“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb through the middle of the street of the city. Also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him. They will see his face. And his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
– Revelation 22:1–5
As we celebrate Christmas day, as we celebrate the coming of Christ, we turn our eyes to the reality that he is one day going to come again. We celebrate what he has accomplished in his first coming. He’s accomplished our salvation. He has made a way for us to be forgiven of all of our sins. He has made a way for us to experience relationship with God. And He has made a way for us to have eternal life in him starting right now.
Oh, all these things are glorious beyond comprehension, description, and imagination. And yet, there’s more because as talked about in Revelation 22:1–5, he is coming back to usher in a new heaven and a new earth, where we will, Revelation 22:4, see his face. We will worship him totally free in a scene where God will literally be our light, where we will dwell with him forever and ever.
This Verse Leads Us to Long For Jesus’ Coming
On this Christmas Day, let’s long for the day when we will rule and reign with our God forever. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.
So, God, we praise you on this Christmas day. Jesus, we exalt you on this Christmas day for accomplishing our salvation, for coming, living, dying, rising from the dead, and ascending into heaven for us. We celebrate the reality of your first coming today. We glorify you and praise you. Oh, we thank you, we exalt you and we pray. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly again. Come back, usher in fully and finally the salvation you have accomplished for us.
We know that when you come back, you will not be a child in a cradle. You will be a King on a horse. You will be coming with a trumpet blast from the sky and we will see your face and we will enjoy your presence in a way that is far greater than anything we can imagine. We long for that day, we anticipate that day, and we pray that you would use our lives even to in a second Peter kind of way. Hasten the coming of that day that is talked about in Revelation 22:1–5. Help us to make this good news known in anticipation of that day.
Revelation 22:1–5 Leads Us to Pray for Boldness
God, we pray. We pray that today, among family members and friends, you would give us boldness to share the gospel, that they might be ready for that day. God, we pray that in the coming year you would use our lives to make this good news known to more and more and more people. That they might be ready for the coming of that day. That they might experience what we’re reading here in Revelation 22:1–5.
God, please help us to live today and every day until you come with ultimate hope. Ultimate hope, not just in what you did in your first coming, but what you will do and bring about in your second coming. For this we pray with anticipation in Jesus’ name. 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.
