A Sure Way to an Open Heaven — Carter Conlon

Revelation 3 and the Need for an Open Heaven

I want to talk to you from Revelation chapter 3, please, about a sure way to an open heaven. And if there's anything that you and I need in this generation, we need an open heaven now. We need a vision of God.

We need a revelation of Christ. We need an understanding and an application of His power. And we need it now. We don't have a myriad of tomorrows to get a hold of this. We've got to get a hold of it now.

Revelation chapter 3, beginning at verse 14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the man, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know your works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.

I would or I wish that thou were cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I'm rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.

And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich. And white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed.

And that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. Behold I stand at the door and knock.

If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and sup with him and he with me. To him that overcomes 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 has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Now this last book, this last church that Jesus speaks to in the book of Revelation, in my heart has always been a type of a church age.

And I honestly believe, and it's my interpretation, it's my conviction. So you take that for what you will. But this is a church age that knew something about that which they were called to act upon, but simply could not or would not bring themselves to do it.

It says, I know your works, you're neither cold nor hot. It implies that they actually knew the truth. They had a vision, they had a revelation, maybe they had preachers at that time that were clearly portraying the voice, the words, the call, the passion, the compassion of Christ.

And it's not exactly, they weren't exactly in a place of rejecting it. They were more or less warm to it, but not hot enough to it to actually get up and do something about it. It's like today, for an example, it's like those who are called upon to forgive.

From Hearing the Truth to Obeying It

You've probably heard in this church dozens of sermons on forgiveness, and so you're not exactly called to the idea of forgiving those that have wronged you, or forgiving another race or another culture, or your parents, or your guardians, or those who failed you.

People in your workplace, somebody who said or did something horrific to you. It's not like you are called to the idea, but yet not warmed enough to it to actually have gotten up and do something about it.

If I were to ask you one-on-one about forgiveness, you would agree with me. I must, I should, I ought to, I've heard about it. And there's a warming inside to the truth, but not that burning, such as the men on the road to Emmaus had when Jesus opened the text of scripture and showed them those things about himself, and they actually turned and reversed their course.

They were headed away from Jerusalem as it is, and when they were spoken to, they turned and went the opposite way. And this is the type of becoming passionate about the truth of God. It's just not about how I feel, it's about what I know God is saying, and it's time to get up and do something about it.

But they were in danger when verse 16, he says, because you're lukewarm, I'll spew you out of my mouth. Now that has a lot of implications to it, but let me tell you exactly how I personally see this.

What Jesus is saying that you're in danger of me no longer speaking to you or confessing you at the throne of the father. Now in all the implications, which the potential of that is going to bring, I won't speak to you.

You know, there's a point where God just simply stops speaking when we won't listen. There's a point where we'll be turned to other voices because God's voice is no longer leading us. Like Saul, he wouldn't listen, no matter how much God spoke to him, he wouldn't listen.

He simply wouldn't do it God's way. He would always add his own interpretation of the words that had been given to him through the prophet Samuel. And so the end result of his life is that God wouldn't speak to him anymore.

There was no point to it because God at that point knew that he wasn't going to listen. He wasn't going to obey. He had just simply resisted truth for too long. And there is a point where truth is resisted and we are enabled by our sin nature to actually twist it around as if God is somehow now commending our lack of action.

He's somehow involved in it. Their focus in their testimony was on themselves and their own preservation. And I am absolutely convinced that it was wrapped up in their own reasonings and theology. In verse 17 it says, because you say I'm rich, increased with goods and have need of nothing.

It was the focus now had shifted from other people to themselves. And it was everyone in this, many, not everyone, but many in this particular church were turning inward. And it was about me. It was about my house.

It was about my wellbeing. It was about my health. It was about my provision and, and all of their focus now and their reasonings were wrapped around this and they were in grave danger of Christ no longer speaking to them, but they weren't even aware of it.

They had created a religion that left the heart of God outside of it. He's actually outside knocking on the door while they're inside singing. They're reading scripture, they're worshiping. In verse 18, Jesus was telling them, he said, I can't see you to buy me gold tried in the fire and white raiment that you might be clothed and anoint your eyes with eyes have that you might see.

