When we’re out there doing it our way as that old song goes, living life, kind of rejecting Jesus – not completely, just a bit on the lukewarm side – the hardest thing to do can be to take the decision to open the door when He comes a knocking. It’s hard that is, until we realise what His purpose is … and it may not be what we think.

  Dinner with Jesus

Just the other night my wife Jacqui and I were invited over for dinner by some friends of ours, James and Shirley. So we headed over, picked up our daughter from work along the way, she came with us. They'd prepared this lovely meal, a rich stew with lots of vegetables which I really like. In one sense it wasn't a real flashy meal, not up market if you will but that wasn't the point. It was a week night, they'd both been at work all day as we had. It was just such a joy sitting down sharing a meal together, sharing our lives with one another.

It's those simple things in life that I really enjoy, don't you? Every now and then to just fellowship with friends over a meal is something really, really special. Not a large crowd, just us and some friends. That's how we get to know one another. That's how we get to know the heart, the life, the joys, the sorrows of someone – by sharing a meal with them.

This week again on the program we’re continuing our theme of intimacy with Jesus in this series that I’ve called, "There’s a Knock at the Door" because Jesus, as it turns out, wants exactly that same sort of relationship with you and with me. And that, from where I sit is absolutely awesome. That's something worth wrapping our hearts around – His passion to be close to us.

So far in this series, we’ve spent some time in this passage in the Book of Revelation. I’m going to read it again. It comes from the Book of Revelation Chapter 3 and it starts at verse 14:

And to the angel of the Church in Laodicea write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation: “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you're lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I'm going to spit you out of my mouth. For you say ‘I am rich, I have prospered and I need nothing.’ You don't realise that you're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.

Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent. Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice then open the door, I will come into you and eat with you and you with me.

To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the spirit is saying to the Churches.

What we’ve seen so far is that Jesus is passionate about being close to you and me and the last thing … the very last thing He wants from us is a lukewarm response. Give Him hot or give Him cold, anything but lukewarm. But more often than not that's exactly what He gets from us – lukewarm! Why? Because we're so caught up in the here and now that we say, "I'm rich, I've prospered, I don't need anything". We don't realise that we're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Ain't that just the truth?

I spent half my lifetime living like that. In fact not long after I gave my life to Jesus the pastor of my Church asked me to write down my testimony so I did. This is how it started out. “I never really needed God …” And that's exactly how it felt. I was doing pretty well in life, I had a good job, good career prospects, all that stuff and one day, the hard way, Jesus came along and opened my eyes to the truth. I thought I was rich … but really I was wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.

I had money but what I was missing out on was the rich abundant life that Jesus came to give me and you know at the point of realising that, when I finally woke up – a bit like the prodigal son sitting there amongst the pigs when he came to his senses – I felt like such a dill. I realised how pitiable my pride must have looked to God and so my natural reaction was to shrink away from Him.

You know when you know that you know you're not worthy. I'd always had that sneaking suspicion but when Jesus shines His light in your heart, when we can finally see all the muck that's there for what it really is – muck – what we naturally want to do is to pull away from God.

I had a man contact me not so long ago who'd been a generous supporter of our ministry but he was into some stuff in his life that he knew was wrong and so he was pulling away from Jesus. He knew that that was the worst thing he could do but he was still doing it because it came naturally. We feel so inadequate, so unworthy so we pull away. Been there? Yes … me too.

And it's into that situation that Jesus is speaking. Remember He's speaking here to a lukewarm Church in Laodicea that's at risk of pulling away from Him and so He comes along with the exact opposite. He calls them to come to their senses:

Be earnest therefore and repent. Listen, I'm standing at the door knocking, if you hear my voice open the door. I'll come into you and eat with you and you with me. (Revelation 3:19-20)

"If only you'll have a change of mind, what you hear is my knocking at the door or of your heart", says Jesus, "and what I want to do is to come in and sit down and have a meal with you. Nothing fancy, just a good honest meal so we can sit and eat together and chat together and fellowship together. You can hear my heart and I can hear your heart."

