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CHRIST AT THE HEART'S DOOR
Sermon by William L. Hogan
If you have the good fortune to visit London, it's worth a stop at St. Paul's Cathedral to see the famous painting by Holman Hunt entitled "The Light of the World." It is, of course, a picture of Jesus Christ. In one hand He holds a lantern, and with the other he knocks at the door of a little cottage. The door is overgrown with vines, as though it has not been opened for a very, very long time. That painting was inspired by a verse from the last book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation, chapter 3.
As you may know, chapters 2 and 3 of The Revelation contain a series of seven letters which the risen and glorified Christ communicated through the Apostle John to seven churches in Asia Minor. In one of those seven letters, addressed to the church in Laodicea, we find this tender promise (Rev 3:20): "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."
I. THE KNOCK AND THE VOICE
Isn't this a great idea that our Savior gives us--"I stand at the door"? The door is obviously the door of the heart. We must be very clear now who it is who it is who knocks at that door, and who it is who speaks. It is Christ, in all the dignity of His divine Person. The great emphasis of the Christian religion is that God has taken thought of humankind, not only to provide for our material need, not only to give us the words of prophets, but God has taken thought of us to the extent of coming down to be with us, to be incarnate, God in flesh. Jesus Christ is a supernatural figure. He is the God-man. And this is the One who says to us, "I stand at your door, the door of your heart, and I knock and speak a word of request and of promise." If you look closely you will see that the hand that knocks at the door is nail-scarred. For this One who knocks is was crucified. On a cruel cross He bore our sin and guilt, and paid the penalty our sins deserved. The judgment our sins deserved fell on Him in our place as He hung on that gory gibbet. He died for our sins. He died in our place.
But death did not have the last word. He conquered death and rose again from the grave. Now He is alive again, alive forevermore. And He comes and stands at the door of your heart and life. The thought is almost more than the mind is able to take in. Only one word seems fit to express it: how gracious, how utterly gracious! It comes over us and over us again: how full of grace He is! Who am I? What have I to boast of? What is in me to commend me to the interest and attention of the Son of God? How gracious that He would come to me and knock at my heart's door and speak to me and say, "I am interested in you. I have something for you. Will you hear me?"
Now, how does it occur in experience that the Lord Jesus knocks at the door of the heart? How does He speak to us? From my experience over the years it impresses me that He does it in a variety of ways.
Sometimes He knocks in the midst of disappointment. Is there anybody who has not had a failure of some kind? You didn't win the girl you wanted. You didn't get the promotion you were after. The deal you were interested in fell through. You lost your job. You flunked out. Everybody has experienced some frustration. Nobody goes triumphantly through life without disappointment. How do you take your disappointment? That's the question. I have seen some respond to such setback with despair and bitterness. But I have seen a setback cause others to hear the Lord saying, "I stand at the door of your heart and I knock. Will you hear My voice?"
I think of a Jewish man I knew in Philadelphia, a very successful real estate developer. Some of the most impressive buildings built in the city in those years were built by him, and were named for him. Then there was a shift in the economy. His creditors demanded payment, but his assets were not liquid and he could not sell his holdings quickly enough. He was forced to declare bankruptcy--the largest personal bankruptcy in U.S. history. It was, as you can imagine, a very humiliating experience. But the Lord used it to get his attention. In the midst of it He heard Christ knocking at the door of his heart. He responded and opened the door, and I had the privilege of baptizing him into the Christian faith Sickness can work like that, too.
Very few of us will go through life without illness. We will have to be bedfast for a time, or hospitalized, and maybe some of us will even know protracted affliction. There are two ways to look at this. There is the stoic way of saying, "Well, it is one of those things. This is what we are subject to as human beings. There is nothing to do but to grin and bear it." Then there is the spiritual interpretation. I don't mean that when you get sick you should say, "What is the Lord punishing me for?" That kind of self-punishing introspection is unnecessary and useless. But I do mean that it would be very helpful to say to yourself, "What is there for me to learn in this?" I have seen this point of view often in visiting the sick. Someone will way, "I was going too hard. I guess the Lord had to use something like this to make me stop and evaluate my priorities." Illness can become a knocking of Christ at the door. He says in effect, "I have time with you now and your have time for Me now. Will you listen? Will you have Me in?"
I subscribe to a computerized mailing list that deals with brain tumors. There are more than 500 subscribers to this electronic mailing list, all of them with some special interest in brain tumors--patients, care givers, doctors, researchers. When someone posts a message it goes to a host computer and from there is sent out to all the subscribers. I receive more than 60 e-mail messages a day from the list, and have learned far more about brain tumors than I ever wanted to know. Some of the messages are sad and painful to read. Often I have sat at my computer with tears running down my cheeks in sympathy with some unseen fellow-sufferer.
But sometimes there are moments of elation, as in a recent message by a man who said that because of the shock of having a brain tumor he had come to know Christ as his Savior. The Lord Jesus had knocked at his heart's door through his terrifying illness, and he had responded to the knock. I have seen a knocking of Christ occur upon the door of hearts when sorrow has struck, too.
One of the impressive and beautiful facts of existence is love--the love of man and woman, the love of parents and children, the love of friend for friend. Then somebody is removed from the family circle. I have seen the hour of sorrow again and again become the occasion of the knocking of Christ at the door of the heart. When death comes and takes someone we love, if all we know is despair and hopelessness and questioning and bitterness, then what good is life? But the hour of sorrow can be a knocking of the Lord at the door to say, "There is more to existence than these short years spent on this earth.
