The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 7: Laodicea | EASTER

Episode Date: April 12, 2020

Do you hear Jesus knocking? Will you accept His invitation to come in? To access the kids online experience, visit coe22.com/kids.

Well, amen and amen and amen. Here we go. Happy Easter, everybody. Happy resurrection weekend, no matter where you are or when you are. We are here because the tomb is empty. And if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. Amen? And so I don't know if you dressed up, but obviously I did.

I normally don't dress this way, but I just thought, hey, it's Easter, and there's not a bunch of people here to make fun of me. So it's just me and some cameras. But I'm glad to be here with you. And so if you got your Bible, go to Revelation, Chapter 3, and you may be wondering what in the world does the Book of Revelation have to do with Easter, and I'm glad you ask, because it has everything to do with Easter. You see, this whole deal really began, all the events that led up to what we celebrate at Easter, really began around a table. You see, on Thursday night, Jesus gathered his disciples to gather around this table, and he celebrated with them the Passover meal.

They've been doing this for thousands and thousands of years. And it was to celebrate when the angel of death was going to pass over Egypt. And Moses goes and he tells the people, go get a perfect spotless lamb, sacrifice the lamb, put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of the house. And when the angel of death comes, whoever has the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of the house, he will pass over. But this night he gathers together around this table and he changes all the rules. He breaks the bread, says, this is my body.

He holds up the cup. He says, this is my blood. The disciples don't know what he's talking about, but he is giving them this tangible picture of the gospel what would happen the next day. They leave the upper room, they go to the Garden of Gassimini, and he prays. And Jesus, sweating drops of blood, he prays. Father, if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me.

Not my will, but your will be done. He's betrayed by a kiss. soldiers come and they arrest him. Then he's taken to Caiaphas's house, and then he's passed to Pontius Pilate's house. He goes from leader to leader authority to authority because nobody wants to be the person that slams the gavel down and said this innocent man goes to death. So Pilate puts him before a crowd of people and says, what shall I do with this man named Jesus? By the way, that's the most important question that you'll ever deal with in your entire life.

What will you do with this man named Jesus? The crowd, they scream, crucify him, kill him. And so they take Jesus, they continue to beat him, they flog him, they take him to Galgotha, the place of the skull. They drive nails through his hands and his feet, and they crucify him. And on the cross, Jesus says seven things. And the last thing that Jesus says from the cross is he pushes up on his nail-pierced feet, and he says these words, it is finished.

To Telestai. It means paid in full. And in that very moment our sin debt was paid, the Lamb of God was slain on our behalf that our sins would be taken away. Then Joseph of Arimathea makes a deal with Pilate. He gets the body. He puts Jesus in a grave, a rich man's tomb. And they rolled the stone in front of his tomb. And then three days later, on the very first Easter,

Do you know what? Was not happening on the very first Easter? Large crowds were not gathering at church. You know what? It was not happening on the very first Easter? Nobody was dressed up. You know what was not happening on the very first Easter? Nobody was cooking a big Easter dinner and inviting all of their friends over.

In fact, what was actually happening on the very first Easter is the people that were followers of Jesus, the people that knew him, they were huddled together, quarantined in their own homes. nobody was dressed up nobody was Easter egg hunting nobody was eating a chocolate bunny nobody was going outside of their homes for fear of their very own lives as I've been preparing for this Easter I thought maybe this Easter

is the most like the first Easter that we have ever experienced but on the third day on the third day the women had gone to the tomb to fix the body and so when they got there the stone had been rolled away, the angels look at them and say, why do you look for the living among the dead?

Jesus is not here. He is alive, and the women excited, the very first evangelist, they run back, they find the disciples again who are hidden away behind some locked doors, and they say, he's alive, he's alive, he's alive. And so then they have to go and check it out for themselves. And so Peter and John take off for the tomb. John gets there first, and then Peter comes lagging behind,

they peer into the tomb, and he is alive. and over the next six weeks or so, Jesus appears to over 500 people in the town that he was crucified in. Eventually, he gathers all his disciples together, not just his 12, but about 120 people. He goes up on a hill on the other side of the Mount of Olives, and he gives us this great commission. He says, therefore go and make disciples of all nations,

teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And then he says this, he gives us this promise. And lo, I will be with you always to the very ends of the age. And then he ascends to the right hand of God the Father. And he is alive. And the ascended living Jesus in Revelation, in chapters 2 and 3, writes letters to seven churches

in Asia Minor through the Apostle John. And over the last seven weeks, we have been studying those letters. And today we are at the last one. The church at Laoticea. The living resurrected Jesus writes this letter to this church. In Church of 1122, I think it has a lot to do with our church. He says this in verse 14. And to the angel of the church in Laoticaa write the work.

of the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. In each one of these letters, Jesus introduces himself, and to this church, the church at Laodicea, he wants them to know that he is the beginning and the end. Before there was a beginning, he was there, that the beginning of God's creation came through him, that all things that had been created were by him, for him, through him, and to him. And he is the end. He is the amen. He is the alpha and the omega.

