It's Near - Revelation 22:1-11

OK, we'll do the first 11 verses, cover that today, and then next week finish up the final verses, verse 12 through 21 or something, I think, towards the end. Here's John. He's got this prophetic masterpiece that he has written. He's giving us the ongoing tour of the New Jerusalem. And he's going to make some additional things clear, as well as kind of restate some things, too.

So let me start here by looking at the first couple of verses, which we have on the top of the first page. So verse 1 and 2 go like this. Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

Now in these verses from the first chapter to the last, we find that God initiated that something was revealed to John. When something was revealed to John, it wasn't because John went and said, hey, I think I'll have a revelation today. Or he said, let's really work on this gift of revelation here. And no. What we find is that these things were revealed because God took the initiative to see to it that it was revealed to John. That's true from the first verse and all the way here to the last chapter several times. It's abundantly clear and then scattered throughout the book of Revelation as well. It reinforces the idea that these things are revealed by God's intent. It's because God wanted them revealed, not because some human being did something really clever and quirky.

So, what do you see? He showed me a river of the water of life. And real interesting here, in ancient times and even today, many cities are built along the river. Obvious reason, there's a water source, right? There's a water source, there's transportation, yeah. There is a water source, why? What do you need the water for? Pardon? Crops in the adjacent areas, yeah. For drinking and washing and all the different things that water is used for. This isn't just a river of water is it?

What kind of particulars does he give? Of life, yeah, very key. And by the way, we're going to see of life more than once as we go through here, okay? So of life, and that's important. The water of life also has a different source. Usually what we find is the rivers come out of the mountains, right? Rivers come out of the mountains or very broad plains. Whereas here, as we'll see, the river comes from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Why it's not just a river, it is the river of the water of life. You want life? You've got to go to the Lamb. You want life? God's the source. And see, what we have right here on this earth is rivers are kind of an analogy. This is the real river. It comes from the Lord. He is the source of life.

Do you have any reference to the river Euphrates? Actually no, because the river Euphrates is mentioned in the Bible all the way to the book of Revelation as we saw. But the river Euphrates was a part of an area that is from the old earth. An ancient river, a major river, but actually the river Euphrates was last mentioned when it was dried up so that the armies from the east could come and attack Jerusalem and Israel.

This is different in that respect. Yes, this is we're continuing because chapter 21 is the one that described the new heavens and the earth So this is in the new heavens and the earth, okay? Yeah, that's an important question So here here is the the Lord who is the source of And then we find the water of life in the book of Revelation starts back in chapter 7, continues on here as a spring, as springs, as a river, and as the water of life. And then in each of these four instances, the water of life comes from the Lord. And I think that's key, important here. Death is no more, right? But life is always from the Lord. Death is no more, but life is always from the Lord.

Even in the Gospel of John 10.28, the Lord says that He is constantly providing life for His sheep. So this comes even back to the Gospels.

Pardon? Yes. Well, let's put it this way. Physically, in this body, is John able to see what he sees? No. It is something that the Lord allowed him to see. Why would it take something miraculous for John to see this? Let me ask you this. Does this exist yet? Don't think so. Doesn't sound, matter of fact, we'll go through some insights here as we look further in the revelation, but the new heavens and new earth had not been created at the time John was writing this 1,900 years ago. And so it's physical in the sense that it's future new creation. Yeah.

He's seeing something only because the Lord allowed him to do it. Remember the term that was used from the beginning to the end of Revelation is in the spirit or in spirit? John was in spirit and he was shown by deliberate revelation. Not, you know, I snuck around and got a peek. That wasn't the point. He was shown deliberately because God revealed it. So here, so we understand then that now by faith in the spiritual facts that God has revealed through his Holy Spirit, but then in our eternal home we will understand that truth is seeing the continuing source of life as the Lord himself.

You know, if you think about it, what are people in this world constantly in pursuit of? Life. And where do they try to find life? Pardon? In themselves. They try to find life in themselves. You have an entire religion, at least, Buddhism. Life is in you. Find it there. Hinduism is very similar. You want life? It's in you. Where else do people try to find life? Pardon? Stuff. In stuff. Either stuff outside of you that you accumulate and that sort of thing, or stuff you put inside you. People try to find life in stuff. You're right. People try to find life in everything this side of heaven's gates, and it's not going to happen. This is the water of life, and of life is not by accident. Christ says of his sheep, he is constantly giving them life. He is the source.