In other words, I have something of incredible value to give you. I want to give you a visible testimony. I want to clothe you in something that God gives and only God gives it. It doesn't come from church.

It comes from God. It's not a membership card. It's not a tag you wear on your suit or your dress. It's not a Bible you carry under your arm. It's a clothing that Adam lost. It's this clothing of God's glory.

Your whole countenance is being filled with the presence of God. Everything of God that he has for you and for me is being given to us and with it comes a clear vision of the future, an incredible testimony, something of incalculable value and eyes to see, to see God in the midst of the chaos in particular in which we're living today.

Opening the Door to Christ's Voice

He says in verse 20 and 21, he said, if any of you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. And when he says something, it means I will speak directly to you. I will talk to you as a matter of fact, I'll be as close to you as if I'm sitting across the table in your kitchen.

My voice will be that clear. If you open the door to what I'm trying to convey, the truth I'm trying to get you to understand, I will sit with you and speak directly to you. Then he finishes by saying to him that overcomes, will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame.

The overcoming is this overcoming of the fears of our own self-preservation, just as Jesus had to overcome it. And he now sits in a place of authority and communion with God, his father. You remember in the garden, he said, father, if it'd be possible, take this cup from me.

You better believe that there was a measure of self-preservation in the man, Jesus, who didn't want to have to go through this, didn't want to have to go through the separation from his father, the suffering, the beating, the humiliation, all of these things that were coming his way.

And he had to overcome this because that's what I think he's really talking about here to this church. He had to overcome himself, that innate nature in all of us to preserve ourselves and not to be fully given for the work of God, which involves always other people.

The Pressure to Seek Refuge from a Troubled World

This passage of scripture is particularly relevant in light of the season and the day that you and I are now living in. I don't know about you, but in the light of the events that happened this week, there's something in every heart that just says, God Almighty, I just want to find a place of refuge.

I'm so tired of this world. I'm so tired of its obstinacy, its endless talk, its foolishness, its casting off of everything holy, its degrading of that which is truly godly, its denial of the truth, its endless, endless discussions about nothing because nobody will really look at the problem.

And there's something in all of us that just wants to get bread for the future and find a cabin somewhere and lock the door. And if you're honest, that's what you're thinking as well as everybody else.

Just some place, Lord, of peace, some place where I can more or less ride out the storm. And finally, when it's all over, the trumpet sounds and I leave the table and I end up in the presence of God for all of eternity.

Bethlehem, Laodicea, and Closed Doors

In Luke chapter 2, the Christmas story looks very much like the season we're in now. It begins with these words, there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. As a matter of fact, between verse and five, I think tax, tax, taxing, taxing, it's in every verse.

And that seems to be in almost every conversation. I can't turn on the news now without tax, taxes, tax these people, don't tax those, tax these ones. Because we've gotten ourselves into a mess and the root of the mess is a spiritual problem, but nobody will talk about it.

Nobody will go there. It's all now about taxes. And who should be blamed for the situation we're in? Blame these people. Blame those people. No, it's their fault. No, it's his fault. No, it's our fault.

And now we have all these conflicting ideologies, none of which are righteous, none of which have the courage to actually go to the truth, to say, we have rejected God, God who blessed us, God who called us into being as a nation, God who took people from every country in the world, brought them to these shores and gave, gave the ability to a nation to put people on the moon, to bring technology and send it all over the world, gave the ability that in these individual nations, even to this point, after in some cases, thousands of years of existence, they and themselves don't have the ability to do.

No, brought a nation together of people from all over the world and blessed us because there was a measure at least, obviously the history is not perfect, it's far from perfect, but there was a measure of the respect of the word of God.

I don't think anybody will debate that. And the essence of our law was created on Judeo-Christian ethic, but now we're casting it all off. Now we're throwing it all overboard. And now everybody's talking about taxation as if that's going to solve the problem.

