The Door Unlocked / Revelation 21:9–14, 21–27 / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday May 25th 2025 / Season of Easter / Mount Olive Lutheran Church

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday May 25th 2025: Season of Easter / Revelation 21:9–14, 21–27 “The Door Unlocked”

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. …

And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends, do you lock your doors at night? Some of you may remember a time in your life when you didn’t; didn’t lock the front door, didn’t lock the barn door, didn’t lock the doors on your car or on your truck: your head would hit the pillow heavy with slumber and drift off to sleep without a worry in the world because you were safe and secure in your happy home. But even then were there places in the world where people would have locked their doors? Where they did lock everything up? Where the happiness of their home was in danger or violated? Certainly there were. Why is that? The threat, either real or imaginary, of greedy thieves, drunkards, debauched revilers, the sexually immoral, adulterers, two faced swindlers,[1] sorcerers, kidnappers, murderers,[2] everything that would keep you up at night, everything that would keep you from your rest.

Just the other day I was talking with someone who mentioned this sad state of affairs that we find ourselves in today and how churches now often have locked doors when no one is around; that due to the threat, either real or imaginary, of misfortune and evil deeds even churches can’t be left unlocked for the potential soul in need of a quiet place to pray and speak to God in their distress. I mentioned to him a time when early one morning I pulled into the frosty winter parking lot of the church and with the snow lightly falling all around I saw a man kneeling alone on the unwept steps praying. Kneeling there with him, in the dark of the morning, we prayed the Lord’s Prayer together and finding my key I unlocked the door and invited him in out of the cold.

In our Epistle reading today, from the Book of Revelation, Saint John describes how an angel who had charge of one of the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues carried John away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed him the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God like a bride adorned for her bridegroom, and among the details that John recounts for us, he says of this New Jerusalem that “its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there,” and that, “the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb,” and that “[the kings of the earth] will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations.” Then Saint John says, “Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Today we'll look at what it means to live in this New Jerusalem, this heavenly Holy City of God made new in Christ, and what it means to be one whose name is written in the Lamb’s book of life. 

In the Old Testament book of Zechariah we have this vision of a Flying Scroll that fits into what we hear from the Book of Revelation. Zechariah says, “Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll! And [the Word of the Lord] said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.” Then [the Word of the Lord] said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side [of the scroll], and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side [of the scroll]. I will send it out, declares the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by My name. And it shall remain in his house and consume [his house], both timber and stones.”[3] Here we have the promise that anything gained by thieves and liars will be short lived, that their sin will find them and they will not inherit what the LORD would give them because in their impatience they made themselves greater than God believing they knew better who should have what according to property and reputation.

This passage from Zechariah is teaching in the Old Testament the same sort of thing that is taught in the New Testament when Saint John records how in the New Jerusalem “Nothing unclean will ever enter [into it], nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Even though they are unlocked the wicked will not be able to walk through any of the pearly gates, and they will not be able to climb in by another way because Jesus is the only way into this New Jerusalem.[4] And because the World and everyone in it will have been judged and the righteous will have been separated from the wicked the “gates [of this New Jerusalem] will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there,” meaning there will be no reason to lock the gates by night because there will be no night there. And so Jesus says of Himself, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”[5] In the new heavens and the new earth you who are in Christ will be able to come and go through the gates of this New Jerusalem and there will never be a lock barring your way. You will be able to rest in peace without the threat of wickedness. And because the former things will have passed away along with death and mourning and crying[6] we can trust that sin itself, with all its temptations, will have passed away with the former things. We talked about the joy of this at our Thursday Morning Bible Study when we considered what life in heaven will be like in Christ Jesus.

In the mean time resist the temptation to steal, resist the temptation towards greed, resist the temptation towards greedy avarice and miserly hoarding fueled by fear and idolatry remembering what Jesus teaches, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”[7] When you trust your inheritance in Christ as an heir of heaven, as a Child of God, you have the possibility of peace both in this life and the guarantee of peace in the world to come. The possibility of a happy home here in this life, regardless of what the World throws at you, and the guarantee of a happy home in the New Jerusalem in the life which is to come. 

