Our Missional Focus

Yellow, purple, and blue — it’s on every page of the Book of Acts in my Bible. In a recent read-through, I was on the lookout for different categories of people in the story and used highlighters to mark them. 

First, there are the apostles, of course, and their “friends” (see 4:23). These are believers, the church. Let’s call them “The Witnesses.” I highlighted them in yellow. 

Next are those with whom The Witnesses interact, but here we need at least two colors, because the distinguishing factor is how people respond to The Witnesses’ message.

Some, as in 2:37, are “cut to the heart” after they hear the gospel. They ask, “What shall we do?” I highlighted these in purple. Luke often calls them simply “the people,” but let’s categorize them as The Hearers.

But quickly a third category emerges. It’s those who are “greatly annoyed” by what The Witnesses are saying (4:2). This group is “filled with jealousy” (5:17) and became “enraged and wanted to kill [The Witnesses]” (5:33). They threaten The Witnesses (4:17–18), and lie about them (6:11–14), and plot against them (9:23–25). They incite persecution, form mobs, and agitate crowds (13:50; 17:5–9, 13; 19:23–41; 22:22–24). Simply put, their goal is to do whatever they can to shut down The Witnesses. Let’s call them The Enemies — highlighted in blue.

The Witnesses, The Hearers, and The Enemies.

They’re all three in the Book of Acts, and you can’t miss them. The Witnesses are trying to reach The Hearers with the good news of Jesus, and The Enemies are trying to stop them. It’s pretty straightforward.

The Example of Paul

But here’s the part I find especially important: The mission of The Witnesses is directed to The Hearers, not The Enemies. At no point in Acts do The Witnesses reorganize their mission strategy around reaching The Enemies. 

Jesus can certainly save the most unlikely of The Enemies, and in amazing cases he does (see Acts 9), but that is demonstrably Jesus’s prerogative, not The Witnesses’ target.

Now, did The Witnesses “love” The Enemies? Sure they did, and it looked like offering them repentance, telling the truth, praying for mercy, rejoicing under persecution at their hands, and refusing any kind of vigilante retaliation. It did not mean worldly niceties (see Stephen, Acts 7:51).

Consider the example of Acts 17. After the unrest in Thessalonica, when a mob formed and put the city in an uproar (17:5), the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas to Berea, where there were eager Hearers (17:10–11). Paul did not try to reason with the mob leaders and clarify his positions. 

In the same way, after Paul was dragged out of Lystra and stoned, he didn’t go back into the city and attempt a conversation with the stone-throwers (14:19–23). As soon as he could, Paul went on to Derbe and found Hearers there. Only later did he return to Lystra to strengthen the new Witnesses. The Enemies opposed the mission, and were never the object of the mission itself.

Clarifying Our Focus

The Book of Acts is considered descriptive, not prescriptive. That means we shouldn’t treat every example of the early church as a command. At the same time, their example, descriptively as such, is powerful in shaping our own understanding of who we are and our mission.

The three categories of people in Acts provide a framework for our context today. And while it’s easy to imagine that we’re only surrounded by Enemies, Paul experience in Corinth points us a better direction. 

As was his custom, when Paul arrived in Corinth “he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks … that the Christ was Jesus” (18:4–5). 

But the Jews there opposed him and reviled him. They were Enemies. They didn’t want to hear him. So Paul moved on to those who would. He carried his message to the Gentiles and saw fruit (18:6–8). Yet even then, while still in Corinth, opposition remained. And when it may have seemed best to leave, Jesus came to Paul in a vision and said:

“Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” (Acts 18:10)

This was true in Corinth then, and it is true in our cities today.

It might seem like we’re surrounded by Enemies, like every page of our cities is highlighted in blue. But Jesus would tell us otherwise. And that is our confidence.
It’s not the absence of opposition, but the presence of his people — people who will hear. 

So we won’t fixate on those who resist. We won’t reorganize our mission at all. We will keep preaching Jesus. We will go where there are Hearers. We will trust that God is already at work.

Because he has many in these cities who are his. We speak, he calls.