Jesus is Coming Soon!

Have you ever finished a book or the credits begin to role following a movie or final episode of a TV series, and you are left looking for additional pages or waiting for a surprise ending after the credits, because the story just can’t end like that?

Some have commented that the Gospels and the book of Acts are like that. The last verse appears and you wonder, “What’s next?”

Fortunate for us, and everyone else who reads the Revelation of Jesus to John is not left wondering. In this final chapter Jesus says 3 times what is happening next. And each time is associated with a response that He expects from us.

Transition: What He says is that He is returning soon. The first time He says it, the underlying expectation is…

Jesus’ Soon Return Inspires Hope (vv.6-7)

The commentaries I read this week spill a lot of ink over the questions about who is speaking each sentence. This morning my goal is that we would not get lost in the speaker, but focus on the subject and the message.

Transition: The first message inspires Hope because it is

Trustworthy and True (v.6)

1. It is trustworthy because its source is God himself.

2. It is true because the delivery of the message has not been altered.

3. God doesn’t only source the message, he oversees the distribution- HE sends His angel to His servant.

4. There is no chance that anything is going to get lost in transmission or translation from the Heavenly origin to John, the earthly recipient.

5. V.10 it going to clarify that God’s distribution is also concerned with the words getting to us, half a world away, in a language that did not exist in John’s lifetime, 2 millennia later ago!

Blessed (v.7)

Early in Jesus ministry His first miracle blessed guests at a wedding and avoided embarrassment for the father of the wedding party.

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He instructed how listeners could experience blessing in what are known as the beatitudes.

Throughout his earthly ministry He blessed followers by miracles of healing, feeding and controlling weather.

[Wasn’t Friday night’s rain a blessing?]

4. This same God who has been faithful, trustworthy and generous throughout generations, promises that blessing will accompany those who remain faithful (keep) to the one who is Victor of this entire prophecy.

Transition: Keeping the prophecy/words of this book generates a second expectation…

Jesus’ Soon Return Demands Holiness (vv.12-15)

Recompense(Psalm 28:4, Psalm 62:12, Proverbs 24:12, Isaiah 40:10, Isaiah 59:18, Isaiah 62:11, Jeremiah 17:10)

1. A common theme in both the poetry of Psalms and Proverbs, as well as the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah is that God will interact with individuals “according to their deeds”

2. Any discipline will be deserved; any rewardwill be due to imputed righteousness.

3. How can we know if we are in the discipline line or the reward line?

Wash (cf.7:14; 19:14)

1. Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb?

Isaiah 1:18 ESV:2016

18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

When it comes to turning red things white, I am dumbfounded. I have had enough laundry mishaps to understand the opposite way this can happen. But I have tried alcohol, lemon, vinegar, oxygen and bleach, just to conclude that it requires a miracle of God’s grace to turn red into white.

2. Bruce Metzger, a world-renowned Bible translator who passed 15 years ago, points out back in Rev 7:14 we read that those who come out of the Tribulation are clothed in white because they had washed (aorist, point in time) their robes. This verse uses wash (present, continuous) tense.

I was asked this week if a person’s name is written, erased, and re-written in the Book of Life. I told her that Rom 8 guarantees that nothing (even my own choices) can separate me from God’s love.

3. The act of continual washing, is a reference to preaching the gospel to oneself—reminding ourselves of the seriousness of sin and freshly remembering the covering provided by the blood of Christ.

4. You may have walked the sawdust trail or come forward in a church service decades ago, but do you preach the Gospel to yourself to deal with daily sin as we are commanded in 1 John 1:9?

5. You may ask another person, “Have you repented?” The Holy Spirit is asking you, “Are you repenting?”

Even the gospel song that many of us have sung many times asks both, “Have you been to Jesus?” and “Are you walking daily?” by the Saviors side.

Transition: Our repenting is absolutely necessary because those with washed robes are contrasted to another type of person in v.15

Inside/outside(v.15)

1. Outside dogs were mangy scavengers, not the cuddly fluffballs that sit on some of our laps, or the gentle beast that lies on some of our porches. Dogs in this sense is used to describe several types of undesirable people throughout the Bible.

Circumstances arranged themselves so that I was privileged to participate in our Friday Men’s Bible study this week. I enthusiastically endorse it for any man! If for no other reason, you will learn both the useful place of a barn cat, the despicable condition of a Uganda cat, and the danger of being a Brendan cat. I did not know until this week that cats on Brendan’s property are more endangered than the dogs of v.15 Let me clearly state that no abuse or cruelty happens on the Harshman place, but If you have a choice between a Harshman cat or a Mercer cat, you want to belong to Earlyne!