This brings us to the second point to dig into today: What does it mean to have your name written in the Lamb’s book of life?

During His earthly public ministry in the years leading up to His cross and passion, leading up to His crucifixion and death Jesus taught His disciples, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”[8] When did Jesus give them those keys? He gave them those keys on the first Easter Sunday, the day He was risen from the dead. Those keys of Death and Hades, those keys of Forgiveness and Life are now firmly in His hand for He has defeated your enemies of Sin, Death, the Devil and the World upon the cross, in fact He has even defeated your rebellious nature and all wickedness in you. So Saint John in His Gospel recounts how “on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, [Jesus] showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. [Then] Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.” And when He had said this, [Jesus] breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”[9] And this week on Thursday at Grace Lutheran Church we’ll celebrate together Jesus’ Ascension to His heavenly Father where Jesus commands His disciples saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[10] Right around the time of His own baptism in the Jordan River John the Baptizer points at this Jesus and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”[11] Dear ones Jesus is the Lamb of God, and what it means to have your name written in the Lamb’s book of life, is to be one who has been forgiven, one who has heard the Word of God and believed, one who has been baptised, who has had their sins washed away.   

In his first letter to the Christian of Corinth Saint Paul asks, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” That would be the wicked. Saint Paul continues, “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”[12] … And such were some of you. In Christ—while we may still struggle against our temptations—we do not need to continue to be these things. Dear ones, in Christ, your name is now written in His Book of Life. This is the difference between were and are: Those who refuse forgiveness, who will not repent when the opportunity is provided, who try to climb into heaven by another way will not have the promised inheritance and they will go to unrest where the gates are locked, and they are locked behind them with the wicked for all eternity, they will be lead away to a place where there will be no rest and no peace and whatever “comfort” they have now from their wickedness will evaporate in the unquenchable of flames of the place. On the one hand the keys of forgiveness unlock heaven, and keep the gates of the New Jerusalem unlocked for eternity, on the other hand the keys to the second death and eternal damnation in hell lock away the wicked, locking them in and separating them from the righteous forever.[13] If your name in not in the Lamb’s Book of Life you have no happy home in the New Jerusalem, if your name in not in the Lamb’s Book of Life your home will be elsewhere.    

It is certainly easy to be tempted into despair by the state of the World we live in, where we lock our doors out of concern for the wickedness we see around us, or the wickedness that may befall us, however it is a great blessing that Jesus gave the Church, and her pastors, a ministry of reconciliation and the promise that if we ask for anything, including forgiveness in Jesus’ name, we will receive it, so “that our joy may be full.”[14] We come now to Him as ones in need of mercy trusting that Jesus and the Father are of one accord, that Jesus’ Good Friday death and Easter Sunday resurrection unlock the gates of heaven and give us peace that the world does not give,[15] and that, as Christ Jesus says of these days, while “In the World you will have tribulation,” we live as Christians with more than tribulation, for Jesus also promises, “take heart; I have overcome the World.”[16] Listen to His voice; these words alone give us peace. Rest in Him today and tomorrow: He has unlocked the door for the man kneeling in the snow praying, He has unlocked the door to Eternal Life for me and for you. Your Lord Jesus writes you into His Book of Life with His own lifeblood as the price, He has you engraved on the palms of His hands.[17] You are written there and where He goes, there you are. We now look forward to that eternal day were there will be no night and no reason to lock our doors in our happy heavenly home. Amen.    

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
[2] Revelation 22:15
[3] Zechariah 5:1–4
[4] John 10:1–2
[5] John 10:9
[6] Revelation 21:4
[7] Matthew 6:19–21
[8] Matthew 16:19; and also Matthew 18:18, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
[9] John 20:19–23
[10] Matthew 28:18–20
[11] John 1:29
[12] 1 Corinthians 6:9–11
[13] Revelation 1:18
[14] John 16:24
[15] Philippians 4:7
[16] John 16:33
[17] Isaiah 49:16

Photo Credits: Main photo montage of a photo of an open gate from wikimedia commons flanked by gold tinted version of old skeleton key from StockCake.