Your Door Goes With You
Posted on June 15, 2017 by Graeme Wilson in Freedom Fighters
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” – Revelation 3:20 (NKJV)
When looking at the opening verse for today, theologian Pastor John Gill thought that the phrase of ‘standing at the door’ may be expressive of the near approach, or sudden coming of Christ to judgement. That His knocking may signify the notice that will be given of it, in order to wake up those in a general sleepiness which has seized all professors of religion. That the hearing of His voice will be in the appearances of things and providences in the world. That opening the door shows the readiness for the coming of Christ and when He comes in He will find hearts with grace on them, His righteousness upon them, ready to be taken into the marriage chamber so that He may shut the door on the rest and leads those who were ready to the fountains of living water (or something along those lines.)
And I will not dispute this interpretation from this fine Baptist preacher, nor will I go into any deep discussion about how the church of Laodicea was the worst of the Seven Churches, neither will I even consider going into a thought process of “End Times” with today’s verse. However, I will say this…that door goes with you. And, if there was a perfect illustration of what I am talking about with that statement, it is the story of Zaccheus, “Le Gros Fromage” of tax collectors in Jericho…and all the people in the House went “HUH?”, now turn to Luke 19:1-10, read it, and let’s continue, shall we?
Jesus shows up at Jericho and, as usual, there is quite a crowd around Him, but there is this small guy named Zaccheus that wants to see what this Jesus is all about. He runs ahead of the crowd and climbs a sycamore tree to get a better look. Now the thing to note here about Zaccheus is that he is considered a traitor to his own community because he was lucky enough to collect tax revenue for the Roman Empire, so if he falls outta that tree NOBODY is gonna care…but Jesus does. “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house” (Luke 19:5b). Knock, knock…if anyone hears My voice and opens the door? What do we read in verse 6? “And he hurried and came down, and received Him gladly.”
The door to Zaccheus’ heart was with him when he climbed that sycamore tree and maybe, just maybe, he had heard about Jesus before He arrived at Jericho. Zaccheus knew who he was to people of the community he lived in (I bet they vocalized it every time he went to go collect the Roman tax from them) and I would venture to say that Zaccheus hated what those people saw him as on the outside of his heart. When Jesus beckons him to come down from an unsafe place the first thing Zaccheus wants to do is repent. “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham” (Luke 19:9a) and since Jesus has become a guest of Zaccheus, there is gonna be a meal. I wonder what it was like for Zaccheus to pass bread to Jesus, then have Jesus pass it back to him? Hmm…. anyway.
Yeah, I know that may have been a stretch for some of you who think that what is read in the Book of Revelation is meant for futuristic events, but for me it was about the door. Jesus has said He is “the door of the sheep” (John10:7-9) but that is when we become His and enter into His rest. WE still have to open the doors of our hearts and let Him in so He can take us to that place of rest.
No matter where we go, the door of our hearts go with us. Once Jesus has made His place in our hearts, we need to remember that many will come knocking wondering what is about our “house” that brings us peace. Now it may take an act of courage (and for some of us an Act of Congress) to open our doors, let them in and show them to the One who brought us that peace, but none the less we shouldn’t and we can’t keep Jesus Christ locked up in our little world. Yes, Jesus made a pit stop at Jericho and found an opened door, but He had to keep going onward to Jerusalem. There was something that needed to be done. I wonder if Zaccheus tagged along? Hmmm…
Written by Chris Hughes: Chris, a graduate of The Colony of Mercy (11-2003) is married (Kathy) with two adult children (Kevin and Karen) and has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008.
The Daily Bible Reading: Proverbs 2-3| You can download our 2017 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here
Daily Quote: “The message of Christ lays hold upon a man with the intention to alter him, to mold him again after another image and make of him something altogether different from what he had been before.” — Aiden Wilson Tozer
This Week’s Verse to Memorize:
“And Elisha prayed, and said, ‘Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” – 2 Kings 6:17