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 l...

Released on 31 Jan 2021