The Church Of The Open Door Series

The Lord is the one who opens the door of ministry for the church.

• Rev 3:7 “What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.”

• When He does that, no power in hell or earth can shut it.

• When He closes a door, there is no power that can open it again.

• He is the sovereign Lord who is the Head of the church and governs its affairs.

The Lord has been saying “I know your deeds” to all the churches.

• He knows KTCC inside out. He knows our past, our present.

• He knows our successes and our failures, our problems and difficulties, our strengths and weaknesses.

And He says, “I know that you have little strength.”

• The church in Philadelphia was not a large church.

• It does not have many members. It probably lacks resources and finances.

• You may be a small church, but that’s not important.

You have kept My word, and have not denied My Name.

• That’s their spiritual strength. They were faithfully dependent on God.

• They might be small and limited in strength, but they’re trusting God.

The Lord said, “I will open the door for you.”

• There are works they can do. Their ministry will continue.

• In fact, it will be so effective that those from the synagogue of Satan (Jews who are opposing them) will come and acknowledge that God is with them and loves them!

• It’s not about numbers or resources. It is about the power of God at work.

• Human weakness is no hindrance to His work.

• In fact, it is because of this weakness that they were relying on God and see His power at work.

The Lord assures them that it is not their ability but His grace that is sufficient to meet their need.

• The authority to opening and closing doors lies in Christ’s hand.

• 3:7 says He holds the key of David, what He opens no one can shut and what He shuts no one can open.

• This was a picture taken from the OT - someone holds this key, the key to the entire palace of David.

Isaiah spoke of him in Isaiah 22:20-22 “In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. 21I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.”

The Lord opens the door of ministry for this church.

• It has been the same experience for Paul in his ministry.

• 1 Cor 16:8-9 “But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.”

• 2 Cor 2:12 “Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me…”

• Col 4:3 “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.”

I believe this very strongly. Unless God opens the door, you can do all you want and achieve nothing.

• Human efforts can only bring about human achievement.

• Spiritual work requires the Spirit’s work. You cannot convince a person of the need of Christ by mere human explanations, without the Holy Spirit working.

• Paul says in 1 Cor 2:4-5 “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”

In order words, the lost are saved when we are serious about reaching out and praying for their salvation.

• How serious are we today, when the lost steps in here?

At our Friday night prayer meeting, we have been praying almost weekly now, for the Sunday worship services.

• In the past we pray usually for the sick and needy, and occasionally for the Sunday services.

• But for the last year or so, we prayed for the services on Sunday almost weekly.

• And we’ve seen visitors walking in almost every week, for both the morning and evening services. Last Sun night, we had 4 visitors, all Chinese nationals.

• If my record is correct, we hadn’t had a week without any visitor in the recent months.

I remembered in the years past, to see such a thing is rare.