“Come, Lord Jesus!”

Overview

Come, Lord Jesus!

Imagine the doorbell rings unexpectedly while your house is in chaos—dishes piled up, laundry unfolded, toys scattered everywhere. The instinct is to hide, make excuses, or pretend no one is home. Yet at the close of Scripture, when Jesus declares, "Surely I am coming soon," the apostle John responds without hesitation: "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" Revelation 22:20. For many of us, those words are not easy to echo. We look at the mess of our lives—the sins we have committed, the words we've said and left unsaid, the love we've withheld from neighbors—and we wonder if our spiritual house is in any condition for the Master's arrival.

That Jesus will come again is not in question. He told His disciples plainly, "I go to prepare a place for you... I will come again and will take you to myself" John 14:2-3. At His ascension, two messengers in white assured the disciples, "This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go" Acts 1:11. Paul reminds us that "the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command... and so we will always be with the Lord," urging believers to "encourage one another with these words" 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. The day will come "like a thief in the night" 1 Thessalonians 5:2—but Paul presses on: "You are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light" 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5.

Here is the wonder of our Lord: the messy does not frighten Him. He is not standing politely on the porch waiting for you to tidy up before He enters. Look at His ministry—He touched the leper, healed the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years, spoke tenderly to the adulterous, walked with tax collectors, drove out legions of demons, and called Lazarus from the tomb. After the resurrection, He did not knock at the locked door of the trembling disciples; He simply stood among them. He went willingly to a messy cross, where, as Isaiah foretold, His appearance was "marred, beyond human semblance" Isaiah 52:14—disfigured by our sin so that we might be clothed in His unblemished righteousness. The chaos of our sin is precisely what He came to take away.

Revelation closes with this benediction: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen" Revelation 22:21. On this side of heaven, we still struggle with the old nature, but we are carried daily by the freely-given grace of Christ, who continually pours out forgiveness on those He has called His own. So we can pray with John, "Come, Lord Jesus"—with confidence, not fear. And because we can, we must think of those who cannot. Who in your life would tremble at the thought of Christ's return because they have never been told that He cleanses the messy and welcomes sinners home? Go to them. Speak the word of mercy. Share the Savior who is resolved to come again, and who promises, "Surely I am coming soon."

Transcript

If you would please open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 22, that's the last book in all 2s

of Scripture, Revelation chapter 22. 10s

Okay, we're going to think about a scene and you tell me if this is something that's familiar 16s

or ever been familiar in your life before, where there's a little bit of chaos going 21s

on in your house, it might be dishes piled up or laundry that needs folding or maybe 28s

if you have young children or have had young children, there are toys everywhere scattered 36s

about and nothing is clean. 41s

There's just a lot of chaos, a lot of noise happening and then all of a sudden the doorbell 44s

rings and you look out and you see that it's some friends or family members that decided 50s

to pop in for a surprise visit and say hi and you look around and you see the mess and 57s

you see the chaos and quite honestly you kind of want to pretend you're not home. 69s

You want to pretend that no one's there, you debate. 75s

What excuses can we make to not open the door? 80s

Should we open the door? 83s

Should we not open the door? 84s

Today are reading John, here's from Jesus, the Apostle John and Jesus says, I'm coming soon. 89s

I'm coming soon and John's response is amen, come Lord Jesus. 98s

Now when someone pops in on you and you look around your house and it's a mess or even 106s

if it's not really a great mess but it's not necessarily in visitor condition and you 111s

look around and someone pops in, do you say, all right, come on in, come on in or do you 119s

still make little excuses for why the garbage hasn't been taken out yet or why that lamp 123s

is missing a light bulb still or excuse the dishes that have not been put into the dishwasher 131s

yet. 137s

And we come with all of these excuses. 138s

But now let's think about John again, his response, amen, come Lord Jesus. 142s

So now let's take it there and Jesus telling you, I'm coming again, I'm coming really 151s

soon. 159s

For many of us those words come Lord Jesus strike fear into our very hearts. 161s

Jesus is coming soon, Jesus but the mess of my life, the chaos of my sin. 172s

If Jesus were to come today, what would he find? 181s

When we look inside ourselves, we see the darkness of sin oftentimes trying to reflect 189s

back out at us. 198s

We know what we've done, what we've not done, what we've said, what we've thought, what 200s

we've not said, what we've not thought or done for our neighbor is your house in order. 206s

