The Last Dance: Instructions on How to Die Well - 2 Timothy 4:6-12 | Skip Heitzig

[Music] good morning would you turn in your bibles to the second epistle of timothy second timothy chapter four this morning second timothy chapter four there was a man who got a severe bonk on the head and he went into a deep coma for a long time they thought he was dead they sent him to the funeral home and there in the mortuary they did with him what they would normally do with anybody thought dead they put him in a casket well at two in the morning in that dimly lit room all alone the man set up in the casket he looked around and he said man what's going on if i'm alive why am i in this casket and if i'm dead why do i still have to go to the bathroom i'm going to venture a guess that this may be the most unusual sermon you have heard in your life unusual because it has nothing to do with life it has everything to do with death i want to talk to you about how to die well i told you it would be an unusual sermon you see most messages most teachings most sermons are all about life spiritual life how to grow spiritually how to have great relationships solid marriages how to help others grow in their faith how to go through trials all of the things that deal with life but what we have before us in second timothy are the last words of a dying man paul the apostle knows he is going to die imminently he writes this letter knowing he has days perhaps weeks or maybe just hours left to live and i have discovered that people's final words are the most revealing words when people die they get really honest hypocrisy is stripped away and what you may have thought they were may come out differently in their last words i've always been interested in the final words of dying men or women i found it fascinating that when mahatma gandhi for all that he did for india and for all that he said he believed in nobly when he died said my days are numbered for the first time in 50 years i find myself in the slew of despond all about me as darkness and i am praying for life voltaire this this fascinates me voltaire was one of the most outspoken critics against the christian faith thought himself to be intellectually superior those poor dumb christians out there and he often wrote against believers when he died however he said out loud i am abandoned by god and man i shall go to hell and he cried out o christ o jesus christ he cried out all night long so much so that the nurse attending him said for all the money in europe she never wanted to attend the death of another unbeliever when buddha died he uttered these words i have not yet attained my goal now compare those to the words of the apostle in chapter 4 of second timothy verse 6 for i am already being poured out as a drink offering the time of my departure is at hand i have fought the good fight i have finished the race i have kept the faith finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day and not to me only but also to all who have loved his appearing you know that i have discovered that most people do not like to talk about death it's an uncomfortable subject it's sometimes even fun to bring it up just to watch people squirm a little bit it's like i don't want to talk about that and well there's a number of reasons why i had this discussion with the funeral director this week but she said it's amazing how much people do not want to talk about this subject but for some of us the road ahead is much shorter than the road behind so we think about death a little bit differently as we get closer to it c.s lewis said as we grow older we become like old cars more repairs and replacement parts are necessary we must just look forward to the fine new machines the latest resurrection model waiting for us in the divine garage i like that well the closer we get to that garage the more dominant the idea the reality of death becomes and so we wonder about it we wonder what it's going to be like for us i had a staff member who left here years ago planted a church very successful his wife grew ill she's in heaven now before she died i went to visit her in the hospital i was there with her husband and she said honey i'd like a few moments alone with skip i want to talk about death in heaven and he said you sure you don't want me here i mean he's a pastor he's good she goes no i love you but i just want time alone with my pastor so she had all sorts of questions about what it would feel like what she would see what she would experience people she would see do i have to hang out in heaven with all the christians i know who are there but i never liked hanging out with on earth you know stuff we all think about the name of this message is the last dance like others we borrowed it from a tv series a basketball documentary series how in 1997 the coach of the chicago bulls phil jackson announced it would be his last season he called it the final dance the last dance and uh the series depicts how michael uh jordan and other great team members gave it their all and took the championship the last dance we are in as you know second timothy chapter four where in three verses alone just three verses paul looks at his life presently his life past and his life future talk about using an economy of words all of that is wrapped up in these three verses and i will just say as we start to get into this this is the way to go this is the way to die this is the way to go out when you know how to go out you know how to go forward you know how to live when you know how to die so what i want to do in these verses and we'll look at a few others is give you four main ingredients to dying well