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.
Things then go from bad to worse. She ultimately leaves Hosea and her three children. In just a few months we find her a victim of human trafficking.
Hosea doesn’t forget about Gomer. He does his best to raise the children and when he can he searches for her. Finally, he finds her and rescues her. He even has to buy her back from her handlers (pimp).
The door of forgiveness, acceptance and mercy were always open for Gomer.
The same is true of Simon Peter. Just reading his story in the Bible tells us of a man who lived a life of ups and downs. He rises to such heights with God only to fall again and again and again.
In Matthew 18:21-22, Peter goes up to Jesus and asks him a question on forgiveness. How many times must he (Peter) forgive someone.
The answer Jesus gives is seven times seven or seventy times seven or really the answer is every time. It’s what Jesus had taught in His Disciple’s Prayer or what we call the Lord’s Prayer –
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Peter had already heard Jesus say those words and by now they had already been a part of the disciple’s daily prayers. But Peter was always questioning, aways seeking a way out and always living too close to the edge.
I love the way Jesus answers him because when you think about it – it was Peter that needed forgiving seven times seven or seventy times seven. It was Peter that needed God to keep opening the door of forgiveness, mercy, and love.
That is what I think we see in the Church of Philadelphia. It was a great church. It was commended for its faithfulness, stability, and its patience endurance. It was a church that knew how to open its doors to those like Jacob, Gomer and Simon Peter.
It knew how to accept people amid their struggles and dealings with sin in their lives. It knew how to help them through the battles and the trials of life. It knew how to be patient and understanding.
It’s easy to be a church full of people like Abraham, Ruth and Mary the Mother of Jesus.
It’s not so easy to keep your doors open for people like Jacob, Gomer and Simon Peter.
II. Open Doors for Blessings and Miracles
These doors that John writes about was more than just normal doors in Philadelphia.
How do we know that?
Notice what Jesus says in verse 8 – an open door that no one can shut.
No one can shut – that is not just a physical door but a spiritual door.
That is a door that is open to new opportunities, blessings and miracles.
Open door opportunities like the one Jesus spoke about are like those doors that we find in 2 Kings chapter five.
It all started with a young girl who had been taken captive by a Syrian commander named Naaman who was suffering from leprosy. This young girl had the opportunity to close the door – to close her eyes, her mind and her heart to the suffering of a man who had led a raid on her village. A raid that had killed and captured a great many of her family and friends.
She could have kept her mouth shut and Naaman would have died a leper. She could have watched from the sidelines as the disease slowly crippled him and took his life.
It could have been her secret revenge watching his body fall apart week after week, month after month.
But the door of an opportunity had opened. A door that would allow Naaman and all the Syrians know about the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. A door to let Naaman experience the miracles of physical and spiritual healing.
Naaman is not only healed but becomes a believer in the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. He is in heaven today because of a young girl who helped open a door of salvation for him and his family.
We see the same door of opportunity in the life of Esther.
You remember her story. This young woman who became the Queen of Persia. Who could have kept quiet and just watched Haman destroy her Jewish people.
But when the time came, she stepped forward and went through the door of obedience and opportunity and became the salvation of the Jewish people.
The Bible is full of people who went through the door of opportunity and allowed God to do great things in and through them.
Moses goes through that door in the desert and is transformed from being just a washed-up second-rate shepherd to becoming the Law Giver and the person God used to rescue His people from Egypt.
The young boy David goes through that door and is transformed from a son who was not worthy of being able to sit down with the rest of the family to becoming the salvation of Israel and later its greatest king.
Anna and Simon wait for years for their door to open and in the Gospels, we read how they were faithful and were able to see Immanuel, God with us in Human form. They were some of the first people to welcome Jesus in His Home; the Temple in Jerusalem.
The Church of Philadelphia always had its doors open for a new opportunity; a new adventure that God wanted it to do. It was that place that was open to God and to others for God to work miracles and provide blessings.
Every church, every person has the ability to help open those doors.
We don’t always know what God has around the corner. What door He wants us to walk through or what door he wants us to help others walk through to receive their blessing or miracle.
It may be a new Bible study. It may be expanding one of our existing ministries. It may be welcoming a new group of people. It may be reaching out in new ways. It may be just accepting someone who is different than us or living different that the way we live.
Who knows?
Well, God knows.
All He asks is that we have a willing heart, head and hands to keep open those doors and to help people through them.
For each time we help someone find Christ – we help them through one door and are able to shut another door. We help open the door of salvation for them, the door of everlasting life and help shut the door of eternal damnation and evil out of their lives. We help shut the door of death and open the door of life.
Think about that for a moment as we come to a close this morning.
Our hearts, our minds and the entrance ways to our church can become the very avenues of helping people go from darkness to light and from death to life.
One of my daughters works in an ER. The doors to her ER are open to people at the very time when they need them the most. People who are having trouble breathing, people whose hearts are going out on them, people who have been involved in an accident and people who have either accidently or on purpose taken too many drugs.
There is a good chance that once they go through those ER doors that they will not just find help but will be able to find wholeness and health. Some of them will leave the hospital in just a few minutes, for others it will be hours and perhaps days and weeks.
The doctors and other nurses and staff that work together with her are dedicated to one thing – saving, stabilizing, and helping whoever comes through those doors to be able to leave those doors in better health.
The Church of Philadelphia and all churches have the same task. Perhaps we don’t use medical scissors, blood transfusions, bandages, and medication but it is our privilege and joy to be there to help people find Jesus, find love and support.
It is our opportunity to have doors that people can walk through and know that they are loved, accepted, and approved.
It is our opportunity to help people see Christ and experience the miracles of salvation and new life.
Open doors – open hearts – open opportunities for love, mercy and grace.
Open doors – for people to encounter what it means to be around those who have been redeemed and filled with God’s Holy Spirit.
Open doors – for people to experience what real love is all about.
Praise the LORD for the Church of Philadelphia.
Praise the LORD for all the Churches all over the world that are following its example.
May the LORD help us always to be an open door for breakthroughs, miracles, fruitfulness, and renewal.
May the LORD open new opportunities for us to touch the lives of those that need Him most.
Invitation to Holy Communion
