Jesus is Knocking
Revelation 3:20-22
A Sermon for Youth
by Phil Hopwood
May 21st, Hobart
Scripture Readings:
OLD TESTAMENT READING
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
NEW TESTAMENT READING:
Revelation 3:20-22
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.21
To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
INTRODUCTION:
Everyone wants to be loved
Accepted, popular, to be Happy
How much of our time and energy get’s consumed in thinking about, worrying about and trying to do something about the way others think of us
Or how we think of ourselves
It influences everything we do, the way we talk and act, how we dress, who we spend time with and so on
This isn’t unique to this generation:
Listen to the songs of the sixties;
Beatles’ song "Help!" put it most simply.
most of their early songs talking about the simple need for someone to love, or be loved by
We all need to be helped, to be loved, and to love
Today: Songs often full of anguish, pain, loneliness, despair
Examples of songs today...??
Tasmania has one of the highest rates of youth suicide
Despondent, can’t find any direction, meaning, value to their lives
Hopeless, lonely, loveless
PURPOSE:
How is your life?
What do you think about yourself?
What do you think life is all about for you?
What’s important to you, what are your values?
What makes you happy?
What is your goal in life?
What hope do you have for your future?
Do you ever wonder what sort of future you will have beyond this life?
That’s a lot of questions:
Important questions.
Questions just about everyone who has lived has faced at one time or another, if not constantly
To add to these questions, as young people who have been involved with A CHURCH, (all your lives for some of you):
What relevance do God and Jesus have to your life?
Do you consider yourself a Christian?
Do you ever wonder if its okay with God to "sort of Christian" a part time or partial Christian?
Does it really matter if you pick and choose a little bit here and there from Christian beliefs and Biblical teachings about life and morality?
Many church-raised young people, decide that the best approach to God is to just go to church every now and then, or maybe even take a break for a few years, have some fun, not be hampered in their lifestyle, and then when they are older, maybe with a family, or getting old, then turn to God
Is that a good idea?
What would you say to someone if they told you that was their plan?
Now You are probably asking A QUestion of your own
Is he going to answer all these questions this afternoon?
NO
Hoping to have a series of Youth Services with Peter Woodcock, and perhaps others in June or July that will deal with many of these issues and others
Main emphasis will be on the relevance of Christian faith for young people today
Be bright and fun, thought provoking, and hopefully of great help to you
Importantly, they will be aimed at your friends, who may or may not go to Church, or know much about Jesus.
Before we get that all under way, I think it is important that we all think a bit about what we believe and where we stand with Jesus Christ, for our own benefit, and so we can be in a better position to help others who may come along to these meetings.
What I’d like to do TODAY IS TALK TO YOU ABOUT WHEre YOU STAND WITH JESUS, and where Jesus Stands with you.
And in doing so, hopefully you will be helped to think through and perhaps answer some of the questions we asked
And I’m always very happy, as are many others here, to talk to you about them individually whenever you’d like to
BODY:
TWO DOORS:
Why do we have two "doors" up here today?
They represent a choice
Life is full of choices
Most of the questions I asked revolve around a fundamental choice, in fact what the Bible claims is the most important choice of all
HOw many of you have played the computer Game called "Lemmings"?
In it you have to build bridges over gaps, and steps up and down walls and other obstacles, drill tunnels, blow up obstacles in order to get your lemmings safely from the beginning of their little world, to the final destination which is a door that they jump through to the next level.
A number of other games have similar doors or exits you have to get to in order to succeed or advance further.
In Lemmings (if I remember rightly), if you don’t get through in a certain amount of time you get blown up
In Life there is also just one door that needs to be opened in order for you to "win"
And if you don’t go through it, if we don’t make that one choice that can save you, we are in effect, even though we may be oblivious to it, or not believe it, like a walking time bomb
If we don’t make that one right choice, then by choice or default, we will head for and eventually arrive at the other door that our lives are by default, on course for
This all sounds a bit melodramatic,
And perhaps even like scare tactics
So what do I mean?
More importantly what does God have to tell us about such matters?
John 3:16-18
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Through believing in Jesus as the Son of God, as our personal saviour we are making the choice to live
We’ll talk about that a bit more in a minute, and many times into the future,
But for the moment, I’d like you to think clearly about what else Jesus is telling us in these verses and the next
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
There is something alarming here. Something no one, young or old, should be ignorant of or casual about
What are you and I being told, in fact not just told, but being warned about?
That if we don’t choose to put our full faith in Jesus as our personal Saviour, we have made another choice, even if we don’t realise it
By not choosing the door that ushers us into God, and all that He has for us, we choose to go through the other door
By not choosing to be a Christian, our life is automatically, although invisibly, condemned
We are a walking time bomb, or on a death train.
