And finally…
Readings: Ephesians 6:10-20
Preacher: Rev Dr Keith Garner
This recording comes from Rev Kevin Kim’s closure of ministry service. We were delighted to welcome Rev Keith Garner, who preached from Ephesians 6:10–20 on “And Finally…“. Reflecting on the closing words of the New Testament letters, Keith encouraged us to give thanks for the past, finish well, and embrace God’s future with fresh hope.
Reflection Questions
Exploring the Passage (Ephesians 6:10-20)
- In Ephesians 6:10–20, what do you notice about the source of the strength Paul describes? What difference is there between trying to be strong ourselves and being “strong in the Lord”?
- Paul uses the image of the armour of God. Which parts of the armour stand out to you, and what might they look like in everyday Christian life?
- Across the different passages Keith referred to, the word “finally” did not simply mean “this is the end,” but also “from this point on.” How does that change the way you hear these closing words from Paul?
Exploring the Sermon Themes
- Keith encouraged Kevin—and all of us—to “keep on being strengthened.” What are some of the people, practices or experiences through which God has strengthened you?
- The sermon highlighted the importance of encouragement. Can you remember a time when someone’s encouragement helped you continue through a difficult season?
- Keith spoke about prayer as more than asking God to remove every difficulty. How might prayer instead help to equip, sustain and strengthen us within those difficulties?
Going Deeper
- Keith suggested that endings and new beginnings often belong together. What ending or transition are you facing at the moment, and where might God be inviting you to look forward with hope?
- The image of “mending nets” suggests that Christian maturity is not about becoming flawless, but about being restored and helping bring restoration to others. Where might God be doing some mending in your life or community?
- The sermon ended with the call to be of one mind and to work together. What can make genuine Christian unity difficult, and what is one practical step you could take to strengthen the life of your church community?
Sermon Transcript
It’s a pleasure to be with you today, especially on this important day for Kevin, but also for all of us as we meet together to seek God’s way.
I believe ministry, in whatever form it takes, is best exercised in an itinerant way. In other words, we’re not stuck in one place. We move. We know what it is to be part of that.
Such ministry adds to the variety of what we do, what we say and who we are. There is a sense in which, as we come as the people of God, we’re conscious of that.
I think not only of John Wesley’s early preachers, but only a few weeks ago I was in Plymouth in Devon, where I was preaching at my first church, and it was 38 degrees Celsius. That’s how hot it was in Plymouth. They couldn’t cope with it. And we’re struggling now, aren’t we, at the other end of the story, knowing what it is to move from one place to another.
But don’t only think of those early preachers. Think of Paul’s ministry in the New Testament. We find there that his colleagues in faith and ministry knew what it was to move around.
This morning we acknowledge the closure, the conclusion, of a meaningful ministry which has covered a number of years, and Kevin is now ready for the fresh challenge of whatever the future will hold.
There’s the immediate future that is going to be shared, and what he doesn’t know about yet, because that’s often the important thing about ministry: you don’t always know what the future is going to be.
So we acknowledge that conclusion and bring together our sense of the outset of ministry and the conclusion of ministry. We look back on worship and pastoral care, consider what has been achieved and the lessons to be learned, and focus on Jesus Christ and how the gospel has been part and parcel of what it means to be engaged in ministry.
As one time ends, another begins.
That is always the story for each one of us, beyond who we are. The experience of ministry concludes, but a new context is something that emerges.
I’ve chosen to refer to four texts that each come from different epistles. They all have one word in common. Each concept and context is distinctive and different, and yet each has the concept of “finally”—of conclusion, of bringing things to a close.
That’s part of what we’re doing today, and it’s certainly part of what it is to serve God.
“Finally” has a much more positive feel about it than we often give it. Sometimes we use the word “finally” as though it’s just something that we’re glad to put behind us, but “finally” brings together many things and holds them together in importance and significance, and allows us to think about the future.
There’s a sense in which Christian community in any age is always going to have a “finally” about it, but it’s also always got a new beginning. How you hold those two together is part of the secret of our mission and our ministry in history.
