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- [00:00]
Unknown Speaker
Hey, Bible nerds.
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Dr. Manny Arango
This is Dr. Manny Arango, and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. How you feeling? And today we got two Timothy chapters three and four. Hey, if you want to do my modified, like, challenge Bible nerd version, that means you would have read all of second Timothy yesterday and then all of two Timothy today. If not, you don't have to do it that way. Hopefully Yesterday you read 2 Timothy 1 and 2, and today you'd read 2 Timothy 3 and 4. If you haven't done the reading, just go ahead, stop this video, stop the audio. Go do the reading. It'll take you a couple of minutes, I promise, and then come on back. All right, man. I was just, like, reading this by myself, like, sitting here and getting, like, like, really emotional. So a couple of just context clues as we jump in. Remember that first imprisonment where Paul is in. He's the first Roman imprisonment, okay? Where he's under house arrest. That's probably A.D. 60 to 62. Just for anyone who likes dates and numbers, Paul is beheaded in AD 67. And so a lot of people will date 2 Timothy to 8,067. This is probably written, I mean, very, very close to. To him being beheaded. Let me tell you why Paul is beheaded, okay? Jesus is crucified, and Roman citizens could not be crucified. It would have been dishonorable. That was seen as a very dishonorable way to kill someone. And stoning would have also been a highly dishonorable way to kill someone. So Paul actually gets an honorable death and he gets beheaded. And so not to be gory or graphic, but he probably would have been led out of his cell and led up the Appian Way, and his head would have been placed on a block, and a soldier would have got an axe and beheaded him. And in that moment, he would have went from the imperial city of Rome to the eternal city of the heavenly Jerusalem. And I want to read these words penned by Paul probably weeks, maybe months before he is beheaded as a martyr for. For our Lord and Savior Jesus. He says, for I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought a good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. 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. I love the peace and the assurance that Paul has. It's not, I may get a crown or I think I fought the good fight, or I think I finished the race, or I think I've kept the faith. No, I want you to hear, like, the concrete, resolute assuredness in his voice. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. And now I know that there is in store for me a crown of righteousness which Jesus the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. And who knows if Paul thought that that day would be tomorrow or next week or next month. But that day was right around the corner for Paul. And, man, I want to live my life with that assurance that if today is my last day, I know that I have fought the good fight. Like, I want to be able to say that with 100%, like, confidence. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. And I know we all go through ups and downs, we go through all kinds of seasons, but. But for Paul to have gone through persecution and stoning and being beaten and having much and not having enough, and for him to be able to say at the end of his life, I know exactly what is going to happen when I see Jesus face to face. Like, I'm not hoping, I am not guessing. I know for a fact that I fought the good fight, that I have finished the race and I have kept the faith. Man, whether I live a long life or not, I want to go to sleep every night knowing, man, I fought the good fight. Not that I'm going to see Jesus just because of his grace and his mercy, but that I'm going to get the crown of righteousness awarded to me based on my faithfulness. If there's a theme for, for two Timothy, it's this. That we as Christians should be faithful in our allegiance to King Jesus because he has been faithful to us. That his faithfulness should actually spur us to be faithful. Faithful in the midst of suffering, faithful in the midst of persecution, faithful in the midst of hardship. Now, here's a really, really cool thing. I want you. This is just more context clues. I want you to go to Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 23. And at the end of the book of Hebrews, whoever wrote Hebrews, a lot of people think it was Apollos. A lot of people have a lot of different opinions on maybe who would have written the book of Hebrews. It says this. I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you. Greet all your leaders and all the Lord's people. Those from Italy send you with. Send you their greetings. Grace be with you all. And so here's the cool thing. Timothy receives these letters from Paul, first and second Timothy. And Paul keeps encouraging Timothy, hey, keep the faith. Preach the truth, Be faithful in hardship, suffer for Jesus. Like, don't be a punk, bro. Like, if they come to arrest you, they arrest you. If they kill you, they kill you. Like, preach the truth. Do not compromise. Do not love your life so much that you shrink back from death. And what we know is that Timothy is imprisoned for the gospel. And we don't find that out in any of Paul's letters. We find that out in the book of Hebrews. And so all this writing actually prepared Timothy for a challenge that he didn't even know he was going to face. Nerdy nugget. Let's go to second Timothy. We're going to go to chapter four, chapter four, verse 13. He's talking to Timothy, says, when you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, which a lot of scholars read that. And they're like, yeah, like, let's juxtapose Paul's two Roman imprisonments, okay? The first Roman imprisonment, he's on house arrest. He can move around freely. He's