Be on Mission for God

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 11 December 2016

Qualities of great missionaries is the theme, and in these verses we find flowing out of the narrative the principles which are the qualifications of effective service. We are following Paul and Barnabas who have been touring Galatia and ministering the Gospel to the Gentiles as the church expands. And we find that in their ministry there are features that rise out of the text that indicate to us factors of success.

It's not a lecture on success factors but rather an illustration of it. Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,” and that is the calling of believers that still stands. Further, Jesus said in Acts 1:8 prior to His ascension into Heaven, "You shall be witnesses unto Me." It wasn't really an option; it was a statement of fact. All believers after receiving the Holy Spirit are witnesses. The issue is what kind of testimony you give.

Christ wants faithful Christians to dedicate themselves to carrying out the Great Commission with diligence and success. But as you study the history of the church it is always the minority that does it. Sometimes in several periods of church history there are men and women who really show up, and then there are masses of Christians lost in the fog who are not doing much at all.

David Livingston greatly influenced the continent of Africa toward God. William Carey brought the redemptive transforming power of Christ effectively to the millions in India. William Booth started in the slums of London the beginnings of an evangelistic movement now known as the Salvation Army. One individual powered by the Holy Spirit has stood up in different times and cast his footprint on the world.

While the majority of the church sleeps, there have been great men who changed its history for God. What is the difference between the Christian that makes things happen and the Christian that doesn't know they're happening? Well the answer lies in Acts 14 as well as in many other parts in the New Testament. But it is here for sure, because in this chapter there are at least eight qualifications of a successful missionary.

The world is still affected by what Paul has written. Now flowing out of this record of their touring Galatia are some principles that signal their greatness, and these principles will help us understand what makes the difference in the Christian experience. Now let us review those and then discuss the last three in this chapter.

The first key to their success was they were ministering spiritual gifts in areas where they were gifted by the Holy Spirit. And even though we don't have a specific gift of preaching we need to minister in all those other areas. For example, we all don't have the gift of exhortation but we're all called on to exhort each other. We all don't have the gift of teaching but we're all to declare Christ.

Now Paul and Barnabas were functioning according to their gifts in preaching, teaching, exhortation and administration in Acts 14. Secondly we saw they were successful because of boldness. If you don't go through opposition you never get anywhere because there always will be opposition. The third thing we saw that is intrinsic to success was divine power, we can't function on our own strength.

The fourth point that we saw is humility. Well Paul and Barnabas didn't want any exaltation. They were humble servants. Whenever you start getting proud you just have to keep remembering what you were. Isaiah 51:1 says, whenever you think you're something, “remember the hole of the pit from which you were taken." Proverbs 18:12 said, “Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor is humility.”

There's a fifth thing that we have studied and that is persistence. Nobody could stop Paul. They tried to stop him in with about as strong an effort as imaginable. Verse 19,

“Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.” They tried to stone him.

Verse 20, “However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.” There is a debate about whether Paul was dead and was resurrected or whether he was nearly dead and was revived. I don't believe he was dead. The main reason is the word "supposing." It says in verse 19, “supposing him to be dead.” The word ‘suppose’ is used mainly to mean ‘supposing wrongly.’(In Matthew 5:17, Matthew 10:34, Acts 16:27, Acts 17:29 for example) It was not a miracle of resurrection, it was a miracle of restoration.

Robert Morrison of England set his heart on going to China as a missionary and he studied Chinese in London. In 1807 he came to New York to get a ship to go to China but China didn't accept foreigners. Finally he booked passage and he landed in China. He got off, went in a French warehouse in Canton and stayed there for six months. He learned to cook Chinese food and to dress in Chinese clothes and adapt himself in Chinese culture and he studied the Cantonese language.

Preaching was illegal but he gathered over the years a little group of people around him, never more than 10 in private, in hiding, and he tried to instruct them. Seven years after he landed in Canton he baptized his first convert. That's persistence. Finally working all day and night, month after month he translated the Book of Acts into Cantonese, and he succeeded in having it printed. Well, the authorities found out about it and put a stop to all his printing. He was forbidden from all of it.

He persisted, and continued to evangelize because he believed God wanted it. He mastered the language and he translated the entire Bible into Cantonese. He also wrote a six-volume Chinese/English dictionary. He gave 27 years of loneliness and self-sacrificing persistence and today there is an academy in Taiwan called Morrison Academy because his persistence became a blessing to many.

The key to persistence is maximizing every opportunity. Behind every obstacle is an opportunity. What do you do with your time? Let’s assume that you have a life span of 70 years. What does that life consist of? Three years of those 70 would be spent in school. Eight years in entertainment, six years in eating. Five years in transportation, four years in conversation, fourteen years working, three years reading and twenty-four years of sleep. How much time did you give to God?

