Previously: An Open Door

The scripture

Rev. 4:1 – After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice that I heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” ²Immediately I was in the Spirit, and there in heaven a throne was set. One was seated on the throne, ³and the One seated looked like jasper and carnelian stone. A rainbow that looked like an emerald surrounded the throne (HCSB).

John’s first glimpse into heaven is of an open door. We see in Christ’s letter to the church in Philadelphia that Jesus, “the One who has the key of David,” is authorized as Messiah to open and close doors of ministry. He also has the keys of death and Hades (1:18) and ultimately tosses both into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14). In the New Testament, an “open door” is an opportunity for the gospel’s advance (Acts 14:27; 1 Cor. 16:9; 2 Cor. 2:12; Col. 4:3). As the Head of the church, Jesus determines when and where the gospel will be effective (see Acts 16:6-10). Jesus also describes Himself as “the door” in John 10:9, the One through whom eternal life is granted.

So what is this open door in heaven? First, we need to understand that the door is “standing open,” not suddenly opened as we see in Ezek. 1:1; Matt. 3:16; and Acts 7:56, 10:11. From an earthly perspective heaven must be opened for God’s servants to be granted revelation, but for John, who is taken up into heaven – most likely by a vision rather than physically – the door already is opened and he may gaze upon things that Paul, who only heard them, could not express (2 Cor. 12:4).

The word “door” appears in about 180 verses of scripture and three times in Revelation. In Rev. 3:8, Jesus honors the faithfulness of believers in Philadelphia by placing before them an “open door” of ministry that no one is able to shut. In Rev. 3:20, Jesus stands outside the door of the church at Laodicea and knocks, seeking entrance and fellowship. But in Rev. 4:1, John sees an open door that leads into the throne room of heaven. No one there may close the door. No one desires to do so. While C.S. Lewis once observed that the door to hell is locked from the inside, entrance into heaven is by invitation only and requires belief in the One who is “the door.”

The door in this verse may symbolize the free access granted to those who have trusted in Christ and who, while on earth, were invited to “approach the throne of grace with boldness” (Heb. 4:15). Whatever the “open door” may be, it is a door not made with human hands; nor is it a door that human hands may open or close. John crosses the threshold by God’s grace through faith and enters the riches of the Creator’s throne room.

Next: A Unique Voice

Read about Christ’s letters to the seven churches (Rev. 2-3)

Read five views of the Book of Revelation

Read what every Christian should believe about the end times