Good to see everyone this fine fall morning.
we’ll see if it sticks around more than a week or so.
We’re going to be in Revelation chapter twenty two this morning.
I had intended to get into chapter 22 last week, and we didn’t quite get there, but we’ll
we’ll get into it this week in our study.
Let’s begin with a word of prayer.
Our gracious Father in Heaven, giver of all good and perfect gifts, Father of light, Lord,
we are grateful for your blessings.
We’re grateful for your tender mercies.
We’re grateful for your love and your concern.
your provision, your daily bread that you provide us with, and we ask that you help us to
forgive others as we are forgiven by you.
We ask that you help us to show mercy as we have been shown mercy by you.
We ask that we might be conduit for your grace to go out into the world in our daily
activities, but also through the spreading of the gospel and the teaching of the truth.
Lord, we pray that we might always be diligent in these things, that we might always hold
fast to the word, that we might never depart from it, might never change it.
We’re mindful of the promises of Scripture, the ones that have a reward, but also those
that have a judgment.
And Lord, we pray that we might strive daily and diligently to live in view of the cross
and to live and to walk in the light of the
As you are in the light.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Revelation twenty two
Opens with an and he showed me that this is a progression of things that the angel who
came to John, the angel who had the one of the seven bowls that he poured out the wrath of
God, he comes to John and he says, Let me show you the bride.
When John is first approached by the angel, John sees the city.
And John sees the nature of the city that we’ve talked about in the last two weeks.
City four square, a city 1,500 miles wide, 1,500 miles long, 1,500 miles tall.
He sees the foundation adorned with precious jewels and the names of the apostles.
He sees the gate, and every gate is just one giant pearl.
He sees that there’s no sun.
For the Lamb and the Father are the light in that city.
He sees that the nations and the kings of the nations bring their riches, their wealth,
their power, and bring it into the city.
Now, this is an interesting contrast, by the way, because through the book, you remember
when the angel came forth and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city which
deceived the nations of the world.
And then you have in chapter 15 and chapter 16 the picture of the great harlot who has
seduced the nations.
One of the things that God is making clear is that Rome was a horrible partner.
Rome was not someone that you wanted to create a long-term alliance with because they were
seducing you so as to take everything you had.
There are relationships in life that are upright, that are undefiled, that are good.
And then there are relationships in life where you realize I’m getting the raw end of the
deal on this no matter how it goes.
And that was Rome.
But notice the contrast of God’s kingdom to Rome’s kingdom.
Here the kings of the nations find God’s kingdom, and they willingly and with their own
desire bring their glory into it and make it subservient to the kingdom of God.
Ignore for a moment.
The natural difficulties of personality and background, and ask yourself this question.
If every ruler of every nation under heaven was a member of the Lord’s church and a part
of the kingdom, would there be another war to fight?
Not if they were behaving like Christians.
Not if they were ruling like Christians, not if they were serving their people as a leader
that serves instead of a leader that demands.
Not if they were exhibiting in their life and in their actions the sacrifice of Christ.
Not if they were praying to the Lord at the beginning of their day, Lord, forgive us of
our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.
You would have nations go, I know that you did wrong there.
Now how can we help you do right?
What John is seeing as he sees the kings and the nations come into the kingdom, the bride,
the church.
is he’s seeing a world remade in the image of God.
when people choose to do what’s right instead of what’s wrong.
Has there ever been a nation’s capital in all of Old or New Testament history that from
the least to the greatest bowed the knee before God and repented?
Shake your head this way.
Tell me what minor profit it is.
There was this prophet that was sent to a nation it wasn’t Israel.
Matter of fact, it was an enemy of Israel.
It was a threat to Israel.
And Jonah said, I ain’t going.
I don’t want that people saved.
I don’t want that horrible, ungodly, perverse nation that worships idols to be allowed to
remain on this planet.
They are a threat to us.
They are a threat to everything we are.
And the world’s better off without them.
So Jonah got on a boat headed to Tarshish, the polar opposite direction of Nineveh.
Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrians.
Nineveh was a city devoted to idolatry, in a nation devoted to heinous acts against their
enemies.
And I mean heinous.