There is another level of existence and I have news for you about it. I can admit you into a world of joy and bliss. Will you hear Me? I knock at your heart. I speak comfort to you now. Will you listen?" The Lord Jesus has a way of knocking at the door of the heart when sorrow comes - if we will but listen. Burdens, loneliness, soul-weariness, perplexity, fear, uncertainty, guilt--Jesus offers Himself to us for all of these. He says, "I am the source of forgiveness. I am the power of God unto salvation. I am your companion. I am your friend. " In hard things and by trials He knocks and that is what He says.
II. OPENING THE DOOR
Let us turn our attention now to the response we must make to His knock: "If anyone will open the door . . ." In the Holman Hunt painting I mentioned earlier, there is an interesting and insightful detail: no latch can be seen on the door. It was the artist's way of emphasizing that the door must be opened from the inside. That is to say, there must be a personal response of the individual, welcoming Christ into the life.
This is very important, because there are many people who think they are Christians because they acknowledge certain things to be true. They say in effect, "Yes, I believe Christ is at the door. I believe that He is a divine-human Person, the Supreme Person of the universe. I believe He wants to come into my life. I believe He wants to be my companion. I believe He could help me." But believing all those things to be true is of no avail if you do not open the door of your heart and personally welcome Christ in. It is not enough to believe that certain facts are true about Christ. What is needed is to personally receive Him, to encounter Him in experience, to embrace Him by personal faith, to pledge to Him your loyalty.
Loyalty to Jesus--loyalty to Jesus in the home, loyalty to Jesus on the job, loyalty to Jesus at school; loyalty in speech, what comes out of your mouth; loyalty in the way you use your leisure time; loyalty in your choice of friends, whom you hang out with. Jesus does not want to come into your life to be merely another interest alongside all the other interests and activities of your life. He desires, and He deserves--indeed, He demands--that He be the central fact of our lives, the organizing center around whom all else revolves, not only a resident in our heart but President . . . Master . . . Lord.
I am so glad He came and knocked at my door. It was at the end of my freshman year in college at Rice University in Houston. I had been brought up in the church, baptized as a baby, confirmed at 12, but I did not know Jesus in experience, and I made no real effort to follow Him. I was a church member, but I was not a Christian, not in the biblical sense of the term. Then one night I went to hear Billy Graham preach in the Rice stadium. I went out of curiosity, not expecting anything to come of it. But as I listened to the message that night, it was as if the lights were turned on, and all those things I had heard all my life, but which meant so very little to me, seemed to come to life. When Dr. Graham gave the invitation to come down and stand in front of the platform to receive Christ, I couldn't wait to do it. I opened the door that night, and He was gracious enough to come into my life, just as He promised He would.
You see, I am not talking theory. I am speaking of what I know and of what you can know. So I ask you, "Do you have Him? Have you actually opened the door for Him to come in? Have you pledged your loyalty to Him?" That is what opening the door entails. You realize your need. You realize your emptiness. You realize your loneliness. You realize your inadequacy. You realize you don't have the answers. You realize your sin. And you say, "Lord Jesus, there is no other like You. I need a Savior, and there is no Savior but You. You alone have the words of eternal life. Lord Jesus, no one is a fit Master but you. Lord Jesus, you are my hope for now and forever. Lord Jesus, Savior, Master, come in. I commit myself to you. You will have my chief loyalty." That is the response He calls for.
III. THE TABLE COMPANION
Our Lord says one thing more in this verse: "If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me." Let us think of Him, finally, as our table companion. There is no activity in life that better expresses the intimacy and the pleasure in each other that friends enjoy than to share a meal together. If we want somebody to know we esteem him, what do we do? We invite him to dinner. If we want somebody to know we would like to get better acquainted with him, we invite him to dinner. Everybody understands. This is where friendship is testified and cemented, in table fellowship. It has always been that way in human society. So, when Jesus says, "I will eat with him and he with me," He is promising that He will be our companion, our intimate friend. Could there be any better companion, any better friend than He?
Think it over and you will say that this is something not to miss. The friendship of the Son of God absolutely must not be missed. The Son of God simply must not be left out of life. How can one think of slighting Him or turning a deaf ear to His invitation or paying no attention to what He has to say? Hear Him as He says it to you now again: "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."
Let us pray
"Our gracious heavenly Father, open this wonderful promise to our understanding. We realize every person is different. Christ comes to one in this way and to another in that, but it is the same Christ who comes, whether by emotional turmoil or in the quiet of a decision made in the sanctuary or while reading. Give to every one of us to hear the Lord's knock and the Lord's gracious voice and to respond."
[Now, if it is your desire to open the door of your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, make the following prayer your prayer:] "Lord Jesus, I thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I am a sinner and I need to be forgiven. I need a Savior. And I believe you are the Savior I need. So right now, I open the door of my heart and ask You to come into my life. Forgive my sins. Take the throne of My life and by My Master, and be with me and help me, my strength and companion and comfort forever. Amen."
If you prayed that prayer and it was a true expression of faith, you can claim the certainty of the Lord's promise. He said that if you would open the door, He would come in. So, if you opened the door, where is Jesus Christ right now in relation to you? The answer is, He is in you, for He promised, and He cannot lie. And now that He is in you, He gives you another promise: "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Wouldn't you like to pray again, this time in your own words, to thank Him for coming into your heart as He promised He would do, and to reaffirm once more your desire to live for Him? [a period for silent prayer and meditation]
AMEN