12/6/25 To those who Listened

Revelation 3:19-22 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 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 that person, and they with me.21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Here I am! The problem with this statement is that it is no where to be found in the original text I do not know why It is added, my hope looking into this was that it was one of the I AM statements where Jesus identifies himself as YHWY God, but that is not the case. The original text starts off with the next sentence.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

Behold is a manner to bring attention to what is following it. In other words do not fall asleep at church right now, because it is about to get good. Jesus stands at the door & knocks. In other words he wants to be invited in. He did not welcome himself, he does not barge in. He is a gentleman & we have to answer the door, because it is closed. It is locked.

This is the state of the hearts of many who he is calling out to. The door that he stands at is the point of entry. He cannot & will not come in, unless we open the doorway to allow him to be inside. Because once he is inside, you get to experience something that is not of this world. The knock is an impact, it makes a report known as a sound brought from an impact from his hand to your heart. Biblically this is symbolic for your emotions, but that does not necessary mean that is or is not what this is. The literalist say it is a door, but I dare to go further because he is doing more than knocking. This means that his effort to gain access to the inside is a multipronged strategy because it is of significance which is connotation by the use of the behold word that stands as the introduction to the statement. The second portion of what he is doing to get the attention of the person on the inside is in the next line.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

Here Jesus is calling out as he knocks. He is not trying to sell you solar cells, he is not trying to get you to upgrade your windows. He wants to get inside, be welcomed inside so he is not just knocking, he is speaking. The word in the GR used for hears here is Akouo meaning properly to hear God’s voice which prompts Jesus to birth faith within. The voice is longing to heard, in addition to the knock. The voice is different than a knock. The voice is just that, a voice, I was looking for something deeper here but it is the voice of God, cannot get more powerful than that, speaking to the person with the closed door. We need to ask how many of us have a closed door? How many of us hear the report, the impact of the hand of Jesus making impact with your heart. An emotional impact can be something emitting out of success or tragedy.

This impact is something that registers, you know it is a different impact than that of everyday life. It feels different, it sounds different and it has a voice calling out in the midst of the situation that potentially closed the door, or to get the door open. But to get what is offered, the door has to be opened.

Notice the opening of the door is a choice. You can hear the impact of the knock. You can recognize that the knock is not your in laws. You can hear the voice of Jesus wanting to come in & recognize that it is not the voice of the solar cell salesperson. This is the same voice the demons fear. This is the same voice that heals the sick. This is the same voice that made the blind to see. This is the same voice that raised Lazarus from the dead. This is the same voice that leads you from day to day, from destiny to destiny. The voice is the Most High calling out to you & it is not going to be a voice in the world.

So opening the door grants you access to what he is offering, what he wants to share with you. What he wants to be let in for. He has nothing to gain in this, unless you offer it in gratitude. He is God, there is no other like him. To those who hear the knock, to those who hear the voice to those who open the door, he says,

I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me

He enters in, a willing invitation to come in & join with you, but you have to allow him in. In the ancient world they were not afraid to entertain strangers, they were not afraid to share a meal of hospitality because it was a cultural norm to spread good will. How far have we fallen to make this passage seem strange. Jesus wants to enter in, you let him in & Jesus wants to enjoy a meal with you & as foreign as it may sound in this day & age, that is what families did before its fragmentation in the 90’s. You share a meal, because you invited a stranger & he became family. Guess what? That is what the last portion of the verse means.

You get to eat with him. This is the wedding supper of the lamb, referenced in Revelation 19:6-9

⁹ And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

When you do what is stated in Revelation 3:19 (Last wk. sermon) Guess what you open the door, with the understanding that you cannot get through this life without a relationship with the Savior of the world. The question is have you hear the knock? Have you heard his voice? Have you opened the door?

Once you do, dinner on the other side of life is on him.