But the problem is, it seems by not making a choice one way or the other, by not deciding completely for or completely against putting our faith in Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, that we are in neutral and safe territory
We feel okay with a non decision, or putting it off for a long time, that we are okay, because after all -- we don’t hear a clock ticking
- we don’t immediately fall through some trap door and get burnt up or swallowed by a monster, or blown up, like you do in some computer games
By not choosing Jesus as our Saviour today, we don’t feel immediate consequences.
The truth of the matter is, that we were, and are, and until we choose Jesus, we remain heading for the other door, we are a walking time bomb, we are on a death train, we are condemned to eternal punishment
Although it isn’t a popular thing to state, the truth of the matter is stark and the most sad and frightening reality there can be
Our destiny is the ultimate condemnation, truly, a fate worse than death
As much as we’d like to ignore it, there is a place called hell, a place as much as we may try to deny or ignore, that is real
But God wants us to know, that it is not all bad news, it doesn’t have to be like this!
Jesus is telling us that there is another destination besides condemnation and hell
He can, and wants to save us from the time bomb, to rescue us from death train, and get us on his train that leads to eternal life with God, joy, and peace, and ultimate happiness and fulfilment
And God through Jesus, has done everything that needs doing in order for this to happen
All we have to do, all we must do, is accept that salvation in faith, as a free gift, to accept Jesus as our personal Saviour and Lord of our life
John 3:16-18
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
God loves everyone, young and old, and He wants to save you from condemnation, from the death we all face from birth because we have all sinned and lived independently of God and his way of love
There is a beautiful scripture in Revelation 3:20-22 that I’d like you to look at before we conclude
REVELATION 3:20-22
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.
The statement "here I am!" is bold and designed to vividly capture our attention, and get us to look at Jesus
Jesus is there, and the Greek tells us more than what we might notice in the English
It means Jesus is standing there now, and continually, and repetitively knocking.
He is not just giving a light tap, tap, not caring too much if anyone answers
He is knocking continually in the hope of a response
In fact he is not just standing there, he is leaning on the door, really wanting it to open so he can come in and share his eternal love and life with us
What do we learn from this amazing statement?
That Jesus isn’t waiting for us to impress him with good works, or to get his attention in some way
He is already there, trying to get our attention, calling out to us, to let him into our lives, into our hearts and minds
* What is he asking us to do, if we haven’t done so already?
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.
If we hear his call, and open our hearts and minds to his offer of love, and acceptance, his call to repentance and faith in him as our Saviour, Lord and friend;
Then he will come and eat with us, and us with him
* What does that mean?
A meal in those times symbolised, and involved close fellowship and companionship, sharing and closeness
That’s what Jesus is trying to get your attention and open the door of your life for, he wants to be your friend, loving you always, never letting you down, to be your encourager and helper, giving your life, hope, direction, meaning and fulfilment
You don’t have to be some particular age to OPEN THE DOOR OF YOUR LIFE, OF YOUR HEART AND INNER MOST BEING, AND ACCEPT HIM IN
You might be surprised how many adults even in this room today, accepted Jesus as their Saviour at quite a young age
How many of you did so before you were out of your teens?
I’m afraid that over the years what we’ve talked about today may not have been communicated as clearly as it should have been
Perhaps there has been the feeling that as long as a young person has some belief in God, perhaps comes to church every now and then, then they are a Christian, and God is happy
The idea has probably been, that at some time in the future I will make a full and total commitment to God, and get baptised
It seems to have been thought by many that baptism was only for those who had gotten their lives really in order, overcome their sins, and were absolutely sure that this was the right church, and would keep the sabbath, and Holy Days, tithe and so on for the rest of their lives
It was seen as some huge commitment and responsibility
On the other hand it seemed to be assumed that if you weren’t ready for that sort of commitment, that was okay, as long as you came to church semi-regularly, that was fine
We often make the casual comment about many things in life that we haven’t really handled satisfactorily, that they are not a matter of life and death, so why worry or take any time to consider or do anything about them
What we are talking about here, is not something that can be so easily dismissed, because we are indeed, talking about the matter of a choice, that whether we like it or not, or believe it or not, is a life or death decision
CONCLUSION:
I hope and pray that you will take the time to think about these matters
God loves you, even more than your parents, or your best friends, or you yourself.
Jesus calls on all, young and old,
If you haven’t already done so, to listen and hear him knocking at the door of your heart
He is calling out to you, because he wants you, he wants to be your friend, your companion, not just for a month or a year or two, not just for this life even, but forever
What will be your answer?
If you want to accept Jesus into your life, tell God about it
Don’t put it off
And if you do, please talk to a Christian friend about it as soon as you can
And seek some help and encouragement in the decision you have made
If you need any help with any of what we have talked about, please don’t hold back from asking
PRAYER:
