The God Who Opens Doors

I'd like to start by reading a passage we've looked at two or three times in the last couple of years, but look at it in a different light, from a different angle today. Beginning then in Revelation chapter 3, verse 7. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, the words of the Holy One, the True One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens. I know your works.

Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. All we have here is a word from the Lord about what He does, about what He's doing even among us. There's no better way to describe what Jesus is doing in this place than to say that He opens doors.

When He opens a door, no one can shut it, and when He shuts a door, no one opens it. And when He says to us, behold, I have set before you an open door, it means that we can walk through that door into a kingdom life, a life of service to God which matches His. Luke tells us how Jesus began His ministry.

In Luke chapter 4, verse 16. And Jesus came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. And He went to the synagogue as His custom was on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read.

And it was given to Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

And He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant. He opens the book, the scroll, reads a few verses, closes it, signifying that in this act He is opening the door to the kingdom of God and will one day close that door. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to proclaim, to preach good news to the poor.

The good news to the poor is that the door has now been opened. They aren't trapped in their poverty anymore. They can come out of it into riches that no one can take from them to proclaim release to the captives.

Captives no longer need to be captive. The door is open. They can come free.

Recovery of sight to the blind. They aren't trapped in darkness anymore. They can come out of that door into the light of God to set at liberty those who are oppressed.

The oppressed aren't trapped there anymore in that oppression. They can come out through the door. He has opened into freedom to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of the Lord's favor, the year of freedom, the year of grace, a season of liberty, the season of the open door.

Then He closes the book and gives it back to the attendant. From that hour, Jesus spent the rest of His time in flesh and blood opening the door for the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed. Then He goes to the cross to lay down His life for us.

And when He, on the cross, breathes His final breath, the earth quakes. And the veil in the temple, heavy fabric, blocking the way into the Holy of Holies, is ripped from top to bottom, signifying that the door into God's presence is now open. The door to paradise is open.

On the third day, alive and the dead, Jesus appears to His disciples. As we read in John 20, verse 19, on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.

When He said this, He showed them His hands on His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. The doors being shut.

How did He get in? He got in as the firstborn of a new creation who has even now broken the door of death. No door can hold Him out anymore. The story goes on and on.

Pentecost. They're gathered again inside, no doubt behind closed doors. There comes a sound from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, the kind of wind that blows the doors wide open.

And pretty soon these believers are out in the street preaching to a growing multitude and as they tell them of the wonderful works of God, doors are flying open all over the place. And that is what God has been doing among us and what we can expect Him to be doing with increased power in the coming days. He has been, in His Son, opening doors.

Specifically, He has opened and is opening three doors. And if we will walk through these doors, we will find ourselves living the life of God, thinking His thoughts, doing His deeds, speaking His words. Jesus opens the door, first of all, to our personal prisons.

Secondly, He opens the door to heaven. And thirdly, He opens the door to the realm of the walking dead. First of all, He opens the door to our personal prisons.

Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. By the power of His death and blood, by the power of His resurrection, Jesus breaks us out of our prisons. The evidence that He in fact has overcome death and that He is in fact Lord now is that He sets us free from the prisons that have us bound.

Even today, many of us in this place have come in here, still walking around in our little prisons. Some of us are imprisoned in a cell of despair, or we're trapped in bitterness, or we're trapped in an addiction we have not been able to break out of, or we're trapped in pettiness, or greed, or anger, or fear, or vanity, or some lukewarm religious languor. Jesus comes in and He breaks those gates of brass and calls us to come out.

And now either we're going to sit there and, as we say, make the best of it in our little prison, or we're going to come out through that open door into the freedom He has given us. Many of us have been using our prisons as a refuge, as an excuse for the fact that we seldom take a risk. Seldom take a step of faith.

We say, Lord, how can I? I'm trapped in here. And He says, take another look. I've opened the door for you.

You can walk out into freedom, if you will. Take one step toward me, out of that despair, out of that depression, out of that bitterness, out of that self-pity, and you will see that I have indeed set you free. What a ridiculous thing for us to spend years of our lives, praising God, from inside our little prison cells, as if that's the best we can do.

The word of the Lord to every prisoner among us, and we are all prisoners in some sense, even now, is I have set you free. I have opened the door. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.

Come on out and walk with me. Secondly, Jesus opens the door of heaven. Reading from Revelation chapter 4, verse 1. After this I looked, and, lo, in heaven an open door.

