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24th September 2025
WednesdayReflection
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'John Piper'
'founder and teacher of Desiring God.com'
"The Lord Stood by Me"
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"But the Lord stayed with me and gave me strength, so that I was able to proclaim the full message for all the Gentiles to hear; and I was rescued from being sentenced to death. And the Lord will rescue me from all evil and take me safely into his heavenly Kingdom. To him be the glory for ever and ever! Amen."
..... 2 Timothy 4 v 17-18
I want to talk about the faithfulness of God in my life and I want to talk about his faithfulness to you.
The apostle Paul - his last letter, 2 Timothy.
He is in Rome and is about to become a martyr for the gospel.
He will die in the persecution of Nero very soon after this letter is written.
He knows this is coming.
That's the meaning of verse 6:
"For I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come."
He knows that another court appearance is coming and that it will probably mean the end of his life.
This is a wonderful testimony.
Jesus Christ is a very personal and precious friend.
Back near the beginning of the ministry here at 'Bethlehem', he opened my eyes to
John 15:13-15,
"Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you."
I saw that the heart of my ministry was rooted in the friendship of Jesus.
The heart of my ministry is to know what the Master is doing - to know what the Master is like - and to make it known.
But Jesus says, servants don't know what their master is doing.
Only friends know. This was a wonderful discovery.
If I am to succeed in this ministry, Jesus must be my friend.
And he has been.
Paul goes on:
"The Lord stood by me ... and gave me strength to proclaim the message fully."
My mother and father believed with all their heart that the Lord would stand by us as a family and give us strength in the ministry of God's Word.
No matter how hard the financial stress. No matter how difficult the health problems. No matter the ups and downs of my father's ministry.
They lived in the radiant confidence that the Lord would stand by us.
In my bedroom, there was a single bed where I slept.
And at the foot of the bed there was a painting of a boy standing at the helm of a ship. A storm was raging in the sea.
And standing at the boy's side was Jesus, large and strong and serious.
His hand was on the boy's shoulder, and he looked very much in charge.
The most important work of my life is preaching.
It's not more important than being holy, or being kind.
But when it comes to tasks, this is the most important one of my life.
In these ten years of preaching (when writing) I have never come to Sunday morning without a message that I believed to be from God and that I was eager to deliver.
This too is not because I am never dry or never down.
There have been many times of spiritual destitution and discouragement, but the cries of desperation have always been heard as Saturday and Sunday pressed in on me.
God taught me in a very powerful way that the power of the presence of Jesus standing by me is given for the purpose of world evangelization.
His friendship is given to forgive our sins, and heal our wounds, and make us whole people, that's true - but the reason he stands by us to give us forgiveness and healing and wholeness is that we might multiply our joy in reaching "all the peoples of the earth."
Paul goes on at the end of verse 17:
"So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil and save me for his heavenly kingdom."
Notice very carefully what this rescue means
What evil would threaten to keep Paul out of God's heavenly kingdom?
What evil must the Lord rescue Paul from in order that he make it to heaven?
Not death. Death will be a doorway to the heavenly kingdom.
Paul isn't saying that the Lord will rescue him from death.
The answer is: The evil work of unbelief can threaten his entrance into the heavenly kingdom.
When Peter says (in 1 Peter 5:8) that
"Satan prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour,"
he means that Satan threatens to destroy professing Christians by attacking their faith.
This is the great preciousness of having the Lord standing by us.
It means that the Lord will cause us to persevere to the end and save us for his heavenly kingdom.
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This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
'John Piper'
is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God:
Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy
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