Come Jesus Come

Introduction

Opener

Before I start, I would like to thank Chris Willett and Steve Durban for covering for me the past two Sundays as my family and I went on our annual family vacation with the Winsteads!

We ended up leaving on the 5th, the Saturday before Fall break at around 6:30 PM and arrived in Gulf Shores around 4 AM, yes, 9.5 hours haha, not bad timing, but that last hour about killed me!

We stayed there till Friday and left at 8 AM that morning to drive and spend the weekend with my twin brother, Jarrett, and his family, not arriving to Atlanta till 4:30 PM that afternoon, yes, 7.5 hours (time change) to go almost half the distance because it took 2 hours to get from south Atlanta to north Atlanta, something even my twin couldn’t believe, then we departed from my brothers at 8 PM that night just to arrive home around 1:30 AM that morning, about 4.5 hours (time change), which was worse than the other drives because I had played four hours of golf wearing shoes one size to small and my back was killing me.

So, all in all, around 21.5 hours spent just traveling from one place to another that week, not to mention all the driving we did outside that!

Your’e probably like, why should we care? Perhaps you went further and your like come at me bro, but I tell you this because I remember as I entered Madisonville, being just 40 minutes from home, how ready I was to get home.

I even remember praying, my wife snoring in the passenger seat, my kids passed out in the back, the smell of dead crab as my wife had brought back ~16 snow crabs home from the beach, RIP, God, please get me there, if you want to introduce teleportation or time travel as a spiritual gift, the time is now and I am willing!

Then, Monday came, I left for work, and one of the groups that I love to hear sing that I put on often is the Worship Team of First Baptist Atlanta, they had produced a new video covering the song Come Jesus Come, I had heard it plenty of times, but FB Atlanta’s Worship Team sang it on another level that had me in tears.

I thought, man those drives this week were long, but my oh my, how I long to see the King, what a day that will be?

My plan was to preach on revival out here, but that quickly turned in preaching not only on revival, but the greatest revival we, believers, will ever be apart of, that being the moment King Jesus returns for us, His bride.

So, today will be a little bit different, you should have a handout of the lyrics of this song, my sermon today will be based around the lyrics of this song.

I love songs that are biblically based and with this song being biblically based, I wrote my sermon based of it’s lyrics, we are going to work our way through it today to see the message God gave it’s writer for you and me.

Main Point of the Text

So, before we jump into the song, I want to give you the brief story behind this song:

The writer of this song is Stephen McWhirter.

The song was written in 2020 and Stephen says that just like everyone else he was sitting at home because the pandemic was going on.

He said he was sitting at his piano and was just trying to worship the Lord and mean it.

He had his Bible open and was reading Revelation as he came across this verse at the end of the book, Revelation 22:17, it says, “And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”

He said he saw where it says the Holy Spirit and the bride, the church, says “Come” and he realized that this isn’t just something he had to pray and long for, but it was actually something God wants, something that would happen.

He said he realized that he wanted to long to see his friend and pray to see his King and so he began to pray for God to help him love people better towards Christ’s return and help him build things that matter toward His return. Come Jesus Come.

You see Revelation 22:17 contains an invitation. It could be said to be the greatest invitation of the Bible, in fact, not only be the greatest, but it’s Christ’s last invitation of God’s Word. It is a fourfold invitation to all persons of the world to come and be saved.

The Holy Spirit says “Come!”.

The bride, the church of Jesus, says “Come!”.

The one who hears says “Come!”.

The one who thirsts should come.

The verse ends by stating the beautiful message of the gospel, it says, “Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”

The gospel, through the grace of God and the sacrifice of His Son Jesus, is given freely to all who thirsts and desires a drink.

Is that you?

Prayer

Body

Chorus:

Lyrics:

The songs chorus is powerful, it says,

“Come Jesus come We've been waiting so long For the day You return to heal every hurt And right every wrong We need You right now Come and turn this around Deep down I know this world isn't home Come Jesus come Come Jesus come”

Explanation & Application:

Over the past 3 or so months as I work to finish my read through of the entire Bible, I’ve been in the OT and so many times, in so many verses, I’ve read of the nation of Israel's lamentations as they cried out for aid from the God they had turned their backs on time and time again.