Having the desire for life is not necessarily bad because the opposite of that is depression. It's the desire for life. Why is that there? Desire for life is something we would say is inborn within humans. As a matter of fact, if someone does not have the desire for life, we consider that rather almost an emergency. Whereas the reality is, it's not a question of does one have a desire for life, it's where are you looking to find it. What's the source?

And that's what John's addressing here. This is of life, of life, of life. So here we see the river of the waters of life. Interestingly, in the Greek text, there are no definite articles in this phrase. That is telling us clearly that what John is communicating is the character of these things. It isn't river of water of the life. It's life as having a basic characteristic. A river of life itself.

Let's look at page two here. By the way, you're going to see these things have been done a little differently. The copying machine went kaphlui yesterday. That's also why you don't have next week's in this package either because it had to be printed out.

Okay, so the Greek word for clear and clear as crystal means more than just being translucent or transparent. It is the word lampros. Sound familiar? We get our word way up from that in the English. The word communicates brilliance and brightness. So there's not only a clarity but there's along with it a brilliance and brightness. Isn't that amazing? So here is this clear but luminous river. Isn't that something to ponder? Have you ever seen just a beautifully clear river? Maybe you have, hopefully you have.

It's really pretty. It's gorgeous. People love to paint it, to look at it, to listen to it, to camp by it. People like to take pictures and put those on walls and things like that. A beautiful river. Imagine, add this dimension to it. Not only is it see-through, But it glows. It has its own glow. Now it's not radioactive, don't worry about that. It has a fundamentally internal sparkling characteristic.

And this river, the water of life, is not simply provided by the Lord, but it comes from the very throne of the Lord. You see, things on this earth are provided for us, aren't they? God provides things for us. Even people who don't deserve things, the Lord provides things for them. But this isn't just God providing. This is God as the source. Men all too easily in their minds separate the rich material provisions given by God's grace from their source, God himself. In the new heavens and new earth, that will not be possible. we will see the Lord and the source of the water of life.

So at the end of verse 1 we see that Christ is called the Lamb. We have in the text box here where John calls Christ the Lamb and then the pair of words of God and of the Lamb or similar terms is also listed in the text box there. One of the points we've made, in fact we'll make it again this morning, this morning's main service message, is that John is the one who uniquely calls Christ the Lamb. And very interestingly, you see all these listings here in Revelation. In those, it's a slightly different word than the quotes you see there from John chapter 1. In John chapter 1, those are quotes from John the Baptist. John the Baptist says, Behold the Lamb of God. And in the first of those references, who takes away the sin of the world.

That word for lamb is lamb that means a young sheep less than a year old. This word in Revelation that John uses consistently from the first chapters there all the way to this one here is a little lamb, a tiny one, barely beyond newborn. Isn't that something? This one who is so potent and so powerful is consistently called in Revelation, the little tiny lamb.

Behold the little tiny lamb of God. Do you think that makes any reference to him being first born? I don't think that that particular message is his point here, although he certainly is the first born. I think what you have is almost a stunning contrast. Here is a little lamb, this little tiny lamb. You would say, heavens, that lamb just barely stands up. It's that young kind of lamb. That is this all-powerful Jesus who is also in the same book called the Lion of Judah.

An amazing contrast. Do you need the Lord to be gentle? Oh yeah, he's that. Do you need the Lord to be powerful? Oh yeah, he's all that too. Isn't that amazing? That's what we have pictured here in the book of Revelation. Yeah, here you have Christ who had every right to claim his deity and all the privileges of deity. And he had every right to set aside the offer, the opportunity, if you will, to become, as we'll look at this morning, humbly born and basically in kind of a spare household stable, an overnight stable. Wow. And in such delicate and precarious circumstances. And actually, as we're going to see, shameful circumstances. Yeah, it is a stunning contrast.

The creator of the entire universe humbles himself to be born of a Jewish woman from a no-name little small town, Nazareth, that's somewhere between 80 and 300 people. who wasn't living in the place of her ancestral home, Bethlehem, but had to go there. It's an amazing set of conflicts, but you're right, you can put your finger on it. There is a stunning humility.

You think about Jesus, if you were to say, how could he have done it? he could have come and said, I'm going to come in and we're going to clear the deck and everything's going to be royal entrance and everybody's going to recognize me as the king of kings and lord of lords and I'm going to get born that way and they're going to know it. But that's not the way he did it. Instead what we have is the book of Revelation continues The stunning contrast in scripture where the creator of the universe, the one who could wipe it all out with the word of his mouth, comes in a precarious and delicate and sensitive set of circumstances voluntarily, knowing full well all its hazards, dangers, and humility. is made with a young animal? Yes. We can't go through the whole sacrificial system, but yeah, you would have little tiny lambs at times be a part of the sacrificial system.

And it meant something, I can't remember what it was, but it was a specific, like a fellowship offering. Yeah, I'd have to look it up, but because for each one of the offerings there was a significance, a specific, it wasn't a general offerings. So, yeah, you're correct. I was just thinking out loud. Yeah, okay. I was thinking about the Passover and didn't they use a full grown lamb for the Passover? Typically, yeah, a grown lamb. It was not an absolute requirement, but that was typically what was done.

First Thessalonians 3, 11-13 and John 5, 26 are a couple of examples of many in which we see the Father and the Son referred to as separate, but yet the same and worthy of the same praise. So here we have Christ who volunteered to be this completely vulnerable lamb, this tiny one, who has equal standing with the Father. So these passages in 1 Thessalonians and the Gospel of John are examples of that. I guess my point on this was too that when he was sacrificed, he was a full grown lamb. Yes, he most certainly was. And that is what John the Baptist declared. Behold the Lamb of God, an older lamb. Now here's a curious thing.

We see in verse 2 that the river is in the middle of the street. I don't know if you've seen too many rivers in the middle of the street. Usually we say that's a problem. I remember when there was a river in the middle of the street when we were living in Carson City.

And it was right outside my office. And I called Nancy because I went there, you know, big boots, rubber boots. I went and called Nancy. I said, get the boys over here. We've got to start filling sandbags because Carson City was having a flood. It was New Year's Day, by the way. So we spent New Year's Day filling sandbags. But here, this is intentional, not some sort of a freak situation. Here is a river in the middle of the street, so very curious.

Bearing 12 kinds of fruit are these trees. Let's take a look, I think. Here's an artist concept. I think with all artist concepts, it'll be one of those things. If you get that picture in your mind, then walk through heaven's gates, you'll say, oh, that wasn't quite right. These are all attempts, I think, to present it.

Another thought, because this shows the tree of life on each side. Another thought is that this may be, in fact, talking about the tree of life, you know, arching over the river. You know, possible, I suppose. Here's the tree of life. Now notice we saw a river of life. Now you have a tree of life. Notice the of life emphasis here, okay? The tree of life. Now this is a puzzler. Now you've got a new heavens, a new earth. Is there any sun? No, there's not a sun. So what gives us the seasons? And he talks about month. How do we get months and seasons? Okay, go. There we go.

The reality is the definition of months And which actually kind of started in great part and was true of the Jewish instance of a lunar cycle. And you have a lunar cycle because the moon's reflecting the sun, right? And so you get the solar cycle, which is the definition of a year and all our rotations and everything. Our calendar is based on the earth and the sun and the moon and variations on those themes. And basically the calendar and most cultures over time have been some variation on that theme. But what you see here is months and seasons and all the whole definition of months and seasons just goes away. I can't explain to you how months and seasons are going to happen.

But he's right. Okay? He stands right. The Lord is going to somehow make that apparent. Imagine, how do you have seasons without the sun and the, you know, situations? I don't know. The Lord will have to work that one out. And again, it'll be one of those things, we'll walk into heaven and say, oh, of course. It'll make perfect sense once we're there. But John's just saying, well, this is the best I can communicate in terms of you know, the way things appear to be, using the words and the images that we have now. Here's something else.

It says there, for the healing of the nations. And I've had people say, well what do you mean healing of the nations? I thought we're in the new heavens and new earth and there's no injuries and sickness and all that. This word for healing of the nations could also be translated, it's where we get our word therapy, But it could also be translated health. The health of the nations.

Which gives an entirely different perspective. It's not a question of restoring people from illness so much as maintaining and sustaining continuous health. Why? Because it's the tree of life. Planted next to the river of life. So what you find here is life and life and health. By the way, how long has it been since the tree of life has been mentioned in scripture? Anywhere else in the New Testament? Genesis. Yeah, I mean that's where you see it started. And what happened? Adam and Eve got what? Driven from it, right? Get away from this thing.

Now, here it is. It's there all the time. and you have access and you're never going to be driven away. That's because of what Christ did on the cross. Yes, that's exactly right. Because of what he did on the cross and also because of the resurrection, which is a resurrection to life, right? Life.

What's interesting is there were seven churches that this particular book was being sent to. Ephesus was the first on the list, remember that, from chapter 2. Ephesus was the first of the seven churches. Ephesus, very interestingly, had a tree of life, a fake one, in the middle of the marketplace. So you go to their marketplace and they had a fake tree of life. And of course everybody wished that it really was a tree of life, but it wasn't.

And it was a representation for Artemis. That was the one that, you know, they had this Temple there, that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. And they had the, remember the axe where Paul is held at the theater while they chant great as Artemis in the Ephesians. It was about the tree of life that Artemis was supposed to, pardon? This is the tree of life and it was a representation of Artemis. And that was in the middle of the Agora, the marketplace there. But all it was, was fake. All it was, was fake. Because there wasn't any life in it and there was never any life in Artemis.

But it's just one of those additional ways that people try to find life. find it in themselves or find it in the outside world. Most religions are going to point you one way or the other. What is prosperity doctrine but to tell you you can find life here in stuff? Even Christianity that veers off the path of being biblical still promises you life for something. Find life by giving a lot of money at offering and the Lord will give you more. Find life by having this special charismatic gift. Find life through holy mooing and barking and barfing and all the other things that you do.

Life is in the Lord and that's what he's spelling out here. But this tree of life is not like the one in the middle of Ephesus in the marketplace. This tree of life, which will be real, will direct every heart to the Lord, the author of life. There will be a tree of life in our eternal home, but not a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Isn't that interesting? Remember the garden in Eden? Tree of life? Yep. Tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Yep. In this tree of life? Yep. Tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

No. Okay? You're not going to have a time where, you know, everybody's just doing fine and all of a sudden Vern reaches up and grabs the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and everybody says, No! Ah! No, that's not going to happen. Okay? It's not there. Okay.

There will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bondservants will serve Him, and they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. Like we were told back in chapter 21, the Lord Himself will be in our eternal home always. Ever talk to someone and they say, well, I wish God would just like, you know, stick his head out from behind a cloud and wave or, you know, leave a note under my pillow or something, you know. And, pardon? Yeah, people have wishes for all sorts of things.

But, and the thing is, this will be not a matter of, again, You know, is faith essential? Yes it is. Faith is essential for the Christian life here. But this won't be a matter of faith, it'll be a matter of there's the Lord. There we are with Him. It's not faith, that's seeing Him, as John puts it, seeing Him as He is. Because we'll be like Him. So, as you look at this, we will always be with the Lord. That's how Paul puts it in 1 Thessalonians 4, 17.

John writes that the Lord's bondservants will serve him. Remember way back in Revelation chapter 1, it started off, the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show to his bondservants. The things that must soon take place. And he sent and communicated by his angel to the bondservant, John. So, John's being very clear, and also very consistent. Remember how we said, when you interpret Revelation, John is quite consistent. Then we who are his bondservants, John clearly is included, and all those of the true Church of Jesus Christ are included as well. Right now we see the Lord through the truth revealed in his word, but then we'll see the Lord directly. We'll see him as he is, truly and in reality.

Now, what's this about having four, or some kind of thing on your forehead? That sounds almost scary. Is that like 666 or something? I mean, is that a good thing? Well, remember back here again, what we find is at the end of Revelation, everything that's brought up goes back to the beginning.

And this is true, Revelation 3.12. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will not go out from it anymore. And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my new name.

Where is that going to be? On you. Okay? You. We read that the church in Philadelphia was told that the overcomers would be made a pillar in the temple of my God. He, God, will not go out from it anymore. The Lord Jesus will write upon him the names of his God. Is that just superficial? Is this just a heavenly tap shot? What is this? What does he mean when he says, I'll write my name? Is a name just something external and superficial in biblical writing?

Yeah. Do you think that could have anything to do with the mark? I mean, previously we talked about those with the mark of the antichrist and this could be the mark for the saints, right? Yeah, well, let's put it this way. You know, as I mentioned earlier, is this 666? And people could start getting a little freaked out.

What is the mark of the beast but an attempt to imitate this? the mark of the beast, everything that Satan does is an imitation. Remember, it's an imitation trinity, right? You have Satan and the Antichrist and the false prophet. So you have an imitation trinity.

All that Satan will try to do is imitate and do a fake, just like the fake tree of life, he does a fake on everything. He just can't do the real thing and make it stick. You see the significance there? This is the real thing. Satan will just try to come up with a false alternative, a substitute. If you like eating wax fruit, it's just perfect. Isn't it much like by today's standards, we look to externals whereas God looks at our heart. He's going to write his name on our heart and now it's going to be apparent.

These names, it's not just a heavenly tat shop. What this is talking about is he's using something that they would understand. Because like if you go into a temple, they'd have like here's the columns in the temple and they'd even engrave the you know, things on the columns. But here, what he's talking about with names is he's talking about the character. We say even in the name of Jesus, and we're not just dropping names, are we? We're calling upon who he is.

And that's what this is doing as well. The name of the city of the New Jerusalem We have various things. I mean, a lot of us like our homes. Hopefully you do. And we make it our home, don't we? We go in and personalize it. We do various things. A lot of us will have some kind of a fond connection to the idea of home.

What he's saying, this is your eternal home. And it will be a part of you forever. This is your eternal home. This is where the Lamb is. This is where the Lord himself is. This will be home like no other home you've ever had. Because you're not going to leave it. And you don't have to get insurance. And you don't have things happen like happened to Nancy and I about a week ago. Where the upstairs toilet overflows, the water goes into the heating duct system and dumps into the downstairs Things like that don't happen.

In John's day, people would have the name of their deity marked on their forehead. But John's trying to make a point here that's more than superficial, more than the surface, more than something that goes on this body temporarily. But instead, This is an identity.

This is most certainly the Lord with whom we are eternally associated here. Okay, verse 5, which is on the top of page 5. And there will no longer be any night, and they will have no need of the light of a lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illuminate them, and they will reign forever and ever. So verse 5 makes it clear, as we saw before, that the need of any physical sources of light will come to an end.

See, right now, you know, you have lights and you like to go around and get, you know, the lights all situated. In fact, Craig was helping us with that recently. You like to get the lights all situated and get, you know, things where you flip a switch and the lights go on and you get the right amount of light here and the right kind of light in different places. And then we get our power bill, right?

But this is a place where there's no issue with light. You'll have things that are as valuable, as solid as gold, but are translucent. And the source of all light is the Lord himself. Imagine the walls are 200 feet thick, more than 200 feet thick, but the light passes through them. This is an amazing place. Where here the sources and distribution of light end up being a big issue. How do I do it?

In New Testament times, it was the woman of the house, it was her responsibility to keep at least one lamp burning all the time. It was thought to be a major negligence to let that lamp go out. You had to keep at least one lamp lit. So even in a home in New Testament times where it's night time and all that, still keep one lamp lit.

So here, however, is a huge contrast. The whole New Jerusalem with 200 plus foot thick walls is all translucent and the light of the Lord goes everywhere. Then it goes on, they will reign forever and ever. I believe this refers to the saints reigning with him forever and ever. Even now we are positionally seated with Christ, whether in our condition or not in any given moment. Then we would be seated with him in our position and our condition, consistent forever. No vacillation, no deviation, no interruption. Last week or so we had a power flicker. None of that. Imagine being in New Jerusalem and having a power flicker. You won't have any of that. We will reign with him forever and ever.

Something else we have in the middle of page five is a list of things. And this, it's very interesting. One of the ways that John describes the new heavens and new earth is to use the word no. No more, none of this, no longer. And so we have there from chapter 21 verse 1 on to the fifth verse in this passage here.