There have been a number of changes in any context. Let me go through those four, one by one, and briefly address each one of them and say: what is it that “finally” has to say here?
Finally: the source of our strength
First of all, “finally” is a word that reminds us of the source of our strength.
Finally—yes—because we have done many things, we have been in many places, and the strength that God has given us in those places is important in terms of our mission and in terms of our ministry.
The words translated “finally,” to loipon, do not simply suggest the idea of “in conclusion.”
To many, “finally” is our way of saying, “In conclusion. Finally, you may never see me again. Finally, I’m on my way.”
That’s not the concept that we find in the New Testament.
In those words that were read to us from Ephesians, there’s something more. It’s much more to do with “henceforth”—from this moment on. Whatever has gone behind, whatever lies ahead, that’s much more properly what it means to talk about “finally.”
There’s a sense in which Paul wants his readers to see the disruption and the forces that were putting so much pressure upon them.
When you read those words at the end of Ephesians, you’re conscious of the tension, the stress and certainly the conflict that was very real for many of the people who shared together at that time.
Hence, the passage opens with this idea of the armour of God: being equipped, being empowered to do whatever it is God calls us to do.
Whatever has got to be held in significance has to be so because it’s necessary in our lives.
The verb for “be strong” is a present passive. It’s something important. It means, “Keep on being strengthened.”
For Kevin, that has to be the case. For all of us, keep on being strengthened.
Whatever it is that’s brought you to this point in time, keep on being strengthened so that you might look to the future.
“Be strengthened” is a real source that is so important: power from within, a power that comes through the Holy Spirit, power that makes it possible for us to believe and belong, gifted from God [unclear].
In Paul’s writings, there’s no explicit connection between what’s gone before. Paul has in mind the evil domination that was so present in the world that he spoke about, and we see it as so very real in our world today.
I promised not to mention the President of the United States. Oh gosh, I’ve mentioned him now! But it seems every week he tells us the war is going to be over next week.
It isn’t yet over.
And we know the tension that exists there, that exists in parts of Europe, with the tension in Ukraine and Russia, bringing many, many things that are really happening in our world at this time.
We know we’ve got to be liberated from allowing that to defeat us, and find something bigger and stronger and better and more able to create that which is to be a power that’s real.
James [unclear] talked about the adequacy of God:
“Dear Lord, I don’t ask that you lighten my task, but rather make me adequate. I don’t ask for lighter roads or smoother roads, but rather make me adequate. I don’t ask for greater rest from the pressures and failures that oppress, but rather make me adequate.”
I think that’s what God is saying to every one of us involved in mission and ministry.
We want to be made adequate through the power of God for the tasks that lie before us.
“Finally” opens up a most powerful conclusion to the epistle. It picks up the main themes, if you like, of what has gone before.
Ephesians is different from some of the other epistles, which are about a specific place, because Ephesus is not even mentioned in many of the early manuscripts of the book of Ephesians.
It could be for any place. It’s certainly here for Turramurra. It’s for all of us—that sense of being together in a purpose.
Many of the recipients of the New Testament had a far more familiar understanding of the darker side of life when it comes to the gospel.
We take it for granted. “Oh no, things are not too bad for us.”
In one sense that’s true.
But we finally take that word and say: may there be a sense of conclusion. Don’t be sucked back, Kevin, in ministry, into your former life, into the things that perhaps were before this moment in time. Take them and build on them into something better and more powerful.
Power is given in appropriate measure to the challenge that lies ahead.
Richard [unclear] tells the story—and it’s a very good story—of a long journey in North America alongside a particular freight train that was going in the same direction as he was driving, but at a much slower speed.
He was driving. The train was being pushed uphill, and he soon found himself catching up to the train.
Then, when he reached the top of the hill, he started overtaking the train. Thinking that this was going to be difficult, it took him a few minutes to discover and realise that, as he passed the train—nearly a mile, or well over a kilometre, of cars being transported to a new destination—when he reached the front, he found five more engines also pulling the train.
