2 Corinthians 6: Now Is the Time of God's Favor

Introduction

"I believe this is an exciting time to be alive, that God is at work while we are on watch." Ness Wilson, who leads Open Heaven Church in Loughborough and the Pioneer network of churches, is preaching this Sunday at Trent Vineyard in Nottingham. She believes the United Kingdom, this "land of revivals," is beginning to see revival. "It's the beginning, but the signs are there."

Her text is 2 Corinthians 6:2: "For he says, 'At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.' Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation." From it she draws a call: now is the time to change your priorities and your expectations, because this is not the moment to carry on as usual.

After describing this new spiritual climate, she proposes three shifts: from private faith to the public square, from reaching people to making disciples, and from a few to everyone.

Message outline

1. A new spiritual climate

When God is moving, you need to wake up and pay attention. Ness Wilson invites you to leave behind a "siege mentality" that says: keep your faith private, don't say the name of Jesus, play down your involvement in church. "Now is the time to lower the drawbridge and adjust your posture."
She speaks above all to those over 35, who lived through the era of the "new atheism" and a culture that was indifferent or slightly hostile. She remembers the icy reactions when she told people at a party that she led a church. "But friends, it's changing." The culture is now open and curious.
The younger generation is convinced that society sold it a lie. The ideology of secularism, which pushed God to the margins, has let it down. Many under 25 are going through a crisis of meaning and are looking for "a better story": a life that works, families that flourish, a society that holds together.
She notices a more supernatural dimension in conversion stories: visions, dreams of Jesus, the kind you used to hear about from the persecuted Church. "But it's happening here, while we are on watch, in this country."
A young man in his twenties collapses at a music festival after mixing drugs. He feels his spirit leave his body and arrive at a crossroads: to the left, "pure horror"; then a voice simply says to him: "I love you." That path leads to love and light.
When he comes to, he looks for the God behind that voice. He tries Buddhism, New Age, and even quantum physics. Then someone gives him a Bible. He reads the whole Old Testament from Genesis, pauses before the New because he senses that what it contains will change his life, then reads it and gives his life to Jesus. As he reads the Bible, he understands that he must join a church, and turns up one Sunday at Open Heaven.
"Nothing we did. It's all Jesus." Jesus, the best evangelist, is building his Church just as he said he would, because now is the day of God's favor.

2. From private faith to the public square

In Acts 1:4, Jesus orders the disciples not to leave Jerusalem and to wait for what the Father promised. In Acts 1:8, he announces: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth."
The disciples first wait behind closed doors, in the upper room, perhaps in hiding. They pray, they worship, then they are filled with the Holy Spirit and pour out into the streets. Peter tells the crowd that these people are not drunk, since it is only nine in the morning, the third hour of the day (Acts 2:15).
Something had touched their "nine o'clock in the morning." Our nine o'clock is when we arrive at work, at the school gate, at volunteering, at university. That is where faith needs to move into the public square.
She sees it in sport: nine Arsenal players in the Premier League follow Jesus wholeheartedly, call themselves the "Bible brothers," pray before matches and read the Bible together. She mentions Olympians who gave glory to God, and Katie Taylor, walking out for the last fight of her career in front of 80,000 people to the song "All Hail King Jesus," worshiping.
Many have got into the habit of compartmentalizing their lives and only talking about faith among Christians. Ness Wilson calls you to dare to say the name of Jesus, and not just say that you go to church: "Be absolutely convinced that an introduction to Jesus is the greatest gift you can give anyone."
New Christians show the way. On campus, young people wear big crosses over their clothes, "Jesus is King" or "I belong to Jesus" sweatshirts, a jacket marked "Jesus did the work." A young woman from the church, who has a following on Instagram, filmed herself walking into a meeting saying: "Come to church with me." Two people came; one went through an Alpha course, became a Christian and was baptized. "We who are older need to humble ourselves and learn from them."
Matthew 5:14-15: "A city located on a hill can't be hidden," and nobody lights a lamp to put it under a basket. "Some of us may need to go to the basket sitting on the light, and simply lift it off."
The week before, during an evening for women, a young man showed up at the door: his grandmother had given him an old Bible that he didn't understand. Was this a church that could help him? She handed him a Bible, a book by Bear Grylls and an invitation to an Alpha course. "People are hungry for something real, authentic, ancient, and that works."
She encourages you to create spaces to read the Bible with others: a "Bible reading club" advertised at work or in a WhatsApp group, a Thursday lunchtime with spiritually curious people.

