Sermon Title: the Open Door 2.19.17

The Open Door (2.19.17) 1

Sermon Title: The Open Door 2.19.17

First Reading : John 10:7-10

7Therefore Jesus said again,“Very truly I tell you, I am(H)the gate(I)for the sheep.8All who have come before me(J)are thieves and robbers,(K)but the sheep have not listened to them.9I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[a]They will come in and go out, and find pasture.10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life,(L)and have it to the full.(M)

2nd reading: Revelation 3:7-13

7“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia(P)write:

These are the words of him who is holy(Q)and true,(R)who holds the key of David.(S)What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.8I know your deeds.(T)See, I have placed before you an open door(U)that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.(V)9I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan,(W)who claim to be Jews though they are not,(X)but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet(Y)and acknowledge that I have loved you.(Z)10Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you(AA)from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world(AB)to test(AC)the inhabitants of the earth.(AD)

11I am coming soon.(AE)Hold on to what you have,(AF)so that no one will take your crown.(AG)12The one who is victorious(AH)I will make a pillar(AI)in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God(AJ)and the name of the city of my God,(AK)the new Jerusalem,(AL)which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name.13Whoever has ears, let them hear(AM)what the Spirit says to the churches.

Who here has seen the movie "Revenge of the Nerds?" It will not surprise you that I love this movie.
In the movie, there is a fraternity of nerds, go figure. During the whole movie they are picked on by the jocks. This speech is given at the very end by one of the nerds at a pep rally. The jocks had just trashed their house and Gilbert, a leader in the group, takes the microphone and says this:"I just wanted to say that I'm a nerd, and I'm here tonight to stand up for the rights of other nerds. I mean uh, all our lives we've been laughed at and made to feel inferior. And tonight, those jocks (pastoral edit), they trashed our house. Why? Cause we're smart? Cause we're different? Well, we're not. I'm a nerd, and uh, I'm pretty proud of it." His friend Lewis then comes on and says "Hi, Gilbert. I'm a nerd too. I just found that out tonight. We have news for the beautiful people. There's a lot more of us than there are of you. I know there's alumni here tonight. When you went to Adams you might've been called a spazz, or a dork, or a geek. Any of you that have ever felt stepped on, left out, picked on, put down, whether you think you're a nerd or not, why don't you just come down here and join us. Okay? Come on."In the background the song "We Are the Champions" starts playing. At first one by one then in groups everyone comes to join them.
The movie begs us to ask the question why some will do anything, including picking on, putting down, and leaving out other people, to be thought of as 'cool?' I think it is mostly because being cool opens doors. It opens doors to social status, a life of not getting picked on, and perceived significance. When I was a senior in High School I was on the football team. A surefire way to obtain the coveted coolness, right?! Well just leave it to pastor Bill to prove even that avenue of being cool is not full proof. I am not sure what happened but some of my fellow seniors on the team decide that I was unclean and they kicked me out of their friend group. The door to popularity had been slammed shut. What was opened to me was the door of being with the Sophomores, the nerdy sophomores. What I discovered was that they were 100 times better to be with than the 'cool' kids. Funnier, easier to be with, and less annoying than the pretentious popular kids.
An experience that the Christians in Philadelphia could relate to. They had many doors shut in their faces. All of those who were Jewish had the door of the synagogue slammed in their face. They were rejected from the Jewish community. Those who were gentiles were rejected from their culture also. So when Jesus tells them that He has opened a door that no one can shut, not Caesar, or the Jewish religious leaders, I am sure their ears perked up!
We are continuing our series on the seven churches Jesus writes to in Revelation. Some of the churches are good, some are mixed so they are bad, but others are just plain ugly. The series is entitled 'the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly' and we are continuing with the good church of Philadelphia. For this good church, Jesus had no correction, just encouragement. This encouragement comes in the form of an open door. While considering this encouragement to them we will consider how Jesus' message to Philadelphia can be an encouragement to us by answering three questions about this open door. First, who is this door open to? Second, why would anyone want to walk through this door?Finally, where does this door lead? We will discover the who, why, and where of Jesus' open door.
Who were these Christians in Philadelphia that Jesus might open a door for them?
Jesus encourages them in their perseverance in faith even though they have little strength. Have we ever felt as if we had little strength: Not enough strength to even do what it necessary to keep our heads above water let alone help other people?This was the situation of the Christians in Philadelphia. Yet, God moved through them mightily. Philadelphia is in modern day Turkey. There was a strong Christian presence there until 1395. They were the last city in Turkey to fall when the Muslims invaded that part of the world. John is writing to them around 100 AD. This means that this church with little strength, the church in Philadelphia, served Jesus for over 1,200 years! It was also known as a church planting church. Historians say that this church planted other churches as far as India!
So what was their secret? What magic formula did they use to be a church with such longevity and influence? Was it the best programs, best preaching, most entertaining Sunday School classes? No, it had nothing to do with their strength or ability. Jesus has already said that He knows that they have little strength. Instead, their longevity and influencewas because Jesus loved them and they were willing to be used by Him, that's it! Jesus says their strength comes from the fact that He loves them and they have kept His command to endure. They lived in the love of Jesus and endured through difficult times.
So how do we see ourselves? Are we wise, powerful, influential, and confident in our own ability? Or do we find strength in our weakness and victory in surrender? The truth lived out in Philadelphia was described by Paul when he reminds the Christians in Corinth that when they became Christians, "Not many of you were wiseby human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.But God chosethe foolishthings of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."