as a christian let's get into it first of all face the inevitable it's going to happen in verse 6 paul says for i am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my you could translate the next word death decease he calls it departure is at hand paul is so matter-of-fact he's in jail and he goes it's over this is it i'm about to die and i know it what i love about paul is he doesn't avoid the subject he doesn't say i don't want to talk about it he shockingly is abrupt about it and very plain about it and i'll show you what i mean by abrupt shockingly abrupt paul the apostle not only knows that he's going to die paul the apostle knows how he is going to die he was a roman citizen roman citizens didn't get crucified roman citizens got decapitated paul knew that was his future and he describes it as being poured out like a drink offering he knows it's a bloody event he had seen it before but he uses jewish language he takes us back to the old testament drink offering he calls it it comes to us in exodus 29 and numbers 15. let me describe it for you in the old testament there was an offering called the burnt offering the burnt offering was an animal put on an altar wholly consumed they didn't take parts off and eat them they they they barbecued the whole thing the burnt offering it was for sin on top of the burnt offering was placed oil poured oil and flour so can you just imagine what that would smell like barbecued lamb or beef with baked bread then on top of that was poured the drink offering which was a libation of sweet wine poured over the sacrifice so it all became what god described as a sweet smelling sacrifice or savor to the lord that was the drink offering and paul is saying that is my life that's my life i've wholly been consumed like the burnt offering from the damascus road to this day 30 years my life has been consumed for his glory and now to top it off i'm about to be executed and the spilling of my blood at that event is like the drink offering being poured out to complete the sacrifice you see what i mean by shockingly stark and honest about it that is what he is describing now let me take you back fill in a little gap paul had been in a roman prison before he'd been in many prisons but he was in rome once before and when he was in rome the first time in prison he wrote a letter to the philippian church he didn't know if he was going to live or die in that first trial he ended up living for a considerable amount of time after that but he didn't know at the time am i going to live or die but then he wrote he writes this to the philippians for if i am being poured out as a drink offering for the strengthening of your faith i'm glad then he said if then it was hypothetical now it's real it's actual he knows this is the end and he faces it and he does it plainly and honestly and he talks about it he's not afraid of the subject nor should we ever be afraid of the subject especially as believers especially as believers i think it's good to talk about it i think it's good to even plan it i've planned mine down to the song or songs that will be sung did you know that solomon in the old testament basically said going to a funeral is more beneficial than going on vacation listen to what he writes this is ecclesiastes it's better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting that's his way of saying a funeral is better than a party for that is the end of all men and the living will take it to heart the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth you see when you live with death in mind you live differently first of all because you don't know when it's going to happen you don't schedule it right um it's not you it's not something you put on your calendar it's not like 8 o'clock go to work 10 30 work out 12 o'clock eat lunch 2 o'clock die you don't get that luxury even though the bible says it is appointed for every man once to die after this the judgment god has made an appointment with you for your death but he hadn't told you when the appointment is but it will happen and when you live that way you live differently and you live wisely because you realize i have a certain amount of time this lifetime is going to cost me my life and so i want to invest it i don't want to just waste it you know it's like going to a lawyer if you go to a lawyer and the lawyer before he begins or she says before we start i just want you to know my rate is 250 an hour at that point you get down to business you don't ask about weather or kids or hobbies you just want to deal with the business because of the cost so living with death as in inevitability is a healthy way to live now notice how he describes his own death he says the time of my departure is at hand i found that's a great word to describe death departure when you think of a departure you think of going on a trip right an adventure even when you go to the airport and you look up and you see a sign it says are rivals and departures they're people who are leaving to different parts of the country or the world on their trip but let me tell you about the word quickly the word departure an interesting word that paul used is the greek word analysis it means to break up or to unloose but it was a word that was very descriptive and used a few different ways in antiquity first of all sailors used the word analysis departure for the pulling up of the anchor and the loosening of the ropes on the dock so that that ship could set sail so paul may be saying i'm leaving the port of earth and i'll be in the harbor of heaven that word was used by sailors to describe it also analysis departure was used of oxen who