Someone is Knocking at Your Door

Transcript

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Holy name, Jesus. Amen. I would have you now in your Bibles turn to Revelation chapter three. You're reading verses fourteen to twenty-two.

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When you find your place, please stand for the reading of God's holy word. And that is Revelation chapter three, starting in verse fourteen.

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And so the angel of the church in Laodicea writes, the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. I know your works, you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that your wretched, pitiable poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and self to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me. One who conquers, I will grant him to sit on my throne, as I also conquered and sat with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The scholars believe this uh letter of Revelation was written um 80, 90-ish or so after the temple has been broken down. Uh, we believe at that time John is the last remaining apostle alive, the last direct link the people had to Jesus. And he is getting a direct word, a revelation from Jesus himself. And he's to write to the seven churches that have been established in Asia. Imagine you're the courier and you got the letter, and it is your job to read it to the church. And it starts off nice, right? Hello. I am the Amen. What does Amen mean? It is we agree, what has been spoken is true. He is saying, I am the truth. Everything that is true comes and proceeds from me. I am the beginning of creation. We recognize this in other places scripture. Doesn't sound too bad, but basically, let me put it in uh American 2026 language. Then Jesus goes on to say, just the look of you makes me sick. I want to spit you out of my mouth. That is effectively what Jesus is saying. If you were to look at all seven letters to the churches in Revelation, there's something good and something to be approved on. Something good, something to be approved on. I think we would recognize in our lives, hopefully there is something good, something true, that we have been born again and then there is fruit in our lives from God. Amen? Do you have fruit in your life? If you don't, you better get down here at the end of the service, okay? Because that means you don't know Jesus. If there is not good fruit, that means there is wicked fruit. And Jesus gives you a warning of what happens to the wicked fruit. The trees are chopped down and thrown into the eternal fire. Don't let that be you. But we are reminded that Jesus is speaking to the church. And these seven churches, the scholars believe, effectively are one of the now and not yet prophetic statements. And if you don't know what that means, that's okay. Basically, what it means is that the prophecy was given for that point in time in history. This is a real church. The church of Laodicea had real believers, had real elders and pastors that were pastoring that church. They really existed in time. But the not yet part means that it also has application for you and I today. They believe that these seven churches form a timeline, and the church of Laodicea is representative of the church right before the return of Christ, the church of the end of end of days. I'm often asked as a pastor, and I wrote my dissertation on Charles Spurgeon's eschatology. So I get a lot of eschatology questions, and people are like, are we living in the end times? And as a Christian, we can say, absolutely, yes, we've been living in the end times since the day of Pentecost. That was the beginning of the end of days. But what we're talking about here is the very end of the end of days. And I could affirm with many others that say, yes, we are living in those times. We see demonic warfare and the spiritual battles are on the rise. We're being confronted as a culture and we're we're being challenged to conform constantly. Just give in a little bit here and just give in a little bit there. You must be willing to take a stand on the word of God, even at great cost to your own personal self. Now, just to give you a short background, I don't want to spend too much time, but the church in Laodicea, I think, is the closest one to the American church currently just because of uh its prosperity. The church, uh the the town of Laodicea in AD 60 had suffered a massive earthquake that leveled the entire town. And being part of the Roman Empire, Rome sent them money to help rebuild. And Hieropolis, uh, just a few miles from them, took money from Rome. But Laodicea was so self-sufficient. They had kind of that American spirit, if you will, that rugged individualism said, no, we got this. We will put ourselves back together. And they sent the money back to Rome. How many of you would send the money back? Here's a million dollars to redo your sanctuary. Are you going to send it back? Hopefully not. I think that would be unwise. But that is what they did. They sent it back and said, We got this. We will rebuild. And they did rebuild. Within a generation, they had a new stadium, a new theater, a new temples, a new gymnasium, and a new bathhouse. We often uh don't think of things like that, but back in that day you did not have a four-bedroom, three-bathhouse. You had to go to a public bathhouse. And this was somewhat of a civic pride for them. They were known for a great many things that Jesus is going to address here. They were a banking center, a textile hub, and a medical center. If you needed, especially if you had vision problems, this is the place you went to. But yet, what does Jesus tell them? You are blind. Jesus is talking about spiritually, not the physical things. And so often, as humans, we just see the physical. We don't get into the spiritual elements. This letter that was given would have gone to Laodicea, to Colossae, to Hieropolis. And so he gets in and he says something that has always been a mystery to a lot of people. He says, I know your works, you are neither cold nor hot. Now, who here would want to have, we're describing your faith and how you're following Jesus, your discipleship, your passion for the Lord, who wants it to be hot? Yeah, you want to be hot, right? I would wonder if why you wouldn't want to be hot. Who wants to be cold? Nobody wants to be cold, right? But a lot of people struggle with this because he says you are neither hot nor cold. But the reality is he's talking about water and applying it to our souls. And so if we think about water, water can can be soothing, it can be uh cleansing. When you're you're struggling to breathe, you could drink uh some hot tea and it can help you greatly. When if you ran a marathon, you're gonna want two things. Ran the the the a marathon of 26 miles, you're gonna be exhausted, you're gonna be thirsty. Are you gonna want hot water? No, you're gonna want nice, cold, refreshing iced water, as