One such moment of this can be found in Exodus, just before Moses encountered the burning bush where God would send him to Egypt to set the nation of Isreal free, Exodus 2:23 reads, “Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.”

They had been placed in captivity for their rebellion from the past. In fact, God had promised Abraham that one day the Israelites for be in captivity way back in Genesis 15.

While the Israelites hadn’t know who the Messiah would be, they yearned for the same release from their bondage as we do today.

Just as the song says, “Come Jesus come, We've been waiting so long, For the day You return to heal every hurt, And right every wrong, We need You right now, Come and turn this around, Deep down I know this world isn't home.”

We, just as the Israelites feel the bondage this world has placed on us, everyday we seek healing from the hurt, we seek justice for how we were wronged, we need Him, we want Him to save us from every hurt, from all the pain, please come and turn this around we cry, because we know that this earth isn’t it, this can’t be it, right? This isn’t the true home for a child of God, Heaven is, Heaven with the Father, that’s home.

When was the last time you prayed for healing? When was the last time you prayed for justice? When was the last time you prayed for Christ to come?

I know I have before, not because my life here is unbearable or horrible at all, I am blessed, I have a beautiful, wonderful wife, I have the most amazing children, I have a job and a roof over my head, but without Jesus, I would be nothing.

I couldn’t be the Husband I am, I couldn’t be the Father I am, I couldn’t be the Pastor He has made me, I’d be nothing, but since I have Christ, I can be all those things.

Each time the Israelites called out for the Lord, He heard them, to speak to what happened after God heard their cry, Exodus 2:24-25 tells us, “So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.”

You see, our God is faithful, He remembers his covenants, He remembered His covenant with Abraham when it came to the Israelites, and He remembers His covenant He made with us through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ.

Psalm 119:90 tell us, God’s “faithfulness endures to all generations...”

Do you believe God has forgotten you? Do you think He doesn’t hear your cries? When you think He has do you think back to Jesus’ work on the cross?

God hears you, He has acknowledged you, and just as the Israelites could recall God’s faithfulness due to the Exodus, we can recall His faithfulness through His Son’s sacrifice, Jesus is the reason we can have hope.

My first point...

Verse 1: Why We Hope

Lyrics:

Verse 1 from our song for today reads,

“Sometimes I fall to my knees and pray Come Jesus come, let today be the day Sometimes I feel like I'm gonna break But I'm holding on to a hope that won't fade”

Explanation & Application:

Has been you lately? Has the spiritual warfare you been facing in your life been so consuming that it has called you to fall to your knees and pray? Have you prayed that Jesus comes today? Are you tired of this life? Are you at your breaking point? Has your hope began to waver or have you held on to the hope you have in Christ?

Jesus is the reason we can have hope. He is the object of our hope.

Our hope began with Christ, it continues with Christ, and it ends with Christ.

This is why we have hope, because Christ first supplied it.

Paul speaks in Colossians 1:24 telling them that he rejoices in his sufferings.

Paul was one who suffered much so that the gospel could be spread outside of Jerusalem, he put his body, his life, everything on the line for the hope He had in Christ, a hope He wanted to share with the world.

When I say that why we have hope is because Christ first supplied it, I tell you this because without Christ there is hope doesn’t exist.

Without Christ, we would be born, live a subpar life, well life would be what we made it, but every time I seem to lean on myself, my life becomes subpar.

I either don’t save money like I should, I do this wrong, I go that direction instead of going the right one.

Following our subpar life, if there was no Christ, if God didn’t exist, we would live that life, then we would be buried six feet deep, that’s it, that’s all we have, but with Christ, life can be so much more.

With Christ we hold fast to the hope of a future beyond this life that causes us to fall to our knees, that calls for us to say today to be our last, that breaks us, none of our suffering compares to our future hope that is in Him, we have a hope that won’t fade.

