Revelation 22:12-17, 20
I Am Ready to Go Home!
“Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.” The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come Lord Jesus. (NIV1984)
Dear fellow worshipers of our living Lord and Savior,
He is risen! He is risen indeed!
I am ready to go home! Have you ever spoken or heard those words? What might lead someone to speak those words? If you have been on the road for quite some time exploring this wonderful country of ours, you may eventually get to a point where you say, “I am ready to go home!” If you are out shopping for a car or shopping for clothes or shopping for whatever and just simply cannot find what you are looking for, you may eventually get to the point where you say, “I am ready to go home!” If you have taken your children or your grandchildren to Six Flags or to Legoland, even though you have thoroughly enjoyed the trip you will eventually get to the point where you say, “I am ready to go home!”
“I am ready to go home!” Those six simple words also express a sentiment that I have had many people share with me many times over the course of the last thirty-seven years. If I am visiting with someone who has become physically weak and frail due to age or illness, if I am visiting with someone whose circle of family and friends keeps growing smaller and smaller and smaller with every funeral they have attended, if I am speaking with someone who is simply overwhelmed by all the difficulties and all the heartaches of this life, it is not unusual for them to say to me, “I am ready to go home!”
As we come to the end of the Easter season we turn our attention to the very last words that our crucified, risen and ascended Lord speaks to us on the pages of His holy Word. As we study these words, let’s see how they remind us and assure us that as the adopted, redeemed and beloved children of God we would do well to make sure that in our daily prayers to the God of heaven we humbly yet confidently say to Him: I Am Ready to Go Home!
The fact that our text for today opens with Jesus’ promise, “Behold, I am coming soon!” and closes with Jesus’ promise, “Yes, I am coming soon” reminds us that we always need to be ready to see our Savior face-to-face. Whether it’s Jesus’ Second Advent into this world on Judgment Day or whether it’s the day that we die, while we don’t know when it is going to happen we do know that it will most certainly happen!
And yet, while we know that we always need to be ready to meet our Lord face-to-face, there are any number of things and any number of times when we may secretly hope that it doesn’t happen quite yet. We have things that we want to do and places we want to see. When we are single we may want to find that one special person, fall in love and get married. When we are parents we want to see our children grow up. When we are grandparents we want to enjoy lots of time with our grandchildren. We may have lofty God-pleasing goals that we want to accomplish before we go to be with Jesus. In spite of all that, my friends, we still need to make sure that in our daily prayers to the God of heaven we are always ready to humbly and confidently say, “I want to go home! I am ready to go home!”
Why? Why do we always want to be able to say, “I want to go home!”? Why do we always want to be able to say, “I am ready to go home!”? The reason is because we know what Jesus has waiting for us when we get Home! Here in our text the One who gives us that glorious promise, “Behold, I am coming soon!” gives us three more glorious promises to remind us of why we want to go Home! The first promise is found in the words, “My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.”
How are we to understand the “reward” that Jesus promises to give to us? To avoid any possibility of misunderstanding this promise, Jesus very clearly describes it as “My reward.” This “reward” belongs to Jesus. This is the “reward” that Jesus earned on the cross, the “reward” that Jesus secured through His innocent suffering and death and through His glorious physical resurrection. Since this “reward” belongs to Jesus, He and He alone has the right to share His “reward” with whomever He chooses— and He chooses to share His “reward” with everyone who believes and trusts in Him as their only Lord and Savior! To put it very simply, the “reward” that our crucified, risen, and ascended Savior shares with you is the free gift of eternal salvation.
