I Am Coming Soon

I. Introduction
A. We have one passage left in Revelation. It is not so much another vision, but it is an epilogue, final words about the book as a whole, much like the prologue in Rev.1:1-3.
B. But this epilogue is too long to cover in one sermon, and it doesn’t divide nicely into part one and part two. So, instead of doing one half and then the other, we’re going to cover its two themes, one this week and one next.
1. The two themes are conveniently summed up in Rev.3:11 “I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.”
2. One theme is about the future – that Jesus is coming soon, and what that means. We’ll cover that today.
3. The other theme is about the present – about how we must hold fast and keep this book and the things it tells us. We’ll do that next week.
C. It’s especially appropriate for us to talk about Jesus coming soon today since this is Christmas Eve, a day when we traditionally reflect on the coming of Jesus, though, of course, we usually focus on His first coming, as opposed to His second coming of Jesus.
1. The fact is, the NT begins and ends talking about the coming of Jesus. It begins with His first coming and it ends with His second coming.
D. Revelation 22:6–21 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, HAS SENT HIS ANGEL TO SHOW HIS SERVANTS WHAT MUST SOON TAKE PLACE.” 7 “AND BEHOLD, I AM COMING SOON. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” 8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, 9 but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” 10 And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. 11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” 12 “BEHOLD, I AM COMING SOON, BRINGING MY RECOMPENSE WITH ME, TO REPAY EACH ONE FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE. 13 I AM THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA, THE FIRST AND THE LAST, THE BEGINNING AND THE END.” 14 BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO WASH THEIR ROBES, SO THAT THEY MAY HAVE THE RIGHT TO THE TREE OF LIFE AND THAT THEY MAY ENTER THE CITY BY THE GATES. 15 OUTSIDE ARE THE DOGS AND SORCERERS AND THE SEXUALLY IMMORAL AND MURDERERS AND IDOLATERS, AND EVERYONE WHO LOVES AND PRACTICES FALSEHOOD. 16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I AM THE ROOT AND THE DESCENDANT OF DAVID, THE BRIGHT MORNING STAR.” 17 THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE SAY, “COME.” AND LET THE ONE WHO HEARS SAY, “COME.” AND LET THE ONE WHO IS THIRSTY COME; LET THE ONE WHO DESIRES TAKE THE WATER OF LIFE WITHOUT PRICE. 18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. 20 HE WHO TESTIFIES TO THESE THINGS SAYS, “SURELY I AM COMING SOON.” AMEN. COME, LORD JESUS! 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.
II. (The return of Jesus)
A. Jesus came to redeem, as we read about in Rev.5:1-10, where Christ is introduced as the Lion of Judah but then appears as the Lamb who was slain and the only one qualified to open the seals of the scroll. And then He was praised as “Worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and made them a kingdom.” – Revelation 5:9-10
B. But all through the book we are also told that He will come again.
1. Revelation 1:7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him.
2. Revelation 2:16 I will come to you soon.
3. Revelation 3:11 I am coming soon.
C. And in Rev.19:11-21 John has a vision of Christ returned, riding on a white horse.
D. But this theme of His return reaches a crescendo in this last chapter.
1. Revelation 22:7 “And behold, I am coming soon.”
2. Revelation 22:10 the time is near.
3. Revelation 22:12 “Behold, I am coming soon.”
4. Revelation 22:20 “Surely I am coming soon.”
E. Right now, of course, Jesus is hidden (Col.3:3).
1. And some think that because they can’t see Him, He doesn’t exist. What a foolish assumption!
2. Only a fool lives as though things are always going to be the way they are now.
F. Jesus promises us He is coming soon. It is perhaps the main point of the whole book of Revelation.
1. It’s the way the book was introduced from the first verse: “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.” – Revelation 1:1
G. However, what does soon mean? We want to know when. But when it comes to the timing of His return, God holds the cards VERY close to His chest. Jesus said He didn’t even know the time (Mark 13:32)!
H. It seems He wants every generation to think it might be theirs. This is an important ingredient in faithful Christian living in this age.
1. I could read you many NT verses which talk about how this sense of the soonness of the end is an essential factor in having the right mindset for being a faithful Christian.
I. Some, though, think the Bible is not accurate because it said that Jesus was coming soon and He still hasn’t come two thousand years later. How can this accusation be answered?
1. Well, when people raise this objection, I like to tell them, “Did you know that you’re in the Bible?” For the NT actually tells us that it’s going to take so long for Jesus to return that people are going to raise this very complaint?
2. And then point them to 2Peter 3:3-9: Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
3. There are basically two answers Peter gives here to those who question the soonness of His return
a. One is that “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” God is the One with the proper perspective on time. He made it after all. He’s the One who knows what soon really means. In eternity, when we see things through His perspective, we will agree with Him that it was soon, even though, from our human vantage point now, it doesn’t fit our expectations of soon.
b. The second answer he gives is that the delay should not be seen as some failure on God’s part, but actually as a kindness. The fact is, He’s being patient with mankind. He wants to give every opportunity to people to come to faith and escape the wrath which is to come.
4. There are other good responses as well, from other places in Scripture.
a. One is to point to that fact that the OT said the same thing hundreds of years before the NT.
