Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Revelation 17 | Date: December 29, 2019 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

I wonder how many hundreds or even thousands of churches sang that hymn this morning together. This is a traditional hymn for the new year: “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.” Very appropriate, wonderful hymn. Take your Bibles, if you will, and turn to Revelation chapter 17. Earlier we read Acts chapter 21. The chapter break between chapter 21 and 22 is my favorite in all of the Bible. It ends with “saying,” comma, and we’re reminded that chapter divisions are not inspired.

Now if you can remember far enough back—that’s over a year ago or something like that—we began a series of studies on the Bible’s story of salvation. We saw that salvation, by the nature of it, is a forward-looking thing, an eschatological teaching. That is, it looks at the human condition—fallenness in sin and rebellion and in condemnation—and it looks to the time when God will bring about redemption and restoration. That has happened in the centerpiece of history, the death and resurrection of Jesus, but for its full and final culmination, it looks to the end of history in the return of Jesus Christ.

And so we saw that the story of salvation takes us necessarily to the end of history, or better, to the climax or the culmination of history. We saw then that that story in the Bible is carried by a number of different themes. We saw that the story itself is told, that the Bible is a story, and that it’s the covenants of Scripture that carry that story. And then we saw a number of themes that carry that story. We saw the theme of creation and new creation, the theme of kingdom—the kingdom of God finally coming to consummation. We saw the theme of rest, we saw the theme of Adam and the New Adam, and so on. We saw all of these themes that carry that story to the end of history when salvation will finally be consummated.

In that, we saw that central to the story was the biblical teaching of the Messiah—anticipated in the Old Testament, realized in the New Testament. The Messiah, Jesus the Christ, earned and achieved His lordship, His right to rule, in His saving work, His death and resurrection. Having achieved that right to rule, He will bring it to completion finally when He returns. We saw that in the Old Testament with some of the Psalms: “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies my footstool.” “You are my son, this day I’ve begotten you.” We saw this theme of Messiah in several places in the Psalms.

That took us then to the book of Daniel, where I’d originally intended to look simply at chapter two, chapter seven, and maybe another place or two, but many of you encouraged me and I bit, and we took the whole book of Daniel. We went through the entire book with all of its apocalyptic, picturesque presentation of the culmination of God’s kingdom in the final stages of history. We saw that also at the end of the age Daniel warns us of a coming time of tribulation, a time when there will be an arch-enemy against the people of God, known from the Apostle John now as the Antichrist who will come. And so we tracked that then into the New Testament and how the New Testament writers pick that up. So we’ve seen this big picture of salvation history. And now, finally, I think we will bring that to a close. And to do that, I don’t know of a better place than Revelation chapter 17 to 22.

To begin, Revelation chapter 17, and I’ll read just verses 1 to 6:

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we are grateful that You have, as we’ve said so many times, not only redeemed us but that You have given us Your word and told us of it—told us how it was done, told us of what is yet to come, that we may revel in it, revel in the joy of it today, and revel in the hope of what is yet to come. We thank you for Your word, and we pray that You would encourage the hearts of Your people today from this portion of Your word as we look to the great consummation of the ages when all things are gathered together in Christ. We pray in His name, amen.

The Genre Of Revelation

Don Carson tells the story of a university student who was being faithful and, in his attempt to be faithful, bought several copies of the New Testament to distribute to people. But he couldn’t afford just to hand them out to everybody, so he would talk to people, engage them in conversation, and when they would agree and promise that they would read it, he would give them a copy. And so he gave out several like that. He gave it to one man who was from the East somewhere—I think it was from Japan—but he had no previous acquaintance with the Scriptures at all. And this fellow gave him the copy of the New Testament. Sometime later, he was talking to him and he said, “Say, did you ever get around to reading the New Testament that I gave you?” He said, “Yes, I did.” “And what did you think?” Well, he said it was a little bit repetitive at the beginning, but he really enjoyed that bit of sci-fi at the end.

That raises the question of genre. What is this? The closest he had to put it was, “It’s sci-fi,” with all these graphic imagery and pictures that are drawn for us in various ways. Well, it’s apocalyptic literature. It’s a specific genre that was popular in the Jewish world in the first century AD. It actually was probably inspired by Daniel himself and some of the imagery that he gives in his visions. This was a popular genre in Jewish literature of the day. It is given to tell us of the end times when God will break into history and bring His kingdom to earth, and righteousness will prevail at last and evil will be destroyed.