Are we willing to become fools? Are willing to become weak? We can become fools by acting like goofs while interacting with the kids at the next sports camp coming up in the summer. Loving them like no one is looking. Can become weak by coming alongside the folks during our next Love Ops? Become weak by not only serving, but loving the people who come to our community breakfast the last Sunday of every month?
When considering that which God has called us to, are we willing to, as we sang this morning, to "Let not conscience make us linger, nor of fitness fondly dream?" Are we willing to trust that the "only fitness He requires is to feel our need of Him?" The door stands open to us. We have an opportunity to leave a legacy like the church in Philadelphia if we boast in the foolishness of the cross where the righteous died for the unrighteous. Boast in our weakness and helplessness over death and its many vile agents. Boast in Christ alone, because, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will share in His resurrection power.
Who is this door open to? People who are willing to become foolish and weak for the sake of making their lives available to Christ and His love. So why would we walk through this open door if it requires us to give up our right to boast in ourselves?
There are so many other things we can live for, right? We can live for money, and the comfortable life that comes with it. We can live for pleasure and all of its trappings. We can live for vague spiritualism always trying to find that next temporary spiritual high.We can live for what helps us fit in to society. The list could, of course, go on but the problem is that all of those things are idols. Our enemy, uses idols to suck us in. To tempt us to commit the same sin Adam and Eve did. The temptation to put ourselves in God's role. The temptation to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, what is good and evil.
These idols, they will destroy us as Jesus says to us in the Gospel reading, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy." These idols will kill and destroy us because they work the exact opposite way Jesus does. Idols require more and more and give less and less. You need more and more drugs to get the same high. You need more and more money to consider yourself successful. You need more and more power to make yourself feel important. These idols are dehumanizing because they encourage us to become a human doing, only worth something because of what we do. They are equally dehumanizing because they encourage us to use other people in the same way.
The lie they never tell us is that enough will never be enough!But Jesus tells us that He holds the key to enough. Dr. Mullholanddescribes this good news in his commentary on Revelation by writing, "Jesus' keys open the way out of the dehumanizing and destructive bondage of fallen Babylon and the way into the restored and transformed life of the New Jerusalem."We do not love or serve Him to receive love and significance. Instead we serve Him because He already loves us. This open door is not one into a life trapped by a long cold list of do's and don'ts. We do not go through this door to ruin our fun. Instead, as Jesus tells us in John' s gospel, this door opens up so we "may have life,and have it to the full."
Thinking of a full life in Christ's sufficiency reminds me of my dad. He was forced to retire very early because of his heart condition. He could have spent his retirement, managing his portfolio, golfing, and finding significance in the money he made and the lifestyle it could bring him. Instead, he decided to become more and more involved in the church I grew up in. He pours himself out for the sake of the gospel. For example he is the director of RFKC, a camp for kids in foster care. Britt and I have had the privilege of being counselors at RFKC and it is incredible. Imagine a 76 year old man who has all of his natural arteries 100% blocked running around with a bunch of kids in the hottest part of summer. It taxes him so much that he is knocked out for almost two full weeks afterward,but he would be the first to tell you that it is completely worth it. He would tell you that he is living life abundantly!
That is where this open door leads. It leads to the abundant life in Christwe were made for.
We live in a culture where people are constantly 'trying to find themselves.' C.S. Lewis noted that, ironically, just like we will never make a good impression when trying to, we will never find our true self so long as we are looking for it. Instead, we will only find our true self when looking for Him! We will find ourselves when seeking loving relationship with the one for whom we were made! Upon finding ourselves in Christ our lives will shine with supernatural love. Love that will make others wonder what is different about us!
A love that comes from walking through the open door of growing in relationship with Christ. A door that leads right into the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus tells the Christians in Philadelphia that through their patient endurance the New Jerusalem, the kingdom of God, will come through them. The Greek grammar suggests that God's kingdom is continually coming down. In other words, every act of loving obedience to Christ is bringing God's kingdom here to earth through us.
Rather than coming through the smart, powerful, and self confident, this door is only opened to and crossed by nerds. So for "any of us that have ever felt stepped on, left out, picked on, or put down," come through the open door.
Who is this door open to? Those who willing become foolish over the wisdom of the cross and glory in their weakness. In the foolishness of the cross we find the wisdom of redemption. In our weakness we find the strength of God's kingdom coming to us and through us. Why walk across this door? We walk into the door trusting Christ's love for our lives to endure difficult times and live out the purpose for which we were made. By relying not our strength but the strength of Jesus Christ we will live lives of eternal significance and worth. Where will this door lead us? The door Jesus opens to us leads us to abundant life. A life of restored relationship with our Heavenly Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit so we can live in Christ's resurrection power now and forever!
Let us pray, Lord give us the courage to give up. Give us the courage to give up trying to rely on our own strength and ability so that we may walk through the door you have opened to us. The door that leads to new life in you!
Receive this blessing and benediction. Let us go forth walking through the door Christ has opened to us. A door of reconciled relationship back to our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ allowing the Holy Spirit to use us to transform the world! In God's name you may go in peace.