For us, as we face the challenges, we know what it is to feel that God is ahead of us on the road—God is ahead of us.
When I look back at my visit to my first church, where I began my ministry, I realise it’s 40 years ago that I was there. Forty-four years ago! I was only about six at the time, but it was a long time ago.
I realised that through those years there needed to be the moments when I recognised that there’s plenty of power ahead of us, even if we don’t experience it, feel it and embrace it within our own lives.
“God is always ahead of us on the road,” [the author] wrote.
“How like God,” I thought. “When I’m pushing uphill with all the strength I have and feel the energy levels being depleted, God wants me to know that he’s in the lead, pulling with a power far greater than mine.”
There are times when we need to remind ourselves of that truth.
Many of us have to face difficult moments, not only those involved in mission and ministry. All of us have challenges in our lives.
You may well be facing some today, at this moment, and God can be ahead of you on that road, pulling you in the direction in which he longs for you to go.
We need to gain enthusiasm, and when robbed of purpose, stay in the place of grace—the grace which is undeserved and unmerited, and yet is God’s way of meeting us.
The whole section at the close of Ephesians is interesting because it underlines, it underscores, the fact that the Christian life is lived in a place of conflict.
Very often for us, the crises of life are real and we face them.
And if you’re involved in mission and ministry, so it is that you stand in that place.
The other good thing about going to places where you’ve ministered before, and standing with people, is that you remember the people who faced those crises, faced those moments, and you’ve had to stand with them.
In all mission, as you will see, Kevin, it doesn’t just happen here. It will happen throughout your ministry.
You will stand with people and alongside people, and the link between the gospel and pastoral care is always there, always hand in glove with each other.
Finally: be encouraged
Let me say, secondly, a word to encourage us all.
When you turn to Philippians—that marvellous book of the New Testament—we find there, in chapter 3 and verse 1:
“Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write these things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.”
You get the feeling that, as Paul is writing to—I think, possibly, his favourite church in terms of a community, because of certain things that happened there—as he writes to them, he encourages them.
And the “finally” for all of us is to encourage us: to encourage us in the work that God has called us to, and to encourage us in the work that we are to be part of.
Certainly, that’s true when it comes to Kevin.
But we see “finally” as the opening to an ending. “Finally” opens up something new and something fresh, and something [unclear] in you.
In terms of what we seek to do, we see the broader context of the use of “finally”: from here on.
From here on, be encouraged. From here, whatever the future is, be encouraged as you seek to serve God.
Let your rejoicing be in the Lord in a way that is confident—not in your own achievements, not in the things that make for your ministry.
The finest ministers you’ll ever meet—when they start thinking that they’re something special, that’s the time to remind ourselves that our real confidence has to be in Christ and no one else.
That is our confident place. That is the place that gives us hope. That is the place that will empower us in terms of our mission and our ministry.
The only safeguard against impersonal and lifeless brands of religion is a genuine knowledge of Christ.
So it is that, day by day, you find yourself brought to that place where you’re renewed and empowered in the grace of the Holy Spirit.
We who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Jesus Christ, who put no confidence in the flesh—to use Pauline terminology.
And “finally” comes at a point in the letter when he’s addressing possibly the most crucial question and problem: the unity of the church.
And yet this church became so very special to him. Important.
They were a church that supported him in times of difficulty.
In Christian work, we need to be finding encouragers.
Kevin, you will know the people who have encouraged you in your ministry and who have given you strength when it’s been difficult: genuine people who, by their special ministry of encouragement, help to lift you when you feel low, who stood with you when you needed someone to stand with you.
Those people you will never forget. They will always be important to you.
And those of you who think, “Oh, you don’t know any of them,” you don’t need to. It is for him to know that, because he’s been the one who’s been encouraged.
For all of us involved in ministry, we could tell the same story in terms of our lives and our work in the Christian world.
We need encouragers: genuine people who, by their very special ministry, are people who encourage us.
