Today we are looking at the last chapter that Paul ever wrote, and writing what we might call his own epitaph. An epitaph is a statement written about a person who has died, which often says something about the person’s legacy. You know, important people, such as President’s, are always concerned about their legacy, what history will say about them. I think it’s indicative of their own sense of self importance that they are so concerned about it that they build libraries in their own honor to try to mold people’s opinion.
So an epitaph is written on a tombstone. Not to be too cavalier about the subject, but after all , epitaphs are a kind of morose subject matter, there used to be a company called Tombstone Pizza that had commercials that ran on TV. And the one I remember was a guy on a horse with a noose around his neck, about to be hanged, and they asked him, what do you want on your tombstone. And he suddenly gets a pleased look on his face and says, “Pepperoni and cheese!” That would be a pretty interesting epitaph to have on your gravestone.
But to consider your own epitaph or legacy is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it can be a good thing if it causes you to examine how you live, and what impact or lack of one you have had on the world. In studying for this sermon I googled some of the most famous epitaphs to try to get some serious background information on this subject, and found some of them really interesting.
The one I liked the best is one I’m tempted to use on my own tombstone, which was, “I told you I was sick.” According to my wife I am a chronic hypochondriac, but one day she’s going to realize that there was something wrong with me all along. But there were others in that list that were interesting as well. An atheist had written on his tombstone in a cemetery in Thurston, Maryland, “Here lies an atheist. All dressed up and no place to go.” I have a feeling he did in fact go somewhere he didn’t want to believe existed. Another one I liked was by a guy named Johnny Yeast. His said, “Here lies Johnny Yeast, pardon me for not rising.” And one more which I thought was pretty cool is found in Tombstone, Arizona, in a graveyard for gunfighters near the infamous Ok Corral. It says, “Here lies Lester Moore. Four slugs from a 44, no Les, no more."
Now as Paul concludes this letter, he writes what might be considered his own epitaph. He knows that he is not going to leave prison alive. He is about to die by execution. In those days, execution for a Roman citizen was by beheading. That is a pretty awful thing to contemplate, especially when it is your own head that is destined to be on the chopping block. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to think about those last minutes.
But much to his credit, Paul doesn’t seem to dwell much on his physical death. He has said elsewhere that for him to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord, and that was very much better. He has said for me to live and to die is gain. So the means of his death, the pain of his death, doesn’t seem to be on his mind at all. He seems to see death as merely a vehicle to take him from one place to another. He says in vs 6 “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.”
That word for departure is from the Greek word “analysis” which reads like our word analysis, but actually comes from the idea of loosening from moorings prior to setting sail. That’s kind of a neat way of thinking about death, isn’t it? Just pushing off from the dock, dropping all the lines, and setting sail for a new horizon, another shore.
Paul says the time of his departure is at hand, his time has come to cast off. And he is ready to go. All that awaits is the moment that the Lord says, “it’s time.” Paul isn’t waiting on the courts, or on Nero, he is waiting on the Lord. Our time’s are in His hand. It says in Psalm 139, “And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.”
Isn’t it interesting to think about the fact that most of the Lord’s greatest servants in the New Testament died by execution or torture? John the Baptist was beheaded and his head put on a platter at the whim of an adulterous woman. Peter was hung upside down on a cross. Timothy was, according to tradition, stoned to death. Stephen was also stoned to death, while Paul, or Saul as he was then known, held the coats of those who threw the stones. James was thrown from the temple wall to his death. This idea that 21st century Christians have that God owes them a calamity free existence or a illness free existence just doesn’t have any basis in scripture. When God is finished with His servants, He takes them home, and rather than always sending a fiery chariot, sometimes He uses what seems to us as the most inglorious methods possible.
But Paul’s time of departure has come, and he is ready for it. His bags are packed and he is waiting and ready to go to be with the Lord. He isn’t afraid of death, even death by beheading, because he knows it is merely a vehicle to something much better. He wrote in 2 Cor. 4:17 “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.”
