The abandoned Apostle

This is just a piece I quickly wrote out for a 40 Days for Life meeting.

2 Timothy 4:9-18, 21

            I’d like to just read through this short passage of scripture and speak a few things parenthetically as we proceed through it. This passage comes from 2 Timothy, believed by most to be the last letter Paul wrote before he was martyred.

 Do your best to come to me soon. ¹⁰ For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

            Ever think about how cool it would be to get your name in the Bible? “Hey Demas! Great news! You’re mentioned in the Bible. Bad news, it’s because you deserted Paul.” Demas loved the present things of this world better than the eternal things of God. I imagine there were more fun things to do than to hang out with a prisoner in a musty dungeon, just like there are more fun things to do than hanging outside of an abortion facility when seemingly nothing is happening, or if something is happening, it’s not what you have been praying for.

Crescens has gone to Galatia,

            We’re not told why Crescens had gone to Galatia but it doesn’t come with the jab about loving the world. Perhaps it was ministry related. Perhaps it wasn’t.

Titus to Dalmatia.

            We do know that Titus was a pastor. We have a letter Paul wrote to Titus in our Bible. Most likely, Titus left for pastoral work.

¹¹ Luke alone is with me.

            Luke is the author of both the gospel of Luke and The Acts of the Apostles. He was a faithful companion to Paul through a lot of his ministry.

            Paul is in prison, facing death, his ministry had suffered a great blow as we shall read about in a few verses, and the great missionary, evangelist, and apostle is for the most part, alone. Even when his friends have moved on because of the ministry, like Titus and perhaps Crescens, it still hurts when you’re alone.  

Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.

            This verse could produce a whole sermon. Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey and somewhere along the way Mark abandoned them, for whatever reason. Paul must not have thought it was a good enough reason because when Paul and Barnabas made plans for their second trip, the two argued so intensely they had to go their separate ways. The issue was Barnabas wanted to take Mark and Paul didn’t trust him anymore. Now, Mark has redeemed himself in Paul’s eyes and was deemed very useful for the ministry.  

 ¹² Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.

            Paul has a ministry partner named Tychicus that he is sending to replace Timothy, at least temporarily, so he would be free to visit him.

¹³ When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas,

            Paul was all alone, cold, and was concerned with the upcoming winter.

also the books, and above all the parchments. ¹⁴ Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. ¹⁵ Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.

            There is some speculation as to who this Alexander the coppersmith was. We know he did Paul and his ministry great harm. Perhaps he turned him over to the Romans. Maybe he was a mole, and then testified against Paul in court. Perhaps he is the reason that Paul doesn’t have his books or parchments. It’s likely that “books” refers to his copies of the OT, and the “parchments” were either copies of NT writings or rough drafts of his letters he was writing. Either way he was very anxious to get them.

¹⁶ At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! ¹⁷ But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. ¹⁸ The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

            No one showed up at Paul’s trial. Paul, in 2 Timothy 4:6, refers to himself as being poured out like a drink offering, or in others words, he is giving his life and it has nearly run out. He has served thousands of people, walked thousands of miles, been beaten, shipwrecked, and imprisoned to help others know the love of the Father through His son Jesus Christ, and where were those people when Paul needed them the most? Demas completely abandoned him. A few others left for the ministry. Was there not a local body of believers that could keep him company, and supply some basic necessities, like a warm coat? Were all of these believers backsliders? Were they fearful that the Romans were going to get them next? I believe some were, but do you know what? I believe the majority just got busy with life. I believe some had the “someone else will take care of it” attitude. Sometimes when bad things happen to people, they never get any help because everybody expects someone else to do it.

            I’ll use this example until the day I die, or something changes. We were in Sunday school in mid-January at a Southern Baptist church when a wonderful, intelligent man of God said, “Do we really need another Sanctity of Life service? I mean, come on…we’re Baptist.” I about spit out my coffee. The Baptist talk a good talk but they do not walk the walk. In 1972 the Supreme Court took the case of Roe v. Wade to decide once and for all the legality of abortion. Their decision legalized abortion in all 50 states across the board, in all 9 months of the pregnancy, and for whatever reason. At that time the Protestant church in America viewed abortion on the same level as contraception, thus regarding it a Catholic issue, and leaving them to discuss it. We, as Protestants, have never really fully engaged in the battle since then. Thank God the Catholic Church has been faithful to defend life and have not dropped the ball on this issue. Imagine the ramifications if they had. (BTW: 65% of all abortive mothers identify themselves as Christians; Protestants 37% and Catholic 28%)

            So what does this passage have to do with 40 Days for Life? 40 Days for Life has helped a lot of people over the last 10 years. We, here on the Emerald Coast, have leaned on a lot of ministry partners to help accomplish a lot of our goals, some of them pastors, deacons, elders, and other fellow believers. Unfortunately, sometimes life just gets in the way and people start to drift. I don’t think anybody consciously drifts away, I think it just happens. Other people are very involved, but then get transferred away for the military. Sometimes people just fall in love with the world, and poof, they’re gone.

            My charge for you tonight is two-fold: 1) Spread the word. Start a pro-life group at your church. Be the pro-life point person. Let us call you instead of bothering the already busy pastor. If you are the pastor, start a pro-life group at your church and delegate some responsibilities. 2) Don’t abandon the cause. Get active and stay active. Educate yourselves through books, podcasts, and websites. And finally, encourage your leader with your willingness and presence. It’s kind of depressing when we have a leadership meeting and no one shows up.       

 Do your best to come before winter.

            Paul was cold, and was concerned no one would be there for him, so he had to mention his coat twice. Kind of sad.

