12.9.20 Revelation 22:20
20 The one who testifies about these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Jesus Is Coming Soon
What will we give Him?
Here’s a little fact you may not have known about our preschool teacher. She’s a twin. Not only that, but if I have the order correct, she was the surprise twin. When her mother gave birth to Ella, her twin sister, she didn’t realize that she had an Ida inside her as well. Imagine the surprise of the doctors and the parents! They now had to prepare for TWO instead of one, and that would not be an easy thing. We’ve had to prepare for five children throughout our lives. The first or second one were probably the most difficult, because we were heading into unknown territory. It got easier after that because we knew what we were preparing for.
Imagine the thoughts that Mary must have had inside her mind after Gabriel appeared to her? How could I be the one to give birth to God in the flesh? How am I supposed to raise the Savior of the world? She had no power and no privilege. She had no experience in being a mother; no books like “What to expect when you’re expecting.” She was not even under the protection of her husband Joseph at the time. How do you prepare for something like that? There’s no way you could be!
The Wise Men prepared by gathering their finest gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, getting on their camels, and following the Star to Bethlehem. They wanted to give Jesus their finest and their best. They didn’t have to raise Jesus or feed Him: nor would they be expected to. They only saw Him for what, a few days or a few hours? Nonetheless, they wanted to give Jesus their best: to help in whatever way possible. It involved time, work, and gifts. The Wise Men traveled miles and miles in order to give their best to a TODDLER. They didn’t know too much about Him, other than that He was the King of the Jews. How shocking it must have been for them to come to a little house in such a small town of Bethlehem. The toddler Jesus could not respond with more than perhaps a smile. Nonetheless, they worshiped Him and gave Him their best in what little time they had.
It is good for us, during Advent, to remember and contemplate what we are preparing to celebrate, the birth of God, Immanuel, God with us. How shocking it is, when you think about it! God is coming to us! If God doesn’t come to us, then we can never come to Him. What a miracle, God taking on human flesh and walking among us! Then to touch us and let us touch Him, and to let us put Him on a cross. Christmas is the beginning of this wonderful thing called the Incarnation. We celebrate this every year. We don’t have to take care of Jesus as Mary did. Nor do we have to carry him to Egypt as Joseph did. So we come in the shoes of the Wise Men, for one hour tonight, in the season of Advent. We want to be prepared for this, to give Him our best.
What is our best? Think of the repairman who comes to your house to clean out your plumbing or tear out a wall or install something. You know he’s got a tough job ahead of him. He’s got the knowledge and the tools. So what do you do? You open the door for him. You welcome him. You maybe offer him some water. You are thankful that he is there to fix your problem. But mainly, you get out of his way and let him do his job.
We may not have gold, frankincense and myrrh. But we have voices. We have offerings. We have songs. We have a church to decorate. We have instruments to play. We have time. But really, we don’t want any of these celebrations to get in the way of Jesus. Instead, we want Jesus to be the center of our celebrations and worship.
Unlike any other infant who has NO choice in coming into this world, Jesus did. He existed prior to the flesh, prior to the Holy Spirit implanting Him into the womb of Mary. He knew what He was heading into our world to do, to go to the cross for us. We know the dirty work He had ahead of Him.
So in light of all this, we want to come during this Advent service to give Him our BEST. We come in cars. We come in the comfort of a heated church instead of a cattle stall. We come with the best of our singing, with songs that talk about what Jesus came to do for us. It doesn’t matter what else is going on. We will MAKE time for this - the best of our effort to PRAISE Him for what He came to do. He looks from heaven in hindsight and sees how we relive the moment: how we prepare for Christmas. We want to give HIM our best in hindsight as we prepare for Christmas.
But we fail, don’t we. We don’t prepare as we could or we should. We say, “Is there Advent service tonight? I forgot about that! Hurry up, let’s go. Is there soup supper this year?” And maybe we consider it a great sacrifice to come to one midweek service - an EXTRA service - to worship Him. The gifts that we plot and plan to give - are primarily spent on each other. The time revolves around gathering together around FAMILY, more than Jesus. We look for the gifts under the tree instead of the gift on the tree. We sing the holiday songs at the top of our lungs, watch the traditional Christmas movies with joy, but what about when it comes to time to actually focus on the actual and original Christmas story?
Yes, we come in sin. Yet we also come in repentance and in faith. And that’s why Jesus had to come here in the first place, because the best of our efforts to come to Him fail in comparison to the efforts He made to come to us. We come here to praise Him and let Him do what He came to do. He came here to DIE for us, all by Himself. He came here to rescue us and pay for such sins: to recapture our attention and our love: to die for it. Dear Jesus, forgive us for our lack of desire, our lack of song, our inattention. Focus us on you this Advent. Move our hearts and lips and hands to give you so much more, the praise you and attention you deserve.
How will we be ready?