To tell that story, one of the marks of apocalyptic literature is this graphic symbolism that is given. Some have referred to it as “cerebral cartoons”—these images that are drawn for us in our heads. We see these fantastic creatures with many heads and different kinds of monsters, and this ugly woman who sits on many waters and on seven hills. We see all these graphic images of things and people and events that will come, all of it to drive us to this great moment of the in-breaking of God into history when finally His great purposes will be brought to consummation.

And so the book of Revelation, being apocalyptic literature, is a favorite. And it’s a favorite for more than just its cinematic special effects. It’s a favorite because of the story it tells. I think I’ve told you before about the man who was sitting in the back of the auditorium. One weekday, he came into a church building. He was sitting at the back of the auditorium reading the pew Bible, and the minister of the church came walking by and looked over his shoulder, saw that he was reading Revelation. He knew the man was not highly educated, and so he asked him, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” And the man said, “Yes, I do.” He said, “Well, what’s it all about?” He said, “It says Jesus wins.”

And that is exactly the point. I don’t know a better summary of the book of Revelation than that—that this is given to tell us, in all of its graphic symbolism and imagery, that Jesus wins. It’s an inspired story that takes us to the end of the age and beyond, and it shows us where and how history will end and find its culmination.

A Contrast Between Two Cities

It does this in these chapters, chapter 17 and following, primarily by this contrast between two cities. It’s something of an allegory. These two cities are Jerusalem and Babylon. Jerusalem is the city of the faithful, the meeting place of heaven and earth, as it’s described for us. And then Babylon is the city of the barbarians, the city that destroyed the people of Israel way back before the time of Christ in the 6th century BC and carried them off into exile and so on. By extension then, this city of Babylon—the city of the barbarians, the opponents of the people of God—becomes Rome, the present opponents of the people of Israel in their land. And we find that, for example, here in chapter 17 and verse 9, where it describes the city as built on seven hills. Well, that’s a dead giveaway; he’s speaking of Rome.

So we have these two contrasting cities. Besides that, we have the moral character of these two cities depicted for us as two very different women. Jerusalem is presented to us in these chapters as the bride of the Lamb, dressed in white. She’s chaste. She’s protected. She’s faithful. And by contrast, we have not just Jerusalem being portrayed as the bride of the Lamb, but Babylon now being presented as the goddess Roma—or not referred to as Roma, but the depiction by which she’s recognized and worshipped in the ancient world. She’s depicted as the woman, the great harlot, the great prostitute (verse one). In fact, in verse 5, she’s also called “the mother of harlots,” the mother of prostitutes. That is to refer to the corrupting influence that she has had on people everywhere. The people who followed this woman partook of her luxuries and of all her evil. In verse 3 of chapter 18, it describes the people as drunk with the wine of her fornication. So they followed this woman in all of her evil. She has had corrupting influence everywhere and the people of the world have joined in.

But just as Babylon is not Babylon but Rome, so also Jerusalem is not Jerusalem but the New Jerusalem—the New Jerusalem that is to come, the New Jerusalem that is the people of God who follow Him. It is in chapter 3 of Revelation referred to as the holy city, the New Jerusalem, the city of my God. That is believers who belong to Jesus Christ.

And this contrasting pair of cities then gathers into themselves all the people of the world. You are either a citizen of Jerusalem or you’re a citizen of Babylon. You either belong to the people of God and you are the bride of the Lamb, or you belong to Babylon and you’re drunk with the wine of her iniquity and partaking of her harlotries. All the people of the world are gathered up into these two cities. It’s a symbolic division of humanity that began back in the garden in Genesis chapter 3, where we have Satan against the woman, Satan’s seed against the woman’s seed. This is Satan against God. This is Pharaoh against Israel. This is Nebuchadnezzar against Israel, and on it goes. This is the kingdom of Satan against the kingdom of Christ. This is Ephesians chapter 6: “Our struggle is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this age.” This is in the book of Revelation chapter 12, as it was described for us: Satan, who was cast out of heaven because of his rebellion, thrown down to earth, and now carrying out his furious rampage against the people of Christ because he knows his time is short. And so he chases the woman and her children into the wilderness where they are continuously under threat, and there he is trying to destroy them. That’s what this is. And here in the book of Revelation in its final chapters, that conflict finally comes to a climax and to its end.

