What do you do when expectations about ministry don’t line up with on-the-ground results?

We moved overseas more than two decades ago to take the gospel to people who had very little access to it. When we arrived, my wife and I, along with our colleagues, devoted ourselves to learning the local language. We earnestly desired that those we lived among would understand who Christ is according to the Bible. We spent thousands of hours studying grammar, learning new vocabulary, and seeking to understand the local culture, since all this knowledge would help us faithfully transmit foundational truths that are difficult to understand and communicate to those who have never heard them before.

By the end of our first year, our language ability surpassed that of our team leaders — but not because we were any more talented in language than they were. Rather, they were operating on certain assumptions about church-planting ministry that shaped their own language learning. They believed that very soon — hopefully within two or three years — many thousands of local people would embrace the gospel and start hundreds of churches. All of us expats could then leave to start another movement of disciples and churches among another unreached people.

What Are We Doing Wrong?

What was the source of this prediction about the pace and results of our work? We were told that rapidly advancing movements are the expected result in the “new paradigm” of twenty-first-century missions. It was suggested that, by following reverse-engineered methods, hundreds of churches could be planted with tens of thousands of new Christians in as little as six months.

When the pace and fruit of our work didn’t meet expectations, we began to wonder what we were doing wrong. We had been taught that if our approach didn’t lead to a church-planting movement, then we should change what we’re doing. But maybe, we thought, some ministry locations are more difficult, some peoples more resistant, some mission fields harder than others? An influential movement leader told us from the stage at a worldwide leader’s meeting that such is not the case. “There is no hard ground,” he said. That left one other possibility: we were the problem.

One leader suggested to me in a private conversation that we should consider moving aside to let a well-known movement practitioner take the lead. Many faithful gospel workers in our country became discouraged, even wondering whether they were wasting their lives by continuing to proclaim the gospel in this place.

Modern Revivalism

Students of church history may recognize similarities between these conversations and some from the past. During the Great Awakenings in North America and Britain, many Christians wanted to see a revival in their hometown. At first, as Iain Murray notes, revivals were widely viewed as extraordinary acts of God, whereby many more souls than normal became Christians (Revival and Revivalism, 374). Revivals were unpredictable and unpromised. But by 1830, some Christian ministers were experimenting with different methods to bring revival.

“Ultimately, lack of response and slow growth are not our enemies. Unfaithfulness is.”

Soon, “revivalists,” as they became known, believed they had figured out how to “originate and promote” revivals (375). Their ideas spread like wildfire among pastors and church members. “Follow our methods,” they promised, “and any church can see a revival.” The only thing preventing revival was the unwillingness of ministers to promote them. What was formerly unpredictable was now planned; what was unsure was promised. Ministers began to announce beforehand when revivals would take place.

Contrarily, “old guard” pastors were more convinced than ever that whatever true fruit of repentance they witnessed was the inscrutable work of God. While revivalists were tweaking their innovative methods, veteran pastors continued laboring in the ordinary means of ministry: weekly worship services, reading and preaching the Scriptures, prayer, Christian fellowship, singing hymns, and observing the ordinances. Though their methods remained stable, the fruit sometimes increased, sometimes decreased — suggesting to them that God was giving the growth however he saw fit (1 Corinthians 3:7).

Unfounded Promises

Today, many movement manuals begin with incredible “success stories.” One book tells how one man started two hundred churches within three months of beginning his ministry. Before ten years had passed, he reported 1.7 million new Christians and 158,000 new churches. To reports like these, we should all say, “Praise God — may it be so!” But the subtitle of this same book makes a disconcerting promise: “How it can happen in your community!”

Does the Bible promise that fast-growing church-planting movements will happen in your community if only you use the right methods? Be cautious of any training that assures you what God will do in the world — especially as it relates to the conversion of souls. We can only claim promises God has already made in the Bible. The great hymn writer Isaac Watts, who witnessed amazing revivals, cautioned ministers against depending upon them. Extraordinary works of God “are rare instances, and bestowed by the Spirit of God in so sovereign and arbitrary a manner, according to the secret counsels of his own wisdom, that no particular Christian hath any sure ground to expect them” (Revival and Revivalism, 385).

