Revelation 22 - Coming Soon

KNU International English Church
Josh Broward
November 19, 2006

Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King . …

No more crying there, we are going to see the King. …

No more dieing there, we are going to see the King. …

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, we’re going to see the King.¹

Really? Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King? How long have we been singing that song? The early church thought Jesus was coming back very soon. In fact, most generations of Christians have felt like Jesus would probably come back within their time. But almost 2,000 years have passed since Jesus said, “Look, I am coming soon!” What’s the deal? 2,000 years doesn’t feel like soon to me. What about you?

But we need to remember that in Revelation, John deals with the quality of time not the quantity of time. The Time of Big Trouble will last only 3 1/2 years – an incomplete and unsatisfying time. But Christ’s reign will last 1,000 years – a full, complete, and perfect time.

“Look, I am coming soon” is kind of like this. In the summer of 2000, I got down on my knee in a restaurant in Kansas City, and I asked Sarah to marry me. I knew with all my heart that this was the woman I wanted to be with for the rest of my life. She said, “Yes!” But then, a few weeks later, she got on a plane and came to Korea. She was KNU’s first foreign exchange student. We had just committed our hearts and lives to each other. But she had to go across an ocean for four whole months!

That time apart felt like forever! The days moved slowly. We wrote to each other every single day. We have stacks of printed emails to prove it. Sometimes we talked on the phone for 5 or 6 hours at a time. We put up pictures of each other in our homes. We often cried because we missed each other so much. We longed just to hold each other. We longed to be married. That time felt like forever! We felt like it would never end.

We were planning to get married the next summer after Sarah graduated, but that just felt like too long. We considered getting married in January just a few weeks after she got back from Korea. We felt like having the wedding right there in the airport as soon as she got off the plane! But we finally compromised and got married over spring break in March.

When she got home, we had about 3 months to reunite and make the preparations for our wedding. That time went by very fast. Often we would look at each other and say with surprise and disbelief and joy, “We’re getting married!” Sometimes it would change into a little dance and song and hug, “We’re getting married!” It was as if it was too good to be true. We almost couldn’t believe it was happening, but we knew it was, and we celebrated it often.

We got married on March 18, 2001. (No, I didn’t have to look that up.) We have enjoyed 5 1/2 years of very happy marriage. We are still in love. We are doing life together every day. We have everything we hoped for before we got married. Now those 4 little months, when Sarah was in Korea without me, don’t seem so long. That was just a short time of waiting, preparing us for a lifetime of marriage.

When Jesus says, “Look, I am coming soon,” it’s kind of like that. And the church often says with hope and joy, “Jesus is coming!” It’s almost too good to be true. We almost can’t believe it will finally happen after waiting for so long, but we know in faith that it will, so we celebrate it often. Jesus is coming! Jesus is coming!

When Jesus says, “Look, I am coming soon,” it’s also kind of like this. Joe Willey and I have been friends for 9 years. When we each got married to Elena and Sarah, they became friends, too. We are accountability partners, Joe and me, Elena and Sarah. We tell each other practically everything. For years we have lived life together. When Sarah and I moved to Korea in 2004, we left behind our best friends. We made new friends here, but it’s hard to replace the community that is built after years of spending life together.

I asked Joe and Elena to move to Korea, to join us in life and ministry here. At first they said, “No.” That’s a big request: “Sell your house. Sell all your stuff. Pack up your family and move half way across the world.” “No” was totally understandable. But I just couldn’t stop thinking of them, so after a few months, I asked again. This time something clicked. God must have been talking to all of us at the same time. They felt that inward pull of the Spirit, and they decided to do it!

For several months we looked for jobs for them. Nothing was working out. We prayed and prayed that God would help them find a good job here. It seemed like we were waiting forever. We began to wonder if it was even going to work. But then, finally, KNU hired Joe, and Joe and Elena were set to move here in February.

Sarah and I were overjoyed. Many times, we looked at each other in amazement and said, “Joe and Elena are coming!” And Joe and Elena often looked at each other in amazement and said, “We’re moving to Korea!” It was almost too good to be true. We almost couldn’t believe it, but we knew it was going to happen. We started emailing Joe and Elena a lot more often. We started talking on the phone. We helped get their apartment ready. We did everything we could to help them feel welcome when they came. We told nearly everyone we talked to that our close friends from back home were coming to Korea. I even started wearing a Cookie Monster shirt that Joe gave me a little more often, just because it made me think of them.

Then they came! It was great! It is great. We feel amazingly loved and blessed to have friends who sold everything to follow God’s call to do life and ministry with us. And now that they have been here for almost a year, that waiting time seems so small.

When Jesus says, “Look, I am coming soon,” it’s kind of like his story in Luke (12:35-47). The Master has given us “the responsibility of managing his household and feeding his family.” He has gone away, and we aren’t quite sure when he is coming back.

