Three Doors, Two Promises – Part 1. Jesus Is the Door
Recently the word ‘door’ has been on my heart. I asked God, “Why this focus on doors?” He didn’t really answer that question. He just pointed me to three passages of Scripture. In the first, Jesus tells us He is the door. In the second, Jesus tells us to ask, seek, and knock and the door will be opened. And in the third, Jesus tells the church in Laodicea (and us) that He will knock on the door and if we open it, He will come in and eat with us.
The second and third passages about ‘doors’ connect a door to a promise: “ask, seek, and knock and the door will open” and “if you open the door when Jesus knocks, He will come in and eat with you and you with Him”. In the first, you knock, He opens. In the second, He knocks and you open.
To me, these three metaphors of doors and the associated promises point to the power, beauty, and goodness of the Christian life when we are seeking Christ, walking in Christ, or struggling with lukewarm seasons of faith in our life with Christ. And, maybe most importantly, with these doors and their promises God is telling us something about our faith in Jesus, the faith of Jesus in us, and the faithfulness of Jesus toward us.
Probably thousands of commentaries have been write on these passages over the millenia. What I want to share in this post are the words I believe the Holy Spirit is calling me to write. That does not make them better. It just makes them personal to me and hopefully will speak to someone else who needs to hear an encouraging or even life-giving word from God right now.
Part 1, the first ‘door’, is from the Gospel of John where Jesus makes one of His I Am statements:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10: 7 – 10 NKJV).
It is not my intention to unpack all that is going on here. But context helps. Chapter 10 is connected to chapter 9. In chapter 9 Jesus gives sight to a man blind from birth. The Pharisees hear about it, note that Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath, and get so angry at this ‘sin’ and what they perceive as the man’s insolence, that they throw the man out of the synagogue. Jesus hears about this and says, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind” (John 9: 39 NKJV). This of course, infuriated the Pharisees because they know He is talking about them (and others who, through time, carry a religious spirit). While Jesus’ words in Chapter 10 are directed at them, His words are just as important for us today.
A little more context – Jesus is talking about Himself as the door to the sheepfold. The sheepfold is a rock enclosure that protects the sheep from wild animals and keeps them in proximity to the shepherd. As the Scripture says, the sheep in the ‘sheepfold’ have pasture, they are ‘saved’, and they are free to come and go. And of course, in the sheepfold they are protected from the thief who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.
The final context that helps me is the next verse (John 10: 11): “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep”. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who died so that the ‘sheep’ might be forgiven and saved.
I am (we are) the sheep. Sheep are not smart. They do have one redeeming attribute – they know how to follow. Have you heard of the ‘bellwether’? The bellwether is an older sheep who has made the trek from the winter pasture to the summer pasture and back several times. He knows the way. The shepherd puts a bell around his neck and lets him lead the other sheep from one pasture to another. Not only can the sheep stay on course by listening for the bell and following, but also the shepherd knows where the sheep are at all times. I wonder if there are ‘bellwethers’ in our spiritual communities? Actually, every person ‘in Christ’, led by the Holy Spirit, has the potential to be a bellwether to others.
Jesus is the door to the sheepfold or enclosure. The sheepfold and “Jesus is the door” are metaphors. What do they mean? As I wrote above, the sheepfold or enclosure is a place of pasture and protection – a place of provision. It is a place in which I hear the shepherd’s voice and I am known by Him – a place of intimate relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. It is also a place of freedom – I am free to come or go. It is a place removed or separated from the world outside the sheepfold. It is a place where the sheep are saved. In the passage above, the Greek word for ‘saved’ is our old friend sozo, the root word for ‘salvation’. Sozo means to “save, rescue, to bring safely to, to cure, heal, and restore to health” – both in the present and the future. And last, but not least, the shepherd has come to give the sheep in His sheepfold life – “and that they may have it more abundantly”. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has come to give His sheep, who live with Him in His sheepfold, abundant life.
I believe the sheepfold is a metaphor for the Kingdom of God. Recall in Mark 10 Jesus, speaking of the Rich Young Ruler, says, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” And the disciples respond, “Who then can be saved?” Saved, sozo again, implying that entering the Kingdom of God is equivalent to being saved or gaining salvation – eternal life. Jesus makes it clear that the Kingdom of God is near (or here), but not in its fullness. We can live in the Kingdom of God now with Jesus through the indwelling Holy Spirit, but not fully. The Kingdom is now, but not yet.
One other thought about the sheepfold. Jesus is the Good Shepherd; we are his sheep. He provides us with pasture, protection, and salvation. Does that remind you of a Psalm? Of course, Psalm 23.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me: Your rod and Your staff they comfort me. . . “ (Psalm 23: 1 – 4 NIV).
This is one of the great Old Testament passages pointing to the coming Messiah, Jesus, and the Kingdom that He will institute on earth as it is in Heaven through His life, death, and resurrection.
If the sheepfold stands for the Kingdom of God, then Jesus – the door – is the only way into the Kingdom. No one can enter the Kingdom except through that door – Jesus. I can’t earn my way into the Kingdom. Belief or faith in Jesus coupled with repentance is the only way in – “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith.”
