It's Jesus - Can I Come In Series

Scripture: Revelation 3:14-22; John 14:21-23

Theme: Who Owns the Home?

Title: It’s Jesus – May I Come In?

Is Jesus inside your church or heart or is He knocking at the door?

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

I read this advertisement recently:

Room Wanted. Single male, non-smoker, is seeking a place to stay. Unselfish, good natured, and loves children. A real ‘can-do’ person, able to rise above problems. Great culinary skills (can work wonders with bread and fish) and has experience in wine making. Outstanding skills in managing medical emergencies, counseling, and teaching stress management. Not judgmental – willing to accept you just as you are. An excellent listener, compassionate and has an understanding heart. Have been known to help others change their lives for the better; able to give power to the faint and strength to the powerless. Willing to stay in any unoccupied room and remodel it. – Byran Beverly

Along with that I read this message that was written over the door of a castle in England –

“It is the duty of the host to make his guests feel at home. It is the duty of the guests to remember that they are not.” – (Reader’s Digest March 1983).

When we look at the Church of Laodicea and the words that Jesus spoke to this church both of those statements could be put into play. Jesus was looking for a place to stay and the current attitude of the church was very much like the words on that castle.

Our main passage this morning is a rather puzzling piece of scripture. After you get through all the things that Jesus says about the church:

+You are lukewarm.

+You are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.

You are left with a rather stark image. This Church was in some deep trouble and it wasn’t even aware of it.

I am sure that they were waiting to hear John’s words concerning them. I am sure that in their hearts they were certain that they would receive some glowing report. That Jesus would want them to know how proud He was of them and how they were doing. How that He was pleased about all the new things they had been doing and that they were the best of the best of the churches. After all they have been left for last and everyone knows that the best is always mentioned last so that everything will finish on a high note.

If that was their thinking, then they got it all wrong. They were last not because they were the best, but because they were in the most trouble.

But being in trouble doesn’t mean that all is lost.

Jesus doesn’t abandon them. He does the exact opposite. He tells them their current condition and then shares with them what they can do to begin to repair the situation. He doesn’t condemn them and leave them.

That is not Jesus’ way.

Yes, He does share some rather unpleasant news with them. But He doesn’t reject them and then leave them to wither and die.

In verse 20, Jesus stands at the door of the Church (the doors of their hearts) and knocks.

There is a powerful image here in just a few verses. There is also a rather sticky question.

How did Jesus get on the outside of this Church?

It’s not like they were pagans. This was His Church – the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST in the town of Laodicea. It was a church that many believed had been started by one of the Apostle Paul’s disciples, a man by the name of Epaphras. This is the same man who had also started the Church in Colossae just nine miles away from Laodicea and was one of the Apostle Paul’s best friends.

We also know that the Apostle Paul visited this church and wrote a letter to them. We read that in his letter to the Church of Colossae.

And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you read also the letter from Laodicea.

—?Colossians 4:16

There is some thought that Paul’s first letter to Timothy was written while Paul was staying in the city of Laodicea (Sophrone Pétridès, "Laodicea" in Catholic Encyclopedia (New York 1910).

What all this tells us is that at some point in time the Church of Laodicea had been doing quite well. It had been on the straight and narrow. It had been a growing and maturing church.

And we know that this Church received Jesus’ advice. It reopened its doors to Jesus, it repented and survived. It not only survived it became one of the largest churches in its area.

Archaeologists have found that over the next 300 years the church continued to grow to the point where its largest church took up over a city block of land. They also discovered that over 20 different Christian Churches were built in and around the city.