Getting Back Our Zeal 1981

From John chapter 20, starting at verse 15. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary, She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabbani, which means teacher.

Jesus said to her, Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to my father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, I have seen the Lord.

Every person who has had an encounter with Jesus alive from the dead feels a pressure on their heart to tell somebody, I have seen the Lord. They may not feel a freedom to talk about all the ins and outs of what they saw, but they will testify to Jesus with a confidence and with a certainty they never had before. Mary Magdalene had to tell the disciples that Jesus was alive.

Crazy, weird, confusing as it may sound when you try to talk about it. And soon the disciples experienced the same pressure in them, in their hearts to tell people what they had seen with their eyes and even touched with their hands. That this crucified Jesus whom they had watched die was now walking around in a new kind of body, alive with a life he never had before.

In time, this was to become the blazing obsession of their lives. But what happens to people who have seen the risen Lord at some point in their lives, in their past and have boldly talked about it, testified to this and then after a while cool down and don't talk about it anymore. When the resurrection light within us finds no way to express itself, no way to get out of us, then it begins to die.

That resurrection light within for those who have seen him in any way is either going to be the burning, driving passion of our lives or it's going to turn to stone inside our hearts. When Jesus, alive from the dead, is no longer our everything, then our vision of him begins to die and becomes a negative thing, like a pain or a guilt pressing down on our heart. Shortly after the resurrection, the disciples went back to Galilee and started fishing.

They were being drawn back into their old life. They were being already tempted to lose the vision they had and so Jesus comes to them to renew this vision before it dies totally. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to them, children, have you any fish? They answered him, no. He said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. So they cast it and now they were not able to haul it in for the quantity of fish.

The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. Jesus was calling them back to fishing for souls, for men and women, calling them back to the vision of the resurrection they were already beginning to lose. Jesus serves them breakfast and after breakfast he says to Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these fish? Yes, Lord.

You know that I love you. Feed my lambs. Give them living bread.

Talk to them. Tell them about me. Peter, if you're going to keep feeding my sheep, tending my lambs, come on, Peter, follow me.

Peter answers that call and for the rest of his life spends the remainder of his days out there fishing. No more fishing on the Sea of Galilee ever again. He's out there fishing among the multitudes of humanity telling them about the crucified and risen Lamb right up to the day that he himself is crucified.

And all the way to the end he never loses his zeal. But what happens to us when we meet Jesus alive from the dead in some way, speak of him, manifest his reality boldly for a while, a few years perhaps, and then begin to cool. To the angel of the church in Laodicea write, the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.

I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot.

So because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spill you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich. I have prospered.

I need nothing. Not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, naked. Therefore, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire that you may be rich, white garments to clothe you to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and sob to anoint your eyes that you may see those whom I love, I reprove and chasten.

So be zealous and repentant. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.

This message is not given to people who have never met the Lord. This message, behold, I stand at the door and knock, is given to people who have met him and known him and have turned away, have become distracted, have closed the door against them and don't even know what they've done. We don't think of ourselves as people who have closed the door on the Lamb of God.

We don't consider ourselves lukewarm but we're a lot more comfortable and settled in our ways than we were when we first started following Jesus. And by our actions, we are saved. I'm rich.

I have prospered and I need nothing, not knowing that we are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. We're not standing by the empty tomb today waiting for a vision of the risen Lord. For most of us, that happened to us long ago.

We're out on the Sea of Galilee fishing. We're going fishing. We've shuffled our way back into our old life even while we maintain a facade of piety and commitment.

Our need is not our need is gold refined by fire that we might be rich. White garments to clothe us and cover our nakedness to keep the shame of our nakedness from being seen. Sobs who anoint our eyes that we may see Jesus.

I counsel you to buy from me, he says to all of us. Gold refined by fire that you may be rich gold refined by fire is the kingdom. How we need to get back to the kingdom life which always always involves fire purifying pain the pain of repentance continuous repentance.

