Amen, Come Lord Jesus: Revelation 22:20 Explained
Short answer: Amen, come Lord Jesus is the church's answer to Jesus' promise that he is coming quickly, found in Revelation 22:20, which says, He who testifies these things says, “Yes, I come quickly.” Amen! Yes, come, Lord Jesus. The word amen means it is true and firm; the prayer come means we actually want him to return. Together they express trust and longing, not dread. Revelation 22:21 closes the whole Bible with grace, showing the return of Christ is a hope for forgiven sinners, not a threat to them. Praying this prayer is not a wish for escape from the world but a love for the Lord who is at hand, as Philippians 4:5 says, The Lord is at hand.
What Revelation 22:20 Actually Says
Revelation 22:20 has two voices, and reading them in order matters. First Jesus speaks: He who testifies these things says, “Yes, I come quickly.” Then the church answers: Amen! Yes, come, Lord Jesus. The promise comes before the prayer. We do not create the hope of Christ's return; we respond to a promise he has already made. Much confusion about the end times would clear up if we kept that order. The Lord speaks first, and the church answers with trust. Our prayer is a reply, not a demand.
The setting is the closing of a vision that has moved through judgment, deliverance, and a renewed creation. After all the seals, trumpets, and bowls, after the beast and the harlot and the dragon have been answered, the last word is not about beasts but about Jesus. He is the one testifying, and his testimony is that he comes quickly. That word quickly does not give us a calendar; it gives us a posture. Every generation of believers is meant to live as if the Lord could come in their lifetime.
The verse also shows that true Christian hope is personal. Jesus does not merely say that a plan will complete or a kingdom will arrive; he says, I come. The return of Christ is the return of a person who has already loved his people and given himself for them. That is why the church can say come to a returning judge without fear. The one coming is the one who died for us. Revelation 1:7 says, Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Even so, Amen.
Notice that Revelation 1:7 also ends with Amen. Even the announcement of coming judgment, which will cause the tribes of the earth to mourn, receives an Amen in that verse, because the same coming that terrifies the unrepentant is the vindication and rescue of the saints. The final Amen of Revelation 22:20 carries that same double weight. It agrees with everything God has said, including the hard things, and it welcomes the Lord whose coming settles every account. The prayer is a settled confidence, not a nervous guessing game about dates.
Why the Last Word of the Bible Is a Prayer
It is worth pausing on where this prayer sits. The Bible ends not with a command or a doctrine but with a longing. The Holy Spirit and the bride say, Come. That invitation, which appears just before verse 20, flows into the prayer that closes the book. Revelation teaches us that the church's deepest instinct is not fear of the end but desire for the Lord. A church that never prays for Christ's return has lost something the Spirit himself creates in the hearts of believers.
This is also a corporate prayer. The words are not recorded as one apostle's private devotion, though John certainly shares them. The closing chapter of Revelation presents the bride, the church, speaking. Amen, come, Lord Jesus is therefore a prayer the assembly can pray together. It is not a hobby for prophecy enthusiasts. It belongs in the worship of ordinary congregations, alongside confession, thanksgiving, and intercession. When the church prays for the Lord's return, it is praying its own identity, because the church is the people who await him.
Acts and the epistles show the same instinct. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 16:22, If any man doesn’t love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cursed. Come, Lord! The Aramaic prayer Marana tha, come Lord, was known to everyday believers in the first century. It was not reserved for specialists. The earliest Christians greeted one another and closed their letters with it. The final prayer of the Bible is therefore not a strange ending; it is the church's habitual prayer finally given its place of honour.
There is also a pastoral reason for ending with prayer. The Bible does not leave us only looking backward at what God has done, though it does that richly. It leaves us looking forward. In the meantime, before the Lord comes, we live in a world that still wounds and confuses the saints. A prayer for his coming keeps the hope alive. It teaches us to hold earthly things loosely and eternal things tightly. Revelation 22:21 closes the book with grace and that is exactly what a waiting church needs.
The Aramaic Prayer Behind the Greek Text
The churches to whom Revelation was first sent likely knew a short prayer in their own everyday language. Paul preserves it in 1 Corinthians 16:22: Come, Lord! The earliest believers were Jewish and Aramaic-speaking, and they prayed Marana tha, which means our Lord, come. By the time Revelation was written, the same prayer had been translated into Greek and placed at the very end of the Bible. That kind of survival tells us the prayer was precious. It was not a phrase one teacher used; it was the heartbeat of the early church.
Because the prayer is so short, it carries a whole theology in a single breath. It confesses that Jesus is Lord and that he is coming. It assumes he is able to come and that his coming is desirable. It places the church in a posture of dependence and hope. Any reader who prays this prayer is saying, in effect, that Jesus is more important than anything else the world has to offer, and that the completion of all things belongs to him.
