Revelation 3:20 - 4:3 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. To him that overcometh will
I grant to sit with me in
my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. After this I looked,
and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I
heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and
I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the
spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And
he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there
was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
In this scripture, we read of a
letter to one of the seven churches that were given letters in Revelation chapter 3.
• Amongst other elements in
the letter, we read about an urge for the people to open their doors as Christ
stands at their doors knocking, wanting to enter.
• Perhaps after John 3:16,
this verse is one of the most heard and common verses in the New Testament.
• It pictures Christ desiring
to touch the lives of people whose hearts were not right with Him.
• These people may even be in
church, as the Laodiceans to whom the letter was written were in church,
so-called.
• But there was no real
relationship occurring with the Laodiceans and the Lord Jesus Christ.Jesus said that if these people would
open their door, He would come in an sup with them.
• He would eat and He would
drink with them.
• And if they would overcome
– that is, obey Him and do His will – then He would grant them sit with Him on
His throne, in the manner that He overcame and set down with His Father in
His throne.
This is a very interesting
statement.
• You open your door, and I
will let you sit on my throne.
• That means that He must be
going to open His door to you.
To sup with Jesus is to eat and
drink with Him.
• And the greatest thought you
could ever get from eating and drinking with Jesus is the great communion supper....
the bread and the wine.
• The bread and the wine
speaks of the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus.
• It refers to the cross,
where Jesus died to save people from their sins and bring them back to Himself.
This is the reason we gather
together like this in church today.
• The sermons that I preach to
you are actually feasts that Jesus is handing forth to you that you may eat and drink
the body and the blood of the TRUTHS OF THE SAVING GRACE OF GOD.
• The truths of what that
death of Jesus on the cross did for you.
• If you will come and
open your heart’s doors to Him, He will flow into your heart through the very preaching I am
giving you, and once in there He will sup with you in the bread and the wine.
• The truths we preach will
open your hearts to understand the purposes that Jesus accomplished on the cross for
YOU.
You will learn how that the only
way God can ever bring humanity back to Himself is through the cross of Jesus Christ.
• You’ll learn that that
crucifixion was the most blessed thing that ever occurred, because though it was a
horrible death Jesus experienced, He rather
desired to go through it than not
bring man back to Himself to one day live eternally with Him.
The supping that we experience in
the bread and the wine are the truths that the cross took care of all your sins you
ever committed, if you will have faith and give your lives to Him.
• A death penalty loomed over
Adam’s head ever since God told him to not eat of the forbidden fruit lest he die, and he
did eat.
• Something had to be done
about that death penalty, if God was ever going to redeem us from it all.
• And that thing that He did
about it was the death of Jesus on the cross.
• That death was accomplished
as your death and my death.
He did not simply die because the
people hated Him and wanted to do away with Him.
• Revelation 13:8 says that He
was like a lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
• It was all planned before
any human ever lived, in case man did sin.
You have got to understand that
that death was planned before time even began.
• It was God’s great
means to save the very souls of people.
And every minister who ever
preaches is responsible to spread the bread and wine out before you every time they preach,
so that you can sup with Jesus and feast on the truths of the cross.
• Because if you open your
door and He comes in and sups with you about these things, then He is going to open His
door and you are going to experience the greatest blessing that any soul can ever
know.
We read that He will come in
an feast with us.
• And then if we overcome, He
will grant us to sit with Him on His throne.
• Now His throne is in His
palace.
• That means that after you
open your door and let Him in, He is going to explain to you what His death did for
YOU, and then show you His throne by
taking you and opening up His door
for you to enter.
This is for every child of God.
• This is for every human
being who will open their doors to the Lord.
• Notice the order: Open your
door and He will open His door to His kingdom and you will sit on a throne as He did.
Luke 22:28-30 Ye are they which have
continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my
Father hath appointed unto me; That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom,
and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Notice verse 29.
• Jesus will appoint a kingdom
to you as the Father appointed a kingdom to the Son.
• That is identical to the
words of Revelation 3!
• If you overcome, You will
sit with Him in his throne as He overcame and sat on His Father’s throne.
And verse 30 says the same thing as
Revelation again!
• You eat and drink then you
will sit on thrones.
You’ve got to eat and drink
before you rule on the throne.
• Learning about what the
cross did for the child of God will cause you to understand that you can reign with Him.
• You will understand your
victory.
• If you are not reigning it
is because you did not open you heart to the bread and the wine of the teaching of the
accomplishments of the cross for you!
• Anybody who learns of the
cross, will have victory.
• There is more to learning it
than simply hearing me talk about it.
• You have to open your heart
up and feast on those truths within!
Genesis 14:18-20 And Melchizedek
king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high
God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God,
possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath
delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
Melchisedek came to Abram
with bread and wine.
