God at Work in Your Friends’ Lives

God is already at work in the life of every single one of your unsaved friends. Every single one of them! And He is inviting you – He is authorizing you in the Name of Jesus – He is sending you! – to join Him in that miraculous work. Within the past 10 years in the U.S., a whopping 83% of all new church attendees came to church because someone invited them – either to a Sunday service, or to a small group gathering. 

Transcript

Let’s turn our thoughts for a moment to the time of the New Testament – to the Mediterranean world in the first decades following the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus:

When we think about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ spread throughout the world at that time, we may be tempted to think it occurred through incredible missionary efforts – and that is partially true.  Paul & Barnabas & Silas & others – they did travel from place to place planting churches and equipping elders to lead those churches everywhere they went.

But the real work of spreading the Gospel and discipling the masses throughout the Roman world happened in those churches Paul planted after Paul left them.  It happened through a concept in Greek culture which is foreign to most Americans.  The Gospel spread through the oikos.

Do you know what an oikos is?  Most Americans don’t have much of a concept of this.  I didn’t myself until just recently.  In fact, when I did an internet search of oikos, you know what came up?

Yogurt.  We Americans think oikos is a yogurt!

But our friends in the Global South and East can tell us what oikos is.  They may not know the Greek language, but they live the concept of oikos every day.  In Central and South America – all throughout Africa and southern Asia – oikos is their dominant experience of everyday life.

The ancient Greek concept of oikos refers to the “household,” which was made up of the entire extended family, one’s close friends and their families, all bound together in a tight network of relational community.  The best words we have for this concept in English might be something like “tribe” or “village.”

Oikos is the idea that each life exists within a complex web of interconnected relationships.  My village, my community, my extended family of loved ones are all linked & tied & bound into one another.

The oikos was the basic unit of society in ancient Greek culture.  And the oikos is how the Gospel spread so rapidly in New Testament times.

In Luke 19:9 – After Zacchaeus repented and turned to Jesus, Jesus told him that salvation had come to his household (his oikos).

In John 4:53 – The centurion's entire household (or oikos) was saved following the healing of his son.

In Acts 18:8 – Luke describes how Crispus, the leader of the synagogue at Corinth, believed in the Lord, together with all his household (translated as his oikos).

In John 1:40-45, Andrew introduces his brother Simon to Christ, and then Philip brings his friend Nathanael to Christ!

Research from the past 10 years states that 90% of unchurched people are open to attending church if a loved one or a friend invited them to do so.

That’s remarkable!  Statistically speaking, that means that 18 out of 20 people within your current oikos would be willing to come to church – they just need a personal invitation from someone they know and trust.

Within the past 10 years in the U.S., a whopping 83% of all new church attendees came to church because someone within their oikos invited them – either to a Sunday service, or to a small group gathering.

Friends, you have an oikos.  You already have an interconnected relational community around you that has people in it who are open to hearing about your Christian faith!

God is already at work in the life of every single one of your unsaved friends.  Every single one of them.  God is already at work in the lives of every neighbor, every classmate, and every co-worker you have.  Every one!

And did you know that as a follower of Jesus, He gives you spiritual authority to ask Him what He’s up to in their lives?  You can pray for your friends.  You can ask God what He is already doing in their lives, and then ask Him to help you join Him in His work that is already in progress in their lives!

Saving your friends’ souls is God’s work; and He is inviting you – He is authorizing you in the Name of Jesus – He is sending you! – to join Him in that miraculous work.