“I am the way, the truth, and the life!” Jesus answered. “Without me, no one can go to the Father. (John 14:6, CEV)
As the way, Jesus is our path to the Father. As the truth, Jesus is the reality of all God’s promises in our daily life. As the life, Jesus joins his divine life to ours, both now and eternally. Jesus is, in truth, the only LIVING way to the Father. This is why scripture calls Him our “Living Hope:”
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Recently I was very interested to discover that the Bible talks about three doors by which Jesus becomes our life. By which we advance towards being more like Jesus.
1/ I had heard, of course, about Jesus being the door, (John 10:9).
2/ I did not associate Jesus being the door, as being connected to the door of Rev 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to [them] and will dine with [them], and they with Me.” (Rev 3:20,TLV) When we have a relationship with Jesus; we use these two doors, going in through Him, and allowing Jesus in to our own heart as He knocks at that door.
3/ And there is a third door which we must at times close to know Jesus better:
“Thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons” (2 Kings 4:4).
They were to be alone with God, for they were not dealing with the laws of nature, nor human government, nor the church, nor the priesthood, nor even with the great prophet of God, but they must needs be isolated from all creatures, from all leaning circumstances, from all props of human reason, and swung off, as it were, into the vast blue inter-stellar space, hanging on God alone, in touch with the fountain of miracles.
Here is a part in the programme of God’s dealings, a secret chamber of isolation in prayer and faith which every soul must enter that is very fruitful.
Jesus knocks at the door of our heart because he wants to save us and have fellowship with us. He is patient and persistent in trying to get through to us—not breaking and entering, but knocking. He allows us to decide whether or not to open our life to him. Do you intentionally keep his life-changing presence and power on the other side of the door?
“God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Cor 1:9, KJV) This fellowship is indicated by the three doors of salvation:
1/ Jesus said “I am the door.” (John 10:9)
We go in THAT door for fellowship with Him. We go out that same door for service:
Says the true Witness, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” Every warning, reproof, and entreaty in the Word of God, or through His delegated messengers, is a knock at the door of the heart; it is the voice of Jesus, asking for entrance. With every knock unheeded, your determination to open becomes weaker and weaker. If the voice of Jesus is not heeded at once, it becomes confused in the mind with a multitude of other voices, the world’s care and business engross the attention, and conviction dies away. The heart becomes less impressible, and lapses into a perilous unconsciousness of the shortness of time, and of the great eternity beyond.{7BC 966.9}
YOU ARE THE DOOR: Rev 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
What is the difference between the first two doors?
The one door we enter. (John 10:9) The other door Jesus enters. (Rev 3:20)
Jesus Is The Door: John 10:9
As an earthly shepherd knows his sheep, so does the divine Shepherd know His flock that are scattered throughout the world. “Ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God.” Jesus says, “I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine.” “I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.” Ezekiel 34:31; Isa 43:1; Isa 49:16. {DA 479.2}
Second Door: Revelation 3:20
Says the true Witness:
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” (Rev 3:20)
Every warning, reproof, and entreaty in the Word of God, or through His delegated messengers, is a knock at the door of the heart; it is the voice of Jesus, asking for entrance. With every knock unheeded, your determination to open becomes weaker and weaker. If the voice of Jesus is not heeded at once, it becomes confused in the mind with a multitude of other voices, the world’s care and business engross the attention, and conviction dies away. The heart becomes less impressible, and lapses into a perilous unconsciousness of the shortness of time, and of the great eternity beyond. {7BC 966.9}
We Follow Jesus Back Out THAT Door
The way to heaven is consecrated by the Saviour’s footprints. The path may be steep and rugged, but Jesus has traveled that way; His feet have pressed down the cruel thorns, to make the pathway easier for us. Every burden that we are called to bear He Himself has borne.{DA 480.4}
Because we are the gift of His Father, and the reward of His work, Jesus loves us. He loves us as His children. Jesus loves you. Heaven itself can bestow nothing greater, nothing better. Therefore trust.{DA 483.3}
Jesus thought upon the souls all over the earth who were misled by false shepherds. Those whom He longed to gather as the sheep of His pasture were scattered among wolves, and He said, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock, one shepherd.” John 10:16. {DA 483.4}
A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest. (John 10:10, CEV)
My Grandmother used to say:
“Heaven begins on Earth.”
Perhaps this is some of which Jesus was talking about when He talked about having “life in it’s fullest?”
In contrast to the thief who takes life, Jesus gives life. The life he gives right now is abundantly rich and full. It is eternal, yet it begins immediately. Life in Christ is lived on a higher plane because of his overflowing forgiveness, love, and guidance. Have you taken Christ’s offer of life? (Life Application Notes)
That They Might Have Life
Jesus who came in by the door which John the Baptist opened has become the door. We enter into that door for fellowship, we go out that door for service to others. (John 10:7-18)
“My doctrine tends to life, because it is the true doctrine” (2 Tim 3:10) That of the false shepherds tends to death, because it neither comes from nor can lead to that God who is the fountain of eternal life and “the everlasting gospel.” (Rev 14:6-12)
Again, here in John 10:10 Jesus found access to the minds of His hearers by the pathway of their familiar associations. He had likened the Spirit’s influence to the cool, refreshing water. He had represented Himself as the light, the source of life and gladness to nature and to humanity. Now in a beautiful pastoral picture He represents His relation to those that believe on Him. No picture was more familiar to His hearers than this, and Christ’s words linked it forever with Himself. Never could the disciples look on the shepherds tending their flocks without recalling the Saviour’s lesson. They would see Christ in each faithful shepherd. They would see themselves in each helpless and dependent flock. {DA 476.2}
This figure the prophet Isaiah had applied to the Messiah’s mission, in the comforting words:
“O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!” (Isa 40:9)
He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom.” Isaiah 40:9-11.