cold as you could handle it, because it refreshes you. And that is what Jesus is talking about. And a few miles from this, that there was two towns, and one was known, uh, Kalasse was known because it had mountains there and they had cold springs where where they could get this fresh water, life-giving water. But here in Laodicea, they were too far away, so they had aqueducts that would come, but over time the aqueducts got polluted and it would be lukewarm by the time they got there. And if the people drank it because of the um the pollution that was in it and the minerals and things that had had seeped in it, it was disgusting. And people would literally spit it out of their mouth. But to the north, there was these hot springs that you could go to, and it was very rejuvenating to people. Like just like the marathon runner, after they have their ice water and after they catch their breath, at some point very soon, they're gonna want to get a nice hot bath to relax their muscles, right? We see this a lot in sports medicine. And so they would also import this water, but by the time it got there, because it was six miles away, it would be lukewarm. Jesus is using a very practical application, something, a problem that they're having. Like you're putting your pride in your idols, in your banking, in your medicine for your eyes, but you don't recognize that to me you have become this lukewarm water that you yourself spit out. You put all your pride in these things, and in doing so, you are saying, in effect, Jesus, I have no need of you. I could do this. Like they sent the money back to Rome, they're sending the Spirit back to God, saying, No, we got this. And we can look in the American church, and how many ways do we say, God, we're just gonna try a little harder? We'll raise enough money, we'll come up with the right programs, or or we'll come up with a clever enough uh logo, or it'll it'll work and people will come. If you don't start with prayer, if you don't start with the Spirit of God, if we're not starting with Christ Himself, we're dead in the water. We have become Laodicea, this church that God is ready to spit out of his mouth. Jesus in his title is talking about being the beginning of creation and the amen, kind of as I began. You don't, most of you don't know me from Adam. And so I put my title doctor in front of there. I have a PhD in biblical studies, I have a master's degree in church history and divinity. I say this like a doctor would say it so that you would listen to me, understand that I have the credentials to know what I'm talking about. Jesus is in effect saying, you know what? I went to medical school for 10 years. I've been performing heart surgeries for the last 40 years. I'm about to give you a diagnosis you do not want to hear. But please listen to me. I know what I am talking about. How often do we go to the doctor and he gives us that bad news? And we don't want to hear it. It's like if you do not stop eating the way that you're eating, if you do not start exercising, you're going to have a heart attack and not live to see whatever your next big milestone is. Some of us may listen and drastically change how we're living. But if we're honest, most of us might do it for a week until the next Baptist buffet line shows up. And all of a sudden that fried chicken's there and the ham's there, and all the carbs and the pastas and the breads and the sweets. Oh my gosh, the sweets. I have a sweet tooth. You know, like I would be undone if they ever gave me the diabetic diagnosis. I don't know what I would do. But we recognize how difficult it is to take the news. And so Jesus is reminding them of who he is. He gives them five words in his diagnosis: wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. These are each precise diagnosis of the society, the culture in which they are living. Their wealth becomes their poverty, their eye salve doesn't cure their blindness, their garments don't cover their shame. The language echoes Genesis chapter 3. After the fall, Adam and Eve discovered what? That they were naked. Did they have a problem with being naked before they sinned? No, they recognize their shame and their nakedness. But the clothes that we sew for ourselves, the way we cover up our sin, is never going to hold up before God. A day very soon is going to come where those skies are going to crack open. The clouds will part, and you will see the most glorious and terrifying image of our Lord Jesus Christ you could ever imagine. And you will stand before him. And many of us will try to reason and make every excuse for the way we lived. And it's like we're putting on these garments and saying, I have nothing here to hide. But Jesus sees right through you. He knows your heart. And he says, I am offering you to take that heart of stone and give you a new heart, but you must come to me to receive it. If you push it back and say, I have no need of it, you will find that you truly are wretched, pitable, poor, blind, and naked. We look in our own culture. There is a pull in so many churches to be like the culture, which as a pastor, I just do not really understand because you know what? There are ways that this culture offers counterfeit versions of the church. We often talk about fellowship at a church. You know where you can find better fellowship than a church? The bar. People at the bar know each other. They're part of each other's lives. They know what's going on in their lives. But the bar cannot offer you Christ. This is what you can offer. We could try to become like the world and do the things that the world is doing. But by doing those very same things, the one thing we have to offer, we lose. We must recognize that we have Jesus and we can offer him to the world. We could offer the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. But like what Jesus is offering Laodicea, it will change us and it will change you forever, and it should. You should not desire the wretched, lukewarm water that is nasty and it is killing you. You should desire the hot water that Jesus is offering. You should desire to have your soul purified and that sin cleansed. We sing songs. Sort of, right? Are we singing this morning? When we're talking about that our sin has become a crimson stain and Christ has made us white as snow. If we really understood the meaning of those words, that the blood of the Lamb has covered us and now we have these white garments that have been given to us by God Himself, and He has invited us into the wedding feast. And He says, Tell the bride it is time to come to sit on my throne. What right do I have to sit on the Lord's throne? I have no right. I am nothing. I am just a poor, broken foster kid from Chicago. What right do I have to sit on heaven's throne? I can claim no heir of David. I'm not even Jewish. I can't claim any of the promises apart from Christ. But what do we do? We say, well, come because we have BBS and your kids will be entertained.

