left in Miletus sick. Now, Paul starts out here at the very end, the last very section of his book, or his epistle. We're remembering, of course, that he wrote it to an individual, Timothy. We'll have more on that in a little while, who is the pastor of the church in Ephesus. And he greets two particular families there. The first is a very famous couple, Prisca and Aquila. That's Priscilla and Aquila, the Book of Acts fame. who were then, at this point in their lives, settled in Ephesus serving the church there. Very gifted leaders and teachers and whatnot. And then he also would have Onesiphorus and his kin greeted particularly. And then the apostle, before he puts down the pen, or before his secretary does at least, mentions Erastus, who stayed in Corinth either on his own recognizance or at the direct instruction and plan and guidance of the Apostle himself. And then Paul references Trophimus, someone whom certainly Paul cared for, but whom Paul left in this town of Miletus sick. Now I find this notation interesting. Instead of going out in a blaze of glory, marveling at the end of the last book that Paul would write with the news of a final great healing of someone's body, which would be great. And remember, in the book of Acts, we have examples of Peter and Paul. There were times where they would just walk around, their shadow would hit somebody, and they'd get better. Read about it. But what's going on here? Here, instead of some great healing, Paul himself leaves Trophimus and Miletus sick. In other words, surely Paul prayed for Trophimus, and I'm sure he earnestly prayed for Trophimus. And I'm sure that he didn't quit praying for Trophimus. My guess is that he is still, even at this point in his life, praying for Trophimus, that he might recover. But the bare bones fact was that Paul himself had left Trophimus and Miletus sick. Now what do we learn from this? Well, among other things, three things. One, God does not always heal people. Even his favored saints doesn't always. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. Number two, the body, that is the physical body, is important. Paul was concerned about it, so were all the other apostles, the prophets, and God himself is very concerned about the body. The body is important. We are not ascetics. We are not mystics. We believe that the body is important. In fact, the very resurrection of Jesus speaks of it. And three, that the soul, however, is the greatest, the noblest, and the most important part of any human being. And we alluded to this before, the soul, the primacy of the soul, how important the soul is. Most people neglect their souls at the expense of anything else, their bodies, their health, their finances, and they don't pay attention to the soul. And that's where you, believers, You have the opportunity to meet the deepest, most profound, and most felt need of people. The people, they have soul problems. Major soul problems. And we do too. Now God has done a great work in us, and he's translating us and transforming us all the time, more and more. But we can relate, can't we? Now, this was true not only of Prophamous himself, but Paul also, who in a little while would suffer physical death as well. Now, finally, what do we take away from this text of these two verses? That the church is to do all we can for the soul and the body in that order. The church, we are to do everything we can for people. for the soul and the body in that order. So, how believers show Christian love? By ministering to souls and bodies. Now verse 21, by connecting saints to needs. Do your utmost to come before winter. Jubilus greets you as well as Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brethren. Now here, in this verse, Paul joins his personal need for Timothy's fellowship and support and presence with Timothy, his son in the faith's ability to meet Paul's stated desire. In other words, you're so special as a child of God in the church. that there are times where you particularly are the one called upon to meet the need. I mean, think about it. Paul already mentions all these people that are already with him. He's had them come and go. When he had his trial, they all abandoned. They weren't around. But he didn't throw them off. They were still around. But there was something about Timothy that was important for Paul. It was important for Timothy. It's actually important for the rest of the church history and the church of that day that they meet together one more time. before it was all over. And given the nature of travel in those days, it's not like they'd go over to the Ephesian airport and jump on an airplane and fly over to Rome. The way they had to make this trip was mostly by sea. And it was important that Timothy made his plans and his determinations very thoughtfully, prayerfully, and carefully. Because if he missed the window of opportunity, Paul talks about, be sure you get here before winter. If he misses that winter thing, he's not going to be able to see Paul probably ever again in this world. So it was very key that Timothy make his plans carefully, and then Paul being the clever and wise man sweetens the pot for Timothy by mentioning these dear precious saints that Timothy certainly knew, Ubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the rest. In other words, just as soon as Timothy could finally get to Rome, he would not only see Paul with whom he needed to meet quickly, but also others that he would be reunited with that were his Christian friends. But this would not be a vacation. This was not a sabbatical. These were