Day 260

Today's Reading: Revelation 22

Growing up in my house, if you heard Mom or Day say, “Don’t make me say it again,” you knew that was a clear warning—repetition was a warning. A warning that meant I wasn’t listening to what they said the first time. It could be anything from “Clean your room” to how I said something to my sibling, not heeding the first warning shot would always call for the finale, “Don’t make me say it again.”

Today’s chapter closes with repetition.

We’ve finally made it to number 260, the final chapter of the New Testament—Revelation 22. What a journey it has been.

As the New Testament closes, the apostle John speaks the same words three times. I believe because we forget how important they are. He quotes Jesus in verses 7 and 12: “I am coming quickly.” Then he says it one final time: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (verse 20).

Repetition is always a warning for those who do not take it seriously. Repetition also means we weren’t listening the first time, that we did not think it important enough to pause and ponder. Thus John is shooting us one last warning shot before the New Testament closes.

One of the ways the early-church Christians greeted and said goodbye to one another was to say, “Maranatha.” That Aramaic word means “The Lord is coming” or “Come Lord Jesus.” What a great challenge for us today to find a way to keep the quick coming of Jesus ever before us.

A gardener for a large estate in northern Italy gave a tour to a visitor. He showed him through the castle and the beautiful, well-groomed grounds. The visitor commended him for the beautiful way he kept up the gardens. He asked, “When was the last time the owner was here?”

“About ten years ago,” the gardener said.

“Then why do you keep the gardens in such an immaculate, lovely manner?”

“Because I’m expecting him to return,” the gardener said.

“Oh, is he coming next week?”

“I don’t know when he is coming,” the gardener replied, “but I am expecting him today.”

In chapter 22, Jesus uses in the last chapter of Revelation the title He used in the first chapter of Revelation, “I am the Alpha and the Omega” (verse 13). He is the beginning and the end. Why does He use these two words or, actually, two letters? Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. Jesus is saying that He was there at the beginning of everything and He will be there at the end of everything. And now Jesus is really stressing the Omega part here. This is the ending for human history as we know it—judgment, hell, and heaven.

God only is Alpha and Omega. We are omega. That means we live forever beyond this life. In Unveiling the End Times in Our Time, Adrian Rogers said this about our omega part:

When God created you with a soul, body, and mind, He made you in His image. You could no more cease to exist than God Himself could cease to exist. For all time, your soul will exist somewhere—either in heaven or hell. You have a life to live, a death to die, a judgment to face, and an eternity to endure either in heaven or in hell. And you will not miss hell and go to heaven unless you are twice born.

Because He is coming quickly, we must be ready, so the omega part is ready.

In Chicago many years ago, there was a nightclub called “The Gates of Hell” that was right downtown. Down the street from this nightclub was a church called Calvary Church. The story goes that a young man wanted to go to that nightclub one evening, so he asked a stranger on the street, “Can you tell me how to get to The Gates of Hell?” The stranger replied, “Go right past Calvary and you’ll come to the Gates of Hell.”

You can’t get to hell without going past calvary. God made it possible for all humanity to avoid the gates of hell. Stop at Calvary, and you will be ready for the coming of the Lord.

Charles Spurgeon preached something powerful more than a century ago, but it is still so important for us to heed today:

“At first He came as an Infant of a span long. Now He shall come—“In rainbow wreath and clouds of storm,” the Glorious One. Then He entered into a manger, now He shall ascend His Throne. Then He sat upon a woman’s knees. . . . Now earth shall be at His feet and the whole universe shall hang upon His everlasting shoulders. Then He appeared the Infant, now the Infinite. . . . A stable received Him then. Now the high arches of earth and Heaven shall be too little for Him. . . .

“Where now the carpenter’s smock? Royalty has now assumed its purple. Where now the toil-worn feet that needed to be washed after their long journeys of mercy? They are sandled with light. . . . Where now the cry, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but I, the Son of Man, have not where to lay My head”?

Heaven is His Throne. Earth is His footstool. . . .

“Blind world, open your eyes while the thunderclaps of judgment make you start up in terror and amazement and look about you. His eyes are like flames of fire and . . . His head and His hair are white like wool, as white as snow. . .

Bad men weep and wail because of Him. Good men cry, “All hail!” . . .

Let us suppose again the the Judgment Day has come and let us challenge the world to treat the Savior as it did before.

“Now, then, Crowds, come and drag Him down, to hurt Him from the hill, headlong! Step forward, you Pharisees, and tempt Him and try to entangle Him in His words. Herodians, have you no penny now, that you may ask Him a difficult question to entrap Him? . . . Sadducees, have you no riddles left? . . . Smite Him on the cheek you soldiers . . . Set Him once more in the chair and spit in His face. . . . Have you not an old cloak to cast about His shoulders again? . . . Have you no songs, no ribald jests, and is there not a man among you that dares, now to pluck His hair? . . .

“He was righteous at His first coming. . . . He shall be righteous at His second coming with the righteousness of supremacy. He came to endure the penalty, He comes to procure the reward. He came to serve, He comes to rule.

“He came to open wide the door of Divine Grace, He comes to shut the door. He comes not to redeem but to judge. Not to save but to pronounce the sentence. . . . Oh, Jesus! How great the difference between Your first and Your second Advent!”

He came then in poverty, and now He will return as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Maranatha. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!