|
B. The Great Announcement to the Churches, 1:7 |
|
a. From God: The eternal & unchangeable God b.
From the Holy Spirit c.
From Jesus Christ |
4 John
to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and
which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; |
a.
He is the faithful witness b.
He is the first to arise c. He is the Prince over all rulers of the earth d.
He has redeemed us |
5 And
from Jesus Christ, who is the
faithful witness, and the first begotten
of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved
us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, |
|
e.
He has exalted us |
6 And
hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and
ever. Amen. |
a.
He is to be seen by all b. He is to be seen by those who killed Him: They
will mourn because of Him |
7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye
shall see him, and they also which
pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even
so, Amen. |
a.
The Alpha & Omega b. The One who is, was, & is to come c.
The Almighty God |
8 I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning, and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and
which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.[1] |
4. The People in the Preface Cont.: (Revelation 1:7).
• His dispensation. "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen" (Revelation 1:7). Five aspects of Christ's return to earth in glory are stated here. First, it will be personal. "He cometh." Christ, Himself is returning to earth (Acts 1:11). Second, it will be public. "Every eye shall see him." Unlike His first advent when few knew of the coming, the second advent will be known by all. Third, it will be prestigious. "With clouds.” "The clouds which attend His Coming are symbols of His majesty [Psalm 18:8–12]" (Scott). Fourth, it will be painful. "They … which pierced him … kindreds … shall wail." Christ rejecters will not find His return in glory a happy time. Fifth, it is positive. "Amen." This word is a word of affirmation. The coming of Christ is certain. It will positively occur. Scoffers mock (2 Peter 3:3, 4), but God says, "Amen."[2]
3 (1:7) Jesus Christ, Return: Announcement Three—Behold, Christ Comes.
This is the theme of Revelation, the coming again of Jesus Christ, and the justice and judgment which He is to execute upon the earth. Jesus Christ is coming again, and when He comes, this verse says two things will happen.
1. Every eye shall see Him. The glory of God is so bright and so full of light that it actually shines brighter than the sun (see Re. 21:23). When Jesus Christ returns, there will be a display of His glory that will surround the earth, and the reflection of the Lord's glory will be seen by every eye. Remember also there will be an innumerable host of angels and believers who are accompanying Christ back to earth. The idea is this: there will be so many that they will surround the earth. Whatever the case, Christ in all of His glory and majesty is going to return to earth, and when He returns, every eye shall see Him.
2.
Every person who has rejected Jesus Christ and crucified Him shall wail and
mourn because of Him. This refers to all the enemies of Christ, not only to
those who crucified Christ. Every person who has rebelled against Jesus Christ
shall see Jesus Christ and they shall cry out in anguish because they have …
Ø
cursed Him
Ø
rejected Him
Ø
ignored Him
Ø
neglected Him
Ø
rebelled against Him
Ø opposed Him
Men do not
believe Jesus Christ: they reject His claim to be the Son of God, that He
came from God out of (ek) heaven to
save the world. Most people accept that Jesus Christ was a great man and one of
the greatest religious teachers of all time, but they reject His deity. They
believe that man can be good enough to become acceptable to God on their own.
Therefore, they reject the fact that Jesus Christ had to die for the sins of
the world.
The result is going to be catastrophic: when men see Jesus Christ return to earth, they will then know that He is exactly who He claimed to be: the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, the Savior of the world. They will know that God does love the world, love it so much that He actually sent His Son to die for the sins of man. But note: when Christ returns, the idea is not that of salvation. It is that of wailing, of mourning and crying out, because of the judgment that Jesus Christ is bringing with Him. Jesus Christ, the Lord God of the universe, will be returning in glory to execute justice upon all who have rejected Him and worked evil upon the earth.
V
"And
then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the
tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the
clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Mt.
24:30).
V
"When
the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all
nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth
his sheep from the goats" (Mt. 25:31–32)
V
"Whosoever,
therefore, shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the
glory of his Father with the holy angels" (Mk.
8:38).