Ministry is experienced at its best when we face the challenges, when we easily feel at our lowest. At those moments, we are given the strength that we know in no other place.
Encouragement is one of the greatest gifts that you can ever maintain and exercise.
It can be the power which enables people to reach their full potential. It can be that which bears fruit, not only at this moment, but in the future, in many ways that are beyond our understanding.
For years, William Wilberforce fought in the British Parliament for the abolition of slavery, not only there but across the world.
That abolition took many, many years to reach its fulfilment.
Well, maybe it hasn’t reached its full fulfilment, because there are signs that it still exists in one form or another.
Discouraged, it was interesting that his elderly friend John Wesley helped him.
When I preached last year at Wesley’s Chapel in City Road in London, we stayed in John Wesley’s manse. And when we stayed there, there was something very significant that happened for us.
We looked at some of the important things in John’s life, and on a shelf in one of the rooms was a pen.
That pen was an important one, carefully put into a box and hidden away a little bit from the hands of people passing by.
It was the pen used for the last letter that John Wesley wrote.
He wrote:
“Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them stronger than God?”
That letter to Wilberforce was written six days before Wesley died, and it was the letter that inspired Wilberforce to move forward and continue to be involved in that campaign against what was so wrong.
He concluded the letter:
“O be not weary of well-doing. Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery shall vanish away before it.”
Six days before he died, hardly able to write letters—but it was a typical Wesley thing to do.
Wilberforce went on to fight for 45 more years from that moment, with the opposition of many people, for the things that he stood for.
And in 1833, three days before his own death, the decision was taken [unclear wording concerning the abolition of slavery].
Why?
Because somebody didn’t give up.
The encouragement he was given enabled him to face whatever was there.
Even the greatest of people need encouragement.
So those of us who know we’re not great—we need encouragement. Encouragement to be received, encouragement to be shared and encouragement to be given.
Finally: pray for one another
Then, moving on, a word to ask for the prayers of people and colleagues.
You need the prayers of each other. You need prayer.
If you’re involved in any kind of ministry, that makes sense in terms of what we are doing in our life and ministry.
We read the words that we find at the end of [unclear reference]. We find there words, I think, that actually strengthen us to understand what is so important.
In Thessalonians, there is that truth that is very, very real about seeking the prayers of each other.
This is a personal word from the Apostle Paul, and it’s humble and affectionate.
It’s spoken with a genuine sense of concern and compassion before giving direct instructions.
He wanted his people to know. He wanted this community to know that if you’re really going to be a people of faith, you need the prayers of each other.
You need the strength of each other.
The gospel is what we declare—the good news—and we display it because we are encouraged and we seek the prayers of God’s people.
You’ll be prayed for.
I remember my liturgy and Greek lecturer at Bristol, where I trained.
He remembered me because I wasn’t very good at Greek at times. The title of his studies was Greek Without Tears. Well, I understood the first bit, but I didn’t understand the second bit anything like as much!
But I remember finding out, as time went on, that this man, who lived into his eighties and was a very, very fine preacher, used to pray for every student he ever had, all his life.
It was only after I’d left college and went back to the city of Bristol that I discovered the little book he had with everybody’s name in it.
Every year, everybody was given a place in his daily prayers, so that we could feel the encouragement of what it was to experience the prayers of somebody who cared for us.
This theme of prayer, and this encouragement that comes from people and from colleagues, is very important.
This is a large and bold request. When he’s writing to the Thessalonians, he encourages them to pray for each other.
So as Kevin leaves this ministry, pray for him.
He now needs you in a way that he didn’t know before, and you will value him in a way that you didn’t know as well.
I think that’s important for me to say in the role that I have as a Presbytery Minister, and as somebody leading a presbytery.
The truth is, ministry is often exercised in ways that we don’t always see. We don’t always know. But we want to be those people who seek prayer and support.
There’s a story—a true story—of two brothers who were living and working in a kibbutz near Lake Galilee in 1986.
They monitored their equipment and found something they had not noticed until that point.
Something covered in the mud glistened, and so the brothers went down to see what it was.
