Coming Quickly Rev, 22:12-21

As we go through this book of Revelation, and we're going to finish it up today, as we go through it, even I learned some things. Is that allowed? Can I learn some things? That's good. Alright. Even I learned some things. And one of the things I was noticing, just as I go through it, because as we've mentioned before, the book of Revelation is just a marvelous tapestry. It is a prophetic masterpiece.

And one of the things that shows up is There are this mention of rivers in Revelation. And as I was looking at it, I said, you know, here we are in the last couple of chapters, it keeps bringing up this river of life. Is there any pattern in this word river or rivers in the New Testament? And here's what I came across. One is there's a couple of places in the Gospels where it talks about the River Jordan. But other than that, this mention of rivers just seems to disappear until we get to the book of Revelation and the word river or rivers shows up a few different times and it's interesting a couple of those places in chapter 12 it's a figure of speech where Satan's coming against the Jews is spoken of in terms of a river of wrath coming against them But in every instance in the middle of Revelation, a river has a negative connotation. Always bad. And so what we see here, real interesting, here after several mentions of rivers in a negative sense, now we find the river of life showing up in the last couple of chapters, and it's very good.

Okay? Very good. Isn't that a neat contrast? Just a pattern. It's one of the things that I noticed And we mentioned before, John is just an amazingly insightful and consistent writer. He uses words very purposefully. He uses words with patterns and consistency. That's just one more example. So anyway, I just thought I'd give you an insight of something I just discovered here this last week. The other thing that we encourage, and you'll notice a lot of your pews have in front of you a little three by five card or so here and there. And those are for asking questions. So recently we've gotten some and I want to address some of those questions.

And so one of the questions that came forward recently was, when did the beginning of the new creation happen? Because we've been talking about a new heavens and a new earth, right? And so when did the beginning of the new creation happen? And so as we look at that question, Here's a timeline I think is valuable for us to look at. Essentially, it happened along a timeline, and we won't be looking at every point and all the details of it, but just to get the big picture, let's take a look.

First of all, there was before the beginning, that is, before the original creation. One of the phrases that you'll find, or variation that you'll find in the New Testament particularly, is before the beginning. or in the beginning, or before the foundation of the world. Even in Revelation, one of the things that we've seen is Christ was slain before the foundation of the world. Isn't that interesting? So what you find is that there were things that were determined even before the original creation happened, and that's really the start, if you will, of this new creation. The very beginning. Then there was the original creation, of heaven and earth. Now, at the cross, we find that the new creation was implemented in history. Why? Because there is where we have the five identification truths.

Crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, raised with Christ, ascended with Christ, and seated with Christ. Implemented in history, and we show that here with the cross and then this going down, that's being buried, and then this raised, ascended, and seated.

Then, the next stage is made effective in the life of the believer. Made effective in the life of the believer when? At the point of belief. And then finally, implemented in the new creation. That's the last stage. So, to answer the question, when did it begin? It began back here. but it was implemented or made effective over time, finally completed in the new creation that we've been reading about in the last couple chapters of Revelation.

Now, another question that comes up. 21.3, are these people, as we were looking at it here, are these people the bride of the Lamb or someone else? Does Revelation chapter 21 speak of more than one group of saints? Okay, the answer here is all the saints of all time. Remember when we went through that incredible chart that looked like a schematic for the space shuttle? Anyway, what that showed was at this time here you have The Church Saints, the Tribulation Saints, the Millennial Saints, and the Old Testament Saints, all brought together. So by the time you're in Revelation chapter 21-3, it's all Saints of all time. The wife of the Lamb is included in that.

However, there's something to note. That word Saints does not specifically refer just to Church Saints. That word Saints is used for all who believe of all time. you will find the word saint in the Old Testament even though you won't find the church in the Old Testament. Saint simply means called apart once.

Now let's turn to our passage at hand here in Revelation 22, 12-21 and this will complete our study of the book of Revelation. And some of the things I think to keep in mind, John has been telling us things that have been revealed to him. He recorded this prophetic masterpiece here with meticulous care. He keeps recording, and we've read again and again, I saw, I heard. He starts off the first few verses of the book of Revelation with what is basically a legal certification. And as we'll see here shortly, The end of Revelation has a final legal certification as well.

This is critical because John is not just throwing out sort of hand-wavy, wispy, foggy, mysterious stuff. He is writing things that he says, these are factual. They are of a character that I would submit them as evidence. That's the kind of language that he uses.

And we'll see that more in a bit. The other thing I think to recognize as we kind of look at the close here, this is known as the Apocalypse. It basically means it's the revealing of Jesus Christ. We've gone through lots of details, things that are, you know, details about what's going to happen during the Tribulation and all that, but the big picture is this book is about Jesus Christ. The focal point of this book is about Jesus Christ. Thirty times, Christ is referred to as the Lamb. And what we see as we go through the course of the book is while there are many details about what will take place, the focal point of all history is the work and the person of Jesus Christ and what He has done and is doing and will do in our lives. With that, let's look at verse 12. Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to every man according to what he has done.

Now, John writes here for the last time, behold. Remember what we've said in the past? In our modern vernacular, we would say, take a mental picture. You use a digital camera, use that. That's fine. Whatever it takes, take a mental picture. That's the point. Behold. Notice this. Remember it.

Then he says, I am coming quickly. What we see here is this phrase, I am coming quickly, shows up in this last passage a couple of times. It in fact had started off with the first two occurrences back at the point many months ago when we were looking at the messages to the seven churches. So it was a promise way back then, and he keeps coming back to it now that he's really addressing the churches very directly. He's telling them, I'm coming quickly.

And one of the things that we underscored at that point in time, this Greek word that's translated quickly, it means suddenly. It means even with an element of surprise. It means also that once things begin, they will progress rapidly. Rapid fire is the idea.

So that's the first point that he has there. The next thing, and you notice how this verse just kind of keeps hitting you with one truth after the next. The next point is, my reward is with me. Now, I don't know about you, I've seen a bumper sticker that I'm sure was half joking, half mocking. It says, Jesus is coming back and boy is he mad.

Now, that's not the impression you get here with this, is it? There is indeed something of truth in that for those who are unbelievers. But I think something that is real important for believers to get clear in their thinking, the Lord is not dealing with us in the way that He is dealing with the world. What do you see as the emphasis in this verse?

He says, behold, I am coming quickly, and boy, are you going to get it? No. That's not His message at all, is it? What does He say? My reward is with Me. My reward is with me." He is not interested in coming up with some means of clobbering us. He's not saying, you know, I'm coming quickly and you're going to get it. Instead, what is he doing? He's coming up with this reward. That reward is his first priority, if you will, in his coming. The next thing to notice there, his reward is personal. He keeps using that personal pronoun. And my reward, that means it's His intent to give it to you personally. He is not going to give you a reward via bulk mail that says occupant. You're not going to get that. Or current resident. You're not going to get that.

It's personal. The Lord says the reward is with me. He says I have it for you personally. It's a personal reward. The next thing that you notice there The reward is based on works. Now you say, oh no, works! Oh no! No, well, just hold on a sec here. The works will be a reward for the ones that He has prepared for us beforehand that we might walk in them. Okay?

Ephesians 2.10. And secondly, they are done by His life. There is every encouragement and exhortation for us to abide in Christ. For us to rely upon His life. That it be His life and not our own. That message keeps coming across clearly and consistently from Scripture. It is His life. And isn't it an amazing thing?

He says, if you rely on Me and depend upon My life, the Lord says, I'll reward you for that. How about that? You will be rewarded if you don't rely on yourself. Your reward is for dependence. Not for personal accomplishment. Isn't that amazing? That's wonderful, too.

Let's look at verse 13. The Lord says, and he's reinforced this idea again and again, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Now, in the past we've gone over this chart, and I won't go over it in detail, because hopefully you either have it or have access to it and can take a look at it. But the point that we came up to with this chart is that it points unmistakably to Christ being deity. And let me just look at some quotes from Isaiah to illustrate what I mean.

Here are these verses in Isaiah, Isaiah 41.4, 44.6, and 48.12. Let's take a look at the middle one there just to zero in on the message.

Isaiah 44, 6 says, Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last, there is no God beside me. Now, what did Jesus say? I am the first and I am the last, right? And furthermore, let's go beyond that, this says the King of Israel. Is Jesus the King of Israel? Yes. Pilate asked him, are you the King? Yeah, he responded. Furthermore, is Christ the Redeemer? Yes.

Now, this word LORD, you notice it's in all caps. You know what that means? The Hebrew Old Testament word brought forward. That's what we have transliterated in English as Jehovah. I Jehovah. Christ is claiming deity when he says this, and nothing less. Now, beyond that, there's I am the first and I am the last. There is no God besides me. Exclusive claim, and Christ fits every single part of that.

That's neat. That's neat stuff. Let's look at verse 14 here. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they might have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. One of the things that is, I think, amazing to look at here is if you go through the book of Revelation you find that The word blessed is, or blessed are, seven times. And this, what we're looking at here, is the last one of those seven.

Isn't that neat? He's woven that through the book from the very beginning now to the very end. Blessed. Blessed. And this one here that he brings forward is kind of like this is the end of the tapestry. Because he's really woven a tapestry with words.

Lest are those who wash their robes." Now, one of the things we've really talked about, white, wearing white, and white robes, and having a robe, frequently, through the book of Revelation. We've seen it here in all these passages that we've gone through. And now we're here at the very last mention of these robes. And why the frequent mention of these robes?

Why walking in white? Here's what's behind it, and we've talked about it before, but just to make sure we get it fixed in our minds. Walking in a white robe is Christ's righteousness, no less. Walking in a white robe is Christ's righteousness, no less.

It's not my working really hard out of my own efforts in the flesh to be really good. That's not going to do it. No, it's Christ's righteousness, and Christ's righteousness alone. And so he keeps returning to this picture again and again and again. And what does that do?

It is Christ's righteousness that gives us the right to the Tree of Life and to enter in by the gates of the city. Now, the other thing to look at, he talked about the robes, then there's also the mention of the Tree of Life. Again, the Tree of Life was first mentioned back in the Messages to the Seven Churches. And here we find multiple references to it here in the last chapter that we're looking at, including the passage we're looking at here this morning. Here is the Tree of Life, and it keeps pointing to Christ as the source of life. Again, we come back to Colossians 3, 1-4, Christ is your life.

Or Galatians 2.20 would be another example.

Something else about this too, back in John 10.28, remember here's John, same author, okay?

John 10.28, Jesus says this at the beginning of the verse, He says, I am, and the English doesn't come out with this quite in as strong a sense as the Greek, I am constantly giving them life. See? Constantly giving them life. And the Lord is doing that. He is the source and author of life. He is the one who is constantly giving life. The Lord doesn't just give life and just sort of put it on autopilot. He is constantly and continuously giving the believer life. And in the New Jerusalem, it will be all the more evident. Let's look at verse 15.

Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices lying. Now one of the things that we've seen is that these last couple of chapters have three, and this is now the third, three places where it keeps pointing out this is the group who is outside the gate.

And the intent is not to say that you've got these people and they're right outside the gate, sitting there, but the point is that they're excluded. They're not here. Okay? And as we see, this New Jerusalem just does not have characters to be tainted by that kind of life. And so what he does, he doesn't just leave it with, you know, The bad people are outside.

He actually goes in and spells out, here's some of the variety we're talking about, and gives some characteristics. Let's take a look at that. The first one is, he says, the dogs. Now, the Jews were fond of saying that the Gentiles were the dogs. That was their phrase. And so it came to be adopted by the church. This is basically, it's a statement, kind of a figure of speech, the low life. The low life. Dogs were not in high regard in that culture. And so moral and spiritual low life is the intent there.

The next one is sorcerers. And as we brought up before in this book of Revelation, the Greek word there, pharmakia, sounds familiar, kind of like pharmacy. We get our English word pharmacy from the same Greek root. And it means drugs mixed with sorcery. The next one that comes out there is immoral persons, Greek pornos, fornicators. Our English word pornography comes from that same picture. The murderer, the phonos, meaning homicide, that's the intent there. Idolatrous, idololatrous is the Greek and it basically means an image worshipper, one who worships an image.

And the last one, it's interesting the way he puts it, and everyone who loves and practices lying. The Greek word for loves is phileo, it actually means have an affection for it. How about that? Have an affection for lying. And the practices is does, okay? It's putting it into action. So you put those two together, what their heart loves, okay? What their heart loves, their body is put into action. That's the sequence. It shows that it's not simply a matter of what they do, it comes from their heart. And what's happened to a believer is they have the righteousness of Christ.

That's the difference. As we pointed out before, Paul listed a lot of these same kinds of things among the Corinthians. And what did he say? Such were some of you. Such were some of you. It is the righteousness of Christ that makes the difference. It's not because these people in Corinth were great folks and then they became believers, but rather because they were believers they had the righteousness of Christ. John's focus here is not simply to list the practices and list what's going on, but he's saying these are of such a character they lack the righteousness of Christ that comes only by faith.