That's what Jesus is saying here. It's an invitation to the sinner. It's an invitation for you and me to decide to earnestly turn our lives back towards Jesus; to open the door of our heart's to let Him in so He can fellowship with us, dine with us, draw close to us. But when we're in that place of feeling inadequate and unworthy, it's the very last thing we expect.

What we expect is condemnation and punishment but that's not why Jesus came. He didn't come to condemn us, He came to save us … to save us from a life of a deluded, pitiable, poor, blind, naked wretch. That's what makes Christianity – which is a belief in this very same Jesus – totally different from any other belief system or faith or so called religion on the planet.

The thing that sets the Christian apart is that he or she believes in the grace and the mercy of God. We believe that because Jesus paid for all our sin we can come to Him now and rely on what He did on the Cross for us back then. Rely on the fact that we are totally forgiven, totally set free to be totally one with Him. And just as the picture I painted for you of the dinner my family and I had with our friends James and Shirley the other night is beautifully heart warming, as simple as it is, so this picture of Jesus knocking at our door desiring to dine with a sinner, is totally wondrous and awesome and sublime.

Listen, I'm standing at the door knocking. If you hear my voice open the door, I'll come into you and eat with you and you with me.

So what's your response?

 

The Matthew Discovery

Before the break we were chatting about the passion that Jesus has to come and fellowship with us, the passion He has, as it were, to share a meal with us. Yet so often that's the last thing we'd ever expect. The more we become aware of God, of who He is, of the love He has for us and all that He's done, the more aware we become of our short comings, the more aware we become of our sin, the more aware we become of that fact that we simply aren't worthy.

That's what kept me running away from God for almost two decades of my life. This knowledge that if I ever came face to face with Jesus that I'd get what I deserved – condemnation and punishment. That of course was before I understood the concept of grace, the unmerited favour of God, the mercy and the forgiveness that I have when I put my trust in Jesus.

Although … to tell you the truth so awesome is the Grace of God – this Amazing Grace – that I am absolutely certain that it will take me for the rest of eternity to truly come to grips with what it means. And I know that I'm not alone. So when some joker gets up on the radio and starts talking about this Jesus knocking on the door, wanting to have a meal with us, wanting to fellowship with us, man I know how difficult that can be to come to grips with.

Listen, says Jesus, I'm standing at the door knocking. If you hear my voice and open the door I'll come into you and eat with you and you with me.

That's the key passage that we've been unpacking. This idea that if only we'll have a change of heart, you and I, if only we'll open our hearts to receive Jesus, He'll come in and be close to us, linger with us, dine with us, fellowship with us.

It's an awesome idea but is it true? Other than this verse in the last Book of the Bible, Revelation 3:20, is there any evidence that Jesus really, really wants to do that … that He really means to do that in my life and in yours? That's the question.

Well right now we're going to spend some time with an outcast who, perhaps like you and me, would have struggled to begin to even comprehend that it could be true. He was a man who was loathed by his fellow Jews. He was despised by them. Why? Because he was a tax collector. None of us like paying taxes, although these days we understand that we need taxes to live in a country that provides law and order and hospitals and schools and all the other essential services to it's people. But back in the 1st Century Israel, tax collectors were essentially extortionists.

They would bid for the right to collect tolls on a particular road on behalf of the Roman Emperor. That was the first thing: they were working for Rome, the occupying force oppressing their fellow countrymen. And secondly once they'd won the right to collect a toll on this particular stretch of road they'd then inflate the amount in order to pay the bribes that were required to win the contract in the first place, and also to make a handsome profit. Most of them lived a pretty high life. So you can see why they were despised by their fellow Jews.

