Jesus wants us to pursue Him, to ask of Him. Even though He knows our needs, even though the thoughts and intentions of our hearts are not hidden to Him, we must ask, seek, knock. We do not have because we do not ask, James tells us. Jesus desires that we come before Him with words, pursuing Him with expectation and eagerness, or, as Isaiah paints it (62:7) and the parables put it (Luke 11:5ff; 18:1ff), with importunity.

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Noah.
Noah who?
Noah good place for seafood?

Knock, knock,
Who’s there?
Olive.
Olive who?
Olive you!

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Two knee.
Two knee who?
Two-knee fish!

Knock, knock jokes can be funny—and pretty silly. But the silliness is what makes the humor.

In the Bible, however, we find two references to knocking that have to do with Jesus.  Both come from His lips. Both wait for an answer from us.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20),

When it comes to evangelism, this verse has been like a daisy to me. I love it. I love it not. I love it. I love it not.

At first, I regarded this verse as a wonderful invitation of the gospel.  Jesus is standing at the door, waiting for it to be opened up to Him by faith. The image that came to mind was that famous painting, Christ at Heart’s Door, by Warner Sallman that depicted a luminescent Jesus, knocking on the door, awaiting entrance. The door had no outside handle. The only way Jesus could gain entrance was by one on the inside opening the latch.

But then, in my Reformed sense and sensibilities, I cringed at the notion that Jesus was so passive. I winced at the audacity of thinking that His success in our salvation depended upon us.  Dead as a doornail in sin as we are, we would neither hear Him knocking nor even see the handle.  Moreover, wasn’t this passage written to a church, not to the general population?

As with any passage of Scripture, it needs to be rightly interpreted, holding the balance afforded it by key and context.  With that balance, I found this passage in Revelation 3:20 beneficial for evangelistic expression.

As part of one of the letters to the seven churches of Revelation, Jesus is addressing the visible church, where not every professor of faith is necessarily a possessor of faith. The church needs to hear the gospel. The call of Christ presses upon them. Preachers, themselves, have come to faith in the pulpit.

That gives the key. How does anyone hear Christ calling?  Power is needed—life-giving power, regenerating power, the same sort of power that enabled Lazarus to hear and respond to the voice of Jesus from outside his tomb.  As John puts it: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:25).  The spiritually dead live only because God in His mercy and grace and love makes them alive (Eph. 2:1-10), and empowers them to respond.

We do have to respond to Christ in faith. It is those who believe who will be saved. The Holy Spirit causes us to be born again. As ones alive in Christ, we respond to that irresistible grace and open the door to Christ willingly. Eagerly. Expectantly.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8).

The other passage in which Jesus speaks of knocking has to do with prayer.

These words offer both permission and promise. As King Ahasuerus extended the golden scepter to Queen Esther, so our Lord extends the scepter of admission to the throne of grace.  We have access to Him anytime, anywhere, for any reason.  We ask, seek and knock at His invitation, with the assurance that He will be present to receive our petitions. No office hours required.

Why the trilogy of ask, seek and knock? Is Jesus making a distinction among the three? Is there some sort of nuance we are to discern? Perhaps He is spelling out some sort of progression, where seeking is more intense than asking or knocking is more assertive than seeking. Or, maybe our Lord is simply laying out different avenues of access, like plane, train and automobile.

One thing is clear, however. Each of these is something that is required of us. The language is that of a command, an ongoing command at that. In order to receive, we must ask. In order to find, it is mandated that we seek. In order for the door to be opened to us, we are required to knock.

There is more going on here than mechanical actions, more than putting a dollar in a vending machine with the expectation of our selection being delivered to us.

Jesus wants us to pursue Him, to ask of Him. Even though He knows our needs, even though the thoughts and intentions of our hearts are not hidden to Him, we must ask, seek, knock. We do not have because we do not ask, James tells us. Jesus desires that we come before Him with words, pursuing Him with expectation and eagerness, or, as Isaiah paints it (62:7) and the parables put it (Luke 11:5ff; 18:1ff), with importunity.

Our knocking will not go unrewarded. If we ask, we will be given. If we seek, we will find. If we knock, the door will be opened to us. God will answer and that answer will be fitting.

How many times have we breathed a sigh of relief thanking God that He did not answer our prayer in the way we wanted Him to? We want to pray believing that Father knows best. His answer will be neither unhelpful nor harmful. Nor will it be superficial or lacking.

Knock, knock jokes are always answered with, “Who’s there?”  The same is true with each of the knocking references we’ve looked at.  The answer is Jesus. If, by ears given us by the Holy Spirit, we hear Him knocking and open the door to Him, He will come in and take us to be His and hold us for life everlasting. If we knock in our need, He will answer and open the door to us, giving us His Spirit, granting us needed grace, governing the situations of our lives as only He can.

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Jesus.
Jesus who?
Jesus, friend of sinners – no joke!

Stan Gale is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, and is the author of the newly released book, A Vine-Ripened Life: Spiritual Fruitfulness through Abiding in Christ. This article appeared on his blog and is used with permission.