May 28

Written by: Michael A. Milton
5/28/2008 11:33 AM

I grew up in Louisiana. As a boy I used to chase armadillos, those funny looking Texas possums in body armor. Every time I would get my hands around it, it would get away. Its feet were too quick, its shell too slick, to firmly grasp it. My Aunt Eva, who reared me, used to laugh as she would watch me chasing that thing. She’d say, “If you catch it, what will you do with it?”

The thing you have chased is not an armadillo, but something noble and illusive. Your studies here at RTS Orlando reveal hearts and minds that desire to be prepared to serve God and Man. You have, though, in a sense been chasing it. And now...what will you do with it?

Years ago I left seminary super-charged with God and His Word and a vision of the kingdom of God. It still excites me and makes me glad to be a minister of the Gospel. But I tell you that there can times of wondering how to put into action that which I had received from seminary. I too faced the question, “What now?”

What will you do now?
Let me suggest that we can find the answer to that question from the Apostle Paul in Acts 20. The Apostle Paul is on his way to Jerusalem to preach the Gospel to his own people. In Chapter 18, he had preached in Corinth and been kicked out of the synagogue. He kicked the dust off of his feet, in prophetic-like drama, and declared that he would no longer preach to the Jews, but only to the Gentiles. Jesus came to him and spoke words that Jesus spoke to others in the Bible and has spoken, no doubt, to you: “I am with you.” Jesus gave Paul the vision and the courage to walk into the closed doors of preaching to the Jews in Jerusalem.
 
For many here tonight, you came to seminary because Jesus interrupted your failure and showed you that He was with you. You began your journey of following Him and this vision of ministry. For Paul the journey led him past Miletus, a port city not far from a place set deeply in the heart of Paul, to Ephesus. There he ministered longer than in any other place. Elders were summoned to come to him. There he downloaded his very heart to them.

I always think of Acts 20 as a sort of Pauline version of John 17, the high priestly prayer of Christ before He went on to His divine destiny. Tonight is your time to reflect and pray and stand in awe of God’s grace to you and your family. Well, maybe not tonight. It is hard to reflect with so much excitement going on! Indeed, tonight is a time to celebrate with your families.

But at some point I hope you will have time to download your heart, and put your time at RTS Orlando in perspective. To see that this was not your destination, but your gift, a theological and spiritual sack lunch, to send you on to the rest of your life. And more. To send you out to fulfill the purposes of God on earth. In that thought, I want to turn to Paul and show you how to have a life well-lived and a ministry well-spent and a ministry without regret. For as Paul reflected about the ministry he had with them, the Holy Spirit discloses to us how to leave seminary, take the gift of insight into God’s Word and the glory of Christ and the need of human beings, and fulfill God’s purposes in the world. 

A word of clarification here: this is about a ministry without regret in the singular. I am referring to the overarching character of one’s ministry. I cannot say a ministry without regrets. For there will be singular instances of failure, of prideful mistakes, of indecision, of times when you should have done something or you should have not done what you did. Neither ministry nor life can be lived without any regrets. But when we read Paul we come to understand that you can follow the Lord without regret over the ministry itself.

Let me reflect with you over how St. Paul reflects on his own ministry and how we can prepare for ours and have a ministry without regret. A ministry without regret is marked by four pastoral principles:

I.  A ministry without regret is marked by investing in the lives of others (v. 17)
I say that because what is so evident in this passage is that Paul calls for elders. There were no elders when Paul got there. But Paul always gave away the faith, the vision, and the wisdom he had been given to others.
I went to school in Wales. There is a legend that wherever St. David went, the patron saint of Wales, a church popped up. Well, it is no legend that wherever St. Paul went, leaders popped up. Paul left a legacy of leadership because he gave away what God gave to him.
What should you do now? Give away what you have been given to others. Hopefully if you are a preacher, you will not give away your entire systematic theology notes in your first sermon! But invest yourself, your life, your learning, and your experiences of God from this place, in the lives of others.
I once had an old minister tell me that if I preached to broken hearts in the pews I would never lack for a congregation. I have found his words to be true. So as you take this degree from RTS Orlando, go forth, Pauline-like, to invest what you have been given in people. There is no lack of needy people: people who need to know the truth of the Scriptures you have studied, people who need to know the grace of Christ that you have experienced in this place.
A life well-lived and a ministry well-spent at the end of your life will be that you invest what God has given to you in other people. You will never regret that.