would plow a field so farmers would at the end of the day take the heavy yolk on the oxen and unhitch it unloose and set that oxen free so that's a good way to think about death when i die i get unhitched i get unloosed the work is over the toil is over the labor is over revelation 14 describes death that way blessed are those who die in the lord from now on for their they they will cease from their labors and their reward will follow them the work's done the labor's over also the word analysis was used of slaves or slave owners for the setting free of a slave when the shackles fell off the ankles or off the wrists he was on a loosed right he was there was a departure and so paul may have had that in mind i'll be unchained from this roman prison i'll be unchained from temptations i'll be unchained from my fallen nature i'll be set free but also the word analysis departure was used of travelers soldiers or travelers when they would break up camp and move their tent somewhere else they would pull up the stakes fold the tent up go somewhere else set it up again that was called the analysis or the departure and you know how the bible talks about our bodies being like a tent you've heard that before from paul the apostle he said in second corinthians 5 when this earthly tent that we live in is taken down we have a home in heaven an eternal body made for us by god not by human hands i'm camping i'm going to pull the tent stakes up and move to something permanent you know i love camping i always have and when i married lenya um i i mean i was a hardcore camper if if you don't put a tent on a backpack and walk out into the wilderness you ain't camping that's how i camped and i still love tin camping but i gotta put it this way i like it for like a day and if you're out in the tent for a couple days and you start smelling ripe and you're feeling a little bit sticky and gnarly you long for something permanent and the longer we live in this tent we long for something more permanent something to move into that will never fade away what is interesting to me and it always has been is that though we know we're just in a tent it's amazing how preoccupied we become with our tents we've got to preserve the tent how do the flaps look today boy there's a few more of them i notice the tent stakes are wiggling loose a little bit we put so much energy into the tent so much so that when people die i've heard this time and time again at funerals casket gets open people come forward look down you know what they say boy he looks good okay i hope you told him that before a few days before his death f b meyer wrote to a friend f b myers one of my heroes in the faith he said i have just heard to my great surprise that i have but a few days to live it may be that before this letter reaches you i shall have entered the palace listen to that description i'm in a tent i'm going to a palace don't bother to write we shall meet in the morning we'll meet in the morning see you later when i met with that pastor's wife in her hospital room before she went to heaven we were done with our conversation i was walking out and and she said skip i turned around and she said see around the corner it's just that quick it will feel like now here's a little fyi history tells us that the apostle paul was only 58 years old when he died he may have been 60 may have even been 62 but most scholars place it right around 60 probably 58 years old and here's a 58 year old man in prison who could plant many more churches and do more work but he knows this is it this is it it's time the time for my analysis my departure my setting sail my being unshackled has come so face the inevitable second decide to be faithful decide to be faithful that's how to die well decide right now even if you haven't been so faithful up to this point that today will be the reset decide to be faithful now look at verse seven in verse seven he says i have fought the good fight i have finished the race i have kept the faith paul sums up his whole life in one verse with these words when you read those words is there any sense of regret in them none there there's no regret there's no sense of unfulfillment there's no disappointment there's no incomplete bucket list man i wish i could have done that or gone there he says i've done it i've completed it so he faces death with satisfaction why is that it's because he had made a decision years earlier that he was going to be faithful to god that he was going to follow god's will throughout the course of his life that that would be his his singular passion when he was on the damascus road still unconverted he gets knocked off his high horse literally he's on the ground he asked two questions question number one who are you that's good to find out who are you lord answer i'm jesus whom you are persecuting second question and the second question he spent his whole life getting answered what do you want me to do what do you want me to do this man spent his entire 30-year spiritual ministry career answering the question what does god want me to do that's his passion that's why he can say i'm done because he lived that way he made the decision to be faithful wouldn't it be great to look back over your life with absolutely no regrets no disappointments no misgiving no sense of unfulfillment nothing left undone if you want that then decide today that faithfulness is going to be your aim now we read verse 7. let me give it to you in the original language in the original language the object is placed first for emphasis the verb is placed second so it literally reads the good fight i have fought the race i have finished the faith