When Cheryl & I first began dating, she had been on “Cloud 9” for weeks. She had told everyone at her job at Jack’s Service Company in Oklahoma City about this great guy she was now with. They all said they couldn’t wait to meet me at the Christmas party that year, which would be held at the owner’s home. The evening finally came, and we made our way to the very upscale residence. As we approached the home from over a block away, with cars parked all up and down the streets, we could see that the house was lit up for the occasion, and I remarked to Cheryl that it looked like the front door was open. As we got closer, Cheryl could see that the door was not open, but rather there was a clear glass door that the lights were shining out of. She assumed that I saw this too. She was wrong. I walked right up to the door and SMASH – right into it! Thankfully, it didn’t break, but the impact knocked me down, and my glasses flew off my face and onto the ground. People inside were, obviously startled, and now they were all staring at us as we tried to gather our wits about us.  Utter humiliation now replaced any trace of pride (or sympathy) Cheryl may have had. She said, “Let’s go!” I dusted myself off, and picked up my glasses, and whatever remained of my dignity, and I said, “No, come on, let’s go on in.” Thus it was that Cheryl got to introduce her “dream guy” to all her work associates. Things were just beginning to settle down, and we were all standing in the buffet line, when someone said: “Hey, it looks like there’s a nose print on the door!”  Everyone in the line chuckled when they passed that nose print!  So much for the “dream guy.” I thought it was an open door — but it wasn’t! 

But in this sixth letter in Revelation 2 & 3, Jesus says to the church at Philadelphia: “I have put before you an open door.” What was He saying to them — and what is He saying to US today through this letter?

I. THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE OPEN DOOR:

What does it mean when Jesus says to the church at Philadelphia, “I have put before you an open door”?  The history of the city of of Philadelphia, as well as some other scriptures, help us understand what this means. 

Philadelphia was founded by the Greeks specifically as what you might call a “missionary city.” It was located at a strategic crossroads to the rest of Asia, so they founded Philadelphia specifically to be a place of influence, that people could be sent out from, to go and spread the Greek language and culture from there. 

Can you see any parallels here to OUR own church today? God has purposefully planted First Baptist Angleton here in this prime location, at this major intersection of Anchor Road and Highway 288; accessible to people throughout the whole region. Like Philadelphia, God has set us in a very strategic location. Why? Just like Philadelphia, to be a “missionary church,” so that He can use us to spread the GOSPEL of Jesus throughout this area, and through missions, all over the world. 

When He said I am giving you an open door, Jesus was telling the church at Philadelphia — and our church — that He was giving us a special opportunity to spread His word.

In Acts 16 we see an example of God giving an open door. Paul & Silas were on the Second Missionary journey in what is now Turkey, and they had gone back again through the cities of Lystra and Derbe, where they had ministered on the first trip. But verse 6 says: “They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; (:7) and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; (:8) and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. (:9) A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’  (:10) When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” 

So we see there in Acts 16 that God gave Paul & Silas some “closed doors,” and some “open doors.” It says the Holy Spirit forbid them to speak in Asia (Asia then was a province in Turkey, not the continent); He did not permit them to go into Bithynia (another province). These were what we might call “CLOSED doors.” God didn’t let them go there. That was not where He was calling them. But then He gave Paul the vision of the man of Macedonia, saying “Come over and help us” — and they knew that was the “OPEN door.” And they DID go there, and people were saved, and churches were started. So an open door is an opportunity that God gives you for ministry or mission.

So Jesus says to the church at Philadelphia here, “Behold I have put before you an open door.” And Jesus gives to US “open doors” too: opportunities for mission and ministry — both to us as a church, and to each of us as individuals.

— He has given our CHURCH an open door. I said in the newsletter this week; I feel like the Lord could write this same letter to our church: “Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut …”. I really think that Jesus is saying to US just like He did to Philadelphia, “First Baptist Angleton, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut”! 

When I first came to this church in view of a call 4 & 1/2 years ago, I actually preached from this passage. In it I said:  

“He has also given this church an amazing open door, to move to a prime location; to position itself to reach this community in a more effective way than ever before. It’s exciting! Jesus has given you as a church an open door!”  I still believe that today! 

God has given this church some open doors. Some we can see already, in our new location, we’ve had people like Terry Montgomery drive by and see the sign, and come to Wed PM Bible Study, and now she is in the process of joining the church. We’re close enough to reach people here in town; but we are also close enough for people to come from the outlying areas; with Highway 288 right there, we have members from Richwood and Clute and Lake Jackson. He’s given us some great open doors.

We have some open doors for mission service like I talked about earlier:

— Port Ministry: there is an open door to go on a ship, to talk to truckers, to visit with workers — or make cookies or give toothpaste!

— Pregnancy Help Center that we are helping with BBB this month; there is an open door there for ministry …

— Bulgaria: some open doors for mission trips

— Now we’re starting the outreach bread ministry. When you see signup sheets go up on the coffee — you should see that as God’s open door! 