V
"And
to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed
from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them
that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ"
(2 Th. 1:7–8).
V
"And
Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the
Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and
to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which
they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly
sinners have spoken against him" (Jude 14–15).
V
"Behold,
he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced
him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen"
(Re. 1:7).
V
"And
the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ;
and he shall reign forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before
God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give
thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because
thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were
angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be
judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and
to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest
destroy them which destroy the earth" (Re.
11:15–18).
V
"And
I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness, he doth judge and make war. His
eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name
written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which
were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and
clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite
the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the
winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his
vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords"
(Re. 19:11–16, see vv.17–21).
V "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Re. 22:20).[3]
Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven.
And everyone will see him—even those who pierced him. And all the nations of
the earth will weep because of him. Yes! Amen! NLT
Jesus will
indeed have "glory and power forever and ever" (1:6 NIV)—the book of Revelation describes that day
when he will return to earth. That Jesus will come with the clouds of heaven summarizes the message of Revelation.
When Jesus ascended into heaven, "he was taken up into the sky … and he
disappeared into a cloud" (Acts 1:9 NLT;
see also Luke 24:50–51). An angel had told
the astonished disciples, "Jesus has been taken away from you into heaven.
And someday, just as you saw him go, he will return" (Acts 1:11 NLT). The imagery of coming in the
clouds is probably a military picture, alluding to the clouds of dust kicked up
by the war chariots, the ultimate war machines in ancient times. When Christ is
pictured this way, he is coming as the ultimate Victor and conquering King (see
also Daniel 7:13).
Jesus' second
coming will be visible and victorious.
Everyone will see him arrive (Mark 13:26),
and they will know it is Jesus. When Christ returns, he will conquer evil and
will judge all people according to their deeds (Revelation
20:11–15).
Even those who pierced him will see him.
"Those who pierced him" could refer to the Roman soldiers who pierced
Jesus' side as he hung on the cross, but it probably refers to the Jews who were
responsible for his death (see Acts 2:22–23;
3:14–15). John saw Jesus' death with his own
eyes, and he never forgot the horror of it (see John
19:34–35).
Zechariah had written, "Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on all the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died" (Zechariah 12:10 NLT). In Zechariah, the twelve tribes mourned because of their sin. Here, however, all people across the ages who have rejected Christ have themselves "pierced" him through their indifference to his sacrifice on their behalf. All the nations of the earth—both Jews and Gentiles—will weep because of him. They will mourn because they know they will be facing God and his judgment and will be destroyed.[4]
THE OUTLOOK: THE
SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD.15
There are one
or two more introductory themes presented to us before we are fairly launched
on the exposition of the visions and scenery of this book. In this verse, we
have a summing up of its specific outlook. John, the apostolic seer beholds the
Son of man enthroned in heaven, and unfolds, in symbol, the movements on earth
till the Lord returns again. Hence the view that bounds the scene is this— "he
cometh." We propose in this homily to set forth the place which the
New Testament assigns to the second coming of Christ, in its relation to the
Divine dispensations, to the faith and life of the Church, and to the outlook
of the world. We hope, in doing so, to avoid some evils which have given us
much concern, and which seriously impede the preparation of the Church for her
Lord's return.
We must not,
in thinking of our Saviour's coming again, be led to think of him as now absent
from his Church in such a sense as to leave her lonely, helpless, and forlorn.
He is not only near his Church, but in it—the Holy Ghost is her Comforter. She
is not desolate—the real presence is
in the heart of every believer, in the assemblies of the saints, and at the
feast of the Holy Communion. Nor must we let our attention be taken off from
the responsibilities our Lord has entrusted to us, by any of the incessant and
profitless disputes as to the day or the hour of his appearing. It may be
questioned whether the evil one ever used a more powerful engine for perplexing
and injuring the Church, than by dragging her into disputes of days and years,
and so far, taking off her attention from the words, "Be ye ready."