Jesus has come. He did what He came to do, that dirty work of dying for us and rising from the dead. The book of Revelation is written at the end of it all, and it finishes the story out. Jesus speaks to us one last time in the Word. “Yes, I am coming soon.” He is not coming as a baby that needs diapers and a bottle. He is coming as a grown man, our God and Lord, our triumphant King. He is coming with His angels. He is coming to judge the living and the dead. He is coming as our triumphant God and Lord, in the clouds, with thousands of angels. He is coming to wipe out this world with fire. He is coming to either bring you to heaven or send you to hell. Jesus says that some people will be so terrified that they will beg the mountains and the hills to fall on them; anything but have to face Jesus.
So now there’s a different type of preparation we also have to think about. This isn’t about singing songs to a baby. We are not in the power position here. If anything, we are now the helpless infants. But it’s worse than that. You watch the murder mystery on TV. The detectives start calling and sniffing around. The people start panicking. They are going to check phone records. They are going to ask around. Where were you? When were you there? Do you have anyone to vouch for you? When Jesus comes, God’s Word mentions some even more thorough investigation.
Matthew 12:36-37 I tell you that on the day of judgment people will give account of every careless word they have spoken. In fact by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Just earlier in Revelation 20 God talks about books being opened, as if everything you did or didn’t do was written in this big book which would be opened on the Last Day. Does anyone have an eraser? I’m going to need a big one! Is there any way we can cook the books? There’s no way! Psalm 69:5 says, “You know my folly, O God; my guilt is not hidden from you.”
Yet what does John say at the end of the announcement that Jesus is coming? Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! Are you crazy John?!? What have you been smoking? Don’t you realize who you are, what you’ve done? Stay away! Stay away! Why would John want Jesus to COME after all of these words? He must have been a whole lot better than me, right?
No. Verse 14 gives us the reason for John’s prayer in such a picturesque way, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.” There is no sign of panic, not while he is wearing the robe. What could this be but in baptism, through faith? Yes, Paul explains it perfectly in Galatians 3:26-27, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” God has found a way to cover my sins in the righteousness of Christ, clothed on me in my baptism, staying on me through faith in Jesus. Here is someone who covers my sins, erases my wickedness from the books, and puts Jesus on my account. How else could John say, “Amen, Come Lord Jesus,” without such clothing, without such faith?
What will we say?
In the end, it’s not that complicated. We tend to panic - think that we need to do something great or glorious in our lives - finish our bucket list. We wonder if we’ve done “enough” or said “enough.” When is enough ever enough? There’s always something MORE we could have done or should have done. But faith also has to let God be God, and let God do His thing in this world. Earlier John writes, “Let the one who is unjust continue to be unjust. Let the one who is filthy continue to be filthy. Let the one who is just continue to do what is just. Let the one who is holy continue to be holy.” It sounds strange that John would say “let the filthy keep being filthy.” But he has proclaimed the warning. He has preached Christ. What will be will be. He doesn’t have to save the world or change the world. That’s God’s job. He is only called to proclaim. God is in charge.
The one who is confident in Jesus says, “Amen, Come Lord Jesus.” It’s not like we need some clever one liner to try and impress Jesus. He’s said it all. He’s done it all. We don’t really need to say anything. So we just say Amen. We say Amen after we hear something that we like and we agree to and we want to happen, something we believe will happen. “Amen!” If you like a news station or a commentator, you will take time to listen to him or her. You will agree. If they say all that needs to be said, you simply say “Amen!” If you don’t like what they say, you will turn them off. You will argue with them over the radio or comment on Twitter or Facebook.
It is Advent time. When He comes, you can’t change the channel. You can’t argue with Him. Jesus, the grown Man and God, says He’s coming to burn this world up. He is going to examine the lives of millions of people and end up sending them to hell for rejecting His defense. Yet He is also coming to bring His baptized believers to heaven. Do you believe He came to die for you? Do you believe ALL your sins have been paid for? Do you believe your baptism has washed away your sins? Jesus is coming. “Amen?” Does it panic you? Are you ready for that to happen? Do you have a problem with it? Do you turn Him off? Do you change the channel? Do you ignore it? Or do you say “Amen?”
When you say “Amen” you are confessing, “This is a wonderful thing! Jesus, you were born into this world to do a wonderful thing for me. You took on my flesh to die my death and pay for my sins on the cross. You rose from the dead. You gave me your righteousness. You give me comfort. You give me hope. You came once to save me, and now you promise me that you are coming to rescue me from this world. I live in a terrible world that is only getting worse and worse. Are there other things that should be done? Are there things I love too much in this world and want to keep hold of? For sure. But what is better? You have promised that my records are clean. I believe in you. Whenever you are ready, I am ready. Amen, come Lord Jesus.” And with that faith in Jesus we are ready for the Advent of our King. With that we say, “Amen.” There is nothing more to be said, because Jesus has said it all and done it all.
Redeemer, come! I open wide
My heart to you; here, Lord, abide!
Oh, enter with your saving grace;
Show me your kind and friendly face.
Your Holy Spirit guide us on
Until our glorious goal is won.
Eternal praise and fame
We offer to your name. Amen.
