The Son Who Is Coming

Sequence 85 is Pe (80) and Hei (5) — and it closes the quarter on the year's own governing letter. The Hebrew year 5787 resolves to Pe (80) and Zayin (7): the mouth given an edge and a crown. Here the Pe appears joined not to the sword but to the Hei, the window, the letter of breath and revelation — the opening left in a wall so that what is enclosed is never sealed. The quarter began on the silent Aleph; it ends on the mouth and the window. Behold, I am coming quickly is the sentence, and the window is how it reaches us.

The theme.

The quarter closes where the New Testament closes: with a promise of return and a congregation answering it. Everything taught since September has been about who He is; this final Sabbath is about what we are waiting for. Teach expectation as a discipline rather than a mood. The congregation is not asked to speculate about timing but to live in a particular way because of a certainty.

The School of Scriptures.

I.Grace That Instructs

Titus ties the appearing of grace to a curriculum: it instructs us to deny and to live. Teach against the two errors in the room — those who hear grace as permission and those who hear instruction as merit. The same grace that saves also trains.

II.In the Present Age

The waiting is done here, sensibly and righteously, in the ordinary present. Expectation that produces withdrawal from work, family or civic responsibility has misread the text. Show that hope in the New Testament always produces engagement, never evacuation.

III.Everyone Who Has This Hope Purifies Himself

1 John 3:2-3 gives the ethical consequence of the return: we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is — and everyone who has this hope purifies himself. The motive for holiness here is resemblance to a Person we are about to see, not fear of a penalty.

IV.The Spirit and the Bride Say Come

Close the quarter on Revelation 22:17 and 20. The last movement of scripture is an invitation extended outward and a prayer offered upward. Let CMI end this quarter doing both: inviting whoever is thirsty, and answering the promise with Amen, come, Lord Jesus.

The Table.

At the breaking of the breadWe take the bread proclaiming His death until He comes — a meal that will one day be unnecessary because the One it remembers will be at the table in person.

At the cupBehold, I am coming quickly. We take the cup as those who answer that sentence rather than merely hear it: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

The summons for the new week

Go into this week and into the coming quarter as people expecting Him. Order one thing in your life this week that you would not want to be found doing, and start one thing you would want to be found doing. Then extend the invitation: speak to one person this month who is thirsty, and say come.