“Prayer is a declaration of dependence upon God” (Phillip Yancey)
Since its beginning, Christianity has always been a partnership between God and man. Evangelism and discipleship were never meant to be done by man alone. When Jesus was about to depart earth, He told His disciples that He wasn’t going to leave them alone, that He would send the Holy Spirit to be with them and in them, to help them live the Christian way of life, and to do the work of God on earth (John 14: 15-21). The great commission was given to man with the promise of the constant help and guidance from the Lord (Matthew 28: 18-20). The apostles originally received the great commission, but didn’t act upon it immediately. They first were instructed by the Lord to go back to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit whose presence and help would empower them to do the His work.
The Lord’s church had a phenomenal growth in the first century because Christians were fully aware that God was working with them as they shared the gospel. That growth wasn’t the result of effective preaching produced by brilliant minds, or by the evangelists’ outstanding communication skills. It wasn’t the result of humanly devised strategy. Of course, there is nothing wrong if these skills are employed in the Lord’s work today, and actually, those traits and abilities are desirable. But we wouldn’t be able to, biblically, give credit to them for the growth of the church or the expansion of the Christian movement (I Corinthians 3: 16). In God’s scheme of things, we humans are the instruments God chose to use to accomplish His redemptive purposes in the World. He does it; we are only the instruments He uses.
The early Christians had the understanding that the most critical factor in the success of the Great Commission is dependence upon God. Prayer was, and continues to be, an essential part in the advancement of the Gospel. This was the foundation of Paul’s work as an evangelist and missionary. He wrote to the Christians at Colossae:
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should” (Colossians 4: 2-4).
Paul’s concept of the open door is intriguing. He mentions it at least three other times in the New Testament:
– “On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14: 27). According to Luke, the report Paul gave the church at Antioch wasn’t about the “hard work” they did among the gentiles. Rather, it was about “what God had done through them”. God Himself, “had opened a door of faith to the gentiles” (another way of saying it is that God had worked in the circumstances and in the hearts of men and women to favorably receive the gospel and become believers). The immediate context gives us some insights as to the meaning of “the open door”, “They preached the gospel in that city (Derbe) and won a large number of disciples”. (Acts 14: 21). Sometimes we preach, teach and share the gospel and nobody seems to care. But when God opens a door people are receptive to the message.
– “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” (I Corinthians 16: 8-9). If you are a missionary, why would you want to move to a different city, if God is giving you success where you are? This door that had opened to Paul had resulted in “effective work”. He preached the message and many people, (it was a great door), were listening and responding positively, even though, there were many antagonists.
– “Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, 13 I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So, I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. (II Corinthians 2: 12-13).
– What was that door that the Lord had opened to Paul while he was in Troas? Dr. Luke tells us about it: “Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So, they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16: 6-10). The result? The birth of three of the most devoted churches in the New Testament, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea.
These are just a few examples of how the early Christians understood their partnership with God in evangelism and discipleship. God does the work, the work we can’t do, through us doing what he commands us to do. Only by grasping that truth and believing it, can we understand the worth of Paul’s pleading to the church at Colossae to pray “that God may open a door for our message”. We are to faithfully share the message with others, but only God can change circumstances, attitudes and receptivity for the gospel.
Categories: SPANISH
