The Door Is Open Series

Scripture: Revelation 3:7-13

Theme: Doors

Title: Come on In – the Door is Open

What doors are open in your church today? Let’s look at a couple of doors that need to be open in every church.

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

It’s such a simple word - peh'-thakh (??????) – the Hebrew word for door, entry way, gate or opening.

It’s such a simple word - thoo'-rah (???a) – the Greek word for door, entry way, gate or opening.

Such simple words and yet such a powerful image and reality.

We all have encountered doors. We have opened doors and we have shut doors. We have unlocked doors and we have locked doors.

Doors are used for access, for safety, for crowd control and for a thousand other uses. There are wooden doors, steel doors and glass doors. There are trap doors, water doors, entrance doors, bedroom doors, front doors, back doors and garage doors. There are half doors, Dutch doors and swing doors. There are doors that must be opened with a key, by pushing certain numbers on punch pad, opened with a palm print or eye scan and of course those that automatically open when you get near them.

So, when we come to this passage about the Church in Philadelphia, we don’t have to spend a great deal of time understanding the image that Jesus gives us – He is the Door Keeper. He holds the key. There are doors that Jesus opens and there are doors that Jesus shuts.

It appears that doors have always been in existence. In the Garden of Eden, we see that there is type of door made of angels whose job is to close off access to the Tree of Life following the Fall of man (Genesis 3:23-24).

Cain is told that sin is doing its best to get into his life through the door of his heart in Genesis 4:6.

Abraham sits at the door of his tent in the heat of the day – Genesis 18:1.

Moses is instructed how to build the doors of the Tabernacle in Exodus 40.

The Psalmist asks the LORD to keep watch over the door of his mouth in Psalm 141:3

Jesus tells us there are times that we need to shut the door and spend a time of uninterrupted prayer in Matthew 6:6.

Jesus told his disciples to go and get the donkey that would be tied by the door in Mark 11:4

Jesus calls Himself the door in John 10:9

“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, they will be saved …”

The Apostle Paul talks about God opening doors in 1 Corinthians 16:9 and 2 Corinthians 2:12.

And of course, we have John writing about opening and closing doors here in our passage this morning.

Let’s think just a moment or two this morning what kind of doors a church should have – the doors that Jesus wants us to open this morning:

I. Open Doors of Grace, Mercy and Love

It’s easy to think about people like Abraham, Moses, Ruth and Mary the Mother of Jesus being welcomed through the gates or doors of Heaven.

But we also must remember that the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY has the doors of Heaven open for the likes of Jacob, Gomer and the Apostle Peter.

You may remember Jacob as that one who was a trickster. That is what Jacob means – heel grasper. And for a great deal of his life that is what he was. He did his best to always be on top. He was always trying to figure out a way to get more than his share of things. We read about how he cheats his brother Esau out of both his birthright and his blessing.

Then his future father-in-law cheats Jacob out of his promised wife by tricking him into marrying her sister Leah first. Jacob then must work another seven years for the woman he really wanted to marry, Rachel.

Through all the ups and downs, the cheating, the tricking, and the attempting to get ahead of others the LORD continually works with Jacob and over time Jacob changes. He goes from being a trickster to being one of the greatest men of the Old Testament.

The story of Gomer is almost unbelievable.

It starts with this wonderful man of God named Hosea. Hosea marries Gomer and does his best to be a faithful husband and provider. Over time Gomer decides that she does not love Hosea and begins to run around on him and ends up offering herself to anyone who wants her.

Gomer has three children with only the first one being a child of her husband Hosea. The other two children’s fathers were the result of affairs or one-night encounters.