"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace."
Acts 20:24
Over the last few decades, mission statements have become an integral resource for communicating corporate strategies. Mission statements document companies’ business aims and summarize what their fundamental objectives are. Interestingly, mission statements have a religious origin. The word “mission” means “to send out”. Mission mirrors the description and role of the New Testament apostle (“one sent”). Apostles were called exclusively by Christ (the Holy Spirit in Barnabas’s case) and uniquely blessed and gifted by Jesus to herald His glory and purpose. Hebrews 3:1 refers to Christ as the apostle God sent from heaven to earth. In today’s application, missionaries, like apostles, are believers charged to go throughout the world in order to preach Christ and propagate the gospel.
In recent years, churches, like industries, have implemented the usage of mission statements. Such religious fellowships understand that the short written declarations are not just motivational slogans - they are guiding pledges that encourage believers to seek God’s vision and honor His Word. They hearken Christians to stay true to the sacrificial spirit that accompanies service within the kingdom of God. I had the privilege of helping redevelop a church’s mission statement when I served in a congregation that underwent a revamp of sorts. It was not a physical makeover, with brick and mortar, but rather a spiritual makeover. All of which began when the pastor of the church was convicted to address areas that urgently needed to be reevaluated, specifically the church’s name and its mission statement.
When the church was originally founded its title drew upon the community in which it was located. But the district was eventually renamed. The church, for some reason, never followed suit. Over twenty years had elapsed and the church still bore the designation of a nonexistent area. When new residents visited our fellowship, they often inquired how the church derived its name. It was a source of confusion and a topic that was continually brought up. Therefore, the pastor wanted to establish a church name that reflected its relevance and association with the present community.
There were many longtime members who were fiercely opposed to changing the church’s name. Some people had been in the congregation for almost thirty years. They had never known the church by any other title than its inaugural one. Altering a church name may seem like a simple thing, but when you factor in people’s visceral and emotional reactions to such a move, it becomes a much more sensitive issue. It took some time but the pastor was able to convince the church body that a revision of the church name was necessary.
In conjunction with the title change, the pastor reassessed the church’s mission statement. He enlisted the assistance of the church staff to update it. Because I was the part-time music minister, I was included in the effort. At a meeting, the pastor provided a working version mission statement. He asked the staff to review it and give him feedback. He explicitly instructed us to include biblical justification for anything we wanted to add, modify, or remove from his draft. He composed both a short form mission statement and a long form mission statement. His document cited numerous passages of Scripture to substantiate the core tenets of his article. I thoroughly examined his outline and then assembled one of my own. Delving into God’s Word, I constructed a synopsis I felt conveyed the mission God wanted the church fellowship to embark upon. My foundational precept was the responsibility to exercise God’s love. I recorded my convictions along with corresponding biblical mandates. The following excerpt is what I provided to the pastor:
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
And this is his command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he has commanded us.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
Worship
Fellowship
Discipleship
Ministry
The divine utterance of God, revealing not only His nature, but His desire to forge a relationship with His creation.
God’s action inspires a reaction from mankind. God has always been the Great Initiator of communion and He seeks a gratifying response from us.
There is no greater act of love the world has ever known. Words cannot express the beauty of the Creator voluntarily leaving the glory of heaven to associate with His creation, enduring rejection and torture along the way. He overcame a lifetime of hurt on earth so that mankind could experience hope and secure an eternal future.
In order to understand the will of God, Paul reminds us we must be transformed through the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2). This entails a necessary surrender of our fleshly pursuits in exchange for heavenly pursuits. The ways of God are illogical and irrelevant to the world, but the ways of God are sound and significant to believers.
Every man and woman was created by a loving God, a God Who rejoices when humanity recognizes how great He truly is. We should desire to associate with Him on a daily basis through prayer, praise, and personal study.
Worship could be defined as the willing act of believers to sacrifice time, treasure, and talents to God. He deserves our very best.
Only by loving God can we ever posses the ability to love others. If the vertical perspective (God-to-man) is intact then a horizontal perspective (man-to-man) will surely follow.
If we yearn to honor God then we will strive to connect with one another. The single most transparent way this can be accomplished is through spending time with each other.
If we aspire to honor God then we will regularly offer opportunities to teach people about Who God is, what He has to say, and why His message is so vitally important.
The all encompassing aspect of a Christian’s mission. Our love for God develops our need to serve God. Within this service exists a desire to help others and lift them up.