David had sung, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Psalms 23:1.
And the Holy Spirit through Ezekiel had declared:
“I will set up one Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them.” “I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick.” “And I will make with them a covenant of peace.” “And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.” Ezekiel 34:23, etc {DA 476.3}
Christ applied these prophecies to Himself, and He showed the contrast between His own character and that of the leaders in Israel. The Pharisees had just driven one from the fold, because he dared to bear witness to the power of Christ. They had cut off a soul whom the True Shepherd was drawing to Himself. In this they had shown themselves ignorant of the work committed to them, and unworthy of their trust as shepherds of the flock. Jesus now set before them the contrast between them and the Good Shepherd, and He pointed to Himself as the real keeper of the Lord’s flock. Before doing this, however, He speaks of Himself under another figure. {DA 477.1}
He said, “He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” The Pharisees did not discern that these words were spoken against them. When they reasoned in their hearts as to the meaning, Jesus told them plainly, “I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) {DA 477.2}
Christ is the door to the fold of God. Through this door all His children, from the earliest times, have found entrance. In Jesus, as shown in types, as shadowed in symbols, as manifested in the revelation of the prophets, as unveiled in the lessons given to His disciples, and in the miracles wrought for the sons of men, they have beheld “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and through Him they are brought within the fold of His grace. Many have come presenting other objects for the faith of the world; ceremonies and systems have been devised by which men hope to receive justification and peace with God, and thus find entrance to His fold. But the only door is Christ, and all who have interposed something to take the place of Christ, all who have tried to enter the fold in some other way, are thieves and robbers. {DA 477.3}
The Pharisees had not entered by the door. They had climbed into the fold by another way than Christ! By their own denominated authority! They were not fulfilling the work of the true shepherd. The priests and rulers, the scribes and Pharisees, destroyed the living pastures, and defiled the wellsprings of the water of life. Faithfully do the words of inspiration describe those false shepherds:
“The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away;but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.” (Ezekiel 34:4). This verse well describes todays many shrinking churches. Status Quo churches. One-verse churches that dote so much on one verse that the gospel is completely lost sight of. Churches that refuse to change even a little bit, even when it’s God’s Word telling them to!
The shepherds of Israel knew nothing about their flock; they might have been diseased, infirm, bruised, maimed, their limbs broken, strayed, and lost; for they watched not over them. When they got fat sheep and wool for their table and their clothing, they regarded nothing else; as they considered the flock given them for their own use, and scarcely ever supposed that they were to give any thing in return for the milk and the wool.
“Anyone who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” Christ is both the door and the shepherd. He enters in by Himself. It is through His own sacrifice that He becomes the shepherd of the sheep. “To Him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear His voice: and He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice.” {DA 478.3}
The statements made by the prophet in Ezekiel 34:4, etc may be rightly applied to rapacious priests who care more for the fleece than for the flock. Pastors are required to lead the flock of God not for filthy lucre but as examples for the sheep, Jer 3:15, 1 Pet 5:2-3. It is their duty, also, to strengthen the spiritually diseased, heal the sick, bind up the broken in heart, and seek the lost.
The Closed Door
“Thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons” (2 Kings 4:4).
This is the door we close. As needed. There are times and places where God will form a mysterious wall around us, and cut away all props, and all the ordinary ways of doing things, and shut us up to something Divine, which is utterly new and unexpected, something that old circumstances do not fit into, where we do not know just what will happen, where God is cutting thes cloth of our lives on a new pattern, where He makes us look to Himself.
Most religious people live in a sort of treadmill life, where they can calculate almost everything that will happen, but the souls that God leads out into immediate and special dealings, He shuts in where all they know is that God has hold of them, and is dealing with them, and their expectation is from Him alone. Like this widow, we must be detached from outward things and attached inwardly to the Lord alone in order to see His wonders. In the sorest trials God often makes the sweetest discoveries of Himself.
We are promised:
IF you open the door, if you enter through the door, if Jesus IS your Shepherd, then you shall not want any good thing that God has to give:
“…they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing). (Psalms 34:10)
Our LORD and our God, you are like the sun and also like a shield. You treat us with kindness and with honor, never denying any good thing to those who live right. (Psalms 84:11,CEV)
God does not promise to give us everything we think is good, but he will not withhold what is permanently good. He will give us the means to walk along his paths, but we must do the walking. When we obey him, he will not hold anything back that will help us serve him.
Notice the tender manner in which the Lord Jesus Himself supplies the deficiencies of His unfaithful servants. In beautiful contrast to their selfish cruelty and rapacity, He sets Himself in cloudy and dark days to gather and tend His people, though they had been as scattered sheep, each taking his own way:
As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. (Ezekiel 34:12)
Use the door. Welcome the Lord Jesus today.
JESUS is thus THE light in our clouds.
Expect it.