You think you do harm to the fish when you catch him in a hook and pull him out of the
water.
You should see what the Assyrians did to their enemies.
Absolutely.
As a national Israelite, you could understand Jonah’s thinking.
As a matter of fact, Jonah before the end of the book will wish that he was dead.
And I firmly believe it’s because he knows word is gonna get back to his own nation that
he’s the reason the Assyrians are alive.
But God tells Jonah.
You’re going to go to the city, and you’re going to preach to the city, and you’re going
to preach this message.
Repent, or in forty days you will be destroyed.
And Jonah will be delivered to a approximate location near the city by his escort, a well
prepared fish.
And Jonah will walk into the city and it will be a three day walk across the city.
Proclaiming the message repent, or in forty days you will perish.
Now do you remember in the book of Revelation before those seven bowls were poured out,
there were angels that went forth and proclaimed to the nation that was Rome Repent,
repent or else?
God did for Rome what God did for Assyria.
God gave them an opportunity.
The difference is Assyria repented.
But what you’re seeing in the end of chapter twenty one is you’re seeing that some of the
nations that were once those who had succumbed to the idolatry and the harlotry and the
worship of Rome.
Vented.
some of the nations that had been seduced by Rome when they watched Rome fall.
Sed who is this Christ?
That we can worship him.
When you go look at history.
As Rome begins to decline, the
And troubles begin.
What does one Roman ruler end up doing?
He actually ends up
We’ll put this in air quotes converting.
And turns and makes Christianity the whole national religion in Rome.
And Christianity in the two hundreds and three hundreds AD spreads and spreads and
spreads.
All while Rome goes.
But chapter twenty two opens.
And we’re not looking at anything different.
We’re still looking at the bride.
The one who had the bowl with the judgment of God, the angel, shows John, here’s a picture
of the bride, it’s the city.
Here’s a picture of the bride, it’s the nations coming into the city.
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal proceeding from the
throne of God and of the Lamb.
As John i again, I I I love the idea of a of the movie, the camera just it it starts off,
it’s got this wide view, you see the fifteen hundred foot or fifteen hundred mile wide
city, and it’s so wide and then it zooms in and it zooms in and it zooms in, past the
gates, past the walls, down into the heart of the city.
And in the heart of the city there’s a river running through the midst of the city.
Quick question, what Old Testament world power had a capital city with a river that ran
through it?
Babylon.
You know the difference between God’s city and Nebuchadnezzar’s city?
The source of the water.
‘Cause the source of the water at Babylon was the reason the city fell.
You s
Cyrus came along and said, I I can’t besiege the city and conquer it.
Because they’ve got a river that runs through it.
They never run out of food.
If you never run out of water, you never run out of food.
You can’t starve a city to death through a siege if they never run out of food.
So Cyrus said, Fine, I’ll divert the Euphrates River.
And Cyrus took the Euphrates river that ran under the wall of Babylon, that made Babylon
undefeatable, and he not only diverted it, he then took his army under the wall in the
riverbed and into the city.
The thing that the Babylonians thought made their city undefeatable, because its source
wasn’t in the city, made them fall in one night.
But as John is shown picture after picture after picture, he says, Let me show you a city
where the source of the river that flows is in the middle of the city.
How do you divert a city’s source of water when the source is inside the city?
You can’t.
As a matter of fact, the river of water of life flows from inside the city out.
In John chapter four, Jesus sat by a well.
And a woman came to draw water and Jesus asked for a drink from her.
And she was puzzling as to why him being a Jew would ask a drink from her, a Samaritan
woman.
And Jesus would tell her, if you knew who I was, you would ask for a drink from me, and I
would give you of the water of life, and you would never thirst again.
And the woman says, I want some of this water.
But you don’t have anything to draw with.
How are you going to give me a job?
The woman, by the time she realized that he was the Messiah,
No longer wondered how she’d get access to the water.
She just wanted to tell every friend that she had, every person she knew, every person in
her city.
that there was access to living water outside their city.
You see, in the city of God, the water flows from inside out.
And notice he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from
the throne of God and of the Lamb.
In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river was the tree of life.