Abortion by the Numbers: The Things That Keep Me Awake At Night

 

            According to Planned Parenthood, “Abortions are very common. In fact, 3 out of 10 women have had an abortion by the time they are 45 years old.”[1] Of course, this is not just a woman’s issue. While women most often carry the weight and burden of abortion (it goes against their God given maternal instinct to kill their children), there is always a man involved, too. So I lie in my bed and start doing math problems, which is an issue because I’m not really good at doing math in my head, and there’s something weird about a man getting out of bed to do calculations.

            For every abortion there is a mother and a father involved. Generally speaking, I know each family is different, but there is an average of four grandparents involved. Some will have less, but then there are others who will have both parents and step-parents pushing the numbers back up. Depending on the age of the mother there might also be 8 great grandparents involved. That’s fourteen people directly related to the abortion of one child. That’s not including brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, co-workers, or best friends. That is also not including the abortionists and clinic workers who have God given consciences and souls. I have heard that every abortion affects as many as 40 people, but for the sake of this blog, let’s lowball the number and go with 6.

            In the United States there are approximately 4,000 surgical abortions performed each day. Going with our low ball number of 6 people affected by abortion, that means 24,000 people are affected by abortion each and every day (FYI: the higher number is 160,000). According to the Guttmacher Institute, the research wing of Planned Parenthood and generally regarded as an accurate accounting of abortion statistics by both sides of the aisle, stated that 65% of the women who have had an abortion identified themselves as Christians, (37% Protestants, 28% Catholic).[2]

The Mayor

            This means that of the 4,000 women who have an abortion each day, 2,600 of them are coming from our churches. Now before you jump down my throat on that issue, I understand that not everyone claiming to be a Christian ever does anything remotely Christian like going to church once in a while. And even if they do go to church, it doesn’t make them a Christian any more than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger. But still, that is 2,600 women every single day, every single week, every single year who have had at least some knowledge and upbringing into the Christian faith. That is a lot.

            Let’s extrapolate. 4,000 women + 4,000 men + 16,000 grandparents = 24,000 people directly affected by abortion every single day. Sixty-five percent of 24,000 people is 15,600 people who “identify” themselves as Christians in some capacity are being affected by abortion today. 15,600 were affected by abortion yesterday. 15,600 will be affected by abortion tomorrow. And our churches remain silent.

            Why?

            I heard that question asked on one of Josh Brahm’s archived podcasts on www.prolifepodcast.net. I don’t remember who answered the question, but I remember the answer. The man being interviewed said “the reasons churches are silent on abortion is ignorance, fear, and apathy.

            Ignorance, because let’s face it, pastors are busy doing a lot of important things—very important things. It takes a lot of effort to research and study such a lighthearted topic like abortion. Unfortunately, I believe many pastors busy themselves with less important things. I think if I had to rank priorities I would say 1) Salvation; 2) the legal killing of human beings right under our noses; 3) human trafficking.    

My last pastor

            There’s also a natural fear when speaking about abortion. It is a very polarizing issue because it affects so many people. So many women and men regret having abortions, so they try to put their past away by the passing of time and distracting themselves with other activities—some of those activities are positive and some are negative like drugs, alcohol, and sexual promiscuity. When people speak about abortion, it brings up painful, dark memories and puts them back on square one. As you can imagine many of these men and women will be very angry, and possibly act out in some negative way when their past is brought back up to the surface. Pastors are afraid to speak on abortion because they don’t want to upset people and lose members, which directly affects the church’s, and their own personal bottom line. Ironically, abortion is the number one elective procedure performed in America, and its considered taboo to talk about it. If there is nothing wrong with abortion, as Planned Parenthood proposes, why is it so difficult to talk about? Why does it bring up so much pain and turmoil?

            And finally, there’s apathy. I don’t know how 53 million Americans can be killed in 41 years of legalized abortion and we still don’t care. If while the pastor was preaching Sunday morning a deacon ran in and said “There’s a crazy man in the nursery with a knife!” we would expect everyone to get up and run to the nursery. Unfortunately, we can say “There’s a man who will fly in from New Jersey this week and perform 30-40 abortions before flying home. We need everyone to stand outside of his clinic.” How many people will show up? I suspect very few.

            Our churches are the last places that need to be silent on this issue. For one thing, 65% of all abortive mothers are coming from our churches. Secondly, we’re the only ones who have a solution. Abortion is a sin, no doubt about it, but it is not unforgivable. Jesus died for all sins, from lying to murder, from stealing time to rape. If we come to Him begging for mercy He will forgive our sins and begin cleansing us of all of our unrighteousness.

            Right now there are 8,000 post-abortive mothers and fathers, 5,200 in our churches, who are groping around in the dark, while we, as Christians in general and pastors specifically, are afraid to bring it up for fear of re-hashing bad memories. In so doing we deny them any help whatsoever. Guilt that has been covered up and not dealt with, must continue to bubble up to the surface. This is God’s plan for us to live in a right relationship with Him. Sin separates us from God. He wants you to remember your sin, deal with it properly, and then move on. You can’t do step 3 without first attending to step 2.

            Let’s do some more math. Since 1973, there have been 53 million legal abortions in America (In the same time period there have been 1.5 billion legal abortions worldwide which is 6 times the population of earth when Jesus was a man). If 65% of all abortive mothers identified themselves as Christians, that means there are 34,450,000 post abortive women in our churches. Using our same lowball figure of 6 people affected by every abortion and we have 206,700,000 people who are in some way linked to our churches.

            Wanna be relevant to our culture? Wanna help society? Our churches should be and need to be riddled with post-abortive support groups like The IRMA Network, Rachel’s Vineyard, and Silent No More. Personally, I can’t think of a church that hosts any post-abortive support group.

            Its something to think about.         

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[1] http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/abortion-4260.asp Accessed on 2/25/14

[2] http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html Accessd on 2/25/14