Monday, September 30, 2019
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.” Revelation 3:20-22
Through the years I’ve heard
this text preached (and have done so myself) as a call to the lost to come to
Christ and be saved. It is an urgent
invitation to open their heart’s door and let Him come in. It’s also a bludgeon wielded by skillful
evangelists to usher the crowds of seekers and the resistant souls of those who
reject Christ closer to the throne of judgment, so they can sense the heat of
Hell’s fires awaiting them on Judgment Day.
It’s an interesting thing how,
when you’ve heard something proclaimed so long and so dogmatically, you just kind
of accept its’ bland noise as part of the landscape, and hardly ever question
if there’s anything deeper. I’ve always
accepted this Christ knocking of the door of hearts as a message to others. After all, I was saved years ago, part of Christ’s
church; I’m part of the regenerate redeemed…no lost soul here! And while I believe that to be so, that does
not diminish the primary thrust of John’s word in this passage. As I read the words again, the latest amongst hundreds
of times I’ve been through John’s Revelation, the final sentence grabbed my
heart from the superior vena cava down to the aorta; the apostle squeezed my
theological blind spot into attention:
“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.” Revelation 3:22
To be true to the original
context, John was writing to an actual church body, the lukewarm church at
Laodicea. This group of believers, saved
disciples of Jesus, had grown complacent and weren’t living up to the model of
passionate faith in Christ. This message
of Jesus standing on the outside, still knocking to be invited in, is a letter
to Christians. It’s not an evangelistic
call to the lost to come to the foot of the cross; this is a passionate, almost
desperate cry for the saved to stop walking away from the cross!
The church today (no matter
which “brand” you name) is suffering a great falling-away. Attendance, adherence, and all-around love
for all things church is drying up like a mud puddle in a North Carolina
drought. Many want to spend time
figuring out why, and who’s to blame.
That’s the nature of humans; if we can point a finger at someone else as
the reason for failure we stand a chance at not looking too closely at our own
responsibility. But that’s just the
issue John was addressing:
·
church is merely a name for a group of people who are
servants and friends of Jesus.
·
The
church doesn’t fail anyone unless a disciple walks away
from responsibility to Jesus.
·
The
church falls only when its disciples fall.
So, Jesus’ word to the
churches is get back up; discipleship is a walk, and you can’t do that
from your easy chair.
For You Today
For every New Testament
passage there is a corresponding Old Testament bell ringing in the ear. Let’s let the clarion call to God’s people ring
for us the bell of God’s wake-up call to the churches:
Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
No comments:
Post a Comment