(1) Zeph.1:14 “The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast.” (Cf. Ezek.12:23)
b. In fact, the first coming of Christ provides us with a good analogy of waiting for His second.
(1) The first promise of His coming came at the very beginning, in the garden of Eden.
(2) But many additional promises were added to that one over the centuries.
(3) The people of Israel waited a very long time – over 2000 years – for the promises of the messiah to be fulfilled. Many gave up along the way.
(4) Those who kept waiting were ridiculed and laughed at.
(5) But lo and behold one day 2000 years ago, He showed up. He actually came! Just like He said!
(6) And those who kept waiting and expecting and longing ended up being the heroes.
(7) And we scoff at those who scoffed at them.
5. We shouldn’t be surprised to have to wait for what seems like a long time for His second coming.
J. But it is human nature to get tired of waiting. Many of us have experienced what it’s like trying to get a child to wait for something: to wait to open presents, to wait to get to a destination where you’re driving, to wait to get a treat. And that spirit of impatience is in us all.
K. So, when people are forced to wait a long time, they start to give up. It’s too hard to keep expecting, keep anticipating, keep looking for something to happen when it keeps not happening.
L. And when Christians stop waiting for Christ’s return, what do we begin to focus on? We focus on now. We focus on our lives here in the present. We become preoccupied with our present circumstances.
M. Jesus keeps urging us not to fret about our circumstances, but to wait for tomorrow, to “set our minds on the things above” (Col.3:2), to focus on what’s coming, to focus on who’s coming.
N. But it’s hard because He keeps not coming.
O. There’s a weeding-out process which takes place, it seems. We are being tested.
1. Do we really believe our Father? Do we really believe His promises? Then He’ll keep renewing our strength to wait.
2. Isaiah 40:30–31 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
3. They may get laughed at; they may be ridiculed; they may even be punished. But they won’t stop waiting; they won’t give up on the Lord; they won’t stop trusting in His promises, and His goodness and His power.
4. However, those who don’t truly seek HIM, but only the GIFTS He gives, will not last, they will not finish the race, they will not endure to the end.
P. Whatever else is said about Jesus coming back soon, it certainly suggests that we have a duty to think of our lives as short, and that it is a sin to think of them as long.
1. There’s a stark contrast between how we act when we think we have plenty of time and how we act when we think the time is short, isn’t there.
2. I waste so much time because I forget that the time is short.
3. When you lose someone you love, you are suddenly gripped by the reality of how your time with that person was short, even if beforehand, in ordinary, everyday life, it felt like you had plenty of time. And people on their deathbed rarely think their life was too long.
4. O Lord, when I look out upon the world before me, may I learn to live in constant awareness of the shortness of my time here.
III. The return of Christ isn’t necessarily good news. It’s bad news for those who reject Him.
A. 12 “I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.”
B. This is in keeping with the vision in Rev.19:11-21 of the returning Jesus riding on a white horse, who judges and makes war, out of whose mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and who will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
1. Only those who wash their robes will be given access to the tree of life & the new Jerusalem (14).
2. Those who are excluded are the “dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” (15)
3. Some will be excluded from the glorious city, cast out into the outer darkness (Matt.8:12, 22:13, 25:30), eternally continuing the punishment which began when Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden of Eden – and to a intensified degree.
C. Some people are troubled by what seems to be a shift in the demeanor of Jesus – from grace and compassion and patience and kindness to fierce wrath and judgment, from the Lamb to the lion. This is seen nowhere more clearly than in the shift from this age to the judgment day.
1. You hear it said, “This is not the Jesus I know!” Well, that’s a problem, because both Jesuses are in the Bible. And that means both Jesuses are the same Jesus. And it shouldn’t surprise us to find out that God in the flesh isn’t always easy to figure out or predict.
2. The fact is, this is the age in which God shows His grace and mercy and invites all people to repent and come to Him. But we are told over and over again in the starkest of terms that there will be no more mercy and no more invitation to those who have rejected Him on that day. The door will be shut, people will be left outside in the dark, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt.8:12, 22:13, 25:30).
D. But, the good news is: it’s not shut yet. The invitation has not yet expired. And you don’t need to be left outside. In light of what the future holds, Jesus calls out to mankind in v.17...
1. “Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”
E. You don’t need a perfect record. You don’t even need a good record. All you need is to come to Jesus. All you need is thirst. All you need is to desire the water of life, and it will be given to you free of charge.
1. Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love and power...Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness He requires is to own your need of Him. (Joseph Hart, 1759)
F. As we wait for Jesus to come, all of us need to come to Jesus!
G. The parable of the sower, in the section of the seed thrown among the thorns, teaches us that it is very possible for someone to have the spiritual life squeezed out of them by the pressures and appeals of this life and its things.
1. We can end up coming to many other people, other places, other activities, instead of coming to Jesus.
2. We are so saturated with the water of this world that we lose our thirst for the water of life.
H. Jesus said that it is very hard for the rich to inherit the kingdom (Matt.19:23). I’ve told you before that in my opinion this is what makes it so difficult for many American Christians. This is our special challenge, our peculiar test.
I. But when a Christian who is comfortable in the things of this world does not put his hope in those things, but stands ready to let them go, and is not haughty but generous to others, because He wants God first, even if He has to let go of everything else, that is very precious to the Lord.
J. Come, Lord Jesus! May this be the cry of our hearts and lives!