January 1, 2023

Gleanings

What Is God Doing Today?

Gerald R. Chester, Ph.D.

Ever wonder what God is doing over the course of human history? Or what he is doing today?

Since the fall of man, God’s sovereign rule over his universe has been contested. At his sovereign pleasure, God has been executing a metanarrative of redemption that will conclude with the restoration of his uncontested rule over his creation. In addition, God is preparing a people for himself. In the Old Testament period it was ethnic Israel and in the New Testament period it is the church (the ekklesia).

However, during the past three hundred years, the popular paradigm of Christianity has been shaped by thinking associated with the Great Awakening. The presumption is that God is waiting for Christians to share the gospel with everyone, which will usher in the return of Christ. This perspective, however, is different from the aforementioned. The question is, which is correct?

For guidance, consider the apostle Paul’s message to the Ephesian elders recorded in Acts 20. After Paul encountered Jesus (Acts 9), he devoted himself to doing what the Father directed him to do—largely apostolic work. His custom was to travel as led by the Holy Spirit. Wherever he stopped, he spoke in the synagogues to the biblically literate people of the day. He testified that Jesus is both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). This revelation is the key to understanding the Old Testament Scripture.

Paul instructed the people who believed his message. Perhaps the clearest example of his methodology was his three-year visit to Ephesus on his third apostolic journey. He gathered the disciples, probably around twelve (Acts 19:7), and conducted daily discipleship training for two years. The fruit of this work was profound:

[Paul] conducted discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that [ὥστε] all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord. (Acts 19:9−10 CSB)

According to Vine’s Dictionary, the Greek conjunction ὥστε, translated “so that” in English, implies a causal relationship. This means that the discipleship work led to the evangelization of all the residents of Asia. In other words, the evangelism of the region of Asia was accomplished through the profound training of a few disciples in one city.

This approach to evangelism is different from today’s popular paradigms. Today, the focus is on the masses, but Paul’s focus in Ephesus was on a few disciples. When the focus is on the masses, the message will be shallow and the fruit anemic. But if the focus is on maturing people as disciples of Jesus, the potential for evangelism is far greater.

After Paul’s time in Ephesus, he traveled to Macedonia and Greece before beginning a return trip to Jerusalem. On his way he stopped in Miletus and summoned the Ephesian elders. This occurred not long after he had spent more than three years with them. Clearly, Paul had something pressing to say to them or, perhaps, a reminder for them. Was he concerned about world evangelism, as many are today, or was he concerned about something else, such as the protection and purity of the disciples? His concern was the latter as noted by the following text.

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Men will rise up even from your own number and distort the truth to lure the disciples into following them. Therefore, be on the alert, remembering that night and day for three years I never stopped warning each one of you with tears. And now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified. (Acts 20:28–32 CSB)

In Paul’s message to the Ephesian elders recorded in Acts 20:17ff, he said nothing about evangelism. His focus was on the protection and purity (growth) of the disciples.

The Pauline paradigm was embraced by both the early church (first five hundred years after the advent of Christ) and early reformers (first 250 years after the sixteenth-century Reformation). However, since the Great Awakening (the past three hundred years), a major focus of Christianity has been evangelism with little concern about the protection and purity of disciples. Consequently, the fruit of the modern evangelistic effort has been, as noted by one of the world’s leading missiologists, much less than expected. In a private conversation, I asked this mission leader why the fruit of the massive mission effort of the past three centuries was anemic. His explanation was that he doesn’t think the Christian leaders today understand discipleship as Paul did. In other words, the popular paradigm today of evangelism without discipleship is contrary to Jesus’ teaching (Matthew 28:18−20).

If the apostle Paul were to provide his perspective today, perhaps he would encourage us to follow his pattern in Ephesus: evangelism through discipleship. In other words, the predicate for fruitful evangelism is disciples who live the faith and are, consequently, the light of Jesus to the world (Matthew 5:1416). Paul’s methodology in Ephesus was that the quality of disciples precedes the quantity of disciples.

So perhaps the way forward is to return to the Pauline method of evangelism through discipleship. This means that the protection and purity of disciples is the predicate for building them up so they can do the good works they are called to do. And a byproduct is that sound discipleship will produce fruitful evangelism.

Acts 19 is not the only text that implies the methodology of evangelism through alignment with Christthe essence of discipleship. Evangelism through discipleship is also seen in Acts 6:1−7 when the C4 principle was used to bring order out of chaos in the first local church (ἐκκλησία). This led to accelerated growth of the church and the conversion of some of the most difficult people: the Jewish priests.

If we embrace evangelism through discipleship as a biblical methodology, perhaps then we would begin to see the fruit of

Acts 6 and Acts 19, effective evangelism.

God is continuing the metanarrative that will lead to the restoration of his uncontested rule over creation. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord (Romans 14:11). And God is building his church (ἐκκλησία) (Matthew 16:18). In the process of building the church, Paul modeled the building methodology of evangelism through discipleship.

If evangelism through discipleship is the best way, shouldn’t we follow Paul? If so, our focus will be on protecting and purifying the saints. The question is, will we follow Paul, or will we continue in the flawed popular model of the Great Awakening that seeks to evangelize void of discipleship?

Perhaps what God is doing today is revealing our flawed missions methodology and inviting us to return to evangelism through discipleship.

Resolve to imitate Paul. That would be a good New Year’s resolution!

Happy New Year!

 

Teaching: Paul Meets the Ephesian Elders

video
 
The C4 Principle
 

January – March 2023: Strategic Life Alignment Seminar

Biblical Guidance for Finding Your Life Purpose

SLA Seminar Preview
 

January – March 2023: Biblical Economics and Finance

Biblical Guidance for Financial Decisions

Biblical Economics and Financial Principles
 

January – June 2023: Building Generationally

Biblical Guidance for Building Organizations

Beyond Babel Previews
 

Business Roundtable

The Business Roundtable is a monthly gathering of organizational leaders who seek to lead and manage based on a Christian worldview.

FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmail AddressWebsite