Reaching Out
PAUL, A PACEMAKER (1)
Section IV: A Pacemaker
Paul was designated, by God’s wisdom and grace, to be `the apostle to the Gentiles’. His is the central figure in the history of Acts. He was, undoubtedly, a great missionary. The more we study his personality and labors, the more we are impressed with the grandeur of his character and the greatness of his work. We may well regard him as a true missionary pacemaker – God’s great pattern for all those who are going to carry the Gospel to foreign lands. While we fall far short of his attainments, and admire him so to speak from a distance, we shall yet do well to study God’s ideal, as exemplified in a real man of flesh and blood and to aim at approaching, in some measure, the standard set before us.
This pattern or plan may be studied from many points of view. We might concentrate attention, for example, on his methods of work, or on his care for the churches or on his choice and training of fellow workers.
However, the aim of these next lessons is rather to regard him as a missionary and to discover what sort of qualifications and equipment are to be desired and developed in those who undertake this work of preaching on the front lines in foreign fields. It will be found that Paul possessed both natural and spiritual qualifications for his special work. While the latter are of course important, the former are by no means to be ignored. Missionaries should bring with them their highest education and their greatest talents; they will find scope for the exercise of them all. This does not mean that only the highly educated can be useful in the mission field. God works in many ways. He chose fishermen as well as scholars like Paul and Luke, for the propagation of the gospel. But it does mean that those who are well educated like Paul will find ample scope for their talents in missionary work.
Essential Endowments
Someone said of Paul, “Alike by birth and training he was peculiarly fitted to be the champion of such a cause. A Jew, born in a Greek city, and possessed of the Roman franchise, he was, in his own person, the meeting point of three civilizations.”
This is true and gives us the clue to many admirable qualities in the apostles’ life and work. We mention only one of six in this chapter.
(1) Tenacity. The Jews are remarkable as a people, for tenacity of purpose and persistence in enterprise. They surmount obstacles, succeed in various undertakings and survive persecutions. Driven from one country, they make their influence felt in another. There is no more wonderful phenomenon in history than the persistence of the Hebrew race. This quality of tenacity and perseverance is invaluable in missionary work, and we see it constantly displayed in the history of Paul. He was “the purpose ribbed and edged with steel,” which nothing served to blunt or turn aside. Of course, it was strengthened and sanctified by God, but the quality was there, part and parcel, of the man's character. We see it before his conversion and in his conduct as a Jew. We see it after his conversion and in his conduct as a Christian. It stands out in his words. Some of the most purposeful sayings in the whole Bible we find in his speeches and letters. It is conspicuous also in his deeds. When he was once convinced of his spiritual mission, nothing daunted his courage or checked his determined persistence. It survived and surmounted plots, persecutions, perils, stripes, imprisonment, misunderstandings, ridicule, sickness, and desertion by friends.
He “followed the gleam” of his grand work in spite of suspicious friends, skeptics, sectarians, bigots, superstitious pagans, self-seekers and well-intentioned, though mistaken, fellow Christians. Right on to the end, his was the “glory of going on and still to be.” Men and women who lack this quality of stick-ability, in some degree at least, will never make good missionaries. Patient endurance, in the face of obstacles and trials is indispensable. It should be practiced at home so as to stand the severest test abroad.
The following appeared in a religious journal: When the work among the people in the Zambesi region of Africa opened up, untold obstacles were encountered. The journey there to begin with, was one long series of disasters – sickness among the workers, bullocks dying by the road, and goods stolen. When the destination was reached and the work commenced, trouble after trouble followed. One of the fellow missionaries proved unfaithful; crocodiles ate pigs and dogs, and hyenas seized and killed goats. When the long expected supplies arrived, box after box was found riddled by white ants, with all the goods destroyed; thieves forced locks and stole tents and supplies.
The article goes on to point out the discouragement which was faced. But the missionary must find in this type situation strength and joy because of God’s love. This simply illustrates what can happen. Be ready to face the test of the unexpected.
