AN OPEN DOOR
1 Corinthians 16:5-9
Tonight I feel a little bit the way the Apostle Paul felt when he wrote the words we find in 1 Corinthians 16:5-9.
After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you—for I will be going through Macedonia. Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me. 1Corinthians 16:5-9
Do you hear what he is saying? Evidently, Paul is tired. He has already spent more than eight years on his first two missionary journeys traveling from city to city, working tirelessly, preaching the gospel, starting churches, facing opposition, sometimes even having to flee from those wanting to kill him.
Now Paul is in Ephesus on his third missionary journey, and he is writing to some friends in the church at Corinth. He is saying that he would like to come and spend some time with them, maybe even spend the winter.
He sounds to me like someone who needs a vacation. And he is hoping to make it soon. But then notice what he says in vs 9, But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.
Paul didn’t know it when he wrote those words, but God was opening up a great door for him in Ephesus. In fact, Paul ends up staying three years there, more than twice as long as he ever stayed any place else on his journeys.
And from what we read, God not only used Paul to start a great church in Ephesus, but while he was there, many more churches were started in the towns and cities around Ephesus. It became a center from which the gospel flowed throughout all the provinces surrounding them.
Paul saw a great door opening for him.
A Door of Opportunity
Ephesus was not exactly a place where most Christians would have wanted to settle. Yes, it was a big city, one of the major cities in the eastern Mediterranean area. It was a financial and commercial center and a very rich city.
It boasted one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The Temple of Diana was there with all its gross immorality and legalized prostitution. In fact, that was a part of their worship of the goddess Diana.
It was a city where people were superstitious and believed in magic. They were constantly looking for soothsayers and fortune tellers to guide their lives. It was not a place where Christians would normally want to live.
When Paul looked at Ephesus, he saw tens of thousands of people going about their daily activities, and thought, There is an open door here and I guess I’ll stay on a while longer. He saw the opportunity that was there.
Someone said that the difference between a pessimist and an optimist is that a pessimist sees a problem in every opportunity. But an optimist sees an opportunity in every problem.
Paul saw the opportunities. There were so many people who needed to hear about Jesus, and Paul was determined to share the Gospel with them.
The U.S. Center of World Missions reports that in 30 A.D., when the church was just getting started, there were 200 million people in the world and only about 5,000 Christians. That is a ratio of 40,000 to one.
By the year 1900, there were a billion people in the world and 10 million committed Christians. That’s a ratio of 100 to one.
Today there is six and a half billion people in our world and 650 million committed Christians, not counting about 1.2 billion nominal Christians. And, that’s about a ratio of ten to one.
What does that tell us? It tells me two things, first, the Gospel of Christ is having an ever increasing impact on the non-Christian world.
Secondly, it tells me that if all the 650 million Christians got serious about sharing their faith, all we would have to do is to win ten people apiece and the world will have been won to Jesus.
Paul was also a great strategist. He said, I have become all things to all people. If you need a preacher, I’ll be a preacher. If you need a teacher I’ll be a teacher. If you need a tentmaker, I’ll make tents with you. I will become all things so that some of you might come to know Christ Jesus.
Paul recognized that there was more than one way to get the job done. In the 13th chapter of Acts the church in Antioch did very much like we do here. They laid hands on Paul and Barnabas and sent them out to preach the gospel. They prayed for them and supported them.
A couple of weeks ago we heard from the Files about what God is doing in Chile, especially through the children. Today, Jeff Libby and his team were at the train station sharing the good news with those in the public square. Last Sunday night we baptized 5 of our family in water. Three are recent converts from Islam.
Today doors are opening all over the world. I think God is getting ready for a great surge before He comes again. As never before, we have wonderful opportunities to go through doors and preach the Gospel to people who have never been free to hear it before.
A Door of Obligation
Paul also saw a door of obligation. He said, The door is opened to me. He didn’t say it was opened to Timothy or Barnabas or someone else. It had opened to him. He felt a personal obligation to stay in Ephesus and preach the Word of God to them.
