Paul's View of the Ministry, Part 1
Acts 20:17-20
I've entitled this particular of ... chapter, Paul Looks at His Ministry. And in it we have Paul's perspective on his own ministry.
Many great men never finish what they begin. There are unfinished sculptures, unfinished paintings, unfinished books, unfinished symphonies, many unfinished things. And, in some cases, maybe the greatest dream of a man's life, he died seeing only halfway done.
But life is like that. Life is cruel in that sense. For the ungodly, for the unfaithful, there is no guarantee that they will ever see the completion of what they dream to do, no guarantee at all. But whatever that thing is that they pursue that may give meaning to life, there is no promise that they'll ever accomplish it.
But you know I don't think that's true for the Christian. I believe in my heart, as much a belief in my heart as it is a confident trust in scripture, but I believe in my heart that God gives to the Christian the time he needs to finish the ministry God gives him. I believe that.
I believe that for the Christian there is the promise that, when God calls you, he will not only give you the spiritual gifs, he will not only open the doors, the will not only make the ministry a possibly, but he will give you the time to finish it. And I think that's born out here in the testimony of the Apostle Paul.
In Chapter 20, notice verse 24, "He had been warned not to go back to Jerusalem, and they warned him in these terms," verse 23, "The spiritual witnesses in every city, and, of course, it was through a human agency, saying that bonds and afflictions await me, but none of these things move me. Neither can't I my life here unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry."
Paul knew that he had a certain amount of time, and that in that time he would finish his ministry. He had that confidence, because he pursued it and he believed that God would allow him to accomplish it.
I believe that God prescribes the bounds of every man's life slovenly. And if got calls you a ministry, within that sovereign frame there is the possibly of accomplishment, I have to believe that, for God would never call you to a ministry that was impossible to finish. And I even believe that if, that he did this much time. I think probably this much of it is grace time for the goof offs in this part.
[Laughter]
I mean I have to believe that God anticipates certain periods of defection. Don't to you? I mean I hope so. [Laughter]
[Laughter]
But God has prescribed for a man who is a Christian a time in which to accomplish a ministry if he puts out a maximum effort.
I believe some Christians die without finishing their work, because they started it too late, or because they never got to it. And do you know something, I believe that God may just take Christians home before they even get going. If I read 1 Corinthians 11, "Some who continue to be carnal express that carnality at the Lord's table were killed by the Lord." Ananiasis of Fira dropped dead on the spot. 1 John 5, The sin of the death, it may be that if a Christian fails in it continuously, the Lord just removes him 'cause he's more trouble than he's worth, at least in terms of a testimony on the world.
Now if a Christian does not accomplish his ministry, it's not a question of a shortage of time, it's a question of failure on this part to make the use of time. For example, Paul says twice, "Redeeming the time." Not redeeming time, redeeming the time, definite time, a definite article, a prescribed time. Buy it up, redeem means buy up time, and that's what Paul was doing, he wanted to maximize every moment. He didn't waste time.
I don't believe God would call us into a ministry and not give us the time to accomplish it. Paul says, "But you have to buy it up." And Paul then lived his life buying up every moment to the end that he would finish his ministry, and when he would finish it, then he would leave.
Now the Lord has given us all of the ingredients. You know, if you read 1 Corinthians 12, you find out he's gifted us all, right? Granted to us the spirit. There are many diversities of gifts, and operations, and administrations, and ministries, and he's put all those things together, and I have to believe that he's given us the gifts and the ministries, according to Romans 12:3, he's also given us the faith to operate those gifts. Wouldn't do any good to have a certain faith and not have the faith to operate it, or to have a lesser gift, in a sense, and have more faith that you needed and just be frustrated all the time.
So there's an equal measure of faith for the type of gift that you have. And with all of that care, surely God has given us the time in which to accomplish it, if we maximize it. And I suppose the people who are going to hear, "Well done good and faithful servant," are the ones who maximized it.
