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Tabernacle Tidbit - 2 Timothy 4:14 · 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 know
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  Christ groan His Word and show His love to others.
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  Let's get started. Hello and welcome back to
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  Tabernacle Tidbits. Today we are in Second Timothy
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  chapter 4 and verse #14 and this is the apostle Paul.
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  He's writing, if you will, kind of his last will and testament
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  to his son in the faith, Timothy.
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  And as he's writing to him, he wants Timothy to watch out for
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  one particular person in Timothy's journey.
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  Verse #14 Paul says this Alexander the coppersmith did
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  great harm to me. The Lord will repay him
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  according to his works. Paul in his letters doesn't
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  often name a particular individual as being problematic.
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  However, he does it several times in his letters to Timothy
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  that as there is a very pastoral kind of friendship and
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  relationship between these two men, that Paul planted this
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  church in Ephesus that now Timothy is a pastor at.
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  Paul wants Timothy to know sometimes you have to name names
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  and to say this is a person that is not walking with the Lord and
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  it's evident through how they are interacting with their
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  spiritual leadership. Now are spiritual leaders always
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  right? Absolutely not.
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  Galatians 2 you have Paul telling Peter that he is wrong
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  in shying away from being around the Christian Gentiles just
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  because the Jewish believers from Jerusalem had come up to
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  the church at Antioch and and Peter hid himself away from the
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  Christian Gentiles so that the Jewish believers wouldn't be
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  like, hey, why are you hanging out with these, you know,
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  Gentiles, you should only be with the Jews.
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  And it says that Paul withstood Peter to the face because he was
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  to be blamed. He says this is not how the
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  gospel shapes our relationships. So there there are times in
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  which perhaps spiritual leaders might need to be corrected.
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  But can I tell you that is predominantly when it has to do
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  with sin evil not I would have done something different and as
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  opposed to that here in this verse, it says Alexander the
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  coppersmith did great harm to me and he describes how Alexander
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  did that and we'll look at this more tomorrow says he strongly
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  opposed our words that those that resist the the teaching and
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  the direction of their spiritual leaders.
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  That is not a safe healthy place to be.
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  Now how could you say that? Doesn't this just, you know,
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  kind of circle the wagons? It can be.
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  If I am saying, hey, it doesn't matter what God's Word says, I
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  say this. But when we are pointing to the
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  Word of God and saying, hey, this is what we need to do, this
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  is where we need to go, then for you and I as Christian
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  believers, we have to follow our spiritual leaders in those
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  instances that we don't insist on our own way.
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  Instead, we follow, if you will, following Hebrews 13 verses 7
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  and 17. We obey and submit to those that
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  have the spiritual rule over us because they are going to give
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  an account for how they let our souls.
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  And Scripture says they can either do that with joy, because
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  like we listened to them and followed what they said, hey,
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  here's what the Bible says and we followed, or they can do it
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  with sadness, with grief. And the writer of Hebrews 13
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  tells us that that would be unprofitable for us.
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  And here Paul is, if you will, giving an account to Timothy
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  about Alexander the coppersmith. And he's saying with grief that
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  Alexander the coppersmith was not a person that followed and
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  believed and obeyed the word of God and the and the way that
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  Paul is leading the church there in Ephesus.
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  Instead, he says he did great harm to me.
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  May we not be those that cause harm or grief to our spiritual
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  leaders. I'll speak candidly right now as
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  a pastor, it is rough facing Satan every single day.
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  Satan hates believers. He hates pastors.
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  I think I've mentioned it before, Jesus said in John 10,
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  strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.
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  And that's certainly true within a local church as well.
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  So it's hard fighting Satan. It's hard trying to convince a a
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  world that is ruled by Satan that there is a God that loves
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  them and has a plan for their life.
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  And as we try and call the spiritually dead to life through
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  the power of the Holy Spirit, that's tough.
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  But it's even tougher when those that are supposed to be on the
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  same team as you are rejecting, you know, rejecting your
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  leadership or, or maligning or slandering.
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  That's a bad thing. That should never be something
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  that we're doing as the people of God here.
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  Alexander did harm to Paul, and he says the Lord will repay him
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  according to his works. This reminds me of what Paul
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  said in Romans 12. Don't seek vengeance for
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  yourself, but instead turn it over to the Lord, because the
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  Lord said I will repay. And in our moments where we felt
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  wronged by others, may we rely on the fact that God is just and
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  God will punish those who deserve it.
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  Let our part be to love as He's loved.
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  Thanks for tuning in.