This is what gave Augustine the inspiration to write his famous book, The City of God, one of the most influential books in history. The city of God versus the city of man. It’s Augustine’s philosophy of history—these two contrasting cities. On the one hand, you have the city of God, the people who belong to God, those who worship God, those who give Him willing obedience and surrender themselves to God’s lead. And on the other hand, you have the city of man, whose citizens revolt against God and claim moral autonomy.

Ultimately, of course, as I’ve said, this is the struggle of Satan against God. As I’ve mentioned, in chapter 12, we have Satan thrown from heaven, and then he’s on this ferocious campaign of evil because he knows his time is short. Then we saw last time, in chapter 13, Satan calls up help, and there’s the beast out of the sea, and then there’s the beast that rises out of the earth. The beast that rises out of the sea—this is the Antichrist, as we call him, as we learn from John in his epistle to call him. And then we have the beast out of the earth, the false prophet, who is given to bring men and women to worship the beast from the sea, or the Antichrist. And so we have this evil triumvirate who takes center stage in a way in these last chapters of the book of Revelation. We have the dragon, who is Satan. We have the beast out of the sea, who is Antichrist. And we have the beast that rises out of the earth, who is the false prophet. And this evil triumvirate holds control of Babylon, and through Babylon, holds control of the entire world. In chapter 17, as we read verse 1, this woman sits on many waters. That is to say, her influence is universal.

Of course, these two cities, Jerusalem and Babylon, are continuously at war with each other. Babylon, the great whore, is always on the attack, always trying to pervert or otherwise destroy the people of the city of Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem, the Lamb’s bride, they live really only in the wilderness, where they are protected by God for a season but are always under attack and under threat of the beast.

Babylon Must Fall

In the book of Revelation, where this—as it’s been called—tale of two cities reaches its conclusion, we learn then of the goal of history. One thing is made very plain and lies just on the surface of the text of these chapters: the goal of history is at least this—Babylon must fall. If there is a God, just as surely as God is, Babylon must fall. And as John describes it, she must drink the wine of the judgment of God unmixed and full strength. And Revelation then in these chapters spends much time portraying her destruction and the destruction of her leaders.

She must fall not only because of what she is—evil—and what she stands for, but she must also fall for what she has done to the people of God. She lies in the lap of Satan, as John calls it in his epistle. The world is drunk with the wine of her luxuries. The world willingly follows along and worships the beast. The world—”earth dwellers,” as John calls them in Revelation—willingly follow along. They willingly take the mark of the beast in their head and in their hands. That is, they think and they do according to the dictates of the beast and follow along in lockstep.

And more serious than any of that, we find this woman, this great prostitute, this city, this world system, we find in verse 6, is drunk with the blood of the saints, the martyrs of Jesus. Like Cain against Abel, like Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar against Israel, she has had no regard whatever for the Lamb’s bride. She’s had no regard for the people of God and rather finds the people of God a menace, people to be rid of because they’re interfering with the pleasures that they want to pursue—such that, as we saw in chapter 11 last time, when finally the beast gains the upper hand against the people of God, the world rejoices and makes it a time of festivities, and they exchange gifts over the dead bodies of the two witnesses. Chapter 18 and verse 2 tells us that Babylon is the habitation of demons, foul spirits, and every unclean and hated bird. It must fall.

If God is God, this evil that marks this world cannot continue as is forever. As surely as God is, righteousness must triumph and evil must be destroyed. And so we come to chapter 18, which is really a long funeral dirge, if you will, as the world laments the fall of Babylon the Great. Let’s take the time to read through chapter 18, beginning with verse 1:

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”

And then in verses nine and following, all the world weeps for her:

The kings of the earth who committed their sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. Then they will stand far off in fear of her torment and say, “Alas, alas, you great city, you mighty city, Babylon, for in a single hour your judgment has come.” And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her since no one buys their cargo anymore—cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron, marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, and chariots, and slaves, that is human souls. “The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again.” The merchants of these wares who gained wealth from her will stand far off in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud, “Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, with pearls! For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.” And all shipmasters, and seafaring men, sailors, and all whose trade is on the sea stood far off, and they cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?” And they threw dust on their heads, and they wept and mourned, crying, “Alas, alas for the great city, where all who had ships and sea grew rich by her wealth, for in a single hour she has been laid waste.” Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her. Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence and will be found no more. And the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more. And a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more. And the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more. And the light of a lamp will shine in you no more. And the voice of the bridegroom and the bride will be heard in you no more. For your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in her was found the blood of the prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth.”

