{"id":5784,"date":"2019-10-22T16:06:21","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T21:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/?p=5784"},"modified":"2019-10-22T16:08:52","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T21:08:52","slug":"lord-give-me-an-open-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/2019\/10\/22\/lord-give-me-an-open-door\/","title":{"rendered":"Lord, Give Me an Open Door"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Acts 2:42 outlines essential convictions that must be ingrained in the fabric of a man's soul if he is to effectively \"guard this man\u201d (1 Kings 20:39).\u00a0 In the first quarter of this year, we saw that we must \"guard this man,\" so he is \"sound in doctrine.\" A second reason we must \"guard this man\" is so he will be \"strong in fellowship.\" \u00a0A third reason to \"guard this man\" is so he will be steadfast in prayer.\u00a0 A fourth reason we must \u201cguard this man\u201d is so he will be \u201csuccessful in witness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Book of Acts records the actions of first-century believers. They walked in the fear of the Lord, proclaimed the Word of God everywhere, and a great many souls came to faith in Christ; hence, they were successful in witness. They did this in the power of the Holy Spirit as promised by Jesus in Acts 1:8 (NLT), \u201cYou will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere - in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.\u201d \u00a0<\/sup><\/p>\n

There are many lessons taught and learned from the example of these first-century disciples.\u00a0 One such example is the Apostle Paul in Acts 17, where he appears before an audience of Gentiles who have never heard of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Paul is standing on their turf, at Mars Hill, at their invitation.\u00a0 He starts where they are and shares the gospel with them.\u00a0 Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22 (NLT), \"I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ.\u201d \u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Paul does this very thing in Acts 17, where his approach becomes a model for effectively telling others the gospel.<\/p>\n

BE COURTEOUS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first thing Paul teaches us is to be courteous in our dealings with unbelievers.\u00a0 You cannot insult a person into the Kingdom of God.\u00a0 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: \u201cPeople of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious\u201d (Acts 17:22, NIV). \u00a0Paul looked for something positive he could say about them, affirming the fact that they were very religious.\u00a0 The English proverb holds, \"You catch more flies with honey than vinegar,\" extolling the fact that you make more friends by being courteous than by being caustic.\u00a0 Paul found common ground with his hearers, and he affirmed them for their religious pursuits.\u00a0 Likewise, we, too, do well to be courteous when witnessing to others, lest they perceive us to be rude and obnoxious, thereby potentially turning them away when the law of kindness would have possibly opened the door for hearing the gospel.<\/p>\n

BE CONTEMPORARY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Secondly, Paul teaches us to be contemporary in our presentation.\u00a0 His example encourages us to stay current with the times, becoming a student of the culture, getting to know the people by walking and living among them.\u00a0 Paul says, \u201cAs I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: 'To an Unknown God.\u2019 This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the One I\u2019m telling you about\u201d (Acts 17:23, NLT). \u00a0Paul took the time, before speaking to them, to study their culture, gleaning insights and understanding into their beliefs so that he could then build a bridge to them with the gospel. His courteous demeanor broke down barriers, and his contemporary knowledge built a bridge whereby he could segue into the gospel.<\/p>\n

BE COURAGEOUS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul then demonstrated the courage to speak up and say to them, \u201cI am not here to tell you about a strange foreign deity, but about this One whom you already worship, though without full knowledge\u201d (Acts 17:23c, VOICE). \u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>Solomon, in his wisdom, reminds us in Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT), \"He [God] has planted eternity in the human heart.\u201d 7<\/sup>Recognizing this, Paul continued to share with his Gentile audience.<\/p>\n

24 This is the God who made the universe and all it contains, the God who is the King of all heaven and all earth. It would be illogical to assume that a God of this magnitude could possibly be contained in any man-made structure, no matter how majestic. 25 Nor would it be logical to think that this God would need human beings to provide Him with food and shelter\u2014after all, He Himself would have given to humans everything they need\u2014life, breath, food, shelter, and so on. This is the only universal God, the One who makes all people whatever their nationality or culture or religion. 26 This God made us in all our diversity from one original person, allowing each culture to have its own time to develop, giving each its own place to live and thrive in its distinct ways. 27 His purpose in all this was that people of every culture and religion would search for this ultimate God, grope for Him in the darkness, as it were, hoping to find Him. Yet, in truth, God is not far from any of us. 28 For you know the saying, \u201cWe live in God; we move in God; we exist in God.\u201d And still another said, \u201cWe are indeed God\u2019s children.\u201d 29 Since this is true, since we are indeed offspring of God\u2019s creative act, we shouldn\u2019t think of the Deity as our own artifact, something made by our own hands\u2014as if this great, universal, ultimate Creator were simply a combination of elements like gold, silver, and stone. 30 No, God has patiently tolerated this kind of ignorance in the past, but now God says it is time to rethink our lives and reject these unenlightened assumptions (Acts 17:24-30, VOICE)<\/p>\n

Eugene Peterson paraphrases verse 30 in The Message, \"God overlooks it as long as you don't know any better\u2014but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and he's calling for a radical life-change.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>Paul was courteous, breaking down barriers.\u00a0 He was contemporary, building bridges through redemptive analogies; and, he was courageous enough to call them to a radical life-change.\u00a0 He did this by presenting Christ to them.<\/p>\n

BE CHRIST-CENTERED<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHe [God] has fixed a day of accountability, when the whole world will be justly evaluated by a new, higher standard: not by a statue, but by a living man [Jesus Christ]. God selected this man and made Him credible to all by raising Him from the dead\u201d (Acts 17:31, VOICE). \u00a0<\/sup>Luke records the response of the people in Acts 17:32-34:<\/p>\n

32<\/sup>\"When they heard that last phrase about resurrection from the dead, some shook their heads and scoffed, but others were even more curious. Others: We would like you to come and speak to us again. 33<\/sup>Paul left at that point, 34<\/sup>but some people followed him and came to faith, including one from Areopagus named Dionysius, a prominent woman named Damaris, and others.\"<\/p>\n

There were three responses to Paul's presentation of the gospel, which remain the typical responses of people to this very day.\u00a0 Some were contemptuous (v. 32), some were curious (v. 32), and some were convinced (v. 34).\u00a0 Pastor Brian Bill has aptly observed, \u201cHow people respond to the gospel is God\u2019s responsibility. How I respond to God is my responsibility.\u201d<\/strong>1 <\/sup><\/p>\n

How people respond to the gospel is God\u2019s responsibility.\u00a0 Luke reported in Acts 2:47 (NIV), \u201cThe Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.\u201d 13 \u00a0<\/sup>How I respond to God is my responsibility.\u00a0 Every day we should pray, \u201cLord, give me an open door to share Christ this week.\u00a0 Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\u201cLord, give me an open door to share Christ this week.\u00a0 Amen.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

_____________________________________________________<\/p>\n

**Footnotes**<\/p>\n

1<\/sup>Brian Bill, Telling Others The Gospel, Sermon Central, Accessed 16 October 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":5785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,15],"tags":[940,946,1207,1206,1205,867],"class_list":{"0":"post-5784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-discipleship-ministries","8":"category-mens-ministries","9":"tag-940","10":"tag-iphc-mens-ministries","11":"tag-lord-give-me-an-open-door","12":"tag-quarter-4","13":"tag-successful-in-witness","14":"tag-w-a-mills","15":"entry"},"title_es":"Se\u00f1or, dame una puerta abierta","content_es":"","author_name":"W.A. Mills","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/10\/MM-Q4.1-Article-Graphic-Mills-e1571778321389.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T9u2-1vi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}