Open Doors Come With Adversaries

OPEN DOORS COME WITH ADVERSARIES

1 Cor. 16:8-9

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. A man came up to the preacher after service and said, “That was an excellent sermon, but it was not original.” The preacher was taken aback, for he had written it himself.

2. The man said he had a book at home, containing every word the preacher said. “Okay, bring it.” The next day, the man brought the preacher a dictionary.

B. TEXT

"For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries." 1 Cor. 16:8-9, KJV.

C. THESIS

1. Paul tells the Corinthians his reason for staying at Ephesus: because a great door, and effectual, was opened to him, and there were many adversaries.

2. It seems like a contradiction that a bad situation should be a good one, but that’s exactly what Paul thought. He saw difficult situations as opportunities to speak about Jesus.

3. Let’s pick up his rationale as we study how “Open Doors Come With Adversaries.”

I. A DOOR OF OPPORTUNITY IS OPENED

A. WHAT SUCH A DOOR LOOKS LIKE

1. Paul’s “great door” means a “widely-opened” door. A door is a means of admittance to a closed building, and an open door invites approach into the entrance.

2. Paul perceived that this “wide door” was a summons from God for him to evangelize this great city of Asia Minor. Ephesus was a large city that was a center of large pilgrimages to worship the goddess Diana.

3. The idolatry (sex-cult) and vice which prevailed were some of the worst in the Roman Empire. Human sorrows, difficulties, and temptations abounded; so that there was a desperate need for evangelistic and pastoral labor.

4. Further, there seems to have been a remarkable hunger for truth and to hear the gospel of Christ. Paul describes his ministry as being “effective” – successfully received.

B. PAUL’S EPHESUS MINISTRY IN THE BOOK OF ACTS

1. In Acts 18:19-21, Paul arrived in Ephesus and reasoned with the Jews, but only stayed a short time.

2. Paul returned in Acts 19 and the entire chapter details his 1). praying for 12 men to be filled with the Spirit (19:1-7); 2). his teaching the Jews & then the gentiles for 2 years (8-10); 3). the special miracles God worked and the incident of the 7 sons of Sceva; and 4). the great riot of his enemies.

3. I would guess it was the second visit (Acts 19) he refers to as the great door of success he wrote the Corinthians about. The whole subcontinent heard the Word, great miracles of God occurred, the witches burned their scrolls, and so many people left idolatry that the artisans rioted. This is one of those place he “turned upside down!”

4. Amazing results! Paul was enabled to bring over great multitudes to Christ. So Paul determined to STAY at Ephesus, as long as the revival held high.

5. Paul shows us that the opportunity to win people to Christ should be viewed as an assignment from God and cause us to set aside extra time to that productive field.

II. SATAN RAISED UP OPPOSITION

A. THE DIVERSITY OF OPPOSITION

1. It’s amazing how many directions opposition came from; it arose from both Jews and Gentiles. It didn’t come from just one subgroup of sinners, but from all. And they had different reasons to oppose the truth.

2. Paul offended the JEWS by preaching Jesus as the Son of God. He offended the GENTILES by exposing the foolishness of idolatry. When I was a teenager, my lost parents didn’t like how extreme my sinful life was with drugs and wild living. But when I became a Christian they didn’t like how godly my life became because it exposed their selfish, sinful lives! (They would rather I was a decent sinner!)

3. Opposition to God is part of the human problem of separation from God. If they opposed Jesus, they will oppose us. The disciple shouldn’t expect to be above his/her Master.

4. The opposition ran the gamut of possibilities; from slander and misrepresentation to open hostility and violence. Somehow Paul saw that God was with him no matter how the attack occurred – including beatings & stonings. He believed he was called to suffer along with Christ; we may be too.

B. SUCCESS FOR GOD CREATES ENEMIES. Great success in the work of the Gospel commonly creates many enemies.

1. The devil opposes soulwinners and disciplers the most, and creates the most trouble for them. Why? Because they are tearing down his kingdom.

2. Paul, like a gladiator, viewed his competition with excitement and gusto. “Greater is He who is within ME, than he that is in this world!” 1 Jn. 4:4. Some think he alludes to the custom of the Roman Circus, and the doors of it, at which the charioteers were to enter, as their antagonists did at the opposite doors.