I was talking with Pastor Keck this week. He asked about a mutual friend who is a pastor. I told him that this fellow quit. He left the pulpit and went back to work in his former industry. Pastor Keck said, “A good start is not a good finish. You gotta tough it out through some things before you can finish”.
You have to keep your mind on the finish line and run your race all the way to the end. DeMichele says, “I want to finish, finish well, finish clean, and finish with joy”. He has suffered through decades of leukemia. During CoVid he was out of the pulpit for 17 weeks thinking he had reached the end. He’ll be here this week teaching and preaching in the Preachers Conference. He’s not done yet.
We can look at three men in the Bible and etch this lesson into our minds and hearts.
John Mark, Acts 12:25. John went with Barnabas and Saul on their first missionary journey, Acts 13:5. He made it as far as Perga, and then departed from them and returned to Jerusalem, Acts 13:13. He had seen and heard enough. No doubt that business with Elymas the sorcerer and Paul’s rebuke were pretty frightening, 13:8-11. He could have thought, “If things keep going like this, Paul’s going to get us killed”. Indeed, Paul was nearly stoned to death in Lystra on this journey, Acts 14:19.
Nevertheless, John Mark didn’t quit. Though Paul didn’t want him to go with them on the next journey, John Mark went with Barnabas who sailed into Cyprus, Acts 15:39. At the end of Paul’s course, he wrote Timothy and asked him to bring Mark with him, “for he is profitable to me for the ministry”, 2 Tim 4:11.
He had to endure the fear of the ministry, rejection by Paul, embarrassment among those in Antioch, the afflictions of the gospel, to name a few. But he had two things going for him. He had Barnabas and he had the finish line in sight. He knew he had to finish. He had a rough start but he made a good finish.
Paul, 2 Tim 4:7. He said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith”. We know the hardships that he endured. Literally, nothing could stop him. See 2 Cor 11:23-33. He had a good start and he made a good finish.
Demas, 2 Tim 4:10. He is mentioned in Col 4:14 and Phile 24, as one of Paul’s fellow laborers. Both of these epistles were written from Rome, near the end of Paul’s ministry but before his second epistle to Timothy. However, when Paul mentioned Demas again in 2 Tim 4:10 he said, “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world”.
Gal 1:4 calls the world, “… this present evil world”. Jas 4:4 says, “that the friendship of this world is enmity with God”. John wrote, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”, 1 Jn 2:15.
He had a good start but he didn’t have a good finish. He let the world get him. Many preachers who started well, failed to finish well because they began to use the world’s tactics to accomplish God’s work. The reason, ultimately, is that they love the world.
Bro Roberts and I were talking one day about something Bro Jeff Williams repeated… the devil wants you out of the ministry whether you rust out, foul out or burn out. The point is you are out. I added, or drop out. We came up with this outline: the devil wants you to foul out, flame out, fall out, fizzle out, or flunk out.
Conclusion: For John Mark it was fear that almost knocked him out. For Paul it would have been trouble, affliction, and hardship that could have taken him out. For Demas it was the love of the world that caused him to fizzle out. These are the things that you and I face, too.
Heb 12:2-3 the best finisher of all is the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re to be “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith… lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds”. Talk about a good finish. Let’s finish like him.