WordPress.com



Revelation 22 New International Version (NIV)Eden Restored22?Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2?down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3?No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4?They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5?There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.John and the Angel6?The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”7?“Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”8?I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9?But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!”10?Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near. 11?Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”Epilogue: Invitation and Warning12?“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13?I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.14?“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15?Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.16?“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you[a] this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”17?The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.18?I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. 19?And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.20?He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.21?The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.IntroductionLast time we came to the second last chapter of Revelation and I asked you all, who wanted to go to heaven, and of course we all did.And important as that is, it means dying, but the wonderful picture that is drawn out in chapters 21 & 22 is that of heaven coming to earth, where there is no more dying, pain, suffering or crying.Let’s continue then to see what this may look like by, for one last time, examining the symbolsCracking the Code (Context)Slide - 2Verses 1-5It’s an idyllic scene but also a scene of contrasts again. The angel shows John the river of the water of life, clear as crystal and flowing from God and the Lamb.The picture here could be a combination of scenes from the past. Ezekiel 47 and Genesis 2 come to mind:2nd & 3rd clicksHe asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. ?When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river… (Ezekiel 47:6-7)In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ?A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters… (Genesis 2:9-10)The river goes down the middle of the street, giving us a merging of both urban and rural life. This new earth seems to be described as a combination of both.On either side of the river are trees for the healing of the nations. It seems that, although death and sickness are no longer present. Memories may take time to heal. Therefore, ties in with the idea that we will know one another in the new heaven on earth.There will be no more curse, again thinking back to Genesis, things have gone full circle as the deceiver, Satan, is no longer present, nor is the curse.Like I said last time, this is a whole new situation.And in this new situation, God dwells with his people, who will see his face, verse 4, and in a twist on the mark of the beast imagery, here we find that they will have his name on their foreheads.And, again as we saw last time, the light of God will be all that is needed to guide and keep us forever and ever.Slide - 4Verses 6-11Verse 6 once again reminds us of the continuity with the prophets of the past, for it is the inspiration from the same God, that sends the angel with his message. That which we read in verse 7, i.e. he is coming soon. Which seems peculiar as over 2,00 years later we are still waiting for that return. I don’t think this means that it will happen within a certain time frame, which we may be able to work out. But it will happen according to God’s clock, or time frame, and not ours. I agree with the commentators who stress that the emphasis should be on the preparedness, rather than the when. After all, we are told in verse 7; blessed are those who keeps the words of this prophecy – and the call throughout has been to remain faithful and be prepared.That applies to the angels too, as in verses 8-9 we read of John falling at the angel’s feet, only to be told not to do that, as the angel is a fellow servant too.In verse 10-11 is a bit strange but rather than encouraging us to continue sinning, it rather implies that there will come a time when it will be too late to repent, for the return of Jesus will be upon us. Again, it is a matter of living in expectancy.Slide - 5Verses 12-21:In verses 12-13, we are again reminded that Jesus is with God in the beginning and end and he will reward the good works of those who are saved by grace, not saved by works, but by grace to do good works.In verses 14-15, the washing of robes could be connected with martyrdom, but the continual present tense suggests that the activity is a continuous one, rather than a one-off past event. There is a list of exclusions, as in Rev 21, with the addition of dogs, which peculiarly in Greco-Roman culture were viewed as sexually immoral.Verse 16 reminds us that Jesus is the true Messiah, of Davidic descent and in verse 17, there is the invitation to partake of the water of life, as a free gift from God.Verse 18-19 reminds us that God’s word is to be taken seriously. It seems appropriate to the words of this prophecy and to it being placed at the end of the canon of scripture. Therefore, must apply to both.Slide - 6Finally, in verses 20-21, we end with the expression “Maranatha!” was a key watchword and prayer among the early Christians. It is an Aramaic word which is a combination of two words “marana - tha” which literally mean “the Lord comes” or “Come, Lord!” Paul the Apostle used this Aramaic word at the end of his First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 16, verse 22: “Come, Lord!”And finally, finally we end, as the letter began, with grace:2nd clickGrace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come… (Revelation 1:4)3rd clickThe grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen… (Revelation 22:21)These are the only two places, in the whole book, where the word grace is mentioned. And yet, that is what it is all about.If That Then – What Now? (Contextualise)Slide - 7And I guess that is what it is all about for us. That it is by God’s grace that we are saved, not by works, and yet; the book of Revelation, peculiar as it may seem in places, is about the work of God, through Jesus Christ, in bringing people to salvation.The battle is raging and yet the victory is already won. Here we see through a glass darkly, as Paul says, yet we get the picture that God is coming to dwell with his people. Evil, and all that it entails, death, suffering, crying or pain, will be no more.Just a perfect existence between God and humanity. And yet, there is some continuity between this life and the life to come.I think there are two things that concern me, and I want to make clear at the summing up of this study:Firstly, we have looked at a lot of symbolism and warned about not taking these thigs too literally. Secondly, that heaven is often expressed by Christians in airy fairy ways.But we must be aware that the realities which the symbols represent are very real. The end result, here in Revelation 21-22, is not a fluffy cloud dwelling spiritual state but an embodied life. All be it in new bodies and a renewed creation.And in the here and now, there may not be a literal beast but there is an enemy waiting to devour. There a real spiritual battle taking place and the thing that we can be assured of is that Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, is the beginning and the end, the first and the last.Whether we believe in a literal fiery hell or not, we have to believe that there is a fate which is far worse than the worst physical pain that can ever be afflicted. That is the pain of knowing that we could be separated from God for all of eternity.So, yes there is symbolism but there is a reality in all of this that is expressed in a way in which we can understand a continuity with this life and the next. Slide - 8Eugene Peterson puts it like:...many people want to go to heaven in the way they want to go to Florida – they think the weather will be an improvement and the people decent. But the biblical heaven is not a nice environment far removed from the stress of hard city life. It is the invasion of the city by the city…This is not a long (eternal) weekend away from the responsibilities of employment and citizenship, but the intensification and healing of them… (Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder)In other words, it is life as it was in the beginning, working with God as stewards of the earth in a new garden/city type of environment.Working with him now, in this life, may not be perfect, far from it but it is a way of living that helps prepare us for the next. Therefore, we too can live in hope, and replicate that of the heavenly reality, which we can with his help, in this life.We too can join with the saints of old in praying ‘Come Lord Jesus’.And may the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. munal Discernment (Conversation) ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download