It's a time when people's cultures and values were being suppressed by a power which was foreign and often hostile towards them. They were, they were under the dominion of the Roman empire that could tell people, now you've got to go to your hometown, irrespective of what kind of hardship that would bring a journey to your hometown to be brought into a census for the purpose of taxation was a difficult journey for people.

Today we could get on an airplane and fly to our hometown or get on a train or a bus or a drive. In those days they had to walk and it was not an easy trip, it was not an easy journey and there was no compassion.

There was no exceptions for compassion. Obviously for Mary, she was at the point of delivering a baby, but nobody much cared. It was, it was all about the census and taxation. They were being dominated by a value, a culture, they were being suppressed.

It was foreign to their concept of God. It was foreign to everything they held dear. They were at the whim and whimsy of people who could harm them. They were only two years away from Herod issuing a decree that all of the male children in Bethlehem and all of its coasts were to be killed in his effort to, it was so threatened by the thought of another king.

It was a time of social disruption. It was a time when self-preservation must have been on high on everybody's agenda. The scripture tells us that there was an inn in Bethlehem and historians, at least the ones that I read, seem to claim that it was the only and major inn in actually quite a small town of only a couple of thousand or more people.

And everyone would be completely focused on preserving themselves. Those with some connections would be the ones to get word ahead, to get a room in this inn where they have a fire, they have a bed, they have a meal, they have fellowships, they have the Old Testament scriptures, where they could study, where they could talk about the future, where they could pray, where they could believe that God was going to help them to shake off as it is the bondages of this empire.

And in our opening text, the people were gathered, the doors were closed, and they'd obviously taken an inventory. And I think they would, they'd come to the conclusion, I'm going back and forward from Bethlehem to Revelation, but in Revelation, they came to the conclusion that they had enough to weather the storms of their time.

As in Luke chapter two, remember they said, we're rich and increased in goods and of need of nothing. We're going to make it through. Yes, these are dark days, but God's going to come. God's going to vindicate us.

God's going to deliver us. Our traditions, our religious traditions are going to be honored. Our value systems are going to be intact. We are the people of God. We're the blessed of God. We will throw off this shackle that seems to be on our society.

And suddenly in Luke chapter two, where people are gathered, where I'm convinced with the same heart, Jesus knocks. And don't you find it ironic that at the beginning, the introduction of Jesus Christ into the world, he knocks at a closed door.

And in the last church he speaks to in Revelation, he's knocking at a closed door again. And it speaks to me of a type of a religion that has the scriptures. It has a measure of provision. It has a history.

It has wealth. But it's closed the door to something of God and not even aware of it. God is waiting in Bethlehem to give them something as in the church of Laodicea, something of lasting and eternal value.

I can see in Bethlehem, people are seated at the table. The food is served. The fire is on. They're obviously concerned about the things going on in their society. They're probably somebody sharing the scriptures.

They might be taking a moment to pray before they eat. I'm not sure. Everyone is safe. Everyone is secure. Everyone is hoping for a better future. They all have a bed upstairs in the inn. And suddenly there's a knock at the door.

And somebody comes and says, listen, there's a couple here at the door and she's in labor and she's about to have a baby. Do you think there's something? They're asking for a place here. Do you think there's something that we could do?

Now it's not that these people were so cold hearted at that point that they weren't moved with some measure of compassion. Remember Jesus said to the church of Laodicea, you're not cold to the idea, but you're not hot to it either.

And I can see people looking around the room at one another, everyone waiting for somebody else to do something. And nobody is willing to do anything because they're looking at the table. And that means if we bring in three more people, some of us have to share our food.

If we bring these people in, somebody has to give up their bed. If we bring them in, somebody has to clean up the mess because the baby's going to be born and that's not, that's going to be something that's going to create a mess here.

If we bring them in, the baby's going to cry. And most of us, and of course there's going to be labor and there's going to be everything associated with that. And most of us are going to be kept up all night.

It's going to be highly inconvenient to open the door. And I know what this looks like because I've lived through this one time where somebody finally in the room says, well, tell them we'll pray about it.

Yes, we'll pray about it. You know, we'll pray and God is a big God and God will do something for them. God, God will do something. And they might've even turned to prayer. It's hard for the religious to pretend they don't, they don't really care enough to do anything, but it's hard to acknowledge that.

