Revelation 22:20, "Come, Lord Jesus"

Ken MacLeod

Prayer • Sermon • Submitted 6 months ago • Presented 6 months ago

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Today we come to the final prayer in the Bible. It’s short, but it’s packed with everything we need to know about prayer. It also tells us everything we need to know about the gospel and how we can pray according to God’s gospel plan for the world in ways that give us hope.

The final prayer of the Bible is a prayer for the end of time, but it’s also the beginning of something. This passage introduces the Advent season. Advent is the time in the church calendar we set aside to grow in our anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ. As we consider His first “advent”, or first arrival, 2,000 years ago, it gives us joy as we celebrate the fulfillment of God’s promises to send a Messiah who would save His people from their sins. And the celebration of Jesus’ first advent increases our hope in His second advent. As we celebrate Advent, we grow in our eagerness for the return of Jesus Christ in victory to restore our world to God’s kingdom forever.

Maybe you’re one of those people that doesn’t like Christmas. It’s become commercialized and coopted by other agendas and it stresses you out. Maybe all the joy and singing and feasting and gift-giving doesn’t seem to match the reality in which we live right now. But I’d like to offer you a different perspective. Advent is all about forming my thoughts and affections according to the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

We use spiritual practices to shape our thinking and affections. We all do this without realizing it. Some of us read our Bibles and pray. Some of us read the news or books or watch movies, or listen to music, all of which shape my thinking and my affections according to the messages of those media. They are all spiritual practices because they all effect my spiritual life, my beliefs, my affections, my thoughts, my values, and my goals. Some spiritual practices increase my despair. Some increase my hope.

The two basic spiritual practices that shape our Christian life are reading our Bible and prayer. These two are inseparable, like two hands on one body, or maybe better two ears on one face, because these are the practices by which we listen to God. The Bible is God’s word to us. He tells us His thoughts, His plans, His will. We respond in prayer. It’s an opportunity to say amen to God’s word, thoughts, plans, and will. Praying with my Bible open forms my thoughts, affections, and will according to the will of God for me and for our world.

And you can see this in the last prayer of the Bible. That prayer is an amen to God’s word.

In Revelation 22:20, Jesus speaks a promise,

Revelation 22:20 (ESV)

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Jesus’ Promise to us and to the world: “Surely I am coming soon.” Actually, He promises this three times in this chapter.

Our prayer in response: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

This promise and prayer are the final words of the story of redemption. We call that the gospel. The gospel is that God created a good world. We broke the world through our sin, resulting in death. But God has overcome sin and death through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and has established a new beginning and eternal life through His resurrection. Through repentance of our sins and faith in Jesus Christ, we are made new to live in the kingdom of God. And our world will be made new when Jesus returns at the end of all things.

What are the implications for our lives and our world?

We Have Hope

Our hope is not in governments or social movements or education or justice system reform. All of these are necessary. But they are temporary. Governments change every election or worse, never change. Social movements only last as long as people’s attention spans. Education makes people smarter sinners. Justice reform is always going to be necessary because as long as human beings sit as judges, the system will be imperfect.

But our ultimate hope is that Jesus Christ, the eternal, righteous, just King will return and restore God’s kingdom for a new heavens and new earth. At the end of everything, He promised that He would come, and we pray, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

Meditating during this season of the year on that promise and that prayer will increase my hope. It recognizes the reality of our world. It is broken, and seems to be getting worse. But it also awakens my spirit to a much bigger and more glorious reality. That God has begun something through His Son Jesus that He will carry out to completion.

Everywhere through the Bible, we read about the promises that when Messiah comes to reign in Jerusalem, He will establish worldwide peace through justice and righteousness.

Isaiah 11:1–10 (ESV)

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,

and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,

the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and might,

the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

or decide disputes by what his ears hear,

but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,

and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,

and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;

and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze;

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,

and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

They shall not hurt or destroy

in all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

Justice for the both the meek and the wicked. No one will be able to stand before His word. But the word that will strike the earth will also recreate the world like the Garden of Eden.

That is our hope for the future. But we have hope for the future because of the reality of the present. We hope in the second advent of Christ because of His first advent. We who have come to know Jesus the Messiah are experiencing His recreation already. The second implication of the advent of Jesus is that

We Are New Creation

It’s happening in us. In the present tense, when we repent and believe in Jesus, the Son of God who loved us and gave His life for us, Paul puts it this way,

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

When Jesus came in His first advent, on the night He was betrayed, He promised that even though He was going away in body, He would be with them in Spirit. He would send the Holy Spirit to be with them and to be His presence in them.

John 14:16–18 (ESV)

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

He promised that where two or three of us gather in His name, He is in our midst.

Matthew 18:20 (ESV)

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

So, the third implication of the advent of Jesus is

Jesus is With Us, Here and Now

He is ministering to us His grace and peace for our daily living. As we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus!” we are praying that He would come into every thought, every word we speak, every relationship, every good work done in His name. We are praying that He would come because without Him we can do nothing. But with Him, we can fulfill God’s gospel plan.

Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV)

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Because Jesus is with us, here and now, until the end of the age, we can make disciples of all nations.

We live in a unique place in God’s redemptive plan. He has already fulfilled His promises in Christ, and we live in the reality of HIs first advent. But He will consummate all those promises finally and eternally in HIs second advent. Paul puts it this way,

Titus 2:11–14 (ESV)

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

When we consider Jesus’ second advent, the last implication is that it motivates our mission.

We Have a Mission

Our Statement of Faith puts it this way,

“We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.” Article 9, EFCA Statement of Faith

Three times in Revelation 22, Jesus promises, “I am coming soon.” We should expect Him any time. His coming is at hand. That is God’s word. What is our amen?

Our response is to pray, “Jesus, come soon. And until you do, show me how to live and serve others in ways that others will be drawn to you.”

There are some good prayers others have written along these lines.

“O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

“Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the Cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.”

Revelation 22:12–13 (ESV)

“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Our works demonstrate our faith. Is it in ourselves or in Jesus? When we trust in Jesus, He promises reward, repayment. For the believer, the right to eat of the tree of life and live in the city of God. For the unbeliever, eternal conscious torment. What is your amen to this promise of Jesus? As we partake in communion, we remember the reality of His first advent and His presence with us now. We also renew our hope in His power to recreate us, and one day our world.

Communion

Questions for Discussion

Do you practice any Advent traditions?

What is a promise of God that gives you hope? How does Advent offer us opportunities to grow in hope? How does that hope impact your life?

What are you most thankful for as you remember the first advent of Jesus Christ?

The final prayer of the Bible is a response to the promise of Jesus to come soon. What makes trusting that promise hard? How might praying the prayer, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus,” help us?

What are you looking forward to most when Jesus returns in His second advent?

What are some implications of both the first and second advents of Jesus for our present lives?