Joe McKeever

The Willing Lord

Revelation 3:20 may well be the most-quoted Bible verse in today's churches. Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him and he with me."

Some teachers/preachers make much of the fact that the passage in which it is found was addressed to a church (Laodicea in Asia Minor) and not to an unsaved individual. If context is everything -- and I do not believe it is; it's much but not everything -- then, that alone should warn us off using Revelation 3:20 in an evangelistic situation.

The fact is evangelism was precisely what was needed in that Laodicean church. Undoubtedly, some of those church leaders needed saving! If that's the case, then this fascinating verse was meant exactly for the purpose for which we use it today.

All that aside (I really do not intend or wish to debate that point), there are three wonderful surprises in this verse which I'd like to call to your attention:

One: There is a surprise about Jesus. Look how willing He is to bless us. He has done everything necessary for our eternal life and salvation and forgiveness and usefulness in the Kingdom, and has gone the extra mile in bringing it right to our doorstep! In fact, He does everything to get us into Heaven except one thing: He will not force it on us.

Remember the old saw about "where does the 600 pound gorilla go?" (the answer being, "Anywhere he wants to.") Well, you would think that would also be the answer to the question "Where does the Lord of Heaven and Earth go?" But it isn't. There is one place He will not go without an invitation: into the human heart.

Two: There is a surprise about Salvation: it's a party, a banquet. "I will dine with you and you with me," Jesus said. Anyone who reads the four gospels has noticed how often when Jesus wants to make a point about the kingdom, He begins with, "A great man gave a feast" or "a great king gave a banquet." Interesting how Jesus sees salvation. While the enemy tries to shoo us away from Christ by calling it a "fast," Jesus says, "No, it's a feast."

If you are not familiar with Tony Campolo's book, "The Kingdom of God is a Party," let me urge you to get it.

Three: There is a surprise about our role: we get to choose. Jesus does not make the decision for us, but pays us the supreme compliment by bringing His gift of salvation right up to us, then backs off. "Choose you this day..."

Two quick stories on this subject....

Jim Pleitz (longtime pastor of First Baptist-Pensacola and Park Cities-Dallas) used to tell a story from his Arkansas childhood during the Great Depression. The Pleitz family was dirt poor, he said, but they lived next door to the baker who had a daughter named Melvina. (Jim would laugh, "You never forget a girl named Melvina." I agreed because I have a cousin of that name!) Sometimes in the summer or on a Saturday, all the kids in the neighborhood would go on a picnic and bring along their lunch. Jim would bring the only thing available from his Mom's kitchen, leftovers. His lunch would consist of a biscuit or two, leftover bacon, and a baked sweet potato. But Melvina's lunch would contain all those day-old goodies from the bake shop---chocolate éclairs, doughnuts, and cookies. When lunchtime came, and they all stopped to eat, invariably Melvina would call out, "Jimmy, let's spread together."

Dr. Pleitz would smile at this point and say, "I was just waiting for that! It was no sacrifice to share with the baker's family everything I had -- the hardened biscuit, the stale bacon, and the old potato -- because I had access to everything they had brought!"

Then he would say, "That's precisely what the Lord Jesus is saying to us here in Revelation 3:20. He brings to us all that He has -- the blessings of Heaven -- and all He asks from us is the little pittance that we have."

Quite the deal, isn't it.

On the subject of "choosing," my friend Larry Kennedy (longtime president of William Carey University in Hattiesburg and before that pastor of FBC-Laurel; now in Heaven) told me about the first big-church wedding his 7-year-old son Steve attended. He sat in the sanctuary beside his mom and watched as the door opened and his preacher-father entered, followed by a long string of good-looking young men decked out in tuxedos. Then, the bridesmaids started down the aisle, followed by the bride on the arm of her father. At this point, Steve turned and whispered, "Mother, does she already know which one of those men she's going to marry or is she going to decide when she gets there?"

Larry would tell that and say, "You know, McKeever, we can save ourselves a lot of confusion in life by making some decisions early enough!"

Two verses after Revelation 3:20, John the Apostle sees the door to Heaven standing wide open and hears a voice inviting him to come on up. Think of that -- there are two doors, the door to the human heart is closed and the Lord is knocking, wanting to come inside; the door to Heaven is open and the Lord is inviting, wanting us with Him.

What a wonderful Lord we have. What a lovely thing salvation is. What a blessed matter is the Lord's invitation to come to Him and live forever.

I like to remember an exchange Jesus had with the leper of Mark chapter one. This untouchable approached Jesus -- going against the law which required lepers to separate themselves from other people -- and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus surely smiled at him, for He reached over and did the unthinkable and touched the unclean man, then said, "I am willing; be clean."

We serve a willing, loving, saving Lord. How good is that?