In fact, the word amen in Hebrew, it literally means like you can count on it or faithful and true. This is good news for us today. This means that God has never been surprised that nothing is out of his hands. He's never lost control all the way back here and even unto today. Jesus says these are the words of the amen. 2 Corinthians 120 says this. for all the promises of God find there yes in Him, in Jesus.

That is why it is through Him that we utter our amen to God for His glory. And so God is in control. He looks at the church at Laotacea. He looks at the persecution that all of the first century churches are experiencing. He is talking to the Apostle John, who has quarantined himself, on the Isle of Patmos,

and he says this. He says, I am the amen. I have this under control. It is finished and it shall be done. And then to Laotica, he goes in. Now, I'm sure you heard this when you were growing up. My mama used to always say, if you don't have anything good to say, then don't say anything at all. Well, Jesus didn't believe that, because he had nothing good to say to Laoticaea.

In almost all of the other churches, he commends them for something. But to this church, he has no good thing to say. He says, I know your works. Then he dives right in. You were neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. The King James, I think, says spew you out.

It literally, it doesn't mean like spit like that. It means like vomit you out. Now, I've heard people say, use this verse and they preach it this way, and it's a good sermon. It's just not what the verse means, but I'd rather you be on fire for God or just live it up in your sin. And again, that's a great sermon. That's just not what this means. You see, in Laodicea, Laudacea was near two other cities, and they were called the Tri-Cities. Colossae was close, and Heropolis was close, and then Laudacea was the third city and the tri-cities.

They were about five miles apart from each other. And in this place called Heropolis, they had these hot baths, these warm springs, And people would travel from all over the place to come to Heropolis and to sit in these hot baths for like medicinal purposes, for healing purposes. And he says, I wish you were hot. I wish you were useful. Like I wish church at Laudicea, I wish people could come and sit and soak in your church and it would do some good for them.

Or I wish you were cold. About five miles away in Colossay, they had these cool springs. And it's where they didn't do bottle rooms. water, but that's where the best water would come from. And so if you needed refreshment, if you were thirsty, and if you were parts, and you could get to Colise, they had these mountain springs, and people would go there and they would get this cold water. But in La Eadesia, they piped their water in, and they tried to pipe in hot water from Heropolis, and they tried to pipe in cold water from Colossay. But by the time it passed through all this limestone, and it got to La Eadesia, it was nasty. and God is saying

Church at Laoticaea your church is kind of like your water it makes me sick I mean if you look at it it looks good it looks like it would be refreshing it looks like it would help you but when you drink it

then it just I mean it just makes me sick I wish I wish you would either be hot or cold in other words I wish you would be useful but since you're not I'm ready to just puk you up. You see, it's just saying, listen, church at Laotica, you're just lukewarm. I mean, you're just lukewarm.

How in the world can you be run over by the grace train of Jesus Christ be created into a new creation filled with the spirit of God and then just be like lukewarm? like not hot and not cold. Of all the things to hear from Jesus, he says that you made me sick. Now listen, he's talking to church people here. If you're a visitor and you're just tuning in for the very first time, Jesus never talked to the people that were outside of the church this way.

He would say, welcome and meet you right where you are. So you get a little bit of a pass on this one. But to the church folks, that just, that think playing church is a hobby, Jesus says, look, when you treat church like a hobby, I'm telling you, it just makes me, it just makes me sick. And I'll tell you, I think at our church, man, at most churches, we got a lot of lukewarm folks. We've got a lot of lukewarm folks that at one time in your life you were hot or you were cold, you were useful for the kingdom of God.

You were on fire for the Lord. And then over time, it's like the things of this world just weigh you down and choke out your passion for Jesus Christ. And then you just become kind of bleh. And to this blah church, he says this, for you say, I am rich. I have prospered. I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched,

pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. A few more things about La Eadesia. La Eidotacea was like the finance capital of this region. In fact, they were so rich, like a lot of banking was centered in Laotica. La Eidicaa was so wealthy that in like 60 BC, there was a great earthquake and it flattened the city. And so Rome came out with this kind of stimulus package for all of the private. provinces, and Laotasia said, no thanks, we don't need your federal help. We can pay for this on our own. You see, Laotica took a lot of pride in their wealth and in their self-sufficiency.

