“Behold I Am Coming Soon”
Revelation 22:12

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost—November 16, 2014

Let us pray: “Oh Lord Jesus, open our hearts to your Word, and prepare us to joyfully receive you at your Second Coming.” Amen.”

Our text is from today’s reading from the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, Revelation 22. Jesus says: “Behold, I am coming soon!”

We confess in the Nicene Creed: “He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead.” The question is: Are you ready for his coming?  Are you ready to stand before the Judge?

If you plan to plead innocence, you are not ready. “Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the moment my mother conceived me.” “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” “No one is righteous, not even one.” “And the Judge shall say, ‘Away from me you evildoers, into everlasting fire.’” “The soul that sins, that soul shall die.”

If you plan to plead partial compliance with the law of God, that you have tried your best, you are not ready. “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet fails at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” “Be ye perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

If you plan to plead your own works, that you have earned your own salvation, you are not ready. “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” “There is no one who does good, not even one.” “The wages of sin is death.”

“Behold, I am coming soon!” He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead. Are you ready for his coming?  Are you ready to stand before the Judge? What will you plead?

“Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me.” “The blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, cleanses us from every sin.” “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world.” “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” “He loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.”

You are ready, because the Judge himself has served your sentence for you; you are ready because the Judge himself has paid the price. “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” “Whoever believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

When you stand before the Judge, his promise is your plea: “I will blot out your transgressions and will remember your sins no more.”

His promise is your plea: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.”

His promise is your plea: “I am going to prepare a place for you . . . I will take you to be with me.”

His promise is your plea: “Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live.”

His promise is your plea: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”

His promise is your plea: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

His promise is your plea: “I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

His promise is your plea: “Whoever believes in me has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the Last Day.”

His promise is your plea: “Because I live, you also shall live.”

His promise is your plea: “Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest . . . you will find rest for your souls.”

His promise is your plea: “Behold, I am coming soon!”

When he comes again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, you are ready to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. You are ready with one plea. 

His blood: “Given and shed for you, for the forgiveness sins”;

His mercy: “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy”;

His promise of eternal life: “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

“Come, blessed of my Father, enter the kingdom prepared for you.”

“O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”