Posted on 01/30/2015 5:17:57 AM PST by Gamecock
We have all heard evangelists quote from Revelation: “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” (Rev. 3:20). Usually the evangelist applies this text as an appeal to the unconverted, saying: “Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart. If you open the door, then He will come in.” In the original saying, however, Jesus directed His remarks to the church. It was not an evangelistic appeal.
So what? The point is that seeking is something that unbelievers do not do on their own. The unbeliever will not seek. The unbeliever will not knock. Seeking is the business of believers. Jonathan Edwards said, “The seeking of the Kingdom of God is the chief business of the Christian life.” Seeking is the result of faith, not the cause of it.
When we are converted to Christ, we use language of discovery to express our conversion. We speak of finding Christ. We may have bumper sticker that read, “I Found It.” These statements are indeed true. The irony is this: Once we have found Christ it is not the end of our seeking but the beginning. Usually, when we find what we are looking for, it signals the end of our searching. But when we “find” Christ, it is the beginning of our search.
The Christian life begins at conversion; it does not end where it begins. It grows; it moves from faith to faith, from grace to grace, from life to life. This movement of growth is prodded by continual seeking after God.
Coram Deo
In your spiritual walk, are you moving from faith to faith, from grace to grace, from life to life? Are you continually seeking after God?
Passages for Further Study
John 14:23–24
John 15:10
FWIW Jonathan Edwards used that passage as an evangelical appeal.
And how much like a lamb does Christ appear in Matt. 9:28 30. “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
O thou poor distressed soul! whoever thou art, consider that Christ mentions thy very case when he calls to them who labor and are heavy laden! How he repeatedly promises you rest if you come to him! In the 28th verse he says, “I will give you rest.” And in the 29th verse, “Ye shall find rest to your souls.” This is what you want. This is the thing you have been so long in vain seeking after. O how sweet would rest be to you, if you could but obtain it! Come to Christ, and you shall obtain it. And hear how Christ, to encourage you, represents himself as a lamb! He tells you, that he is meek and lowly in heart, and are you afraid to come to such a one!
And again, Rev. 3:20. “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 I will sup with him and he with me.” Christ condescends not only to call you to him, but he comes to you; he comes to your door, and there knocks. He might send an officer and seize you as a rebel and vile malefactor, but instead of that, he comes and knocks at your door, and seeks that you would receive him into your house, as your Friend and Savior. And he not only knocks at your door, but he stands there waiting, while you are backward and unwilling. And not only so, but he makes promises what he will do for you, if you will admit him, what privileges he will admit you to; he will sup with you, and you with him.
And again, Rev. 22:16,17. “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth, say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely.”
How does Christ here graciously set before you his own winning attractive excellency! And how does he condescend to declare to you not only his own invitation, but the invitation of the Spirit and the bride, if by any means he might encourage you to come! And how does he invite every one that will, that they may “take of the water of life freely,” that they may take it as a free gift, however precious it be, and though it be the Water of life.
Jonathan Edwards - The Excellency of Christ
Jonathan Edwards
Our church hosted a conference put together by American Indians, I think they called it ‘First Nations’ or something like that. Representatives from several states and Canadian provinces.
At one point a speaker was talking about how missionaries would come to tribes and try to force things like dress, hymns, etc on them - ‘civilization’.
He talked specifically about a missionary in the north east that served among the tribes in that area, but in his diary referred to them as savages and such. The speaker couldn’t remember the guys name, but as a reader of Jonathan Edwards diary I knew who he was talking about and offered up his name.
Got me to thinking about Mr. Edwards. He did call them savages and many other names, yet he loved them so much and basically offered up his health and his life for them. Makes me wonder if he would have been more successful if he would have also offered up respect for them. No doubt Jonathon Edwards was incredible...
sav·age
(chiefly in historical or literary contexts) a member of a people regarded as primitive and uncivilized.
In Jonathan Edwards time it was not an insult to call primitive people savages. It was simply a statement of fact. The Indians may have thought different, but these days it appears that referring to an Indian as an Indian is considered an insult. “Indigenous People” is what they want to be called, suggesting that they prefer to be thought of as “primitive”.
prim·i·tive
Relating to, denoting, or preserving the character of an early stage in the evolutionary or historical development of something.
