Revelation 3.20 – “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me."
Revelation 3.8 – "Behold, I have set before you an open door,
which no one is able to shut."
Revelation
chapters 2 and 3 contain letters from the Lord of the Church to seven churches
in
These words were first addressed to churches, though in more recent tines we have given then a personal and individual application. Both of these applications are important and necessary. Our individual response to our Lord must be reflected in the character of our fellowship; the corporate response of the Church to her Lord will be seen in – the commitment of her individual members.
The first picture we consider is of our door closed with the Lord Jesus knocking outside to gain admittance.
He cones in love, knowing that we heed him.' He comes to bring pardon, peace, renewal. His knocking is accompanied by speaking – he identifies himself as our Saviour and Lord and calls to us by name.
Perhaps we hear him knocking outside and are troubled by feelings of guilt. We cannot let him in – we have not lived just as we ought, we have offended against his laws, we have offended him. He has surely come to find us out, to judge us for our sin. Yet still he knocks...
This knocking troubles us. Why should he knock? We have not invited him. We want to run our own lives, control our own destinies. What need have we of this intruder? Yet still he knocks...
"I have made you. I love you. I myself have taken the judgment due to your sin. Pardon and peace are yours to receive. You are heading your own way – to destruction! I love and care – before it is too late, open and receive me!"
Have you
invited him in? As we do so, we begin a new relationship – he is not simply our
Lord, but our Friend! Life takes on a new meaning and a new purpose.
The story is told of a Negro Christian who approached the officials of a respectable church regarding church membership. The matter was considered and he later received a formal note that his application had not been accepted. That night he had a dream in which Jesus appeared and said to him, "Never mind, Johnny, I have been trying to get into that church myself for many years".
Can it be
that, as a church, in the midst of all our
busy-ness and organisation and activity (and even worship), we can leave outside the risen,
powerful Lord Jesus Christ? We can only truly be a
The second picture is of the door which the Lord has opened and cannot be shut. He calls us to enter.
It is striking to note the gracious love expressed in both pictures – he does not force his way through our door, nor pull us through his! Here, the door is open – it is for us to enter.
What is this door? To us as individuals, it is the opportunity of a deeper Christian experience, to enter into the joy of our Lord. Too often we have been content that God loves us, satisfied to know divine forgiveness, spiritually fulfilled by formal Christian worship.
For most pre-Reformation Christians, the reading of the Bible was done for them at church. There too prayers were offered for their souls by the priest. In neither of these activities, was there always much understanding. With the Reformation cane the rediscovery of the Bible as a book which the common man could take and read with profit for his own spiritual nourishment. It was recognised, too, that it was not necessary to approach God through a priest – each Christian could pray directly to God in the name of Jesus Christ.
It has been suggested that we have, of late, been slipping back to pre-Reformation tines. Bible reading and prayer have been becoming less and less the daily practice of our lives and more an activity for "Church". The door is open – the Lord has opened it, and he calls us to enter.
Yet he speaks to us also as a whole Church. In context, it speaks of new mission opportunities with a change of heart for some who have rejected the Word (note v. 9). We stand at the end of one century with thankfulness for all that God has done through his people here. We stand at the beginning of a new century, having heard the call for world-wide mission and outreach in 1975. The Lord of the Church is saying to us, "Behold, I have set before you an open door..." Let us go forward with him together.
© Peter J. Blackburn,
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from
the Revised Standard Version, © Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the
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