The theme verse of Acts?

Ok, so it's not the theme verse of Acts, but then it would have been a whole lot less exciting to announce the possibility of having discovered only one of the many verses in Acts which pick up on its theme, now wouldn't it?

Still, I think this is exciting.

In my judgement, Luke-Acts is about the fulfilment of the plan that God had all along, to bring blessing to the whole earth through Jesus. (Luke 2:32 (citing Isaiah 42:6) Luke 3:6 (citing Isaiah 51:10 and Psalm 98:2-3), Luke 24:46-8, Acts 1:8, 10:15) Luke-Acts is designed to show that the missionary work in Acts is valid. Huzzah! I've not believed in vain.

But a sub-theme to this is the irony that many of the Jews actually end up standing in God's way and trying to thwart His purposes. Stephen's speech in Acts 7 shows that this, too, is what had been happening all along, throughout the history of Israel. In reality, a number of Jews resisting God's plans is business as usual.

Note well, then, that 90% of the trouble that Paul gets into in his missionary journeys is instigated and funded by the Jews, not the gentiles. Luke uses the word jealousy to describe their motivation. (Acts 17:5)

The message? Summed up in a man who may well have been speaking even better than he knew: Paul's old Pharisee mentor, Gamaliel.

"If this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!"

Let us make sure that we're never being jealous people who think that we have the inside running with God. Let us make sure we're not smugly sniping or actively hindering anyone from hearing the gospel. Especially, let's not attack a member of Christ out of jealousy.

It's just possible that we may be found to be opposing God.

Where to go?

This is a topic which was touched on here, but not directly.

How do you decide where to go in ministry?


Some of the factors I hear bandied around are:

Need: Where have people not yet heard the gospel? Where are they the most downtrodden and in need of Jesus' transformative power? How can they believe if they have never heard? And how can they hear without a preacher?

Gifting: I should find out my 'gift-mix' and work out what the best utilisation of my unique combination of strengths and weaknesses is. Where can my particular abilities be put to the most use?

Passion: Shouldn't I just do what I'm passionate about? Surely that means I'll do it better, and have a greater impact for the kingdom, as well as fulfilling those ends that God gave me the desire to achieve?

A 'call': Clearly I should only do what I've felt and inner calling from God about. Otherwise I could find myself working at cross-purposes to God.

'Strategicness': Tim Keller would say we need to reach the cities and then let the gospel work its way out from there, just like Paul did. Should strategy be the key factor in our decision on where to do ministry?

Personal/Family 'fit': How much of a part should my 'fit' into a type of ministry as a person and a family come into it? If my kids like the city, does that mean I shouldn't go overseas or go country? What if they've got medical issues?

Now some of these are as much paradigms for decision-making as much as they are factors for decision making. Please feel free to reject or pick apart all the paradigms/dichotomies/ that you want! What are the strengths and weaknesses of using each of these?