Only God can give new life in conversion and growth as Christ’s disciples. As the Bible teaches, we get to play an instrumental role in faithfully witnessing to the promise of redemption in Christ. We hope for and praise God whenever anyone places their faith in Christ. But we should be wary of predicting specific results or building our ministries on unfounded promises.

Unnecessary Discouragement

What about the pace of gospel expansion? The early church grew from thousands of followers in the first century to millions in just a few hundred years. Historian Rodney Stark estimates that the early church grew at a rate of about 40 percent per decade before trailing off (The Rise of Christianity, 6). Looking back now, most Christians and historians would consider this growth an extraordinary work of God, yet it is actually a much slower pace than that advocated by movement proponents today.

At 40 percent per decade, a house church of ten Christians would become eleven over three years’ time. Doing some quick math, the population of the Christian church in the last two decades where I live in central Asia has grown three times faster than the early church! Yet instead of celebrating this incredible work of God, some Christians are discouraged because they’ve heard that churches that don’t start a new church every six months are unhealthy.

Harvests follow faithful work. For example, the increase of Christians we see in Iran today was built on two hundred years of hard labor by Christians who patiently prayed, taught the Scriptures, and loved resistant people while they waited for them to come into the kingdom of God. We must not give up that groundbreaking work because we aren’t seeing the harvest others are experiencing. When God desires to have mercy on a sinful nation, he sends his people to labor, pray, and teach there persistently. Sometimes, we are those people who labor during generations of slow gospel expansion.

May we be faithful and encouraged, regardless of pace! The gates of hell cannot withstand the persistent proclamation of the gospel. If we will persevere in proclaiming Christ and praying for a people over years, decades, and even generations, then God’s Spirit is likely preparing them for something special pertaining to salvation. As we faithfully pursue biblical ministry, we can patiently celebrate what God is actually doing among us. Otherwise, we risk dissatisfaction during the day of small things.

Our Calling: Faithfulness

Ultimately, lack of response and slow growth are not our enemies. Unfaithfulness is. And when we are being faithful, the pace of growth is not our concern (John 21:22).

Lack of response should lead us to plead for God to work in our midst. But there is no biblical reason for faithful gospel workers to be discouraged by normal responses to the gospel. The same apostle who said, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22) also emphasized that our work is to ensure generations of faithfulness (1 Timothy 2:2).

Christian friend, our faithfulness will be found as we devote ourselves to Christ — first for our own transformation and then for the teaching of Christ to others (1 Timothy 4:16). Before you commit to build a ministry that relies on quick results, ask whether Scripture commends that pursuit. Before adopting new methods in your ministry, ask whether you are committed to the ordinary methods outlined in Scripture, such as prayer, Bible study, faithful proclamation, and church membership. By these, God will build his kingdom.

So, how should we think of the pace and predictability of the spread of the gospel in missionary work today? We should strongly desire to see God work extraordinarily in the lives and hearts of those who hear the gospel from us. We should long for the same kinds of explosive increase among those we serve as we read of in the book of Acts. We should sincerely desire all people to hear the gospel and turn to Christ before it is too late (1 Timothy 2:4).

At the same time, we should give ourselves to the methods we observe in the Bible, trusting God with whatever growth he gives.

Audio Transcript

Welcome back to the podcast. I hope you had an edifying weekend. We start the week with a missions question, and it’s this: Did the apostle Paul say the gospel had already reached the ends of the world in his own lifetime? It appears he did, and that raises implications about the urgency of the Great Commission today.

