Series: “To the Angel of the Church at Tomoka:
Christ’s Message for His Church Today”
#6: “The Open Door”
John 10:1-3,7-11,16 and Revelation 3:7-13 (NRSV)
By John Gill ~ February 16, 2025
Why did the chicken cross the road? (To get to the other side.) Why did the elephant cross the road? (It was the chicken’s day off.) Why DIDN’T the chicken cross the road? (It was chicken.)
Do you like riddles? Most of us do. You may not realize it, but there are a number of riddles in the Bible.
In the story of that muscleman with long hair, Samson, in Judges 14, we are presented with this riddle that Samson put to his adversaries to solve: “Out of the eater came something to eat; out of the strong came something sweet” – what is it? A dead lion carcass with honey in it, of course (don’t feel bad - the Philistines couldn’t guess it, either, - without bribing Samson’s wife).
Jesus also used this technique. He poses a rhetorical question as a riddle: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his life?”
And of course, there is the riddle in this letter to the church at Philadelphia: “Who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens?” Obviously, the answer is “Christ.”
We all have heard the saying, “When God shuts a door, he opens a window.” I have personally experienced this to be true. God constantly is opening and closing doors in my life: He shut the door to a teaching career, so he could open the door to a life of ministry; He shut the door on one engagement to be married to the person of my choosing, so he could open a door to a marriage of his choosing. I have learned to trust that God knows best, as he shuts and opens doors. Of course, it is up to us if we will “walkthrough” the doors he opens. Opening and closing doors is all part of his master plan for our lives, and life goes better when we follow his lead.
The people of Philadelphia knew all about opening and shutting doors. They would have understood Christ’s riddle. Philadelphia was the youngest city of all the seven churches of Revelation, founded only in 150 BC. This city was established by the King of Pergamum (one of the other cities in our series), and was named in honor of his brother, whom he loved dearly. The king’s brother’s name was Attalus II (a.k.a Philadelphus, which means “beloved brother” – hence the name “Philadelphia” - the city of brotherly love). It was located on the road leading from Pergamum to the interior of Asia Minor (now, Turkey). It was not established to be a military outpost or economic center, but as an effort to project Greek culture into that inland area: it’s mission was to “shut the door”to barbarians, and open the door for Greek culture. And Philadelphia was very successful – the entire region became Hellenized (that is - the natives there adopted Greek thought, religion, - even the Greek language.
The city had a mission: to open the door to Greek culture. And the Heavenly Christ tells the church there that it also had a mission: to open a door of a different sort.
The church at Philadelphia was very different from the church at Sardis (the city that we looked at last Sunday). The church at Sardis was wealthy, comfortable, complacent – and dying. The Christians at Philadelphia were poor, oppressed by their Jewish neighbors – and yet vital and alive. If you recall from last Sunday, Christ’s message to Sardis was short on words of commendation, and long on condemnation. But, to the Church at Philadelphia, there were NO words of criticism, only praise.
Philadelphia was a small struggling church, and yet it was faithful to Christ. In this letter, Christ encourages the church to stick it out. If they do, he promises 1) he will see them through the coming time of testing; 2) grant them success (that is – those who criticize them will be won over); and 3) assure them of eternal life. They were challenged to remain faithful – and they did just that! In fact, their faith was so strong that Philadelphia became a center for Christianity for the next 1,000 years, even as the rest of the area all around them became Moslem. That’s why today there are thousands of Christians living in that region of Turkey, and they even have their own bishop! Yes, Christ had called them to a mission – to open the door for the Gospel, and that struggling little church obviously answered the call!
If last week’s text was a call to revival, this week’s is a call to evangelism. This letter contains a very basic, forthright theology of evangelism: It is Jesus who opens and shuts; He holds the key of opportunity in his hand. It is this same Lord who has set the Christians in this outpost city before an open door that no one will be able to shut. God is a God of the “Open Door.” By his grace he opened the door for us, and calls us to be an open door for others to come to Christ.
This text contains a divine model of evangelism – four truths which we had better understand if we are to be the church of the “Open Door” that Christ expects us to be.
The first truth is this: You must have something to share.