And so I can see this years ago, I was saved in a, in a quite affluent church. I was honestly probably among the poorest in that church. And I remember after a Sunday service one time, I've told you this story before, but I went downstairs into the coat room and I had, I had a, Pastor Teresa and I at that time had a sheep farm with some cows and a bunch of sheep, some goats and chickens and stuff like that.

And I had a coat that I wore in the barn when I worked there every day. And after you wear a coat in the barn long enough and it starts to smell like a coat that you've been wearing in the barn, then starts to look like it.

And it got to be a bit of an embarrassment, this coat to go to church with it on. And so I saved up and I saved about, I think it was $80, which was a lot for us at that time. And, and probably a lot for a lot of people today.

And I bought a new coat. It was down filled, had a nice fur hood on it and everything. It was really nice. It was warm. And this was the first or second time probably I'd worn this to church and it was on downstairs.

And so this usher comes downstairs and he said, there's a homeless man here and he has no coat. Now this is January or February in Canada. It's minus 20 Fahrenheit outside. It's freezing cold. And he said, this man has just come to the church and he has no coat.

And I remember everybody standing, now folks, I got to tell you something. These guys that were in this coat room with me had more money in their wallets than I had in the bank. And it was nothing for them to even just take the money out and say, here, give it to this guy to buy a coat.

And I remember everybody just staring at everybody else. And then finally one guy says, tell him we'll pray about it. For real. Tell him we'll pray about it. Now I was a brand new Christian. I had been reading my Bible and what I was reading that week is that these men came to John the Baptist and women, they said, what must we do to be saved?

What is it that God would have of us? And he said several things, but one of the things written in the scripture, he said, let the man who has two coats give one to the man who has none. Now I was reading that and I remember standing there thinking, what is there to pray about here?

I mean, all of these folks probably got six coats in their closet at home and they certainly have enough to buy a coat for this man. What is there to pray about? And so that's exactly the moment the Lord said to me, give him your coat.

And immediately out of my mouth was, but my barn coat is back at home. You see, it's my good coat is here. And the Lord told me, he says, give him your good coat and you go home without a coat. Your barn coat will be waiting for you when you get home.

And so I gave the usher my coat and said, here, give this coat, here's a coat, give it to this man upstairs. Now folks, that man turned out to be the backslidden husband of a woman in that congregation.

Obeying the Word Instead of Merely Hearing It

And I thank God because there are turning points in the Christian life. There are milestones. I remember one time going to an altar as a young man without any skill or talent whatsoever. And I remember going to the altar and weeping and saying, Lord, I have nothing to give you, but God, what I do have, I give it to you.

And all I can ask is you take it and use it for your glory. And that was a turning point. But that in that courtroom was a turning point for me because it was, it was that day that I had a revelation, if you might call it that, of people who are ever learning, but not coming to the knowledge of the truth.

And I'm looking at these older men in the faith. And in my heart, I was thinking, why won't they obey the word of God? They've sat here and learned a lot more than I have. And on that day, not standing as their judge, but there's a point where truth is truth and you can't escape it.

And on that day, I said, Lord, I want to obey you for the rest of my life. I want to obey you. I don't want to read something and be just warm to it, but not hot enough to actually do it. I want to obey you.

If it says forgive, I want to forgive. And I had to eat those words. I'm telling you several times, the Lord asked me one time to find a member of a motorcycle gang that I had been in a fistfight with when I was a policeman and go and ask his forgiveness.

I thought you got to be kidding God. Go ask this man. He said, go ask him to forgive you because you know, you provoked the fight wouldn't have happened if you hadn't provoked it in the first place and go and ask him to.

So I've been tested in this, these things over the years, but the willingness to obey God, the willingness to be hot to truth and not just, not just warm to it, not just sitting in church saying, boy, that, that would be awesome if somebody gave that man his coat, you know?

And if I had three or four at home and two or three in the courtroom, I probably would obey it myself. No, the willingness to be hot to truth, the willingness to say, God, I'm not going to sit in church and just be a learner and not a doer.

