Revelation
22:17-21
The
Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever
is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the
water of life.
I
warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds
anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And
if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from
him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in
this book.
He
who testifies to these things says, “Yes,
I am coming soon.”
Amen.
Come, Lord Jesus.
The
grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
When
our boys were very young my wife and I shared bedtime duties. Typically, one of
us would do bath time, get their pajamas on, teeth brushed and get them all
tucked into bed. Then the other would come up and do bedtime story and prayer
time.
One
particular night Lorene went up to take care of the first part of the bedtime
ritual. When she was finished she called down to me to let me know the boys
were ready for me.
However,
I was in the middle of doing something important, like watching a Bulls playoff
game, so I told her to tell them I would be up in a minute.
Well,
evidently the game got interesting because I completely forgot to go upstairs
and do my part. Some 40 minutes later my wife came into the family room and
asked, “Did you say goodnight to the boys?”
“Dooohhhhhppp!” I
said, “I completely forgot.”
So
I ran upstairs knowing they would already be asleep but figuring that when they
asked in the morning if I had come up I could tell them that, yes, in fact, I
did come up but that they were already asleep.
And
I was right; the first three I checked on were dead asleep. But when I stepped
up to look in on our 5 year old, who was in the top bunk bed, I was shocked to
find him still awake. He was clutching his favorite blanket and he looked at me
and said, “I knew you’d come Daddy.”
My
five year old son had stayed awake waiting for me to come because he knew I had
promised. And to think I almost missed such a beautiful expression of trust and
faith!
The
whole Bible ends with these words from the Apostle John:
He
who testifies to these things says, “Yes,
I am coming soon.”
Amen.
Come, Lord Jesus.
The
grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
We
have already seen that the central revelation of the book of Revelation is
Jesus Christ. Here John tells us the final thing we need to know about Jesus:
he is coming soon.
The
Bible tells us something is broken in the world and something is broken in us.
That something is sin. Jesus came to defeat the power of sin and death, which
he did on the cross and through his resurrection. That’s what we celebrate at Easter.
But
even though we have been saved from our sins and have the hope of eternal life,
we look around at the world and things don’t seem to be getting better. Rather, we can all sense
the world hurtling toward the chaos and suffering described in the strange
images of the book of Revelation.
While
many have tried, no one can predict the future with absolute certainty. We
simply don’t know
what tomorrow holds.
But
with the final strokes of his pen, John tells us what we can know with
certainty. We can know that Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who
rules today in heaven and who will rule one day over the new heaven and new
earth. And John tells us that Jesus is coming soon.
So
now we are waiting for Jesus just as my young son was waiting for me. And we
are waiting because he promised. May we trust his promise; may we find hope in
his promise; and may we stay awake!
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