Also, Laotasia was known for this particular, very expensive black wool. There's a super cool black sheep that live in the mountains of Laudacea, and people would come all over because it would kind of shimmer and shine, and it was this super expensive black wool. And the other thing is it was a medical center, and they would import some of the stuff from Heropolis, where the warm springs were, and they would make this like eye ointment, and people would come from all over the place to get this eye ointment. And they thought, we've got it all here at La Eoccia, man. They would proclaim about themselves, hey, we're rich. We've prospered. We need nothing. You see, the church at La Eta Cita, they were living.

the Laotocidian dream. Now here's the problem with that. Unless you know that you are drowning, you will never reach for a lifeline that's thrown to you. It is nearly impossible for someone to get saved that does not know that they are dying or drowning. I say nearly impossible because if the tomb is empty, anything is possible.

But the first thing that has to happen before you surrender your life to Jesus is you have to know. that you need a Savior. And what scares me to death about our church and really every church, especially in America, especially in the South, and especially for those who things are going pretty well, is I'm afraid that there can be some of us that would say these things. Look, I'm rich, I've prospered, and I need nothing.

and the problem is is that we put our hope in the wrong thing. Now listen, I think if you were to go to the church at La Eadesea and you were to give them a theology exam on the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, I think they could all pass the test.

However, what they have done is they have placed their hope in the temporary lifestyle that this lavish La Eadesia provided for them and it created this lukewarmness end in them. And they said, I'm rich. And listen, we are. We are rich in stuff. We are rich in status. We are rich in sex. We are rich in possessions. We are rich in position. We are rich in passion.

And oftentimes it's these things that can lure us into a place where we think we are self-sufficient because I don't need a savior. I'm doing a great job saving myself. And we put our hope. in our possessions. We do. We put our hope in stuff. We think if I could just have a little bit more money, if I could just have a little bit more stuff, if I could just get a newer car, if I could just get a little bigger house, if I could just get there, if I could get one more raise, then, then I'd be fully and finally satisfied. And the crazy thing about it is you actually get that one more thing and it just doesn't do anything for your soul. Here 1122, we lovingly call this the cul-de-sac of stupidity.

Not that stuff is stupid, but you're stupid. Me too, because I put my hope in stuff as if a new tie is going to make me a better man. It's not. It's not. Or sometimes we don't go down the possession route. We go down the position route. And we throw all of ourself into climbing this corporate ladder. If I could just get the next promotion, if I could just live out my passion and do this

And then the problem is, is we spend all of our life climbing the ladder of success. And then we finally get to the top and we realize that it's leaning against the wrong wall. That we take another lap on the merry-go-round of normality. The problem is it's just not that merry. I mean, we wake up every day. We wake up and we just hit the alarm clock, get going. And we eat something, and we drive something, and we sell something. and then we come home and we eat something and we watch something and we go to sleep.

And we do it over and over and over and over and over. And the biggest prayer that we have in our life is this. Thank God it's Friday. And yet when you lay your head down on the pillow, even when you achieve the possessions and the positions, there's still something eerily missing down here in the soul level. And if you're honest and if you can get quiet for long enough, Now usually you want because you'll just keep Instagram and Netflix going because you hate to be alone with yourself because you just feel so empty and discontent.

And you think, is this it? I mean, is this it? This is where Laotica was. Or sometimes we put our hope in our relationships. And we take our keys to contentment and we pass them out to all the important relationships in our lives. And essentially we say we're like, here you go mom, here you go dad, here you go husband, wife. Here you go kids. Here you go boss.

Here you go friends. Here you go fake friends on the internet. Now, when you guys all act perfect and get your act together, and when you guys confirm me, then and only then will I be fully and finally satisfied. And Jesus says, no, you've put your hope in the wrong thing. Jesus says, look, something's missing. Something deeply missing. He says you're, listen to this, he says we.