So what does “Jesus is the door into the Kingdom of God” mean for us? Here are some thoughts:
The Kingdom of God is both within us (in our hearts, where we live spiritually) and around us, especially as we release the Kingdom of God through our prayers, words, and deeds. There is another kingdom – the kingdom of the world (aka the kingdom of self, or the kingdom of satan, who Scripture tells us is the ruler/prince of this world). Every person lives in one or the other.
There is life in the Kingdom of God – freedom, salvation, protection, provision (love, joy, peace, hope – a life of spiritual and emotional contentment), healing, and wholeness.
There is death in the kingdom of the world – the thief, who I believe is ultimately satan, desires to dethrone, slander, and defame God. Satan cares nothing for the sheep. He will steal joy and peace, kill life and liveliness, and destroy the relationships among the sheep and between the sheep and the shepherd to further his ultimate objectives.
Do I want to live freely in the Kingdom of God – obeying and honoring the Creator of the universe; or do I want to live in the kingdom of the world, living in bondage to the overlord we call satan?
For me, the answer is obvious. The Kingdom of God is the only place I will have life.
Then the way into the Kingdom of God is through the door. There is only one door, only one way in. That door is Jesus. I must pass through Him. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father or into the Kingdom of God, except through Him.
I cannot enter through my wealth, power, accomplishments, good deeds, or any other work of my own – including my Christian work. My wealth, power, and influence will open a lot of doors in the kingdom of the world. But the most important door, the one that leads to life, can only be opened when I trust and believe in Him, and commit my life to Jesus.
If Jesus is the door into the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of God is within me – the rule and reign of Christ in my heart – then the Door is living in my heart. How did He get there? He didn’t live in my heart when I was an unbeliever. Sure, He loved me, even then. But I had another doorkeeper – self or flesh (or to drill down even deeper, satan). No, I had to choose the Kingdom. I had to reject the kingdom of the world and the so-called life I lived there, and I had to choose Jesus.
There is a word for this – it is repent. I had to repent of finding my ultimate value in the kingdom of the world, in idols, and I had to choose life in Jesus. To do that most of us have to come to the end of ourselves. We trade pride for humility. Like faith, repentance is a gift, but I must receive these gifts.
I imagine entering the Kingdom is like wandering, lost, in a fog-shrouded forest and coming up to a huge stonewall looming out of the fog, with no obvious door through the wall. I can go no further. I am finished, used up; spiritually, emotionally, and physically exhausted. And then I cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”. In that moment, I have done two things: I have repented and confessed my need for a savior and I have called Jesus Lord/Messiah – trusting and committing my life to Him. And then, in the mist I see a door suddenly materializing in the wall before me. It swings open and I walk into another spiritual reality.
The door is a metaphor for Jesus. The door is what separates a world of death and darkness on one side of the door from the world of life and light on the other side. It is Jesus Who holds back the death and the darkness and it is Jesus who lets in the repentant, the humble, the ones who have given up striving and trying to provide for every need through their own power, who have “denied themselves, picked up their crosses, and determined to follow Jesus”, no matter the cost. Often these are the ‘least of us’. Not everyone will get through the door.
Is there suffering, trial, or tribulation in the Kingdom of God? Of course! But it is a place where we live in intimacy with Jesus through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within Kingdom men and women. We will see victory and triumph as we live in the Kingdom – but victory comes after battles and triumph follows trials. As we live in the Kingdom of God we live in intimate connection with the Presence and Power of God, we are given the strength, hope, joy, and peace of God for the inevitable struggles, and we are assured that a faithful God is battling with us and for us. As Paul wrote, who was a great Kingdom man:
“We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us — trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, He does in us — He lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life more evident in us” (2 Corinthians 4: 8 — 10 MSG).
The door does not ‘lock’ us into the Kingdom – it does not separate us from the Kingdom of the world permanently. We are called to live in the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world simultaneously. Wherever Kingdom men and women go, they carry the Kingdom with them in their hearts, and are commanded to release the Kingdom into the world around them.
I live in the Kingdom of God in my heart. The indwelling Holy Spirit lives in me. But, at the same time, I live in the material world. It is the Kingdom within me that gives me hope, joy, peace, power, grace, mercy, and compassion to live a life set apart in this other world – a world I have left behind in one way, but am very much a part of in another. In the Kingdom I have a purpose – now I must bring people in the other kingdom to the ‘door’ and tell them “here is a way into a better life.”
Saul/Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. In that moment, Jesus spoke these words to Paul and I imagine He speaks these same words to all of us who pass through Him, the door, into the Kingdom of God:
“But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a ministry and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you . . . to open their eyes (Jews and Gentiles), in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26: 16 – 18 NKJV).
Jesus is the door into the sheepfold – the Kingdom of God. No one enters except through repentance and faith in Him. But the way is available to all who are willing.
He alone is worthy of worship — He really is “the Good Shepherd”.
John