The apostle Paul had a mission-oriented focus throughout his ministry, a ministry that was riddled with hardships and challenges. One such obstacle arose in Ephesus while Paul was finishing a nearly three year period of dedicated service in the Asia Minor city. At the conclusion of Acts 19, a revolt emerged in Ephesus. It was rooted in a severe disdain for Paul. Some unbelievers claimed that the apostle’s evangelistic effort was directly responsible for the diminishing commerce at the idolatrous temple of Artemis, the Greek goddess of fertility. When the craftsmen who profited considerably from the manufacture and sale of artifacts commemorating Artemis saw their income decrease, they were incensed. The rage-filled environment in Ephesus subsided after an astute city clerk warned the people that they were on the verge of being charged with rioting, which often carried severe consequences under Roman law.
Per Acts 20, Paul stayed through the aftermath of the short-lived rebellion in Ephesus. Previous experiences in Acts show Paul was often encouraged to leave similar tumultuous settings by his fellow disciples. But the apostle remained on this occasion, presumably to ensure that the upheaval did not linger or uproot the spiritual seeds he had sown in Ephesus. Thereafter, Paul met with the Ephesian disciples, encouraged them, and set out for Macedonia. As he traveled through various cities (including Philippi and Thessalonica most likely), he offered many words of exhortation and encouragement, which were no doubt timely and precious to the young fellowships. Paul later arrived in Greece and ministered there for three months. Before the apostle left Greece he learned of a Jewish plot to inflict harm upon him, so he backtracked through Macedonia to avoid falling into the hands of the Jewish conspirators. Timothy, the great protégé of Paul who was left at Ephesus for a season, rejoined Paul, as did Luke it would seem (Acts 20:4-5).
Paul and company traveled to Troas, where the group tarried for seven days. On the first day of the following week, the missionaries united with the Troas Christians to break bread, perhaps in observance of the Lord’s Supper. Because Paul was intent on leaving the city the next morning, he preached a lengthy, all-night sermon to the church. The service was held in an upstairs chamber, where a young man named Eutychus was seated upon a window ledge. Around midnight, Eutychus was overcome with drowsiness, so-much-so that he fell asleep and dropped from the upstairs chamber window three floors onto the street. When the believers rushed down to investigate the severity of the young man’s injury, he was determined to be deceased (although Eutychus may have only been momentarily unconscious). Paul threw himself on Eutychus’s body, indicating the apostle’s genuine concern for the young man’s life. Paul found Eutychus was not dead but alive. As breath returned to the young man’s body, Paul went back upstairs and spoke until daybreak. The fact that the worship resumed, despite the frenzy surrounding Eutychus’s three-story plummet, highlights the persistence of Paul’s discipleship-focused spirit, as well as the earnest passion of the believers in Troas.
From Troas, the missionaries sailed to Assos, but Paul decided to journey on by foot. This personal time was likely used for refreshment, akin to what Jesus did before and after many of His excursions into the villages and cities of Judea. Such moments alone with God are often meaningful and memorable. When Paul arrived in Assos, he climbed aboard a ship with his fellow disciples, where they trekked through various seaports. The group eventually landed in Miletus, a town not far from Ephesus. Because he had resolved himself to be in Jerusalem by Pentecost, Paul did not venture into Ephesus for he knew that he would likely be unable to pull himself away from the people or the mission there. Paul petitioned the elders of Ephesus to come to Miletus instead. The elders of Ephesus responded favorably to Paul’s invitation and met him shortly after the apostle sent for them.
Paul delivered the Ephesian elders a sober farewell address. He charged them to carefully shepherd the church. In a practical sense, shepherds not only guide flocks, they protect them, which intimates that the Ephesian disciples had a responsibility to guard and embolden the spiritual state of their congregational members. The apostle referred to the men as both elders and overseers in his address, thereby implicating that the Ephesian fellowship had produced and solidified some semblance of a leadership structure. Paul articulated a yearning for Jewish and Gentile people to experience repentance through faith in Jesus, which is a fitting summary of Christianity’s mission. Paul professed his innocence of everyone’s blood for he had striven to identify God’s plan of salvation. The apostle was a noble and worthy ambassador of Christ, who diligently warned others about the pending judgment of God. He emphasized the criticality of sound doctrine by chastising false teachers, who he labeled “savage wolves”. It is humbling to realize that eternity hinges on correct instruction and reception of the gospel.