No longer, no longer, no temple, no need, no night, no one, no longer, no longer, not have need. Not, not, not, not, no, no, no, no. Right? And why does he do that? He's trying to get the idea, all the contrast from what we understand and see here. Everything everything that we deal with here, no longer, not that, none of this, none of those things.

Verses 6 and 7, he said to me, these words are faithful and true, and the Lord God, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show to his bondservants the things which must soon take place. And behold, I am coming quickly, blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book." Faithful and true is a phrase we've seen previously. This is the last one. We've pointed out before, the phrase is not to be dismissed as simply a nice religious saying, spoken with flair and for religious appeal.

The angel is telling John that everything that he has seen and everything that he has heard has the character of being absolutely true and legally valid as if it were courtroom testimony sworn under oath. It was a phrase used in legal documents, legal proceedings of the time, and these words are based on reality. This is for sure, this is not just John having a dream. John didn't just have some sort of an illness strike him and start having these hallucinations. This is the real thing. Now let's take a look at the words in verse 6 which show up on the top of page 6.

And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets sent his angel to show to his bondservants that things must soon take place. First this phrase tells us of God's specific intent to reveal to us through the angels and through John. things that we could not observe, discern, determine, or conclude on our own. And as human beings, we like to take pride in our cleverness and technological advances and things of that sort.

All that having been said, there are truths that human beings cannot know of their own choice, rationality, or observation. Only because God reveals, right? These are the truths that we can know only if God reveals them deliberately. God must intend to do so. So last half there makes it clear that God has indeed taken the initiative to reveal truth.

The second point there, there are many people who have claimed or now claim or will claim to be prophets. But only a few who have revealed God's intended truth. Muhammad claimed to be a prophet. Joseph Smith claimed to be a prophet And we have many many false prophets in our own day in the tribulation there even be one who was called the false prophet We would do well to recognize that there are only certain ones that God has chosen to speak through such as to reveal God's truth God's prophets.

Then when we've been told, we've been told before in Revelation that the things in this book must soon take place, that the Lord is coming quickly. And what you see here in the text box, there off to the left, the things that must soon take place, that was in the very first part of Revelation, first verse. now here in the very last chapter and also the I am coming quickly that started back in chapter 2 and you see the listing and the second and third chapter and now here in Revelation 22 three times Now how about I am coming quickly does that mean boy the Lord's idea of quick is a little different from ours The real idea of quickly is not so much that it has to happen real soon, like just within Paul's lifetime, or John's lifetime. The idea that when the Lord comes and all these things take place, they will take place in rapid succession.

The word there is tachys. We get our word in medical terminology, tachycardia. Someone has a rapid heartbeat. That's the way this set of things in Revelation is going to take place. Once it starts, it's going to be like a rapid heartbeat. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And these things are going to happen. That's what's intended there.

Not some promise that the Lord has to come within John's lifetime or Paul's lifetime. Let's take a look at verses 89 and the bottom of page 6 there. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things, and when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship. He, the angel, who showed me these things. And he said to me, Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God. I think there's a couple of things to take a look at here in this passage.

Is this the first time that John has fallen down and worshipped an angel? No, this is actually the second time. Revelation 19 was one of those places where he also did the same thing. Can you imagine John? John's entirely in a completely different context.

Here he is being showed heaven, and it's so hard for him to discern what's an angel, what's the Lord. Why would that be? Why would it be so difficult for John to determine the difference? And now for the second time, to determine the difference, how can I tell if it's between the Lord or an angel? Why is that so tough? limited by his own knowledge.

Yeah, first of all, he's walking into a place, he doesn't know a lot about what's going on. He's being shown things for the very first time. Good. What else? I think you have a tendency to bow before things that seem more powerful like Joshua. When the angel came to Joshua or when Daniel was approached by the angels, he did the same thing.

We have no scale for how do we calibrate awesome. We don't have a real finely tuned awesomeness calibration. And for us it's just like, whoa, I really can't tell. I have no idea. Is that an overwhelmingly bright light? Yeah, well it must be the Lord. Well, maybe not. John just simply had no experience, he had no calibration. Compared to all his many years on planet Earth, he's getting a glimpse of things future. And he's got no calibration, no meter, no scale for what he's seeing. So he gets this confused.