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Is this world about entertainment?

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Is it about fun? Or is our entire purpose in our entire life should be to glorify God and all that we do? Why have we been born again? Why are you here? Are you here to share the glorious gospel with Hampton? You are the ends of the earth. So often we think of missions as raising up money and sending out that really religious person that makes us all uncomfortable and sending them across the world so they could share the gospel with somebody else. But Christ is calling you. He's telling you, I am the Amen, the beginning of creation, and I have called you out of these nations. I have placed my spirit upon you to proclaim to your family, to your friends, and to your co-workers, to proclaim to the dying in the streets of Hampton. There is good news. You don't have to remain this way.

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And so what will you do? I know this is a hard message to hear. We could be millionaires.

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And there's many in Hampton Roads I've discovered are.

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But I've also seen in their souls that they're absolutely bankrupt. The last day is upon us.

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Will you trust in Christ? I want you to listen carefully what the Lord says. Those whom I love, I reprove and I discipline. We don't like that, do we? Or like the little toddlers saying, No, I want to have it my way. I want it now. I don't want to wait. I don't want to eat my green veggies. I just want the dessert. I want the good things. I want the things that my flesh desires. How dare you, God, say I can't have that, or that it's not good for me, or that I need to wait. He tells you to be zealous. We don't like zealous people. They're passionate, they're on fire. We want them being our coaches for our favorite sports team, but we don't want them in our pews because they make us uncomfortable. He says, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. This is one of those passages we often will talk about, but we'll read over really quickly. If you're a church and you hear somebody right now hitting those doors going, what should you do? Open the door. Because the problem is if Jesus is outside knocking, he's not in here. And so Jesus was not in the church of Laodicea. He had been knocking and knocking and knocking. And he's reminding them, I am the Amen. What I say is true. I am coming quickly. That word we love so much soon. Behold, I am coming soon. Will the church in Laodicea answer? Will the church in Hampton, Gloucester, Newport News, will they answer the summons to open the door and let him in? He says, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. Who does Jesus eat with?

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Does Jesus eat with Pharisees? Does he eat with sinners? Yes. That is what you are, that is what I am.

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He comes with those who need the doctor. He does not eat with those who think they have no need of him because they don't want to eat with Jesus. Because eating with Jesus is gonna be uncomfortable. You're gonna sit down with somebody whose hair is white like wool.

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When he sits down, you're gonna see that he has called children from the ends of the earth.

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Not just Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But he's called Jew and Gentiles. He's called Middle Easterners and Africans. He's called Australians. People that don't look like you. They don't sound like you or me. They might eat food that's a little bit different.

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Are you gonna be okay with that?

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Because you're gonna find heaven doesn't quite look like the place you think it does. It will be glorious. And as we sing, we'll be singing in languages you don't know. And that is a good thing, because the Spirit of God has gone to the ends of the earth. And these are people that have heard the door knocking and they have opened. And maybe you find this in you yourself right now that you've been running, you've been doing things your own way, you've built up your wealth, your white picket fence. And your 401k, and everything you thought would bring you happiness in life, but you recognize something is missing. That is Jesus knocking on the door of your heart. Stop writing him off. He is there. He is pursuing you day and night. A stranger would not bother.