Just as Peter speaks to in 1 Peter 1, we have a living hope that exists due to Christ Jesus and what He did for us, the sacrifice He made to pay the penalty for our sins, and how three days later His resurrection defeated the consequence for our sin.

He alone paid for our sins and he alone took away its penalty, death.

Now that Christ has died and been resurrected, verse 2 of our song tell us what it is we hope for.

Verse 2: What We Hope

Lyrics:

Verse 2 reads,

“There'll be no war and there'll be no chains When Jesus comes, let today be the day He'll come for the weak and the strong just the same And all will believe in the power of His name”

Explanation & Application:

I love what I mentioned before that Stephen McWhirter said in his video explaining why he wrote this song, he said that Jesus coming isn’t just something he had to pray and long for, but it was actually something God wants.

If God never meant for Jesus to return, if He never meant for us to reunited with Him, then the cross would have never happened, but it did.

Hebrews 2:9 reminds us, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”

The work has been done, as Christ (He who sits on the throne) says just one chapter before our Scripture for today, in Revelation 21:6–7, He told John telling him to write down what He says for the words He was to speak are true and faithful.

He tells John this, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”

Believe me today church, believe me nonbeliever, let the words of Christ ring in your ears, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

Do not leave here today without placing your hope in Jesus, just as our Scripture for today tells you, for you who thirst, the water of life is free, take your cup, drink every drop.

What is it you long for beyond this life? If Jesus came today, what would you look most forward to? Is it a break from your finances, a break from your aches and pains? Is it to see you family again?

Allow me to give you a taste of the riches, the glory that is found in Christ.

Revelation 21:3-4, just moments before Jesus told John it was done, he told him of the future that awaits God’s children, “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’”

This is what we hope for, what is found here in these verses, a not so distant reality for the one those who believes in Christ.

We long to see the King, the final verse of the song, what does it looks like when we have hope?

Verse 3: When We Hope

Lyrics:

In the final verse, verse 3, McWhirter wrote of this very moment, writing,

“One day He'll come, and we'll stand face to face Come and lay it all down, 'cause it might be today The time is right now, there's no need to wait Your past will be washed by rivers of grace”

Explanation & Application:

Did you catch what I said moments before reading this last verse?

Let me say it again, what we just read from Revelation 21, about our future, about the future for a Child of God, anyone who comes to belief in Christ, the moment we meet Jesus, the moment we experience Heaven, that moment is a not so distant reality for us.

In fact Christ tells us in Revelation 22, the same chapter our Scripture comes from today, He says, “‘And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.’”

Just as the song reads, One day He’ll come, well what if that day is today? What if He came today? What if today was the day you stood face to face with Jesus? Would He welcome you home? Are you sure that He would recognize you as His own?

Verse 3 of our song reminds us of the beautiful work of Christ, the last sentence reads, “Your past will be washed by rivers of grace”, but before he says that he offers as warning, “Come and lay it all down, 'cause it might be today, The time is right now, there's no need to wait”.

There is no time to wait, we must lay it all down, time is of the essence!

As the worship team comes...

Earlier, I read Revelation 21:6-7, just to refresh our memories, “And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”

Let me now finish out the rest of what Christ says in this moment to John, Revelation 21:8, “‘But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’”

Christ, just as McWhirter, tells us of the beautiful gift of the work of Christ, but He follows it up with a warning.

For the one who lays everything down, Heaven awaits, and with it the water of life that offers eternal life, but for the one who doesn’t believe, but remains their own god, there will be a second death and that second death is in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, in this same lake, Satan will be thrown into as well, and God’s Word says that those who are thrown there will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

I do not say this to scare you, I say this because just as Paul tells the Colossians, I to have been made a minister according to the stewardship of God (Colossians 1:25), and while it is hard news to bear for the unbeliever, it is news I must share, for my words to you today are true, that is why it is Christ I preach, that is why it is Christ I will suffer, for if my words come off to harsh to your ears, it is better I suffer so that you may know the truth and have hope then for you to spend eternity in the lake of fire with Satan.

I speak these words today, because they are the words of God, from His lips, not my own.

Will you hear me? Will you come?

Altar Call