He's Coming Quickly
Learned in the sales world, if you have something to say in about three sentences, to ask for 60 seconds. Yeah, that’s a good idea. Finishes, hey, can you give me 15 minutes? A few? Just give me a few.
So the word few means less than 10. No, it’s undefined. It’s like, hey, I’ll be back in a little bit. Yeah, that’s what I need to do.
And then whenever time becomes a source of contention, say, Well, Jesus promised He’d be back shortly.
(https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$...)
I think it repeats the word shortly at least twice in Revelation. Return quickly. Yeah. Whatever it does, what does it say? Oh, man. How did they say it? What can I not remember the phrase? If you’re going to say it? It’s a, um, I’m looking it up.
You gotta, you gotta mispronounce it on purpose and say a little bit Southern, because you’re not preaching unless you’re Southern, huh?
Yeah, it’s in there twice.
Revelation 1:1
Once is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which, by the way, can I introduce you to my son? Here He is Jesus Christ. This is the full unveiling. Now He’s taken off the robe. He’s stepping into the ring in this corner, representing the good and the right, without dimension and without beginning of days or end of life, having no genealogy and being from everywhere.
Here He is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him to show unto His servants the things which must shortly come to pass, and He sent and signified it by His angel into His servant John.
I love that. There’s a whole lot in that first verse. Most people miss it because they fill in the pronouns.
(https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$...)
So I’m a huge fan of pronouns only because pronouns are containers that are supposed to receive the proper filling of the antecedent. And the antecedent, in this case is Jesus, which is crazy. It’s not John.
So a lot of people would read that and say the revelation Jesus Christ, which God gave, and I’m going to put it in there, which God gave unto Jesus.
So it’s a good habit starting in the fourth grade, to teach kids to read the verse, filling in the antecedent and see if it fits. If it doesn’t fit, then you have to find another antecedent.
So if it reads this way, which is not an injustice to Scripture at all, it’s just coloring inside the lines: the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Jesus Christ for the purpose to show unto the servants of Jesus Christ, the things which must shortly come to pass.
And He, God, the Father, sent and signified it. That’s the message, the revelation of His Son, by His angel, unto His servant, John.
So that word angel messenger, that could either be Jesus or could be just a basic messenger. I think it’s appropriate to put Jesus in there as well. That God sent and signified this divine last letter of the revelation by His son unto His servant, John.
Anyway, sorry, Revelation 22 so that’s revelation one says, I’m I’m telling you that things, things are going to come to shortly to pass. Revelation 22 now we’re really close to the end of the world.
And it says, And He said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true, and the Lord God of the Holy Prophets, sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly be done.
So He’s quoting Himself in verse one, because it’s close enough to say He sent His angel to show unto His servants. That’s a duplicate word, servants plural. Now, initially, He said He showed it unto His servant John, now He’s saying that He’s showing it unto His servants plural, the things which must shortly be done.
(https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$...)
Behold, I Come Quickly
Behold, I come shortly, half a short time. Ah, let me look at this. This one. There’s one more to tie it all together. There it is, behold I come quickly twice. Wow.
Revelation 22:7, behold I come quickly.
And Revelation 22:12, and behold I come quickly. My reward is with Me to give to every man according to his work shall be.
All right. Anyway.
So it’s it’s short time in God’s eyes, and He wants us to act with urgency and purpose and diligence and to be looking and anticipating His imminent arrival.
Amen.
From now on, I’ll just say, let me make this phone call real quickly.
The beauty of God’s timeline isn’t that we can calculate it. The beauty is that His “quickly” demands our constant readiness.