There is one way to God. Jesus was clear about this and He left no room for interpretation. If we do not go through Jesus, we do not go at all.
Open – [1:41]
The Doorway to Heaven
Monday, April 18, 2011
The world seems to be shaking. Not only is the earth still shaking following the major 9 point earthquake in Japan in the last month, but country after country in North Africa and Saudi Arabia creek and shake, as their citizens demand independence. This Easter week, I’m Charles Morris and Welcome to HT, sharing the Great Story that’s all about Jesus. This is a program called Doorway to Heaven.
Ten Commandments opening theme
The music of Elmer Bernstein from the award-winning movie The Ten Commandments here on HAVEN Today, Easter Week. If you’ve never seen the biblical epic The Ten Commandments, or it’s been a long time, check out the video we’ve posted at haventoday.org. And as our thanks for your gift to the ministry this Easter Week, we’ll send you the just released re-mastered version of the movie staring Charlton Heston as Moses and Yule Brenner as Phaorah. Haventoday.org. Or call us after the program at 1-800-654-2836 for The Ten Commandments. There seems to be a domino effect as country after country desire to throw off their government and start from scratch. Earthquakes in Japan. Wars, and rumors of wars. All this makes me think of Jesus’ words to His disciples telling them the end was near. How much shaking will it take for us to turn our eyes to our Savior? What obstacles does Jesus need to remove so that we can see His endless and unfailing love for us? How much do we want Jesus to return?
“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, the Lord says my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," it is the LORD who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10.
I hope like me you are looking forward to celebrating Easter this coming weekend. But do we remember why we celebrate Easter? Do we remember the day that Jesus rose from the dead and left behind an tomb? Do we get it, do we hear our Savior’s voice? It is Jesus who died on the cross for our sins, was resurrected on the third day. And it is only Jesus who is mighty to save.
SONG – Mighty to Save – Laura Story
That is Laura Story and a song called “Mighty To Save.” If you missed the opportunity to give to our Japan Disaster Relief fund, we are still making that available. As always, not a dime goes to Haven. You can give by visiting our website – haventoday.org. Or call us at 1-800-654-2836.
It’s made of red granite, is six feet tall and engraved with religious texts. It’s a door to heaven, discovered last year, the week before Easter, near the Karnak temple in Luxor, Egypt. It’s a 3500-year-old red granite door, meant as a threshold to allow a high-ranking Egyptian official and his wife to interact with the world of the living. Welcome to HAVEN Today, I’m Charles Morris, telling the Great Story that’s all about Jesus and a program called “The Door way to Heaven.” Even with this important archaeological find, I am reminded of another door that wasn’t needed. I’m not thinking of a stone door for an empty tomb outside the gates of Jerusalem. I’m thinking of Jesus Christ saying “I am the door.” He isn’t a door to return to this world after death, He is the door from death to life. He is the door to a life that can begin today and continue into eternity. How much more exciting that a red granite door found next to a temple in Luxor, Egypt. Christ’s resurrection is complete, just as he predicted. Christ is risen indeed.
SONG –
There is a lot of good news about shepherding in the Bible. Maybe you’ve been comforted by the Shepherd Psalm, Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Jesus talked about being the good shepherd who looks after his sheep and it is in John 10 where our Lord explained that he is the good shepherd and he is the door or gate. He taught this before the cross and before his death. But these words of Jesus speak to all of us living in Christ today, in light of the resurrection, which many of us celebrated last weekend. Listen to John 10, starting with verse 1 (1-15):
“I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.
7Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep.
What do you think? Don’t the words of Jesus speak to your heart. If you are not his sheep yet, doesn’t this give you just a nudge to want him to be your good shepherd? Well, even though I have known him for many years, my heart is still warmed by these words as if I’m hearing them again for the first time.
Three points in our time together. First, we are told there are many doors. Second, Jesus said there is one door. Third, the door that is for you.
So first, we are told there are many doors. That’s what is taught almost universally today around the world. There’s more than one way. All roads lead to God. Whatever is right for you. It’s part of normal conversation. In American, when someone you know dies, most of us can start talking about how that friend or loved one is all right and is safe in some other place. Most of us don’t believe that life just ends in death, like turning the light switch off when you go to bed at night. Most of us can at least pay lip service to the thought that we will all die and then be together somewhere, someway, someday. That’s how we talk. But having been with a number of people at the point of death, most people getting ready to die, want to know what’s true when it’s time to depart this life. And we’re told and taught there are many doors.
In Egypt near Luxor and the Karnak Temple, a six-foot tall red granite door may not have looked like much at first. But then an excavation team that unearthed it from the Egyptian desert decoded the religious texts and symbols that decorated this piece of stone. That’s when they realized this door had served as a door to the afterlife for User, the chief minister during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut. They believed this door to the afterlife allowed the inhabitants of an Egyptian tomb to interact with people in the world of the living. If the tomb had remained undisturbed before the excavation team found it, it may have served the tomb inhabitants throughout all eternity. This door to the afterlife did not remain in its original location. Roman builders excavated the stone nearly one thousand years after the minister’s death and used it for the wall of a building.
There are many doors that we are told can lead us to eternity. Maybe eternity doesn’t mean much to you, but having just returned last weekend from China, I was amazed by the number of young people – university students, high school students, 20-somethings who were thinking about eternity. They didn’t want to be left out of finding the right door to eternity. They also wanted to find and go through the right door today and not have to wait until they die.
Second, Jesus said there is one door or one gate and he is that gate. We pick up hints of what Jesus would be teaching earlier in the Bible.
Psa. 118:19 Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD. 20 This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter. 21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. 22 The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; 23 the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Jesus made the teaching of the Bible more clear when he taught his people were sheep and if you tried to climb into the sheepfold any other way than through this single gate, you were a thief and a robber. He compares himself to being the watchman over the sheep, the one who opens the gate and leads his sheep into the fold. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out of the fold. Jesus had this way of teaching with figures of speech but then he made it clear by saying, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate (or the door) for the sheep.”
Also another time, in Luke 13, Jesus talked about more than one door, but only one door was the right door.
Luke 13:22 Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
He said to them, 24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25 Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’
“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
Luke 13:26 “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
Luke 13:27 “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’
Luke 13:28 “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. 29 People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. 30 Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”
I remember a few years ago I was in Boston, staying at a hotel near Harvard University. A friend of mine, Allistaire Begg, likes his coffee and when he’s traveling he likes to find a coffee shop where he can pray and read God’s Word. There he was near Harvard Square, next to one of the most highly respected schools of learning in the entire world. There are a lot of people going to Harvard that don’t believe there is anything after death. There would be many others who believe there are many doors to eternity and any one of those doors is correct. Alistaire asked the Lord to just showing him that the Lord Jesus was really the way, the truth and the life. And that’s when …(fill in story)
First, we are told there are many doors in today’s world. Even Jesus spoke of two doors, including the right door that is narrow. Second, Jesus said there is one door. He is the door, just as he is the gatekeeper. Third, the door that is for you. Do you have it right?
Luke 11:9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Rev. 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
Rev. 4:1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
SONG
Before The Throne- Chris Rice- Familiar words, different tune. From "Peace Like A River" INO Records.
[22:40-26:00]