Sometimes we fail in evangelism because, like Sardis (our theme church last Sunday), we are spiritually dead. That is the reason so many of our churches are declining, they lack spiritual passion. They are desperate to grow; they grasp at one “church-growth” scheme after another, and still fail to grow. Why? Because they are spiritually bankrupt. They must revive or go out of business.
The Philadelphia church was very successful at evangelism – Why? Not because it was rich or influential – they were weak by the world’s standards. Christ tells them: “I know that you have but little power.” Real strength comes from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ – that is the true source of faith and power.
When I was serving the church in Macclenny, I went through a rough time. The church was going fine, but I was not – I was burning out. My relationship with Christ had grown cold. I was trying to fulfill my ministry in my own strength. I was so depressed that I almost dropped out of the ministry. Then I took the Walk to Emmaus (a spiritual renewal weekend), and my ministry changed. I reconnected with Jesus. I stopped trying to minister out of my own efforts, and began relying on his strength. Only then did my ministry there begin to blossom.
As we at Tomoka move forward, we must have a faith to share and we must rely on God’s strength, or our ministry will fail.
So, the first step in reaching others for Christ is that we have to know Christ ourselves. You can’t share what you don’t have.
The second truth is this: You must tell others what Jesus has done for you.
If Christ lives in you, you will naturally want to tell others about it. We all have heard the saying, “I’d rather see a sermon, than hear one…” And that is fine. But if we don’t TELL them the source of our good deeds, we’ve missed a golden opportunity. We have failed Jesus.
Years ago, a church member was planning a trip to a lumber camp way back in the woods. A friend of his said, “If they find out you’re a Christian, they’ll make fun of you.” When he got back, his friend asked “Well, how’d it go?” The man replied, “All right – they never found out!”
Would people be hard-pressed to discover that you are a Christian?
Our scripture tells us that we should be more like Harry Denman. In 1948, Harry traveled to Weatherfort, Texas, for a two-day meeting of clergy and laity. The district superintendent met him at the train, but Denman didn’t show. In fact, he had gotten off on the platform on the wrong side of the train. The man went back to the meeting and apologized that Harry Denman must have missed his train.
Meanwhile, Denman picked up his bag and began walking to the church where the meeting was going on. On the way Harry stopped to ask for directions and began to chat with people. He even visited in a number of homes, asking them if he could pray for them.
Finally, he arrived very late to the meeting, and was invited to speak. In his introduction, he explained what had happened and how he had visited in the homes of folks along the way. Then he stunned the crowd by asking if any of those he had met on his way from the train station happened to be present. Three dozen hands went up!
Psalm 96 calls us to share the good news, “O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name; Tell of his salvation from day to day.” We must use every opportunity we have to share the Good News.
Here’s the third truth each of us must learn: You must practice what you preach.
To win others for Christ we must live what we profess to believe. We must model the Christian life. We must strive to be Christ-like.
In John 13:35, Jesus makes it clear, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
When non-believers see the integrity of our lives, and how we care for others, it will stir up in them a curiosity, so that they will seek to discover the source of that love. A vital authentic Christian church is like a flower: its fragrance attracts unbelievers like bees to nectar. The church in Philadelphia modeled Christ-like love.
Unfortunately, more often than we like to admit, the lives of those who call themselves “Christians” are not models of Christ-like love. In America these days, what is being passed off as “Christian” bears very little resemblance to Jesus. Non-Christians now see these so-called Christians as hypocrites, and they are right!
Two mothers were talking about their sons who were both on football teams. “What position does your son play?’ one of them asked the other. “I don’t know,” came the reply, “but I think he’s a drawback.” A Christian who doesn’t practice what he or she preaches isn’t merely useless to Christ, he or she is a “drawback,” a liability to the cause of Christ. They are actually turning people off to the Christian faith.
So, we have to have something to share, we have to be willing to share it, and we must practice what we preach.
The fourth truth is this: You must welcome all who respond.
God “opens the door” for all types of people, even those who are not like us. Therefore, we must reach out and welcome everyone. God always is more welcoming than we are.
We see that demonstrated in the Old Testament story of the prophet Jonah. We all remember the part about him being swallowed by a giant fish. But the main point of the story is the universal nature of God’s grace. The reason Jonah ended up in the belly of a fish was that he was trying to avoid God’s command to go and preach to the pagan city of Nineveh, offering them God’s mercy if they would repent of their evil ways. Jonah didn’t want to extend God’s grace to the Ninevites, and so God had to do a little “convincing.” Jonahreluctantly obeyed, and then pouted because the people of Nineveh actually repented and were forgiven. The lesson of Jonah is that “God welcomes all people who call on his name,” and so must we.
