The Method

A thorough examination of what the bible teaches about global missions must start with Jesus's great commission in Matthew 28:18-20. But it cannot end there. Jesus taught us what our mission is. He taught us why we are to pursue it. And He taught us how to go about it. But then He ascended to Heaven, leaving behind His Apostles, His personal authoritative representatives on Earth. These men had the unimaginable responsibility of carrying on Christ's work of establishing and building up His bride, the church, to prepare her for His future return. They did so with great power granted to them by God; the power to perform miracles and to both instruct and correct in Jesus's name. Furthermore, as it pertains to this discussion, they revealed more of how Christians are to go about conducting the work of global missions, both then and now. In particular, the Apostle Paul, as Christ's chosen instrument to carry His name beyond the nation of Israel and to the Gentile nations, has a tremendous amount of rich teaching on this subject of missions. We can see his methodology in both how he instructed his personal disciples, such as Timothy, as well as in the record of his own activities and how he went about his ministry. Today we will consider the latter, beginning with a snapshot of his life found in Acts chapter 14:

¹⁹ But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. ²⁰ But while the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city. The next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe. ²¹ After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, ²² strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." ²³ When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Before we begin to consider what we can learn from this account it's important to set the stage with some historical context. The events recorded here took place in approximately 44 A.D., so about 14 years after Christ's crucifixion. Paul, along with his partner Barnabas, is on what is classically considered his “first missionary journey.” At this point the name of Jesus has already been preached and salvation offered to the Gentiles, by Peter at Cornelius's home in Acts 10, in 37 A.D. However, widespread evangelism targeted at non Jews was not yet in full swing. This changed later on. But suffice to say for now, Paul's methodology was to travel to a city, begin preaching the gospel in the local Synagogue to the Jews, and only after that would he sometimes share the gospel with Gentiles exclusively. We can see this pattern in Acts 13, as follows:

⁴ So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus. ⁵ When they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and they also had John as their helper. ⁶ When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, ⁷ who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

Paul and Barnabas proceeded from this point to the mainland of Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) and went from city to city following the same approach, first in Perga, then in Pisidian Antioch. And it was in Pisidian Antioch that a momentous event transpired, composed of two related incidents. After preaching a powerful sermon of the good news of Jesus, in the Synagogue, the Jews were filled with jealousy over the success the apostles were having. So they began to contradict what Paul had said and even went so far as to blaspheme. In response, the missionaries uttered the following condemnation:

⁴⁶ Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. ⁴⁷ For so the Lord has commanded us, 'I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth.”

Following this the Jews of that city rose up in protest and began to cause even greater trouble for the apostles. They gathered together “women of prominence” and “leading men of the city” in order to drive the missionaries out of town. And it is in this situation, in Acts 13:51, that we read the following:

But they shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.

This shaking of the dust off one's feet is a curious phrase and bears some explanation. This was a Jewish practice in the first century. When a Jew would visit a Gentile city, upon leaving that place he would “shake the dust off of his feet” as a sign of his separation from the worldly practices of the Gentiles. Jesus used this same symbolism in instructing His disciples as to how they should respond to unbelieving Jews in Matthew 10:14. The principle here is that, if a Jew refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah, the disciples were to demonstrate their separation from and condemnation of those Jews in the same way that Jews typically responded to Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas used this approach in Pisidian Antioch to demonstrate that if the Jews were going to reject their message then the missionaries wanted nothing more to do with them.

Now, this does not mean that Paul never again preached the gospel to Jews. On the contrary, we can see in the very next chapter that when he visited Iconium he began by entering the synagogue once again. However, the verbal condemnation and dust shaking incidents in Pisidian Antioch do seem to demonstrate a shift of approach that would inform Paul's ministry from then on. So in a very real sense what we witness in the following chapters of Acts is the very beginning of global missions, in the sense that Jesus's great commission was taken by His Apostles and applied to the global community in a manner that had not happened previously.

