Revelation 22 - Come to the Summit
Unveiled Hope: The Reigning Christ of Revelation • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 40:22
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· 19 viewsWe are called to summon the world to Christ
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Introduction
Introduction
This morning we come to the last sermon in a series we started back in May—I think it’s the longest continuous sermon series I’ve ever preached. The Book of Revelation is the most controversial, most argued-about book in all of Scripture, and we’ve been careful to remind ourselves that there are faithful Christians who can (and do) differ on how the book should be understood. But we started this journey because of the promise we saw way back in Chapter 1:
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
We are promised that if we read this book and hear it and obey what is written in it, we will be blessed—even in these times of upheaval and turmoil and violence, we can be happy and satisfied. So yes—at times over the past four months or so it has been a real uphill climb to get through this book. But that’s the thing about uphill climbs—once you’ve climbed to the top of the hill, the view is amazing!
So I want us to take some time here, at the summit of the Book of Revelation, to stop and take in the view. Because here in Chapter 22 we can look back not only at where we started from in Revelation 1, but the view from this place in Scripture stretches all the way back through the entire Bible—from here we can see all the way back to the Garden of Eden in Genesis 1!
But not only is the top of the hill a good place to see from—it is a good place to be heard from. Sound carries a lot farther from a high elevation—and one of the things that we see over and over in this chapter is a call to “come” to the summit:
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
And so as we stand here on the summit of the Book of Revelation (and in fact the summit of all of redemptive history from Genesis on through), I want us to see that
The Church is called to SUMMON the world to CHRIST
The Church is called to SUMMON the world to CHRIST
Let’s look at three reasons that we call the world to come to Christ from this chapter. The first reason for calling the world to come to Christ is because
I. The KINGDOM has come (Rev. 22:1-5)
I. The KINGDOM has come (Rev. 22:1-5)
Last week we saw the wedding march of the Bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem, the Church, in the glory of her Wedding Day. As we said last week, all of church history is wedding prep for the Day when the Church finally arrives in her glory to be presented to Christ at His Second Coming. We are called to grow into the beauty that Christ has purchased for us. And I believe that here in the first five verses of Revelation 22 we have just a glimpse of the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ, arrayed in her complete eschatological glory—these verses are a picture of the Kingdom of God come in its fullness. Look at verses 3-5:
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
The saints with His Name on their foreheads are a reference to the full number of the redeemed—the “144,000” that we have seen throughout the book. The ones who have come through the persecutions and tribulations of this world, the “great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Rev. 7:9)—they have come into their final destination at the summit of glory—they will see Him face to face, never to be separated from Him in any way ever again, reigning with Him in glory forever and ever!
All of the redeemed saints throughout all of human history will be gathered around “the throne of God and of the Lamb”. Now, I don’t take this as a description of two thrones, one for God and one for the Lamb, nor is it a picture of one throne for God and the Lamb. The Greek word for “and” can also be translated “even” (as in a clarifying word), and that is the sense in which I take it here. So this verse is describing “the throne of God, even the Lamb”, “that is to say, the Lamb”.
And John describes for us two specific elements of the City here in these verses—the first is in verse 1:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
As John describes the Kingdom in its fullness, he shows us that
It is flowing with the WATER of LIFE (Rev. 22:1)
It is flowing with the WATER of LIFE (Rev. 22:1)
Two times in John’s Gospel Jesus describes Himself as the source of “living water”:
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
And here in the final glory at the summit of history, that water flows from His Throne. Not only is John picking up on Jesus’ declarations that He is the source of living water, but you may also recognize the connections with the passage from Ezekiel 47 that we read earlier in our worship—the water of life starts flowing from the Temple (the dwelling place of God), and flows “fuller every day” as it flows from the Temple into “the sea” (the Gentile nations)—and when it flows into the sea, it transforms it!
And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh.
As that water flows from the Throne of the Lamb,
It CLEANSES every SIN it touches (Ezekiel 36:25-27)
It CLEANSES every SIN it touches (Ezekiel 36:25-27)
Earlier in the Book of Ezekiel God promises His sin-stained, guilty people:
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Jesus promised that same cleansing, purifying power of the Living Water He promises—and here in Revelation 22 that cleansing water flows eternally from His throne. And not only does it cleanse, but
It QUENCHES every THIRST it touches (John 4:13-15)
It QUENCHES every THIRST it touches (John 4:13-15)
When the Samaritan woman met Jesus at the well outside Sychar on that hot and weary afternoon, she was as broken and sin-stained as it was possible to be! Jesus asked her for a drink, and it shocked her—Jews would rather drink from an open sewer than accept a drink from a Samaritan!—but His aim was not to quench His own thirst, but to satisfy hers! Her thirst to be free of her shame and made right with God, her thirst to be clean from her sinful past and the guilt and isolation she suffered: “Sir—give me this water!” (John 4:15). And He gave her Himself, He satisfied her thirst and cleansed her from her sin. And here in Revelation we see that living water flowing freely and eternally through the New Jerusalem!
