Open Windows, Open Doors

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

April 30, 2023

Open Windows, Open Doors

We are going to hold off on returning to 1 Sam for a week since we are coming to the epic account of David and Goliath in chapter 17 and with all we had going on this morning I didn’t want the service to go long or to cut the message short, so instead I want to share a word that has been on my heart. If you were at the last prayer meeting some of this may sound familiar.

I’ve titled this messageOpen Windows, Open Doors

A lot of times the Lord uses everyday things to speak truth to our heart. Recently I was getting ready for the day and went to open the drapes in our bedroom, which either Janice or I do almost every day, and it came to me: I probably wouldn’t be in that room more than 10 or 15 minutes all day and then it would be dark outside again, so why am I taking the time to tie back the drapes?

The answer is I love daylight coming in. I love the sun shining in. We both do. After we bought our first home on Long Island, the yard was overgrown with trees, so Janice asked me to buy a chainsaw for her birthday. Not for her, but for me to cut down a lot of the trees. She called it the “gift of sunshine.”

Sometimes I see a house all draped off and doors closed up all day and I wonder why they don’t open things up and let some sunshine in? I realize different people enjoy different things, but I do believe sunshine has a beneficial effect on our mental and emotional state of being.

But this message isn’t about interior design. It struck me that in this simple act of pulling back the drapes is a metaphor for the church. God wants us to have open windows and open doors. God wants life to shine in and shine out.

The world would love it if the church just kept its beliefs to itself. You wanna believe in Jesus? Go ahead, but don’t talk about it. Faith is a private thing. And we can buy into that mentality. We go to church, sing a few songs, shake a few hands, hear a message, go out into the world where real life happens. We feel uncomfortable talking about Jesus or offering to pray with someone because that’s just weird.

Little by little the church – and by that I don’t so much mean the building, I mean the people – can become closed off, drapes closed, doors closed. To borrow a well-known tag, “what happens in the church stays in the church.”

Jesus’ message to his disciples definitely wasn’t “what happens in the church stays in the church.” Let’s read Acts 1 beginning in verse 3:

³ He [Jesus] presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

⁴ And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; ⁵ for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” ⁶ So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” ⁹ And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. Acts 1:3-9

Jesus said you are to wait until the windows of heaven are opened up as the Holy Spirit is be poured out upon you, and then you are to open the doors and go to the end of the earth with the message of salvation.

Before that, for a short time, Jesus told them to close the windows and the doors. “Wait in Jerusalem.” During that time the disciples spent a lot of time in the upper room, praying and worshiping and enjoying sweet fellowship. The church was small enough for everyone to know everyone. Worship must have been heavenly. The fellowship was close and intimate. It was what church was meant to be: small, comfortable, intimate, cozy. Windows and doors closed, no one knows we’re here. I’ll bet some of them wanted it to stay like that forever. Then the day of Pentecost came!

2 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

⁵ Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ⁶ And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. Acts 2:1-6

On the day of Pentecost, the windows of heaven opened up and the Holy Spirit was poured out on that small group of believers, then they opened up the doors and spilled out onto the streets. Acts 2 doesn’t say that specifically, but it is implied by the crowds hearing them speaking the praises of God in foreign languages and by Peter standing up and addressing the crowds. All that didn’t happen in the upper room. That happened in the crowded streets of Jerusalem. The windows of heaven opened, and then the doors of the church opened and his disciples took the gospel to the ends of the earth as Jesus commanded us too.

Open windows in the Bible often represents God’s power and love being poured out, providing all we need.

The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. Deut. 28:12

¹⁰ Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. Mal. 3:10

The greatest example of God opening the windows of heaven is His Son coming down from heaven to live on earth as a man. And with Jesus, God poured out every heavenly blessing.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual

blessing in the heavenly places… Eph. 1:3

The windows of heaven are opened and God has poured love down through Christ. He has poured mercy, peace, forgiveness, hope, purpose, provision, eternal life. And Jesus commands us to go out the door and share all that with a lost world.

