my talks this week have been based on the words of jesus in revelation 3 20. behold i stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door i will come into him and will dine with him and he with me we've seen that these words indicate two alternative possible relationships we may have with jesus jesus may be on the outside of our life knocking and seeking to gain admission or we may open the door and let him into our life and make him our lord and he's on the inside dwelling
with us in order to have jesus on the inside in order to admit him there are certain things that we need to do which i've explained in my previous talks first we need to hear his voice we need to let the holy spirit bring the voice of jesus to our heart second we need to open the door and i pointed out that's a decision a simple decision but a vital decision it's can be in illustrated by such words as yield or submit or commit it's letting jesus in to have his way to take charge of
our life to be in very deed our lord and savior when he comes in then there's that commitment of faith he says i will dine with him and he with me the order is very important first of all jesus asks to share our dinner then he says if you'll share your dinner with me i'll share my dinner with you but always we have to do it in the right order always we commit to the lord we surrender to him whatever we may have however little it may seem or however much it may seem it's still
very little by comparison with what he has and when he's permitted to share our dinner then comes the great and wonderful climax we can share his dinner so in my closing talk today i'm going to unfold that final and most wonderful phase of this transaction how jesus shares his dinner with us i want to return to some words i used before in which jesus speaks about his relationship with god the father in john 17 verse 10 he says to the father all i have is yours and all you have is mine you see jesus himself
followed the same order in his relationship with the father first of all he says to the father everything i have is yours and then on the basis of that he knows that everything the father has is his now jesus wants us to duplicate that in our relationship with him which he has demonstrated in his relationship with the father so jesus asks us to say to him all i have is yours and then he comes back with his reply and all i have is yours too if we look at the relationship of jesus to the father
we see the two signs the relationship of a child to his father we can look at it in simple human terms what's the attitude of the child i would say obedience and trust my father is bigger than i he's stronger than i he's got all i need he'll take care of me whatever he asks from me i will not even think of withholding it what's the what's the picture of the father i would say limitless power and love there's nothing that's not under his control he's the lord of everything he created everything he owns everything
everything is obedient to him in the universe and he has limitless love so with that possibility it's foolish to withhold anything and as i've already said my previous talks this week when we receive jesus through that we're born of god we have the right to become children of god and so after that we have the relationship of children to god and romans chapter 8 presents this in a very beautiful and all-encompassing way paul tells us if we're sons of god then we're heirs of god coheirs with jesus god's first and only begotten son so this
is what paul says now to those of us who've received jesus he says you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear but you received the spirit of sonship you didn't become slaves you're not mere servants you're sons of god and by him by that spirit we cry abba father abba is the aramaic and the hebrew word for daddy we have the right as god's children to say abba daddy to him he wants that most intimate personal relationship and then paul goes on in the next verse the spirit the holy
spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are god's children if we should ever be tempted to doubt it the spirit reinforces the truth the spirit confirms the spirit reassures us you really are a child of god you're really born of god you're an heir of god and then paul goes on in the next verse and this is where i'm leading you to now if we are children then we are heirs heirs of god and coheirs with christ if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory now
not the christian life is not all a bed of roses there is suffering jesus suffered we're called to suffer like him and with him but if we'll go through the suffering we'll also share in the glory but notice that phrase we are heirs of god and co-heirs with christ joint heirs with jesus christ now according to the the law of that time if you were a co-heir you shared the entire inheritance with the other air so everything that jesus has he shares with us we don't get just a little portion it's not divided up but
the whole inheritance belongs to jesus and to us in other words he shares his dinner with us children of god heirs of god joint heirs with jesus christ that's the position that god invites us to take with him through receiving jesus i want to give you just a couple of other scriptures from the new testament which reinforce the truth that i'm presenting remember the picture is we've shared our dinner with jesus now he's sharing his dinner with us in first corinthians chapter 3 verses 21-23 paul writes this so then no more boasting about men don't
get all tied up with human personalities all things are yours and then he gives some examples of human ministers whether paul or apollos are keep us or the world of life or death or the present or the future all things are yours don't get your eyes on man remember who you are you're a child of god you're an heir of god a joint heir with jesus christ it's not a question of following this or that preacher or belonging to this or that church or denomination all that may have a place but the vital thing is
to recognize that you're an heir of god a joint heir with jesus christ and all things are yours and then paul goes on and you are christ's and christ is god you see everything that god has belongs to christ everything that christ has belongs to us if we belong to him tremendous words all things are yours the world or life or death or the present or the future all are yours that's sharing jesus dinner with him you see it not merely for this life it's for the present it's for the future it's for life but
still stands in death what we have in our inheritance is eternal it stretches beyond the boundaries of time and into the eternal life of god himself let me give you one other beautiful scripture to this end romans 14 verses 7 and 8 for none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone alone is such a sad word isn't it there are so many lonely people in the world today but once you've received jesus you never need to be lonely again none of us lives to himself alone none of us
dies to himself alone if we live we live to the lord and if we die we die to the lord so whether we live or die we belong to the lord see the lord is stronger than death jesus conquered death all of us are going to face death at some time unless the lord comes and claims his own first but death is nothing to be afraid of when you belong to the lord because death is under the control of the lord all things are ours time is ours eternity is ours the all the riches of
the eternal kingdom of god have been made available to us because we have made ourselves available to jesus christ we have opened the door we've invited him in we've offered him our puny little dinner all that we had and then comes this glorious climax he turns around and he says now share my dinner with me all you have is mine so all i have is yours listen never be afraid to commit all that you have to jesus you'll gain by it more than you can ever imagine but remember you have to do it in faith
you have to give to him first you give him what you have and then you discover that all that he has is yours
