Rapture: The Secrets of the Open Door, part 2

After these things I looked,

and behold, a door standing open in heaven.

And the first voice which I heard

was like a trumpet speaking with me,

saying, "Come up here,

and I will show you things

which must take place after this.

Immediately I was in the Spirit;

and behold, a throne set in heaven,

and One sat on the throne.

--John, Revelation 4:1-2, NKJV

Jesus said to the faithful church, "I have set before you an open door."  Many have viewed this, and I myself have taught it, as an open door of opportunity and ministry, but the text doesn't exactly bear that out.  It says because of their works, because of their strength, because they kept the word of Christ and did not deny His name, because they kept the command to persevere, because of all those things, they have been given the open door.  Because they have been faithful, they will be delivered from the great trial coming upon the earth.  Because they have been faithful, Jesus is coming quickly to give them a crown of reward and a new name, and to make them permanent fixtures in the presence of God.

So what is the open door?  It is mentioned again in Revelation 4:1, an open door standing in the heavens.  From the vantage point of Patmos, John lifts his eyes upward.  He has been communing with Jesus in worship on the Lord's Day, caught up in the Spirit, and suddenly has a vision of Jesus.  It starts with the sound of the Lord's voice, declaring His identity and His instructions for John to get a pen and write all this down.  John turns there on the beach and sees seven golden menorahs, with Jesus in their midst.  The Glorified Lord is dressed as their great high priest, and in his hand he holds seven stars.  He tells John, "The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches."

Jesus spoke, and John wrote, and when they had finished the seven letters to the seven churches, John said, "After these things..."

I'd like to point out here that if Revelation is a message about past, present, and future--as indicated when Jesus commanded John, "Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this"--John continually uses phrases that indicate a linear progression of events, one after the other.  His Gospel, his letters, and his testimony about the Isle of Patmos recorded the things that John had seen; in other words, his past.  The letters to the seven churches revealed the things which are, even to this day, in the church of Jesus Christ.  But after this...

John looked up and saw a door standing open in heaven.  Having just heard from Jesus about an open door for the faithful church, I would imagine the imagery was clear.  And as he looked, he heard the first voice again, a loud voice, like a trumpet.  And it said, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this."  In an instant, John was "in the Spirit," caught up to heaven and the presence of God.

A loud voice.  A Trumpet.  A catching away.  Does this sound familiar?  Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the Lord."  John got to experience that very thing in an upclose and personal preview of that great day!

And he went to heaven right through the open door!