And by the way, this angel, when John began to worship the angel, this angel said, go ahead. He just stood there and took it. What did the angel do? Get up. Don't do this. Just like in Revelation 19. Exactly the same. Now let me ask you this question.

If that's the case, and Jesus were an angel, as some of the cults teach, would Jesus have done what these angels did? If Jesus were an angel, yes, but is that what he did? No. Here's Thomas, bows down, my Lord and my God. And Jesus, of course, says don't do that. Right? No, that's not what he does. The Lord Jesus accepts the worship because he is indeed deity and not an angel, as the cults would say. Therefore, Jesus does not behave like these two angels have done. Pardon?

Yeah, angel worship and all the attention and focus upon angels. Yeah. saints would rule over the angels. And the angels know that. So when they see John and Daniel and Joshua and all the rest of them, they know that at some point in time, they'll be more powerful. Isn't that something? So certainly this angel has got this in view. This is not the way it ought to be. Not that the angel would ever worship John, But the angel certainly recognizes the truth, yeah. There will come a time when you'll judge me. Please don't bow down and worship me.

So what's the Lord telling John when he says, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book? Remember back in chapter 5 when we took a look at the seven seals of the scroll? In the verses above, the Lord was telling John not to seal up the words of the book of Revelation.

Don't put an official seal on it, since that would prevent it from becoming public knowledge. Right? When you put a seal on something, everything is sealed up and kept private, except for the specific person who is allowed to see it. John wanted everybody to see this. Don't seal it up. And the Lord made it very clear to John, don't do that. Okay? Don't make this thing a secret. Get it out there. Let everybody know. It's like Paul's idea of a mystery. A mystery is something we tell everybody. Mystery is something we tell everybody.

I mean, it's just like when you go to the library and you want to look up something about a word or a definition, you go to the unwritten dictionary. If you have the Book of Mormon in front of you and you want to go to the library and compare it to the Book of Truth, you've got Suppose you can't compare, you can't see it. It needs to be open. Remember what was at the beginning of the book?

This is the book that says blessed is the person who hears and reads. You seal it up, is that going to happen? Nope. Not going to happen. You need what's in this book. This is the one book with a promised blessing for those who hear and read it like no other. So don't seal it up. Let me know.

The next part here in verse 11 is one that often puzzles people. For let the one who does wrong still do wrong, and the one who is filthy still be filthy, and let the one who is righteous still practice righteousness, and the one who is holy still keep himself holy. It almost sounds like some sort of weird fatalism, but when you start to look at it, there's a Lord telling John to just let people go the way they're going.

Even if it means they stay on the path to destruction? Actually, on the contrary, the verse is evangelistic. How did the people get righteous in the first place? Through faith in Christ, right? So what it's saying is, look, if you're on a path to destruction, you're going to stay there. If you're on a path to salvation because of faith in Christ, stay there. That's what's consistent with it. Walk according to your position.

And the only way there's going to be any difference between the two is by putting your faith in Christ. And that's something he's going to appeal to very directly in the next passage. The one who's headed on the path of destruction is going to stay there unless they put their trust and faith in Christ. Their eternity will not be any different no matter how much light they try to get in the things that are here on this planet or out of themselves.

Yeah, well I suppose that's one way to put it. Yeah, I mean, basically people are stuck. People are stuck unless they put their trust and confidence in the Lord. But the other thing that this is, is an assurance that the one who has put their trust and confidence in the Lord, they are righteous by their positions. the righteous by their position.

Well, we've run home out of time. Home out of time. But we'll finish up this next Sunday. We'll finish up the last verses of Revelation. They're really cool. Great stuff. And what we have here is we've been going through chapter after chapter after chapter.

In this next passage, we're going to see some words from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself speaking to the churches again. And by the way, the word church has not been mentioned since chapter 3. Now here in this next passage we're going to see church will be mentioned again for the first time since chapter 3, which is one reason it's very clear that it's a pre-tribulation rapture. Church is not mentioned.

Okay, let's pray. Lord, as we look at this, boy this is wonderful, hopeful, glorious stuff. the description of the place where we will be for eternity, with you. And Lord, just as you showed John things deliberately, Ephesians 2.7 says that deliberately you will show, demonstrate visibly Make known to us by intent your grace in the rolling ages to come. We thank you for that. We give you praise in Jesus' name.