He Is Coming

HE IS COMING.

Revelation 22:12-14, Revelation 22:16-17, Revelation 22:20-21.

The architectural geography of some church buildings reflects an ancient tradition of ‘antiphonal’ singing. Two half-choirs sit face to face, exchanging responses. The congregation looks on.

I. “Behold I come quickly,” says Jesus (Revelation 22:12).

1. “My reward is with me, to give every man according as His work shall be,” He continues (Revelation 22:12).

In Revelation 22:11 we have been told that there comes a point when there will be a fixity of state, after which there is neither time nor opportunity to change our standing with God.

There is no second chance after death: ‘as the tree falls, there it will lie’ (Ecclesiastes 11:3).

2. Jesus pronounces a benediction upon those who “do my commandments” (Revelation 22:14).

Those who ‘have washed’ (past tense) their robes, have ‘made them white in the blood of the Lamb’ (Revelation 7:14).

Jesus has already ‘washed us from our sins in His own blood’ (Revelation 1:5).

What we are to be up and doing, and which qualifies us to eat of the tree of life and to enter into the city, is found in 1 John 3:23. Everyone else remains outside (Revelation 22:15).

3. What does Jesus mean when He says, “I am the root and the offspring of David” (Revelation 22:16)?

First he says, “I AM” - which is the name of God.

Second, as God, He is “the root” - which signifies the source.

Jesus has already been recognised as ‘the Root of David’ in Revelation 5:5.

Third, literally, “the offspring” - or “descendant” - which acknowledges His incarnation, and more specifically His birth into the family of David. Jesus is the Branch that grows out of the root of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1).

In keeping with this metaphor, He is both the ‘root’ and the ‘offshoot’ - “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13).

Jesus further identifies Himself as the “bright and morning star” (Revelation 22:16).

Balaam saw this star from afar (Numbers 24:17).

Now Jesus ushers in the new dawn.

II. “Come,” reply the Spirit and the bride:

“and let everyone who hears say, ‘Come’” (Revelation 22:17).

Those who are thirsty are called to come to the One who is coming (Revelation 22:17).

It is there at the spring of the water of life that we meet with Him, and He with us (Revelation 21:6).

Those who are ‘written in the Lamb’s book of life’ (Revelation 21:27) turn out to be the “whosever will” of Revelation 22:17.

III. Jesus says, “Surely I come quickly” (Revelation 22:20).

It is Jesus who testifies to these things (Revelation 22:20).

He is ‘the faithful witness’ (Revelation 1:5).

He is ‘the Amen, the faithful and true witness’ (Revelation 3:14).

To tamper with this book is to tamper with His testimony (Revelation 22:18-19; Deuteronomy 4:2).

He is coming in the clouds (Revelation 1:7; Acts 1:11).

He is coming as a thief (Revelation 16:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10).

He is coming at a time when we know not (Matthew 24:42-44).

When He comes, He will come ‘suddenly’ (Revelation 22:12; Revelation 22:20).

IV. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

This is the Greek equivalent of Paul’s transliterated Aramaic word, 'Maranatha' at the end of 1 Corinthians 16:22 - ‘Our Lord come!’

It is the response of John, but also of the church.

And as we wait for His coming, He confers upon us His grace (Revelation 22:21), that we might know how to live in these in-between times.