Aramaic-speaking believers did not think of this prayer as exotic. It was close to home, like a family saying. That is a rebuke to the temptation to make the second coming a technical puzzle for specialists. The New Testament assumes that farmers, servants, and children in the church could pray for the Lord's return. The theology behind the prayer is deep, but the prayer itself fits in the mouth of the simplest believer. Revelation 22:20 says, Amen! Yes, come, Lord Jesus. The whole church is invited to speak it.
Some translations and traditions handle this phrase differently, and faithful Christians have differed over how much weight to put on the original Aramaic in the Greek text. What matters for our purpose is that the New Testament church prayed for Jesus to come. That fact is not disputed across the major streams of Christian tradition. Whether a believer prays in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, or English, the content is the same: the Lord is asked to return, and the asking is an act of faith and love.
Amen as Agreement, Not Decoration
In the Bible, amen is not a word for ending prayers politely. It is a word of firmness and truth. When God makes a promise, he confirms it, and when his people say amen, they are saying that his promise is reliable. In Revelation 22:20, the Amen comes right after the Lord says, “Yes, I come quickly.” The church is not adding a ritual syllable; it is agreeing with what God has said. The prayer that follows is possible only because the Amen has been spoken first.
This order protects the church from presumption. We do not gather up our longings and throw them at heaven as if God owes us a return on our schedule. We hear his promise, say amen to it, and then ask for what he has already pledged. That is how biblical prayer ordinarily works. It is a response to revelation. We are not informing God of our needs; he already knows them. We are aligning our hearts with his promises and asking him to be true to his word, which he always is.
Amen also has a corporate dimension. When one believer prays in the assembly and others say amen, they are not spectators; they are agreeing with the prayer on behalf of the whole body. That is why the prayer for Christ's return is well suited to public worship. It joins the gathered church to a promise God has made to all of them. Each voice saying amen is a small confession that the return of Christ is my hope too.
The word also carries moral weight. To say amen to a prayer for the Lord's coming while living in defiance of him is a contradiction. Scripture is honest about that. If any man doesn't love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cursed, says 1 Corinthians 16:22. The seriousness of this warning is not an argument against the prayer; it is an invitation for every reader to examine whether the prayer is actually true of them. The final chapter of the Bible closes with grace, but it does not close with indifference. It asks us to mean what we say.
Come, Lord Jesus Is a Prayer of Watchfulness
The New Testament does not separate hope for the return of Christ from how we live in the present. 2 Peter 3:12 speaks of looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, which will cause the burning heavens to be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. That is a strong picture of the end of the present order. Peter does not present it to frighten Christians; he tells them that living in light of the day of God is exactly what holy conduct looks like. The prayer for Christ to come is a petition that shapes the petitioner.
Watchfulness does not mean reading the newspaper to map out prophecy charts. It means living as someone whose master could walk through the door at any moment. It means honest work, ordinary faithfulness, and love that will not need to be repented of. It also means willingness to be found doing the small duties God has given us. A person who prays come, Lord Jesus and then neglects his family, deceives his employer, or sows division in his church has not understood the prayer. The prayer is not a substitute for obedience; it is a motive for it.
Watchfulness also produces patience. The Lord has not told us when he is coming, and the church has waited for a long time. Faithful Christians have disagreed about whether the return of Christ will be preceded by decades of tribulation, a millennium, or a sudden and quiet removal of the church, and honest disagreement should be acknowledged rather than hidden. What all believers can share is the posture Paul commends in Philippians 4:5: Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Nearness of the Lord produces gentleness, not anxiety.
At the same time, watchfulness is not passive. Christians are called to work, serve, pray, and bear witness while they wait. The prayer, Come, Lord Jesus, is not an excuse to retreat from the world. It is a request that the Lord himself would come and complete what he has already begun in his people and in the world. It is possible to long for his coming and still love the neighbour in front of you. In fact, the New Testament insists that the two belong together. We wait for Christ by serving him now.
What Happens When the Lord Comes
When the church prays come, it is asking for something specific. The New Testament describes the return of Christ with concrete words. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God's trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first. Then, the passage continues, those who are still alive will be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. The prayer for Christ to come is a prayer for resurrection and reunion.
This is why the final prayer of the Bible is not merely a wish for the world to end. It is a prayer for the dead in Christ to rise, for living believers to be gathered, and for the whole creation to be freed from its groaning. Revelation 21 and 22 describe a new heaven and a new earth, the holy city coming down, and God dwelling with his people. There will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. The prayer Amen, come, Lord Jesus is a prayer for those realities to become sight instead of hope.
It is also a prayer with a warning embedded in it. Revelation 1:7 says, Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Even so, Amen. The coming of Christ will not be ambiguous or hidden at the end. Every eye will see him. That is good news for those who love him and a sobering reality for those who have refused him. The prayer for his coming is therefore not a private sentiment; it is a prayer that the whole world will finally see the truth about Jesus.