Is your spiritual house the house of your soul in order? 216s

Are you ready for Jesus to come today? 222s

Can you confidently say with John, come Lord Jesus? 228s

Or does that frighten you? 237s

Does it make you try to seek excuses? 240s

Is any reason not to have him come in? 242s

I tell you what, even if you are not confident saying, come Lord Jesus, you can be confident 249s

and assured that Jesus indeed is coming. 256s

We have that from his own mouth. 260s

If you turn to the gospel of John in the 14th chapter, he says to his disciples, in my 262s

father's house there are many dwelling places if it were not so, would I have told you 270s

that I go to prepare a place for you? 275s

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself 278s

that so that where I am there, you may be also. 285s

Or how about when he is being, after the ascension in the book of Acts chapter 1, he 292s

is ascending to the father and he says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit 300s

has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem in all Judea and Samaria 305s

and to the ends of the earth. 312s

And when he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him 315s

out of their sight while he was going, they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two 320s

men in white robes stood by them. 326s

They said, men of galleys, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? 328s

This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you 333s

saw him go into heaven. 340s

So messengers from the Lord had assured his disciples that he will come again or maybe we 344s

could look at the salonians, the fourth chapter. 352s

For the Lord himself with a cry of command with the arch angels call and with the sound 358s

of God's trumpet will descend from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise first. 362s

Then we who are alive who are left will be caught up in the clouds together with them 368s

to meet the Lord in the air and so we will be with the Lord forever. 373s

There we have another promise that Jesus Christ will come again. 379s

He will return and it's so interesting because Paul follows those words up in verse 18 saying 384s

therefore encourage one another with these words. 393s

Encourage one another that Christ will come again and yet we hear those words that 399s

Christ will come again and we fear the second coming and we tremble thinking that Christ will 408s

come again because we know the mess and the chaos that is in our house. 416s

Paul continued in first Thessalonians where he said, 427s

you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 434s

No one knows when the day of the Lord will come when he will come again but Jesus says, 442s

I'm coming soon and we know that he will come but you know what? 448s

Though we fear the coming of the Lord though it may make us tremble though it may make us look 460s

around and try to find any excuse for not having Jesus come or for praying that he would 466s

hold off until we get the house in order. If you continue in first Thessalonians, 473s

Paul assures his brothers and sisters the disciples he says but you beloved are not in 478s

darkness for that day to surprise you like a thief for you are all children of light and 486s

children of the day we are not of the night or of darkness. So you go back up to verse 493s

18 where he says that these words of Jesus second coming should be words to encourage one another 500s

and they are. They're encouraging because we're promised that Jesus will return and 508s

they're encouraging because we know that though Jesus will come like a thief in the night 515s

he will be here when we least expect it or don't know that it's coming that he's coming 521s

we have nothing to fear because we are not children of the darkness we are no longer children 528s

of sin captive and bonded with in the slavery of sin but instead we are children of light 537s

think about when Jesus appeared first to his disciples after his resurrection they were hiding 548s

there was chaos there was fear they were trembling and Jesus did not knock waiting for them to 556s

answer waiting for them to invite him in they had to be really scared when all of a sudden he was just 565s

standing there he didn't ask he just entered much like his disciples his first disciples where 575s

he just entered he did not wait for them to invite him in and Jesus is not knocking at the door 586s

of your life waiting until you can clean up and waiting until you will graciously open the door 596s

for him to come in the beauty and the wonderment of our Lord Jesus Christ is that the messy 604s

the chaos it doesn't frighten him he is not obliged and does not feel obliged to wait 611s

outside until we can get our house in order our houses in order messy doesn't frighten Jesus 622s

not even hoarding messy hoarding messy doesn't frighten Jesus it doesn't scare him off you look 632s

at his ministry he healed a woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years he physically touched 641s

the leper he would speak to the adulterous and the prostitute he wasn't frightened off by the man 650s

possessed by legion the many demons he walked with tax collectors he called for Lazarus who had been 659s

dead for days to be brought out of the tomb messy didn't scare Jesus in his ministry and messy 669s

certainly does not scare Jesus as our resurrected Lord Jesus went throughout his ministry 680s

not fearing those whose lives were messy not fearing those who were in a chaotic state whether 692s

they were possessed by demons or diseased with leprosy he continued to go forth facing the very messy 700s

crucifixion that was looming ahead of him he knew fully well what his messy death would mean 714s

in Isaiah the prophet wrote see my servant shall prosper he shall be exalted and lifted up and shall 724s

