Word of Salvation – Vol. 27 No. 10 – December 1981
“Come”
Sermon by Rev. A. I. de Graaf, B.D. on Revelation 22:17
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 55; John 7:33-37
Psalter Hymnal: Nos. 183:1,3; 76:1,4; 413; 55; 337
The Sundays before Christmas, as you know, are called the Sundays of “ADVENT”. And Advent means “Coming”. In so far as you really can call our text today an advent text because repeatedly we hear there the key word “Come”. That word is the very theme of it. You know, the whole bible really is the book of the coming of God. The coming of God to those that did not ask Him to, that did not seek Him that did not want Him at all.
The whole Bible is the book of His coming. Both in judgement – in terrible judgement – and in grace – in wondrous, unbelievable grace! He came in judgement already in the garden when man and woman crawled away shivering in the bushes and there was that well-known voice calling: “Adam… where are you?”
He came – man could not shut him out …and later when man’s sin had made the world one hopeless cesspool He came again and flushed it out with the flood. He came all right! He came and will come: as in the days of the flood. People can think that they can do what they like but like the sudden labour pains upon a pregnant woman so He will come, and so the world will see Him come, too. He will come to end the rebellion in judgement fair and true.
But the coming of God is also a coming in grace: a coming to redeem. And when no man could be found to do that himself, to come in Christ Jesus to bear away the leaden load of guilt. And yes, because He did that He will come to finish the work. And all of this book Revelation was full of the message that one day every eye will see Him coming to bring back here the justice, the truth and the beauty that God meant this creation to have to the glory of His holy name and to the delight of the children of men.
But then there is also that other “coming” that the Bible is full about. Not only is it the book of the coming of God but it is also the ok of the coming – at least the call to the coming – of men: the call to lost sons and daughters to come back to Him! The Bible truly is the back-to-God-book. “Don’t keep standing there in the cold!” ― He says ― “Don’t hang around hungry and thirsty any longer!” “Come home!” “Come to me all who are weary and loaded down so heavily!” “Why shall you die? Come and live!” It is that invitation we hear throughout the Bible too, and how strong is it here on this last page of scripture! In our text, then, we hear that “COME!” to two sides ― it is a cry to Jesus to come and finish His new creation. COME JESUS! And it is the cry towards the lost homeless stranger to “come home… COME SINNER!”
1. That’s what the SPIRIT says
2. That’s what the BRIDE says
3. That’s what the HEARER says
and yes, we hope then also that
4. That’s what the THIRSTY ONE says.
1. COME… says THE SPIRIT
Yes, he says it to the bridegroom. He, the spirit who once brooded on the waters when God was making His world a world of life and beauty.. He the spirit hates valleys full of dead bones and an earth stinking of pollution and rotting away with death. The spirit is restless until all creation is once more one song of praise. He it is also, who makes children of God restless with that longing. Come, – says the Spirit, – come now Son of God! The spirit wants beauty and justice. The spirit above all wants broken hearts in which God begins to rule again – the spirit wants lives turned around from sin and from selfishness and from rebellion …towards obedience, towards God!
The spirit wants that and so the spirit cries to the Son, to the Bridegroom whom he once made come into the world: “COME AGAIN, COME!”
And the calling of the Spirit is not the helpless call of one who cannot do anything about it either. His call is the call of one who day and night is at work, restlessly at work in people made new, to hasten the day. But this Spirit does not only call “COME” to Christ whom He once made come, whose body He once patiently prepared in the body of Mary, – He also is the spirit of the Son, calling “COME” to people in the world, to people wandering in darkness. Come – He says, through the book He wrote, for is that not what the Bible is which He inspired??
Come – He says – through the preaching of the word; come – He says – through this sacrament and through the church in which He dwells. Pentecost feast was mission feast: We know that, but Christmas feast is also the feast of the Spirit. For that Spirit that sent out men and women into Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria and the world first sent out the Son of God. The Spirit prepared His body in Mary’s body and later on anointed Him out into the desert. There He started the battle against the evil one. The Spirit drove Him on to the cross! So the Spirit says to you and me: come! The Spirit is the one in whom the almighty stretches out His hands – the Spirit-prepared human hands of Jesus to you and me. And He says “COME” Come ye sinner, poor and needy!
DID NOT I THE LORD, COME TO YOU FIRST?
– 2 – COME said the Spirit – COME, also, says the BRIDE.
