AN INVITATION FOR FELLOWSHIP
Revelation 3:20
Dr. Harry Ironside used to tell about a group of believers who thought only of "internal fellowship." They had little concern for reaching the lost or for defending the faith against its enemies. In front of their meeting place they hung a sign: JESUS ONLY. But the wind blew away some of the letters, and the sign read: US ONLY. It was a perfect illustration of unbalanced Christians. SermonCentral .com
Not only is this group of people found unbalanced, but also it gives a sad commentary about their Christian walk. It is basically our duty as a church to go out and as Jesus charged us to do “To make disciples of men.”
As we look into this 3rd chapter of Revelation, we see a continuation of the messages to the churches of the Asian manor. Chapter 2 opened up with the Church of Ephesus and closed with the Church of Thyatira, then chapter 3 continued the messages, taking it to Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. It should be noted that in the messages that had been written to the angels or pastors of the church, you would find, the Lord’s complaint, the Lord’s warning, the Lord’s counsel and His promise. You would find these things consistently in the messages of five of the churches and in only two of the churches, the Lord had no complaint, and they were Smyrna and Philadelphia. But the true message of the Lord was of His ever present effort to once again have fellowship with each of the churches in it original fashion.
My brothers and my sisters regardless of what you think you went through, regardless of what has happened in the past. God still wants to have fellowship with you this morning.
So let us take a look at this chosen text for Homecoming 2007 to hear what the Lord is saying
to us this morning.
First of all...
1. WE NEED TO PAY CLOSE ATTENTION FOR HIS EVER PRESENT INVITATION FOR DIVINE FELLOWSHIP (v. 20)
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock”;
As we grow in fellowship, we the church if we are not careful, will lose the effects of fellowship. This is why we must work hard not only at listening to the gospel message, but we must work hard at telling ourselves the truth. The church of Laodicea was ever truthful to the things they had, they spoke of their riches, and commodities and their need for nothing, but turned a death ear to their spiritual life. That is why in verse 15 Jesus said I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot”; They had gotten so full of what they had, that they thought physical wealth was more important than their spiritual lives. But yet Jesus did not give up on the divine invitation extended to them. Even today there are some in the church that simply ignore the Lord’s invitation to discipleship. We make one excuse after another, we blame one situation after another, but if the truth be told we are just ignoring Christ and His word. But if we will pay close attention to His calling, then we would not be able to ignore the invitation for divine fellowship.
Secondly . . .
2. WE MUST LEARN TO RECOGNIZE THE VOICE OF THE ONE WHO TRULY LOVES US (v.20)
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him,”
The second thing I see in this text to fit our homecoming theme is that we must learn to recognize the voice of the one who truly loves us. Maybe while Christ was standing at their door and knocking, it possibly went unnoticed. But if they knew His voice, they would’ve answered because they could not help themselves. I’m reminded of a situation that occurred when I was young, Daddy stood on the porch looking for me, and when he didn’t see me, he whistled for me to come. Now many times I heard my Dad whistle for me, but I was looking at him when he whistled and along with the whistle he would gesture for me to come to him. But this particular time I heard the whistle but I didn’t see him, so I figured that it was someone else’s Dad whistling for them. And when I didn’t come to see what he needed, he came to me, and you don’t want your father, who had just come in from work coming after you. When I looked up, I saw Daddy coming down the street calling my name. Now although I didn’t recognize the whistle, the voice I recognized. That was when I realized that it was Daddy whistling for me and when I got close enough to him, he further convinced me to not only know his voice, but to remember the distinct sound of his whistle.
Likewise, when we hear the Lord’s voice there should be not doubt in our minds of who is calling us. In other word this particular text should show us how Jesus is always looking for us, but the sad thing is that we are very rarely found looking for Him. We only seek Him when we are in trouble and need His help. But He keeps knocking and knocking and when we don’t answer then He would speak to us ever so lovingly to open up our hearts and let Him in. Here is a thought. How often people hear the voice of Christ yet they refuse to let Him in? You might say that you didn’t hear Him? Or I’m not sure of his voice? But you hear His voice whenever you hear the Word of God preached and taught. You also hear His voice when someone gives you a tract or some Bible literature. Case in point. Cheryl Momma, or my children can call me and I would not have to wonder whose voice it is. The reason is because I talk with them enough to know their voice. Likewise in order to know the voice of the Lord you need to talk with Him more, and just don’t let the conversation be one sided, but wait to hear the Lord’s voice with the answer you need. I’m reminded of what Dr. Terry Anderson says, he says “that many are found reading the word of God, without ever looking for a Word from God.” So we must learn to identify the distinct voice of the Lord.
Finally, if we pay close attention to the ever present divine invitation and learn to recognize the voice of the One who truly loves us, then ...
3. WE CAN HAVE EVERLASTING FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM (v.20)
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
J. Vernon McGee tell a wonderful story about the picture in this text. It involved an English artist by the name of Holeman Hunt. Hunt, attempted to put this concept on canvas. He pictured Christ standing at a door. When he first painted the picture, he invited his artist friends to criticize. One of them said to him, "Holeman, you have left off a very important part of the door. You left off the handle of the door." Hunt replied, "This door is a picture of the human heart, and the handle of the door is on the inside." You see we have to understand that while there is no door knob on the outside of the door, it did not discourage our Lord He just kept knocking because sooner or later we would answer and have eternal fellowship with Him. Reverend James Moore once wrote a song that the words went like this, [He was there are the time, He was there all the time, waiting patiently in line. He was there are the time.] This song is trying to let us know that the Lord is there all the time waiting patiently in line for us to talk to every body we think can help us, to use up all the resources we think can get us out of our dilemma. He would be still in line waiting patiently on you!
We have to understand that He does not force Himself on us. We simply have to let Him in. And if we let Him in, we should take a look at His promise. Jesus said, “I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” This portion of the text promises the fellowship in the text. He would come in and sup with him, in other words in the fellowship you would give Him your sin at the fellowship table. You do know that He took our sin to the cross don’t you? And after that, while we are still at the fellowship table, He would feed us with His word. In Jesus’ words “and he with me.” That is Fellowship.
CONCLUSION
Well it’s time to go and I’m so glad to see many of you and thank you for sharing Homecoming 2007 with us. But before I go, my mind keep going back to the text. Jesus said “Behold I stand at the door and knock”; I’m reminded of the story of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf. Of the pigs, one built a house of straw. The second built his house with sticks. And the third was the wisest of all because he built his house with bricks. Now the big bad wolf had hunted the first little pig down, and when he got to his house he said “Little pig, little pig let me in.” and the little pig responded, “Not by the hair of my chinney chin chin. Then the wolf said “then I’ll huff and I’ll puff, and blow your house in. And that is what he did and that is what happened. But the little pig escaped and went to the second pig’s house which was made of straw. And when the big bad wolf arrived there the same thing happened to the second pig’s house. But they escaped to the third pig’s house which was made of brick. And when the wolf came, he repeated what he said to the other pigs, but this time when he huffed and puffed he could not blow the house down because it was made of brick.
I told you that story because each time we hear Jesus knock and do not answer, we become just like the first two pigs, and the Big Bad Wolf who we know as the Devil will huff and puff and blow our house down. But when we open the door and let Jesus in, we are like the third pig. Our house is built on a strong foundation of the Son, the mortar of the house is hardened by the Holy Spirit, and the brick is the Father. And when you have fellowship with the Son, you have fellowship with the Holy Spirit and the Father, and the Big Bad Wolf can huff and puff, and puff and huff, but he cannot blow your house down.
Do you have fellowship?
Did you let Him in?
Is He sitting at your table?
