A Great and Effective Door
Several times in Scripture the concept of an “open
door” is used to describe the opportunities present for the
teaching of the gospel. Writing from Ephesus on his third preaching
journey, the apostle Paul said, “But I will tarry… until
Pentecost. For a great and effective door has opened to me” -- a
door or opportunity for preaching the gospel (1 Corinthians 16:8;
cf. Acts 19:1ff). Later, from prison, Paul requested of the
church at Colossae that they be “praying… that God would open to
us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ”
(Colossians 4:3).
One marvelous illustration of such an “open door”
is found in John chapter 4. Jesus “needed to go through Samaria”
and as He went, stopped at Jacob’s well outside the town of Sychar.
While His disciples went into town (to buy food), a Samaritan woman
came to the well to draw water. Jesus, seeing an ‘open door,‘
engaged the woman in a discussion about “living water,” her
spiritual condition, and “true worship” (vss. 9-26).
As the Samaritan woman went into town to repeat
these things to the men of the city, Jesus sought to prepare His
disciples for yet another ‘open door’ that would soon present itself
to them. “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then
comes the harvest’?” He inquired. “Behold, I say to you, lift
up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for
harvest” (vs. 35). The metaphor (“white harvest”) is different,
but the message is the same. Jesus was seeking to prepare His
disciples for the men of the city (an ‘open door‘) who were at that
moment, because of the woman’s words, coming out to meet Him. The
‘harvest’ was ‘white,’ the ‘door’ was ‘open,’ for the preaching
about the Christ.
In the disciples’ eyes the Samaritans, an impure
race, didn’t look much like an ‘open door’ -- (“For Jews have no
dealings with Samaritans,” vs. 9). But Jesus challenged them to
“lift up” their eyes and see the potential coming their way.
And what a door! By the end of Jesus’ short stay in Sychar, most of
the city came to believe in Him.
Beloved, we need to ‘lift up our
eyes’ and see the doors that have been opened to us for the
preaching of the gospel. Like the disciples we need to overlook
generations of racial prejudice. As Jesus (who spoke to this 5-time
divorcee) we must look beyond our disdain for the havoc sin has
wreaked in a person’s life. We must “lift up our eyes” and see the
door of opportunity for teaching about the Christ.
Look at the town in which you live. Go out the
door of your house to the street and look at all the houses in your
neighborhood. Look at a map of your town and envision all the
streets with houses of people who have never heard the truth about
Jesus. It may very well be that “a great and effective door has
opened to” us. Are we seeing it? Or are we, perhaps, afraid to?
Let’s get our eyes open. Let’s pray for open
doors. Let us have the faith and courage to go through them when the
Father opens them to us.
--Mike Noble
