The Work of a Missionary
Posted in Acts, Acts Series, Missions, Scott Aniol on Nov 25th, 2007
Scott Aniol
Acts 14.21-23
Evening Service
The question I would like to address from this passage is, what is the work of a missionary? Now, the term Amissionary@ is never found in the Bible. The term simply means Asent one,@ probably taken from passages like Acts 13.3B4 where Paul and Barnabas were sent off by the Church and by the Holy Spirit:
So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. 4 The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.
In other words, when we use the term Amissionary,@ we are referring to people who do the kind of work that Paul and Barnabas did here in Acts 13B14. So perhaps the more precise question would be, what is the work of someone sent by God by the local church just like Paul and Barnabas were sent?
The reason that question is so important is the way that question has been answered has radically changed in the last forty years. In 1974 a group of Christian leaders met in Lausanne, Switzerland to discuss the future of world missions. These leaders were New Evangelicals who considered social engagement as a priority for the Church, and so they defined missions as Aany activity in which Christians are involved for world evangelization.@
In addition to theological doctrine, many missionaries promote economic development, literacy, education, health care and orphanages, believing these causes advance the glory of God. Christian doctrines (such as the “Doctrine of Love” professed by many missions) may permit the provision of aid without requiring religious conversion.1
In other words, for them, the work of a missionary involved social acts, things like education and health care. Now, as good as these things are, the question is, is this what a missionary C one sent out like Paul and Barnabas C is supposed to be doing?
In order to answer that question, let=s notice what Paul and Barnabas did when they were sent out by God.
A Missionary is an Evangelist
We do not have to spend much time in Acts 13B14 to notice what occupied most of Paul=s time, but let=s do a quick survey to drive home the point.
13.5 B They proclaimed the word of God
13.7 B Sergius Paulus wanted to hear the word of God
13.16B41 B Paul preached the word of God at Pisidian-Antioch
13.44 B The whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord
13.49 B The word of the Lord spread through the whole region
14.1 B They spoke at Iconium in such a way that people believed
14.7 B They continued to preach the good news in Lystra and Derbe
14.9 B Paul was speaking
14.14B17 B They preached at Lystra
14.21 B They preached the good news at Derbe
What occupied Paul=s time as a missionary? He preached the word of God, particularly the gospel. He was a AGospelizer@ C an Evangelist. In fact, AEvangelist@ is the technical term for what Paul and Barnabas were doing as sent ones. “Evangel” is the word for “gospel,” and so an “Evangelist” is one who preaches the gospel. I mentioned a moment ago that the term AMissionary@ never occurs in the Bible, but AEvangelist@ does.
The word AEvangelist@ occurs three times in the NT. Philip is called an evangelist in Acts 21.8, evangelists are described as gifts to the Church in Ephesians 4.11, and Timothy is encouraged to do the work of an evangelist in 2 Timothy 4.5.
AEvangelist@ simply refers to one who gives the gospel, and it seems to be used in a technical sense for one who gives the gospel to those who have never heard, which is exactly what Paul was doing. So the more biblical title for what Paul and Barnabas were is AEvangelist.@
A missionary is an evangelist. He is occupied with taking the gospel to those who have never heard the gospel. Even more specifically, a missionary is someone who is occupied with fulfilling the Great Commission. I’d like to ask you to turn to Matthew 28 so we can see better what the work of a missionary/evangelist is supposed to be:
Matthew 28:19 20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
The Great Commission is comprised of one primary command and three participles. You can recognize a participle by an A-ing@ ending, so two are apparent in our English translation C Abaptizing@ and Ateaching.@ One other word in these verses should have an A-ing@ ending as well, and that=s the word Ago.@ The main imperative (command) verb in the Commission is Amake disciples.@ So it literally reads, AGoing, make disciples, baptizing and teaching.@
So the primary command of the Great Commission, and the primary task of a Missionary C an Evangelist C is to make disciples. What this means is that the work of an Evangelist-Missionary involves more than just presenting the gospel, getting people to pray a prayer, and moving on. It involves all that making disciples entails. So when someone accepts Christ, the missionary-evangelist=s work is not complete. He must also baptize that person C which implies that he has confirmed that the person is indeed a believer, and he must teach that person.
So a missionary is first an evangelist C he gives the gospel to those who have not heard it. But this work involves making disciples, and that means baptizing and teaching as well. These two additional tasks lead us to the next responsibility of a missionary.
A Missionary is an Preacher
Acts 14:21 22 They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples [There=s the work of an evangelist]. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.
Once Paul and Barnabas had preached the gospel and seen many come to Christ, they followed up by returning to each city, Astrengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.” So what, exactly, were they doing?
They strengthened the disciples
First, they strengthened the disciples. Literally the verse reads, Astrengthening the souls of the disciples.@ Now how would they have strengthened their souls?
I’d like you to turn to James 1.21, which uses the same word for Asoul,@ and gives us a good indication as to how Paul and Barnabas strengthened the souls of the disciples:
James 1.21b . . . and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you [lit., "save your souls"].
Once again the word Asoul@ is omitted by the NIV translators, but the ESV gets it right. The verse literally ends, Awhich is able to save your souls.@ What is able to save your soul? AThe word planted in you.@ It is the Word of God that is able to strengthen and save the soul of the believer. But it is not just the Word of God in the abstract. It is the Word of God implanted in them.
So how did Paul strengthen the souls of the disciples here in Acts 14? By teaching them more of the Word of God, exactly what Jesus had commanded in the Great Commission.
