The Mission of the Word

by Dr Leong Tien Fock

Christians are familiar with the mission of the Church. Some have heard of the mission of God. But the mission of the Word-what is that?

David Pao, in a book based on his PhD thesis, has shown that the Book of Acts is not really about the acts of the Apostles. It is not even about the works of the Holy Spirit. It is about the conquest of the Word.

For Luke summarizes the fulfillment of Acts 1:8 in terms of the conquest of the Word. With respect to the spread of the Gospel in Jerusalem he writes: "The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem" (Acts 6:7). And this is how he summarizes the spread of the Gospel in all Judea and Samaria: "the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied" (Acts 12:24). When the Gospel had spread to "the remotest part of the earth" he writes: "the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing" (Acts 19:20).

Note that the Word is described as an active agent ("kept on spreading" and "continued to grow and to be multiplied") that conquers ("was growing mightily and prevailing") wherever it goes. In fact the Book of Acts attributes to the Word qualities that we attribute to God. For the Gentiles in Pisidian Antioch are said to be "glorifying the word of the Lord" (Acts 13:48). And before leaving the Ephesian elders in Miletus Paul commended them "to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up" (Acts 20:32). The Word clearly has a life of its own and a mission to accomplish.

To appreciate all this we need to take a fresh look at Acts 1:8. The commissioning in Acts 1:8 is a restatement of that in Luke 24:46-49. There we learn that the Apostles were witnesses not only of the death and resurrection of Christ but also that these things were part of the fulfillment of God's plan already revealed in advance in the Old Testament. They were thus commissioned to bear witness to the person and work of Christ as prophesied in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the Gospels. In other words, based on their firsthand experience of the truth, they were to preach and teach the message or Word about Christ.

Thus the mission of the Apostles was basically the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4; cf. 6:7). Luke 24:49 makes it explicit that they were not to begin their mission until the coming of the Holy Spirit. This means Acts 1:8 cannot be accomplished without the empowering of the Spirit. It is usually assumed that this empowering is with respect to the messengers. This is undoubtedly (partly) true. But in light of how the message, or the Word, is described as an active and conquering agent, we need to consider the empowering of the Spirit with respect to the Word.

First let us consider what the Word does. Paul says, "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom 10:17). The phrase "word of Christ" can mean "word from Christ" or "word about Christ". From the context, it is clear that it refers to what is preached by a preacher (10:8,14), that is, the Word about Christ, here summarized as "Jesus is Lord" and "God raised Him up from the dead" (10:9). Obviously the faith that comes by hearing the preached Word comes through the empowering of the Spirit.

Also, when we compare Ephesians 5:18-6:9 with Colossians 3:16-4:1 we can see that being empowered by the Spirit is the same as being empowered by the Word. For being filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18) and being indwelt by the Word (Col 3:16) are both said to result in joyful and faithful living described in identical terms. This means the Spirit makes the Word come alive and become an active and empowering agent. And since the Word is about Christ, it makes Christ's presence real. This is marvelously illustrated when Paul preached to Lydia. For we read that as Lydia was listening, "the Lord [Christ] opened her heart to respond to the things [Word about Christ] spoken by Paul" (Acts 16:14).

Now we can better appreciate Christ's command to the Apostles not to begin their ministry of the Word before the coming of the Spirit. We have seen that the Word, empowered by the Spirit, creates faith in pre-believers and dwells in believers to create joyful and faithful living. Let us then review, in this light, the three verses that summarize the progress of the Gospel according to Acts 1:8.

Acts 6:7 shows that when the Word spread, the number of disciples of Christ increased. This means new communities are created (see Acts 2:37-47). Acts 12:24 describes the Word as growing and multiplying. But the Word in and by itself cannot grow and multiply. Since the Word is to indwell the communities it creates, it grows and multiplies by being thus embodied in communities that are growing and multiplying. Acts 19:20 describes the Word as growing mightily and prevailing. This means the communities indwelt by the Word will grow and multiply even in the face of the most formidable obstacles.

Christian mission, according to Acts 1:8, is then the mission of the Word to create and indwell multiplying communities, even against all odds. History bears witness to the success of this mission. But history also bears witness that not all communities that bear the name of Christ are truly indwelt by the Word. For in these communities the kind of joyful and faithful living that the conquering Word creates is significantly lacking. What happened?

There are various factors. But basically it is because somewhere along the line the mission of the Church became no longer aligned to the mission of the Word. Realigning the mission of the Church to the mission of the Word may involve a paradigm shift in doing Christian ministry.

It is not difficult to grow and multiply communities labeled as "Christian". But it takes the Word animated and empowered by the Spirit to grow and multiply communities of the Word. And since we multiply after our own kind, only a community of the Word can multiply communities of the Word. The mission begins with forming and growing one true community of the Word.

We need to bear witness to Christ the way the Apostles did. But unlike them, we did not witness His resurrection. How then can we, like them, preach and teach the Word about Christ based on firsthand experience of the truth? Can we experience firsthand that Christ is indeed alive? Yes. When we consistently live out Ephesians 5:18 coupled with Colossians 3:16, through the indwelling Word and the empowering Spirit, the resurrected Christ becomes real to us. As a hymn puts it, "You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart".

Dr Leong Tien Fock is Research coordinator of Malaysia Campus Crusade for Christ.