Reinforcing his example and beliefs, Paul encouraged the church in Ephesus to remain strong and resist the evil work of deceivers. At the urging of the Holy Spirit, Paul was bound to journey to Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit had repeatedly informed the apostle that he would endure many hardships, including imprisonment. Convinced he would never see the Ephesian elders again, Paul underscored the importance of abiding with God. He concluded his message with prayer, a most appropriate send-off. Afterwards, the elders, one by one, embraced Paul. The possibility that they would never again experience fellowship with their spiritual patriarch deeply moved the elders. They struggled to let Paul go initially, but the men soon mustered the resolve to accompany Paul to his ship, where they said goodbye to their mentor.
Paul’s stirring sermonette to the Ephesian elders elicits many thought-provoking reflections. Acts 20:24, in particular, stresses the power of a mission-oriented life. Paul said, “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” From Paul’s testimony, we discover three important elements of a mission-oriented life. One, a mission-oriented life possesses the proper mindset. Paul told the Ephesian elders that he considered his life nothing. This was not a self-deprecating perspective; it was a sacrificial perspective. Paul viewed his life within the framework of God’s overwhelming purpose. A holy purpose was the consuming contemplation of Paul’s mind, not personal fear, conflict, or worry. Paul made no account of the adversity that was in store for him. He did not list grievances against God for current or future mistreatment. Although he had offered so much to the gospel ministry, he indicated there was so much left to do. Paul’s pending pain and punishment did not burden his heart or dissuade him from mission work. If anything, it emboldened him because it compelled him to rely more on the Holy Spirit for strength and support.
Paul was willing to give his life to the cause of advancing the name of Christ. If bringing new believers into a saving relationship with Christ required affliction and captivity so be it. The apostle was captivated by the permanence of God’s kingdom and aspired to help others encounter Jesus’ redemption. He allowed the Holy Spirit to daily lead his heart and renew his mind. He did not allow the cumbersome, but temporary, issue of suffering for Jesus on this earth weigh down his soul.
Two, a mission-oriented life presents the proper motivation. Paul said to the Ephesian elders that he longed to finish the race set before him. Paul’s analogous use of a life race evokes some very penetrating implications. Races are not for the lazy or idle for they require unyielding participation and stamina. Furthermore, races have a starting point and an ending point, signifying they are not without limits. This consideration is enormously important because it reminds mankind that the earthly existence is an interim one. This world is not humanity’s final destination. It is not our eternal home. Although believers are sure to find satisfaction in this life through an active, thriving relationship with God, we must not become so attached to this planet that we lose the desire to leave it. After all, for those who have experienced salvation, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8).
Paul placed a high value on his call to missions. His service and speech confirm he viewed it as a great privilege, a vital opportunity that had been entrusted to him directly from God. Clearly, a mission-oriented life carries a great burden: to declare Christ’s redemption to a largely obstinate, unbelieving people. But a mission-oriented life also carries a great blessing: being chosen and called by God to participate in the outreach of rescuing people from eternal peril.
Three, a mission-oriented life promotes the proper ministry. Paul stated his pressing aspiration was to complete the task Jesus Christ had given him: to testify to the gospel of God’s grace. Paul’s commission and conviction to testify to the gospel of God’s grace not only compelled him to declare God’s grace existed, it compelled him to prove that it existed. Paul’s life yielded bona fide evidence that God’s grace is transformative. Although he was once an outspoken critic of Christianity, Paul became a devout proponent of Christianity. Salvation conquered his heart and inspired him to submit to a Christ-glorifying ministry.
In summary, Paul exhibited a mission-oriented life. He was not motivated by money or material possessions (Acts 20:33). He was not obsessed with status or self-praise (Acts 20:34). He was fervently fixated on serving God. Paul’s mission statement, so-to-speak, could be summed up in his final words to the Ephesian elders, a precept he credited to Jesus: it is more blessed to give than receive (Acts 20:35). This proclamation of Jesus is not specifically listed in any of the four New Testament gospel accounts, but not everything Jesus said or did was recorded, according to the apostle John’s own admission in John 21:25. Regardless, Paul’s needs and wants, including his safety, were secondary to the primary objective of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. God’s love was so overwhelming that the apostle could not help but share it with others. The promise of seeing his Savior face-to-face upon reaching earth’s finish line was the ultimate reward that spurred Paul to embrace God’s mission and run the race of faith.
In life’s race, are you an active participant in God’s mission?
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