2. 5 of the 6 behaviors in this verse are also found in 21:8 where we saw last week end up in the always burning lake.

3. Matthew 25 gives 2 stories of those who are not ready – 10 virgins & the servant with a wasted talent.

4. If you have any question about the importance of holiness, having your robes washed and making sure you are part of the inside group, read MT 25!

Transition: For all the hopeful saints with washed robes, Jesus gives a 3rd reason why His return matters.

Jesus’ Soon Return Motivates Witness (vv.10-11, 16-20)

Look back with me as we pick up 2 verses that I strategically skipped earlier. The trustworthiness and blessing of the first announcement is contrasted to those who don’t keep the words of this book.

Proclaimed Truth separates into 2 groups (10-11)

Time is near - Urgency

Evil/filthy – those who ignore this trustworthy and true word will reap their results.

Righteous/holy - those who heed this trustworthy and true word will reap their results.

Unbelievers are going to act like unbelievers and believers are going to act like believers. We can’t force people to do right through laws, they’ll just break the laws. But, the Word of God has power to change hearts! Don’t be overwhelmed when the end approaches and people act wickedly, the only thing we can do is proclaim God’s Word and pray for their hearts to surrender to Him.

Craig Keener paraphrases the idea of v.11 “let those who reject God’s words do so, but they will pay the consequences[i]”

Proclaimed Truth summons us (16-17a)

1. Proclamation (16) – Jesus testifies about what He does and who He is-- I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.

2. Response (17a) – come is a word that requires volition (choice) and change.

We never clean ourselves up to make ourselves acceptable. When mom or dad calls the family to come to the table, the family is hungry in whatever room they are, and they are still hungry when they begin to move. But a change happens when I am sitting on the couch being hungry and when I get up and move toward the Kitchen while still hungry. Satisfaction doesn’t happen when I respond, it happens after I respond to the invitation and receive what has been prepared.

3. The Spirit of God and the People of God invite you. Have you responded by faith and repentance?

Proclaimed Truth is shared by believers (17b-19)

1. The one who hears is under obligation

a. The one who hears says – come, drink, take

· The angels wording is an echo of Isaiah 55 and John 7:37. I believe the work of God can be divided into unique segments (frequently called dispensations), but the core work of God among humanity has always been an invitation.

· Our silence is not an option (no matter how nervous you may be about inviting others to believe in Jesus)

b. Our Invitation must be just as true and trustworthy as the words of the prophecy of this book!

· Never add/subtract –

Robert Mounce explains what it means to add/subtract, “The warning is against willful distortion of the message. It is not unlike Paul’s stern words in Gal 1:6, 7 to those who would pervert the gospel[ii]

How many of our current conflicts can be traced back to misunderstandings of our nation’s founding documents? Slavery, Guns & Abortion are just a few of the issues that activists today are arguing over what was said, what was intended, and what some wish had been written.

· DT 4:2, DT 12:32, PR 30:6 – Not a statement about Revelation ending.

Proclaimed Truth shapes our message (20)

1. Our invitation, our testimony, our witness is not to focus on the comfort of Heaven or the pain of Hell. Over the last 12 weeks, I hope you have picked up on my emphasis throughout the book that we do not look forward to a place or to avoid a predicament. The purpose of this book is to exalt a person!

One of the newest commentaries I have on Revelation includes these words, “the central focus of eternal life will be God and the Lamb in the midst of their peoples. God is the one who planned our redemption and accomplished it through Jesus, and the chief blessedness of the new Jerusalem will be to enjoy face-to-face communion with God[iii]

Conclusion:

I know that some of you enjoy social media and others avoid it like the Corona Virus.

I posted something yesterday morning that summarizes what I believe about the book of Revelation.

This is normally what the garage looks like across the street. After Friday night’s storm, 2 of my tomato planters were on their side, my American flag was on the ground, my Christian Flag was still waving strong.

Lesson: after preaching through Revelation I am more aware than ever that the efforts of man (my plants) will fall. Government will collapse. The Kingdom of Christ will prevail into eternity.

I beg of you, build your life upon the truth of God’s word, repent and become part of God’s Kingdom. It is the only path to blessing today. It is the only hope for eternity. For those whose robes are washed white, we testify…

Song of Response #236........... “Is it the Crowning Day?”

[i]Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Second Edition. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2014), 776. [ii]Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 409. [iii]Buist M. Fanning, Revelation, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020), 566.