And just to hear the thinking that somehow this suffices in your kingdom. It can be so easy to lock out the needs of others in situations like we're in today. The scripture tells us, Jesus told us that this, the abounding of iniquity in our day will cause the hearts of many to grow cold.

Their love will grow cold. The love of people will grow cold. The love of God's love in us will grow cold for people. We'll become so tired of a society that's so hell bent on its own destruction that it will be easy to become cold to the needs of people around us.

Easy to just say, I'm just so sick of these kids cursing and swearing in the street. I'm so tired of the vileness. If I were to tell you what I see on the street that I'm living on right now at night, I couldn't say it from the pulpit.

What's going on there at night. And it's so easy to walk by and become so hard and forget that Jesus died for these people. That Jesus has a passionate love for every soul, no matter what their situation is or how down and difficult their lives might be.

Christ's Compassion in Gethsemane

You and I could say that ironically in Luke chapter 22 verses 41 and 42, let me just read it to you please for time's sake. When Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane and he said, father, if, if that would be willing to remove this cup from me, nevertheless, my will, not my will, but thine be done.

And verse 41 says he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast. In other words, there was a distance from other people just for that moment in history. And it was a moment when your needs and mine were knocking on the heart of the son of God.

Hear me in this. If he had closed the door to his heart, our singing would be in vain. If he had closed the door to us because he could justifiably point to our failings and our stupid conversation and our, our foolishness, our lack of doing this or lack of doing that.

And in the eyes of a Holy God, all of us have sinned and fallen short of his glory. And we were not one's knock. It was not God knocking on our door. It was you and I knocking on the door of the heart of the son of God saying, God, please let us in.

Please, Lord, we're hungry. Please. We're, we're, we're perishing, please. God almighty. We have nowhere to lay our heads for eternity if you don't open the heart of compassion to us. And I thank God that Jesus overcame in the power of the spirit, that part of his humanness that justifiably would have wanted to close the door and sit and bask in the fire of his father's presence and eat at his father's table and rest in his father's glory.

And he would have been just to do it. We were knocking just as Christ was knocking in Bethlehem and Christ is knocking again in the book of Revelation. But thank God that Jesus overcame. That's what he means in the book of Revelation to those who overcome as I overcame, overcome this inner desire for self-preservation and open the door to human need in all of its depravity, in all of its, all of its feigned religion, in all of its shortcoming and all of its violence and all of its unforgiveness and all of its mockery of the ways of God, that Jesus opened the door of his heart.

And had he not opened the door of his heart, I could not be here today, neither could you. We'd have nothing to speak about, nothing to sing about. We'd have no future. We'd be outside in the cold, not just for time, but forever.

But thank God, the son of God opened the door to his heart. Because of it, he sits now at the right hand of all power and all authority. He sits down with his father and he tells you and I, he said, for those who overcome, I'll bring you to the same place.

I'll give you the same authority. I'll give you a vision that can only come from God. I'll give you a perspective on time and eternity. I will show you things to come. I will carry you. I will give you that which has been more valuable than gold.

I'll give you a heart of compassion. I'll give you a righteousness that will cause you to shine as lights in a darkened world. And I'll give you the strength and power of the Holy Spirit to stand as living testimonies of the glory of the one who opened his heart to all men when we didn't deserve it.

I'll keep you from the hour of trial that's going to come upon this whole world. And I'll keep you alive when everything around you is dying. I'll give you a song when nobody else is able to sing anymore.

I'll give you the ability to comfort when others are just cursing. I'll give you the ability to speak truth when lies are now becoming the commonplace norm of conversation in your society. You will be my church that stands upon a hill in this generation.

Finding God Among the Poor and Marginalized

He couldn't go into the inn in Bethlehem and he most likely couldn't get into the door of the church in Laodicea. So who did he go to? And who did he come to? Isaiah the prophet says in 53 -1, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

Who finds the strength of God? In Luke chapter 2, the answer is simple. It was people without doors. It's that simple. That's where he went out into the field. There were shepherds there. They had no doors.