• This ought to cause any
mature Christian to perk up and take note, for bread and wine always spoke of the broken body
and shed blood of Jesus’ crucifixion.
• And he blessed Abram.
• He told of how God is
possessor of heaven and earth.
• Abram is supping now.
• Abram is learning some
truths.
• And he told of how a victory
was won by Abram because of God’s hand upon his life.
That is what bread and wine will do
for you.
• It will teach you that you
are in victory through the cross.
• And that it is because
God’s hand is upon you that you have the victory over the enemy!
And after Abram feasted on the
bread and wine, we read in the next chapter that God spoke to Him and told
Him His promises.
• And then we read...
Genesis 15:8-10 And he said, Lord
GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, Take
me an heifer of three years old, and a
she goat of three years old, and a
ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all
these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another:
but the birds divided he not.
Abram wanted SURETY.
• He wanted to be convinced.
• So what we read is that God
used a ceremony involved in confirming covenants to let Abram know.
• And then He said...
Genesis 15:13 And he said
unto Abram, Know of a surety....
In other words, “What I have
just done is CONFIRMED A COVENANT WITH YOU. I have made an OATH with you, Abram. I did this
to let you know of a surety.”
This is what occurs in your heart
when you open the door to God and He sups with you in the bread and the wine.
• The teaching of the cross
will CONVINCE YOU of your victory and teach you the SURETY of God’s promises to you.
• And you will walk away
totally empowered and convinced of the victory upon your life.
• You will sit on a throne.
• You will enjoy dominion and
power.
So many never enjoy victory.
• They know that they should
have it, yet they do not have it.
• The problem is that their
hearts never really opened up to the WORD-FEASTING in the bread and wine.
• Only then can you appreciate
His promise to humanity of salvation and a place in the kingdom of God.
Revelation 4:1-2 After this I looked,
and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as
it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will
shew thee things which must
be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and
one sat on the throne.
It is utterly wonderful that we
read in the very next chapter of Revelation that John saw a DOOR OPENED IN HEAVEN.
• The door of John’s
heart was opened.
• So God opened His door to
John.
• And what John saw was
utterly amazing.
• You would never be able to
discourage John after what he saw.
But the wonderful truth is that God
wants to open Heaven’s door to you, also.
• He wants you to feast on the
promises through the cross.
• The truths of the death of
Jesus, represented by the phrase, BREAD AND WINE.
And after John heard that we could
overcome and sit on His throne as He overcame and sat on His father’s
throne,...
• ...we see the very story of
How He overcame and sat on His Father’s throne!
• We see Heaven’s door
open and the Father’s throne is sitting there.
• We see the very house-temple
of God in heaven.
• And chapter 5 shows us that
the Father had a sealed book in hand as He sat on the throne.
• A challenge is given to
someone to come and take the book.
Revelation 5:1-3 And I saw in the
right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside,
sealed with seven seals. And I saw a
strong angel proclaiming with a
loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man
in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book,
neither to look thereon.
And then we read:
Revelation 5:5 And one of the
elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David,
hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
PREVAILED.
• That word means OVERCAME.
• We are reading about how
Jesus overcame and sat down on His Father’s throne!
How did He overcome?
Revelation 5:6 And I beheld, and,
lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the
elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain,
having seven horns and seven eyes,
which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
He was slain and came out of that
slaying standing on His feet!
• Praise God!
• Talk about overcoming!
• He was slain and rose from
the dead in resurrection power!
• I call that overcoming!
Revelation 5:7 And he came and took the
book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
Revelation
5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for
thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Now nobody was able to go take the
book.
• They could not even approach
the throne.
• They could not go near it.
• And the lamb resurrects from
the grave and takes the book and people sing of how His blood redeemed them to God.
• NO WONDER WE NEED TO SUP
WITH JESUS.
• NO WONDER WE NEED TO FEAST
ON THE BREAD AND WINE.
• THE WINE IS HIS BLOOD, AND
THE BLOOD REDEEMED US TO GOD.
• FEASTING ON THE DRINK OF HIS
BLOOD SIMPLY MEANS FEEDING ON THE TRUTHS
OF WHAT HIS BLOOD SHED IN DEATH ON
THE CROSS DID FOR US!
And look what we read next.
Revelation 5:10 And hast made us
unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Did you catch it!?
• Because of His blood
redeeming us.
• In other words, His death
paying the price for our sins...
• HE MADE US KINGS AND PRIESTS.
• KINGS!
• AND WE SHALL REIGN!
That means that He let us sit on HIS THRONE AS HE OVERCAME AND SAT DOWN!
• IF YOU NOTICE CAREFULLY, IT
IS SAYING THAT HIS DEATH CAUSED YOU TO SIT ON A THRONE.
