Acts 20: 22-24 – Completing the Task
Paul speaking his farewell to the Ephesians elders, “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has give me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace, (Acts 20: 22-24, NIV).
Paul, at this point in his life was on his way back to Jerusalem after his third missionary journey. He was saying goodbye to the church in Ephesus which he had established there. He reports that he has been warned by the Holy Spirit that there is trouble ahead for him. As a matter a fact, there are prophecies about his coming hardships later on in Acts. A prophet named Agabus speaks to him about this. Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’ When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem,” (Acts 21:11-12, NIV). But even though Paul was certain of the trouble and hardships which lay ahead he was still determined to continue on to Jerusalem.
His actions remind us of his own model Jesus, who knowing what lay ahead of him in Jerusalem also continued on his journey. Why, because he had a task to complete. Paul considered his life worth nothing unless he could finish the race, completing the task the Lord Jesus had given him. As it turned out Agabus’ prophecy turned out to be true. Paul did encounter hardships. He was bound and imprisoned for two years. Eventually he went to Rome to plead his case before the emperor, where he may have been released for a short time but ultimately was executed. It is no wonder that the people pleaded with him not to go to Jerusalem due to their love for him. Yet this does not deter Paul because he was compelled by the mission God had given him. Even in chains Paul was able to complete his mission of bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. He was able to speak to Princes and governors when he was still in Palestine, and when he was in Rome he continued to share the Gospel with anyone who would listen, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ penetrated even the household of Caesar.
As we look at Paul’s story I believe there are some lessons in it for us too.
First I think that God gives us tasks too. It’s just not Paul that he gives tasks to but he gives tasks to each and every one of us. It may be a life task, as Paul’s was, or it may be the task of a life time. In either case these are tasks that God places in front of us and he says, “I want you to do this, take this on.” For instance, it could be the life task of parenting. On the other hand, it may be the task of a life time, such as building the church building here. We may never have to do that sort of task again; it’s a task of a life time. There are many other types of tasks we are called to take on too, such as ministering to men, women or children. They are things that need to be done for the Kingdom. That is why he gives us those tasks and that is also why he gave a task to Paul. For Paul, it was to extend the Kingdom to the Gentiles. For us, our tasks are to accomplish the same purpose, extending the kingdom. If we have children it is our task to share with them our faith, to raise them in a godly way so they can be whole and healthy, loving the Lord with all their hearts and extending the Kingdom. Building this church building was a task to extend the Kingdom of God to the community of Belleville and beyond. Whatever the task is, it is for the extension of the Kingdom.
Second thing we need to learn is that in completing our tasks we will face obstacles. Paul faced many obstacles along the way, yet he looked ahead and said I must complete the task. Nothing worth doing in life comes without there being some type of trouble, opposition or obstacle. That’s a fact of life. It is why we must learn how to persist, persevere and push into our tasks as Paul had learned to do. The tasks that God gives us are worth completing. They are worth all the trouble and hardships because there is a crown of glory at the end. Furthermore, there is the reward of pouring into somebody’s life and seeing fruit being born in their life. Also, there is the calling on our lives that we are certain about which gives us the perseverance to complete the tasks. Paul says he was compelled by the Spirit to finish the task he was called to.
This morning I want to talk about the task that God has given to us as a church. There are two different levels I want to discuss; a visionary level and a practical application level.
God has called us to be a community where he dwells among us, where we truly worship him and give him our whole hearts and lives in service to him; a community where we can learn to love and serve one another. Sometimes loving each other is extremely hard and we run into obstacles and hardship. But God has called us to be a particular type of community and he has given us the mission that Jesus speaks of in Luke, “He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind to release the oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,” (Luke 4:18-19, NIV). This is why we at Maranatha have a mission statement that says, “We seek to reach the lost, to restore the broken, to equip all believers, and to release the workers into the work that Jesus has for us.” We see people come alive in new ways for their Lord and Master Jesus Christ. This new life allows them to love one another in ways that were impossible before.