Let's look at verse 16 next here. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. One of the things that becomes clear as you look through Revelation is you find that the Revelation in this book is not accidental. It's very deliberate. As we see this pattern that comes through the Book of Revelation from the very first part of the book.

He says, I've sent an angel. We get into this latter part of the book and he keeps reinforcing the same message. And he makes it very clear. By the way, this word angel in Angelos, which means messenger. He has acted, he has taken deliberate action, he has sent, and what has he sent? He has sent a messenger to send, what do you use a messenger for? To send a message. So that's what this angel has done. He's sent a message.

The Lord is specifically interested in and intent upon conveying truth to you. That's why he's done this. And he's said specifically, now three times very specifically, what he had in mind. I've sent my angel to convey these truths to you. You need to know them.

The other word that he uses here It's to testify. And as we brought up before, in John's day, to testify wasn't just some religious term, it was a legal term. And it meant that you're going to state something, place it as evidence, and it has legal validity because it really happened. You know how people are, you know, they'll give an oath before testifying in court, and they say, tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. That's the sense, you know, what he's saying here. I'm telling you the whole thing. I'm telling you, you know, nothing but the truth. I'm telling you all you need to know.

This testifying here is given in Revelation 22, 16, and again in 18 as a certification. In John's day, it was used as a certification to certify that a document was true. Now, but you notice, he doesn't just leave this as if it's some sort of a legal document, because it's not a legal document. Not really. He's just wanting them to understand this is real stuff. But instead, it's for the churches. What the Lord has revealed, He has intended for the churches. What are churches? Churches are gatherings of those who believe in Jesus Christ. It is for their benefit. It is directed to them. For those assembled of the believers, these truths are directed. That's what He's saying here.

The next thing here, in verse 17, And the Spirit and the Bride say come, and let the one who hears say come, and let the one who is thirsty come, and let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. We see real clearly here, there is a repeated focus on this invitation to come. And notice as you look at this, this open invitation is part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It's a part of the ministry of the church and it is the response of heart to those who believe on hearing these words. The open invitation. The Lord desires that any who hear would respond to that invitation. Come. The next thing that he lays out here is this water of life. The water of life has been offered without cost before.

Remember back in chapter 21? People here on earth spend their lives looking for what they think life is. Have you noticed that? That's basically what happens every day. People on earth get up in the morning and they spend the day looking for what they think life is.

And what he's spelling out real clearly is, this is it. This is it. Don't look everywhere else. Christ is the source of life. And notice, he is offering it, this is the second time we've read that, offering it without cost. See that repetition, that underscoring of words there? Without cost. Totally by grace.

This isn't something that we can make some additional headway by, you know, adding something of our own. There is a temptation on our part to say, Lord, let me help you. And then maybe after a while we get to a place where we're saying, Lord, help me. And after a while we get to realize, I need to get out of the way.

It's without cost. We don't have something to contribute to this process. The Lord has done an amazing thing in choosing to have us as earthen vessels. An amazing thing. but it's not the Lord's intent that we pay some part of the price. This isn't a co-pay arrangement, it's not your insurance company. Instead, no, it is completely without cost. Completely.

Verses 18 and 19 say this, I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book. Now, you say, boy, that sounds pretty severe. Well, guess what? It is. The first thing that you notice there, essentially, He says, OK, add to the plagues in this book. There are two ways that that can come about.

One is if someone is an unbeliever, such as to not recognize and understand that this is the word of God, that I'm not going to add to it. That person, if he is living at the time, could go ahead and proceed into the tribulation period. The second is that even if a person does or does not enter into the tribulation period, they're going to go to the lake of fire. which is the worst plague of all. And so anyone who does not recognize this book as the infallible Word of God, as the inspired Word of God, puts themselves at this kind of a risk. Unbelief is at the source of feeling that you need to touch this thing up. You need to add to it.

One of the other things you see that just shows out real strongly at the end of Revelation is repeated references to this book. And one of the things we pointed out before is in those days they didn't have a book with a binding like we have now. That wasn't invented until just after the time the Bible was completed. What they had were typically scrolls and separate parchments.