Open doors represents the gospel going forth to a broken world.

But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, ⁹ for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. 1 Cor. 16:8-9

¹² When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, ¹³ my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. 2 Cor. 2:12

For Jesus the upper room moments with his disciples were always to get refreshed and replenished for the open-door ministry they would continue each and every day. He was always ministering to the broken, the hurting, the lost, the outcast, the broken, the damaged.

Which is all of us. Everyone of us. Some might think they’re rich and have need of nothing, but Jesus sees them as they really are and says, “you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked and do not know it.” Come to me.

What is ironic is the more outraged this world becomes, the more hostile to what the Bible teaches, the further from God the world moves, the more the world needs Jesus. People may tell you to keep it to yourself, what happens in church should stay in church, but Jesus says, “go! Tell them about me!” Open windows, open doors.

1. Open windows, open doors gives us a model for how we should pray.

Every day we should pray the Lord opens the windows of heaven and pours out His power to us and through us. That God opens His good treasury and touches us with something from heaven – and then pray that God opens a door of ministry for us.

2. Open windows, open doors gives us a model for how we should believe.

I suspect that many Christians don’t believe they’re going to receive anything supernatural from heaven. I’m just an ordinary believer, barely getting by. Unh, unh. You are accepted in the beloved. God loves you with an everlasting love. Don’t ask God if He can spare a crust for you, know that you are His beloved child and ask Him to open the treasury and give you great blessings…but not to hoard, to share.

Believe God wants to use you. That’s not being proud, that’s being biblical! That’s being aligned with God’s will for our lives! Believe it!

3. Open windows, open doors gives us a model for how we should live

Our lives should be a constant channel, receiving from God, giving out to others (to believers and to

unbelievers both). Receive, give. Receive, give.

We really need both!

A church with open windows but closed doors is just asking God to bless me, bless me, bless me. God says, open the doors and let some of that blessing out – then I can give you more! We can’t just breathe in, at some point we need to breathe out. We need to let out what we take in! Open doors.

But a church with open doors but no expectation of anything supernatural is going to try to do God’s work by the power of the flesh. Just share the gospel – that’s our part. We don’t need anything more. Just make a clear case for Christ, make a strong apologetic against their mistaken belief system, give the gospel and good doctrine - that’s all we need to do. It’s spiritually flaky to expect anything more.

Actually, it’s totally biblical to expect more. Listen to the Apostle Paul, the greatest theological mind who ever lived, apart from Christ:

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, ⁴ and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,⁵ so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 1 Cor. 2:1-5

If ever a man’s wisdom and persuasive power could change lives, it would be Paul. But he spoke of Christ and demonstrated the Spirit and power of God. We aren’t as powerful as Paul, but we need the Spirit’s power to save souls as much as he did. We need to demonstrate the Spirit and power of God in how we live so that the people in our lives don’t just hear our words, they see something of God’s Spirit in us.

• Joy in an angry world
• Love in a selfish world
• Forgiveness in an offended world
• Hope in a dystopian world

And answered prayers, small (and sometimes big) evidences of God working in our lives. And faith shining in us and through us. God help us open the windows and the doors and let the love of Christ shine on us and through us.

Grace Community Church, let’s believe and pray together for God to give us fresh vision and new ways to open the windows and the doors so that His love shines on us and through us! Most especially that He gives us a heart for those who don’t know Jesus, that we have Holy Spirit boldness to witness of what He has done for us.

And if you aren’t a Christian, Jesus came to make it possible for you to have a relationship with God. That’s what your heart is longing for on the deepest level. Jesus offers you forgiveness of all your sins, healing for all your hurts, freedom from any bitterness or anger eating away at you. Receive Jesus as your Savior today – don’t put it off! I’m going to pray – if it reflects your heart’s desire, pray with me…