And so we have the kings and the presidents and the prime ministers of the earth who committed fornication with this great prostitute, watching in horror as they see the city lying in ashes. Standing at a distance, it tells us then, for fear of her torment, the whole world weeps for the loss of the beloved city. To put it in contemporary terminology, Wall Street crashes. Stores are empty of supplies. Jewels, the money, the prosperity, all of the economic successes—all collapse. As he tells us repeatedly, gone to be found no more at all. And so the great city of Babylon, he tells us, will lie in ashes. No more music, no more laughing, no more festivities, no more nightlights, no more greatness. God will speak and Babylon will crumble.

Did you notice in verse 20, as we read through, a different note? Describing all of this lament of the people and crying and weeping and fear because of the destruction of Babylon, verse 20 of chapter 18 sounds a different note: “Rejoice. Rejoice over her, O heaven and you saints and apostles and prophets.” Why? “Because God has given judgment for you against her.” All that for the world was the cause of such great weeping and sorrow now for the people of God becomes the cause of gladness and celebration and rejoicing. God breaks in. Babylon crumbles. All of her citizens weep and lament, terrified by her destruction. The people of God, by contrast, cheer. God wins, and Babylon is destroyed.

The Marriage Of The Lamb Has Come

That then brings us to chapter 19. And here we have another Hallelujah Chorus—a song of triumph and praise and celebration that is sung over the smoldering ashes of Babylon. Verse one:

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God. For his judgments are true and just, for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” Once more they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God, who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen, Hallelujah!” And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.” Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters, like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.”

Here the people of God, the citizens of Jerusalem, the bride of the Lamb, they rejoice for the final triumph of God over evil. But you’ll notice in verses 7 and following, they are rejoicing not just for the destruction of evil, Babylon. They’re rejoicing, verse 7, because “the marriage of the Lamb has come.” And so in verses 11 and following, “Here comes the groom!” becomes the shout. And that one for whom the bride has kept herself pure, that one whom she has loved, that one for whom she has been so willing to suffer the assaults of the great harlot—He makes His glorious entrance. Heaven is opened, and there He is: King of Kings and Lord of Lords, riding in great power and authority and dignity on a white horse. And following along behind Him (verse 14) are the groomsmen, the armies of the Lamb, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

And of course, before the wedding festivities can commence, something must be done. The citizens of Babylon, they’re not too happy to see Him coming. They’re angry. They hate Him. They gather together to see if they can destroy Him. The people of God are not worried because they see coming from His mouth a sword. He speaks and it’s over. The beast and the false prophet, we read in verses 20 and following, the beast and the false prophet are captured and they’re cast alive into the fire. The dragon, the serpent of old, Satan—chapter 20, he’s cast into the abyss. He’s shut up and sealed so that he can deceive the nations no more.

And while with His bride, the Lord Jesus sits at the wedding supper with all of the festivities, we read the birds of heaven come and feast on the dead bodies of those who for so long opposed the King. And then in chapter 20, it’s given to the saints to rule and reign with Him. This is echoing Daniel chapter 7 that we saw. And all the earth is brought under His sovereign reign. It is very much like what we saw last time in chapter 11, verse 15: “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.”

Still, the evil of the human heart shows itself. Chapter 20, verses 7 and following: after a thousand years Satan is loosed from the abyss for a little season, and people the world over follow him into one grand final rebellion against the Lord Jesus. But the rebellion then ends as every rebellion against Him must eventually end, and all are destroyed. And finally, now at last, Satan himself is cast into the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet are, and they are tormented day and night forever.

And then in one final day of judgment, all of history is called into account before the Lord God, and the books are opened, and everyone is judged according to the works that have been recorded in the book. And those whose names are not found written in the Book of Life are cast into the lake of fire.

I Make All Things New

So what a contrast. For the harlot: no more luxuries, no more music, no more laughing, no more prosperity. But for the bride, we read in chapter 21, verse 4: no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain, no more death. In verse five, chapter 21, God speaks again: “Behold, I make all things new.” For the harlot, her jewels, her luxuries—they’re all gone. But for the bride, verse 10 and following: the walls of her city are jasper. The city itself is pure gold like glass. The foundations of the city are adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The gates are of pearl, more magnificent than ever seen. And curiously, we read, the gates are never closed. No need to, because never again is there a danger of threat.