Some people think, “My master won’t be back for a long time,” so they mistreat the other people in this world, and they party and get drunk. This is the great temptation of our world – to live for ourselves and to ignore the responsibility the Master has given us. One day, though, the Master, Jesus, will return, unannounced and unexpected. Those who aren’t ready will be in trouble.

But there is another way. We can stay dressed and ready for service. If we are faithful and take care of the house, we will be able to welcome the Master with joy when he comes. Jesus may come in the midnight or predawn hours of Time, and it may feel like he will never come. But when Jesus comes, he will give a wonderful reward to those who are ready. When Jesus comes, we will be surprised, for the Master will serve the servants. Our Boss, Jesus, the King of Kings, will put on an apron, and serve us as we sit and eat! And the Master will put us in charge of all he owns. When we sit at that table, and Jesus gives us our reward, and we experience joy with him forever, our waiting time will seem very short – very, very short.

The book of Revelation is not a story of the End Times far away from now. It is mostly a book of real life in the here and now. How do we live now in the waiting time, so that we will be ready for Jesus coming? We respond to Jesus’ coming in the end by coming to Jesus here and now.

“The Spirit and the bride say ‘Come.’ Let each one who hears them say, ‘Come.’ Let the thirsty ones come – anyone who wants to. Let them come and drink the water of life without charge” (22:17). But how? How can we come to Jesus?

First, do laundry. Doing laundry is an important part of Revelation. Didn’t you know that? “Blessed are those who wash their robes” (22:14). When we put our trust in Jesus and ask him to forgive our sins, it’s like he gives us a bath inside and out. He cleans us up and makes us as clean as fresh snow. The first way we respond to Jesus is by letting Jesus wash our clothes and lives.

But doing laundry isn’t enough.

When I was in seminary, one of my classmates told a story of his time in boot camp (or basic training) in the US Army. He said that for two weeks they were only given one pair of clothes. The Army works the new soldiers very hard. They ran through mud. They crawled through mud. They rolled in the mud. Everyday when they got home, they were tired, sweaty, and very dirty. They all took long hot showers and got nice and clean. But then they had to get dressed, and they only had one set of clothes, the sweaty, muddy, stinky clothes they had been wearing all day. He said that was the worst part of his day: putting his clean body back into those old dirty clothes.

That sounds gross doesn’t it! But that’s exactly what we do. We ask Jesus to forgive us, and now we are “permitted to wear the finest white linen” (19:7). We hear the words of Paul: “Clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. … And the most important piece of clothing you must wear is love.” (See Colossians 3:5-15.) But so often we leave Jesus’ clean, beautiful clothes sitting on the dresser, and we go back to our old dirty clothes: impurity, dishonesty, gossip, manipulation, and selfishness. And when we put on stinky clothes, we get stinky lives. The problem is that it’s hard to break our old habits.

Let me suggest three things we can do to live the new life in Jesus, three things we can do to wear his new clothes.

(1) Relate. Relate to God now. When Joe and Elena were preparing to come to Korea, we didn’t wait until they got here to start talking to them. We sent emails almost every day, and we talked on the phone more and more until they came. In a similar way, we can’t see God face to face now, but we can still relate to him. We can read his “emails” to us – the Bible, and we can talk to him “on the phone” in prayer. If you really want to stay out of those dirty clothes, you’ve got to “drink from the water of life” every day (22:17).

(2) Participate. Participate in God’s action in the world. Spend your life on what matters to God. God has given us “responsibility of managing his household and feeding his family” (12:42). Spend your life giving to others and helping other people get ready for Jesus, too. This is the work of the Spirit, and if we open ourselves to God, the Spirit will do this work through us. When we are participating in God and enjoying living like God, we are much less likely to go back to those old clothes.

(3) Celebrate. Last Saturday, my parents sent me an email saying that KNU may hire them to teach here in the spring. Even though it’s not definite yet, I went around telling everyone I met on Saturday, “My parents are coming to Korea! My parents are coming to Korea!” Jesus is definitely coming again. We can celebrate with all the joy that we would have if old friends or a fiancé were coming in on the plane tomorrow: “Jesus is coming! Jesus is coming!” When we celebrate like this, two things happen. First, remembering Jesus’ coming helps us live like Jesus now. Second, celebrating Jesus’ coming invites others to come to Jesus, too.

Jesus said, “Look, I am coming soon!” How can we get ready? Do your laundry. Then, relate, participate, and celebrate. Say it with me now: Do your laundry. Then, relate, participate, and celebrate.

Church, Jesus is coming! Jesus is coming! Jesus is coming! And this time of waiting - that seems so long now – will feel very short then. Jesus is coming soon! Come to Jesus now, and stay with Jesus every day.

1 “Soon and Very Soon,” Andrae Crouch, 1978, (Revelation 21:3-4).