They urged the disciples to persevere
But simply teaching the Word of God alone is not enough, Paul and Barnabas also Aencouraged them to continue in the faith.@ The word Aencouraged@ here is literally to Aurge@ or Aappeal@ or Aexhort.@ It’s the same word Paul used in Titus 2.6 when he said “encourage ["urge"] the young men to be self-controlled.” Paul and Barnabas did not stop with simply teaching the Word of God; they preached the Word of God! They applied it and urgently exhorted with it.
Mark Minnick was my pastor when I was in college; one of the best preachers I know. I often heard him describe the difference between teaching and preaching. He said that when a teacher finishes, the audience says, AOh, I get it,@ but when a preacher finishes, his audience says, AI need to do that.@ Preaching is teaching with urgency. Why were they urgent? Because they knew that these disciples would have to go through many hardships, and they wanted them to persevere in the faith. A preacher will always be a good teacher, but preaching involves more than just teaching.
So a missionary is an evangelist, making disciples of those who have not heard, and a missionary is a preacher, equipping the new disciples with the Word of God so that they will persevere.
But notice the third task of Paul and Barnabas in verse 23:
A Missionary is a Church Planter
Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.
A missionary does not stop with making disciples and equipping them. He then takes those new disciples and forms them into a church. A missionary is a church planter.
The goal of a church planter is to establish local churches. But not just any churches. Notice the kind of churches that Paul and Barnabas planted.
They planted self-supporting churches.
Notice first that Paul and Barnabas did not stay in these cities indefinitely. They established a church and then left. These churches were self-supporting.
It is unfortunate that some missionaries plant a church, and then stay in that church for years and years while the church grows larger than many of his supporting churches. That is not the pattern set here. The goal of a missionary should be to plant a church that can support itself, so that he can move on to plant other churches in other cities.
They planted self-governing churches
Second, what did they do before they left these churches to support themselves? They appointed and commissioned elders for each church. They had spent enough time in each new church teaching the believers there, that some of them rose to the task of leading the churches. And so these missionaries recognized those who were qualified to be elders and appointed them to the office.
In other words, these church plants were not only self-supporting, but they were also self-governing.
It is not necessarily wrong for a missionary to plant a church and then stay on as pastor of that church as long as it is self-supporting. But the better practice would be to equip and recognize men from within the new church to lead the church. This is especially true today for American missionaries who plant churches in foreign countries. Often men who are native to that country will be better able to lead that new church long-term than an American would be.
They planted self-perpetuating churches.
A third goal of a church planter is to plant churches that are self-perpetuating. In other words, a self-perpetuating church is one that will reproduce itselves through other church-planting efforts. I do not take this from our text, but from Paul=s own words in Romans 15. There Paul says that he is finished with his work in Asia Minor, and so he plans to head off to Spain. Now, when Paul says that he has finished his work, does he mean that every person has been reached with the gospel? Certainly not. But what he means is that he has planted enough self-supporting, self-governing churches in strategic locations throughout the region, that they will be able to reproduce themselves and accomplish the work of more church planting.
So a missionary is a church planter, and his goal should be to establish self-supporting, self-governing, self-perpetuating local churches.
Conclusion
Paul’s first missionary journey has given us a simple, clear model for what missionary work should look like. Exactly how it all works out practically will differ from country to country and from one person to the next. But generally speaking, a missionary should be an evangelist, making disciples of people who have never heard the gospel; he should be a preacher, equipping the new believers with the truth of God’s Word and admonishing them to apply its truths to their lives; and he should be a church planter, seeking to establish self-supporting, self-governing, self-perpetuating local churches.
This has two applications for us, one corporate application, and one individual application.
First, an application for our church. When we are ready to take on a new missionary, this is the kind of missionary we should be looking to support C a man who is gifted as an evangelist, a man who is gifted as a preacher, and a man who is gifted with what it takes to plant churches.
Really, being a missionary is one of the C if not the C most challenging callings from God. A missionary has to actually be more gifted than even a pastor, because a missionary has to have all the gifts required of a pastor, and then some. A pastor is not required to have specific gifts of evangelism, although he should evangelize. This is clear from 2 Timothy 4.5 where Paul tells Timothy, a pastor, to do the work of an evangelist. Evidently Paul distinguished between the work of a pastor and the work of an evangelist, but then he said that even though not specially gifted that way, pastors should still evangelize. So a pastor is not required to have specific gifts of evangelism, but missionaries must. An elder’s primary task is the ministry of the word through teaching and preaching, and he must therefore be “able to teach.” But so must a missionary be able to teach. A even further, not only does a missionary have to be an evangelist and a preacher, he also has to do the kinds of things normally accomplished by deacons in a local church C administrative sorts of things. Why? Because before a church is planted, there is no one but him to take care of all the administrative details. And there are tons of administrative details involved with planting a church!
In other words, a missionary must be an especially gifted man. He has to be able to give them gospel well, to preach well, and he must have what it takes to plant a church. That is the kind of men we should be looking for to support as missionaries.
Unfortunately, the work of a missionary is not very prestigious. And so what happens traditionally is that the brightest, most talented, most gifted men choose rather to be elders or professors, and don’t even consider going to the mission field. Traditionally, what we’ve almost implied is that if you can’t make it as a pastor, or you don’t have the brains teach, then go be a missionary. We have it completely backwards. The most gifted men called to the ministry should be the ones going to be missionaries.
So let’s look for the most gifted men to send as missionaries, and let’s send some like that from our own church. Which leads to the individual application.
We have some tremendously gifted men in our church, and some young men who are greatly gifted. Have you ever considered that God may want to use your gifts as a missionary? You say, “Well how do I know?” Well, one of the ways God calls people is by giving them the gifts necessary to do the work. Maybe God is calling you.
Next week we’re going to move on from studying Paul’s first missionary journey, but don’t forget the important things we’ve learned about missions from this study.
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1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_(Christian)