Because of that, the prayer for Christ's return should be prayed in tandem with a prayer for the salvation of the lost. It is inconsistent to long for the return of the Lord while being indifferent to the people around us who do not know him. The Apostle John, who recorded the final prayer of the Bible, also wrote that whoever loves God should love his brother. The longing for Christ's return should make us more, not less, concerned for those who have not yet believed. The prayer for his coming is a mission motive.
How to Pray This Prayer Today
The first way to pray this prayer is simply to say it. There is nothing wrong with using the words of Scripture as our own words. When we say Amen, come, Lord Jesus, we are joining the church of every century. We do not need to dress the prayer up or explain it to God. Short, scriptural prayer is real prayer. A believer can say it at the start of the day, when receiving communion, when lying awake at night, or when standing at the graveside of a loved one.
The second way is to pray it with the right posture. This prayer is an expression of love, not merely of impatience. If our main reason for wanting the Lord to return is that we are tired of our circumstances, our hearts may need to be examined. But if our reason is that we love him and want to see him face to face, then we are praying as the Spirit intends. The church is described in Revelation as the bride, and a bride does not merely want a wedding to be over. She loves the bridegroom.
The third way is to let the prayer shape our days. If the Lord is at hand, then we can be gentle with the difficult coworker. If the Lord is at hand, then we can forgive the person who wronged us. If the Lord is at hand, then we can give generously, serve quietly, and speak truth without fear. The prayer will either puff us up as people who think they know the times and seasons, or it will humble us as people who know the Lord. The way we live will show which has happened.
Finally, the whole Bible closes with grace: Revelation 22:21 speaks of the grace of the Lord Jesus being with all the saints. The prayer for Christ's return is surrounded by grace on both sides. We do not earn a seat at his coming, and we do not prepare ourselves for it by our own strength. We are kept by the grace of the Lord Jesus until the day he comes. That is why the church can pray boldly and wait patiently. The one who is coming is the one who has already saved us by his grace, and he will finish what he started.
Biblical fidelity check
Revelation 22:20-21 establishes several things plainly. It records that Jesus promised to come quickly, that the church answered with Amen and with the prayer for him to come, and that the book ends with a grace blessing for the saints. It also, through the surrounding chapters, ties the return of Christ to resurrection, judgment, and the renewal of all things. What this passage does not do is give a date, a sequence of end-time events, or a map for predicting when these things will happen. The text says quickly, not on a particular day. Faithful Christians have held differing views on the timing of the return, and these differences should be acknowledged humbly.
A common misreading treats the prayer as a sign of escapism or as an embarrassment best left in the past. Some readers, reacting against speculative prophecy teaching, quietly drop the second coming from their faith. But the same Bible that warns against date-setting also ends with this prayer and teaches believers to wait with hope. Another common misreading treats the prayer as if it were ours to control, as though enough prayer or enough correct doctrine would force the Lord to come on our timetable. The verse does not support that. The Lord says he comes quickly; the church says amen and asks. That is the pattern, and it leaves the timing with God.
Other passages that speak to Revelation 22:20
The longing for Christ's return runs through the whole New Testament, and several studies help trace it. For a pastoral treatment of Jesus' welcome to sinners, see Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ: A Bible Study from C. H. Spurgeon's Classic Sermon. To see how the earliest disciples were called to follow the Lord they awaited, see Jesus and the Gospels Season 1 Episode 4 Bible Study Guide: Peter, Calling, and Following Jesus. For the prayer Marana tha in its original letter setting, see 1 Corinthians Bible Study: Seeing Jesus in 1 Corinthians. And for how waiting for Christ produces holy living under pressure, see 1 Peter Bible Study: Seeing Jesus in 1 Peter.
Frequently asked questions
What does Amen, come Lord Jesus mean?
Amen means that what God has said is true and firm. The prayer come, Lord Jesus asks him to return as he promised. Revelation 22:20 joins the two: Jesus says he is coming quickly, and the church replies with agreement and longing. It is both a confession of faith and a request, not a wish for escape but a love for the returning Lord.
Is it right to pray for Jesus to return today?
Yes. The Bible itself ends with this prayer, and 1 Corinthians 16:22 preserves the same request in Aramaic. Christians are taught to wait with hope for the Lord's return, and praying for it is a way of expressing that hope. At the same time, we pray it with patience, leaving the timing to God and serving him faithfully in the meantime.
Why does the Bible end with a prayer instead of a command?
The closing prayer shows what the whole story has been aiming at: fellowship with the Lord who is coming. The Bible does not end with a rule to master but with a relationship to long for. It leaves the reader not merely informed but invited, turning to the Lord himself and asking him to come. Revelation 22:21 then closes with grace.
