Behold, Jesus Is Coming (Revelation 1:4-8) - 11/30/25

Advent is the four-week season leading up to Christmas, from the Latin adventus (“coming”), when the church remembers Christ’s first coming in Bethlehem and looks ahead to His second coming in glory.

Historically, Advent began in the early centuries of the church (around the 4th–6th centuries) as a time of preparation—prayer, repentance, and instruction—before celebrating Christ’s birth.

Advent matters today because it slows us down in a noisy season, re-centers our hearts on Christ instead of consumerism, and trains us to live with hope, holiness, and expectancy between His first coming and His promised return.

This Advent at Tabernacle we’re walking through Revelation to behold the Coming King—Jesus, Lord over all creation and Lord of our lives

Revelation 1:4–8

Intro

• Advent: Hope in Christ — in His birth, life, and return.

  • Hope in the Reigning and Returning Christ.

• Our hope is anchored in who Jesus is, what He has done, and what He will surely do.

• Because Christ reigns now, rescued us, and will return, we live near to God, clean from sin, sent to people, and steady in trials.
  

Hope in Who He Is – vv. 4–5a

• Eternal Father – “who is and who was and who is to come.”

• Perfect Spirit – “the seven Spirits before His throne” (fullness / completeness).

• Reigning Son

  • Faithful Witness – His word is true; He defines reality.

  • Firstborn from the Dead – resurrection supremacy; hope stronger than death.

  • Ruler of Kings on Earth – every ruler and regime is under Him.
    

Hope in What He Did – vv. 5b–6

• Loved – “who loves us” (ongoing, personal, covenant love).

• Liberated – “freed us from our sins by His blood” (guilt canceled, chains broken).

• Commissioned – “made us a kingdom, priests” (new identity, access, assignment).

• We now live near to God and sent to people.

• Hope is not wishful thinking; it is blood-bought belonging.
  

Hope in What He Will Do – v. 7

• He Will Return as King – “He is coming with the clouds” (royal, public, unstoppable).

• All Will See Him – “every eye will see Him” (nobody hidden, nobody neutral).

• All Must Respond

  • “Those who pierced Him”…guilt is personal.

  • “All tribes of the earth will wail”… repentant mourning or final reckoning.

• The future sight of Christ should shape faithful steps today.
  

Hope as a Way of Life – v. 8

• Jesus: “I am the Alpha and the Omega… the Almighty.”

• “Who is and who was and who is to come”…  He holds our past, rules our present, secures our future.

• Therefore we live...

  • Holy – set apart because we belong to the Alpha and the Omega.

  • Sent – available where the Almighty has placed us.

  • Steadfast – unshaken because the One “who is to come” will finish what He started.