Princeton Presbyterian Church

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1665

December 22, 2024

Revelation 1.1-8      Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“The God Who Comes”

 

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

 

 

• The God Who Comes – Father Almighty

 

This is the fourth Sunday of Advent and throughout the entire season we celebrate the God who comes to us, especially in the birth of Jesus Christ. We also consider God coming again in Christ’s return. I want to take a look at some of the other times God has come among His people and why these stories mean so much to us and also how these stories point us to the advent of God in the Trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit. God has come, is coming, and will come again, similar to Revelation 1.8, the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come!

First, we start in Genesis. In one sense God has come in creation itself in that He created all things by His Word. Creation is evidence of the God who comes and spoke into existence that which did not exist (Romans 4.17).

¹In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ²The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God create all there is by His spoken Word. The Spirit was there as well and Jesus, according to John 1. God comes and creates simply by speaking, “Let there be light,” and there was light. We could say that God was simply present, not so much coming in the creation story, but creation speaks to a way God does come to us in Jesus Christ. That is that God comes to re-create. 2 Corinthians 5.17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” The new has come because God has come! The new has come because the Creator of all that is has come to speak a new thing in all who are in Christ.

Second, one of the formative stories for us and for Israel is in the God who comes to deliver the Jews from slavery in Egypt. This too is a foreshadowing of Christ coming to deliver us from the bondage of sin and death. That story we read in Exodus 2 and 3.

Exodus 2.23-25, “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. ²⁴And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. ²⁵God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

Exodus 3.7-8a, “Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, ⁸and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…”

God comes in this formative story in response to the cries of Israel and that amazing line that their “cry for rescue from slavery same up to God”. God heard, God remembered His covenant, and God knew! God speaks – I have seen, I have heard, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver! This is the God who comes to us in response to prayer, in response to our sufferings, in response to His covenant with His people. And this particular story of deliverance has shaped Israel’s identity ever since. It also speaks to our own existence in Christ because it foreshadows Christ coming down to deliver us from bondage to sin.

 

Third, God comes in the Psalms.

Psalm 96.11-13, “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; ¹²let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy ¹³before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.

One way God comes is to judge. This is the promise of the Bible and especially in the Second Coming of Christ. Christ will usher in the judgment day. The promise of the Psalm is the coming of God in judgment. This is but one way the Psalms testify to God coming. We could site many more Psalms as to how God comes to us, such as coming to lead us like a Shepherd (Ps 23), or to protect us like a bird protecting her young (Ps 91), or God as a rock and fortress (Ps 18).

 

Fourth, God comes in the prophets.

 

Isaiah 40.10-11, “Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. ¹¹He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”

This is just one more example of how God has come or is promised to come in the Old Testament writings. All of these texts from Genesis through the prophets testify to the God who comes to us as the Father Almighty.

 

• The God Who Comes – Jesus Christ

 

Next, God comes powerfully in the person of Jesus Christ. This is the joy we celebrate this week in Christmas. God has come out of love in the birth of Christ that we might have eternal life. John 3.16-17, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. There is no greater love than this, that Christ came in obedience to the Father, to die on the cross and to be raised again to life so that we might live, dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6.11). Jesus is the reason for this season of Advent and Christmas. So many people do not know this and it is up to all of us to remind people even as we remind ourselves, that God has come in Christ to save us from our sins. His earthly life began with the birth to the virgin Mary, a miraculous event foretold in the Old Testament and to Mary through the angel Gabriel. God has come in Christ and we rejoice.

But that is not all the good news, for God will come again in Christ at the Second Advent, John 14.1-3, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

The promise of God has come and the promise is revealed once again in Revelation 1.8, the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

The coming of Christ is not confined to the New Testament Gospels, but is tied to the creation narrative as we read in John 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. This, I believe, also tells us that Jesus comes through the Word, the Bible in its entirety. Just as He has come in the flesh, so too God comes through His Word, the written Word, to strengthen our minds and hearts and souls (Ps 1).

The coming of Christ is also tied to the books of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. This is what Jesus revealed to the disciples in Luke 24.44, Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

 

• The God Who Comes – Holy Spirit

 

God comes through the Holy Spirit. Acts 2.1-4, When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

This was the promise Christ gave to the disciples and to all who believe, John 14.26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” This is not just a promise for Pentecost, but a promise for us all as we have received the Spirit of Christ. It is His Spirit who empowers us to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, but mostly in our community, neighborhoods, grocery stores, hospitals, front porches, where ever we have opportunity presented to us to share the God who may be coming to those around us to save them.

Now I have taken us through a lot of Bible verses to show how God has come, is coming, and will come again. It is the message we see in Revelation. This sermon is just a short list of ways God comes to His people. These are some of the major ways, but not exclusive. Examples are all throughout the Bible, some I have already mentioned in metaphors like shepherd, judge, or like a King (Ps 29.10-11), warrior (Exo 15.1-3), and many more. One philosopher once spoke of God as an army of metaphors! God has come through the Bible as a revelation of who He is, what He has done, is doing, and will do. And God comes to us at particular times, or is at least perceived by us at particular times because the promise is that He has already come and will not forsake us. And yet, we do not always feel of sense that presence – but we experience and speak of those times in life when we know that God is with us, when God has been made manifest and has come upon us in a special way. He comes in times of need, like that of the Exodus of Israel. He comes in times of blessing in abundance, like moments on Christmas morning. He comes in the Presence of the Spirit, like an hour of worship or a sense of the Spirit in prayer.

We conclude the season of Advent aware of the God who comes. He has come, is coming, and will come again. In this we rejoice and give thanks. All praise and thanks to God our Savior and Lord. Amen.