Nor will it
accord with the demands of our Lord on our fidelity if we allow ourselves to
drift into the notion that the world is getting worse and worse, that the
gospel is meant to be a failure, that the great work of winning the globe for
Christ will never be done by any missionary effort, but will be brought about
by the reappearing of our Lord. We have no scriptural warrant for any such
conclusion, and we regard it as a most lamentably successful temptation of the
devil to lure the Church of God away from throwing all her energy into the task
of preaching the gospel to every creature.
We may not think of the coming of Christ as if it were to effect the new creation of God's grace or to build the temple of the Lord. That is being done now. Christ will come because the harvest of the earth is ripe, and when it is ripe. His work will be that of judgment. He will come, not to assume his sovereignty, but reveal it to an unbelieving world and to an exultant and victorious Church. There are nine views that we may take of the reappearing of our Lord.
I. THE SECOND COMING IS THE NEXT GREAT EVENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS. There are three points on which Old and New Testament prophecy bids us fix our gaze, all gathering round the word "coming:" the Redeemer is "the Coming One"—"coming in weakness to suffer;” "coming in the energy of his Spirit to create and build up and consummate the Church;” "coming in sublime manifestation to judge the world." All is, however, in the scriptural view, an unbroken unity—the working out of a Divine plan, not an evolution of blind force. Our Lord, in the discourse to his disciples recorded in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, speaks of two events then in view—one, the destruction of Jerusalem: another, the end of the world. Of the former he says, "This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." Of the latter, "Of that day and hour knoweth no man," etc. And the latter is "the end of the age." When Peter spake on the Day of Pentecost, he declared that the outpouring of the Holy Ghost began on that day, as spoken of by Joel, ushering in, as it were, a period which was bounded in the far distance by "the day of the Lord." And so throughout the Epistles, "the day of Christ,” "that day,” "the day of the Lord," is uniformly the far point beyond which none can peer, and for which all things are waiting (cf. Acts 1:11; Phil. 1:10; 2 Tim. 1:12)—"looking for,” "hasting unto,” "waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God."
II. IT IS AN EVENT WHICH IS EVEN NOW ON THE WAY. He is coming (ἔρχεται). He is, as it were, moving towards us every moment. Not as if nothing were being done now, nor as if there were even a pause for a while. Not as if it were indifferent to us until certain signs meet our eye which tell us that the end is close upon us. Not so—not so is the meaning of the text. He is coming. He is actually on the way. The train of events which will bring him to us has long ago begun to move; and only, only as we recognize this do we understand the meaning of the dispensation under which we live. Of old, whether men knew it or not, every event was made subservient to the first appearing; and now every event is being so guided and controlled as to prepare the way for the second. Not a moment is lost.
III. THOUGH CERTAIN AS TO FACT, IT IS UNKNOWN AS TO TIME—AND UNKNOWABLE. "Of that day and hour knoweth no man;” "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." Ever since the beginning of the Christian age, there have been constantly and presently men who have professed, by calculations of prophetic time, to assign dates for this or that; but repeatedly, have their systems failed. When even such a one as Dr. Cumming16 was obliged to own that if he could tell when the twelve hundred and sixty years began, he could tell when they would end, but that he must confess that the former was a mere conjecture, who does not see the futility of thus wasting time in the attempt to reveal what our Lord meant to conceal? There are manifestly high and holy ends to be served in this concealment. Did we know the precise moment when all things are to come to a stand, such knowledge would bring them to confusion. Besides, the texts in Mark 13:35 and Matt. 24:36–44 are decisive on this point.
IV. THERE WILL BE SIGNS WHICH WILL PRECEDE THE COMING OF THE LORD. From those convulsions of nations, etc., of which many make so much, we gather no light, since they are to mark the entire duration of this dispensation, and hence neither of them can be taken as a sign of its immediate close. Nor will there be any change in the daily movements of men, any more than there was in the days of Noah, "until the flood came, and took them all away." True, "the heavens and the earth which are now, are reserved unto fire," etc.; but that fire will be one of the accompaniments of the second coming, not a sign to precede it. The sign which will indicate the approaching end will be the ripening alike of tares and wheat—bad and good. The bad will get worse, and the good will get better. Both will ripen. Then the end. The angel will thrust in the sickle because the harvest is ripe.