Then how are we to understand Jesus’ words, “I will give to everyone according to what he has done”? For me, the easiest way to understand these words is to remember what Jesus will say to the “sheep” on Judgment Day, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). Through faith in what Jesus has done for us (Pointing to the cross) His perfect life— all of His acts of perfect obedience— have been “credited” to our account! Through faith in what Jesus has done for us (Pointing to the cross) everything we do out of faith and love and trust in Him is accepted by God as righteous and holy and perfect in His sight. Through faith in what Jesus has done for us we have absolutely nothing to fear when we are summoned before the throne of the Almighty to give Him an “account” of our life— and that includes everything we have said, everything we have thought and everything we have done. (See 2 Corinthians 5:10)
The second promise that Jesus gives to us is found in His words, “Blessed (this word can also be translated as, Happy) Happy are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.” Only those who by the power of the Holy Spirit working through His holy Word and His holy Sacrament have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14) are “blessed” with the privilege of going through the gates of the heavenly Father’s Home. Once in the heavenly Father’s Home they are given the right to eat from the Tree of Life. All of this symbolizes the glorious, happy, eternal life that our Savior guarantees to us!
On a far more somber note, John also reminds us that there are those who will not receive this blessing. There are those who will not be “happy” in eternity. There are those who will not be allowed to enter into the heavenly Father’s Home. There are those who will not be given the right to eat from the Tree of Life. Who are they” The Holy Spirit has John describe them as “dogs.” This is a reference to the wild feral dogs that roamed the streets in John’s day and age. Why are they called wild feral “dogs”? Because in their unbelief they rejected what Jesus has done for them. (Pointing to the cross) In their unbelief they are described as “those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters.” This includes everyone who rejects the Truth, everyone who “loves and practices falsehood,” Not only is this a powerful description of why the unbelievers are not allowed to enter into the heavenly Father’s Home and eat from the Tree of Life, but it is also a powerful warning to us, my friends. While our God has graciously rescued us from this eternal punishment, if we turn our backs on Him (Pointing to the cross), if we walk away from the “reward” that He has secured for us, we too will be refused entrance into the heavenly Father’s Home.
The third promise that Jesus gives to us today is very personal. Speaking to John and to us on an individual level our Savior says, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright morning Star. The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”
As our true Brother, as great King David’s greater Son, as the “bright morning Star” who not only guides us through the darkness of this world, but also serves as the guarantee that a “new day” is dawning, this Jesus comes to us through His Holy Spirit with that never-ending invitation: “Come! Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”
This glorious invitation automatically reminds me of Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. In that conversation Jesus graciously offered the Samaritan woman “living water.” When she thought Jesus was talking about physical water our Lord responded, “Everyone who drinks this water (namely, the physical water from Jacob’s well) will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:10, 13, 14).
Here in northern California we understand the importance and the necessity of water, don’t we. Since we know how important water is on a physical level it is very easy for us to understand that the “living water” that Jesus offers is infinitely more important on a spiritual level. There is only one way that our constant thirst for spiritual “water” can be continually quenched— through the message of forgiveness that only Jesus can give to us! As our faith in Jesus grows stronger and more mature through regular study of His holy Word and regular reception of His holy Supper, our soul will take in more and more of the “living water” that we need, the “living water” that our Savior freely gives to us, the ”living water” that “wells up to eternal life.”
How do we respond to all of the wonderful blessings that Jesus freely gives to us? How do we respond to all the wonderful promises our Savior has graciously made to us? We find the answer to both of those questions in the closing verse of our text. John writes, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon .’” John then responds to this promise by saying, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”
From our perspective it has been 2,000 years since Jesus promised that He would be coming “soon.” From God’s perspective it has only been two days! (See 2 Peter 3:8, 9) What we need to remember, my friends, is that our time is in God’s hands— and so are we! (See Psalm 31:14, 15) Any moment could be our last moment here on this earth. Any moment could be the moment that our victorious Savior returns to this earth as the Judge of the living and the dead. Both of those realities remind us of how important it is for us to be able to say with John, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” Both of those realities lead us to stay focused on the cross (Pointing to the cross) so that no matter how old or how young we may be, no matter whether we are enjoying fantastic health or experiencing failing health, we are always able to lift up our eyes to heaven or bow our heads in prayer and say from the heart, “I am ready to go Home!”
To God be the glory!
Amen
