Rev 22:20+21, He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.
	As we continue with our concluding contemplations of this Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and in particular these final verses, we find a heart felt longing that should be at the core of every Christian and every corporate expression of Jesus Christ’s believers on this earth. It is the desire that makes the power of death no threat to the Christian. It is the yearning which is to be at the fore-front of every thought of our time on this earth. The true Christian should be filled with the earnest desire after the imminent return of Our Lord Jesus Christ. As we read His promise to us, "Yes, I am coming quickly" we should find ourselves forcefully and intently responding with the words recorded here, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. 
	Our everyday pattern of living, our everyday dealings with one another, our everyday habits and activities and behavior should be completely reflective of this expressed knowledge that Jesus is coming back quickly. This is something that the Church, as a whole, does not seem to relish. There seems to be no earnest desire after the Lord to come back, even at this very instant. We, as a society, have too many things to do, too much that we still hope to accomplish, that we cannot seem to take this longing and reality to heart. 
Rather than waiting in intense expectation for the return of Our Lord and Husband, we find ourselves too busy to give it even very much thoughtfulness. There is no time to order our thinking and our desires after the Lord’s return because we are too involved in doing His work or in trying to make our stay on this earth more comfortable and convenient. Rather than holding to the truth that we are just sojourners in a strange land, we embrace this world and all that it contains with the idea that we want to make our lives completely compatible in this hostile environment.
We find ourselves holding forth the desire after the Lord’s return on Sunday morning, and then taking the rest of the week as unto this world, with our desires focused on the needs of this realm. Yes, we are to work and to make a living for ourselves and our families, but it should always be tempered with the reality that all that we do we do unto Him and for His testimony in this age. Who we are at work is to be centered in Him. Who we are at home is to be centered in Him. Who we are at play is to be centered in Him. When it comes to a choice between that which is honoring to Him or pleasing to ourselves, where is the attachment of our heart? 
This is not just a question that I ask you. It is one that I am continually asking myself because, too often, I find that I am making those choices which put me at the forefront and push Him into the background. This is not to be! We do not make Sunday a ritualistic pattern of behavior because we feel guilty about doing things other than gathering together with His people. We do not make attendance at prayer meetings and Bible studies a requirement because we think it is the right thing to do. In fact, we are to get ourselves to all the times of gathering together for the sake of being in love with Jesus Christ. We want to gather together because we know it pleases Him to do so. We choose to put Him first in all our activities and desires, with the heart knowledge that He is honored in our commitment unto Him. That is why we choose to forsake any other activity or commitment than to Him, because we are learning to long for Him with all our heart, collectively and individually. 
 Our voice should be lifted up to Him as recorded in Song of Solomon 8:14, "Hurry, my beloved, And be like a gazelle or a young stag On the mountains of spices." We should be calling for Him to come back to us with all haste. This is not to be a plaintiff wale which seeks His return so that we can be put out of our misery on this earth. That is why many of us do call out to Him, you know. We do so because we are tired of the stress and the strain and the suffering. We want Him to return so that we no longer have to endure the trials and the tribulations and the grief of this time. That is not the heart that is pleasing to God. Rather, He wants us to desire Him, to long for Him, to yearn for Him with all our hearts. He is expectantly listening for the call of His Beloved because we want Him and can’t live any longer without Him, not because He will deliver us from our anguish and pain.   
	That He will do, as we know. Isa 25:7-9, And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, Even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken. And it will be said in that day, "Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation." Yet, even in the deliverance that He will bring to us, there is more encapsulated in this passage. There is hope and there is joy and there is rejoicing in Him. Yes, He is our salvation, but He is also our Beloved Husband Who has opened His heart fully unto us in the giving of Himself for us. Because He so loved us, we are to so love and long for Him.
	The love of Christ is beyond all measure and ability to describe. His depth of Being and love is beyond any measurement of human faculty. John 21:24+25, This is the disciple who bears witness of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his witness is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books which were written. In the infinite Love of God, we have been purchased unto God, Himself, through the very life of Jesus Christ. All of eternity has been lovingly opened unto us in Him. We are now made part of the very Body of Christ in the divine and direct presence of God, Almighty. Knowing the fathomless love of God so richly and freely poured out upon and into us, is it so much and is it so difficult to return that self-same heart of love freely unto God in our minds and hearts and lives? 