not chained up like an animal. He's able to have visitors. He gets a lot of letters written. This is not the same. Okay? And remember, like, when you read the prison epistles, like Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, when you read the prison epistles, Paul kind of has this, like, upbeat, kind of, like, optimism. Like, yeah, I think it's going to work out. It's going to be okay. And he's totally right. He 100% gets out of prison. And what happens in around 64 AD, there's a massive fire in Rome and Nero starts losing his mind. Nero starts going crazy. A lot of people think that Nero actually caused the fire, and there's a bunch of backlash. And so Nero just needs a group to blame, so he starts blaming Christians for the fact that Rome is. Is on fire and burning down. And so Nero starts this massive persecution of Christians because he needs a scapegoat. And Paul literally just gets gathered up as one of those Christians just experiencing the unpredictable whims of probably manic depressive, depressive emperor, okay? With totalitarian power. And so Paul doesn't even get imprisoned here in 67 AD for anything like evil or wrong or like for preaching. He just gets thrown in jail because Nero just needs someone to blame and he's losing his mind. And if you juxtapose this to his imprisonment in, in 60 to 62, somewhere in that like window, this imprisonment is totally different. This is a cold, dark cell that's probably a hole in the ground. Paul's conditions are not good. And he knows like this is the kind of cell that they put you in when you are about to be executed. And just that detail that he's cold, like something about that just gets me that my man is like, is a legend. Like we are all going to get to heaven. Having every Christian on the planet is going to get to heaven knowing who Paul is. And the fact that my man is just cold, like in prison, writing his last letter, just asking if somebody would give him a coat. That's a, that's just a nerdy nugget for me that most scholars would say, yeah, like it's, it's clear that, that Paul's cold. He's not just asking for this cloak, like subconscious, like for arbitrarily for no reason. Not only does he want the cloak, he wants some scrolls and he wants some parchments because he wants to keep writing. My man wants to write until he, he can't write anymore. We don't know if Timothy got to him in time. My guess is that he probably didn't because if, if Timothy had gotten there in time, I think Paul would have cranked out some more letters. But this is the last letter we got from Paul. This is the last communication we got. And then Paul, Paul goes to be with the Lord.
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Unknown Speaker
What if I told you that what you're learning in this video was just the tip of the iceberg? The Bible department is actually powered by Armageddon. What is arma? I'm so glad you asked. ARMA is an online subscription based platform that we design to help people, everyday people, learn the Bible for themselves. We started ARMA so that anybody, anywhere can have access to trustworthy and entertaining Bible and theology content. In addition to this podcast, we have over 60 courses on individual books of the Bible, on theology topics, and on some hot topics like homosexuality, tithing and women in ministry. But really ARMA is a community, a community of people that I've gotten to know. A community where thousands of people are currently finding family, asking questions and nerding out on the Bible together. If you Want a community to read the Bible with you this year? Or if you want to dive into some deeper theological content, or if you want more exclusive access to me and the entire armor team, how about you go to thebibledepartment.com I'll be sure to post the link in the description of this video. Let's make this your year to become a Bible nerd.
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Dr. Manny Arango
I want to kind of move into my timeless truth. I want to compare first Timothy 1:18 and 6:12, first Timothy. We're going to compare the first letter that Paul writes to Timothy to the, to this second letter. So we'll go first Timothy, chapter one, verse 18. I'm giving you these instructions, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies made earlier about you, so that by following them, you may fight the good fight. That's, that's my charge to you, Timothy.
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Timothy
That you would fight the good fight.
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Dr. Manny Arango
That's why I'm writing. I'm writing so that you would fight the good fight. Okay, and then chapter 6, verse 12 of First Timothy, chapter 6, verse 12, it says this.
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Timothy
Fight the good fight of the faith.
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Dr. Manny Arango
Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. So two times in Paul's first letter to Timothy, do you.
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Timothy
We get that phrase, fight the good fight.
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Dr. Manny Arango
Like, hey, Christianity is not easy.
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Timothy
You got to fight the good fight.
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Dr. Manny Arango
Ministry is not easy.
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Timothy
You got to fight the good fight.
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Dr. Manny Arango
Keeping faith is not easy.
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Timothy
You got to fight the good fight.
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Dr. Manny Arango
And so we get that resounding kind of charge to Timothy. Hey, you got to be a fighter.
