7/17/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Look, I AM coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

(Revelation 22.12-13)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Historically, we recognize this Revelation from Christ was scribed by John the disciples, apostle and presbyter a little more than 1900 years ago. That fact challenges our thinking as it stands in contrast to Jesus declaring to John “Look, I AM coming soon!” Do we dare endeavor to justify this truth? Some have called it a deception. The longing felt in the 1st Century for the return of Christ to earth continues on to this very day. As John recorded and set to paper this word from God, he was the last of the twelve disciples to survive the events which transpired because of the gospel. From that original circle of nearly one hundred and twenty men and women who chose to be followers of Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and declared Him as their Messiah and the acknowledged Son of God, we would already have known four generations of believers. They would have shared stories from the “great grandfathers” of faith in and around their own families. The profession of “I AM coming soon!” was built upon the promise of the Great Commission “Behold, I AM with you to the close of the Age.” Nearly forty years of persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire had transpired. Nearly seventy years of persecution at the hands of the Temple leadership and Judaizers had been “at hand.” When was it going to stop? When was “soon“? Hadn’t the aforementioned atrocities against the believers and the community of faith known in many circles as “The Way” been enough to resemble the signs of the times ushering in the close of the Age and the coming of Christ? Even now, nearly two thousand years later, hasn’t history been filled [or littered] with enough “abominations of desolation” to constitute the end of spiritual birth pangs and bring into the world a “new life: the New Heaven, the New Earth and the New Jerusalem”? Are we lamenting out of our own exhaustion of carrying on the legacy of the gospel and its call over the lives of believers? Dare we lay down the cross we each were invited to take up in order to follow Him all the days of our lives here on earth? Did we allow ourselves to entertain our profession of faith as the panacea of God’s Kingdom in the midst of us? Did we think that just because we said “I do” to Christ the Kingdom of God promised to come in our future was to come in that very moment? What does that say about our profession of faith?

I would hope that our profession of faith would cause us to remember the words which Jesus gave to His disciples as they had gathered for the Passover meal in the Upper Room on the night Judas lead Jesus’ accusers to the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest Him. Did Judas of Kerioth bring about this “beginning of the end” because of his frustration with Jesus? That frustration may have well been what many others only thought to themselves wondering “When will You [Jesus] be the transformer of culture and establish Your kingdom on earth, in Israel and in Jerusalem in particular? When will You take Your seat on the throne of Israel as did David of old? When will You call down Your angel army to rid the land of the Roman pestilence replacing the Pax Romana with the everlasting peace of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven?” Or had Judas of Kerioth finally had enough of the disappointment that Jesus had not acted in a manner consistent with his need for a Messiah and wanted to bring it all to an end so there could be another. Or maybe there was a legacy of bitterness which Judas would not release from his heart that would not allow him to fully embrace Jesus as the Christ and his act of betrayal was a prelude to an insurrection…of one. What were the words Jesus gave to the disciples who remained in the room after Judas left? He looked at them all with the echoes of their own words ringing in the ears of the heart and soul “Is it I, Lord?” Perhaps Judas was the only one who had the nerve to move to action while the rest sat fearfully on the cushions surrounding the “table of the Lord.” Regardless, Jesus looked at them and said, “I must go now so that I may prepare a place for you to be with Me forever. In My Father’s house will be many rooms; if it were not so then I would not say it to you. And if I say I am going, then you know that I am coming back to take you with Me there.” (John 14.2-3)

And there, mighty ones of God, is the answer to the question of “soon.” We use it ourselves to describe the urgency we feel about returning melded with the knowledge of the reality “we don’t know exactly when.” We hope that it will be sooner than later, but we cannot say. Jesus said “Even I do not know the day nor the hour when the great appearing will happen; that is known only by God in Heaven.” (Matthew 24.36) But, in borrowing from the Middle Eastern wedding tradition, the return of the Groom could not happen until the construction was completed. And the construction could not be completed until the deconstruction was completed. Deconstruction? What needed to be deconstructed in Heaven? No, mighty ones of God in Christ Jesus, not in Heaven but on earth. We dare not forget that what is promised comes from heaven. That makes the New Jerusalem like a tabernacle. Consider a modular home, if you will, being moved into place to become a permanent residence and dwelling place. But, space has to be made for the dwelling place to be placed on. All of that is chronicled within the Revelation to John; even to the point of burning the chaff and the weeds which were cast into the eternal fire. When that work was finished and the “house” set in place, then we will know “He is coming soon!” Today, we are still engaged in gathering, as I alluded to yesterday, the harvest and bring them in to the storehouses of the Lord. Those storehouses are the churches, the communities of faith in Jesus as the Christ gathered as one Church who is the Bride of the Lamb who is “coming soon.” We are being prepared for that day when “soon” will be today. It will come as unexpectedly as a “thief in the night” according to Jesus. And in spite of all our preparations for Jesus’ return and against the infiltration of the true thief who only to “steal, kill and destroy,” we will be surprised. But, we must be prepared as were the “five wise virgins” who tended their lamps in such a way so as not to be left out of the wedding party. When will “soon” come? When everything is ready and set in place. Is it? If not, then all our desires for His return without constructional preparation are for naught. Apparently, there is still work to be done “on earth as it is in Heaven.” The work whistle is blowing until the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more, when the morning breaks eternal bright and fair; when the called of earth shall gather on the other shore, when the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there!

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, ready us, steady us and by Your Holy Spirit which Christ has promised us strengthen us to accomplish Your will on earth as it is in Heaven. Let the glory of the Lord be upon us. May Your Face look upon us and give us peace. May our declaration of the way, the truth and the life give comfort, aide and courage to those who are still in need of a Savior. May we introduce them today to Jesus who is the Christ and in whose name we live, pray and serve. AMEN.