So imagine a tax collector living in a town and he hears that Jesus, this ‘rock star’, is coming to town. The crowds are milling around. They've all heard about the miracles, they're all aware of His reputation as a preacher like no other. That's where we're going to pick up Matthews story. Matthew Chapter 9 beginning at verse 9:

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to Matthew, ‘Follow me.’ And Matthew got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees, the religious leaders, saw this, they said to Jesus’ disciples, ‘Why does your Teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?’

But when Jesus heard this he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice’. For I have come not to call the righteous but to call the sinners.’ 

Now intuitively we kind of imagine, you and I, that if the Son of God was coming to town He'd want to catch up with whom? Well the religious leaders, and in our case, maybe the Archbishop or the Bishops. Or He'd want to dine with senior politicians or maybe reputable business leaders. Imagine if instead, Jesus came into your town and my town and He walked past all of those people and He went down to a seedy cafe where the prostitutes and the drug dealers hang out. Imagine that, what would people say about Him then?

That's exactly what He did here and the religious leaders were none to happy with Him when they heard. And from a human perspective, maybe we can understand that because it's not what we would expect the Son of God to do. If you or I were Matthew would we have expected Jesus to come to our place for dinner with all our outcast friends? Well of course we wouldn't, that's the last thing we would have expected.

In Eastern culture table fellowship’s a big thing. It confers honour on someone when a person of higher status comes to dine at their place so this was a powerfully symbolic act. Jesus did it deliberately, not just to tell Matthew and his mates that He'd come to earth for them but to explain to everyone else, especially those hypercritical self righteous religious leaders, that Jesus had come not for the righteous but for the sinners. Not for the people who were lifted up in everyone else’s eyes but for the flotsam and jetsam of society, for the people who desperately needed Him.

Now let's put ourselves in Matthew's shoes for a moment, how does that make him feel? To know that this amazing miracle man – this Jesus with "rock star" status who draws these massive crowds with His meetings – would come to his place for dinner. How would that make you feel? Well for me I'm thinking I'd be blown away completely by the honour.

Jesus, blessing and honouring Matthew in this way without any condemnation at all, without telling Matthew what he already knew – that the way he was living his life was wrong – Jesus gets a change of heart out of the man. Jesus shows Matthew and his friends mercy, something the religious leaders apparently didn't know too much about. As a result Matthew ends up leaving his lucrative extortion business of tax collecting and becomes one of Jesus’ closest twelve Disciples.

Friend, that's the transformation that the mercy of God, through Jesus His Son, brings to our lives. This radical mercy and grace and love that has Him accepting us just the way we are is what sets off a chain reaction of transformation. It has to, it's so outrageous! And all we have to do is to acknowledge where we're at and turn our lives back to Jesus, because He came precisely for sinners like you and me. And wherever you are on your journey, whatever you've done in your life, whatever you're ashamed of, whatever's caused you to drift away from God ever farther each day – it's all washed away the moment you put your trust in this Jesus who came for Matthew, who came for me, who came for you.

That's grace, pure and simple: the totally unmerited favour of God for all who'd place their trust in this Jesus who's knocking at the doors of our hearts this very moment and asking us to invite Him in. This very Jesus who wants to have dinner at our place, to linger, to laugh, to listen, to lead us on into a new place, a new freedom, a new eternity. He stands at the door and knocks, He waits. What a pity with so many of us He has to wait so long.

After this short break we're going to take a look at that door and what it looks like from Jesus’ perspective. Have you ever thought of that? It might be an interesting view of the world. That’s after this short break.

  Light of the World

Okay, so Jesus is standing on the other side of this door knocking – the door of our hearts, your heart and my heart. There's a great painting by a man called William Holman Hunt, called ‘The Light of the World’. It was painted in the mid 1800's. It depicts Jesus standing before a long unopened door covered in overgrowth and weeds … and He's knocking.

