| ‘End of the mission’ – in more ways than one:
1. Victory of the opponents? It might have been! Some Jews from Antioch and Iconium caught up with the missionaries in Lystra, won over the crowds, stoned Paul and dragged his body out of the city, thinking he was dead. But surrounded by the disciples Paul rose up and went back into the city!
2. The furthest point of the missionary journey? Yes, but it didn’t finish there. From Derbe they could have headed straight to Paul’s home town by the shortest route, but they turned back into the fray!
3. The objective of the mission? Acts 14:21 gives a summary of what Paul and Barnabas did in Derbe. ‘Having evangelised that city and having discipled many they returned to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch,’ is how Luke wrote it in Greek. His word for ‘many’ can also mean ‘enough’. They had discipled enough to get the new Christian group started on their new way of life in Christ in that setting.
That is also the objective identified in what we call the Great Commission. Matthew 28:18-20 in Greek has only one imperative verb: disciple! ‘Disciple all the nations!’
Incidents recorded in other parts of Acts 13 and 14 show the approach that Paul and Barnabas took to discipling the different societies they met along the way: living with them for a while, responding to the various features and challenges of their cultures, and together developing their understanding and experience of the purposes and power of God the creator known through Jesus.
Maybe this will help us when we think more about Walking the Way, living the life of Jesus today which is being developed as the URC’s renewed emphasis on discipleship and mission.
4. Embedding the transformation? Paul and Barnabas returned to those communities, establishing the souls of the new disciples, encouraging their faith, appointing elders in each assembly, and with prayer and fasting entrusted them to the Lord.
5. Debrief, feedback and evaluation? The conclusion of this mission came through returning to Antioch in Syria, to the congregation which had committed them to the grace of God. Paul and Barnabas spoke of what God had done with them, and how God had opened a door of faith to the nations.
And so God’s mission continues …
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