And it is in this context that we come to Lystra in Acts 14:8. Paul performs a miracle, at which the crowds are amazed and attempt to label he and Barnabas as gods. After quelling this heresy, they are confronted by some of the Jews from Antioch and Iconium. These people were so hostile to the gospel message that driving the Christians away from their own cities was not enough for them. They were so passionate about squashing news of Jesus that they followed His messengers in an attempt to stymie their efforts elsewhere as well. What an incredible parallel we can see here between this account of 1^st century Mediterranean hostility and opposition to Jesus and 21^st century American anger and combativeness toward those who would seek to follow Jesus. We could spend the rest of this essay considering the ever growing list of examples of Godless Atheist/Humanist proselytizing against the name of Christ and those who take a stand for what is taught in the Bible: the Phil Robertson homosexual controversy, the Chik-fil-a same sex marriage controversy, etc. But is that the most productive use of our time? Apparently Paul didn't think so. Go back to Acts 14:19-23 and look at how he responded to these attacks from the Jews. Are you still looking? Perhaps you missed the fiery rhetoric that he launched in response to his stoning in verse 19. Still don't see anything? That's because, obviously, there was no response. In fact, the astonishing thing is that Paul seems to have given no answer whatsoever, at least not that is recorded in scripture. These Jews followed him many miles to other cities, expressly intended to harass and subvert his ministry, and ultimately attempted to murder him by stoning. And what did Paul do? He rolled right on with his work. This is incredible. Now obviously there is a huge element of miraculous wonder here of someone being stoned, seemingly to death, and then popping right up and carrying on with what he was doing. But beyond that there is an aspect in which we can be informed about our own efforts to evangelize on both a local and global scale today by how Paul responded to his antagonists then. Punishment, vengeance, and opposition are not the purview of humans. They are the sole jurisdiction of God alone. Scripture is clear on this. For example, in Deuteronomy 32:35 God says “Vengeance is Mine, and retribution,”, in Matthew 10:28 Jesus taught “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”, and in Zephaniah 3:8 we read the following statement: “Therefore wait for Me,” declares the Lord, “For the day when I rise up as a witness.” The clear principle is this. God has given us a mission to accomplish. That is, to proclaim the glory of His son to all the people groups of the world. That is what we are to be about; not worrying, complaining, or railing against those who would oppose His name. Paul, rather than confronting his attackers simply kept doing what he had been doing. We would be well advised to do the same in the area of global missions, personal evangelism, and all other areas of life.

Now then, just what was it that Paul was actually doing while he was being attacked and persecuted? How was he going about the business of global missions? A succinct method of summarizing his work would be to use the familiar modern term of “church planting.” But rather than just tossing out an abrupt purpose statement of “go start a church” I believe scripture gives us more detail than that. The New Testament writers never used the term of “church planting”. They were too busy telling us what all went into this process of starting a new church of Christians. We can see that principle here, with three elements of Paul's ministry that really formed the backbone of his efforts in the world: sharing the gospel, establishing local leadership, and discipling believers.

The preaching and teaching of the gospel is perhaps the most obvious component of Paul's ministry. The historical record in Acts is rampant with descriptions of his work that center on sharing the good news of Jesus with people. On this missionary journey in particular, the author of Acts, Luke, makes great pains to be clear that everywhere he went Paul spread the gospel. Here is a list of the specific descriptions of this in just two chapters of Acts which document this first missionary journey:

1. Acts 13:5 – They proclaimed the word of God in Salamis.
2. Acts 13:7 – They communicated the word of God to Sergius Paulus the proconsul.
3. Acts 13:16-41 – Paul preaches a lengthy and powerful sermon at the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch.
4. Acts 13:43 – After the synagogue meeting had broken up Paul and Barnabas continued speaking the truth to them.
5. Acts 14:1-3 – Once again the missionaries spoke of Jesus in the synagogue in Iconium.
6. Acts 14:9 – Paul was once again speaking, implicitly if not explicitly recorded for us, about the gospel.
7. Acts 14:15-17 – Paul and Barnabas communicate truth in an attempt to combat a heretical opinion of themsevles.
8. Acts 14:20 – They preached the gospel in Derbe.
9. Acts 14:24 – The word was spoken in Perga.

As we can see, the preaching and teaching of the gospel was absolutely central and critical to Paul's missionary endeavors. Thus this element should form the backbone of our modern efforts in the arena of global missions.