real and felt needs that, in a certain sense, only Timothy could really meet. And Paul didn't ask for a lot. You read his letters. You don't see Paul making too many requests or demands. He's always giving. He's always exhorting. He's the leader. He's the one making sacrifices. He's always doing for others. Here at the end of his life, he makes this humble personal request for Timothy's presence. How believers show Christian love by ministering to souls and bodies, connecting saints to needs. Verse 22, by uniting the church to Jesus in prayer. The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. This is the very last known written statement. that the great Apostle Paul, the second most influential human being that ever walked on the face of the earth outside of Jesus himself, ever wrote, or was written for him at his dictation. The Apostle Paul, as he goes out, wants God's people, individually and collectively as the Church, to derive all of their strength and vitality not from him, not from anyone else, not any other apostle, not from angels, not from prophets, but from Christ Jesus himself alone. He wants us to get our strength there. And the way Paul, get this, this is really interesting, look at this now, the way Paul joins the church and the Redeemer is not through some fancy means that are too far away from us, too difficult to do, but something every one of us can do. He does it through prayer, which is what verse 22 is. Verse 22 is a prayer that he ends his written documentation with. Now please note something very interesting, and none of you can glean this from your English Bible translations alone. Not a slam on your English Bible translations. Just that our English grammar doesn't allow us to see this. Now some of you might see it in your margins, especially if you have the official Bible. Just kidding. But if you can't, that's OK. Now watch this. The phrase here, the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, is singular. The word your is singular. I actually went into the Greek text myself and looked at this. In fact, Paul is talking here to Timothy's spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, Timothy. But the rest of this verse, which reads, grace be with you, amen is plural. That's interesting, isn't it? Didn't Paul write this letter just to Timothy? Isn't this a private correspondence? No, actually not. Paul knew that this letter would be circulated, which of course it was, and it was read, I'm sure, undoubtedly to the Ephesian church, where people are being greeted there, but also to you and everybody else throughout the history of the New Covenant Church that have had the privilege of seeing this letter. May the grace be with you. Now the content of verse 22 is important. To have Jesus is to possess God's grace in its fullness. Don't miss that. To have Jesus is to possess God's grace in its fullness. Even though you're in transition, your lives are not what they will be, certainly not what they'll be in glory, not even what they'll be next Sunday, not what they'll be three years from now, but you already possess all of God's grace in Jesus, if you have him by grace through faith alone. So consider now with me that Christian love is demonstrated through real care for people. And that's what this book is about. How believers show Christian love. Finally, in some more application, let's discover the powerful effects of Christian love. Spiritual earthquakes occur through the divine blessing of heavenly affection as it's worked through God's people on earth. The powerful effects of Christian love first It attracts souls to the Savior. Now we know, of course we know, that God is sovereign. We understand that. We also know that he, before the foundation of the world, preordained, elected, and foreknew all those that he would make his saints and make into his church. This is all true. However, it's also true that God uses means. And he will employ the love that is demonstrated and oozing from the Church of God, wherever that love is, to draw people to Christ. Our doctrine, as important as it is, our theology, as wonderful as it is, our worship, as critically necessary as it is, and our Sabbath-keeping, as blessed as that is, and our general church life as a body and a community of believers, as important as that all is, all of those things are designed to foster Christian affection amongst us. This is important because sometimes people don't understand that. They think doctrine and theology is one thing, And feeling and love and affection and action is another thing. No, absolutely not. Proper Christian doctrine simply brings us to Jesus, and if it brings us to Jesus, then we're going to act like him in varying degrees and as we grow in grace, knowledge of God. So our evangelism is effective When we are doing this very thing, loving each other as we are, you know John 13, 35, all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. He doesn't say there, all men will know you are my disciples if you've got every T crossed and every I dotted. No, it's if we love one another, And the way we will love one another is by knowing Jesus better, and the way we know Jesus better is taking advantage of the means of grace, the ordinances of the church, the preaching of the sacraments, and the fellowship of the saints. Heavenly love, then, becomes an irresistible force on the lost sheep of the house of Israel, whom Almighty God has ordained to bring unto himself. And I bet if you look at your own lives, you who have been saved by grace, you will be able to trace it in some form or