Acts 19:8-10 offers a valuable lesson to any believer who strives to be a lighthouse of loving faith.
“Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them (synagogue Jews) became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.”
Sometimes, our best and most-loving efforts to introduce people to a saving faith leads not to conversion, but instead confrontation.
Yes, Jesus was right when He said the road to eternal destruction is wide and crowded.
Paul tried and tried to persuade Ephesian Jews that Jesus was the Messiah and their only hope for eternal life.
What he found was hardened soil that the seeds of the gospel could not penetrate.
I thank God that Paul didn’t throw up his hands and presume that he was a lousy Christian and even lousier messenger of God’s grace.
Paul simply realized that everybody is a sinner in need of salvation through Christ and so he found another venue for sharing his faith.
One closed door led to two years of open doors with thousands and thousands of people — primarily Gentiles — who would have never been found inside a synagogue.
God used Paul and the open doors of that lecture hall to plant at Ephesus that would become vital in the health of 1st Century Christianity.
Listen, just because your faith-sharing efforts seem at times to hit a dead end, that doesn’t mean you’re to stop sharing your faith.
Just look for another field within which to plant your seeds of faith.
Perhaps it will be one person from another department at work talking with you in the break room rather than the sarcastic co-worker who shares a cubicle with you eight hours a day.
Perhaps that break room chum will invite another co-worker a week from now, and that co-worker invites somebody to your break room group a couple of weeks after that. And so on and so on.
Believe me, I know that it’s frustrating when those close to you don’t want to hear about your faith. But remember that somebody somewhere in your life does want the peace that surpasses all understanding.
Just keep planting as Jesus taught us in the parable of the sower. Our faith is not measured by what others do, but instead by how we keep planting. As Paul wrote in I Corinthians 3:6, it is God who provides the increase.
As always, I love you
Martin