Our task is one that does not come without its obstacles and opposition. But God calls us to persevere and to finish the race he has set before us, just as Paul did. So, as we walk through pain and hard times, as we learn and grow together, we let God do his work in us and where he says to walk, we walk in it. Walking in his will has meant building the new church building but not as an end in itself, but rather as a tool for ministry. God has already used this building for ministering to the community. In our own community it has been a tool. For example, Friendship Circle has been able to mushroom because of the accessibility of the building. Senior High Youth Group has grown due to the buildings close proximity to Quinte School. We’ve also been able to host concerts such as Starfield, Brian Doerksen and Paul Baloche. The building has also been a tool in pre-evangelism to the greater community of Belleville. We’ve had the cancer society, Quinte Secondary School drama, Red Cross, flu clinics as well as many others use our facilities here, bringing literally thousands of people through our doors. Some of these people have never set foot inside a church building before. I believe God is going to be opening up an area of missions for us in the greater community. The bike repair day held recently is just a small taste of the type of serving community God is calling us to be.
This vision has some very practical application in regards to the resources that are necessary to accomplish the task God has called us to. We have built this building and we are really seeing God use it in ministry but there are practical budgetary implications. As of the end of May our budget giving stands at 10% higher than the same time period of last year. That is extremely good, particularly in the tough economic times we are living in. However, out budget is about 25-30% higher than it was last year. What that means is that even though we are doing really well, we need to do better. We need to become more intentional and disciplined in our giving because it is part of fulfilling the vision of impacting the people who come through our doors. We need to complete the task that was given to us. It is very practical and it is something you and I need to prayerfully think about.
One practical application of this is that in the fall we are going to be taking further steps in completing our task. Our deacons and benevolence team are going to be presenting another course on mastering your money. Managing money effectively is a spiritual discipline because our resources are ultimately God’s resources. To that end we will probably be preaching on this particular spiritual discipline in the fall.
The other practical application has to do with the building and the mortgage. The month of May marked a milestone for us. It was the end of our three year pledging campaign. Our total pledge was $2 436 101 and as of May 31, 2009 the total received was $2 298 435, almost $138 000 or 6% short of our pledge goal. Considering the fact that most pledge campaigns fall about 10% short this is really good. However, our task is not complete.
If you recall back to 2007 when we began the actual construction of the building you will remember that we had a congregational meeting and we presented a two phase building plan, with the chapel and some classrooms being built in the second phase. At that time the congregation told us loud and clear to build it anyways and do all the construction in one phase. At this meeting Jake B said that if we went ahead with building in one phase he would be willing to extend his pledge for another year and he was sure that other people would be willing as well. This statement was met with applause from the congregation.
We are asking you and myself to take the next step in completing the task before us. To that end we’ve put an insert called Faith Promise Pledging in your bulletin. The first part deals with budget. We are asking you to take it home, pray about, talk about, and think about what is being said here. Consider how the Lord has blessed you, what your circumstances are, what he is calling you to and what the need is. After doing that, put down a figure per week, per month or per year that you are able to pledge for the rest of this year from June 2009 until May 2010, whether that means increasing or decreasing your pledge amount from the previous amount. This is also so that people who have joined us since the pledge campaign started are able to take part in the vision we have here. We want to invite those people to take part in this along with the rest of us in order that we may all work together in completing the task. This is a spiritual task that God has called us to. We are not doing this so we can base our budge on it. We are asking you to do this so both you and I can become intentional about how we give and who we are giving to because frankly my money belongs to God, not me. We need to intentionally think about completing the task because our task is not done just because construction on the building is complete.
Paul said, “Compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there,” (Acts 20:22, NIV). There may be difficulties, personally and corporately because we never know what is coming, that is a part of life. Yet, Paul goes on to say, “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has give me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace,” (Acts 20:24, NIV). For Paul his task was taking the Gospel to the Gentiles; in our case the community of Belleville, the surrounding community of Quinte and beyond.