be very high just as there were many who were astonished at him so marred was his appearance beyond 730s

human semblance and his form beyond that of mortals his body would be abused and tortured so badly 738s

that he would be completely disfigured and unrecognizable he hung there tortured with my sin 749s

he was disfigured with your sin he was made unrecognizable by the sin of all creation 759s

in the series that we've had over the past couple of months resolution gods 776s

resolutions we went through several ways in the resolutions that God had made and how he would act 786s

toward his people toward his chosen disciples of whom we can be counted he was resolved to forget sin 794s

he was resolved to lift the burden of the law he was resolved to give us a new heart and a new 806s

spirit to never leave us to have plans for our future he was resolved to instruct us he was resolved 813s

that he would be with us so that we would not be overwhelmed or consumed by the problems of this 824s

world that he would be the God of the Exodus of the past present and future making us new 829s

and throughout this series we have seen with each of these resolutions how indeed he did come through 838s

our resolution the final resolution we are talking about today is the resolution that he will come 852s

again God is resolved to come again he has promised to come again if you look at Revelation 861s

chapter 22 verse 20 the one who testifies to these things says surely I am coming soon 871s

Jesus promised that he would come again and not only come again but to come soon 883s

what is soon what is soon no one knows we don't have the date we don't have the time 892s

we don't know how much time there is to clean up we don't know how much time there is to tell 902s

people that Jesus is coming and coming soon but we can look around us we can look at the world 912s

around us and we see that it is full of war and rumors of war the earth groans under the weight of 921s

men we disregard others come Lord Jesus come and this side of heaven as we await the coming 929s

of Christ as we look for him to come this side of heaven is not easy this side of heaven though we 945s

are saints we still struggle with the old Adam or the old evil a Eve sorry the nature of the flesh 958s

that is hemorrhaging in sin the lepros disease of greed and selfishness the adulterous 967s

bride of God who is unfaithful to Christ her bride groom the nature in which we are dead in sin 975s

if we continue in our reading the final words of God holy and living word for the saints 987s

is the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints amen the grace of the Lord Jesus be with 997s

all the saints the grace the free freely given freeing love and mercy of Jesus Christ be with you 1007s

as long as we remain on this side of heaven those who have been called into faith by the Holy 1018s

Spirit will continue to need the constant grace and continued grace of God and we are promised 1025s

that he will continue to pour out his grace upon us to pour out his mercy, his love, his forgiveness 1036s

upon us and we will be carried in his grace the messy of the sin did not scare or frightened Christ 1046s

the messy of our sin is exactly the messy that he experienced upon the cross the messy of our sin 1061s

is exactly what he exchanged with us so that we could be given his unblemished holy and completely 1073s

clean righteousness and we are carried through constantly turning over again and again 1083s

the sins which are so messy in our lives and again and again we are promised the grace of 1097s

Jesus Christ is with us we are promised to be carried in his righteousness and given his righteousness 1106s

so when we think of this world when we consider the world around us it makes sense to cry out in that 1118s

leak come come come Lord Jesus because we know that he is coming indeed and we know that we are 1128s

assured that we are children of light because we have been forgiven our sin has been forgiven our 1143s

messy has been taken from us and we have been cleansed completely through the blood of Jesus Christ 1151s

so we can cry out come with all insurance but then we look around or we think of people who we know 1161s

who those words come Lord Jesus strikes fear into their heart because they don't know 1179s

Jesus and they don't know 1192s

the offer that Jesus has for them they only know it if it is told to them 1198s

my brothers and sisters you are the saints the disciples of today the disciples who are to carry 1209s

his word his promise of love mercy and forgiveness to the ends of the earth 1217s

the commission that he has given to all his disciples so that there would be more disciples for him 1225s

together when he comes again who do you know who do you know who is not ready for Christ to 1235s

pop in who do you know that is looking at the house in the chaos and mess and disarray 1248s

and fears the truth of Christ go to them call them speak to them share with them the cleansing 1264s

word of Jesus Christ who does not fear the messy but cleanses the messy disgusting torture of 1277s

sin and takes it from them and cleans them with his blood with his forgiveness because he loves them 1290s

go to them share that word with them Jesus promised that he would come again 1301s

Jesus is resolved to come again and we know that indeed he will come again he said surely 1309s

I am coming soon and so we too with the Apostle John proclaim Amen come Lord Jesus 1319s