Keys to the Kingdom--by Linden Malki

Keys are a fact of life in this world.  Most of us carry a big wad of keys, between houses, work, cars;  and practically everything we deal with requires keys.  In fact, I often say that keys are proof of original sin.  Many of us have had cars stolen; one of my daughter's had her car stolen and recovered; then moved to what they thought was a safer neighborhood, and  had the same car stolen again.  My store near downtown got broken into three times last year, and now has about 16 locks on the premises, bars on the windows and gates on the doors.  My house, at the end of a road  in a rural area, got broken into last spring, and now has a locked gate on the road.  It is a pain to always have to think about having my keys with me, and arranging to have the gate open for people that I want to have come to my house.

There are still a few places  where people don't lock their doors, but I suspect that it gets fewer all the time. And it's not just today's world: two thousand years ago, Jesus described the Kingdom: "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."  (John 10:9-10 NASB) The reality of doors and keys goes another thousand years earlier, with this prophecy of the Messiah: “Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder,  When he opens no one will shut, When he shuts no one will open." (Isaiah 22:22 NASB), repeated in Revelation:  “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this: 8 ‘I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name. " (Revelation 3:7-9 NASB) 

Not only is Jesus the Door into the presence of God, but He has the most important keys of all: " I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades." (Revelation 1:18 NASB)