Unto Me
Revelation 3:20-22
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.
Now I know the day will soon come when all restraint is removed from the earth. See, the text here sees a gap between Christ walking among the lampstands of his churches and standing at the door knocking. Some of you believe a lot of things about this. But it should be seen, as you already know, that the book of Revelation uses a distinctly linear progression. It sees time moving forwards until the end of all things. So, then it is clear that something has happened. Lest you be tempted to commit blasphemy, let us examine what these things are. The time of such movement comes after the address of each church by turn. Then too is there he that withholds. For so does 2 Thess 2:6 testify "that he might be revealed in his time." Some scholars have used these verses to support the belief that the Spirit of God will one day be removed from the earth. I can find several reasons why this view is based on an incomplete understanding seen in the text.
Verse seven begins with the one who allows the mystery of iniquity until he be removed. That does not sound very much like God now, does it? There can be no unrighteousness found with him for his nature forbids it. Indeed, the very next deals with the revelation of the wicked and their consuming from the Lord. Now I know that some of you would like to ask 'where have they gone.' Well, according to the text they were eaten with the Spirit of his mouth and destroyed "with the brightness of his coming." Now, that sounds much more like the God that I know. See, in the time of trouble, the God who knows your faults and failures seeks each of you personally. He knows your address. So also, is his visitation coming for those of his children. My, is this not like the Master's coming of which his servants were caught unawares. For some it will be unheeded and unlooked for certain.
Now some of you have taken the door of the text to mean that of your heart. If you should ask me personally, I find the thought extremely frightening of playing host to God Almighty. It should also be seen that such is not a succubus or an incubus relationship as well. At no time has the Lord had need of what you could offer. Did he not make the Heavens and earth with all that are therein. What need then does he have of any you offer. Nor is he confused. Do you not think then that if the dear Lord meant to say so he would. So, there is a danger of adding much to the Word either in your reading or interpretation that he has not said. For this reason, God addresses the matter of the overcoming. T
here could be no overcoming if there was not first a possibility of failure. Therein is seen a failure of the listening, the perception, and the understanding. You could always not hear. You could always fail to perceive. You could always choose to not open that door. You could also choose not to receive. To me, this presents the final test for his people. So also, is a warning found for the people of God. Your personal theology must always agree with what God says not the other way around. Saying words against what has already been written therein is dangerous as seen in the text. I stand frightened every day when I write and speak of the Lord. How much more to have him visit you in a manner like unto this.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
See how there is provision to be found with him. You might not have had to eat before he came. Some might even be in situations much like the widow and her child before. But when God comes knocking, there is a feast upon the table. There is bread in the house and more than enough to eat. Maybe you did not know how you would make it till tomorrow. Yet the God who made all creation is coming just for you. For some it will be the time of greatest trouble. Yet maybe God knows more that you do not. Look at the middle portion of the text clearly marked to the overcomer. Maybe the goal of such a test is not to overcome but rather to endure. See, some of you have yet need of patience. Could it be that you do not yet understand all that the Father is trying to develop within. It is easy to grow weary in well-doing and so to faint along the way. Some of you want nothing more than to be delivered in moments like these.
Indeed, you might need the Lord to lend you his ear or else fix ought of your own. History tells of a blacksmith who wanted to do something for the children. It had been very cold that year and the winter long. So, he bent over his forge and made the simplest toys with the love of Jesus in mind. He made quite enough to fill a sack. Then he set out through the wind and snow to deliver the things he made. At each house, he reminded them of Jesus' love. That, my friends, is how the legend about Santa came to be. All that happened though because an old village man did something for the Lord. Maybe you already know of Daniel and his ministry there in captive lands. Then again has the Spirit of the Lord found rest in the north. Now I am not saying that certain favorite Christmas traditions are from the Lord. Rather, there will come a time when all the people stand before God. They will say to him, 'Lord we have not seen you sick or in prison or standing without.' "Then shall the king answer, inasmuch as you have done so to the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me."