In fact, he looks at his imminent death as the last sacrificial act of a life dedicated to sacrificial service to the Lord. He says, “I am already being poured out as a drink offering.” According to the law in Numbers 15, when a lamb was sacrificed on the altar in a burnt offering, a drink offering of wine was poured out beside the altar. It was the final act of the sacrificial ceremony and Paul said it pictured the final pouring out of his life on the sacrificial altar of his service to God. His entire life had been a living sacrifice as he describes in Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.”
It is only by faith that a life so lived can be spoken of as a sacrifice of service, and when your time comes to die, that you can see it as Paul saw his final moments, a final act of sacrifice to the Lord. Paul is ready to go, ready to depart, because as he says in vs 7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.”
An unbeliever, looking at how Paul’s life ended in prison, and the ignominy of being beheaded, alone among his enemies, they might hardly see a life worth boasting about. But Paul is boasting in the Lord, not in his flesh. He says, I have fought the noble fight. That’s what it really means, the noble fight. He is making the ultimate sacrifice for a noble cause, dying in service to the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. He is giving up his life for the kingdom of God. We honor men and women in America who gave their life in service to their country. There should be no greater honor given than to those who laid down their lives in battle so that others may be free. Jesus said, “There is no greater love than this, that a man lays down his life for his friends.”
Paul loved the Lord, and gladly gave his life in service to the Lord, even unto death. And he considered it a privilege to fight the noble fight. To be counted as worthy for service. And what a fight it had been; a fight against Satan and his horde, against the principalities and powers in the spiritual realm, the world forces of this present darkness, against Jewish and Gentile vice and violence, against Judaism amongst the church, against fanaticism, against contention, strife, jealousy, false reports, lies and slander about him, against Gnosticism, against false teachers in sheep’s clothing, and their false doctrines. And last but not least, against his own flesh and the sin that so easily besets us all.
The life of a Christian is not a life called to leisure, to Sunday school picnics, to lazy days in the sunshine with fair winds and following seas. The Christian’s life is a call to battle, a noble battle. Such battles require great sacrifice, but the battle is a noble cause, the very highest calling and privilege, and one to which Paul devoted his life without regret. Now that’s a thought that is worthy of an epitaph, to have lived a life without regret. I can assure you that if you live your life according to the standards of the world, to try to achieve some sort of acclaim or fortune, at the end of your life the only thing you will have to take with you when you depart this life will be regret. But a life lived for the Lord can be a life without regret.
Paul said in Phl. 3:7-14 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from [the] Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which [comes] from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained [it] or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of [it] yet; but one thing [I do:] forgetting what [lies] behind and reaching forward to what [lies] ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” That’s how to live and die without regret.
Paul said, not only has he fought the noble fight, but he has finished the course. Other translations say he has finished the race. Paul changes metaphors here from a battle to a race. He fully accomplished the ministry that the Lord had called him to. Paul was a man with one holy passion, that was to run the race to which he had been called, to run well, and finish well. So many Christians don’t seem to finish the race. Paul rebuked the Galatians for that in Gal. 5:7 saying, “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?”
This race that we have been called to run is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires endurance and perseverance to finish the race. To continue to the end. Paul said in 1Co 9:24-27 “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but [only] one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then [do it] to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”
So Paul says he ran the race and finished the course. That’s an example for us, that we continue, we persevere, we endure to the end. That we do not fall short of our goal. And the goal is not “he who dies with the most toys wins” or “he who dies with the biggest estate wins” but he who gives it all up, counting it all as loss, pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Not only did Paul fight the noble fight and finish the race, but he says he kept the faith. It’s the idea of keeping the true doctrine. Not deviating from the faith once delivered to the saints. Not falling into the trap of false teaching, of being deceived, the trap of another gospel in order to scratch the itching ears of those who would rather believe a lie. Keeping the faith is difficult today in an ecclesiastical field that is sown with tares among the wheat. It’s a battle between the truth and the lie. Because the devil is a deceiver and a liar and his strategy against the church is to tell a lie that looks like the truth, but will lead you into a false doctrine, or even better, a false sense of salvation. So to keep the faith requires discernment, wisdom, studying the word to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that doesn’t need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, and in so doing, being reliant upon the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth.