Chapter 21, verse 22, we find something that is very striking that’s missing in this great city: “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” In the past, God has revealed Himself in various ways and made Himself known in various ways and in varying degrees. Fellowship with God was broken by sin in the garden. And God through history has moved to come back into fellowship with His people. And we’ve seen that throughout history. There’s the tabernacle, where God’s glorious presence was made manifest. There’s the Temple of Solomon, where the glory of God filled the place. It comes to a climax—something of a climax to date anyway—in the incarnation of Jesus: “The word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth.” There’s another step: Pentecost comes and the Spirit comes in great power to indwell all of His people. It makes us His temple.

But however progressively glorious each stage of that has been, each stage has left us thinking, “There’s got to be more.” And here finally, at last, we read there was no temple there at all, because God and the Lamb are there, and they are its temple. The people of God dwell in His very presence. In fact, verse 23 of chapter 21 tells us there’s no sun there either. No need for any sun. The city itself shines with the brightest light reflecting the radiant glory of God Himself who is there. And notice verse 27: “Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”

Imagine it: the great prostitute gone. Never again seduced by her luxuries, never again taken in by her temptations, never again the struggle with sin, and never again that humiliating exercise of confession and repentance. All of it gone behind us forever. And best of all, chapter 22 and verse 4—more wonderful than any other prospect of the whole glorious scene—”They will see his face, and His name will be on their foreheads.” Surely that is the crowning glory of eternity: the beatific vision, to be in the presence of Christ and to see Him. We sang that this morning, didn’t we? “We shall see Him ourselves face to face.” To see our Creator, our Redeemer, our Preserver—the one who loves us such that He gave Himself for us and took the whole burden of our sin and made it His own and died under the judgment of God in our place in order to redeem us and bring us to this. This is the one for whom all these years we’ve borne the hatred and the opposition of the beast. This is the one whom we’ve loved. And for all of these centuries, the church has repeated with just the deepest affection the words of the Apostle Peter: “Whom having not seen, we love.” And now we see Him and we are with Him. And to give us reassurance, there’s the word of confirmation in verse 6: “These words are faithful and true.”

Well, I think you can see the obvious point of application in all of this. It is given to us directly back in chapter 18, verses 4 and 5: “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, and lest you share in her plagues. For her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.” There are two contrasting cities, and there are two contrasting destinies. And the call is: come out of Babylon with whatever breaks are necessary. Come out of Babylon because her luxuries are short-lived. And you want to be on the right side of history.

And when that day of judgment for Babylon comes, it will be for the people of God the day of salvation. Chapter 21, verses 1 to 4: that rest so long anticipated will finally be realized in full.

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

We, the people of God, the citizens of Jerusalem, need to recall this and recall this and recall this every day when the beast presses hard, when she comes with her allurements and her temptations, when she threatens with force. We need to remember what an awful destiny awaits her and what a glorious future awaits the people of God. We want to be on the right side of history, and the right side of history belongs to the one who has earned the right to carry it out. The Lord Jesus has come. He has succeeded in His triumph over sin. He has accomplished the redemption of His people. He has ushered in the kingdom, and He’s earned the right to rule. And in that day, He will bring that rule to its final culmination, and all evil will be destroyed, and all of His people will share in His triumph.

In chapter 22, we are given the great invitation. If you would be a part of that holy city, to live forever in the presence of God, chapter 22, verse 17, says, then “Come.” The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Take of the water of life freely. Free salvation, purchased for us in full by the Lord Jesus. Come and take it freely. And then chapter 22, verse 20, the Lord Jesus closes His revelation with a reminder of the hope: “Surely I am coming quickly.” And for the rest of us, John says in response, “Amen. Even so, Lord Jesus, come.” Amen.

Our Father, what a glorious hope is ours in Christ. Hope is to us what we need that bears us up in our struggle against the beast, in our attempts to be faithful. We ask that Your Spirit would work into us this great sense of hope. May we live each day in anticipation of the glory that awaits us in Christ. Lord, how we long to see Him—this one who died for us, this one we’ve been waiting to see for so long—and how we long to see the world bow before Him. We ask that You would hasten that day; keep us faithful until then, we ask in His name, amen.