Sermon Preached by Pastor Larry C. Brincefield on 5/16/2004
Title: “Open” Door Evangelism
Text: Acts 16:9-15
Introduction
1. I subscribe to the “open door” policy…
• When I was an Administrator in a Nursing Home…
• I always had my door open…
• Unless I was meeting with someone about something very delicate or private…
• I always wanted to be accessible to any of my staff…
• The residents…their families…vendors…
• Anyone!
2. I don’t know if you realize it or not…
• But God has an open door policy too…
• Open Door Evangelism…
• And we read about it in our text.
Read Text: Acts 16:9-15
Body
1. Open Doors
A. You have probably heard people referring to “open” and “closed” doors.
• How God will lead us by open doors…
• And closed doors…
• That’s all fine and good…
• But is it Biblical?
• Does God really work by “opening and closing doors”?
B. I’m happy to report that yes, Scripture does tell us that God “opens and closes” doors.
• Here in our text, we see that God closed the door for them to go to Asia…
• And God closed the door for them to go to Bithynia…
• But then, God opened the door for them to go to Macedonia…
• God was closing smaller doors…
• And opening larger doors…
• And as a result of this event that we read in our Scripture this morning…
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ was spread into Europe…
• And a great harvest was begun.
C. It’s also interesting to note that…
• Just because a door is closed for the time being…
• That it will stay closed for good.
• Paul had probably planned to go to Ephesus…
• The leading city in Asia…
• But God had other plans…
• And Ephesus would have to “wait for a later time”
• And the time did come when Paul would enter Ephesus…
• During his 3rd missionary journey.
D. How can we discern God’s “open and closed” doors?
• How did Paul discern it?
• Scripture doesn’t explicitly tells us…
• But when a Christian has his/her heart in tune with Christ…
• Through reading God’s Word…
• Through time spent in prayer…
• You know when God is speaking to you…
• You get an inner feeling or an inner “knowing”….
• How do you know that it’s God…
• And not just some bad Chinese food?
• Well, I’ve had bad Chinese food…
• And I’ve known when God was speaking to me…
• And I could easily tell the difference…
• The key is…what’s your relationship with Jesus Christ?
• Are you current?
• Are you enjoying a real, vibrant, relationship with Him?
• It’s like my relationship with my wife…
• Because our relationship is current…
• And close…
• And real…
• I know when Kay is speaking to me…
• And, in fact, many times, I know what she is thinking and feeling…
• Simply because I’ve spent the time and energy in developing a close relationship with her.
• Do the same with Christ…
• And when He opens doors…
• And closes others…
• You will know it is Christ.
2. Open Eyes to See the Vision
A. Not only does God open and close doors…
• But we must have open eyes to see the vision…
• Paul didn’t just have some faint sense of open and closed doors…
• He had open eyes to see the vision of the lost…
• He saw a vision of a man crying out, “Come over to Macedonia and help us” Acts 16:9 (NIV)
• It is only when we have a vision of the lost…
• That we will be moved to action…
• Our vision for our Church is “Each one…win one”…
• Each Christian winning another person to Jesus Christ…
• But if all you think is that this is a cutesy phrase to manipulate people to come to church…
• If all you think is that its “each man for himself”…
• “let him find his own way to Christ”…
• Then you don’t have open eyes to see a vision for the lost…
• Then your eyes are closed to the many people who are lost and hurting who you come into contact with each day.
• God opens the doors…
• But we must open our eyes to see the vision of the lost….
3. We must also have Open Ears to Hear the Lost
A. Paul didn’t just have open eyes to see a vision of the man in Macedonia…
• But he had open ears to hear him as well…
• Sometimes we will see the lost…
• We will think to ourselves…
• “Oh, that poor man….or that poor woman…
• If only they could find Christ”
• But then be completely oblivious to what they are saying…
• Like Scripture says, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? James 2:16 (NIV)
B. One day, we were eating in MacDonald’s here in Belleview…
• and there was a man who was obviously poor…
• he was drinking a cup of coffee…
• and counting his pennies to see if he had enough to buy something to eat…
• We could have just thought to ourselves, “why doesn’t he just get a job”?...
• Or we could have gone up to him and said, “repent, ye sinner”!...
• But, instead, I asked him if I could buy him a sandwich…
• Now, he wasn’t begging for money…
• In fact, he was just sitting there minding his own business…
• But, with our spiritual ears, we could hear him asking for help…
• And we could hear God saying that we should offer to help him…
• And so we helped him….
