April 8 Church at Laodicea

April 8

Is Someone At The Door?

Re 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:…

Warner Sallman may not be a name you recognize, but you have seen his paintings. The picture “Christ at Hearts Door” is a picture of Christ knocking at a door with a wistful look on his face. It comes from the verse in Revelation that was addressed to the Laodicean church. 

When I was in high school two or three of the main line churches in town had an open house week. During the tour of one of the churches we stopped in front of a copy of the Warner Sallman painting of Christ standing at the door. Several features of the painting were explained.

The light shining on the door forms a heart shape with Christ in the middle, signifying we should have Christ in the middle of our heart. There is no handle on the outside of the door, indicating someone from inside must open the door and let Christ in. The small grillwork in the door reveals there is darkness behind the door, indicating those behind the door are lost in the darkness of sin. Finally Christ has a patient look on His face, as he continues to knock.

I have never liked that painting.  Probably because I knew the Bible well enough to know it misrepresents the verse it is based on.  It may confuse people who don’t know the Bible message about salvation. Now it is a nice painting, well done and as an art object is a marvelous piece of art. It is the theology that is too easily attached to the picture that I do not like.

To understand the meaning of a verse in the Bible we need to look at the context, what is being talked about, and how does a verse fit into the subject matter at hand.  Fortunately that is pretty easy with Revelation 3:20.

In the early part of the book of Revelation we are told that there were seven churches that would be mentioned.

Re 1:20 …and the seven candlesticks which

 thou sawest are the seven churches.

The church at Laodicea is the last of the seven churches that Christ mentions. The verses from 3:14–22 are easy to grasp.

Vrs 14 identifies Christ is speaking to the Laodicean church.

Vrs 15 and 16 The church is lukewarm and it makes Christ sick. The language is figurative. The word spew in the text means vomit. The Laodicean church made Christ sick to his stomach.

 Vrs 17 They thought they were rich and did not need anything. Christ said they were poor, blind, miserable and naked. Again it is figurative language.

Vrs 18 continues figurative speech. He tells the church to buy from him what they needed.

Vrs 19 requires them to repent.

Vrs 20 Here we find the text for today.

Re 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:

if any man hear my voice, and open the door,

I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Here is Christ knocking on the door of the Laodicean church. Some evangelists may use this verse as an invitation to salvation but it is not that at all. He is knocking on the church door where His name is already known and saved people are inside.  He is not knocking on the heart of the unsaved here.

There is no handle on the outside of the door. The interpretation of that is Christ won’t force the door open. He will stand there forever and knock, pleading for entrance. Nonsense!

Most Bible believing fundamental churches teach that man is dead in trespasses and sins.  Now how dead are they?  Can they get up and answer the door?  Is salvation conditional on what we do first?  

Joh 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me

Joh 6:65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

Now the argument over election and free will is an old and still unsettled one. But I think we can all agree that dead men are not saved because they got up, unlocked the door and invited Christ in. They are saved because the Holy Spirit has already come in and quickened them so they respond. Whatever your doctrinal position I think the text we are studying does not support the idea that Christ is knocking on the door of a church filled with unsaved dead men.

This lukewarm church probably did not have a welcome sign and a door handle on the outside. It looked dark inside because no one was in there. They were all busy. It was a town of wealth, business, banking and a medical center.  Who knows what they were doing? We just know it wasn’t anything radically religious or completely pagan. It was sort of in the middle. You know lukewarm.

One last comment about the painting. Christ was not knocking with the hopes of saving some poor lost sinner who opened the door. Nor was he planning to meet with the entire church.  He was calling out names, and said if any man hear my voice and open the door that he would come in and fellowship with him around the table. They would eat a meal together. But it required someone to be in tune with Christ’s voice.  They might have ignored the knocking, but they should have recognized the voice of the master.

The devotional thought for us today is to consider if our life is so filled with other things we neither hear the knock of the Holy Spirit nor recognize His voice. May we become more sensitive to the still small voice and stop what we are doing for a time of fellowship and nourishment with Christ as he speaks to us through the Holy Spirit.

Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.