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An enemy would say to you, You are perfect just as you are. But the one who loves you will tell you the truth.

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To the husbands here, let me give you an illustration. I know this will get you in trouble. Has your wife ever asked you the most dreaded question a husband can ever get?

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How does this outfit make me look? How do you answer? Are you honest?

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Or do you just want to get along and say, well, yeah, that looks great on you? And then she goes out and she gets some strange looks, and then you're in trouble. We could tell our neighbors that sin looks great on you. You don't need to worry about it. Jesus, he's just, Jesus loves you just as you are. Jesus loves you, yes, but not as you are. As you will be, as his perfected bride. There is a reason that the moment you're born again, you don't just magically appear in heaven. There's this process of sanctification that is going on in your soul right then and there through the rest of your life. Christ is preparing for himself a bride worthy of his father. It's why you need the white garments. There's a parable about a wedding feast that Jesus gives. He says, I've sent my messengers out to the highways and the byways to come to hear the Lord's message. But he said, Many came, but they did not have wedding garments on, and they were cast out. That is those who would come, and maybe it's someone here, or maybe it's someone that will hear the sound of my voice later online. That's, you know what, I'm just gonna come to Jesus on my own terms. I don't need the church. I don't need the Bible. I don't need the gospel. I'll just come to Jesus the way I think I could come. I don't need to repent. I don't need to acknowledge I've done anything wrong. I'm just gonna come to Jesus on my own terms. And guess what is gonna happen?

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He's gonna say, Depart from me. I never knew you. That is scary.

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Let me conclude with one final thought, and then I'll ask those that have something to get right with the Lord to come down. I want you to think about his encounters with the Pharisees. None of us would ever think of ourselves as a Pharisee, right? I'm sure you're all good and godly people. But at times we can be like Pharisees. Who are the Pharisees? They were the religious leaders. They were the pastors, the priests. They were the people that they had one job in life. I think of the job as a pastor, the job that the Pharisees had is to be John the Baptist. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. My entire role in this life is to point you away from me and to Jesus. Don't follow me.

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Follow Jesus. I can't save you, I can't resurrect you. I can't do any of that for myself.

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How am I going to do it for you? Their entire role in life as Pharisees were to identify the Messiah when he came and show him to the people. And he came and he revealed himself by mighty miracles and many deeds and the words that his father gave him. And what did they do? They crucified him because they recognized that to follow Jesus meant to radically change your life.

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And so they didn't want it.

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Jesus is going to call you out of that comfort zone. He's going to chip away at everything that you're holding on into this world. Because once you let that go, then God could use you mightily. But as long as you're holding on to the old way, and they couldn't imagine a life without the temple, they couldn't imagine a life without the law and the rules. But Jesus says, I have a better way. The law that I give you is not about rules, but about grace. It's about showing mercy, not hatred to your enemies. It's not about bombing other countries, but about sharing the gospel with them.

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Who will we be when Christ returns? Will you be able to share in his throne?

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That is the promise that he offers you. So if you're here today and you do not know Christ, he is still knocking. He's not going to force you to open that door. He's not going to say, you have to open for me right now. He's saying, if you open and let me in, I will give you eternal life. You may sit on my throne. This life will not be easy.

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It might feel like that earth bank that's leveling having thing to the ground. For those I know there are many here, if not all, there are in a place to faith in grouse. Maybe he has done some discipline in your life that's uncomfortable. Acknowledge and agree with the discipline because it's something that is doing out of love and punishment. But to restore you. He wants to come in and eat with you. You don't have to eat a home anymore. You can eat with Christ. So if this is you, I would love you to come down. I self a demon who love the great honor it is to pray with to remind you that no matter what you've been through as a church or as an individual, you're not too far bound to go. You are not Chio. You are your jewels. Your church is as big as your dog is. It's not about the numbers and the peace.

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God took well of the most honored uneducated fishermen and carpenter types. And he changed the world forever.

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We are here because of the Who will be entering heaven because of you. That is pretty. Oh Father, Lord Jesus, we thank you for the state. I thank you, Lord, that you allow us to gamble and to worship you. And no reason about the church and I only see you considering us not as lightly doubtless, but as the American church.

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It's not easy. We've lost our way and put our trust in ourselves and our Billy Domes van Green creatures. We put our trust in our teachers, we put our trust in our music, we put our trust in our BS and our programs. And we've somehow lowered lost sight of you. Help us to return to you now. If there is anyone here who does not know you, let them from now hope to like Lord loud and receive you. And for some of these given to Lord, now is the