V. WHEN THE LORD COMES, HE WILL APPEAR IN HIS GLORY. (Matt. 25:31; 1 John 3:1–3; Col. 3:4, "As he is;" cf. also Heb. 9:28, "Without sin.”) Not as a "weary man and full of woes," but in majesty and might, "with great power and glory."
VI. THE SECOND COMING WILL CLOSE THE PROBATION OF THE RACE.17 This present time is "the day of salvation" (Isa. 49:8; 2 Cor. 6:2), during which "whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21). Ere it closes, we cannot doubt that, in some state of being or other, every soul will have been brought into direct contact with the Saviour for acceptance or rejection, so that when the Saviour comes men will give account to One who has all things in readiness for judging the living and the dead (1 Pet. 4:5, 6). And as has been the soul's attitude towards Christ, according thereto will be the sentence from him. How can it be otherwise (cf. Matt. 7.)?
VII. THE SECOND COMING WILL BE FOR JUDGMENT. This word "judgment" means very much: and the judgment-period may be as long as "the day of salvation;" and we have long thought that in these two positions is the clue to the solution of the difficulties of the millenarian controversy. For the righteous, it will mean manifestation, vindication, and glorification. For the wicked, it will mean manifestation, condemnation, and shame. Both are included in Paul's description in 2 Thess. 1:7–10. Hence the earth will "wail because of him."
VIII. THE SECOND COMING IS CONSEQUENTLY THE "BLESSED HOPE" OF THE CHURCH, AND THE DREAD OF THE GUILTY. (Titus 2:13.) This is emphatically "the hope" which is so repeatedly referred to in the New Testament; it is the distinctive feature of the Christian's faith (1 Thess. 4:14–18). But guilt dreads it.
IX. THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD FOR AWARD OR PUNISHMENT CASTS A HUE ALL ITS OWN ON THE MEANING AND OUTLOOK OF OUR DAILY LIFE (Matt. 25:1–30; 1 John 2:28; 2 Pet. 3:14; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:9–12; Matt. 7:21–27; 1 Cor. 3:13–15). This—this is the intensely practical end which the disclosures of our Lord's reappearing are intended to serve. Not that we may dispute with one another who has the most exact calculation as to the day, the hour, the how; but that our only rivalry may be, who shall be most faithful in doing the work of the day in the day, and thereby best prove himself to be ready, ever ready, let the Lord come whenever he may! Of little worth will it be to any to know the moment, unless now they are ready to go in unto the King. Only as we are ready can we say from the heart, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"[5]
Father God, we pray that we are ready for your return and found worthy of your acceptance into your Kingdom. We know that it is only by faith in the death of your Son, Christ, Jesus, on the cross, who paid the penalty for our sins that we could not pay. By faith, we believe He paid a debt He did not own for a penalty we could not pay. We thank you, Father God, for providing a way to escape the coming judgment and look forward to our Lord's soon return. In Jesus' name, we pray, Amen.
Revelation 1:7 The Great Announcement to the Churches: Christ is Coming Again
[1] Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 1996. Revelation.
The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership
Ministries Worldwide.
[2] Butler, John G. 2010. Analytical Bible Expositor: Revelation. Clinton, IA: LBC Publications.
[3] Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 1996. Revelation.
The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership
Ministries Worldwide.
NLT
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by
permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All
rights reserved.
[4] Barton, Bruce B. 2000. Revelation.
Edited by Grant R. Osborne. Life Application Bible Commentary. Wheaton, IL:
Tyndale House Publishers.
15 A
valuable collation and arrangement of passages on the second coming of our Lord
will be found in ‘The Parousia,’ by Rev.J.S. Russell, D.D., 2nd edit, (Fisher
Unwin).
16 In
‘The Great Tribulation.’
17 Cf. Ch.
6. in the present writer’s work on ‘Theories of Future Punishment’ (Snow and
Co.).
[5] Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. 1909. Revelation.
The Pulpit Commentary. London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.
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