I promise, I think he's talking to us. He says you're pitiable. And when I read that, I thought, at first my eyes don't work as good as they used to, so I had to get a bigger Bible, because I thought it said pitiful. It doesn't say pitiful. Pityable. Like Jesus looks at someone with pity, like the greyhound that spends his entire life. chasing a fake rabbit. What a waste of a life. Either he chases after the thing and he never

attains his goal that he was trying to reach, or sometimes when the rabbit breaks and you catch it and you realize that you've been duped your whole life. Pitiable. You see, it's really a shame. C.S. Lewis says that our problem is not that we want too much, but that we are satisfied with so little. He says that we are like little kids playing with mud pies into slums while our parents are inviting us to go on a holiday to the beach, but we think, nah, this is enough. Listen, this is the American church. This is a lot of us in our church. You see, because we do so much church planning around the world, we have the distinguished

pleasure of sometimes having pastors from other countries come here and spend some time with us. And if you get to know them enough, if you get to know them enough, at first, at first they'll just say nice things about our facilities and how nice the people are and all of that. But if you really can dig in there, when we get some of our pastors from Africa or from Brazil to come here and see our church at the American church, they won't say it out loud, but you know what they're really thinking? It's you're pitiable. They say they can't believe how lukewarm we are in our faith. They can't believe the way we spend our money.

First of all, they can't believe how much we have, and we say that Jesus is our Lord, and that Jesus, who was rich, became poor on our behalf and poured out his entire life. And yet, most American Christians, we spend the majority of what we have on us and for our own comfort, and yet we claim Christ as king,

and they scratch their head, and they're like, I don't understand. And the other thing that they can't get their mind around is how little we pray. You know why? Because we'll need anything. And they will tell me, listen, if we don't pray for our daily bread, we won't get our daily bread, and they are deeply and daily dependent on God to come through for them. And yet oftentimes, us like Laotacea, we go, you know what, God, we don't need you on this.

We got it. We don't need to pray for our daily bread because we've got a refrigerator and public. Even though it's super weird right now and you can't be near anybody. We need toilet paper, but, you know, and they're astonished. The other thing that they're astonished is how fearful we are to share our faith in public because we're afraid of an awkward feeling. And what they are praying for is that they don't get killed and captured when they share their faith in Jesus Christ. I had a friend of mine, look at me, and say,

it must be very difficult to be a Christian in America because you don't need anything. This is Laoticaa. Church of 1122. Is it you? Is it you? Have the things of this world just stuck on you so much that there was a day in your life where you were on fire for the Lord?

You were excited for him. You were passionate about him. But lately you've just been going through the motions and you feel self-sufficient. Well, Jesus says to this church, look, you're not rich and prosperous and self-sufficient. Jesus says that your condition is reticient. poor, pitiable, and naked.

He says you're wretched. In other words, hey, listen, you are a sinner in need of a Savior. That our current condition, apart from Jesus Christ, is that, listen, I know, I get it. We grew up in a generation where our kindergarten teachers told us you're a snowflake and you're a rainbow and you're a skittal. Well, your kindergarten teachers are a liar because we are wretched, wretched, deeply depraved sinners down at the core of who we are. And you know this would be true. You know this to be true. Think about this.

Even if we left out all of the perfect law of God, we can't even keep our own laws perfectly. Can we? Have you ever said, I'll never do this again? I promise I'll never do that again? Of course. And we can't keep our own laws. Or if you've got a little kid,

did you have to teach your kid to sin? No, they were experts out of the womb. I mean, kids come out of the womb like the seagulls out of Nemo, just crying, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. Why? Why? Because we, like Jesus says, are wretched and we are poor. And you may say, I'm not poor. I got plenty of stuff. Well, when we think that more is mine than we're really poor towards God,

and the crazy thing is, isn't it, you keep trying to pay for contentment and you can't find it. The apostle Paul says that he has found the secret of being content in any and every situation. You see, that's what it means to be rich towards God. And then he says that you are pitiable. Ouch. Ouch. And naked. See, that is our diagnosis.

That when Jesus writes this letter to the church at Laoticea, for anybody who has not found life in Christ, and we have tried to find life in anything else, it takes us back to what the angels say at the empty tomb, why do you look for the living among the dead? So many of us try to look for life. life and the things of this world. And there's nothing wrong with the things of this world. They just don't provide the life that we're looking for. And so, is that you? Is that you at a

soul level? Like deep down in here? If it is, you may be asking, okay, well, if that's me, then what do I do? Jesus gives first the diagnosis, and then he gives the cure. He offers three things. He says, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich. I think the key here is he says this, I counsel you to buy from me. Hey, Laudacea, remember, you looked at Rome and said, we don't need you, we got this. And that has seeped into your church. And essentially, you're looking at God Almighty. And you're saying, we don't need you. We got this. and he's saying, La Eadesea, you ain't got this. Because you need something for me that you cannot provide for yourself.