She says it first of all to her bridegroom of course, singing her Song of Songs – her song of longing love and she is Christ’s new mankind, the new Jerusalem, a building the church!! The body of Christ that longs visibly to be united with her only head. She longs for that, for the flourishing and feasting of love, she longs not just for things, not just for happiness even, not just for riches and rest but for Him. And it is the Spirit who makes her sing that, the Spirit who makes her see, that’s why the Spirit comes first. He sings that song in the heart of the bride, and makes her see her true need and her true joy as she does not know even how to pray as she ought. Come – she sings, she learns to sing, come my beloved one, that I may be with you always…!
But then the bride also sings that song – “COME!” – towards the sinner as a song of invitation. She shares the bridegroom’s compassion, her hands become his hands, her heart his heart, through his eyes she learns to look at the lost and the lonely, the suffering and the sinful.
The church is not in the world to call or even feel herself to be the elite of the world like the Jews felt themselves in the synagogue of Nazareth. Jesus preached and spoke of God’s love for the outsiders, the gentiles, but the hometown folk were so mad they wanted to throw him down the cliff. No the bride, the church, is not a club. She is open and hospitable. She is not like some women today who always want to be skinnier and skinnier. This bride knows that in order to please her bride she must grow… and grow… and grow. The doors open, the hearts welcoming, compassionate and communicating… the Spirit and the bride say: Come, they say it to the Lord, to the Saviour …and therefore they say it to the sinner.
– 3 – so it follows then what is in point 3: COME…. says also THE HEARER
He who hears….! That is: He who has been won over by the message, and now He says also: “Come” to Jesus. He is to learn that as lesson one? He gives the rudder, the steering wheel out of his own hands and calls the Lord to take over. He yields to one stronger and wiser than he. Come Lord, take my life. Do with it what you like.
But then note what that hearer also does: Then it is He of all people who says “Come” to sinners, to his old friends he used to have in the world. I have seen that so often with joy in my heart: new Christians, newly won converts, are often the best and most fruitful evangelists. They not only know the grace of God from their own hard-won experience as a wonderful life-changing thing, but also: because they have all those former friends as ready-made contacts many of us do not have.
Many church people grew up, protected in a circle of Christian people. Our fathers and mothers were worried when we played too much with unbelieving children. Later on when we started to live adolescent social lives, didn’t they hover over us to make sure we would not get caught in contacts that were to draw us away from God and His church?
I can still hear my dad telling me off when I had spent another long evening at the home of a friend who just BELONGED TO ANOTHER CHURCH (He wasn’t even an unbeliever). Then I was angry. Now with growing children of my own I understand. You want your children to avoid the friendship of the world… and particularly the lonely heartbreak of the mixed marriage. But the result often is that we have no friends who really know and trust us to whom we can say “COME”. The outsider however has plenty of them. And when he discovers the wonder and beauty of Jesus, he wants to win his friends too. He then who hears, says in turn – not only to Jesus but also to them: “COME!” And that is a wonderful thing indeed.
– 4 – Now finally: “COME” – What will the THIRSTY ONE say?
Do you know how thirsty you are, small one? Do you know who alone can satisfy your life? Why spend all your money – says Isaiah – on what does NOT satisfy? Why go all out for what eventually leaves you cold and unfulfilled and open to God’s everlasting judgement. Why be so stupid?? Learn to say “COME!” Come Lord Jesus, also to me! Come to Him who came to you! The text says: whoever wishes, let him take the water of life for nothing. You have to learn to wish, you have to learn to will. And that is then grace again, who alone but God can open an unwilling heart? Yet it stands here and stands here with no strings attached: ‘Whosoever will let him come and drink’. Drink without price that is: You do not have to say it – the price is enormous but He paid it!
Christ paid it in full.
When we have discovered that and are overcome by the wonder of that, we will sit down and see the cost to us, but that is no sacrifice, no bitterness for us. It is life instead: the Lord of love taking over and filling a formerly empty shell with meaning and purpose, yes, and it is with longing too.
The free grace of Jesus is no cheap grace. He paid a tremendous price, but get it free please! The free grace of Jesus is no cheap grace. He asks total surrender: But it is the surrender of the bride to the bridegroom. It is the surrender of love that says possess me, and make me yours completely, for you belong to me, and I belong to you. Thanks be to God that I no longer live unto myself, but to Him who loves me and gave Himself for me.
I am no longer in the slavery and tyranny of self and sin, but I am one with Him whose is the power and the beauty and the glory of a new creation… COME! That is the song of our text. It is the advent song of the whole bible. Come Lord Jesus… And: Come sinner, don’t stay outside. Why shall you die?
Amen.