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Tabernacle Tidbit - 2 Timothy 4:20 · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  This is a Tabernacle tidbit, a bite sized Tabernacle talk of 5
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  minutes or less to help you get through your day when you only
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  have a little bit of time. We hope this helps you to know
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  Christ, groan His Word, and show His love to others.
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  Let's get started. Welcome back to Tabernacle
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  Tidbits. Today we are in Second Timothy
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  chapter 4 and verse #20 There are only two more verses left in
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  Second Timothy and today's verse, Paul is, if you will,
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  he's saying some of his like final goodbyes, some people that
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  he wants Timothy to say hi to from him.
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  And so he says in verse #20 Erastus has remained at Corinth.
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  I left Trophimus sick at my letus.
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  Erastus has remained at Corinth. I left Trophimus sick at my
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  elitis. All right, you might say, what
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  in the world? How?
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  How are we going to get anything out of this today?
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  Brian, I promise you there's some good things to know.
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  So Erastus was a companion of Pauls.
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  He was also someone that traveled with Timothy, and so he
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  would have been someone that Timothy would have cared about.
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  He would have wanted to know, you know, if Timothy arrives
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  there in Rome and he's wondering like, OK, what happened to
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  Erastus? Knowing that there were some
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  people that Paul had sent to various locations, like he sent
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  Titus to Dalmatia. There were some people that
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  abandoned Paul, like Phagellis and Homogenes and Demas, and so
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  he would have cared about Erastus.
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  And I think as Christians, one of the really important things
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  that we can do, especially in a local church context, is care
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  about the people who are not there, care about the people
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  that are not there. This requires you to do a couple
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  of things. Number one, it means that church
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  has to be more for you than just an hour on Sunday or just an
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  hour on Sunday. In your small group, you
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  actually have to take some time to get to know someone else
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  within the church. You have to share a meal with
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  someone or you have to hang out with them, grab coffee, grab
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  tea. You have to have a game that you
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  you got to do something that you are getting together with other
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  people within your church and you're getting to know them.
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  That that way when they are gone, when they're on vacation,
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  when they're sick, when they're going through a struggle in
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  their life and maybe they don't feel like they can come to
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  church, that you would be there for them, that you would
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  recognize, OK, they're not there.
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  So I'm going to reach out with a phone call.
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  I'm going to reach out with a text that is born out of
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  relationship. This is something that, you
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  know, as a pastor, myself and the other elders at Tabernacle,
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  we do every single Sunday. I, I take attendance and, and I,
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  I actually have written in a gigantic spreadsheet every
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  person that has attended Tabernacle over the last, oh,
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  it's been probably like 9 or 10 months now.
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  And so I know every person. And every Sunday, I, I send an
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  e-mail to the elders saying, all right, here's everyone that was
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  here today. Here's all of the members that
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  were missing. And we've got our, our members
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  kind of divvied up between our elders.
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  So that way, you know, it's kind of a manageable amount for us to
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  contact and, and let them know, Hey, are you doing OK?
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  We've been praying for you. Is there anything that we can do
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  for you? All that kind of stuff.
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  But it means even more when it comes from our brothers and
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  sisters, not just, if you will, from our spiritual fathers, not
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  just from our pastors or deacons or something.
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  It means even more when it comes from our brothers and sisters.
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  So that's the first thing. Erastus has remained at Corinth
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  that he says, Timothy, you know this person, you love this
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  person, so I want to let you know where he's at.
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  But then secondly, he says, I left Trophimus sick at Myletus.
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  Now, Trophimus was one that we first interacted with in Acts 20
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  and he would be a He was actually technically the person
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  that was the main reason for Paul getting arrested initially
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  in Jerusalem, that the Jewish leaders thought that Paul had
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  brought Trophimus, a Greek into the into the temple there in
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  Jerusalem. And they said he brought a
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  Gentile into the temple. And so they were super irate and
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  it ended up in Paul getting arrested and then now he's in
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  room. So that's just a cool little
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  sidebar, but I want us to notice this.
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  He says, I left Trophimus sick at my leaders.
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  There are two main interpretations on spiritual
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  gifts. The one form says that every
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  spiritual gift that God ever gave to anybody of believers
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  still exist today and God regularly still gives it to
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  believers. That would be a what would be
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  called a charismatic or a continuationist theology.
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  There is another view that would say there were specific gifts,
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  specific miraculous gifts that God gave to the church during
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  the time that the Scriptures had not yet fully been written.
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  The New Testament was not written yet.
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  And so these miraculous gifts verified the message that the
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  believers were preaching and they couldn't say here, look at
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  what Scripture says. Look at what, look at what God's
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  Word says. They had to go by, OK, trust me,
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  because I am now doing this action.
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  And Paul in his, in his ministry several times does operate with
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  these spectacular spiritual gifts, namely that people are
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  healed. Sometimes this even happens that
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  people touch Paul's handkerchief and they are healed.
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  But here this gift that Paul once had, he no longer has.
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  It was not a once and forever gift, not even within the
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  lifetime of the apostles. So here that Paul had to leave
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  Trophimus sick at my latest meant that he did not retain
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  this gift of healing for all time.
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  So this would at least inform that conversation of should we
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  expect the ability to be able to on command heal people, or to
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  speak or understand languages that we have never learned?
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  Or should we expect to be able to, you know, any other kind of
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  miraculous gift, Should we expect to be able to just do
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  that on demand as a result of a specific spiritual gifting?
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  And the answer is no. All right, I went way too long
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  for a Tabernacle tidbit, but thank you for sticking in.
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  Let's love people. Let's care for people.
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  And I'll see you next episode.