And so he says, I need you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich. To which Laotasia may say, you just told us we were poor. How can we buy something that we can't even see? How can we buy gold from you refined by fire? When you just said we have nothing that we are poor. Isaiah 55, verse 1. says this, come everyone who thirst, come to the waters and he who has no money, come buy and and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. What does that mean? It means that

God has a grace gift for you. The theologians would call this double imputation. That when Jesus Christ died on the cross and he says, it is finished. For anyone that would believe, or trust that when Christ says it is finished that somehow that counted for them and they would say I'm going to put my faith or trust in you then two things simultaneously happens then our sin our wretchedness our poverty are seeking after life and things that don't provide life all of that sin is transferred to the account of Jesus and he pays the debt in full on the cross and at the same time the moment that you put your faith in Christ, then his righteousness,

his perfect relationship with his Heavenly Father, his love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his purity, his goodness, his faithfulness is all transferred to you. That his perfect life and his perfect relationship with the Father, they are imputed unto you and that all of our sin and sadness and mistakes

and everything we've done are imputed unto him. It would be like, imagine, if you check your bank account and you were in the negative. And then God Almighty says to you, hey, I'll make a deal with you. Here, take a look at my bank account, and I don't know.

It was trillions upon trillions upon trillions. And he says, if you put your faith in me, then I'll take your account, all of your debts, and I'll give you my account. Want to make that deal? And you say, of course I would. And he says, okay, I counsel you to buy from me gold, refined by fire so that you may be rich.

That's the first thing he says you've got to do. The second thing is this. He says, and it's implied hereby for me, white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen. He's saying, you know that black wool that you were so proud of? Well, it's time for you to exchange what you have done for yourself and to put on what only I could do for you. exchange your sin-soaked garments and put on, and literally the word white here doesn't just mean like

chlorox white. It means like dazzling, like bright, bright white. In fact, when you get to Revelation 7, verse 14, the Bible says this, and I said to him, sir, you know who these are. And he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the land. It is a picture of what the blood of Jesus does. for our sin-stained lives. That the moment we can get to the place where we realize I owe a debt to God that I can never pay on my own,

and by faith we go before him, and we just say, okay, Jesus, I believe when you died on the cross, it counted for me, then the blood of Jesus. Think about how counterintuitive this is. If you try to wash something in blood, it does not get cleaner. But when you wash your life in the blood of Jesus,

then it is. is made white as snow. It is a picture of the righteousness of God. One of my favorite stories in all of the Bible is when Jesus tells this story that we typically call the prodigal son. And this boy, this youngest son, rejects his father. He essentially says, Dad, you're dead to me. Give me my inheritance now.

He takes it. He rebels against him. He goes out and he squanders it all away on reckless living. And at some point in his life, he gets to the bottom of the bottom of the world. of the barrel. He's at rock bottom, which honestly is God's grace in our life sometimes. Sometimes God lets us fall flat on our back so we can look in the right direction. And the Bible says that he comes to his senses, and when he comes back home, he's going to try to work his way back into his father's ranch. And the father sees him from a long ways off.

He goes running to him. And the boy begins to apologize, and the dad won't even hear his apology. and the first thing he asked for is for his robe. The boy is covered in filth. The boy is covered in pig slop. And so what the father does is by the father's grace at great expense to the father. He takes this perfectly spotless robe that was his robe and he wraps it around the boy

so that when anybody looks at the boy, they don't see the filth of his sin, but they see the righteousness of the father. Jesus says, lay out of sea. That's what you need for me. and if you'll just come to me by grace, if you'll come to me by grace, I will take your sin-soaked robe and I will give you this perfectly white robe and saab to anoint your eyes so that you may see. He's saying, lay out of sea, do you see it? Do you see it? Then he says, those whom I love, I reprove and discipline,

so be zealous and repent. Repent means to just change direction. He's saying, he's begging his church, Listen, church. You have been going after the things of this world, and maybe now, maybe you have eyes to see, and you can turn your back on this world, and you can come back to me. And then Jesus gives this illustration. And I think what Jesus is doing in this illustration, Revelation 320, it's a very famous Bible verse, if you've been around church. He says, behold, behold means like, wake up, pay attention.

