Acts 8:28 As those who love God , we are called “according to His purpose”.
God has a purpose, it’s the big picture, He wants to save people to bring them to Heaven to share in His glory for ever. Our calling can only be an expression of the greater picture…a piece in God’s jigsaw puzzle.
The preliminary stage of the call of God
Acts 26:12-18
Paul receives a direct call from Jesus.
The call is being “sent to the Gentiles”
“To open their eyes,
To turn them from the power of Satan to God,
That they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance with those who are sanctified.”
He knows what he must commit his life to, but how does he go about fulfilling his Jesus-given calling?
He will formulate a strategy that will fully allow him to respond to the call on his life.
Acts 17:1-4
PAUL’S CUSTOM
Paul arrives in the city of Thessalonica and goes into the synagogue.
He does this in a very special way; It was “according to his custom” v2
After 3 or 4 years of ministry Paul had now developed a strategy.
It was very simple: in whatever town or city he was in he always began with the Jewish synagogue.
Once he had established the strategy, he applied it systematically. It was one of the keys to his phenomenal success.
Some examples of the strategy:
Acts 13:4,5 Cyprus
Acts 14:1 Iconium
Acts 17:10 Berea
Acts 18:4 Corinth
Acts 18:19 Ephesus
LESSONS WE CAN LEARN FROM PAUL’S STRATEGY TO DEVELOP OUR OWN STRATEGY.
1. Your call needs a plan.
Paul has a clear call on his life.
It’s found in Acts 26:17,18 “I have chosen you from the midst of this people and from the midst of the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they can pass from darkness to light”
But how was he going to respond to this call? How was he going to practically go to the Gentiles to open their eyes?
This was the strategy:
Once this strategy was in place, he just worked it everywhere he went.
A call of God must lead to a clear strategy
To plant churches in France God gave us a clearly defined strategy:
Many churches were started with that strategy.
2. A God-given background
Paul knew the synagogues very well. He had spent all of his life in them. – children’s church, youth group.
Even when he persecuted the Christians, he hunted them in… the synagogues. This was his territory where he knew what he was doing.
You are at your best in the area you know best.
An Australian pastor, preaching for us in France with me translating, was saying a number of things which were wrong because he didn’t know the culture. He said to our leaders: “You French people, you are like the Italians – very emotional” He showed his ignorance of the French. The image of the Frenchman in the English-speaking world is that of a romantic dreamer, poet, artistic type. But the Frenchman is actually the opposite: scientific, rationalistic, non expressive. The preacher was out of his depth. He just wasn’t ministering on his “turf”.
I grew up with a French father. He was different to Aussie fathers. I just thought my father was a bit weird – he loved very strong coffee at the time when a cup of coffee in Australia was standard – powered coffee + boiling water + milk + sugar. He also loved smelly cheese and wanted to kiss me as his son. But when I arrived in France I realised that he wasn’t weird at all. He was just French and Frenchmen aren’t Aussies.
The best strategy is the one that is based on what you know and understand well - your territory.
3. Play to your personal strengths
What were Paul’s strengths?
All these things were going to be important as he launched out in ministry.
The key question to ask yourself when wishing to develop a strategy:
What are my personal strengths which I could use for the Gospel?
What are your character and personality strengths:
Good listener, good talker, artistic, serving, encourager, outgoing personality?
What expertise do you have: professionally and culturally?
Your strategy must be built on these so that you are building on strengths.
Don’t be a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. If you suffer from sea sickness don’t dream about being a professional fisherman. Get a land job.
4. The law of first fruits – your first experiences are significant
God operates on the principle of your first experiences.
Acts 9:19,20 The key word is “immediately”
God is a God of first fruits and the first born. What He does in the first stages of a life and ministry often holds the key to the future;
My personal call was to win people to Christ through the local church by going out to the people
The first fruits of this calling could be found in 3 early events:
As a university student on Saturday nights I would just go to Brisbane’s central square with my guitar, find some kids under a tree and teach them songs I learned at church. Then I would try to bring them back to church.
When I came on staff as the part-time assistant to the youth leader, my first responsibility was to set up a café in the church basement and take teams of youth out onto the streets to bring people back to share Jesus with them.
My first church in a tough city like Ipswich with a group of Christians that didn’t really get along. We learnt to win new people one at a time.
I didn’t understand the importance of these three “firsts” at the time but with hindsight, I can see that they were an indication of how God would use me.
5. Targeting your “people group”.
This could be youth, children, aged, business people, sports, women, men etc
When you understand the people group you are sent to, it answers many of the other questions you might otherwise ask yourself.
If you are in Brisbane and you want to drive to Sydney then you don’t have to stop at every fork in the road and wonder if you should be taking the road that leads to Darwin. You just keep going on the road that leads you to Sydney.
My wife’s “people group” is children – she goes to children workers’ conferences; She doesn’t go to conferences on drug rehabilitation ministry.