In Ecclesiastes, just to call your attention to some thoughts about time, they come from a human brain, Ecclesiastes being the wisdom of man. But the wisdom of man intersects with the wisdom of God periodically in Ecclesiastes. And I call your attention to Ecclesiastes 3:1, "To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven."
Just as much as God guides all the other factors of existence, the guides time: A time to be born and a time to die. And I believe the bounds of a man's life are sovereignly designed by God.
In verse 17, "I said in mine heart, God shall judge righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work." God grants a time for every work to be accomplished.
In 1 Peter 1:17, most interesting statement, says this, "And if you call on the Father who, without respect of persons, judges according to every man's work," listen, "Past the time of your sojourning here in fear." Peter is saying you have a certain time, live it in the fear of God, that's what he's saying. Pass the time of your sojourning, a very personal designation of time, the time given particularly to you.
In 1 Peter 4:2, he says that, "He no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will of God." Now the idea here is that God has prescribed time to be maximized for his own will.
In Acts 17:26, Paul was preaching on Mars Hill in Athens, he said, "God is made of one blood, all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation." God determines the time.
Job knew this. And you remember, probably the first part of Job 14:14, but I wonder if you know the last part. The first part says, "If a man die," what? "Shall he live again." The second part says, "All the days of my appointed time will I wait 'til my change come." Job says, I know I'm gonna be changed, I know that, you know, and he said elsewhere that the worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. I know I'll be changed, I wait for my appointed time to end. Yes, God has bounded the life of a man sovereignly in terms of time.
And there is enough time for you to finish the work that God gives you. And I think that's so important. That gives me such a tremendous sense of direction in my life. To know that if I maximize, that I can finish the work, then I don't worry about dying, see, I don't have to worry about death. If I worry about just finishing the work and I don't mean worry in the sense of a negative, but worry in the sense of anticipation, if I think through the fact that if I maximize time, I'm gonna finish the work and then go to be with the Lord in a sense of fulfillment.
You know, we're gonna go to Israel pretty soon, and there's a lot of shooting going on over there. And I heard some lady who said that she was gonna stand in front of me because she didn't think my time was up because my work what is the finished. [Laughter]
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So I said, that's fine, lady, but I don't know whether your time's up, so I'm not gonna get near you.
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You know. I'm not willing to risk that either. But you know it's a fantastic thing to be able to look at your life in terms of that. If I maximize my life and finish the work, then I'm gonna go, and that's glorious.
You know, the Apostle Paul was a man who believed in making use of time, and he didn't believe it only for himself, but he propagated it to others. He wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:5, and he said this, he said, "Discharge your ministry to the full." In other words, he said, Timothy, accomplish it, do it, finish it. And to our, a particular individual who may well have been the son of Philemon in Colossians 4:17, he said to Arcibis, "Take head toe the ministry which thou has received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it." See, he says to this young minister, fulfill the time. Notice he said that twice, once to a young Timothy, once to a young Arcibis. That's the time when you need to began to maximize your ministry, to make the most of time, to redeem time.
Now this brings us, then, into the 20th Chapter of Acts, and e catch the Apostle of Paul as a man who is running against the clock in the sense that he realizes that, as he finishes his ministry, he'll go to be with the Lord, and he knows in his own heart that that's what he wants, that's the supreme thing. Remember he said to the Philippians, you're nice, I'd like to spend time with you, far better to be with Jesus.
So that was the goal of his life. All he lived for was to finish. Verse 24, he says, I don't care what's promised about bonds, I don't care who says they're gonna kill me, that doesn't bother me one bit. Why? Because I am gonna finish my cause with joy, I'm not gonna go along, well I'm gonna get it one of these days, and I'm gonna keep ministering, even though I'm gonna get it, I'm-- No. I'm just gonna plow through this deal with joy, I'm gonna finish the ministry, and what happens happens, and all it's gonna do is release me out of this world to be with Jesus anyway.
He lived for one thing, he lived to finish the work the Lord gave him to do. That's right. I'll tell you, people, that's about it, isn't it, that's about the summation of life. I hope that's what you live for, I hope you live to finish the work he gave you to do.
People often say to me, Johnny, you can't keep going