Let me tell you of a door. There is this door that exists without a handle, no push plate or pull bar. It is a door that exists with no knob. This knob-less door represents the door that is between us and the Lord. You can try to find this door, you can knock on it, bang it hard if you need to, you can even shout at it until something happens. But until something happens, you are stuck on the outside.

This knob-less door exists; it’s not fantasy but it does point to a theological door just the same. This knob-less door exists at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. You can only get through this door if someone on the inside opens it up to you. Weird right? But in a theological sense, this is the matter of faith. By yourself alone, you cannot enter into heaven. You cannot even enter into the presence of God. As Jesus warns, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many will seek to enter and will not be able.” I do not like Jesus’ warnings, nor should you. It’s in those warnings that give us cause to stop and wonder about we stand before the Lord. Because there is a door that we must enter though, but on our own efforts we cannot.

But when you think about it, our lives consist of numerous sets of doors, decisions really, that you made to bring you to this point today. From the daily decisions that are merely done out of necessity, to life changing decisions that are done out of choice. We have decisions to be made.

There are times when we are knocking on the doors of choices and the doors do not seem to open- a love interest, the desire to have children, a new job, educational opportunities, and even elderly care. Sometimes these doors open in unexpected ways, sometimes these doors come later on, sometimes these doors are never allowed to be opened.

Life is full of so much choice. But then when it comes down to the issue of salvation, it’s not a choice to be made. You cannot choose Jesus, even on your best day. This next section of our lesson today ought to give us pause, it’s Jesus’ second warning:

When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ (Luke 13:25-27)

Who is the master of this house? Jesus is. So, this warning comes to us in an interesting way- 1. Jesus is pointing to His resurrection- when He has risen. 2. This same master, Jesus, will at some point shut the door. We know when He rose, but we do not know when the shutting of this door will happen.

As James Brown says as a preacher man in Blues Brothers, “Don’t be lost when the time comes, don’t be lost when the time comes. For the dayth of the Lord come like a thief in the night.” Perhaps this warning isn’t for you, as an individual, but it is in terms of our neighbor. The whole point of this passage is the hospitality that God shows to you and those who have entered through the narrow door.

The door of faith is a narrow door. It is tough for many to enter it. Reality, at the end of time, you are either with Jesus or against Him. Then, one of the great puzzling questions is, how do I know if I am with Jesus?

We begin to answer the question in this way, are you asking, are you seeking, are you knocking? In Asking, this is talking about repentance. If we are asking the Lord for forgiveness, we know that the Holy Spirit is at work in our hearts.

Seeking is talking about prayer. If we are praying, are we trusting that the Heavenly Father is good and desires to give us the good things that we need? As the First Commandment says “Have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust God above all things.” God’s desire is for you to be in the faith. And being in the faith, He gives you good gifts- forgiveness, life, and salvation. These good gifts only come to those who are found in Christ.

Knocking is talking about faith. Your faith knocks on the door with no knob, this door that is being knocked on is still open, however small the gap is, it’s still open. The master of the house is waiting for us to give us what we need in this life for the life to come. Your faith is strengthened in a few ways- hearing God’s word and receiving the benefits of the sacraments- baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

But, here’s the kicker of it all, being able to go through this door is not a decision that you make. You can run from inside of the door out, but not in. By the Holy Spirit, you have been granted entrance into this narrow door. By the good giving Father, He gives you what you need on the inside of this door. By the death and resurrection of Christ, you are given forgiveness for you sins which makes you eligible for redemption. This door is opened to you by the working of Christ and it is His desire to have you stay with Him forever.