	This is the urging that we hear from the Apostle Paul as He wrote to Timothy at the end of his days on this earth. 2 Tim 4:7+8, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. Notice a very key point at the end of this verse. …and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. We are instructed that we are to love His appearing. This means that we are to solemnly and industriously live our lives unto the fact that He is coming again and coming very quickly. In that truth we are to lovingly expect Him at any time. We are to have our desires focused on His appearing, wanting Him to appear even this very instant. 
	How many of us truly want Him to return at this very moment, this very hour, this very day? This is a very serious question of our integrity before the Lord. Do we have our own plans of things that we want to get done today that take precedence over His return? Do we have those elements of this world which have captured our hearts and captivated our minds with miss-focused craving? Are there those rudiments of our day to day lives that we think we would miss too much if the Lord appeared too soon? Our human self-hood is so devious and manipulative as to place before us those lures of this age which enslave us in our lusts and passions away from Christ. These earthly entrapments engage our attention so thoroughly that we do not love and anticipate His appearing with all our heart and soul. Rather, we are too focused on what we want out of this world.
	The Church needs to be seeking after Christ with all our heart. We are to be beseeching Him to return to us and to return quickly. There is to be no greater focal point of prayer and supplication evident within the heart of every believer than to seek Our Lord and Savior’s appearance now, with welcome hearts and arms as a spouse eagerly awaiting the long sought after return of the other. This should be the all-consuming fire of the inward longing of every Christian. 
The writer to the Hebrews picks up this very thought in Heb 9:27+28. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. Our very basis of sinlessness before the Throne of God is secure in the person for Whom we eagerly await. Thus should be the course of our thoughts and our motivations for living on this earth. 
This is in direct opposition to what the world presents as reasons for our existence. That ranges from random actions of chaotic disorder to sublime order facilitated by self-actualization. Every motivation for life in this world is addressed in terms of doing what feels good for the limited time that we have available because there is nothing substantive to which we will be held accountable. The mantra of this age is to live for the moment without regret.
However, the reality of Christ’s imminent return puts us on a completely different level of understanding of the reason for life and the purpose behind it all. Since we do look forward to Christ coming back to judge the world, our lives are to absolutely reflect that anticipation as the Apostle Peter relates in 2 Peter 3:11-15a. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation…
This is how our call as Christ’s Church should be affecting our manner of living. We should not be fond of the things of this realm that are sure to perish with the judgment of God. We should be seeking to live in accordance with the manner of the upright and godly. This is no façade that we put on to impress others, because that pretense will be instantly incinerated in the presence of our Holy Husband. No, we rather choose to live in every manner that pleases Him. That means that we will often have to forego those times of momentary earthly pleasure for the sake of our continually being established in the eternal lifestyle of which we already partake. … Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless… While it might seem that we are missing out in this life, there is nothing that this world can offer which can, at all, compare to the glory of God in Jesus Christ. To see His face and to hear His declaration that we are His own Beloved bride will utterly cause any sense of supposed earthly loss to evaporate in the glory of His love.
We will join with John, the writer of this Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, in hearing those words of life that Jesus will speak to each of us. Rev 1:17+18, And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. 
In Him is life. He is our life forevermore. We would never want to miss that tremendous course of the eternal presence of our Beloved Husband. Everything depends on Him and finds its source and its fulfillment in Him. Thus we will be with Him always. It will be a time of unreserved and absolute magnificence and grandeur and celebration and rejoicing in Him.
Ps 96:12+13, Let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy Before the Lord, for He is coming; For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, And the peoples in His faithfulness. All of creation will join the chorus of the Church in the aftermath of what Christ Jesus will accomplish. There will be established righteousness and equity and holiness and truth, which is the bedrock of the relationship which we even now have with our Lord Jesus Christ. The life that we live today is to give expression to this in the manner in which we honor Him in all our dealings with others. 
Our eternity with Christ has already begun. We are here at this time for the purpose of His choosing, to express in life Who He is and what He has done for the sake of others. But our hearts already belong to Him and we should be living in full accordance with that certainty. 
Let us conduct ourselves in the manner of the pure Bride expecting the imminent return of her Husband, with holiness and with joy and with the knowledge that we have pleased Him and remained faithful to Him each moment of each day on this earth. 
	It will not be long until the happening foretold in 1 Thess 4:16+17, is accomplished. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Amen.
	Next week, Lord willing, we will finish with our reading and study of the New Testament and specifically with this Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. We will then begin to read together the Old Testament. Let us pray that the Lord will guide us in our further understanding of His truth. We need to be guided into the fact that every word of His scripture testifies to the plan and purpose that has eternally been in His heart, the glorification of His Only Begotten Son. So be it!
He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.