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friend of mine who lived in Memphis had heard about Joe's death and he came to the funeral. I was sitting in the front waiting. He came and tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up and saw him and as soon as I saw him I broke down and crying. And he said he was driving and on his way he believed that God was impressing on him to tell me two things. He said God loves you and this isn't your fault and I wanted to believe him. I really did. But there's something about when something happens to one of your children as a father that it just weighs well it does at least on me. That maybe I did something wrong. Maybe I should have said something. Maybe I could have been better. And I think God disciplines in us by way of adversity. Adverse circumstances at work or at school. It could be injury. It could be illness. It could be anything that rests our attention away from the idols. Because that's what it really is. The reason that we don't have Jesus first in our life is because something else is there. It could be material things. Homes or cars or any other material possessions. It could be wealth and the things that those afford. Wealth affords. It could be physical beauty. Either your own or somebody else's. It could even be your family that is your idol. Not that you aren't supposed to love your family. You are supposed to love your family. But Jesus is supposed to be first. Anything that we think more valuable than Jesus is an idol. In his commentary G.K. Beale says that Jesus is standing at the door of believers who have become cold in their love for him and are more enamored with the idols that I've mentioned. On the other hand adverse things can happen when they're not disciplined. As we've seen in other churches as we've gone through this series that sometimes the adverse things happen to us because we are faithful. Because we know our Lord. Because we're witnessing for him. Because we won't compromise. So when an adverse thing comes in your life you have to ask the question what is God doing in my life with this. Is there something that I am valuing more than him. Is he getting my attention. As one person puts it God pain is God's megaphone to a lost world. So it's important to listen and that's what Jesus knocking at the door here I think can mean. Sometimes the knocking of adversity precedes the hearing. We don't listen because the noise of the shouting for our attention so loudly that the pain of adversity has to shout louder for us to hear the voice of Jesus and he says if anyone hears my voice and to the Laodiceans his voice was he disciplines those who he reproves those who he loves so be zealous and repent if anyone hears my voice who hears the voice of Jesus who hears the shepherd of our souls. His flock his sheep in John's gospel in chapter 10 Jesus said I am the good shepherd I know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep and I have other sheep that are not of this fold that I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice so there will be one flock and one shepherd my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand I and the father are one so Jesus is knocking and he's calling to the church and to each of us individually and you might think why does Jesus have to knock on the outside of a church why is he on the outside to start with why does he have to call into the church and say if anyone hears my voice open the door unfortunately some churches conduct their business their services their fellowship and even their good deeds all the while Jesus is not included he might be included in name but not in reality we all know churches that are churches in name only they've long since given up preaching the gospel they no longer mention sin unless it's somehow a violation of their particular social preferences they look and feel and taste more like the culture they live in then they do citizens of heaven that's what Laodicea was like if you remember the city was known for wealth it was a financial center it was so wealthy that when an earthquake came a few years before this was written they weren't the only city that had suffered an earthquake but they were the only city that did not appeal to Rome to help rebuild they said no we don't need it we are so independent we are so wealthy on our own that we can rebuild ourselves we don't need any help from the Romans and so they did they're very proud of their wealth they were very proud of their independence they also were a medical center and people would come from all over the region to be tended to and their specialty was eye care they had this virgin powder that they would make into a salve that was beneficial for eye problems and they were well known for that and they were very proud of that as well and for some reason they had a flock of sheep they had a corner on the market that were had black wool and and they were able to turn it into very fine material black and shiny and it was extremely popular and fashionable and people would want to have it to make clothes or buy clothes from the shops in Laodicea so you see their culture was extremely well off in all areas and they were very proud of it and they were glorying in those things even in the church which is why Jesus said you say you're rich but you're poor you have this I sav but you're blind you have this beautiful material and garments but you're naked you're blind and poor and naked spiritually because you are more enamored with those things than you are with me which is why I'm on the outside knocking on the door and calling out to you if anyone hears my voice we would be tempted to think well that's liberal churches and we're not that but the conservative doctrinally sound Ephesians had also left their first love which Jesus had against them when a church doesn't have Jesus first it can become more of a club than a church can still do all the things churches do can still gather on Sunday morning can still sing songs can still hear teaching can still do good deeds and give to the poor and all of those things you can do all of those things without Jesus and it's just a club it's a conservative Christian club but Jesus is on the outside which was the case in Laodicea and I pray is not a case