How can we ever stay alive in faith if we don't continuously repent of ourself? I don't do anything wrong. I never shot anybody. Of ourselves the pain of continuously casting off our old life the pain of rejection of trial of persecution the pain of being a speckled bird in this world.

The same Jesus who stood on the shore of Galilee called his disciples back to their senses now calls us to come out of our lukewarm stupor and get from him some of that fiery refined gold of a life that is lived 24 hours a day in the dimension of the kingdom of heaven. Our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come not only at the end throw away your Bible prophecy books and get to know Jesus now thy kingdom come to us now. I counsel you to buy from me white garments to clothe you to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen the white garments obviously of his righteousness Jesus righteousness his nature his spirit his blood his mercy you're naked he says to us you may think you're clothed like the emperor who wore no clothes and thought he was all dressed up but you're not clothed in those pretenses in that covering that you have manufactured for yourself or in all that religion or all that lack of religion or whatever it is that you take pride in you're going to be terribly ashamed when you stand before the throne he says to us unless you're clothed in me so come back to me he said who of us can honestly say that our day in and day out living is clothed in the spirit of Jesus our home life our work life our business life our thought life our attitudes as we move among people and solve problems or try to or complain about them God help us to be clothed in the white garments of his nature and to throw away all the filthy rags that we've been wrapping ourselves in and thinking we're beautiful he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake and I counsel you to bide for me sob to anoint your eyes that you may see vision blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God vision to see God as he is and the world around us as it is and we to see as we are to see ourselves as we are that vision comes to those whose hearts are committed to continuously dumping off the world and self and fixing themselves exclusively on Jesus Jesus holds the sob out to us now now right now and says do you really want me to open your eyes are you willing to walk in the light that I give you are you willing to pay the price of seeing God as he is and the world as it is and yourself as you are then come to me and I'll open your eyes the reason for our lack of zeal is very simple it's because we've shut Jesus out while we busied ourselves getting set in whatever we think we can get set in comfortable our heads and our mouths may still be full of what we call Christian principles but there's a vacuum when it comes to the person of Jesus and your Christian principles are never gonna save anybody only Jesus saves your favorite doctrine your favorite spiritual experience ain't gonna do no good only Jesus that's why he stands at the door outside because we put him outside and now he knocks what we have to do is open the door and welcome him back into our lives for real behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and eat with him and he with me he's outside the door that we shut and it's the spirit who now tells us begs with us pleads with us open it open it if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me and you'll have fellowship with me I will give her gold refined by fire that she may be rich she'll lack nothing she'll be able to walk through all the uncertainties of this life even with nothing in the bank and still be rich I will give him white garments to clothe his nakedness cover it to keep it from being seen I will give you my righteousness and you won't have to hide behind a mask anymore you can be transparent you can be a fishbowl you'll be alright I will give her sobs to anoint her eyes that she may see those whom I love those whom I love I reprove and chasten so be zealous and repent if opening the door to Jesus means that we have to get down on our knees even in this crowd God help us to get down on our knees if to open the door means to come up to the altar rail or if it's too crowded up here run up here and cry out to God for mercy God help us to do that if opening the door means we throw away our pride and our self-consciousness whatever we have to do God help us to do whatever is required in order to open the door that he might come back in really be our Lord now let's open the door let's wait on him let's do whatever kind of business we know we have to do and don't worry about your neighbor let's wait on him now I'm asking Lord God that you would just move upon us today and help us to to open that door that's been hindering our union with you do whatever we have to do Lord God deliver us from our fear of man and also Lord God from any kind of emotional froth that would be no deeper than the surface of the skin whatever we have to do Lord God wherever we're at right now you know our problems and you know our discouragements and you know our cynicism you know how many times we feel we've been disappointed you know our attitude Lord God move on us by your spirit now as we open our hearts to you and help us when we're having trouble and should there be any among us who've never ever known you in the power of your resurrection we pray that you would manifest yourself also to them