The second piece of the puzzle in Paul's formula for missions is to establish local leadership. We can see this specifically in Acts 14:23 where Paul and Barnabas “had appointed elders for them in every church”. The game plan of these early missionaries was not to put down roots and settle in an area. They were constantly on the move, criss crossing the region, sometimes doubling back on their tracks to re-visit churches they had already established, but always seeking to expand the reach of Christ's gospel ever outward. The longest recorded length of time that Paul spent at any one place was later on in Ephesus where he stayed for three years, strengthening the church there. But this extended visit to Ephesus was an anomaly in Paul's ministry. His goal was always to establish local leadership and then move on while the leadership he had set up became responsible for governing the church. In Acts chapter 20 he speaks to the elders of the church in Ephesus and reveals how he instructed them and trained them for ministry. In Titus 1:5 he reminds his disciple Titus that “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you”. In 2 Timothy 2:2 he tells Timothy that “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” These passages make it clear that Paul's intention was not to lead the churches he established, but rather to train other men, his “sons in the faith”, to be faithful stewards in positions of leadership in those churches. As such it is critically important that we follow that same model today.

To lend further credibility to what we already see in scripture, looking at the issue pragmatically leads to this same conclusion that established local leadership is the best approach for church planting. Mission boards such as Biblical Ministries Worldwide have found that converts who are natives of the country in question are much more effective at leading existing believers and evangelizing to potential believers than foreign missionaries are. Once trained and equipped for the work of ministry these men have an ethnic connection to and shared cultural heritage with the people who surround them and live beside them. If this fact did not line up with scripture we would need to cast it by the wayside. But since it does in fact align itself so well with the approach already laid down for us by the 1^st century missionaries it makes even more sense to follow this approach.

The third core element of Paul's ministry approach was the discipling of believers. At multiple points throughout his ministry he would go back to areas he had already visited, for no other reason than to “strengthen the souls of the disciples” and to “encourage them in the faith” as it is described in our passage in Acts 14. Discipleship is a central theme of New Testament Christian thought and practice. It was borne on the wings of Hebrew culture which extended back over a thousand years into the Old Testament and the institution of the Levitical priesthood as well as the prophetic office. This practice evolved into the system used under 1^st century Judaism in which the relationship between a rabbi and his student was the principle method in which new rabbis were trained. Then Jesus took this paradigm and used it as the method with which He raised up His Apostles who would follow in His footsteps. The overarching theme of all this disciple making was one of time. It was antithetical to the very concept of discipleship to rush this process. The whole idea was for the student to learn to be as exactly like his master as was humanly possible. This dictates that time be spent, as it is impossible to learn the depth of a person's nature in just a short time. So it was only natural for Paul, bred into this school of thought by Gamaliel, one of the most prominent rabbis of that day, and then further instructed by special revelation direct from Jesus Himself, to take this same approach with his personal ministry. We can see this perhaps no better than with Paul's relationship with Timothy. They first met during Paul's second missionary journey, which by the way was wholly intentioned with the express purpose of going back to every city that had been visited on the first journey for the purpose of following up with the converts there; in other words it was purposed for the sake of discipleship. Acts 15:36 reveals this motive to us:

After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are.”

In the course of re-visiting these towns the missionaries came back to Lystra, where Timothy lived. He was already a believer when Paul met him, as revealed in Acts 16:1. And the friendship they struck up was nothing short of phenomenal. Timothy accompanied Paul on many of his travels, Paul wrote multiple personal letters to him which we enjoy reading in our modern English bibles, and ultimately Paul installed him as the pastor of the Ephesian church. To say that Paul invested much of his life in discipling this man is a grand understatement. Their discipling relationship and probably others like it that Paul had which are not recorded in scripture formed the basis of his approach to missions. On all of these grounds we can very confidently say that to neglect disciple making today in either global missions or our local churches here in America is absolutely un-biblical.

Now then, having examined some of the “nuts and bolts” of how Paul did global missions, let's pull the lens back out for a moment and consider two broader angles that should inform our thinking on this.

First, a potential objection that some may raise to this whole idea of church planting. Namely, some might say the following. Regardless of how Paul did things he was still only just a man. We choose to follow Christ's approach. It is never recorded in the gospels that Jesus attempted to do any sort of church planting. What He focused on was the personal relationships and disciple making. That is what's most important.

I would like to respond to this by looking at Acts 9:15. This is the familiar story in which God calls a disciple named Ananias to minister to Saul and help to establish his ministry after Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus. Ananias is understandably fearful of going to Saul due to his reputation as a persecutor of the church. He voices this concern to the Lord, who responds with the following statement:

But the Lord said to him, “Go, because this man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before Gentiles and kings and the people of Israel.”