the case here when a professing Christian hears the knock of Jesus and the call of Jesus Jesus says anyone anyone anyone that hears me open the door I'm on the outside I want to be on the inside and what does it mean that he will come in and dine with us and us with him what does it mean that Jesus would come in and have what we call table fellowship with us just think about that when you eat with somebody that creates more intimacy the more often you have a meal together that's why families at least they used to be in the habit of always having dinner together and it created a bond it creates a bond husbands and wives dinner together eating together inviting friends or neighbors over to share a meal with you creates a bond it creates intimacy and that's what Jesus is saying is I want to be intimate with you and you with me and there's several ways that Jesus is with us one way that we've already mentioned is he's the shepherd he says I'm the good shepherd I know my own and my own know me and that's a very significant word that that word no ganosco it means to know personally and intimately I know my own my own know me and this is how I know my own and they know me just as the father knows me and I know the father do you see what he's saying there that he knows his sheep as intimately as the father knows him the father has known him from all of eternity father son and Holy Spirit the triune God has existed forever they know each other intimately and Jesus is saying I know my sheep the way the father knows me he says I lay down my life for the sheep I have other sheep that aren't of this fold I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice so there will be one flock one shepherd if you're a sheep if you are part of the flock you will hear the voice of Jesus there's a belonging between sheep and shepherd there is a trust from the sheep to the shepherd in real life and a love and care from the shepherd to the sheep that's just the first one there's also the intimacy of a friend this is my commandment that you love one another from John 15 as I have loved you greater love has no one this than this then he lay down his life for his friends you are my friends if you do what I command you no longer do I call you servants for servants do not know what the master is doing but I have called you friends for all that I have heard from my father I've made known to you so Jesus the eternally existing son of God has heard from the eternally existing God the Father and he has made known that to us and he calls us friends friendship is one of the most intimate caring relationships a person can have I've been blessed to have several friends over the years but there are just a few three as a matter of fact that I speak with every week sometimes more than once and one that I talk with about once a month I have known all of them nearly 40 years and one of them I've known for over 50 we can tell each other anything we care about each other deeply in each other's families and children and what's going on in our lives my one friend Tim calls me anytime there's something going on in his life and he wants prayer he'll call me and ask me pray for him pray for his wife Norine because she's going to have a medical procedure pray for a meeting that he's having with somebody at his school and I'm blessed to have these friends and to know them intimately and to and to want to share my life with them as well and still the friendship that Jesus gives us is deeper wider more personal and intimate than any friendship that we can have here on earth and while I love all of my friends and they love me I honestly don't know if it came down to it whether any of them would lay down their life for me or if I would for them I mean I hope that's true I hope in the heat of the moment whatever the case would be that I would be willing of course I haven't mentioned Tracy that she is also my best friend but I'll get to that later but Jesus has laid down his life for us greater love has no one than this than he laid on his life for his friends that is the intimacy that Jesus is inviting us to when he says I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and I will dine with him and he with me but there's more we have the intimate love of a father Jesus says in John 14 I'm the way the truth in the life no one comes to the father except through me if you had known him or known me you would have known my father from now on you do know him and have seen him John chapter 10 my father has given them to me is who has given them to me is greater than all no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand I and the father are one Jesus said in Matthew 19 let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for such belongs the kingdom of heaven it's a privilege to be a father it's a privilege to have a father I don't know what kind of fathers you all had I know everybody had one don't know if he was a good father or not a good father but I watch my grandchildren with their fathers I have three grandchildren I keep asking them for a granddaughter they just haven't come through yet but two grandsons in Nashville and I see them with my son David and how they just love to be around him to crawl up in his lap to sidle up next to him to hear him talk to them there's something about the love of a father for his children he knows them he's known them from the beginning he's known them from birth in my case I've seen each and every one of our children be born there's an intimacy with the father that is unlike any other I know there's intimacy with mothers too I'm not I'm not excluding them but in this case I'm saying the father has a has an intimacy that Jesus is saying that the children have for their father should be like the intimacy we have with our Heavenly Father J.I. Packer in his book knowing God said for everything that Christ taught everything make that makes the New Testament new and better than the old everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish is summed up in the knowledge of the fatherhood of God father is the Christian name for God our understanding of Christianity cannot be greater than our grasp of adoption we've been adopted into the family of God we were born outside the family of God we were born into sin and we