2 Timothy 4:16-17 “At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.”

Paul was no stranger to jail cells: Philippi, Jerusalem, Caesarea, Rome. This time was different. The Christian faith was no longer hiding under the protection of its Jewish roots. It was recognizably different, and it was illegal to spread it. This jail cell was the end of the line for Paul.

His Roman citizenship still afforded him a public hearing in a court of law. He tells Timothy they had already held his first defense. Paul used it as an opportunity to preach the gospel. That was his calling. But humanly speaking, it had left him all alone.

Paul wasn’t saying he had lost every friend in the world. Earlier he notes that Luke was still with him. He fully expects Timothy to come and bring Mark along. But not just anyone could speak in your support at a Roman defense hearing. Your defender needed to be a citizen, and he needed to be a certain kind of prominent citizen to do you any good. Apparently everyone who could have helped had deserted him.

I think we understand the temptations that being left all alone presented to Paul. They still confront us today. There is the temptation to cave in, to change our line, to sing a different tune.

Even the dread of being relatively alone, of becoming an unpopular little minority rejected by most, is a powerful motivator to rob us of the courage of our convictions. If it doesn’t get us to change our message, maybe we try to hide it. We play it safe by keeping our mouths shut. We don’t feel so much like telling others what we believe.

In the face of such temptations, Paul still counted on God’s presence. “But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength.” His experience of the Lord’s support was no different than ours. Paul’s eyes were not opened to see something no one else in the courtroom could see, as Elisha’s servant once saw the angel armies in the form of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha’s house.

Paul found the Lord standing by his side and giving him strength where every Christian does: in the words and promises of God. Do you remember the little autobiographical testimony Paul had given toward the beginning of his first letter to Timothy? “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners–of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.” The Grand Canyon sized contrast between Paul’s sin and Christ’s forgiving grace left no doubt in Paul’s mind that the Lord was on his side, and by his side.

Isn’t this a theme, a connection, that runs all through Paul’s life and work? His thoughts are never far from God’s grace at the cross when it comes to the way he lived his life. To the Corinthians: “Christ’s love compels us, for we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (5:14). To the Galatians: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” Again and again it is Christ’s love, his cross, his death, his sacrifice, his grace that occupies Paul’s thoughts and captivates Paul’s heart, so that he lives and serves and endures as though God himself were working through him–which, of course, he was.

It works no differently for us. If we want to know that the Lord is standing by our side, if we want to find his strength, if we want to be sure we are never alone, run to the gospel. Run to God’s grace. Run to the promises. Don’t stand and wait to be hit by a bolt of spiritual lightning out of nowhere. Don’t shrink and shrivel in the face of a world majority that thinks the Gospel is stupid at best and evil at worst. Christ Jesus loves you so much that he died to save you. Christ Jesus loves you so much that he has driven world history to make sure that, out of all the citizens of this planet, you would have parents or friends or pastors or teachers who brought you the gospel and led you to faith. You don’t think he stands by you, then? No, you are never alone as you carry out Christ’s calling.

Judges 13:21-23 “When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord. ‘We are doomed to die!’ he said to his wife. ‘We have seen God.’ But his wife answered, ‘If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.’”

Manoah and his wife experienced special evidence of God’s presence and blessing in their lives, even though they weren’t aware of it at first. When the Old Testament speaks of the angel of the Lord, many times it is not referring to a created angel. It is referring to the Lord himself, more specifically the Son of God before he became a man. That is who was talking to this couple here. The Son of God was present in their lives, bringing them God’s promises, providing special blessings in the gift of a child, and one who would be a leader and deliverer for God’s people. They received all this before they even understood the identity of their mystery guest.

Then they experienced a rare and powerful demonstration of God’s presence in their lives. They both witnessed the Lord ascend into heaven in the flames of the sacrifice they were offering. It was an experience that literally brought Manoah and wife to their knees in awe and worship.

As the couple considered what they had just experienced, each of them had special insights into what had happened. Manoah thinks that they are doomed to die. Maybe we are tempted to say that Manoah is over-reacting. He is being melodramatic. But Manoah understood something far too many people fail to get. This was not merely an overreaction.

Remember what God said to Moses after the golden calf incident, when Moses wanted to see God face to face? God told Moses that he would make all of his glory pass by, and Moses could see his backside. But Moses could not see God’s face, “For no man may see me and live.” Remember how Isaiah reacted when God appeared to him in a vision to call him to his service? The Lord was seated high on his throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple, and smoke filled the temple, and angels were crying out “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.” What was Isaiah’s response? “Woe to me–I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!”

These men all understood that it is a dreadful, terrifying thing for sinners to stand in the presence of the Holy God. Our world is all too free and easy about where we stand with God. We could stand to take God more seriously. We can use a healthy dose of awe, reverence, and dread, especially when we consider the damning nature of our sins.

But that’s only half the story. Manoah’s wife had a special insight, too. She not only looked at the great power and considered that they had been standing in the presence of the Holy God. She had listened. She heard God’s promises and the blessing they were being given. God said he was sending his people a deliverer, a savior, and he was using this family to do so. Far from meaning to kill them, God had promised to save them.

God still wants you to listen to what he says, especially when he tells you that he has sent you a Deliverer, a Savior, who has come to spare your life. God wants you to hear the promise that he has taken your sins away and filled the void with Jesus’ love and his Spirit’s power. God wants you to be sure that his plans for you don’t end soon, because they don’t end here. Because of his grace and promise, his plans for you will mean life that never ends in heaven.

Then our evidence of God’s blessing will encompass far more than brief encounters. Our vision of God will be constant, and so will our life in his presence.

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you, I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;”

The Lord specially formed Jeremiah…and each one of us. This word “formed” is the same word God used of “forming” Adam out of the dust of the ground at creation. It is also the word the Bible uses for a potter working at the pottery wheel, forming his bowls and pitchers, cups and plates, and other kitchen ware. Today the raw material comes from our parents instead of the dirt, but our Lord is still intimately involved in the process, carefully, purposefully, artistically forming and shaping us to fit his plans for us.

Even more impressive, he knew us before he made us. Once a child is conceived today, a sonogram may be able to tell you the gender before its birth. It can let you know whether the child is developing normally. But even with this ability to see into the womb, the child we get is still a stranger to us, and there may be some surprises when it is born.

God knew us before our birth. God knew us before our conception. He knew us personally, as his own. He knew that we would need Jesus to save us from sin, just like everyone else. But he also knew our gifts. He knew our strengths and weaknesses. He knew how we were going to fit into his plans, and he knew that we would be just right for the purpose for which he made us.

He more than knew us: “Before you were born I set you apart.” Before we existed he determined that he would save us from our sins. He gave us parents who brought us to church and baptism. Or he sent a friend to tell us about Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. He sent his Spirit into our hearts to make us his own by faith. He set us apart to serve him with our lives.

Even more than this–before we even existed, he so loved us that he had decided to do so. He gave us our special purpose already then. Have you seen the movie The Incredibles? The superhero parents won’t let their superhero children make use of their incredible superhero powers. They are trying to remain anonymous and blend in. Superhero son Dash wonders why he has to hide the fact that he is special. “Everyone is special,” his mother chides him. “Which is just another way of saying no one is special,” Dash complains.

But for those who belong to God by faith, every one of them truly is special. He set us apart for his unique purposes even before he formed our bodies to meet those purposes. From these promises we can be certain that God has made each of us a special–and will display it in ways consistent with our purpose.

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

When Paul speaks of being “at home” in this verse, he is not thinking of a place. The Greek word speaks about being “with our people.” And that is really home, isn’t it? I grew up on southern Minnesota. I will admit that there are things about the geography, the culture, and sometimes even the climate of that place that fill me with a sentimental longing. It still feels very comfortable when I go back there. There is something about it that just fits.

But home is not a place as much as it is the people. My own family is with me in Oklahoma, and that makes this place home. And if my parents or relatives visit, or if we meet up with them at some other place around the country for vacation, there is a great sense of being home then, too.

That’s where we are right now, Paul says. We are at home, with our people, in the body. And it is right for us to cherish those relationships and appreciate the time we spend with our dear ones here. Those people themselves are a great gift from God.

But those people themselves don’t stay with us forever. They move all over the country. As they age, they eventually move on to our home above. Even now they often bring pain into our lives with the way they treat us. And so long as we are here with them, we are away from the Lord.

That is why we are longing to take the last step to our home above, where we will find ourselves in better company. “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” It is better to be at home, “with our people,” with the Lord. My grandparents are already there, and some of my uncles. Many years ago my wife and I thought we might be sending a child on ahead of us. Some of you may have. These people are already there in all the perfection heaven promises.

But better still is the company we will keep with the Lord himself, finally face to face. Sometimes it is hard to appreciate what that will mean for us before we get there. It’s supposed to be the greatest thing about heaven, yet sometimes we may feel a little like the child whose parents excitedly tell him he is going to meet a great aunt he never met. And the child thinks, “Woo-hoo. Another old person with whom I have little in common.” We may not be convinced that seeing God holds that much appeal.

Or maybe it’s all we ever really wanted. Although we can’t fully realize it now, it is the answer to a host of inexpressible longings we can never seem to satisfy while we are here. We try to fill the emptiness with people or things or experiences, but none of them will do, because like Paul, we are longing to take the last step to a better home. There we will find ourselves in better company–in the presence of God himself.