Here’s the question. “Pastor John, hello! My name is Kevin, and I live in Chicago. My question has to do with Paul’s words in Colossians 1:6, where he speaks of the gospel that has ‘come to you, as indeed in the whole world.’ He maybe suggested that the gospel had already reached the whole world in his lifetime. It seems clearer in Colossians 1:23. There Paul speaks of the hope ‘of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.’ Wow. So what does Paul mean when he says that the hope of the gospel has already been proclaimed in all creation? I feel an urgency to unreached nations. But these texts have dampened that urgency in me some. Can you explain what Paul means here? Thank you!”

Well, bless you, Kevin, for the sense of urgency that you feel. And yes, I think I can explain it, and I hope I can not only explain it, but explain it in a way that intensifies your commitment to reach the nations rather than dampening that commitment. So, let’s take these two passages one at a time.

Gospel on the Move

Colossians 1:5–6 says, referring to “the hope laid up for you in heaven,” “Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing — as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.”

Now, notice what that text does not say. It does not say that the gospel has already been preached in the whole world. It does not say that the gospel has reached to the ends of the world. It simply says that the gospel, which has come to you Colossians, is the very gospel that is bearing fruit and increasing everywhere it goes in the whole world. The point is not that he has finished going through the whole world. The point is that it’s the kind of gospel that goes through the whole world, and wherever it goes, it bears fruit and increases.

Now, to underline that we’re on the right track in saying that, we just need to remember that Paul himself said later in Romans 15:20–24,

And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation. . . . This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

“Paul had no notion that the gospel had already been preached throughout the whole world.”

In other words, Paul knew very well that the gospel had not reached Spain, at least to any significant degree, because he wants to preach the gospel where the gospel has not been preached. That’s why he’s going to Spain. Paul had no notion that the gospel had already been preached throughout the whole world. So, the really crucial question in Colossians 1:6 is why Paul went out of his way to say that that very gospel, which had come to Colossae, was also making its way fruitfully through the whole world. Why did he say that?

Good News for All Peoples

I think there are three reasons. Number one, the gospel is not merely local, not merely tribal, not parochial, not limited to any one tribe or class or ethnicity or language or culture or city like Colossae. The point is that this gospel that you have believed, you Colossians, in your little out-of-the-way town of Colossae, is a triumphant, global gospel laying claim on every single person and people group in the whole world, wherever it goes. Don’t think you’ve embraced a little thing — that’s number one.

Number two, Paul said this — namely, that it’s spreading throughout the whole world and increasing — to underline the fact that there is a great, glorious Creator God behind the gospel who is laying claim on the entire creation. He’s not a tribal deity. When you believe the gospel, you believe in the God of the universe who has no serious rivals. Wherever you go, you won’t ever run into another religion, anywhere in the world, that can nullify the gospel, compromise the gospel.

“When you believe the gospel, you believe in the God of the universe who has no serious rivals.”

And the third reason, I think, he talks this way and stresses the global dimension of the gospel for the Colossians is to show that it is the power — this gospel has power — to change people of every kind, all kinds of people. It’s not just effective among one kind of humanity but will bear fruit among every single kind of humanity that it runs into — all the unimaginable differences in the world that there are today and that there were then. Therefore, it is a great gospel. That, I think, is the point of Colossians 1:6, when he says, “. . . as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing.”

More Places to Reach

Now let’s look at Colossians 1:23. I’m going to read the ESV. I think this is a bigger problem for most people than verse six, but it has a very simple solution if we could just get everybody to translate it the same way. Here’s verse 23: you have been reconciled to God “if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven” — yikes — ”and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”

Now, that’s a real stumbling block for lots of people to read in their translation in verse 23, that the gospel in the first century, halfway through the first century, “has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.” And it’s amazing to me how many commentators try to squeeze that stunning statement into the first century and say something like, “Well, really the gospel had reached to what the first-century people assumed was all creation under heaven.” To which I delicately say, “Baloney.”

I say that not only because they weren’t that ignorant — they really weren’t that ignorant of the rest of the world — but I say it mainly because Paul himself (we already saw this) said in Romans 15 that he was intending to proclaim the gospel in a vast region of Gaul, called Spain, where there hadn’t been yet the preaching of the gospel. So, he didn’t believe that the gospel had been preached in all creation under heaven.