i have kept why because paul looked at his life on those three tracks i'm a soldier i'm a runner i'm a steward and in all three categories it's good i'm good no regrets now let's just kind of um dig through those just a little bit quickly i have fought the good fight it's very district descriptive language it's the language of a soldier understand you are in a fight you were in a fight it's very strong language even in english to say i have fought the good fight in greek it's even more emphatic remember the word i told you a few weeks ago ago nidzuomai it's used here and listen to how it's written in the original i have agonizomaid the agon i have agonized the agony that's his life i have fought the good fight this is war the christian life is not a playground it's a battleground you're a soldier not a sightseer you gave your life to christ peace joy forgiveness and then you're in the army you're conscripted now i'm going to read to you a section of scripture i'm going to read to you uh second corinthians 11 not the chapter just a couple verses but i'm reading it to you in a different translation called the message by eugene peterson this is paul talking about his past life with a little more detail he says i've worked much harder been jailed more often beaten up more times then i can count i've been at death's door time after time i've been flogged five times with the jews 39 lashes beaten by roman rods three times i've never been beaten with rods once pummeled with rocks once i've been shipwrecked three times and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day in hard traveling year in and year out i've had to forward rivers fend off robbers struggle with friends struggle with foes i've been at risk in the city at risk in the country endangered by desert sun and storm sea storm betrayed by those i thought were my brothers i've known drudgery and hard labor many a long and lonely night without sleep many a missed meal blasted by the cold naked to the weather that's not like a fight to you does to me that's paul's life so you know what he means when he says my whole life has been a burnt offering and now this is where i get to make it a drink offering to the lord i finished the race i've kept the faith and just to note about that first one i fought the good fight i've seen many christians give up the fight i've seen many pastors quit the fight just i don't want to fight man i don't want the battle anymore and so so they quit here's what you need to know if you're thinking that way notice what it's called not just a fight it's the good fight it's the good fight it means noble it means distinguished if you are looking for a cause that is a worthy cause more worthy than any political agenda any monetary agenda it's this cause it is a good fight it's a good fight you don't come to the end of it and lick your wounds because it's been so hard it's good it's a good fight then he says i finished the race now that's paul's going back to the olympics he's the runner in the olympics i've stayed the course a lot of people start the race they don't finish it paul's aim was always to finish the race in fact i've always loved when he came to ephesus he was going to jerusalem he stops off at ephesus he says to the leaders of ephesus and i'm going to paraphrase it you know everywhere i go people tell me i'm going to get beat up and maybe even killed when i go to jerusalem and then he said this but none of these things move me nor do i count my life dear unto myself that i might finish my race with joy how do you stop a guy like that you don't you let him run and he ran all the way to the end then he said i've kept the faith now he sees himself as a steward and he's a steward fulfilling the sacred trust from god notice it's not called just faith but the faith paul didn't say i've kept faith man he says i've kept the faith and when you ever see the definite article before faith it's speaking about a particular doctrinal stand it is the body of christian belief the faith it's it's like jude verse 3 the faith once for all delivered to the saints that's the faith paul didn't just preach it he guarded it and i see that as the role of a pastor i'm not just a preacher i also am to guard the faith guard the truth defend the faith put up a good fight for the faith and when people are ditching bible inspiration and and and source of truth i want to get in that fight and this is why it's always a pet peeve for me when it comes to preaching whenever people misinterpret the bible or use it to serve their own purposes or wrongly teach it i get upset at that i don't like it when preachers stand in pulpits and just read a bible verse but you know it seems like the method is read the text depart from the text and never return to the text that's their homiletic method just throw out a bible verse so people think oh this is a church so i can kind of get away with saying my own opinion paul preached the text taught the text guarded the text and i cannot predict what happens in the next generation but i can say i will faithfully pass down with integrity hopefully the truth to the next generation now i i can't think of any better way to live and die than that that's the way to die that's a way to leave this world you know most people when they think about death they only think about the physical part of death will it hurt yeah it might for most people it's not pleasant i mean i've it's been going on for thousands of years we can study it pretty easily because it happens all the time so yeah it might but it will it be a lingering disease it might will it be covid will i die from covet you might but god