TEXT:
‘I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture’ (John 10:9).
Doors are not a barrier to God, as the resurrected Jesus proved, ‘That evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors, in fear of the Jewish leaders, when suddenly Jesus was standing there among them!’ (John 20:19 TLB).
God has to work with our will, for that’s how He has chosen to do it. Reading the book of Revelation recently I noticed two doors – one shut, the other open and these form the basis for Today ‘s Teaching.
1. Shut Door
A. Negative – ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock’ (Revelation 3:20)
A church with Christ on the outside! What a contradiction. He’s patiently waiting to be invited in. However, He will not wait for ever, ‘I slept but my heart was awake. Listen! My beloved is knocking …… I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had left; he was gone’ (Song of Solomon 5:2, 6). Too slow to respond meant the Lord was gone.
People wonder if God means what He says. ‘God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?’ (Numbers 23:19 NLT). We can have absolute faith in His word. That’s why it’s so important to read the Bible and feed on God’s promises.
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees, ‘For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either’ (Matthew 23:13). Religion always binds and blinds people concerning the truth, but with Jesus the opposite is true, ‘Once I was blind but now I see’ (John 9:25).
God knows what goes on even behind closed doors. In a vision He showed Ezekiel the idolatry that was taking place behind the closed temple doors (see Ezekiel 8:8-9). ‘He knows about everyone, everywhere. Everything about us is bare and wide open to the all-seeing eyes of our living God; nothing can be hidden from him to whom we must explain all that we have done’ (Hebrews 4:13 TLB).
B. Positive
- Miraculous supply of oil – ‘Go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Then pour olive oil from your jar into the pots and pans, setting them aside as they are filled!’ (2 Kings 4:4 TLB).
Away from eyes of interfering and unbelieving people, the widow got the miracle that secured the future for herself and her two sons.
- Prayer – ‘But when you pray, go away by yourself, all alone, and shut the door behind you and pray to your Father secretly, and your Father, who knows your secrets, will reward you’ (Matthew 6:6).
This is not disparaging public prayer, just a warning to those who only pray out loud in order to be heard. It’s sad but true, that for many Christians, the only praying they do is in church. Read the Bible and let God talk to you, then talk to God in prayer.
2. Open Door – ‘Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven’ Revelation 4:1)
God wanted John to know this truth and to tell others, that the door between earth and heaven is open! When Jesus died, His sacrifice was accepted and immediately the temple veil was torn in two, from top to bottom (see Matthew 27:51). The Holy Spirit has revealed the way to God is open. We can go directly to God ourselves, without the need of any earthly priest, for Jesus is our High Priest (see Hebrews 6:19-20).
When things don’t look good on earth, look up! To the faithful church Jesus said, ‘I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it’ (Revelation 3:8). This is the promise of the One who said, ‘I have the key of David, I open, and no one shuts; I shut, and no one can open’ (Revelation 3:7).
Jesus commanded us to evangelise the world, but fear and opposition can bring us to a halt. Paul asked for prayer, ‘That God would open a door for the word’ (Colossians 4:3). Paul later wrote, ‘A great and effective door has opened to me’ (1 Corinthians 16:9) but added ‘and there are many adversaries.’
Paul and Barnabas were able to report back to their sending church in Antioch that God, ‘Had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles’ (Acts 14:27). Don’t believe the devil’s lie that people don’t want to hear the gospel. Behind the doors in your neighbourhood are needy people, facing impossible situations, desperately wanting help. God can help them, so it’s time to knock on those doors and see what God will do!
3. The Door – ‘Then Jesus said to them again, most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep’ (John 10:7).
All religions do not lead to God. Any that promotes a way other than through Jesus is wrong, for Jesus said, ‘I am the Way—yes, and the Truth and the Life. No one can get to the Father except by means of me’ (John 14:6 TLB).
Is Jesus the door you are trying to enter through? If He is, know with certainty, that door will always be open for you. Live in peace with that knowledge.
If Jesus isn’t the way you are going, it’s time to repent and return to the straight and narrow pathway which leads to life (see Matthew 7:13-14).
Recent Comments