We must each realize that I can’t do your work for you, and you can’t do my work for me. We have a personal obligation to share the Gospel wherever we are.
As God brings people across you path, its an opportunity to reach out and share the Good News. God is opening doors. But it becomes my obligation and your obligation to walk through the door.
Amy Carmichael tells of dreaming that she was in a jungle sitting by the campfire one night. As she watched the flames of the fire soar into the sky she said that she could see a grassy place, a clearing in the jungle, and many people were walking across it towards a terrible precipice.
There was a mother with a little girl clinging to her skirt walking towards the precipice, and no one said anything to her. She fell over the precipice, and Amy could hear their screams as they plummeted to their death.
Then she saw a little boy walking towards the precipice, and he was blind, even as the mother and the little girl had been blind. As he was walking to his death Amy thought, Why doesn’t someone say something to him?
As the boy fell over the cliff, he grabbed hold of a little tuft of grass and screamed for help. But no one came, and finally he, too, plummeted to his death. And there were thousands of others, all of them blind, and all of them were heading towards the precipice, too.
In her dream, Amy Carmichael said, I cried from the depths of my soul, `Why doesn’t someone tell them about the precipice and warn them of their danger?’ Then, she said, I heard the voice of God saying, `Who shall I send?’ And I said, `I’ll go. I’ll go.’ `All Right,’ said the Lord, `Then you’re my messenger.’
You see that’s a picture of our world. There is a precipice and people are walking blindly toward it. Does anybody care? Will anybody stand with Isaiah and say, Here am I, Lord, send me?
I’m praying that the Lord will call members from our congregation to go, whether its here in San Juan or somewhere overseas. God is calling, are you listening?
A Door of Opposition
The Apostle Paul also saw a door of opposition. He said, There are many who oppose me. It’s true. There will always be those who oppose the advancement of the Gospel.
In Ephesus there was Demetrius who made silver idols and sold them for profit. When the Gospel was proclaimed and people became Christians they stopped worshiping idols, and Demetrius went out of business. So he became an opponent of the Gospel, and started persecuting Paul.
Those aren’t the only opponents of the Gospel. The worst opponents to the advancement of the Gospel are not its enemies. They are the people who sit in the pews and who are nominal Christians. They hear the messages. They see the blind people wandering towards the precipice, but they go home unmoved and uncaring. They are the worst.
A few years ago Nicolae Ceausescu, the cruel dictator of Rumania, was executed by revolutionaries. You probably remember seeing his bullet riddled body on the newscasts. The revolutionary forces emptied their rifles of ammunition as they shot him again and again and again.
Those who knew the situation in Rumania said that it was probably a mercy killing, for if he had been captured by the people in the streets they would have torn him apart tissue by tissue because they hated him so much.
Ceausescu and his wife had held the people in total contempt for years. Rumania is a fertile country, and they raised good crops. But he sold the crops to Russia and pocketed the money himself while his people were starving.
His wife once said, If you give those worms food they’ll just ask for more.
Finally, the people had enough. They rebelled, and took him and his wife prisoners. Then they executed both of them, and the news media showed us the pictures of their bodies.
But did you see what happened shortly afterwards? A preacher climbed a balcony in the square where many communist leaders had stood previously proclaiming the precepts of communism, and he began to speak.
His underground name was Brother Paul. He stood on that balcony and as he looked down at the thousands of people gathered there, he began shouting at the top of his voice, Our God is alive! Our God is alive!
Thousands of people shouted back in unison, Our God is alive! Our God is alive! For the first time in decades the people of Rumania were free to proclaim their Christianity in the streets of the city.
Doors, all kinds of doors, are swinging open. And there will be opponents, no question about that. But we dare not look at the problems. We must seize the opportunities.
We must see the opportunities to go into all the world and preach the Gospel.
What is God calling us to do here at South Coast?
1st Pray
2nd Send
3rd Give
