Behold, I come quickly.
I was told a story long ago about a preacher preaching on the second lesson this morning from Revelation 22, and Christ’s words “Behold, I Come quickly.”
A new preacher, fresh out of seminary, was so nervous about delivering his first sermon that he’d gotten almost no sleep the night before. He was so nervous and tired, he barely made it up the steps to the pulpit. Fortunately he found his text and began preaching. But nervousness soon overtook him, and the outline flew right out of his mind.
Now, in seminary, he was taught that if a lapse of memory occurs, it is wise to repeat your last point. And so, he did. “Behold, I come quickly!” he announced to his congregation. But his mind was still blank. He tried one more time, “Behold, I come quickly” but still no results.
Finally, he stepped way back, made a lunge toward the pulpit, shouted out, “BEHOLD, I COME QUICKLY!”, tripped and fell into the lap of a little old lady in the front row. Flustered and embarrassed, he picked himself up, apologized profusely, and started to explain what had happened.
“That’s alright, young man,” said the kindly old lady. “It was really my fault. You warned me three times that you were on your way down here. I should have just gotten out of your way.”
3 times, in the space of 14 Verses, Christ tells those who will be reading the close of this epistle, Behold, I Come quickly. We should begin by looking at the reason that Christ stresses his return to the readers of this epistle.
The church at the time of John was under fire because Christians refused to call Caesar "Lord." Many were being martyred as examples to everyone else. New and grotesque ways were invented to punish believers.
But some of the old ways were used too. Ways like crucifixion imprisonment and exile. That is where the Book of Revelation begins. On a hot barren prison island called Patmos where the apostle John was exiled on account of his faith in Christ.
The Book begins on a prison Island but it doesn't stay there for long. After brief but quite striking greetings to the churches in Asia Minor, Jesus takes John, in the Spirit, up to the throne of heaven. With a literal cast of thousands, John is shown images "what must soon take place."
In these images God's judgment is poured out upon all that is evil. Early in the book, John is shown a vision of the martyred saints of God calling from beneath that altar. "How long will you let this persecution go on?"
Even today, though we might not see it here in the US to a great extent, there are persecutions of the church all over the world.
How long will God let this keep happening?
So the book of Revelation primarily reassures us, and the early Christians, that this state of affairs will not go on forever.
There will be a Judgment Day and God will bring an end to the evil that pervades our world and injures all that is good and righteous.
God will protect his own.
They may suffer physically, their bodies may be mauled by wild beasts or burned, but they will be vindicated.
They will stand before God in heaven with white robes and branches of victory. Every evil power and principality will cease to exist. And all will be made new. God will create a new heaven and a new earth where all is full of His glory.
Beautiful Picture, but what does it mean to the one struggling now! Just as the book seems to be ending in Chapter 21 in that blessed future of the New Jerusalem, which we saw last week, it turns the Christian back to the here and now.
In verse 17 of Revelation 22, John records this:
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.”
And let the one who hears say, “Come.”
And let the one who is thirsty come;
let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
The response to hearing God’s Assurance is to turn to the world, which is lost in its sin, and to say with one voice, and in one Spirit, “Come!” Come, Come to Christ, Come and receive his free gift of salvation, the living waters without price.”
Now, keep this command to evangelize and invite the world to the Great Marriage feast of the Lamb in mind as we look to the Gospel lesson from this morning. In the Gospel, Christ prays saying:
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
To set the stage, gradually in Christ’s Prayer in this section of John’s Gospel, he has been moving out to the ends of the earth. First, he prayed for himself as he was imminently facing the Cross.
Second, he prayed for His disciples, and for the Father’s protection over them. Now His prayers takes a sweep into the future, and he prays for those who in distant lands and far-off ages will also enter the Christian faith.
People like the first gentile believers who we saw in our lesson from Acts, and people like us, who have received the word 2 millennia later!
At that moment, His followers were few, and the Cross was facing him, but His confidence was unshaken, and He was praying for those who would come to believe in His name. This passage should be especially precious to us, for it is Jesus' prayer for us specifically who, unlike the disciples, never met Him.
What was his prayer for us? It was that all its members would be one as he and his Father are one.
Many times, as I have heard this passage preached, the sermon seems to become an apologetic to why Christians are at disunity with each other.
Preachers will expound why this division, or that schism over church government is acceptable, as they try to justify their positions. In these sermons, which usually cause me no end of frustration as I listen to them, the sermon on Christ’s Prayer of Unity becomes a sermon to list excuses as to where, when and why we don’t have to be at unity.