And the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, Come up hither, and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the Spirit, and, lo, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. Meaning, lo, in heaven an open door.

Meaning that I can come, I can see glory, and I can enter into that glory, and I can come before the throne. I can live in that atmosphere, even while I walk this earth. The place where the door to heaven opens is in the body.

This is the gate of heaven. This is Bethel. This is the house of God.

And so we read in Matthew chapter 18, Jesus is talking to the body of Christ, to us, here in this place today. He says, Truly I say to you, whatever you find on earth will be found in heaven, because the door to heaven is open. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, because I have opened the door to heaven for you.

Again I say, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven, because the door to heaven is open. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst. See, and when I'm in your midst, I am the door of heaven, he says.

When I'm there, when you're in unity, I'm there, and when I'm there, you're in heaven. The atmosphere of heaven is there, the door of heaven is there. When we are one, practice the unity we've been given.

When we gather in his name, when we're in agreement around Jesus, and not about 50,000 other doctrines, Jesus and the things he tells us and not our little opinions about all these religious peripheral matters, Jesus, unity around him, then the door of heaven is open. And our prayers and our praises go up to him, and down comes life from God like a river of living water. The one place on this earth where the door to heaven is open is in the body, the body of Christ.

The more we practice the unity we have been given, the more we allow ourselves to be fit together by the Spirit as living stones in this living temple, letting him decide who we're going to be fit in with. No, wait a minute, Lord, that's not the... put me over here. Let him do it.

The more we function and think and serve and pray as members one of another, the more we allow the dividing wall of hostility which Jesus tore down with his death to fall away, the more we will also experience the door of heaven opening in our midst, the atmosphere of heaven coming down and filling this place like the cloud of glory. And that atmosphere will refresh us time after time and renew us in the life of God. Finally, Jesus opens the door to the realm of the walking dead.

Reading from Matthew 16, starting at verse 13. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do men say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon, son of John, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, the rock, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of death, Hades, will not prevail against it. The gates of Hades, the region of the dead, remain shut against their prisoners.

And the prisoners of Hades are not only bodiless spirits wandering around in despair in the nether world. No. The ones who are prisoners of Hades can also be human beings whose bodies are alive but their souls are dead.

When Jesus says the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear shall live, he was talking about people who walk and talk and breathe and eat and sleep and laugh and weep. But there is no flame of divine life in them. They're already dead.

Their spirits are cold, their souls are empty, their house is vacant. They dwell behind an invisible wall. They are held in captive behind invisible, huge iron gates.

They have no life and they have no freedom. On this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades, the region of the dead, shall not prevail against it. Go and stand in front of those gates in my name, says Jesus, and they will open for you.

Walk through and proclaim my word to the victims, to the walking dead, and those who listen will be raised to life. Jesus not only sets us free from our personal prisons, Jesus not only opens the door to heaven for us, but he also opens the door into the realm of the walking dead and commands us to bring them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. Free those captives, raise those dead.

I've opened the door for you. Go and do it in my name. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, the words of the Holy One, the true One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens, I know your works.

Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. Most of the failure that we have experienced in past days has been because we have tried to do what only Jesus can do. We have tried to open doors that will not yield to us as long as we try to open them in our own strength.

We have tried to break out of our personal prisons and we failed. We've tried to make heaven open up to us and fit in with our wishes and we failed. We've tried to free our loved ones and our friends who are trapped behind those gates of brass and we have failed.

We have drained our strength trying to do what is beyond our strength and have failed to do the one thing which is absolutely within our power. It is within our power to turn to Him who has the key of David and cry out to Him, call on His name and ask Him to open the door. When we turn to Jesus and seriously ask Him to open a way those giant gates of iron begin to move.

A way opens where there was no way. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. I have opened for you the door out of your personal prison.

I have opened for you and you can walk with me in freedom and I've also opened for you the door of heaven and if you will walk in unity with each other gather together truly in my name work together as brothers and sisters in one purpose in my kingdom you will experience the open door of heaven. And I have also opened the door to Hades the outer vestibule of hell and I command you to go forth and free those captives. Expect at least one opportunity sometime this week to speak a word to one of those captives and when it comes, trust God to fill your mouth with His word and watch His power move this week in your life.

Let's wait upon God in silence for a few minutes.