They had no walls. They had no fire. They had no table. They had no upstairs bed. They were in a place where everything now, the whole life and existence was in the hand of God. And these are the people to whom the strength of God was revealed.

It was the people who were not afraid to go where the poor are because the Lord told them, the angel told them, he said, this will be a sign to you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

These are people without doors. The people are not afraid to go where the poor are, believing that if they move in that direction that something of the incredible glory of God will be revealed to them there.

And this is the message that God has been speaking to us as a church and a church age. Don't be afraid to go where the poor are because there's something of God that will be given to you there. There's something of treasure there.

Don't be just warm to the idea. Be hot to the idea. Be passionate to the idea. To go to the marginalized, the addicted, the oppressed, the widows, the orphans of this generation. Those that have nobody to help them.

They have no clothing. They have no food. Go to them. Go to them. Go to them. Go to them. Go to them as a church. Go to them individually. Go to them Monday to Friday and then Saturday and Sunday. Go to them on missions trips.

Go to them collectively. Go to them individually. Go to them. Don't be afraid. You go where nobody else will go. Let the religious sit in their inn and eat their food and warm themselves by their fire and sleep in their beds.

You go where the poor are. You go there. Then he says your light will shine as the morning. Then you'll become a spring of water whose waters don't fail. Then you'll have light in darkened times. Then you will have strength and those that you lead to God will become those who rebuild and repair the true ways of God to walk in.

Church of the living God, go to the poor in this generation. Find the poorest and when you found them, find somebody poorer than the people you found the week before. Go to the poor because God came to you and God came to me.

The scripture says the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for the things they had heard as it was told unto them. They returned with a song. They returned with vision. They returned with glory.

They returned with knowledge. They returned with something that was hidden from those who sat behind the doors of their own security and religion. It was hidden from them but it was revealed to the shepherds and so too those of us who open our hearts to the need of our times.

We will come back to the house of God and we will have a song and we will have something to glorify God for. We will have something to say to this generation. This week I've had to pray these same prayers.

Keeping the Heart Open in a Hostile Generation

God please help me not to close my heart. Help me not to be angry with those who lead us. Help me God not to imbibe the spirit of this age. Help me Jesus. Help me Jesus. Help me Jesus to keep my heart open to all people.

When I pass by this club near my apartment where men are dressed as women, standing on the street and they're speaking things that I can't repeat. Help me Jesus. Help me Jesus. Help me to open the door of my heart.

Help me God not to close my heart. Help me Lord God to love as you love. Help me to see as you see. Help me to have the courage if there's a need there to be identified with those who need you. Help me God.

Help me not to confine my religion to this house. Help me Jesus. Keep my heart open oh God. Help me to speak and have a tender heart and to be willing to release whatever you've given to me for the sake of others.

Help me not to close the door and just try to find comfort in my own religion. And that's the cry of my heart for this church. We've been given a glorious moment in history. And I believe with all my heart history could change as we begin to meet together with churches throughout the city.

And fellows if we had a pastor's prayer meeting this week that I can honestly say the glory of God came into that prayer meeting as we met with pastors from around the city and 35 to 50 pastors from the Feed New York churches who simply want to pray.

They believe in God for revival. And as we're reaching out to help them I've heard two reports of churches that are filling up already with people from the community coming in because they're finding bread in Bethlehem.

A Renewed Call to Compassionate Action

Help us oh God. Help us oh God. Help us oh God. Help me Lord to be willing to give my coat away again. Help me Jesus. It's wonderful that happened years ago and it's a great story but there's other people that need a coat now.

There's other people that need food. There's other people that need shelter. And I need as much help as you do to not shut my heart off and especially in the light of this hour that we're living in. But to keep my heart open to the work of God.

The compassion of God. That's the cry of my heart. That we could have such a testimony in our time that there doesn't have to be. That doesn't have to be some of the tragedies we have to experience. Some of these things can be changed.

If you and I could have the eyes maybe to see some of these kids in their pain. Dressed as they will and looking at how they do. If we could just move beyond our own comfort. And open the door to people who have a need.