I am not saying that differences of theology don’t matter. But in the name of truth, which is important, we many times show complete neglect of the love we are commanded to show one another as a body, and the call which has been put into our mouths.
Last week, Christ told his disciples, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have Purity of Doctrine. No. If you have the Rite Liturgy. No.
If you have love for one another.”
This week, very similarly, Christ prays for unity in our church so that our witness to the world will be effective. So that the world will see the transforming power of Christ and his Gospel reflected in our lives. So that we may, with one voice, cry out to the world, Come to the Lord, come drink from the living waters. Come to the Great Marriage Feast.
When the world sees our unity in the Spirit, especially when personally we may disagree about all kinds of things, our unity testifies that Christ is in us, and as Christ states here, it shows that the WORDS and the mission of Christ are true. Our unity shows the truth of Christ’s words that the Father has sent Him.
We are very different people one from another in the church. A striking feature of the early church was the bond of unity which existed between the various local churches which differed in language and culture. This unity was based on a common faithfulness to the teaching of the apostles, and it was the distinguishing mark in a pagan world of being a disciple of Christ.
Our first lesson brings us to Paul on his second missionary journey through Turkey and into Greece.
As we follow Paul through his missionary journeys, notice that he doesn’t seem to place the Kingdom of God in competition with worshiping in this world’s religions.
The world at the time had many who believed in different gods, comparing them one to another, asserting that this god was bigger and better than other gods. Much time would be spent putting down other gods and systems of worship. Both Paul and his disciples seem to have left this practice alone, and as he preaches to the world, we never see him putting down anyone’s practices or beliefs. When he teaches the churches in his epistles, he has lots to say about bad practices, but when he faces the world, he is never derogatory, but loving and understanding.
In other words, what Paul does do is preach Christ, not as a competitor among others for this world’s attention but as the rightful Ruler of God’s Kingdom, which has come into the world at large, calling all who will believe to Come to Him and submit to their King. There is no competition here—no name-calling or the belittling of another man’s values.
Paul simply holds up Jesus, and Jesus calls all men to come to Him, just as we see in Revelation, and in Jesus Prayer for us.
Now, returning to the text from Acts, we see something odd take place just before our text. Paul, the apostle, is confused about God’s direction, but following it anyway. Joined by Timothy and the Gospel writer Luke, Paul and Silas go to Central Turkey, to Galatia to preach and evangelize, but on the way, God closes that door.
Then they figure that God wants them to go to Northern or Western Turkey, and head off on that road, but the Lord again, by his Holy Spirit, closes another door.
It reminds me of Abraham, who followed the Lord’s directions all over the land. Abraham kept going where he thought he was supposed to go, and the Lord kept putting Abraham back on the path that he wanted.
So Paul, wearied with his journey, finds a port town, and there, asks God to show him where he is to go, and falls asleep.
In the midst of the night a vision appeared unto him. A man who by his accent and his attire Paul could tell was a Macedonian. And the man said to Paul, "Come over and help us."
Lots of commentators have fun with the text here, speculating as to why God, in his sovereignty, had Paul skip over certain towns in Turkey, and bring the Gospel to Europe. Why was it that God shut the door to Byzantium, and opened it in Philippi! Were the Philippians more worthy, or the people from Constantinople less worthy? It was of God's mercy that he sent the gospel at any time, to any people. But God has a purpose for closing doors, from time to time, only to open them for others at other times.
And now we turn to our text. "And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, who pleaded to him to Come over into Macedonia, and help us."
First, notice that the lesson shows us that the best help that can be given to anyone is the sharing of the gospel. "Come over and help us," that is, preach to us, which is what Paul did.
Secondly, we should notice that although we may have no great visions in the night, we are to be listening out for the call of those who need the Lord, the call to us which says, "Come over to us, and help us."
And then, lastly, I want to ask the question,
What do you intend to say to those, who are now asking you for the help of the gospel? Are you ready to answer those who ask you about your faith?
As the book of Revelation closes, Three important factors are shown. First, as Christ Prayed, we are made one as the Bride of Christ, arrayed in white robes which have been washed in His blood. He has made us one.
Secondly we are given a message, as Paul was, to listen for the cry of the world and respond, “Those who Thirst, come and find living water without price.”
And lastly, Christ says to us, “Behold I am coming quickly, and we respond “Maranatha” - “Come Lord Jesus.”