were sinners and our father sent his son to live the perfect life that we were supposed to live in our place and then he was sentenced to the death that we should have died in our place and on the third day he rose again from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the father and we'll get to that in a minute but he is there interceding for us father loved us so much for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life so there's the intimacy of a father there's also the intimacy of a sibling of a brother in Hebrews it says it was fitting for by whom all things were exist in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering for he sanctifies those who are sanctified I'm sorry for he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source that is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers Jesus calls us brothers this is an intimacy that is so multi-layered it's the intimacy of a friend this intimacy of a shepherd its intimacy of a father its intimacy of a brother verse 17 Hebrews 2 he made had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that a merciful faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people or because he himself was suffering has suffered when tempted he's able to help those who are being tempted we have been adopted in God's covenant family Jesus claims us as a brother if you are fortunate enough to have a close relationship with your siblings you have just scratched the surface of the intimacy and love relationship that you have with Jesus fifth Jesus has the intimacy with us of a husband with for his wife Hebrews chapter I'm sorry Ephesians chapter 5 husbands loved your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she should be holy and without blemish in the same way husband should love their wives as their own bodies he who loves his wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes it and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh this mystery is profound and I am saying that it is refers to Christ and the church do you see what he's saying the intimacy even the physical love making intimacy between a husband and wife is being used for comparison sake between for the intimacy between us and our Savior Jesus it's not saying that Jesus is having sex with the church that's not what it's saying what it's saying is Paul and God in the Old Testament has used the relationship between husband and wife to explain the intimacy and love and care and passion that he has for his people he does it in several places in Isaiah 62 he says as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride so the Lord will rejoice over you he stands at the door knock if anyone hears his voice and opens the door he will come in and dine with us and we will have the intimacy that I've been talking about of a shepherd and a friend and a father and a brother and a husband finally stay with me on this one at the intimacy of a conqueror the one who conquers I will grant with him to sit on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne and you might say well that that doesn't sound like intimacy the way the others do but people who've been through a battle together people who fought together have a bond which is like no other I've seen soldiers and sailors and Air Force people who've been in the same battle they didn't even know each other they didn't even know they were in the same battle and they come to a veterans event and they meet each other and they say I was here I was too and they they are immediately friends they're immediately intimate they're immediately know each other because they can only share those things with people who've been through it doesn't have to be military championship team members love each other and stay in touch with each other for the rest of their lives they've been through a battle together they've been through a war together and they've emerged victorious they've been conquerors and they will love each other and bond together for the rest of their lives and there's something about joining together in a battle or a cause and Jesus is saying be in the fight with me the fight for souls the fight for the glory of God be in the fight with me defeat the devil defeat all of his tactics and his ways and his strategies be in the fight with me and conquer as I already have and when you do we will rule together for all of eternity the one who conquers I will grant with him grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne and maybe you're here and you're saying I don't know if I've done any of that I don't know if I've experienced any of that you're here and you're breathing it's not too late if you're a believer but you've grown cold you can repent that's what Jesus says he said be zealous and repent repent and be zealous but if you're not a Christian you've never you've never bowed the knee to the Lord and the gospel this is your opportunity don't pass it up you turn from your sin from yourself dependence from all of the idols that we've mentioned and you turn to Jesus and he will love you you invite him in he's knocking at the door whether you're a Christian or not invite him in if anyone hears my voice and lets me in I will dine with him and he with me let's pray father in heaven thank you for the word thank you for the gospel thank you that you love us this much we pray in your name amen please stand there is a redeemer Jesus God's own son precious lamb of God Messiah holy one Thank you O my Father for giving us your son and leaving your Spirit till the work on earth is done Jesus my redeemer name above all names Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, O for sinners slain! Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son, and leaving your Spirit till the work on earth is done. When I stand in glory, I will see His face, and there I'll serve my King forever in that holy place. Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son, and leaving your Spirit till the work on earth is done. Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son, and leaving your Spirit till the work on earth is done. And out of Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Let us go forth to serve the world as those who love our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God.