II. A Ministry Without Regret is marked by transparency before others (v. 18)
Paul says in verse 18, “You know how I lived among you…”
There is a tendency to take what we have learned and use it to hide. Our degrees can become our identities if we are not careful. That would be an enormous hindrance to the Gospel. It blocks ministry to human beings. Our experience of learning about God and ourselves at seminary should pry open our lives to reveal, not our dirty laundry, but our selves, as sinners saved by grace. In this way we build a bridge to broken, sinful people. In this way we can walk across that bridge, so to speak, and bring them the Good News that Jesus Christ is the only perfection, the only wisdom and knowledge that we need.
I am reminded of the words of John Newton at the end of his life, “I only know two things: that I am a great sinner and that Christ is the great Savior of sinners.”
There is a warning here. Following Christ in such an open life may cause you to be hurt or misunderstood. But then you are only following in the life of the One who was hurt and crucified on the cross. He was misunderstood. But to follow Jesus by living a transparent life before others will give you a life well-lived and a ministry well-spent.
We also learn this poignant and often difficult truth from Paul in Acts 20.

III A Ministry Without Regret is marked by a passionate life (v. 19).
Paul, like Joseph who cried a lot, and Jeremiah who cried a lot, and Jesus who also was characterized by His tears, was a man of tears. In verse 19 we read that he conducted his ministry there with tears over the evil that was done to him. In verse 31 he admonished and he taught the Word of God to his people, with tears. Finally in verse 37, Paul’s tears bring forth tears from the Ephesian elders as they all fall on each other’s necks and cry.
You probably didn’t expect to come to your seminary graduation to be told by some preacher to, “Go out and cry!” But in a word, that is exactly what I am saying. Go forth with passion and live out the Gospel so passionately that you are willing to be hurt, to teach with a love for the lost, and to shepherd the flock of Jesus so tenderly that when you part there is nothing else to do but cry.

IV. A Ministry Without Regret is marked by a bold life of testimony (vv. 20-21).
As Paul reflected on his ministry, he reminded the Ephesian elders that he preached repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
More than anything else, we must be reminded tonight that the gift we have been given is intended to prepare us, in whatever vocation is ours, to announce repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ. That is our calling as Christians. That is our task as preachers and leaders. For some it will be in pulpits, others in campus ministries, some in military chaplaincy and in the desert, or on an aircraft carrier, or in a chapel. For some it will be as you continue in your business careers. But whatever we are called to do, let us announce house to house and publically the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us be clear that there is no salvation apart from Him.

My old mentor Dr. Kennedy was fond of saying, “Keep the main thing the main thing and the main thing is evangelism.” In a sense, all that we have learned in seminary must go into a sort of funnel, and out of the narrow end must come the offer of the Gospel, with care and with compassion, to every human being on earth.
So what do you do now?

1.    Invest your life in others.
2.    Live transparently before others.
3.    Minister passionately to others.
4.    Preach boldly the Gospel of Jesus to the world.

That, truly, will be using this gift from RTS Orlando to have a life well-lived and a ministry well-spent,
a ministry without regret.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Before I go I have been asked to share something else with you. I often illustrate my sermons with songs. And this one was written for my wife. Tonight I want to dedicate it to all of the family members who made this night possible for all of our graduates. This song is about that unsung hero of the Church: the pastor’s wife. But let the sentiment of gratitude speak to all of you who support and encourage others behind the scenes.
This song is called, “Thank God for the Pastor’s Wife.”

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