Some doors are open now; more doors are going to open for us in the days ahead — we need to be watching for them. But as a church, we need to hear the voice of Jesus saying to us: “I have put before you, First Baptist Angleton, an open door.”

— But this is not only for our church. He gives open doors to us as INDIVIDUALS too. He may be speaking to some of us personally today, saying, “Listen, my child; I have put before YOU, personally, an open door which no one can shut”! He is giving some of us, personally, an open door:

— maybe it’s an open door to be involved in one of our church’s mission partnerships.

— Or maybe He is opening a door for you to serve in a particular way in our church: to lead or help in a class for children, youth, or adults, or to serve in a ministry. (Wouldn’t it be great to have a class for CHILDREN with special needs, too, if we had the workers!)

— Or it may not be in the church; maybe it’s some “door of opportunity” He is opening for you personally to witness or minister to a friend or neighbor, or something He’s opening up for you on your job. Just watch, to see if God is opening up for you a special door. The “open door” is a door of opportunity that the Lord opens up for you. 

II. THE PEOPLE OF THE OPEN DOOR

We need to understand that Jesus did not tell every one of these churches that He was giving them an open door. He wrote to seven churches, but only to Philadelphia did He write “Behold, I have put before you an open door.” It is only a certain kind of people to whom He could say that. He says in :8, “I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, BECAUSE” — and then He gives the reasons WHY He can give them an open door — “BECAUSE” — and then He lists three things:

1. “Because you have a little power”

2. “And have kept My word” (and notice He says again in :10 “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance”)

3. “And have not denied My name”

This should be a comforting word to many Christians and churches. You don’t have to be a “superstar” Christian or a megachurch to be pleasing to the Lord. Notice what He praised them for; He did not praise them because they were “big.” He praised them because they were faithful: 

— You have little power

— and have kept My word 

— and have not denied My name

The Lord praised the church at Philadelphia for being faithful to Him, in the midst of some very difficult pressures they were facing. Historians tell us there were TWO very different pressures facing them, from two very different directions:

— First, there was the pressure from the Jews. Jesus mentions in :9 “the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not.” There were Jewish synagogues scattered throughout the Roman Empire, including in Philadelphia, and a number of the Jews had become Christians as the gospel spread. As we read in the Book of Acts, the Jews who did not believe in some of these synagogues were some of the most vehement opponents of the new Christian faith, and persecuted them vigorously. They pressured these new Christians to reject their new faith in Jesus, and come back to the synagogue. This is what the Book of Hebrews is all about: Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were tempted to deny Christ and go back to Judaism. This was one of the pressures the Christians faced at Philadelphia.

— Then, from the other side, there was the pressure of the Roman Empire, which consisted of so many diverse peoples, so they attempted to unite them through Caesar worship. They didn’t demand much, they said; just go to the Roman temple in your town, and burn a pinch of incense, and say “Caesar is Lord,” and that’s all you have to do. You can even still worship your own gods too, just do this and that’s all we ask. Of course, the Christians could not do this. The Christian confession is “JESUS is Lord” — ONLY! So the Christians refused to say “Caesar is Lord,” and as a result many of them were persecuted, arrested, and eventually burned at the stake, thrown to the lions, or put to death in other ways because of it.

So the Philadelphia Christians and others in the first century faced pressure from both sides: the Jews on the one hand, saying, “Deny Jesus and come back to your old faith,” and the Romans on the other hand, saying, “You can keep your faith in Jesus, just worship Caesar too.”

But in the midst of that, the Church at Philadelphia stood strong. Jesus said “You … have kept My word, and have not denied My name.” They did NOT deny Jesus and go back to the synagogue; they did NOT compromise and say “Caesar is Lord,” they confessed only “Jesus is Lord.”

Again, much like the Church at Philadelphia, we face similar pressures in our society today:

— On the one hand, there is the frontal assault by those who would pressure us to ditch our faith in Christ and His word altogether. They say the Bible is not true, and you’re a fool to believe it.

Just last week, some Christians were talking on Twitter about how the rainbow is a symbol of God’s promise from the Book of Genesis. Someone wrote: “Guys, a rainbow is a demonstration of the scientific principle of the diffraction effect of light through water (or a prism). It has absolutely nothing to do with your myths.” That’s an example of the “frontal assault” on our faith: the Bible is a myth; there is no God; give up Jesus altogether. 

— But then, just like the Church at Philadelphia faced with the Romans, we today also face a more subtle pressure to not necessarily “give up” Jesus, but just to “compromise” a little bit. These folks will say, like the old Romans: Ok, you can have your faith in Jesus, but why be so “narrow minded”? Why do you have to say that He is the ONLY way? Are you really saying that anyone who doesn’t believe in Jesus is lost? Be reasonable. Just believe that you have your faith, and others have theirs, and theirs. Is just as good as yours. We can all be right. Just say Jesus is not the only way to heaven. 