God is speaking about Saul here. He uses an interesting phrase to refer to him; chosen instrument. Almost every English translation translates this phrase the same way. And it is essentially word for word accurate with the original Greek. But even though the wording is accurate I would like to explore a nuance of this phrase that I think is lost in the translation. So let's break it down. The word instrument can also be called a tool, a vessel, or an implement. The Greeks commonly used their word for vessel as a metaphor for the body because they believed in an eternal soul that lived temporarily in bodies. The word chosen is literally the act of picking or choosing out. This same word can easily be applied to humans since we make choices all the time. But when it is applied to God, what does it become? Doesn't it become something more than just a normal choice as it is applied to mankind? Should we not find a more accurate and fitting method to refer to God's choices? Actually, we don't have to because God has already done it for us. Consider Ephesians 1:4...

just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

Although it is obviously a different tense, the word chose that we see here is the root of the word chosen used back in Acts 9:15. And what is Ephesians 1:4 referring to when it highlights God's choice? It is referring to the doctrine of God's divine and sovereign election of saints before the creation of the world. Building off of that, scripture makes it very clear that God has perfect foreknowledge of all things and He views all of time in the present (Isaiah 42:9, Psalm 90:4). Therefore, any choice that He has ever made relating to an aspect of His creation was locked in before that event occurred. This leads us to the inescapable conclusion that all of God's choices are really demonstrations or permutations of His sovereign elective work. If this is so, then as it applies to Saul when the Lord called him His “chosen instrument” what He was saying, in effect, was that Saul was literally His “vessel of election.” Saul was the tool that God had selected out to do the work of facilitating His election of man. We can see this with crystal clarity in Acts 13:48...

When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

How does this relate to our examination of Paul's approach to global missions? It relates in this way; our mandate to emulate the practices of Paul in all of his work and writings that are recorded in scripture transcend his status as an Apostle or the fact that his writings are in the canon of inspired scripture. It goes beyond the material realm that humanity dwells in and is defined by the truth that Paul was the conduit through which God accomplished His elective work in the world. We could say this equally of all the Apostles. But it is particularly clear and relevant for Paul since scripture makes it so. Therefore, it is entirely accurate, fitting, and biblical to say it this way: Paul's approach to global missions is God's approach to global missions.

Carrying on with that theme, there is one more question I want to answer here. Namely, why is the institution or organism of the church the vehicle that God has chosen for the propagation of His gospel into the world? It certainly seems that God favors people living in community. Matthew 18:20 refers to two or three being gathered together in His name. Paul extensively uses the analogy of a human body to refer to the church, with all of the implications of fellowship that arise from that example. But the deeper question that I want to answer is why does God favor community so much? The answer can be found in one word, “us”. Genesis 1:26 records a private conversation among the Godhead during the process of creation, as follows: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;” Who is the “Us” that is referred to here? It is a reference to the trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God Himself is a community which dwells in perfect harmony and intimacy. This is the grass roots foundational level upon which the doctrine of the church is built. God desires us to live in community because that style of living is what best reflects His own character. We looked a few weeks ago at the truth that God's commands and instructions are not separate from Himself; but rather they are an extension of who He is. In the same way, the structure and design of the church as the mode of Christian living and ministry is not merely some idea that God came up with that He thought would work the best. It works the best because it best mirrors God's own existence. Jesus said this beautifully in His high priestly prayer in John 17:11...

“I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.”

This should be Earth shaking for us. Because I believe all too often we tend to view church with a carnal, profane, and secular mindset. That is, a church is a group of people at a building who get together to worship and do acts of service. Those things are true. But the church is so much more than that. It is the Earthly representation of the character and nature of the tri-une God who dwells in unapproachable light with perfect harmony and equality. If that does not cause us to spiritually gulp and take stock of our investment in the church then I fear we are so de-sensitized to spiritual things by the secularism of our culture that we may be incapable of sensing God's presence and truth when it is presented to us. And if so, that is a state that calls into question our very salvation.

So to summarize, the approach of the Apostle Paul to the issue of global missions was as follows. He spent his time planting churches by sharing the gospel, establishing local leadership, and discipling believers. He did this with a single minded devotion which relegated Godless opposition to his work to a position of low importance. We ought to follow Paul's example because not only was he an Apostle of Jesus Christ. Not only is much of his written work in the canon of scripture. But he was God's specifically chosen vessel of election in the world. Finally, God desired Paul to plant churches, desires us to function in a church, and desires us to focus our efforts in global missions on church planting because that is the best representation of His own nature and character.