Paul understood the people he was sent to Galatians 2: 7,8
Peter was sent to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles
Paul’s approach targeted the Jews first to reach the Gentiles. So how do you do that, he asked himself? So what do the Jews like to hear about? – Moses, the Red Sea, the Law and the Prophets
He gave them what they wanted. When you know who you need to reach, you can work out how to reach them.
6. A “GO ANYWHERE” strategy
It needs to be broad-based and easily implemented
Paul knew that throughout the Roman Empire in the 1st century in every city, there was a synagogue – in Asia, Palestine, Greece, Rome.
He could go anywhere and apply his strategy
Acts 17:17 He came to Athens – a long way from Jerusalem – steeped in Greek mythology and philosophy - and he just headed for the synagogue.
In Australia beach missions are a great “go anywhere” strategy for several reasons
This strategy can be applied everywhere. The only drawback is the weather.
On the other hand a young woman shared with me that she wanted to evangelize by way of dancing. “So what are you going to do? The streets?”
“Oh no. Meetings!”
It required organizing special meetings for her. That was never going to be easy – it was not a good strategy.
A good strategy mustn’t be too limited in its application and complicated in its implementation.
7. Confronting opposition and failure
Evangelism is risky business and at times you can meet with reactions and opposition. It also will require you to push through times when you face difficulties and even failure.
The biggest crisis in Paul’s strategy came In Corinth. There in the synagogue the Jews opposed him and reviled him. Paul snapped. He got angry and shook his clothes and said “Your blood be on your own heads, from now on I will go to the Gentiles”.
That’s it. I’ve had it with the Jews!
That’s in Acts 18:6 but in v19 of the same chapter, he is now in Ephesus and what does he do? – he heads straight for the synagogue.
In Les Halles in the centre of Paris, a man heard me on the streets with my sketchboard and went to the police to complain about me. The police came to intimidate me and threaten me. I had no permission to be there. They would confiscate my board if I came back. They wanted my ID and took my name and address. I went home worried that perhaps it could affect the long term work I did on the streets. I sat in my “tomb” for 3 days, then it was time to rise again. That’s how we do it as Christians – after 3 days we have to rise again to nex. I went back to the same place but moved to the other side of the street which was in a different police precinct. I got a much bigger crowd and the police in that precinct left me alone.
Even when you feel some discouragement the strategy is still good and it will keep working for you.
The problem of opposition and failure is probably not the strategy.
8. Attempt new things
In Acts 17:17 Paul was in Athens waiting for the arrival of Silas and Timothy.
He was not good at waiting and doing nothing.
On the Sabbath, no problem, he headed for the synagogue but during the week he went to the market place.
He was able to do different things, things he wouldn’t usually do elsewhere.
One of the keys to remaining fresh in winning people to Christ is experimenting with new approaches. Not just do what you’ve always done.
I was a street preacher but have tried just about everything – even being a performer in Paris piano bars. It wasn’t a huge success but it was exciting while it lasted.
Try different things – you might discover something that gets good response.
9. Expect the unexpected – the “God factor”.
If you work your strategy well it can open up doors and opportunities that you never dreamt of.
In Acts 19:8-10 we read of the second visit of Paul to Ephesus
He meets 12 disciples of John the Baptist, shares with them, baptises, and helps them receive the Holy Spirit.
He then taught in the synagogue for 3 months. But he struck opposition. A door opened for him to teach his disciples in the school of Tyrannus and this allowed him to continue to teach for 2 years.
Then both Jews and Greeks throughout Asia, all who heared heard the Word of God. How did that happent? We don’t really know but we can suppose that his disciples then took the teaching to the population.
God opened up exciting doors and there was much fruit. But what was at the beginning? – his strategy of going to the synagogue.
God is in the strategy and surprising things can happen.
The winning formula in ministry:
God’s call + good strategy + allowing time = good fruit
10. Until the race is run.
The last paragraphs of the book of Acts deal with Paul in Rome as a prisoner waiting to appear before Caesar. Acts 28:16,17
He is under house arrest with a Roman guard standing in front of his door.
He can’t go to the synagogue. What a problem!
For three days he thinks about ways around this. Then he gets this great idea
“Hey, if I can’t go to the synagogue, why can’t the synagogue come to me!”
He contacts the leaders of the synagogue. Tells them who he is – “a Pharisee from Jerusalem who studied under Gamaliel – now under house arrest. Can you please come.”
The leaders of the synagogue and many Jews came to his home and he creates his own synagogue and starts teaching them about Jesus. Some are for and others against.
For two years before his death he worked his strategy from his home to fulfil the call of God.
Your strategy will work for you until the day you die,
In 1988, I was having lunch with a well-known preacher in a small restaurant in Sydney and we were talking together about a number of high-profile pastors who had fallen morally. He said to me something I have never forgotten:
“Vince, the only ones who are really successful in ministry are those who never leave their original calling.”
Paul was such a man. He was called by Jesus as a ministry to the Gentiles. He devoted his whole life to it and when he died he was still trying to win a few more followers for Jesus.
We have a call from God...but then we need a good strategy to fulfil it.
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