Where do we where are we first introduced to the tree of life?
The Garden of Eden.
Genesis 1 and 2.
When Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis 3.
What did God place at the edge of the garden so that they would lose access to the tree of
life?
Flaming sword.
God says sin doesn’t get to live forever.
E a sinful individual.
who has death reigning over them doesn’t get access to the tree of life.
But when John looks into the city and looks into the midst of the city and looks all the
way down to the throne of God in the midst of the city and he sees the river of water of
life, he sees the tree that was lost so long ago.
On either side of the river.
And what is the point?
Is the point that there is someday going to be a city where Christians, far into the
future or near into the future, whenever Christ returns, whenever judgment comes, God’s
going to create a 1,500-mile-wide city, a 1,500-mile-long city, a 1,500-mile-tall city,
and in the middle of the city is going to be a river, and in the middle of the city is
going to be the very throne of God, and in the middle of the city is going to be the
Fizical tree of life.
If so, you better hope you don’t live on the wall because you’re going to get really tired
walking to get the fruit on a regular basis.
What’s half of fifteen hundred miles?
A long walk.
Do you think John is immediately concerned about how far he’s going to be from the center
of the city and to whether or not he might somehow fail to get access to the tree?
No indication of scripture.
Do you think Jesus was indicating to the woman?
that if she didn’t live close enough to the river of life, she’d perish and die.
No, Jesus made the statement, if you drink from the water that I give you, you’ll never
thirst again.
The picture of the tree of life isn’t about God’s gonna resurrect some species of tree
that hasn’t been seen since creation.
God says, I’m going to make a new heaven and a new earth where holiness dwells.
I’m going to make a city where there is no sin inside the city, so you can have access to
the tree of life again.
I’m going to make a city where you can have access to the water of life and never thirst
again.
We don’t have to guess what he’s talking about, because where did Jesus invite the people
who gained access to the water of life?
He invited them into the kingdom.
Into the church.
He says, There will be no more curse.
Sorry, I didn’t get the end of uh verse two.
In the middle of the streets, and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which
bore twelve fruits, each yielding its fruit every month.
The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
The uh first century people would have been very accustomed to finding certain.
leaves and they could take those leaves and turn them into a compound or a paste and they
could use it for medical purposes.
That they would make their ISAV over in uh the region where this letter was written to.
Which church had a letter written to it about their I salve?
Seventh one, The lukewarm one.
The one that thought they could see and they thought they were rich and they thought they
had plenty and they thought they were wealthy and healthy.
And he said, You’re poor and blind and naked and you need me.
God says, I can heal the nations.
But not if you try to do it your way.
You’ve got to do it my way.
You’ve got to bring them into the kingdom, not turn around and try and hold hands with the
world.
Paul would write in Romans chapter twelve.
Romans chapter 12 and verse 1, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your
reasonable service.
And do not be conformed to this world.
Paul says the world is going to try and put a mold around you and make you into its image.
He says, Don’t you do it.
says rather, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is
that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Go back to Rev Revelation chapter three.
And in Revelation chapter three to the Laodiceans, God would write through John and to the
angel of the church of the Laodiceans write these things, says the Amen, the faithful and
true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.
I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot.
I wish you were either cold or hot.
A lot of times we’ve we’ve talked about the fact that God would rather be s have somebody
against him than lukewarm.
That’s not the point of what John John’s writing here.
In the city of Laodicea, the city was a rich city, it was a commercial city, and you would
come to the city, and if you stood in the city of Laodicea, you could see the white capped
peaks of the mountains.
And the Romans had taken and built an aqueduct from the city that was in the mountains
where the runoff from the mountains snow melt came from.
And when it originated at the aqueduct, it was cold, crisp, great water.
And it would flow through the aqueduct down to the Laodicean city.
And when it reached Laodicea, it was lukewarm.
And if you turn the other direction, you would see over to another city that had hot
springs.
And the hot springs were valuable and they were useful and they had health properties.
And the Romans built an aqueduct from the city that had hot springs over to Laodicea.
But by the time the water got to Laodicea, the water was lukewarm.
God is visually presenting Laodicea with a circumstance they’re familiar with every day
when they get water.
