Acts 27-28: God Never Quits

Read Acts 27-28

God never quits. That seems to be the note on which Acts ends. God has a mission of salvation to accomplish, and nothing stands in its path. For this reason, Paul can confidently face terrifying, life-threatening circumstances with boldness and courage. It’s the reason, Paul can confidently proclaim the gospel to Roman Jews when he knows many of them will turn against him. It’s the reason, chains, shipwrecks, imprisonment does not thwart the advancement of the gospel.

God never quits. Salvation is his plan, his purpose, and advances in his power. And he never quits. It is so easy for the church to forget. How do we advance the gospel? How do we connect with the world? How do we build the church? If we forget that God has never quit, will never quit, our answers to those questions will be many, and they will all be wrong. I fear that so much of what is promoted as ideas for “church growth,” being “relevant,” “connecting with the culture,” etc. has at its base a failure to remember that God has not quit. Of course, there is nothing wrong with church growth, relevance, or connecting with the culture. No Christian should ever want no growth, irrelevance, or being disconnected from culture. Churches should think about these things and pursue these things. Nevertheless, I fear that much of what passes as good strategy is in reality built on forgetfulness of God’s involvement. We often don’t approach these issues with the confidence that God is on the move, that God will advance his glory, that He loves to save, that the church is precious to Him. Instead, we approach strategic planning with the anxious outlook that if we don’t get it just right, churches will fail, the gospel will die, and the culture will be lost. This anxious outlook further leads to a search for any and every new strategy that comes along and shows the slightest bit of promise. It matters little if it retains biblical fidelity or is gospel-centered. It works, enough said. When God quits, the church become pragmatists.

A great self-diagnosing question is to ask, “Am I (are we) going about this as if God has quit?” He doesn’t quit, and we should never forget it.