Jesus’ word to the seven churches (1:8) crops up again (v 13), reminding us that this revelation is Jesus’ gift to the church (v 16). 

Jesus wants us to be sure of our destination – life with God (v 14). And if we are fixed on our relationship with him (v 17), we will be able to endure to the end. So rather than listen to the doubts of the world around us, let’s listen to Jesus. He is so determined that we understand that he says it three times (vs 7,12,20). 

Jesus’ certain return will reverse the curse of Genesis. Adam and Eve’s descendants will live with God in his garden city and eat from the tree of life (v 14). Our job is to be ready (v 12). Note the specific entry conditions (vs 14,15): only those who ‘have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’ (7:14) can enter. It is not our good works but only Christ’s blood on the cross that redeems us from the consequences of sin (v 15; Ephesians 1:7) and ushers us into God’s New Jerusalem (v 14). 

‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.’¹ Praise God for this hope.

We now confront the final paradox of Revelation: we have reached the end of the book, but the end has not yet come. Does that mean that this text is about a distant future for John and his contemporaries, a prediction of the end‑times in our own day? Emphatically not! The command ‘Do not seal up the words …’ (v 10) contradicts the message to Daniel,² whose visions in the sixth-century BC related to the distant, second-century BC reality. John’s message was for John’s readers in John’s day; the hope that Jesus would soon come was to sustain them in faithful living, not turn them into end-times speculators. 

There are two complementary movements emphasised throughout. The major one is the longing for Jesus to ‘Come’ (v 20). This is Jesus’ promise; this is the desire of his people (the ‘bride’, v 17); this is the yearning of the Spirit. Why? Because the coming of Jesus will be the presence of God with his people. As ‘the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End’ (v 13), Jesus is identifying with God (the Father);³ in being their reward and repaying what the saints have done, he is fulfilling the role of God.⁴ ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.’⁵ When Jesus returns, we will see God face to face.

There is another invitation, another longing –  all who are thirsty should ‘come’ (v 17, TNIV). Without change and repentance, ‘those who do wrong continue to do wrong’ (v 11); when Jesus comes they will be shut off from the glory and wonder of the holy city. That is a double tragedy, since, though the offer of life came at great cost to Jesus and will involve costly faithfulness, it remains a free gift to all who will accept the invitation. 

As you patiently await Jesus’ coming, in what area of your life do you need to say again ‘Come, Lord Jesus’?

¹ Rom 8:18  ² Dan 8:26; 12:4  ³ See Rev 1:8; 21:6  ⁴ See Gen 15:1; Isa 40:10  ⁵ John 14:9