Zambia Hunt

(Series: Part 2)

If you ask a group of Christians, “What is the church for?” you’ll probably hear a variety of answers. Some will talk about worship and fellowship, others about evangelism or community projects, others about counseling and discipleship. All of those matter. But underneath them lies a deeper question: What is God’s purpose in the world, and how does the church fit into that purpose? Until we answer that, our activity will feel busy but directionless.

We have pushed beyond political, educational, and economic answers to the question, “What is the world’s greatest need?” in a previous post. Now we turn to Ephesians 1 to see what God Himself says about His purpose.

Paul gives us three foundational truths that young Christians in the local church need to grasp deeply.

God Has a Purpose in the World

Ephesians 1:11 says: “In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”

God has a purpose in the world. He is not improvising. He is working all things according to the counsel of His will. No one can frustrate that purpose. No one will ultimately defeat it.

Psalm 76:10 puts it this way: “Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; the remnant of wrath You will put on like a belt.” Even in a depraved, chaotic world, the sovereign Creator allows human sin to go only as far as it serves His eternal plan. The rest, he restrains.

This means history is not random. The rise and fall of nations, the suffering and triumph of God’s people, even the opposition of God’s enemies—all of it is being woven into a tapestry that will display His glory.

The Center of God’s Purpose Is Jesus Christ

At the very core of God’s purpose is not a program, a cause, or even the church itself. The center is a person: Jesus Christ.

Just listen to the drumbeat of Ephesians 1:

• “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing” (verse 3).
• “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (verse 4).
• “In love He predestined us for adoption… through Jesus Christ” (verse 5).
• “In Him we have redemption through His blood” (verse 7).
• God’s purpose is “set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time” (verse 9–10).
• “In Him we have obtained an inheritance” (verse 11).
• “In Him you also… believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (verse 13).

God has a purpose in the world. No one can frustrate it. No one can defeat it. And at the very center of that purpose is Jesus Christ.

God’s Purpose Involves People

God’s purpose is Christ-centered, not man-centered. It is theocentric, not ethnocentric. And yet—it truly involves us.

Verse 4 says: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.” God’s eternal plan includes real people—people like you—rescued from sin, made holy, and brought into His family.

So we can summarize:
• God has a purpose in the world.
• The center of that purpose is Jesus Christ.
• That purpose includes His people.

God’s Purpose for the Church

If that is true, then what is the role of the church in the 21st century?
Is it to build hospitals? Start schools? Launch orphanages? Translate languages? Print Bibles? All of these can be good and necessary works. But none of them by themselves define the church’s purpose. Any of them can become an end in itself.

So, what, then, is the role of the church? And even more specifically: What is the purpose of missions? Why do we do what we do?

Some will answer: “The purpose of missions is to win souls.” Others will say: “The purpose of missions is to plant indigenous churches.”

Winning souls and planting churches are absolutely part of God’s will. But if we stop there, we risk missing the deeper, ultimate purpose of God.

To see that, we need to listen to the stories of some of God’s servants.

Samuel Zwemer, a missionary to Muslims in Arabia and Egypt, labored for 25 years and, by his own report, saw seven converts. David Livingstone traversed Africa for three decades and spoke at one point of two converts he was confident of, because he insisted on watching a person’s life over time before counting them as such.

By modern standards, with our charts and graphs and “results,” their ministries look like failures. If God’s primary purpose were simply to maximize visible decisions or plant as many churches as possible, how would we evaluate these men?

Livingstone himself saw it differently. Reflecting on the future of mission work, he wrote:

“Our work and its fruits are cumulative. We work towards another state of things. Future missionaries will be rewarded by conversions for every sermon. We are their pioneers and helpers… Let them not forget the watchmen of the night—we who worked when all was gloom and no evidence of success in the way of conversion cheered our path.” David Livingstone, The Man Behind the Myth. Rob Macenzie.

He understood: God’s purpose is bigger than what we can measure in a year, a decade, or even a lifetime.

So if the ultimate purpose of missions and of the church is not simply “soul winning” or “church planting,” what is it?

When we see that God has a definite purpose in the world, that Jesus Christ stands at the center of it, and that He has graciously included us, it changes how we measure “success.” Numbers and visible results no longer sit on the throne. The real question becomes: Are we, as a church, aligned with what God is doing, or are we asking Him to bless our own plans? In the next article, we’ll press into Ephesians 1 more deeply and see that God’s ultimate goal—in the world, in the church, and in your life—is that everything would be to the praise of His glory.