So what John is thinking of is this specific book of Revelation here. this particular book, and he keeps focusing on that. And you almost kind of wonder, well, how come he keeps talking about it? Because one of the things you'll notice is you don't see that same kind of concern and focus in other books of the Bible. Have you noticed that? That nowhere is there this kind of concern. And you might think, isn't that kind of different or strange or whatnot? But here's why. I think there's a rationale and there's an answer to why John would be so concerned.

The first thing, John had already come across opposition to his apostolic authority, and we've seen that in 2 John 10 and 11, and 3 John 9 and 10. And here's the other reason, and that is, with the finishing of this book, the gift of prophecy will be concluded in its purpose. 1 Corinthians 8-13 is one passage that addresses that.

Another one is Ephesians 2.20 where it talks about the apostles and the prophets being the foundation.

And you don't keep on building a foundation, do you? Essentially, prophecy having been completed, there would be no need to touch up this book. There's no need to add to it or come up with additional information. The completion of the gift of prophecy is the reason for the focus at the end of this book. Don't be adding to this. Don't be taking away. Don't be deleting it. Now, verse 20. He who testifies to these things says, Yes, I am coming quickly. Amen. Come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. What we see here in this last couple of verses is John's final end cap to this prophetic masterpiece.

He's woven a tapestry, and one of the things that we've noticed all the way through is John is systematic in his use of words, calling Christ the Lamb from the beginning to the end, using the same words and a word that no other New Testament author uses. Speaking of Christ having this sword coming from his mouth, and it's a ramphaya, a barbarian sword, every single time he speaks of having a sword from his mouth, he uses the same word. It's a different word than is used for a sword elsewhere in the New Testament, and it ends when Christ has executed judgment at the end of the tribulation period. No more do you see Christ being described as having that ramphaya, that barbarian sword, coming out of his mouth.

Time and time again we see patterns and consistency in the book. We saw it this morning when we looked at this word blessed seven times, woven through the pages. Coming down out of heaven, another example. John uses it almost exclusively and repeatedly throughout the book. And then once the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven, you don't see the phrase come up at all again.

John is amazingly consistent and he's also very persistent in his writing. We've seen that John writes like a musician. There is a musical syncopation between the earthly scene and heaven, eight times, back and forth. And so John is an amazing writer.

We see an interweaving between words and word patterns that are used in Revelation, in the Gospel of John, in John's letters. John spells out what an overcomer is, and then in the messages to the seven churches. spells out seven times what an overcomer is, and then at the end of the book, as we've seen here, answers every single one of those. The book is a marvelous prophetic masterpiece from beginning to end. One of the things that I think is really important for us to underscore as we look at here the completion of the book, John wrote the book under command.

It wasn't something where he said, you know, I think this is a good idea. Why don't I write a book? I'm about to give my last hurrah here. So let me just write a book and that will be kind of a nice thing for people to remember me by. No. He wrote because he was explicitly told to. And we even read of one instance where he was told, don't write this. But he wrote what he was told to write. He wrote under the Lord's direction. And the Lord deliberately sent his angel so that John would write what is in this book. As we look at this prophetic masterpiece, certainly we see John's pattern in it. He uses words that he also uses in the Gospels in his own letters.

And yet we have seen his ultimate purpose is to reveal Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not to be some mysterious veiled person that we couldn't hope to know. Instead, he says, I most certainly want you to know this Jesus Christ. That's why this has been written. And that's why we hear of Jesus Christ from the first chapter to the last. We hear of Christ the Lamb from the beginning to the end. Even Christ the Lamb, the slain one in the New Jerusalem. Isn't that something? Here in this place called perfect, we will still recognize him as the Lamb slain. slain for us, slain on our behalf.

And yet, the other thing that we see in here too, remember that message we kept hearing, I'm coming quickly, I'm coming quickly? In the heart of the believer, John is stirring an anticipation. And the Lord, I am convinced, wants us to have that anticipation in our hearts of His coming. The Lord wants us to desire is coming. And then as we see here, Lord, come quickly. Yes, Lord, come. Yes, Lord, come.

Let's pray. Lord, as we see the marvelous truth that you have woven throughout this book, as we see the things that have been revealed, we most of all see your precious and dear and the wonderful things that have been done for us on our behalf. Thank you that we can put on the robe of our Lord's righteousness by faith. And Lord, as we kind of turn a corner and look to new areas to study and to learn what you have for us, we just give you thanks for all that you've laid out and thank you for the blessings seven times pronounced here, the blessings that we have and the truths that you reveal about your dear son. Draw our hearts to beholding him, in Jesus' name.