will take you out whatever way god wants to take you out you don't have to be afraid of it i think it's better that we start looking at death not in terms of will it hurt or any physicality but in terms of opportunity because when you die the opportunity is over right now you can witness to people right now you can teach bible lessons and preach sermons right now you can share with your family how to get to heaven in heaven you won't do that that opportunity is gone forever so this is the time of opportunity so get busy get active get in the fight get out get on the track run the race i i've told you before it's been a while but about a woman who lived in the midwest named nancy nancy jones was her name she was a spinster a widow she didn't do much she didn't get out much she just sort of stayed at home people knew she lived but they didn't know anything about her because she just didn't do anything she didn't involve herself in the community at all well she died and the newspaper was tasked with writing not just an obituary but something they could put on her gravestone so nobody knew nancy jones so they gave it to the sports editor to write something for her so i hear that there's a tombstone somewhere back there that says this here lies the bones of nancy jones her life it held no terrors she lived an old maid she died an old maid no hits no runs no errors i don't mind making errors as long as i can make a few hits and runs amen so you only do that by deciding i'm not going to stay back locked down i'm going to get busy for his glory and live my life a life well lived so face the inevitable decide to be faithful number three and four we'll make this quick aim at the eventual look down the road paul does that in verse eight he pivots from the present then the past now the future verse eight all in one verse finally there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day and not to me only but to all who have loved his appearing if you want to fight well if you want to run well if you want to be a good steward of what god has put with in your life then think of the end go all the way there to that day now paul knows he's not going to get an earthly reward he knows what's going to happen in a few days weeks months he knows that nobody's going to put a crown on his head or laurel wreath on his head he knows that his head will be severed from his body soon but he also knows he's going to get a resurrection body he also knows that besides a resurrection body that his lord is going to reward him and he is aiming for one sentence that he wants to hear well done good and faithful servant aim for the well done aim for the well done for a soldier to fight well in a battle the soldier needs to think about the victory parade at the end of the battle when they would go through rome to the temple of jupiter all the troops would be honored if you're going to win the battle that's what the roman soldier thought of if you're in the olympics you think of the gold standing on that platform walking away with the prize years ago woody allen had a statement and um every time he made it people laughed nervously because they they understood the truth he said i'm not afraid to die i just don't want to be there when it happens sorry didn't work that way you will be there that appointment if you're late for every other appointment you'll keep that one you'll be on time you'll be there when it happens but for the christian it is vastly different because our savior said this here's the promise i am the resurrection and the life whoever believes in me will never die and whoever dies or whoever lives and believes in me even though he dies yet shall he live you say what does that mean exactly it means that when you die you won't be dead long enough to know you died it'll be instantaneous glory in the presence of god on that day on that day and i love how he writes it finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day imagine this us in heaven he's going to reward us he's going to give us some crown some reward wait a minute i mean just being there is reward no but but there's more but wait there's more he'll reward you the bible talks about those crowns in so many places when martin lloyd jones another one of my heroes of the faith when he was ill and he was on his deathbed and his family was around him he said to them don't pray for healing don't try to hold me back from the glory years ago when i was single and living in a house in huntington beach i had a roommate who had a girlfriend named barbara they were talking about marriage and they were then planning their marriage they were just so much in love and i'll never forget one day barb said to me because she was really looking forward to marriage but she heard at church people talking about jesus is coming jesus is coming soon and so she turned to me and even gritting her teeth she goes i hope jesus doesn't come back before i can get married and i remember turning to her and go did i just hear you say that did you really just say what i think you just said because obviously you do not understand the reward that is awaiting for you i mean marriage is great but come on rewards in heaven hello different level and it's this view of death that sustains us in life and i've discovered something i i believe this to be true whenever you see a christian fail morally run out of steam they fall it's not that they just fell in that moment they lost sight of the end that's what happened they lost sight of the end they lost sight of this on that day so face the inevitable decide to be faithful aim at the eventual fourth ingredient to dying well