• YOU OVERCOME AS HE OVERCAME.
HOW DID HE OVERCOME?
• He died the death of the
cross.
• And we overcome as He did in
a far greater manner than you might realize.
• You overcome as He did in a
far more perfect manner than you might know.
• YOU ACTUALLY SHARE HIS DEATH.
• His death becomes YOUR DEATH.
He overcame by dying and
resurrecting.
• Nobody could overcome before
He came.
• So how is it that after He
dies and resurrects that we can do the same thing and overcome, too?
• If we could die and
resurrect to overcome, why didn’t someone do it before He came and did it?
• THE TRUTH IS THAT HE WAS THE
ONLY SINLESS ONE WHO WAS CHEATED WHEN HE WAS KILLED, BECAUSE A SINLESS ONE IS NOT
SUPPOSED TO DIE.
• THE BIBLE SAYS THE SOUL THAT
SINS WILL DIE.
• JESUS DID NOT SIN.
• AND HE RAISED HIMSELF FROM
THE DEAD.
• AND THE ONLY WAY WE CAN
OVERCOME IN THE SAME WAY THAT HE DID, WHEN WE COULD NOT DO IT BEFORE HE CAME, WAS TO SOMEHOW
IN GOD’S WONDERFUL WAYS COME INTO UNION WITH JESUS SO IT CAN BE SAID THAT WE
DIED HIS DEATH.
This is what the feasting on the
bread and wine does for you.
• This feasting is God’s
way of describing what its like to feast on the truths of the cross.
• Its teaches you that this is
exactly what the cross is all about.
• He died as all of us, so it
can be said that we were crucified with
Him.
Notice the connection with His
blood in Rev. 5:9-10 to being made kings.
Revelation 5:9-10 And they sung a new
song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for
thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Blood and then a throne.
Notice the same thing is repeated
here:
Rev 1:5-6 And from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of
the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in
his own blood, And hath
made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Blood and then a throne.
He washes us free from our sins,
and we become kings!
His death is shared to all of us.
We do not overcome by our own blood.
• This is wonderful!
• Rev 3 said that if we
overcome AS HE OVERCAME, then we will rule on thrones.
• Lets see how far God takes
this.
• The issue is
“overcoming.”
Notice this:
Revelation 12:11 And they overcame
him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved
not their lives unto the death.
We overcome as He did.
• BY HIS BLOOD.
• HIS DEATH.
• The only way we can overcome
by HIS DEATH is to somehow SHARE HIS DEATH with Him.
• Our deaths could not have
worked, otherwise someone would have given their own lives before Christ came and
rose from the dead.
• But since He rose from the
dead, He opened it up for you to join to that death and resurrection and count
his as your own!
Its like Hebrews telling us that He
entered Heaven by His own blood.
Hebrews 9:12 Neither by the blood of
goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
And then we read that we also enter by his blood.
Hebrews 10:19 Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
That means that His death is
counted as our deaths if we will only open our hearts and believe it and get baptized
into His death to make it our own.
• And then we can learn about
it.
• Feast on the truths of it
all.
• Union to His death and
resurrection gave you union to HIS THRONE.
Revelation 3:21 To him that
overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,....
How can you overcome?
• Receive the bread and the
wine of the teaching of these truths.
• Study them in the Bible.
• Open your heart to God
first, though.
• And then He’ll open
His door to you.
• He’ll open His word to
you.
• He’ll give you
revelation of Jesus Christ, too!
• It will increase your faith
and convince you.
After Abram ate the bread and wine,
God spoke to Him and made Abram to know of a surety.
• That’s the key!
• Open your heart....
• Feast on the bread and wine
and sup with Jesus...
• And He will speak and you
will know of a surety...
• And that means you will
enjoy a throne with Jesus.
Ephesians 2:5-6 Even when we were dead
in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
This is not something to miss.
Peter explained the death, burial
and resurrection of Jesus.
Acts 2:23-24 Him, being delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains
of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
And the people opened their
hearts....
Acts 2:37 Now when they heard [this],
they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the
apostles, Men [and] brethren, what shall we do?
Notice their hearts were
pricked!
• These people were OPENED!
• So what came next were words
that allowed them to feast on the bread and wine.
• Since the bread and wine
speaks of Jesus’ death on the cross, His broken body and shed blood, then we see the picture
of sinners INVOLVING THEMSELVES and COMING IN TO UNION with His death by
eating bread and wine.
• That is what eating bread
and wine represents.
• And we see Peter showing
them how to apply the THREE ELEMENTS of Jesus’ (1) death, (2) burial and (3) resurrection,
making it THEIR DEATHS, BURIALS AND RESURRECTIONS, by repenting, buried in
baptism and resurrecting in Holy Ghost baptism.
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them,
Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
You open your door, and then He
will open His door!