If you came to church every Sunday for the service and you prayed five minutes in the morning with your Bible and five minutes at night and lived 70 years you would have given God five months. What are you doing with your time? How persistent are you in maximizing every moment? What I do you with idle moments. There is a saying, “Idle moments are the devil’s workshop.” Some Christians are physically awake but they are spiritually asleep.

James 4:14 says, "For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” Ever seen the vapor rise off a hot glass full of tea? That's your life. Use it. Time is the only chunk of eternity you have. Be persistent. Now let's look at the three last qualities for tonight. Follow-up is the first one. Effective Christian service is a commitment to follow up what you begin.

Verse 21, “And when they had preached the gospel to that city (meaning Derby) and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch.” They could have gone from Derbe straight back to Antioch or Syria, but they went all the way back through every city they had been in and retraced their steps. Why? They believed in having follow-up.

Because the purpose of the Great Commission is not to introduce people to Christianity, but it is to make them disciples. Well it was dangerous to return, because they had been kicked out of every town. But they went back fearlessly because they believed in follow-up. Because it was more dangerous for those new spiritual babes not to have meat and milk, so they went back. Don't ever lead anybody to Jesus Christ that you are not willing to nurture.

Now what is follow-up? Four things that we are going to have to learn. The first thing is strengthening. They went back to all those cities, verse 22, and “strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God”. A new baby can't stand up, right? You have to lift them and hold their arms and that is exactly the way it is with a new Christian.

Acts 15:32, 15:41 and 18:23 all talk about strengthening new believers. It means to to help them to stand on their own, to be strong, and that is the goal for every Christian. Because we know that the devil is using other belief systems to sidetrack new believers. But Paul and Barnabas went back to these cities and it was more dangerous that time than the first time just for these important follow-ups. That shows real commitment.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” So when they went back and strengthened the brothers, that doesn't mean they had a little service. That means they spent time to teach the Word of God.

The second aspect of follow-up that every Christian servant needs to remember is exhortation. Now you can give them the doctrine but don't stop there. You continue with, "What are you going to do about it?" You know what exhorting means? It means to push a person toward a certain kind of conduct. It means to say, "Now here are the facts. Now go do it!" Of course we need to exhort, that is the challenge.

Listen to 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8, “We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. 8 So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.” Verse 11, “as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children.”

Paul says here two things that they needed to be exhorted to do. One, to continue in the faith. Whenever somebody first hears the Gospel and the seed is planted, what is the concern right away? Satan snatching the seed. Sure the world is alluring and you've come to Christ but everything hasn't changed and there's certain things that you expected and they didn't happen that fast, but continue in the faith and God will vindicate Himself!

Verse 22 says, “We must through much tribulation enter the Kingdom of God." You must teach a new Christian to anticipate tribulation or trouble. Everyone who lives godly is going to suffer persecution. We have to fight for it. The third feature of follow-up, not only strengthening and exhortation but thirdly follow-up that is organization. Verse 23 says, “So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

We have to do things in the church as it says in 1 Corinthians 14:40, "Decently and in order.” The Lord has designed that the church be ruled by elders, and that the church be served by men and women called deacons, and that they are leaders of the church. So they ordained elders in every church in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. Paul must have stayed around teaching those people because they had to be mature enough to be recognized as elders.

Leadership in the church should be selected by the evangelist who found the church in the case of missions or in the case of an ongoing church by the pastor there. They should handle initially the selecting of people who qualify biblically, and then to present those chosen for the approval of the congregation. And when the leaders meet together all decisions are made unanimously. And if there is a disagreement then somebody is out of touch with the Holy Spirit. Then it becomes a matter of prayer until there is agreement.

Well they went all the way back to all the cities and did all that follow-up. They showed the seventh quality, commitment. Now they are going back home, cross the Taurus Mountains again with all the robbers and fast rivers. Verse 24-25, “And after they had passed through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. 25 Now when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.” That is commitment, they preached the Word.

Now, number eight and the most important of all is praise to God. Verse 26, “From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed.” Imagine when they arrived at Antioch and nobody had heard from them for two years? These are the two most beloved people in the church and they probably looked emaciated and scarred all up from beatings with rods and whips and stone.

Verse 27, “Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.” They told all the people that God was doing it all and that He used them in a mighty way giving glory to God. That's all God wants anybody to do is be there and He will do it all.

Verse 28, “They stayed there for a long time with the disciples.” It was then during that time that Paul wrote the letter to the church in Galatians. They gave all the glory to God. What do you want to do with your life? Applications are open to believers for successful missionaries. If you would like to apply, God is patiently waiting for you if you want to go. Let's pray.