Another application that is included in keeping the faith is similar to what was indicated in running the race. And that is keeping the faith, being faithful, till the end. Being found faithful when your time comes to depart. Being found faithful in the little things. Paul said in 1Cor. 4:2 “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” A steward is a man who was put in charge of his master’s goods while he went away to a far country. And when the master returned, he calls the stewards together to give an account of what they did with his goods. Jesus told that parable to illustrate many things, not the least of which was being found faithful when the Master returns. As I said when talking about the race, a lot of Christians start out running well but at the end of the race they are no where to be found.
Paul was found faithful when he was called to stand before his master. And for those who fought the noble fight, who finish the race, who kept the faith and are found faithful, Paul says that there will be a reward. In vs 8 he says, “in the future there is laid up 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 loved His appearing.”
Paul says, in the future… that is in of itself an expression of faith. For a man condemned to die in a few days or weeks to talk about his future is an expression of faith. It reminds me of the faith of the thief on the cross. Jesus said to him that today he would be with Him in Paradise. But the thief was dying on a cross as a convicted criminal. What cause was there for believing that he was saved on that cross? The answer is found in what that man said to Jesus as he was hanging there. He said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.” That was an expression of faith, faith that Jesus was the Messiah, that He would rise from the grave, and that His kingdom was an everlasting kingdom, the kingdom of God. That’s a lot of faith crammed in a very small sentence. And Paul said in Romans 1:17, “the just shall live by faith.” Salvation is by faith, and that thief found salvation through faith in Christ.
Paul’s faith is assured that he has a future even though from an earthly point of view he was at the end of his rope. And in that future he is assured that God has laid up for him a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day. What is Paul talking about? First of all, he is speaking of that day, that is the day of Christ’s appearing, the day when God will judge the living and the dead, the day of judgment. That’s why Paul refers in this context to the Lord as the righteous Judge. Jesus came to earth the first time to save. But the next time Jesus comes, He comes in judgment.
At that judgment, Paul says the Lord will give him a crown of righteousness. This wreath or crown is the victor’s crown, the crown that Jesus Himself has earned for us that believe in Him. As the hymn we sing says, “Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.” It’s the righteousness of Jesus Christ that is our wreath, our crown, that He gives to those who believe in Him as their Savior.
As 2 Cor. 5:21 says, “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” We are given the righteousness of Christ in exchange for our sins, which He paid for on the cross through His death. Are we then not to be judged for our good works, our works of righteousness? Yes, there is a reward for works of righteousness. But the crown or wreath that Paul is claiming here is the crown of the righteousness which is given to all who trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is the crown that is everlasting life with the Lord. There are also crowns (plural) which we will receive for our stewardship. As Jesus said in the parable, “‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.”
But it’s evident from the context of the judgment that Paul is speaking of the last day, the reward at the judgment will be the crown of the righteousness that qualifies us for entry into the kingdom of heaven. In another parable, Jesus likened it to the wedding garment that all who entered into the wedding feast must wear for entrance. Without the righteousness of Jesus Christ, applied to our account, we have no basis for entrance into eternal life.
That is why Paul says it is not only going to be given to him, but to all who have loved His appearing. That’s a reference to the second coming of Christ. Note the word love, not fear is used here, because perfect love casts out fear. Of all the indications that one loves the Lord, the eager anticipation of the Lord’s return is one of the best assurances that they do in fact love the Lord, for such a person is thinking not only of himself and his own glory but also the Lord and HIs vindication.
Are you looking forward with anticipation for the Lord’s return? Unfortunately I don’t think that’s as universal of an attitude as we might think in the church. If you’re like most of us, we really are more enamored with this life than we are excited about the next one. As Paul says in the next section, Demas has deserted me, having loved this present world. I would say that suggests a current problem with the church, and perhaps a reason that we cannot say with Paul that we have confidence about our departure.
I would urge you to remember the line from the old spiritual which says,” this world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.” Let us present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service of worship, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
What will your epitaph be when you finish this race which we call life? I hope that you will make it your ambition to be found faithful when you are called home. I hope that you will fight the noble fight for the kingdom of heaven, that you may know that in the future there is laid up for you the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to you on that day; and not only to you, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
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