If their water had come from the source, it’d be valuable.
It’d be enjoyable.
It would be useful.
But what they have is just water.
And it’s not very good water either.
It’s the kind that you put in your mouth you want to spew out.
God is saying, I wish you were at the source of something valuable.
I wish you were close to me where you could be valuable, but instead you want to stay
where you’re physically rich.
The city where the springs came from, or the city where the where the runoff came from up
in the mountains, wasn’t as rich as Laodicea.
The city where the hot springs were located wasn’t as rich as Laodicea.
They wanted to stay where the money was.
Then God goes on to say, I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot.
I wish you were either cold or hot.
So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my
mouth.
He says, Because you say, God, why would you vomit a church out?
Why would you throw a church out of the kingdom of God?
He says because you say you are rich.
And notice they didn’t just say they were rich.
They said, we are rich, we have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.
Lord, we don’t need your city.
We have Laodicea.
We don’t need your living water.
We’ve got Laodicea.
We don’t need your clothing of holiness adorned in the robes of righteousness.
We’re Laodicea.
We don’t need your help or your healing.
We
Are the producers of a commercially successful ISAV?
Notice what he says.
He says, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich and
white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be
revealed, anoint your eyes with ISA that you may see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, therefore be zealous and repent.
God tells them, oh, I see your commercial success.
I’m just telling you you’re destitute.
You’ve become attached to the harlot that is Rome.
And you don’t even know that she is going to leave you destitute.
But you could come to my marketplace.
You could take all those riches that you think Rome has for you, and you could buy from me
gold refined in the fire.
Is John going to tell the Christians about a refining process they’re about to go through?
Yeah.
And are many of them not going to make it?
Because they will instead pledge allegiance to Rome?
Yeah.
And God is looking at Laodicea and he says, You think you have a rich city?
Let me show you my city.
We paved the streets with gold.
We laid the foundation with precious jewels.
And guess what we have?
We have the source of water right there in the middle of the city.
No lukewarm water for you.
We have the tri of life.
And all of the people in our city who dwell in heaven, that is, those who are righteous
and holy, whose dwelling place is not on this earth, who are sojourners on this earth,
they may be poor, they may have a pittance on earth, they may have no place to lay their
head, they may n the foxes may have holes and the birds may have nests, but they may be
just like Jesus and have nothing.
But they do have a home waiting for them, and they’re a citizen of a city whose builder
and maker is God.
There shall be no more curse, verse three of chapter twenty two.
But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him.
They shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.
Now wait a minute.
Go back to chapter seven and ask yourself: when was the first time the names were written
on their foreheads?
Before the very first judgment started.
So who are we looking at?
The people who are alive or the people who are dead and gone on and the people in
eternity?
We’re looking at the people that are alive.
We’re looking at the Christians.
They shall see his face.
And his name shall be on their foreheads.
Does it sound like heaven?
Yeah.
But what it is really is the church.
John chapter seventeen
John chapter seventeen.
Verse 6, Jesus says, I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of
the world.
They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you, for I have given
to them the words which you have given me, and they have received them and have known
surely.
That I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
And all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
Now I am no longer in the world.
Wait a minute.
Where was Christ sitting when he said he’s no longer in the world?
He was sitting in the world.
He says, Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you,
Holy Father, keep through your name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as
we are one.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name.
Those whom you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the Son of Perdition,
that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I come to you.
And these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in them.
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the
world, just as I am not of the world.
I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them
from the evil one.
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them by your truth.
Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their
word, that they all may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.
That they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me, and the
glory which you gave me, I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one.
Revelation twenty two.
says they see the face of God.
He’s not talking about physically.
He’s talking about a relationship.
Hebrews chapter four tells us that we have a high priest who cannot be touched by the
feelings who can be touched by the feelings of our infirmities, because he was in all
points tempted like as we are yet without sin.
And says that as a result of this we can come boldly before the throne of God to find
grace and help in time of need.
God says, Approach my throne.
Do so with boldness, for you’re my children.
In chapter twenty two and in verse four, they shall see his face and his name shall be on
their foreheads.
