CORNERSTONE BIBLE CHURCH December 30, 2012 BEHIND THE SCENES: Demas, A Man Who Failed Colossians 4:10–14 / 2 Timothy 4:9–10 Introduction: How much money is spent at Christmas • I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas. I hope you enjoyed your time with your family and friends, around the Christmas tree, dinner table, or whatever else your traditions might be. I really do not know what went on at your particular house on Christmas day or this past week. But I could guess one thing. I could guess that there was, at some level, a pull towards to the things of the world. • Maybe it was in the hearts of your children who received and wanted more and more things. Maybe it was in the heart of your siblings who didn’t get what they wanted to get. Maybe it was in the heart of your parents or grandparents who wanted to “spoil” the people they love. I do not have to tell you, because you feel it every year about this time, but this season is filled with commercialism. There is more money spent during this season than any other holiday. Here are a few statistics that I recently found that really shocked me. o Did you know that it is estimated there is 2.6 billion dollars spent worldwide each year on wrapping paper. Our family is going to newspapers for now on. o In case you were wondering, this spending spree that America finds itself in every year usually starts on the day after Thanksgiving. This year, the four days, Black Friday—Cyber Monday, it is estimated there was 59.1 billion dollars spent in stores and online. Up from 52.4 billion in 2011. o The world’s largest Christmas tree is 43’ tall in the Emirates Place Hotel in Abu Dhabi. It is estimated to be worth 11 million dollars, containing 181 diamonds, pearls, emeralds, and sapphires (btw, it is constantly guarded by 4 security guards) o It is estimated that the average American spends $750 on Christmas—from gifts to flowers to cards to food and so on. • We could keep going with statistics on the amount of money that is spent each year. But you get the idea. Let me be clear this morning. What we are going to talk about this morning is not to make anyone feel guilty. If you spent a lot of money on presents, food, or other things this year, I want you to know there is nothing inherently wrong in that. My goal is not to make anyone feel bad, but to continually keep before us that the things of the world are in fact a lure or temptation for us. Continually. So much so that Jesus and the Apostles constantly warned us to not love the world. 1 Jesus said that we couldn’t love both God and money at the same time (Matt. 6:24). It just can’t happen. The Apostle John said that if we love the things of the world, it proves that we do not have a love for the Father in us (1 John 2:15). It is inconceivable for us to say we love God—it is impossible to say that Jesus is our God—and then to live in such a way that we covet, desire, long for, or constantly move towards the things of this world as if they are in fact our god. During the month of December, we have been looking at some of the men and women that God used Behind the Scenes in the early church. These are men and women who may not have been really popular, we might not have heard too much about them, but God used them mightily in the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This morning, in light of the New Year, in light of the time that we find ourselves in, I wanted to change our focus a bit and look at the life of one man that didn’t end so well. He was a man who started well, but failed to finish the race. And apparently, the thing that eventually did him in was his love for the things of the world. The man I am referring to goes by the name of Demas. He is a man who failed. But before we get to his failure, I want you to see how his life started. Colossians 4:10–14 As we have said with many of the other people in this study, we do not know much about his background. We do not know much about his personal life. As with the others, we speculate that he grew up in a pagan household. After all, this is the first generation church and most everyone did. The first mention of him is found by the Apostle Paul in Colossians 4:14. Paul, in writing to his friends at the church of Colossae, states that Demas greets them. Now, in order to fully understand this, we are going to need to understand the historical setting that Paul finds himself as he writes this letter. The Apostle Paul was the greatest evangelist of the gospel the world has seen outside of Jesus. He was the one who was called to take the gospel to the Gentile world, which is accounted for us in the book of Acts. As you read through the book of Acts, we see that Paul took three different occasions where he went on missionary journeys. Towards the end of the book of Acts, we are told about his 3rd missionary journey—when Paul spends around three years in Ephesus, probably around A.D. 56. We are told that during his ministry there, that . Acts 19:10 “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” 2 Most likely, it was at this time that the gospel message made its way to Colossae, a city located about 100 miles straight east of Ephesus. A man by the name of Epaphras was passing through Ephesus and heard the gospel, believed, and took it back to his hometown. He began to preach to his friends and family and they believed and a church was born in Colossae. It makes the most logical sense that it was this time when Demas would have heard the gospel, and at least made a profession of the gospel. How do we know that? Well, track forward with me now. After the church is planted, the book of Acts comes to an end in A. D. 61 with Paul in prison in Rome. This is what is known as his first imprisonment, which was more like a house arrest. Don’t get me wrong; it was a real imprisonment with real guards that were really chained to him. But the outlook wasn’t too bleak. It was well assumed that he would be released in due time. In this imprisonment, he was allowed to have people come and visit him. He was not allowed to leave his quarters, but he could share the gospel openly with people that came to him. The book of Acts ends this way: Acts 28:30–31 “He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” While he is in this prison, Paul writes 4 letters—known as the prison epistles. He first writes Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon & later that year writes Philippians. What Paul does is to send those first 3 letters (Ephesians, Colossians, & Philemon) to their respective places from Rome carried by two gentlemen, Onesimus & Tychicus. Why is this history lesson important? It is here that we meet Demas. We are told that he greeted the people in Colossae. Why? The only reason why Paul would include a greeting from him to them would have been if he knew them. He was a friend with many of them. This gives us some historical background that Demas was most likely from the Colossae region. I can well picture the scene, as Paul is in prison that Demas finds his way to him in that house. Here we have a guy who ends up spending time with Paul in his imprisonment. And as Paul is writing this letter to Colossae, I picture Demas looking over his shoulder saying, “Make sure and tell them that I said hello.” He was sending greetings back to his hometown. In fact, in the other letter that is sent at the same time, but to Philemon, we are told that Demas was one of the fellow prisoners & workers with Paul. Philemon 1:23–24 “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.” 3 What does that mean? It means that at this point in Paul’s life, Demas was one of his closest friends and helpers in the spread of the gospel. Paul is surrounded by some of his closest friends, and one of them is Demas. What this means is that early on in his life, things were on the right track. He was doing the right things. There is probably something to be learned here from this. What would life look like if you were to stick by your friends through the good and the bad? What would it mean for you to be a friend that sticks by someone, no matter what happens to them? No matter what you discover about them.