another to the fact that you saw some real love demonstrated, not just to you and somebody caring enough to tell you about your soul's need and the gospel and the things that God's done for you, but also as you observe love among God's people. It's not absolutely perfect in every expression or anything like that, but it's genuine. And it's thought to be grown. And where God wants that love to most prominently be displayed is in the church. Why is that? Why is that the case? Why not in the world or some parachurch organization or some local mission or something? Why is this the case? So that Christ gets all the glory alone and we don't get any of it. We can't give ourselves any credit at all. I'd like to share with you Acts 2, 46 and 47. Consider these. So continuing daily with one accord, there is the unity and the love, in the temple, so they're keeping their worship, and breaking bread from house to house, so they're fellowshipping as a community of saints. They eat their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. See that? And then look at verse 47. The Lord added to the church daily those who are being saved. So daily they are enjoying fellowship, doctrine, theology, blessing, worship on at least Sabbath days. And daily God is adding to the church those who are being saved. See, a united church, no matter how small, no matter how isolated, location-wise it may seem to be, a united church that knows what it's about, knows what it's here for, understands its purpose, understands the rationale that God had in bringing it to be, is a very powerful force for the production of more converts to Christ. Not in an artificial manner, but in a natural, fluid, sweet, normal, sane, God-honoring, Christ-blessing, Spirit-anointed way. Not any kooky stuff, anything like that. Just be who you are as believers, and especially as the community, and show people that. It's very effective in bringing about the glory of God and the salvation of souls. powerful effects of Christian love, it attracts souls to the Savior, and it silences the foes of the gospel. You know, unbelievers and hypocrites, they can play a lot of games with us, and they may quibble with us, and tease us, and annoy us, and create some problems with us over all kinds of things, like creation doctrine. We believe that God actually created the world. That makes sense. They believe, in many cases, that evolution created the world, or some force out there, some chance or whatever. It makes no sense. You can quibble over that. Or morality. What's true morality? How ought a culture be? How should a society conduct itself? They can say, we don't like that Christian stuff. And they can argue with us over it. Or the role of religion and society and government and politics. And they can say, well, you people ought to keep that to yourself. Let us run the world. You take care of your own little area. We'll take care of the rest. They might argue with us over all that. They're wrong, and we're right. But those arguments, they don't really typically lead too far. But there is this. There is no argument against the reality, although yet imperfect in this world, of supernatural, heavenly, Christian love demonstrated by God's people in this world. There is no argument against that. It silences the mouths of those who would bring a complaint against God and His people. Listen to the words of 1 Peter 2.15. This is the will of God, that by doing good, i.e. loving each other, he may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. And really, that's what silences foolish people, when they see God's people living winsomely, graciously, patiently, intelligently with each other. for the glory of God. And after all, when we think about the gospel, shouldn't it close all of our mouths? What do we have to say in light of this great God who would send his son to die for sinners, who would give his own beloved for those who put him on the cross, that shed his precious blood? God is a God of remarkable love, a plan of salvation, not for good people, but for sinners. Who did Jesus die for? He died for his church, didn't he? He died for his people. And there are a lot of people out there in the world who are among them, and they don't know it yet. And it's our privilege to be part of the process that brings them in. What do you have to do? Well, you have to do what you're doing right now. You have to be a good churchman. You have to keep the Sabbath, you have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, if you want to be an effective witness. This is not of works, it's all of grace. You have the privilege and the opportunity to take this heavenly love into your own hearts, into the hearts of others in your church, and from there, into the world. And by so doing, we shine this love, the love and the shining of heaven itself. This is not an ordinary common variety. This is something special. We shine it on the earth down here. That brings God tremendous glory and brings us much good. Beloved, Christian love is singular. There's nothing like it in all the universe. And let us be sure that we understand it through the apprehension of the gospel, the Son of God, taken and known, believed in and loved by faith. Let us pray in his name. Father, we do thank you now for the Lord Jesus and for the book of Second Timothy. And we thank you that it ends in this special way. We pray that you would grant unto us, Father, that we might desire the Lord Jesus Christ be with our spirit and that grace would be with us all, your people. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.