He says, behold, I stand at the door, and not. knock and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and eat with him and he with me. He's saying listen church by the way where is Jesus in this story that he's telling he's on the outside of the church that is never a good thing when Jesus is not in your church and Jesus is saying I am not in your church your church your church activity does not bring me in the door your good theology does not bring me in the door. As I knock, your response to a personal invitation is what brings me in the door. And he says, behold, that means wake up, church, wake up.

You've become lukewarm because you've bought into the things of this world. About the stuff of this world, about the status that you're trying to achieve, and about the people that you're trying to impress. And I think he's knocking and he's knocking and he's knocking and he's knocking. to try to break through the noise of this world. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. There's a very famous picture. Maybe you've seen it before, and it's Jesus standing at the door and knocking.

If you Google picture of Revelation 320, this is what will pop up. And it's Jesus standing by this door, and it's knocking. And one of the things that's interesting about the picture is on Jesus side of the door, there's no handle. You see, because Jesus isn't the SWAT team. Jesus isn't. The crazy thing about God is the almighty omnipotent creator, the sovereign king of election by grace and predestination. And yet, even though it is God's initiative that saves us, still will not force his way in.

He still will not huff and puff and blow the house down. He will knock and he will knock and he will knock. And by faith, we have to have the ears to hear and to go and simply open the door. He says, I stand at the door and knock in anyone who hears my voice. Maybe that's you right now. Maybe you've been to a million church services or maybe you've never been to one in your life. And yet somehow, I don't mean you just hear it in your ears, but at a deeper level, like at the soul level, you're like, I think I hear him knocking.

Anyone who hears my voice and opens the door. Let me talk to the Christians real quick. Last time I was in Africa, we'll do like house visits. And one of the things the people in Africa will do when they see missionaries show up is they want to invite you into their home. And every home we go into, when you walk into the door, you're in the entire home. That's it, man. The whole house. I don't know, maybe 10 by 10, maybe.

And there's not rooms, there's just the home. Most of the first century homes would be like that home. And so for you to open the door and to invite somebody in, you weren't inviting them into your entire home. Here's the problem with compartmentalized American Christianity. A lot of us sometimes treat Jesus like we treat our home. You ever get that quick text? I know you don't right now because we can't.

But remember when people used to go to your house? and they would text you, be like, hey, I'm in the neighborhood. I think I'm just going to stop by. And then you would just go on this mad cleaning spree, right? But did you clean the upstairs guest room closet? No, man. You just cleaned the two or three spots where people were going to see it. Like, you're going to clean the little four-year area.

You're going to clean the place for the TV where everybody's going to sit. You're going to clean the kitchen because if you're real friends, you're going to end up in the kitchen. And the rest of the house is a mess. You just shut doors, stuff it, stuff. closets. Think if you open that closet, you might get killed. Stuff will fall on your head. And sometimes, especially church people, man, this is how we treat Jesus. We say, oh, I hear you knocking, and I want you to come in to my life. I want you to come in and save me from my sins. I want you to come in and be in charge of my Sundays, but I want you to stay out of my bedroom.

That's me. And I want you to stay out of my office, because that's where I do, like, my accounting and my checkbook and my bank account. So stay out of that room. But I want you to be in here. I want you to I want you to be with my family, and I want you to bless me, and that's not how Jesus plays. You see, when we open the door, we open him into the entirety of our lives. C.S. Lewis says it this way. Christ says, give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down.

I don't want to drill the tooth or crown it or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent, as well as the ones that you think are wicked. The whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you myself.

My own will shall become yours. He says, behold, I stand at the door and knock and anyone that would hear my voice and open the door and then here's my favorite part I will come in and eat with you and you with me the most important thing

in the first century was the table it's where all real life happened it represented intimacy and fellowship and friendship this is why this is why the religious people would get mad at Jesus when he would go and sit down at the table with a tax collector. They thought, how could you do that?

Because if you sit at somebody's table, what you were saying is that me and you were okay, me and you are friends, me and you are brothers. We're going to break bread together. And the tables that they would sit at, they would just be like a foot off the ground. Everybody's kind of lounging around. And there's no cable TV, so the dinners, they would start early and go all the way to sunset. And the table is this picture of a relationship.

What Jesus is saying is lay out of sea. You're pitiable. You're wretched. You're poor. And I want a relationship with you. Behold, I stand at the door or not. I'm inviting myself in. And if you'll open the door, what you get is you get me.

Jesus is not looking for begrudging submission to a bunch of rules made up by a church. Jesus is looking for a relationship with you. Listen, we get this. Join me over here. Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock and anyone that hears my voice and opens the door,

I will come in and eat with him and he with me. You see, 20-something years ago or so, when I met Gretchen, it took me a while to convince her, but eventually she heard the knocking of my invitation and she opened the door, and we started going out on dates. And I would take all my money. I could scrowns together, and I would go somewhere as nice as I could afford.