We also see this truth in the teachings of Jesus. In his Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus reminds us that all people are our brothers and sisters, even those we may see as undeserving – even our enemies. Or as he told us in another place in Scripture, “I have sheep who are not of this fold, I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” (John 10:16)
Not long after Jesus’s death and resurrection, as Peter struggled with whether Gentiles should be allowed into the Church, God spoke to him saying, “Do not call unclean what I have called clean.”
Throughout the centuries, the church has also affirmed this “open door policy’ of God’s Kingdom. Listen to one of the phrases from the ancient Christian hymn, “Te Deum:” “Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to ALL believers.”
You, see, God wants us to reach out to everyone with his love and grace. Unfortunately, we haven’t always been obedient to God’s instruction.
There was a small congregation in Oklahoma with only 40 members. During the oil boom in that part of the country, oil was discovered on the church’s property. The church members held a congregational meeting to discuss what they would do with the profits. There were two motions. The first was to divide the royalties equally among the 40 members. The second motion? That they receive no more members.
Many congregations are like that small church – they possess untold wealth – the Good News of salvation, yet they refuse to share it with others. You say, “No preacher, we love new people.” Maybe some more than others? What if God called on us to “open the door” – OUR door – to people of another race or ethnic group? People who’s love-orientation is not the “norm?” A different language? Not just allowing them to worship at “our” church, but to become an ethnically-diverse congregation? What about migrants or transients? Or the folks who receive all the food we bring to share with the community food pantries? What would it mean for us to not only offer them physical food, but invite them to become members of our church so we can offer them spiritual food – something much more profound? What if our congregation truly reflected the Kingdom of God – so that our church would look “just as it is in heaven? It is Christ who opens the door. Sadly, it is often his church that closes it.
So, how do our efforts at evangelism measure up? If we are not as effective as we ought to be, what’s the matter?
When evangelism breaks down in any church, you can be sure that one of those “four truths” is missing:
Maybe we have nothing to share because we don’t have a vital relationship with Christ ourselves. If we are spiritually bankrupt, we have nothing to build upon.
It may be that it is our failure to proclaim the Good News that is the problem. We are content to keep our faith a secret. We offer no witness for Christ, we don’t take advantage of opportunities to share our faith.
The failure of our efforts at evangelism may be that we are sending mixed messages. We proclaim with our mouth faith in Christ, but we fail to live the Christian life – maybe we are hypocrites, talking the talk, but not walking the walk. Non-believers are not fools. They can spot a phony Christian a mile off. In fact, by our attitudes and the way we live our lives, we can actually become a negative example for the Christian faith. If we are not careful, we can have a very destructive “witness,” that repels people from Christ, rather than drawing them to him.
And of course, our failure in evangelism may result simply from the fact that we are not willing to reach out to all people, welcoming them with open arms, and including them in the Family of God. Maybe we resist modifying our worship style, or resist offering alternative worship options that would appeal to others in our community – closing the door on them.
Yes, Christ is calling his church to Evangelism, and he’s told us how to do it. We know we should – so what is stopping us?
After Sunday School one Sunday morning, a little girl ran to find her mother. She was all upset about the lesson that day. The mother asked her what had upset her. Her daughter replied, “We were taught to ‘Go into all the world and make disciples,’ – but then we just sat there!”
In America today there are more than 80 million people who are unchurched – a number that is rapidly growing; and another 80 million who are Christian in name only. Within the geographical area that our church draws from, there are nearly 80,000 people. More than 72% do not attend worship anywhere!1 And, you and I just sit here on our comfortable pews! By our complacency, we slam the door-of-heaven in their faces.
God gave the church at Philadelphia a mission – to be a “Church of the Open Door.” He continues to call churches like ours today – if we will listen… “Look I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.”
The choice is up to us. Are we going to be a “Church of the Open Door?” or not.
“Let anyone who has an ear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”
1US Census Bureau (Missionsite report for Florida Conference UMC)
© 2025 by John B. Gill, III