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Timothy
You got to fight the good fight.
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Dr. Manny Arango
You can't let the enemy knock you out.
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Timothy
You got to fight the good fight.
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Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, man, like, you gotta, you gotta get up. You gotta, you gotta shake yourself.
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Timothy
You gotta fight the good fight.
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Dr. Manny Arango
There's an enemy to fight. There's, there's. You gotta contend for your purpose.
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Timothy
You gotta fight. You gotta fight. You gotta fight your flesh.
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Dr. Manny Arango
You gotta fight these, these false teachers in the church.
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Timothy
You gotta fight the good fight.
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Dr. Manny Arango
You gotta build the kingdom. You gotta build the church.
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Timothy
You gotta fight the good fight.
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Dr. Manny Arango
And I love how this kind of reaches a culmination in second Timothy 4. 7. Over and over again, Paul has said to Timothy, hey, you gotta fight the good fight. I know you're getting punched in the face. I know you're getting knocked out. I know life is throwing you curve balls, but you gotta fight the good fight. And here we finally get to the end. Some of the last words we get of Paul, he says this. I have fought the good fight, says Timothy. Man, the reason that I can challenge you to fight the good fight is because I fought it. I fought it, and I've come to the end. I have fought the good fight. Sleepless nights, like, I fought the good fight, man. Shipwrecks, persecutions, being stoned, sermon, sermon, prepping, you know, on the road, healing people, bringing people back from the dead, seeing the miraculous power of God, being hungry, being well fed. I fought the good fight. And. And I just want to challenge us. Like, do we hear that as Timothy, or are we saying that as Paul? Like, there are some times where I need to hear that as Timothy, where I. I need someone older than me, further ahead than me to say, hey, I'm proud of what you've done, but I need you to continue to fight the good fight like it's not over. Your race isn't over. The fight's not over. I know you want to celebrate this. This mountaintop moment, but you got to.
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Timothy
Fight the good fight.
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Dr. Manny Arango
And then sometimes I feel like I'm Paul, where I'm talking to leaders that are younger than me, and I'm saying, hey, I fought the good fight. I want to be on my deathbed able to say these words like, Paul, hey, I have fought the good fight. I finished the race. I've kept the faith. All right, Last time was truth. I don't think we can even talk about this section of the book without actually going to chapter four, verse two. Okay, this is actually something that Paul is gonna say over and over and over again. We kind of talked about it in yesterday's content, but here it is again. Okay, Chapter four, verse two. Preach the word. Be prepared in season and out of season. Correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, Discharge all the duties of your ministry. One of my favorite passages from this section is just right before that, in chapter three, verse 16 says, All Scripture is breathed by God and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Hey, I think we can say with assurance, like, Timothy had a good Spiritual father. He had a good spiritual dad. On his deathbed, he is writing him a letter. I wonder if Timothy just like, kept this, like, this original copy of. Of Paul's letter for the rest of his life. I bet he read it to his church and they probably made copies, but I wonder if he kept the original. I get emotional reading second Timothy just because there's so many details in here of people that have forsaken Paul, that have left him alone. Words like words like this. Chapter four, verse 16. At my first offense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. Remember, they're deserting him because they're scared they are going to get arrested and that they are going to be tried guilty and that they are going to die as well. Verse 11. Only Luke is with me. Do your best to come to me quickly. This is verse 9 for Demas. Because he loved this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. I mean, even like, hey, Luke is the only person with me. Something about Paul being cold and lonely, like, I don't know, it just gets to me and. And him saying he's been poured out like a drink offering. It's a sobering book. I think that if there's any words that need to hold weight, it's the words that somebody says as they are dying, their last words. If there are any famous last words of anybody, I would say that Paul should be at the top of that list for his famous last words to his spiritual son, Timothy. And with that, that is all of Paul's writings in chronological order. And now we shift to a whole new section of this plan. We are done with everything. Pauline. Okay, Luke is how we started the plan. Luke was Paul's traveling companion. Then we got to Acts, which introduced Paul as the main character. And then we got into Galatians. And from Galatians to second Timothy, we have looked at Paul. And with that, we now turn to the Gospel of Mark. And so we're going to be in the Gospel of Mark for the next couple of days. We got 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 days in the Gospel of Mark. I love the Gospel of Mark. So I'll see you right here tomorrow so that we can dive into Mark together. Love you guys. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebibledepartment. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com. we'll see you back here tomorrow.