There shall be no night there, they need no lamp, nor light of the sun, for the Lord God
gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.
It’s all right if the slides don’t go forward.
There we are.
The picture of the river is an Ezekiel picture, Ezekiel forty seven.
Picture of the river and the picture of the presence of God with his people is an Ezekiel
picture, chapter forty eight.
The picture of the safety that they have within the city and in the presence of the
kingdom of God is a Zechariah picture in Zechariah chapter fourteen.
John didn’t just suddenly stop using Old Testament pictures.
These are all Old Testament pictures.
What are they pictures of?
The kingdom.
The body of Christ, the thing that God said he would establish.
Then consider in verse six.
Then he said to me, These words are faithful and true, and the Lord God of the Holy
Prophet sent his angel to show his servants the things which must shortly take place.
John, here’s what I need you to do.
Need you to write all this down?
Because sometime, two thousand plus years from now, people are gonna need to know what’s
coming.
John, I need you to tell the church.
What’s about to happen?
Because they’re already the city foursquare.
Because they already have their dwelling place in heaven.
They already have God’s name written on their forehead.
They already are washed in the blood of the Lamb.
They just need to know when it looks like Satan’s winning, he’s not.
And when their loved ones
Are being beheaded for the cause of Christ?
Are being taken into the Colosseum and thrown to the beast?
When they look as they try and run their business and every single consumer that they once
had now says I can’t buy from you, you won’t pledge allegiance to Caesar.
And as they stare dreading the coming day because they know their children are starving.
He said, John, you need to tell them before it starts.
What’s coming?
And also tell them how it is.
Behold
I am coming.
See John, it’s not just about the things that will shortly take place.
It yes, you’re gonna go through the ringer.
Yes, some of you are gonna die.
Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth, he says.
You know this.
I’m coming to judge this nation.
He says, Behold, I am coming.
Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.
You’ve got people running all over the place today.
Signs of the times, the signs of the times, the signs of the times.
Look, look, the signs are coming.
Christ’s return is imminent.
They’re just eighteen hundred years too late.
Christ came.
Not in the final return.
Christ came in judgment on Rome, the way he came in judgment on Jerusalem, the way he came
in judgment on Babylon, the way he came in judgment on Assyria, the way he came in
judgment on Greece, the way he came in judgment on Edom, the way he came in judgment on
the Philistines, the way he came in judgment on the nations of the people that lived in
the Canaanite land.
And the way he came in judgment on Judah and Israel.
He says, I’m coming.
And I’ll tell you how the battle’s gonna turn out.
I’m gonna bring all my soldiers.
You remember this?
From chapter nineteen and chapter twenty.
I’m gonna bring all my armies.
They’re all gonna show up.
They’re gonna show up adorned in linen.
And fine clothing for a feast because I will have already won the war.
And when you look at Christ, he says, I’m gonna be the one riding on the white horse, and
I’m gonna be covered in blood.
Because I’m going to feed my enemies to the birds.
This message is sometimes questioned as to what’s the point of the book of Revelation if
it’s all about something that’s already happened.
To which I’d have to ask, Well, what’s the point about the book of Genesis?
About it’s all about stuff that’s already happened.
What’s the point of the book of Matthew?
It’s about stuff that’s all already happened.
Scripture is given for our
Learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope.
We’re not given the book of Revelation so we can know what’s coming.
We’re given the book of Revelation so we know how it all ends.
No matter what’s coming.
No matter what nation we’re in.
Let me ask you this as we close.
What do you think this message reads like for a Christian in Iran?
What do you think this book reads like for a Christian in China?
What do you think this book reads like for a Christian in North Korea?
Or Cuba?
So many times we get so focused on us.
That we go, Well, I wanna know what’s in it for me.
Shouldn’t surprise us, the apostles wanted to know what was in it for them.
Christ said, you’re going to lose everything because you’re going to give it up willfully.
You’re going to give up homes and family and kindred and nations, and you’re going to walk
away from all of it.
But don’t worry, I’m going to give you all of it back a hundredfold in this life and in
the lifetime.
What a comforting book.
Especially to people who don’t dwell in a place of freedom.
But in a fla place of persecution.
Thank you.