Good point. I will have to see if I can find that diary and read thru it again. It has been a few years, and maybe it wasn’t as derogatory as I remember. But if terms like savage, ignorant, and unlearned were used, maybe a reflection of our times vs their times.
I’m sure that missionary was David Brainerd.
Should we put modern politically correct expectations on historical figures? That’s a device liberals have used to utterly destroy respect for the Founding Fathers and other great men.
Last fall I was teaching a men’s Bible study about a somewhat controversial topic. I knew it might upset a few, but these men are mostly mature Christians (including retired pastors, elders, deacons, etc.), so I expected them to listen. I know most of them well enough to know they want the truth, even when it hurts. My aim was to foster a discussion, so I wasn’t dogmatic because I was still wrestling with the topic at hand, too. I had pages of Scripture and the writings of any number of dozens of respected Christian figures. I don’t want to delve into the specifics of that topic here, but I will say that 21st century Protestants have mostly abandoned a certain view they once almost universally held. Most today do not even know that view was ever held or why, so I wanted to teach these men what our fathers believed and then discuss it. Before I was even through making my initial presentation a young man in his 20’s, the youngest person in the room by decades, objected to what I was saying and dismissed it out-of-hand because I read from the writings of Jonathan Edwards. This man’s mind has been polluted to the point he totally rejected Jonathan Edwards because he owned slaves, never mind that lots of non-slaveholders held the same view. This man (boy!) derailed the whole Bible study, I never finished even my basic presentation, and he left angry. He’s not a member of our church, so I don’t know him well, but interestingly enough, he still comes to the Bible study every week.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Are we all not all slaves owned by Christ?
Did he not purchase us with a price?
I'm not sure I agree here. The "Church" these remarks were directed to was the church at Laodicea. Of the seven Churches Christ addresses in Revelation this was one he had nothing good to say about. He chastises them greatly. The verse preceding the one quoted in the article ends by calling on these people to repent. I think a very good argument could be made that this is evangelistic.
Ahhh, the wisdom of youth!
See post 3.
I find it ironic that the author uses Jonathan Edwards as support for his argument when Jonathan Edwards used that verse for an evangelical call to Christ to unbelievers in one of his most famous works.
No doubt this young fellow thinks he's better than Edwards in every possible way, simply because he doesn't own a slave and Edwards did. He's not the first one to use that sort of "reasoning". Remember the Pharisees who said of Jesus, "This man is not from God, because he keeps not the Sabbath!"
"He that soweth discord among brethren" is an apt description. Of course, since that was written by King Solomon (Proverbs 6:16-19), another slaveowner:--
Disregard. Nothing to see here, move along....
you are right...I always tie the 2 together...and mix them up...David was Jonathan’s son-in-law, right? Hate when I do that.
I certainly knew a lot more when I was younger...
I’m not sure if Edwards’ daughter married him or not. It seems they became good friends when she was trying to nurse him back to health.
One of the last books Adrian Rogers wrote was a short book on prophecy. He prefaced the book with the comment that he had known a lot more about the topic when he was younger. I think that was a reference to the way God often has a way of humbling youthful certainty.
I agree. It's like reaching out to today's Methodist or Presbyterian Churches.
This brought to mind an old memory ..35 years ago or so the United Church of Christ had a publicity thing ..they had billboards all over our Area that said "I Found It"
I was involved in a non denominational ministry with a few people from the UCC..so i asked about it ..they gave me a pin to wear that said "I found it"
About a week later I stopped at a wake for an RC friend ...an elderly man noticed the pin and asked me "what dd you find ?" ...So i told him.."new life in Christ"...his response to a friend????"Oh she is ONE OF THOSE"
I hope Christ found him before he died
yep
Arthur Pink has an interesting book on the parables of Matthew.. He points out that in the time of Jesus leaven was a symbol of sin.. and so this parable is not about "church growth" but about evil entering the church and eventually taking it over
looking at the "mega church's" and the Joel Oilseed's, Joyce Meyers etc... we may be seeing the fulfillment of that parable
Many churches have replaced bath houses and gay bars as a place for homos to hook up.
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