“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”
– Revelation 22:20
This is how the Book of Revelation draws to a close. After all of these pictures of the coming King, Jesus, and the consummation of His kingdom on the earth, a new heaven and a new earth, Jesus says after all of this, “Surely I am coming soon.” In other words, “Mark it down—I am on my way.” He’s coming soon.
Now, you might wonder, oh, wait, this book was written in the first century, and we’re in the 21st century; He hasn’t come yet. So we start to even wonder. People even start to think, well, is He coming? Well, the good news is we’re 2,000 years closer to His coming than they were in Revelation chapter 22. We’re closer. It could be today. It could be tomorrow. Yes, it could be another century or more centuries.
We don’t know; that’s the whole point that we see all over the Bible. We don’t know when the day or hour is coming, but we do know this. Even in the way that Peter talks about—for with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, a thousand years is like a day—that His timing is beyond us and His timing is perfect. He has said, “I am coming soon.” So the cry of our hearts is, “Yes, come, Lord Jesus. Today.” We’re intended to pray this all the time.
Revelation 22:20 is a Reminder that Jesus Will Come Again
We pray right now in light of all we’ve seen in the Book of Revelation, Jesus, we long for Your return. We long to see Your face. Revelation 22, “For they will see His face.” We long to see Your face. We look at all the evil and sin and suffering and injustice and death around us, and we long for it to all end – we want it to all end. We want You to come, our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Come now, we pray. Come now, we plead. Now.
God, help us to pray like this all the time. Help us to pray and help us to live with eager anticipation of Your coming, with eager expectation of Your coming. Help us realize this is not just a fairytale book filled with different images in the Book of Revelation. This is reality. This is a picture of where all of history is headed, and things like we read here could happen today. So, God, we pray, we pray, come, Lord Jesus. Send your Son, O God, to consummate Your kingdom on the earth. We long for Your coming, and we want to be ready when You come. So help us to live today like You’re coming back today. In Jesus’ name, we pray. So, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, we pray and plead. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