And actually it didn't look like this at all, and I didn't look like this at all. Usually where I was a youth pastor, we would go somewhere like this, like chilies, you know. But I told her, you can get whatever you want, okay? But we would go to a place like this, and we would sit down. and the reason that we do this, we get this. In fact, if you've ever fallen in love, it probably happened at a table. And I was trying to impress her so much.

So I would take her out, and we would order wine, and God would come by, and he would pour it. And I'm going to be really honest. I hated it. I thought it was gross. But I saw on TV, this is what you're supposed to do. and so I would try to act like I knew what I was doing and I'd swirl it around and I and I and I and and I would drink it because it's romantic and then we would sit like this and we would talk and talk and

talk and we would share stories about what we liked and what we didn't like and we would lie about how cool we were in high school and I would tell her all of my sports accomplishments that are about half true and we would do this over and over and over and over and it was at a table. And I looked at her and thought, oh my goodness, I'm in love with this girl. And now 20 years later, do you know how we celebrate anniversaries?

In a similar way. We were at the Sea of Galilee. That was pretty cool. At our 20th anniversary. And so we went and sat down at a table, and it was more like this. It was a really nice pace. And if we looked out of this window,

you could see the Sea of Galilee, and we had this super, eccentric waitress came up. She kept singing songs like karaoke style just to us, and so we just ate it up, and we ordered the best thing that they had. But it really wasn't about the wine, it wasn't about the candles, it wasn't so much about the flowers and the table. You know what it is? This is just a setting for what matters most, a relationship. You see, the Church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover and deepen this, a relationship. with Jesus Christ.

And the good news is that he is knocking. No matter what the table in your house looks like. I know for some people at our church, man, you have big, elegant tables. You never eat at them, but they look super nice. And you've got China and silverware that you're saving for like when the Queen of England comes. I get it. And to those really, really laoticy and rich kind of tables, he knocks on the door and he says, I'd love to come in and have a relationship with you.

And I know for some of you, it doesn't look. like this at all. For some of you, you just kind of got a futon slash beanbag and you share that place with like three or four of your roommates and you don't even have like a real table. You found one of those spools that they wrapped cable on and you rolled it to your house and rolled it into your living room, flipped it on the side, painted it and that's your table. And the good news is is that Jesus wants to sit at that table too because it's not about that table. It's about who he wants to sit across from. And so in our current condition, you and I are wretched, poor, pitiable, and naked. And we can do nothing, nothing on our own to change any of those things.

And listen, to be honest, the reason I asked Gretchen out and the reason I pursued her and the reason I asked her to marry me is because I thought she was awesome and this would work out good for me. And yet, the reason God pursues you and the reason God sent his only begotten son to die on that cross, to pay the full penalty of your sin debt and mine, and the reason that he came out of the grave alive three days later is not because you're awesome, but because he is. And because of his great love for you, he poured out, he poured out his grace at the cross. And today, in this very moment, he's inviting you. He says, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

And anyone, and look, I've looked up the word anyone in Greek. It means anyone. So if you fall in the anyone category, then Jesus is talking about you. And anyone that would hear my voice. So let me ask you, do you hear his voice? like in this very moment for the very first time in your life at like a soul level do you believe that when Jesus Christ died on the cross somehow that counted for you if you hear that knock if you hear his voice then I want to invite you to just open that door

and to invite him into your life and he will come in and he will begin a relationship with you that will never ever ever end in fact in verse 21 Jesus goes on to say to the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne. I also conquered and sat down with my father. Do you know why we know he conquered? Because the tomb is empty. That Jesus came and fought and conquered death so that if anyone that is in him,

not only does he want to come and sit at your table in this very moment, but if anyone who hears the knock, opens the door and invites him in, then when we breathe our last here on this earth, then we get to sit at his table, and we are not sitting at the kitty seat down at the end, that we get to sit on his throne at his table forever and ever and ever. Amen. You see, I told you, it all started with the table.

It all started with the table, and it all comes back to the table. That Jesus wants to invite himself into your life to sit at your table to have a relationship with you. And if you were to say, I'm ready to do that, I want to give you the opportunity to do that right now. for anybody that hears the knock, that hears his voice, and that will open the door, I want you to invite him into your world this very moment. It's as simple, look, it's not easy to be a Christian, but it is as simple as ABC, admitting it.

