Soon and Very Soon (Revelation 1:4-8)
When I was a student at International Bible College (IBC), the school hosted a soul-winning workshop every September. During my four years in college, I was blessed to hear men such as Jule Miller and F. LaGard Smith speak.
The college normally hosted about 3,000 people for the workshop which ran from Wednesday evening until Saturday afternoon. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we students had to show up for class to be counted present. But we didn’t have class—we worked. Every year there was painting to be done, there were fresh flowers to plant, there were tents to erect, and there were tables and chairs to arrange.
Have you ever needed to work because company was coming? Did you ever have a visiting preacher over for dinner? Have any of you ever sold your house and needed to make sure that every room was ready for a showing at any moment? Did any of you have a mother-in-law coming over, so you spent days and days making sure the house looked perfect?
Imagine, though, if Jesus were coming to your house. Maybe you wouldn’t bother cleaning your house; after all, Jesus would know what it looked like before. Or you might scrub every surface so everything looked just right.
Jesus is coming. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne” (Matt 25:31). Two men in white robes told the apostles, “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). “The Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven with his mighty angels” (2 Thess 1:7).
This morning, we wish to learn this truth from Revelation 1:4-8: “Jesus is coming again.”
Scripture (Revelation 1:4-8)
verse 4:
John offered “grace and peace,” a common first-century greeting “from him who is and who was and who is to come.” John’s description of God was a Jewish way of explaining God as the “I AM” to a Greek-speaking world.
Seven is a number of perfection, and John emphasized the Holy Spirit’s perfection.
verses 5-6:
Jesus is “the faithful witness.” What he says about the Father is true, and he faithfully fulfilled his mission as the Father’s witness to humanity.
He is “the firstborn of the dead.” He is the first to die and be raised never to die again.
He is “the ruler of kings on earth.” The Roman emperor claimed superiority over subordinate kings, but even the emperor was subject to Jesus.
Jesus has “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father.” After God had brought the Israelites up out of Egypt, he told them that they were a “kingdom of priests” (Ex 19:6). The imagery here is that the church is the New Israel.
verse 7-8:
“Behold, he is coming with the clouds.” Jesus will literally come in the clouds; that, in essence, is what the two men in white robes told the apostles in Acts 1:9-11.
Yet, the imagery comes from Daniel 7 where the prophet saw Jesus receive his kingdom: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (Dan 7:13-14). Therefore, here, in a book rich with symbolism, Jesus’s coming with the clouds means that he is coming as the universal King.
“Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him.” Everyone—even those who crucified him—will see Jesus. All the dead are going to be raised on the last day (Jn 5:28-29), and all the dead will see King Jesus coming in glory.
“All tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.” All tribes—not just the tribes of Israel—will wail on account of Jesus. The wailing is certainly because the tribes of the earth understand the judgment about to befall them.
The Lord God is “the Alpha and the Omega,” the beginning and the end. And he is “the Almighty.” God’s almighty power will be on full display when Jesus comes again.
Application
“Jesus is coming again.” This passage teaches truth about Jesus’s second coming. What did John record about Jesus’s coming again?
Jesus’s Coming is a Majestic Coming.
Jesus “is coming with the clouds,” emblematic of his reign as king. Jesus, of course, is the king this very moment; however, not everyone acknowledges him as king. When Jesus comes again, he will sit on his throne before all: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne” (Matt 25:31).
“He will sit on his glorious throne,” for all men shall acknowledge Jesus as king: “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:9-11). At Jesus’s Majestic Coming, it won’t matter who you are—a king or a president or a governor or a common man no one knows—or what you’ve believed—atheist, Buddhist, Muslim, agnostic, or Jew—you shall bow your knee before Jesus and you shall confess him as Lord. You will not have a choice, for Jesus will have a Majestic Coming.
Jesus’s Coming is a Manifest Coming.
Jesus “is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him” (Rev 1:7). Everyone will see Jesus coming in clouds of glory. It won’t matter if you’re alive when Jesus comes again or if you’ve been dead for millennia—your eyes will see the Lord.
Job expressed hope of seeing God: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25-27). Job is a poetic book, and it’s difficult to know precisely what Job meant. However, Job shall see Jesus as he descends from heaven. All the dead shall be raised (Jn 5:28-29), and every single eyeball from every single person who has ever lived will see Jesus in glory. Jesus will have a Manifest Coming.
Jesus’s Coming is a Mournful Coming.
“All tribes of the earth will wail on account of him” (Rev 1:7). Jesus isn’t coming for a social visit. Jesus is coming to judge the world. “[H]e will sit on his glorious throne,” and all nations will be gathered before him, “and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt 25:31-32). To those on his left, Jesus will say, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt 25:41), and “these will go away into eternal punishment” (Matt 25:46).
“The Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction” (2 Thess 1:7-9). As John gazed into an eternal hell, he recorded, “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night” (Rev 14:11).
Is it any wonder that the tribes of earth will wail when they see Jesus in the clouds? And, there will not just be wailing when Jesus comes again. That wailing shall continue for all eternity: “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 13:42). Jesus’s coming shall be a Mournful Coming, for so many will be lost on that day.
Conclusion
“Jesus is coming again.” But I have no idea when: “Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. Therefore you . . . must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matt 24:36, 44). The Son of Man could come this very day. Would you be ready?
This sermon was originally preached by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.