It’s night time, it's dark. He's carrying a lamp, hence the name of the painting, "The Light of the World". Hunt, fifty years after painting this picture, felt the need to explain the symbolism:

'I painted the picture with what I thought, unworthy though I was, to be a Divine command and not simply as a good subject.’ The door in the painting has no handle and can therefore only be opened from the inside representing ‘the obstinately shut mind.’

I know it well because at the Church that I'm part of we have a large version of this painting turned into a stained glass window which is back lit. Our old building was knocked down but fortunately someone thought to bring this beautiful stained glass window into the new building.

Cool painting with a powerful notion, this idea that the door can only be opened from the one side, from the inside and that it's a long, long time since this particular door was opened. Doesn't it represent the picture of many a man’s and many a woman’s life?

So can God soften our hearts? Sure He can. But at the end of the day He gives us a free will to accept Him or reject Him when He reveals Himself to us. However, the important thing about this passage in Revelation Chapter 3 is that He's knocking on the door of the hearts of men and women in the Church of Laodicea.

So these aren't people who've never met Him before, these aren't people who never heard the Good News of Jesus. These are in fact God’s own people at whose door He stands; people who by all account had seriously upset Him through their lukewarm attitude towards Him. And He's standing outside this door that can only be opened from the inside, knocking.

'So because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I am about to spit you out of my mouth', says Jesus.

Now if someone had seriously upset you, would you go out at night and stand outside their front door knocking? Would you take the trouble to stand there and wait for them to answer and if so how long would you stand there? What would be going on in your heart as you stood there waiting for this person who had upset you?

What if that person who upset you takes forever to answer the door? Not just a minute or two, not just half an hour, not just a few hours, not just a few days but what if you're standing outside this door knocking and the person who's upset you takes months or even years to open the door?

Do you see my point? Jesus the Son of God, as He always has, goes out of His way to find the lost sheep. He goes out of His way to come to us, to call us back to Himself. He goes out of His way to knock on our door and to offer to come in and bless us and to have dinner with us. Now imagine how it must feel for Him, the Son of God, the creator of the universe as He stands outside in the dark and the cold, Jesus the Son of God waiting, waiting for us to take the time to answer.

Already He's humbled Himself by just coming, already He's opened Himself up to relationship from His side by dying on that brutal Cross so that you and I could be forgiven … and we leave Him standing outside in the cold because our response to Him is lukewarm. Imagine if He came to your door tonight physically and knocked on the door, would you leave Jesus outside?

So why is it that as we get distracted with all the things in life we manage to leave Jesus at arms length outside on the other side of the door of our hearts knocking? His intent is clear, to come in and to dine with us and to fellowship with us, to come and bless us as He blessed Matthew and his friends … and yet we have the hide sometimes to leave Him waiting out in the cold.

All He asks of us is that we earnestly repent, earnestly have a change of heart and mind and life so as to open the door. Repentance, this turning is what turns the handle from the inside and opens the door. Repentance is what opens the door and invites Jesus in to come and fellowship and dine with us: an earnest realisation that we've rejected Him, that in going our own way we've gone the wrong way. An earnest "I'm sorry", an earnest "I want to have a relationship with you Jesus, I do want to linger with you, I do want to fellowship with you, I do want to have dinner with you."

He's already here, He's already knocking, He's just waiting for us to repent and open the door. You know my prayer for each of us is that today as we've heard God’s Word, as we picture Jesus standing outside the door knocking, my prayer for each of us is that we are rocked to the core by the reality of a God that would come after us; the reality of a God who would send His Son to die for us so that we could be forgiven. The reality of a God who comes to seek us out wherever we are, whatever we're doing, however badly we've hurt Him, who comes to seek us out not to punish us, no not that at all, He comes to seek us out to call us close to have a relationship with Him.

My prayer is that you and I would be rocked to the core today by this God, this Jesus who came for you.

I stand at the door and knock.

Will you answer? Will you go to the door? Will you open the door? Will you invite Him in? The decision … the decision is yours, the decision is mine.