3. From reaching people to making disciples

It is about taking responsibility for training the waves of curious people and new Christians that God is bringing. Matthew 28:19-20: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you."
"That command has never been revoked, and it is not yet fulfilled." The Great Commission doesn't say to go and find people who attend church, but to make disciples. Making a disciple is a process, not an event, and it is relational, "life to life."
"If you don't define what a disciple is, you'll never know whether you've made one." She uses an English acronym, BIO: B for "before God daily," I for "in community," O for "on mission." She cites the Bible Society: transformation happens when someone is in the Word at least four times a week.
Most Christians say that making disciples is important. But when asked "Who are you discipling, and how?", many have no answer. "We're just a bit rusty."
New Christians are people of the very highest importance. She offers a comparison: nobody would walk into a building full of babies left alone and think it was somebody else's responsibility. You would pick them up and feed them. You need to become spiritual fathers and mothers, older brothers and sisters, and make room for them at the table, in your schedule, perhaps in your home.
Newcomers want "closeness, not performance." Remember those who surrounded you in your early days, invited you to eat, encouraged you: "Be for others what others have been for you."
We need to make resilient disciples: the world is chaotic and more upheaval is coming. She calls you to put down deep roots of identity, security and an understanding of God's greatness and sovereignty.
She tells the story of Dimitri, a Christian imprisoned for seventeen years in the former Soviet Union for running a church in his home. Every morning, facing the rising sun, he sang to the Lord while the other prisoners mocked him. When guards dragged him out to execute him, 1,500 prisoners began to sing the song they had heard him sing. The guards let him go; he stood up and said: "I am Dimitri, a son of the living God." That day, he was set free.

4. From a few to everyone

If the time is now, it is now for everyone: men and women, young and old, every profession, every background, every culture. "The times are too important for anyone to stay on the bench."
Acts 2:17-18: "I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams." The Spirit is for sons and daughters, for the young and for the old.
Ness Wilson speaks to the "seasoned saints," those who are 50, 60 and beyond: this is their moment to become spiritual parents and give themselves to the younger generation. You don't need to have had children, and even if yours have drifted away, "you are needed in this divine mission."
She reads a prophetic word received for the over-50s: "This is not the season to slow down in the Spirit, but to burn brighter, hotter and with more purpose than ever." The trials have given wisdom, scars that carry stories, deep roots. "This is not the time to coast. It is the time to pour out."
The rest of that word: "Don't let your flame become a flickering glow. Don't let stagnation look like peace. Don't mistake rest for retirement." The younger generation is watching, not to see perfection, but endurance, a passion that doesn't go out.
She concludes with a prayer: "Lord, I'm in, all in, for what you are doing in this time." She asks God to replace weariness with fresh faith, disappointment with fresh hope, and the feeling of having been set aside with a choice to engage fully, so that we can be trusted with the fruit he brings.

Key takeaways

Now is the acceptable time: the culture is becoming open and curious, and this is not the moment to carry on as usual.
Faith is not meant to stay behind closed doors: it is lived out at "nine o'clock in the morning," at work, at school, in the street, by daring to say the name of Jesus.
Jesus didn't ask us to draw people to church, but to make disciples: before God daily, in community, on mission.
New Christians need closeness, not performance. Be for them what others have been for you.
The Spirit is poured out on everyone: nobody stays on the bench, and the older generation is called to burn brighter, not to slow down.

Personal application

In which places in your daily life have you kept your faith "under the basket": your work, your school, your family, your friends?
When did you last say the name of Jesus to someone who doesn't know him, and not just talk about going to church?
If someone asked you "Who are you discipling, and how?", what would you say?
What room can you make this week for a new Christian or a curious person: a meal, a coffee, reading the Bible together?
Do you feel like you're on the bench, tired, hurt or disappointed? What is stopping you from getting back onto the field?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does "now is the acceptable time" mean for Ness Wilson?

Drawing on 2 Corinthians 6:2, Ness Wilson says this is not the moment to carry on as usual. The culture, long indifferent or hostile, is becoming open and curious, especially among the youngest. When God is at work, you need to wake up and change your priorities and expectations.

What is a disciple according to the BIO acronym?

Ness Wilson takes up a teaching that sums up a disciple in three letters: B for "before God daily," I for "in community," O for "on mission." For her, if you don't define what a disciple is, you never know whether you have made one.

Why does Ness Wilson challenge the over-50s?

Starting from Acts 2:17-18, where the Spirit is poured out on the young and the old alike, she calls the "seasoned saints" to become spiritual fathers and mothers to the younger generation. It is not the time to slow down in the Spirit, but to give yourself even more: nobody should stay on the bench.