‘Has Been Proclaimed’?

So what’s the solution? The solution is that the translation “which has been proclaimed,” is not at all the most natural translation. It baffles me why translations give it that meaning, a temporal meaning, “which has been proclaimed.” That’s translating two Greek words, “the proclaimed” — tou kērychthentos. That’s all it’s translating: “the proclaimed.”

It is a straightforward aorist passive participle in agreement with the word gospel. Both of them are genitive singular, and thus clarifying. It clarifies and defines the kind of gospel we’re talking about. With the article the in front of the participle, it is not an adverbial participle telling when. There’s nothing temporal about it. It doesn’t say “has been proclaimed.” That’s not in the word at all. Very literally it would read like this: “. . . the gospel that you heard, the proclaimed one in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”

So the solution is that Paul is not saying anything about when the gospel is proclaimed in all creation. Rather, he’s saying, “That’s the kind of gospel it is — that’s what’s happening. It is the kind of gospel that is proclaimed under all creation under heaven.” In other words, the meaning is virtually the same as chapter 1:6: “. . . as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing.”

Paul is emphasizing the fact that the gospel embraced by this little group of people in this little town of Colossae is the very gospel that is proclaimed in all creation under heaven. God is laying claim on the entire creation, and you are being swept up into that glorious plan. It does not say, “has been proclaimed” — it “is proclaimed in all creation.” Everywhere it goes, it is being proclaimed, and it is bearing fruit.

Don’t Forsake Your Urgency

So, Kevin in Chicago, don’t lose your sense of urgency or your sense of confidence that the gospel you believe can be taken — should be taken, must be taken — to every people group on the planet.

It will be as relevant there as it is in your own heart, with tremendous power. It is a gospel bearing fruit in the whole world. It is a gospel proclaimed in all creation under heaven. And when that’s finished, Jesus says, “The end will come” (Matthew 24:14).

Audio Transcript

Welcome back to this new week on the podcast. Well, the Bible says Christians have been saved in the past. And it says we will be saved in the future. And it says we are being saved right now — being saved. We’re going to look at that last one, the present-tense one, today, in a question from a listener named Jessica.

“Hello, Pastor John. Thank you for answering so many questions on this podcast! Here’s mine: I recently read 1 Corinthians 1:18 with new eyes. I noticed that the word ‘saved’ in my KJV is translated as ‘being saved’ in many other versions. I have heard this explained by teachers with the following rationale for ‘being saved.’ (1) We are eternally saved from judgment of our sins, as Jesus paid it all on the cross — past tense. (2) We are presently being saved from behaving sinfully by walking in the Spirit. And (3) we will be saved from a world filled with sin after our life on earth is over, and we are given our glorified bodies. The church mainly addresses the fact that we have been saved — past tense (1). But can you explain to me (2), and 1 Corinthians 1:18, that we are being saved right now?”

Let’s nail down past salvation and future salvation, and then focus on what the Bible means by our “being saved” in between those two acts of salvation. But let’s be clear from the beginning that all three stages of salvation were secured, purchased, by the decisive act of God in Christ on the cross — all three, not just the past.

“Because of the cross, every aspect of salvation will most certainly come to God’s people — past, present, future.”

Here’s the utterly glorious foundation for that statement (maybe my favorite verse in the Bible): “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). Now, here’s the meaning: Because of the cross, every aspect of salvation will most certainly come to God’s people — past, present, future. So, whether past, present, or future, we are not talking about three different foundations of salvation, but the different applications of the one achieved foundation: Jesus Christ crucified for sinners.

Past and Future Salvation

So first, past salvation.

By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created [that’s past; you’re a new creation] in Christ Jesus for good works [that’s ongoing], which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8–10)

So, the decisive work is done. The moment we believed, we were united to Christ, were justified in him, were forgiven, adopted; we became new creatures and were once for all saved — “to the uttermost” as Hebrews 7:25 says.

