3:19-21 I STAND AT THE DOOR
The good news is that despite the fearful rebuke, our condition is not hopeless—God still loves us, and “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” The ministry of rebuke and chastening is one of God’s greatest blessings, because it shakes us out of our fatal complacency. “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?… He [chastens us] for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:5-11). No one likes chastening, and for this reason Jesus urges us to learn quickly—“Therefore be zealous and repent.”
Ultimately God will never force us, and in fact God's His interventions in our lives are only done with our permission. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:19,20). Jesus is the one who can provide all that we need: the gold of faith, the white garments of righteousness, and the eye salve of spiritual discernment. But unlike Satan, who barges right into our lives uninvited with promises that turn out to be lies, Jesus waits for us to open the door.
From this image we see that Jesus is willing to endure the humiliation of standing outside knocking while most people ignore His presence at the door of their heart (as if the humilty He suffered during His life on earth and especially on the Cross was not enough to convince us of the depth of His self-sacrificing love). Jesus is the one offering priceless benefits culminating in eternal life in a perfect universe, but He pictures Himself as a humble beggar standing outside waiting for the hardhearted master of the house to get around to answering His knock! The real problem is that the true master, Satan, is already inside telling lies about the "miscreant" out on the porch. But Jesus desires the most intimate, personal love relationship: “I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me,” and He offers it to “anyone” who “opens the door” of his heart. He provides Himself, the Bread of Life for the meal, his blood for the drink, and fresh supplies of grace, mercy and love.[1] He knows we could never afford to purchase these, so He offers them to us as a free gift. Why would we ever refuse Him and leave Him outside knocking?
“To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (Revelation 3:21). Laodicea is the last of the seven churches, and this is the last message. As we will see in later chapters, Revelation has several series of seven—the seven churches, seals, trumpets and last plagues. In each case the conclusion of the message to the seventh in the series introduces the theme for the section that follows. In this case the last message to the seven churches is about God’s people sitting with Him on His throne. He reminds us that he has already “sat down with My Father on His throne”—“He [Jesus] was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19).[2] Jesus wants us "to sit with [Him] on [His] throne," and this is the challenge. Even if we finally “overcome,” each of us has a long and sordid history of sin. Moreover, there is an enemy, “the accuser of our Brethren”[3] who wanted the throne for himself and doesn’t want anyone else to have a place there. The next section, the seven seals, reveals what God is doing in heaven so that we will be able to sit with Jesus on His throne.