become more relational become more relational die with friends around you be connected to people restore relationships that are broken swallow your pride reach out ask for forgiveness make peace before it's too late verse 9 he writes to timothy because he's alone be diligent to come to me quickly he longed for his fellowship he wanted somebody around and be diligent to come to me quickly for demas has forsaken me having loved this present world and has departed for thessalonica cretians for galatia titus for dalmatia only luke is with me his friend the doctor get mark and bring him with you for he is useful to me for ministry do you remember mark he had a falling out with mark first missionary journey mark left went back home too scared gotta go find mama he went back home to mama that never sat well with paul there was a rift from that day forward between mark and paul and even between paul and mark's uncle barnabas they had to split company and they did for years but eventually the text would indicate there was a reconciliation and this he's useful to me bring him we've made peace become more relational i've discovered that as people get older it's harder for them to make friends sounds odd but it's true when we're kids we're friends with everybody we pour our hearts out to everybody we become more guarded we want to be safe we've been hurt before we put up the walls we put up the guards and it's harder somebody once said everybody's talking about the miracles of jesus no one talks about jesus miracle of having 12 friends in his 30s something to be said for that the early puritans talked about dying well they said everybody should make it an aim in life to die well and before you say well i've already blown it there's too much water under the bridge i've gone so far down the road and i'm much older now again today's the reset button after today things can be different remember his mercies are new every morning so from now on you fight from now on you run from now on you are faithful to the truth from now on you reach out to people and forgive and make make friends or keep them from now on now that's really the end of this message but i want to take you to the end of paul's life paul was in the mammartine prison i told you about that he's in his second imprisonment the prison he was in in his second imprisonment was vastly different from his first in his first imprisonment he was in a house basically in his second imprisonment this letter was written from the mammartine prison solitary confinement mammoth team prison was a hole in the ground in the rock there was no windows the only light was above him there was a hole above him and they could lower food through a rope and it was in that setting that the apostle wrote these words with this kind of hope soon they would lift him up out of the mamma teen prison soon he would stand in the basilica julia a building built by julius caesar there he would be read his final sentence a death sentence i'll let a.t robertson the new testament scholar take it from here the crowds float into town some were going out paul was only a criminal going to be beheaded few if any of the crowds would know or care anything about him at a good place on the road some miles out the executioners stopped the block was laid down the executioner stood ready axe in hand the men stripped paul tied him kneeling upright to the low pillar which exposed his back and neck the lecters beat him with rods for the last time he groaned and bled from his nose and mouth and then without a hint of hesitation the executioner frowned as he swung the blade down swiftly hitting its mark with a dull thud and the head of the greatest preacher of the ages rolled upon the ground in that moment the soul of paul was instantly taken from the imperial city of rome to the eternal celestial city of heaven at that moment he was unshackled he was unloosed he was free he was like yes that's the way to die father thank you for the life and the death of a man we have come to know and greatly admire in our christian heritage paul the apostle a man who knew how to die thus he knew how to live he had the end in mind and because he knew how to go out he knew how to go forward whether by life or death he said to glorify god in my body he was just a man but he was a man filled with your spirit we are just men and women but we can be men and women filled with your spirit paul was no god he was not deity he was a human and so he leaves for us a tangible example of how to do it right i pray that decisions would be made today first and foremost the decision to make jesus the king of our life and if we're not secure in that aspect i pray we would make peace with you today now friend if you're here and you've never surrendered your life to jesus right now right where you're at say lord take me take my life i'm yours forgive me i believe in jesus i believe he died i believe he rose i believe he lives i give you my life i turn from my sin i turn to jesus as savior help me to live for him as lord in jesus name amen we hope you enjoyed this special service from calvary church we'd love to know how this message impacted you email us at my story at calvarynm.church and just a reminder you can support this ministry with a financial gift at calvarynm.church give thank you for joining us for this teaching from calvary church

Channel: Skip Heitzig

Views: 599

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Christian living, death, dying, eternity, faithful, faithfulness, future, heaven, relationships

Id: 3Ex-0KJvM2A

Length: 46min 36sec (2796 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 26 2021