By Ben Jiménez
For the last three years, we’ve spent time studying Luke and Acts on our Sunday gatherings. As I’ve been preparing for preaching, one of the resources that I’ve found extremely helpful has been John Stott’s “The Bible Speaks Today” commentaries. One of the things that I’ve found interesting is that Stott was missional before being missional was cool.
When Stott gets to Acts 20:1-6, he drops some missional insight worth repeating. Unfortunately, due to preaching schedule limitations and what not, I didn’t get to emphasize this section during my sermon so I thought it’d be beneficial to share some of his insight from this passage through this means.
Team work
First, Stott points out that Luke slows down “his narrative in order to tell us who Paul’s traveling companions were.” “It is noteworthy,” he says, “that Paul hardly even travelled alone, and that when he was alone, he expressed his longing for human companionship, for example in Athens and in his final Roman imprisonment.” He then adds, “That he favored team work is specially clear during his missionary journeys.”
Sometimes we tend to visualize Paul on mission all by himself. But there are actually very few instances in which he is alone in the book of Acts and like Stott points out, this is not his preference. It shouldn’t be our preference either. We were called into a kingdom, a family, a body, a community. We are more effective when we do mission in community.
Unity
Stott notices a “threefold witness” displayed through the details provided by Luke about the names and regions of Paul’s companions. The first one is “the growth, unity and even (one might say) ‘catholicity’ of the church.” The church is united and catholic (universal) in its mission as “[a]lready Christian leaders from inland and coastal Asia Minor, from both sides of the Aegean, and from the northern and southern halves of Greece, know that they belong to the same church and in consequence co-operate in the same cause.” Being truly missional means that we are willing to work with fellow believers across cultural, regional, ethnical, etc. lines.
Fruitfulness
It is evident that Paul’s team was fruitful for “all nine men must have been the fruits of mission.” These men are representatives of different regions that Paul and his coworkers evangelized during all of their missionary expeditions.
Missional Mindset
These men were the result of mission, and “they then became the agents of mission.” Being missional means to be a disciple of Jesus who makes disciples. These men and the churches that sent them were not just consumers. They and their young churches gave “evidence of their missionary-mindedness.” These churches understood that a missional mindset requires sacrifice and so they “gave up some of their best local leadership to the wider work and witness of Christ’s church.”
Conclusion
Being missional means that we work as a team, we strive for unity, God blesses his mission with fruit, the people who become disciples as a result of the mission are now themselves a part of the mission and are willing to sacrifice for the sake of God’s kingdom.
All of the quotes are taken from John Stott’s “The Message of Acts” from the series, “The Bible Speaks Today.” pp. 317-318.