• And we prayed for him…
• I don’t know if he has come to the Lord…
• But at least we open ears to hear the voice of the lost…
• Which brings us to the next part of open door evangelism…
4. Open Minds: Willingness to Go
A. Paul didn’t just see the vision and hear the voice of the lost man…
• But he was willing to go…
• He didn’t dawdle around…
• He immediately began his journey to follow God’s leading…
• And reach out to the lost…
• To often, people will recognize open doors…
• They will see the vision…
• They will hear the lost…
• But they will close their minds to the possibility of going to help….
B. I remember a chapel service at Olivet, (which is pretty incredible, because after 20 years, I don’t remember many of them!)
• But Linda Seamands, a missionary was speaking to us…
• And her text was Romans 10:14-15 “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:14-15 (NIV)
• And part of her message was something to the effect…
• Many people think that as long as we are WILLING to go…
• That’s enough…
• People can come to pray at the altar and say, “Lord, I’m willing”…
• But then they don’t have to go…
• They just have to be willing to go…
• And then God let’s them off the hook…
• But she made the point in such a powerful way…
• That hey, we need people to actually go…
• Not just be willing to go…
• But to actually go…
• Like Paul did…
• Like Linda Seamands did…
• Like other missionaries…pastors…and laymen do…
• Paul had an open mind…
• Not only was he WILLING to go…
• But he actually went…
C. And Christ needs the same thing today…
• He can open the doors…
• He can supply the vision…
• You can have open eyes to see the vision…
• And open ears to hear the lost crying out for help…
• But if you don’t open your mind…
• And allow Christ to use you to actually go help the lost…
• What good is it?
• One time, I had a very distinct impression that God was asking me to speak to someone about Christ…
• But I didn’t feel comfortable about it…
• So I hemmed…and hawed…
• And finally waited so long until the opportunity was no longer there…
• I felt so bad about my failure…
• And I prayed, “God please send someone to speak to that man”…
• But as I prayed, my face I’m sure was red from embarrassment and sadness…
• Because I could hear God gently chiding me…
• “I did send someone to speak to him…I sent you”.
• We must have open minds to do what God wants us to do…
• Not to just be WILLING to do it…
• And then think that God let’s us off the hook…
• And has the missionaries and preachers do it…
• We must be willing…then we must go do it…
• Whether it’s across the street …
• Or around the world.
5. Open Hearts: Respond to the Gospel Message
A. And when we go…we will find hearts that are open to the work of Christ…
• Paul found Lydia…and our Scripture says,
• The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message Acts 16:14 (NIV)
• All the “openings” lined up…
• And then Lydia opened her heart to Jesus Christ…
• And not only Lydia…but her whole household…
B. When God begins to work…there’s a reason…
• And if we will “stay the course”…
• “we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (gal 6:9)
• It may be your next door neighbor…
• It may be your lost son or daughter…
• It may be someone on the other side of the world…
• That opens their heart to Jesus.
7. Finally, we see Open Homes: The power of fellowship
A. After Lydia opened her heart to Jesus…
• She opened her home to Paul and those that were with him…
• Usually we see that happen the other way around…
• Someone comes to church…
• They get saved…
• And then we invite them out to dinner…
• Or over for ice cream…
B. But, however it happens…
• There is something special that happens when God’s people get together for fellowship…
• We encourage one another…
• We pray for one another…
• We help one another along our spiritual pilgrimage…
• So, after we see…
• Open doors…
• Open eyes…
• Open ears…
• Open minds…
• And open hearts…
• We need to open our homes…
• When the power of the Holy Spirit broke out at Pentecost…
• One of the results was an increase in fellowship…
• They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts Acts 2:46 (NIV)
Conclusion
1. Open door evangelism…
• God opens the doors…
• We open our eyes to see the vision of the lost…
• We open our ears to hear their voice calling to us…
• We open our minds…and not only are we WILLING to go…
• But we actually go…
• And when this happens, we will find open hearts …
• Receptive to the Gospel of Jesus Christ…
• And when the Holy Spirit begins to move in people’s hearts…
• You will see open homes…
• As people gather together in fellowship.
Beacon Bible Commentary Vol 7 “John & Acts” (Beacon Hill Press, Kansas City, 1965) pp. 442-43.
Also instrumental was “The Widening Circle” by W. E. McCumber, Beacon Hill Press, 1983 pp. 87-9.
