“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.”
Yes, this was written before the time of SUPs (Stand Up Paddelboards), and the “sup” in this verse refers to “supper.” Jesus wants to hang out and eat with us! What an intimate act of fellowship- to dine with another person is to declare that we are both at the same table, breaking bread and sharing a moment in time where we eat the food in front of us and talk about the ups and downs of life, loss, hurts, joys, surprises, and perhaps even God! In other words, the creator of the universe, Jesus Christ, God incarnate, wants to have a relationship with His created beings. We have read previously that though we faced eternal condemnation, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ made a way for those who believed in Him to escape eternal condemnation and have everlasting life, covered by the blood of Jesus.
Now, this verse challenges us to have fellowship and a living relationship with God our Father through Jesus Christ His Son, whose ascension gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth, as we reach out to God while living in a fallen world. How do we do that? Fifty days after Jesus had risen from the dead, the Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Ghost, fills believers during the Pentecost festival:
“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4, KJV)
The Holy Spirit-empowered believer is then able to live in close relationship with God, through God’s power, rather than their own works of trying to follow God’s commands and expectations through their own strength. This same filling of a believer by the Holy Spirit is how what Jesus states in the gospel of John chapter 15 is fulfilled:
“4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. (John 15:4-5, KJV)“
So when Jesus says:
“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. (Revelation 3:20, KJV),”
He is stating that the Holy Spirit will take up residence in a born-again believer, making it actually possible to continually hang out with God. Yet, the sheer number of action verbs overwhelm the readers of Revelation 3:20, as we ponder what form of action Jesus is asking us to take (whether as churches or the individual living stones that make up the churches). God spent 65 books in the Bible using several linking verbs to explain who He was, such as in Matthew 16:13-17 (KJV),
“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”
But here in Revelation 3:20, not a single linking verb is to be found, and all the verbs are action verbs that challenge the reader to not just meditate on who Jesus IS, but how we are to RESPOND in action to Jesus Christ.
As Jesus knocks on the door of churches, which are made up of individual living stones who are the believers (like Peter above), He wants us to not just sit sedated, but rise to action and respond to His knocking on our doors! The call to action here after believing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and being saved, is to enjoy our new-found relationship with God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit by spending time reading The Word (the Bible), being Holy Spirit empowered, and getting to know our creator and His Will and calling on our lives on earth. Of course, as we do so, we may encounter opposition, but the last two sets of verses on the yellow card help us discover how the Bible wants us to respond to opposition:
