Go Make Disciples We read these words from our Lord spoken to the Apostle Paul to encourage him in his ministry in Corinth in Acts 18:9-11: ⁹ And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, ¹⁰ for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” ¹¹ And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. God gives a number of promises to Paul in these brief verses, promises of His presence, His protection, and the positive potential that God sees as the outcome of Paul’s continuing to preach and teach the Word: “I have many in this city who are my people.” God wasn’t talking about a large Lutheran Church that had been established there. Paul is just beginning his ministry in Corinth and has few converts. God saw something in Corinth that Paul didn’t see:

• Paul saw the perversions. God saw the coming conversions.
• Paul saw the immorality. God saw the coming immortality of His children.
• Paul saw the decadent culture; god saw the despised cross of Christ and that the sins of the world had been paid for.

God looked beneath the surface and saw the work of the Holy Spirit through the proclamation and teaching of the Word that would make new creations out of people. God saw the lonely. God saw the broken-hearted. God saw the hurting. God saw the emptiness of many. God saw the needy. God saw the folks who had come to the end of their road and through the power inherent in the Good News of the Gospel, He saw many who were or would become ripe for the Gospel. In other words, God is capable of seeing what we cannot see.

God does tell us what He sees, however, so that we do not become discouraged in our living, and sharing, and speaking the Word of God to those around us. He’s encouraging Paul and us, not be discouraged in our life as Christians, or our work in ministry.

Keep going! Don’t lose heart. God has many people (that have not yet come to faith) and perhaps He is going to use you and your witness as Gospel seed, or water, to bring them to faith or nuture it. Paul, himself, reminds us in what is probably his final Epistle (and that to a young pastor, 2 Timothy 2:19): “Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His.”

So, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, ¹⁰ for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”