On the front porch of our flat in Brno, there is a doorway that many years before our arrival led to the room where the children now sleep.  But the two doors were nailed shut with plans never to reopen them... in addition to this, a brick wall was built to seal the doorway from the other side.  So in effect we have a door that leads to nowhere on one side and a wall that looks like it never had a door on the other.  In a similar way, many in post-communist block countries have many doors closed and walls constructed in their thinking against the gospel.  The godless-philosophical, atheistic and humanistic  walls have been built in the minds of the people through education, media, and promises of humanistic progress without even a thought about the God who created everything, the God who sustains their every breath, and has a plan of redemption to save them from the curse of sin.  Many of the people we speak to here have given no consideration to their sin or need for a Savior.  Their thoughts about God, if they think about Him at all, are limited to “something” that has absolutely NOTHING to do with them!  These are the people with doors nailed shut and walls visibly built up in their minds against the gospel.  To them, the door serves no real purpose.  Still yet, there are others who have never heard the gospel, nor have they been confronted with their sin.  These people, we can imagine, are those who do not even know there is a door on the wall that has been built around them.  They live as those who are burdened by the curse of sin, but have no knowledge of the gospel, or door that exists behind the intellectual and atheistic ideas  of the culture around them.  Even if these walls were not present, in our sinful state we suppress the truth of God and exchange it for lies (Romans 1:18-25).

Acts 14:2 describes a similar situation in this way, “unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers [Paul and Barnabas].”   So what was the response?  Was the situation easily overcome?  The next verse gives us insight into how long it took to effectively communicate the gospel to these people.... “So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of His grace...”  Even then with the success, a division still remained among the people, but some believed (14:4).

What hope can we gain from a passage like this?  Well, we discover later in the context of Acs 14, that many did believe although the Paul and Barnabas needed to remain for a long time.  Over time God opened the eyes of the some of the Iconians (and others), so much so that Paul and Barnabas were able to conclude and celebrate with the church who had sent them out as missionaries when “they declared all that God had done with them, and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”  Praise God that throughout history He has again and again sought out and redeemed thousands of vile, prideful, and godless sinners like you and me, drawing them to His infinite mercy and grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  No one is beyond the reach and transforming power of His redeeming love.

Please pray that God would cause His Word to run swiftly and be glorified (2Thes 3:1) here in the Czech Republic, providing the antidote to the poison that has filled the minds of the people.  Pray also for doors to be opened to the gospel, and walls torn down to allow people to see the hope they have been unaware of for all these years.