You know what you're right. I am wretched, poor, pitiable, and naked. I admit it. I don't need to just try harder. I am a sinner in need of a Savior. And I believe, I believe that somehow, when Jesus died on, on the cross when he says it is finished and on the third day he was resurrected from the grave I believe somehow that counted for me and then see to confess to confess him as your lord and

savior to open the door of your life and say I want to invite you in and if you're ready to do that I want to invite you to pray with me no matter where you are who you are would you bow your heads and pray with me our good and gracious heavenly father Lord we praise you for the empty tomb we praise you that if the tomb is empty, that anything is possible, which means that anyone, no matter what we've done, no matter how long we've done it, no matter how hard we've tried to run from you, God, that anyone that hears your voice, that hears you knocking, can invite you into their life. And in that very moment, God, it is finished for them. For anyone that would admit that they're a sinner, that they believe when Christ died on

the cross, they counted for them, and would confess you as Lord. God, that we would be safe. And so, God, I pray for the folks right now, wherever they are, watching on their phone in their homes with a large group or all by themselves. Lord, I pray, I pray that in this very moment they would surrender their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And God, I also pray for the Christians, for the people that have been following you. And over time, God, we've grown stagnant and stale and we've become lukewarm. Lord, would you wake us up? Lord, if there are any parts of our lives that we have compartmentalized off from you, God, would be open those doors so that the entirety of our life would be filled by you. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. So it started at a

table and we were invited to the table. And so the way that we are going to end our service in your home or wherever you're watching this is by celebrating the Lord's table on the night that Jesus was betrayed, they were celebrating the Passover meal at the table. These events would lead to the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. But before he departed, he took an old tradition. Again, the blood of the Passover lamb slain so that when the angel of death came, that those who put the blood on the doorpost of their house would be spared. and Jesus took this traditional Passover meal and he changed all the rules.

In fact, what he's saying to his disciples is this. This thing that you've been doing for thousands of years was actually pointing to this thing that you're going to see tomorrow and on Sunday. And he took the bread and he broke it. And he said, this is my body broken for you. Now, I promise you, the disciples had no idea what he was talking about. about. They didn't know. But the next day, the next day on Friday, when they saw his body broken on the cross, then they got it. The Lamb of God has come to take away the sin of the entire world.

And then he took the cup and he said, this is my blood, poured out for the forgiveness of sin. He called this cup, the cup of the new covenant. Covenant and testament are the same word. Old covenant or the Old Testament was based on the law of God that none of us could keep. And then Jesus says, I bring to you a new covenant or a new testament. And this is a cup or a testament of grace. You see, God gave us the law as a gift so that we would know the diagnosis, that we are lawbreakers, every single one of us, and we need someone to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Jesus says as often as you eat of my body and drink of my blood, you do so in remembrance of me. And when he says that we do this in remembrance of him, we don't just remember that he died on the cross for us, but it's more like an anniversary dinner. You are re-remembering the covenant that you have made with the Lord and that you heard the knock, that you heard his voice, that you opened the door and that he came in and sits down at your table, and you are remembering the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now we're going to respond because the gospel demands a response. And so in your home, we always respond this way,

but in your home we're going to respond, we respond by bringing our ties and our offerings. Do that online. We respond by praying. The Apostle Paul instructs us before we come to the Lord's table, then we should examine our hearts, that we should confess our sin. And when you confess your sin, you're not confessing that your sin.

You confess the blood of Jesus that has already paid for it and covered your sin. We're going to respond by singing. And we're going to lead you in two songs. During the first song, it's called The Table. And during the first song, we would like for you to lead communion in your home. You can get a cracker and some grape juice or it doesn't really matter. And if you're the dad, I would highly encourage you to lead. your family through this, to lead in a prayer and to lead in the remembrance of the crucifixion

and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so let us respond. We're going to bring, we're going to sing, we're going to pray. Let me pray for us. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because you've demonstrated your love for us and this, that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. And so God, as we come to your table, Lord, we bring our whole self, not part of us, but our whole self. We bring it all to your table. God, I thank you that at your table, it's not mine. So I don't get to determine who comes to your table.

You do. And Lord, we bring ourselves to you. And we celebrate the reality that you gave yourself for us. So as we eat of this bread and drink of this cup, God, we remember the broken body of Jesus and the shed blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and for the glory of God. We pray this in Jesus name, amen. Again, as our band leads us in this song, may you lead in Holy Communion.