Now, that past salvation, Paul says, is the absolute guarantee of our future salvation. And that future salvation is usually spoken of as a rescue from the future wrath of God. Here’s Romans 5:9–10:

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood [that’s past], much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

And there are numerous other texts speaking in that way (Romans 13:11; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9–10; 2 Timothy 4:18; Hebrews 9:28).

Present Salvation

Now, what about the words “are being saved” in 1 Corinthians 1:18? That’s what Jessica’s asking about. “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” We find the same wording in Acts 2:47, “The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” Likewise in 2 Corinthians 2:15: “We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved.”

In what sense is God saving us now, between the past salvation of the new birth and redemption and justification and forgiveness of sins and adoption — which are all fixed and firm and unchangeable — and the future salvation of deliverance from the wrath of God in judgment and, as she said, complete eradication of sin and the transformation of our bodies into glorious bodies like Christ’s? What is God doing now that qualifies as part of this salvation?

Sanctified Through the Spirit

I think the key verse that launches us into our right understanding of this question is 2 Thessalonians 2:13: “God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” “Saved through sanctification by the Spirit” — that is what God is doing now: he’s sanctifying us. And that is salvation, a necessary part of salvation, for three reasons.

First, it says right here in this text that we are saved “through sanctification.” Sanctification is the work of God through which we make it to final salvation. Second, Hebrews 12:14 says there’s a holiness, a sanctification, “without which [we will not] see the Lord.” So, God is at work saving us now by seeing to it that we attain the holiness without which we won’t see the Lord. And third, 2 Peter 1:10 says, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities” — that is, if you’re sanctified, as Paul said — “you will never fall.”

So, I conclude that Christians are being saved now by God in that he’s sanctifying us as the necessary confirmation of our election through lives of sanctification.

God is doing that saving work in two senses. First, he’s keeping us back from soul-destroying patterns of sin, as it says in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that no test, no temptation will overcome us to destroy us. Or Jude 24: “[He will] keep you from stumbling and . . . present you blameless” to God. And second, the other sense in which God is doing that sanctifying work, that saving work, is by causing us to positively walk in paths of righteousness. As Hebrews 13:21 says, “[He is] working in us that which is pleasing in his sight.”

Living on the Word

Now, if we ask how God is saving us in this sanctifying way, the answer given over and over is this: by the word of God, by the gospel. Jesus prayed, “[Father,] sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). So, God sanctifies by the truth. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:1–2, “I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you.” In other words, God uses the words of God, the gospel, in an ongoing, present, saving, sanctifying work in believers — he keeps us, holds us, saves us by the gospel. By trusting the promises of the gospel day by day, the power of sin is broken, and we walk in the freedom of holiness.

“Daily welcoming, daily embracing the word of God is the ongoing way that God keeps us from destruction.”

James puts it like this: he says to Christians, “Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). So, daily welcoming, receiving, daily embracing the word of God is the ongoing way that God keeps us from destruction and saves us. Peter puts it like this in 1 Peter 2:2. After saying that we are born again by “the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23), he says to new Christians, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk” — I take that to be the word — “that by it you may grow up into salvation.” We grow into final salvation by living on the Word of God. That’s how the gospel goes on saving.

As Secure as the Past

That leaves us now with one final question: Can we count on God’s present saving work to be as infallible and as sure as our past salvation is? The past seems so firm, so fixed, so finished. It’s wonderful to dwell on the past thought, I am justified. The past can’t be changed. But what about the present, ongoing work of God to save us through sanctification? And here’s Paul’s answer in 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24:

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

So yes, it is sure. Present salvation is as sure as the past because the past is in fact what secures it.

Let’s end where we began, with the spectacular logic of heaven in Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all [that’s past], how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” So yes, our present and future salvation is as sure as God’s commitment to the worth of his Son’s death, which is infinite.