We face these same pressures today, just like they did in the church at Philadelphia did. And just like them, our challenge is to remain faithful. That’s why Jesus reminds us here in Revelation 3:7, that “HE has the key of David; HE opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one will open.” No one else has that key; only HE does. Just like He said in John 14:6, HE is “the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him.” This is the heart of the Christian faith. This is what you must believe to be saved:

God designed us for an eternal relationship with Him, but we all sinned against Him, which separated us from Him. But He still loved us, and came to earth in the Person of Jesus Christ, who is God Himself in the flesh. Jesus died on the cross and paid for our sins, but rose again with THE KEY to heaven and eternal life. No one else has it. 

If you never have, today put your faith in Jesus as YOUR Lord & YOUR God. Get baptized and take a public stand for Him as your God. And if you have already given your life to Him, never back away from that.  Never compromise it. Like Jesus says here: Be faithful to Him, keep His word,  and do not deny His name. Be the kind of person Jesus will bless with the open door.

III. THE LORD OF THE OPEN DOOR!

So, as we saw, it’s no accident that this 6th letter opens: “He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens no one will shut, and who shuts and no one will open, says this … ‘Behold, I have put before you an open door …’.”  Because JESUS is the One who has the key; Jesus is the One who opens the door; JESUS opens and no one will shut.”

And again, this is another good reminder for us today. Because there is in much of contemporary Christianity, especially here in the United States, a misplaced “man-centeredness.” It’s all about us: If you say it, you’re gonna get it; the power is all in your tongue. Or if you do ‘this,’ then you’re gonna get ‘that’ result. Here’s your “three steps to revival.” Here’s “four steps to your miracle.” Here’s “five steps to guaranteed success,” and so on. As if it all depends on us. 

And listen, we do have to keep this balance; what we do IS truly important, make no mistake about it. When Jesus gives us an open door, we need to go through it! We DO have a responsibility. But also make no mistake about it: it does NOT all depend upon us. It all depends upon HIM. We can do everything we think we should do; we can do the 3-step, the 4-steps, the 5-steps — we can do 100 steps — and still fall flat on our face! Because it does NOT all depend upon US. It all depends upon Him! 

Last Sunday in our Mosaic young adult Bible study, like many of you we looked at the first chapter of Jeremiah, where God calls Jeremiah to preach, and Jeremiah says Lord, I can’t, I’m too young; I can’t speak. And God told him Do not say that — everywhere I send you, you will go, and everything I command you, you will speak, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.” Just to help emphasize the point there, I gave our group a photocopied page of Jeremiah 1 that they could write on, and I asked them to circle every time God says “I” in Jeremiah 1:4-19.  And they did. And we found that there were at least SIXTEEN TIMES in Jeremiah 1 where God says, “I … I … I … I …”. What was the point? The point was, that NO, Jeremiah can’t — but GOD CAN! HE is “The Great I”; He is “The Great I AM.” HE can do the things that we can’t do. 

And that’s what we see all through this passage. 

— Jesus says “I have the key of David, I open and no one can shut. I shut and no one can open.

— He says, “I have put before you an open door that no one can shut.”

— He says in :9 I will cause the synagogue of Satan to bow down before you

— He says in :10 I will keep you from the hour of testing

— He says in :11 “I am coming quickly”

— He says in :12 “I will make you a pillar …and  I will write on him the name of My God …”.

You see that here in Revelation 3 also don’t you?  “I … I … I … I … I …”. JESUS is the One who is going to do it! Yes, we have a responsibility to go through the open door; yes, we have to have enough faith to get up and go when He calls us, but let’s make no mistake, it is HE who will do it! 

— That’s how it was with Israel in the Exodus: He gave them the open door: He split the Red Sea in two. Now, Israel still had to walk through it — but there was question about WHO really DID it, right? It was GOD who did it!

— It’s that way with salvation; we have to personally repent of our sins and ask Him to save us, but it is HE does all the saving work. There’s nothing we can say or do that will save ourselves. HE does it! 

— And it’s that way with the open door too; we have to believe and go through the doors God gives us — but let’s not have any misconceptions about it: it is HE who opens that door, and it is HE who will do glorious things, not us.  

It’s all about HIM, not about us. This Book isn’t called “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” for nothing. It is all about Jesus. Let’s make sure we always make it all about Him! 

INVITATION

— Is God showing you an open door today, for mission or ministry, or in your personal or professional life?

— Are you personally being the kind of person God will give an open door to: are there places/people with whom you are not confessing Jesus, or where you are tempted to compromise what His word says? 

— Is He calling you to go through the open door for salvation? We will see in the next passage in Revelation 3 how He says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock” — but YOU have to open that door; no one else can.