They were involved in an examination with archaeologists, who determined that the brothers had found something important.
It was a fishing boat—a fishing boat that you couldn’t see on the surface. You couldn’t see it with everybody’s sight, but it was a boat that was important.
Very likely, it was one of the boats that was used on the lake by so many people so long ago, and yet it had a lasting value.
What they found, they thought was important, but they would never have found it if they hadn’t persisted, if they hadn’t looked for it, if they hadn’t searched for it.
A request for prayer is not what we would treat as [unclear] from all difficulties.
“Lord, make us from this moment fully equipped, so that everything will just work out well.”
Well, if that’s how you feel about prayer, you’ve never been at the place where you’ve really needed it like never before.
We find the help of God’s power surrounding and strengthening us.
Finally: farewell
And fourthly, a genuine word of farewell.
We find that truth at the end of Corinthians. We can find the truth in many ways throughout the close of 2 Corinthians.
There’s a familiar, similar word when Paul issues his closing words.
Life doesn’t always follow a Hollywood script. Far from it. Life doesn’t work out like that.
Those of us who find ourselves in any kind of leadership in life—not only in the life of the church in religious terms—will know that life isn’t always simple like that.
But it’s in the great challenges we face, and in facing those challenges and knowing that God meets us in the challenges, that we know God like never before.
In Paul’s letter, there are some very cheerful words:
“Finally. Finally, farewell.”
What does “finally” mean to you?
As I use that word, what does it say to you? What does it help you to understand or think?
“Finally, aim for perfection.”
I remember one of the earliest sermons that made an impression on me was when the preacher talked about perfection.
I thought, “Oh gosh, I’m not going to enjoy this, because this is not where we are.”
However, he pointed to the fact that the word in Mark’s Gospel is a word that is a little like mending nets.
There are times when we seek God’s will and God is looking forward to the work of perfection—God mending nets, using us to mend nets, and we ourselves being the nets that he mends, if we really are going to go in that way.
The highest objective for our lives, for yourselves as a church and for your community, is that we are mending nets in our community.
Let yourself be steadily perfected into the image of Christ.
The goal and objective is always Jesus Christ.
The way forward is not going to be something made wholly by ourselves, but something he makes holy in and through us.
Respond to the truth—a truth that’s very real. This is a good word: respond to the truth.
Don’t be distracted by others and those who reject the truth of Christ. Respond to the truth in one another.
God uses human personality. Never despise that.
God uses sanctified minds.
Always encourage that God uses people in different ways. Be ready to see that. Be open to the truth that’s there.
And then, as I draw to a close, be of one mind.
Don’t be divided. Don’t be separate. Be of one mind.
[Unclear commentator’s name], in his commentary, wrote this:
“Keep minding the same things.”
So this oneness is found in the objective—not in a common lifestyle or affability, but in something that takes a larger vision in our lives.
José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti used to sing together. On occasion, they sang together under the title The Three Tenors. You remember them, I’m sure.
On one occasion, a reporter in 1994 tried to press the issue of the competitiveness between them and wanted to address that and see what they’d have to say.
Domingo spoke for them all. He often did.
He said:
“Oh yes, you have to put all your concentration into opening your heart to the music. There can’t be rivals when you’re together making music.”
And I thought that was powerfully important.
You can’t really make a difference unless it’s together.
Once you are divided, you lose the way of Christ.
So we say to ourselves: let’s be together.
That’s true in the life of any church.
On this occasion, we celebrate Kevin’s ministry and all that it has been, and all that it will be. But yet we say we’re one together in ministry.
If he’s been of any use, it’s because of you. If he hasn’t, it’s also down to you!
For only together can we really and truly be the people that God wants us to be.
We do it with an eagerness of saying: we want to be. We want to say farewell. We want to say “finally.”
But we want that “finally” to be something that combines us in the work of God.
May God inspire you.
May God touch your heart, your life and our life together in such a way that, whatever the future holds, it is God who holds the future in the hollow of his hand.
Amen.