And not only is the Kingdom flowing with the Water of Life,
It is growing with the TREE of LIFE (Rev. 22:2)
It is growing with the TREE of LIFE (Rev. 22:2)
through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
I said a moment ago that here in Revelation 22 we can see all the way back to Genesis. Here at the summit of all of redemptive history we see God not just repairing the damage done by the Fall in the Garden of Eden—we see Him surpassing the original glory that He had intended for the Creation! In the Garden there was one Tree of Life planted, and in their sin our First Parents Adam and Eve lost the right to ever eat from it. But here at the summit of all redemptive history, the River of Life sprouts a whole orchard of the Tree of Life! John takes his description of the Tree of Life Orchard from the verse we read earlier:
And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”
There are two things that Ezekiel and John say that the Tree of Life will do—first
Its LEAVES are for HEALING (Ezek. 47:12)
Its LEAVES are for HEALING (Ezek. 47:12)
There in that City there will be no more tears, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain (Rev. 21:4)—the effects of the Curse that fell on our race at the Garden of Eden will finally be undone! The Tree of Life in the Garden did not have to heal the nations, because there was no sin to heal them from! But here in the Final arrival of the Kingdom of God at the summit of redemptive history, the misery of sin and death will be gone forever!
The Trees’ leaves are for healing, and
Its FRUIT is for NOURISHING (Rev. 2:7; 22:14)
Its FRUIT is for NOURISHING (Rev. 2:7; 22:14)
as well.
When Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden back in Genesis 3:22, it was because they had lost the right to “eat of the Tree of Life, and live forever” (Genesis 3:22). But here, at the summit of redemptive history, here in the fullness of the arrival of the Kingdom of Christ, He has given His people the right to eat from the Tree of Life:
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
And Jesus promises the Church in Ephesus that His people will be “granted the right to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7). The Tree that our First Parents lost the right to eat has been restored to us by the work of Jesus Christ, and we will spend all eternity being nourished by its fruit!
The first five verses of Revelation 22 comprise the end of John’s visions: The vision of the Kingdom of Christ come in its fullness, the arrival of the Bride of Christ, the Church, in her eschatological glory—the eternal state of the people of God before His Throne. From verse 6 on through the rest of the chapter we are shown how to respond to this vision—what are we to know, and what are we to do as a result of seeing the final and eternal arrival of the Kingdom?
First, we are to
II. REMEMBER that the KING is coming (Rev. 22:6-12)
II. REMEMBER that the KING is coming (Rev. 22:6-12)
Back in Revelation 1:9, John wrote
I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
The churches were about to undergo terrible tribulation as Nero’s persecutions ramped up, but John wrote this letter to remind them that they were partners with him in this kingdom described in Chapter 22, and therefore they could stand with patient endurance before the trials that were about to come upon them.
And here in Chapter 22 he strengthens those besieged, threatened churches with the reminder that Jesus is coming--
His coming is CERTAIN (vv. 6-7)
His coming is CERTAIN (vv. 6-7)
And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.” “And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
The churches needed to hear that—WE need to hear that, don’t we? We need to remember that the King is coming—Jesus Christ has promised that He is coming, and He always keeps His promises!
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
There are a whole lot of doubtful things in your world, Christian—you may doubt whether you’ll keep your job, you may doubt whether you keep your health, you may doubt whether this country survives another election—but you can never doubt that Jesus is coming back! And when He does, He is bringing every man’s paycheck with Him! Sooner doubt that the sun will come up tomorrow than doubt that the Son of God is on His way back!
His coming is certain, and
His coming will be GLORIOUS (vv. 8-9)
His coming will be GLORIOUS (vv. 8-9)
When John hears Jesus’ words in verse 7, “Behold, I am coming soon!”, what is his first impulse?
I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me,
The angel who was with John immediately rebukes him:
but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
There are two things that occur to us when we read these verses. First—if John fell down in worship at the mere promise of Christ’s return, how glorious will His return be? And second—if John fell down in worship at the mere promise of Christ’s return, why doesn’t that promise spark more worship in us? Again in verse 20, when Jesus says “Surely, I am coming soon”, John’s immediate response is “AMEN! Come, Lord Jesus!” When you read these words and see how John’s heart leapt at the thought of the glory of Christ’s return, what does it show you about the state of your own heart for His return?
The King is coming—His return is certain, it will be glorious, and
His coming is NEAR (vv. 10-12)
His coming is NEAR (vv. 10-12)
John writes this book to show His servants in the churches of Asia Minor “what must soon take place” (v. 6). And again, “Behold, I am coming soon” (v. 7), “Behold I am coming soon” (v. 12), “Surely I am coming soon” (v. 20). One of the major interpretive decisions that we have made in this series is that Revelation was written to the churches of Asia Minor some time between A.D. 65-66. if that is the case, then the fall of Jerusalem took place only a few years later—in fact, the angel specifically tells John in verse 10,
And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.
Back in the Old Testament at the end of the Book of Daniel, the angel tells Daniel to “shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end” (Daniel 12:4, 9)—his prophecies about the Messiah’s arrival wouldn’t take place for another 500 years, so they were “sealed up”. But the angel basically tells John, “Don’t lick the envelope—it’s going to get opened up soon!” (Which would be an odd thing indeed to say if all of these prophecies were going to take place two thousand or more years in John’s future!)
The coming of Jesus Christ to bring His recompense on Jerusalem took place in A.D. 70—but there is another Day coming when He will return to bring His recompense on the entire world. And that day is coming soon! And no one knows when that Day is coming, so the only thing you can do is be ready for that Day now.
John is almost downright bleak in the way he describes the nearness of that Day:
Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.
In essence, John says, “If you can hear about all of these things, if you can hear all these warnings about the judgment coming, and you still don’t care—then you just go right on ahead with your stubborn rebellion and rejection of Christ. But be warned—He is coming, and He is bringing your paycheck with Him!”
This is the message that the Church is called to proclaim—we are called to summon the world to Christ. We proclaim the Kingdom has come, we remember that the King is coming, and we call the world to
III. Come to the GRACE that is offered (Rev. 22:14-21)
III. Come to the GRACE that is offered (Rev. 22:14-21)
See here in these verses the call that we are to offer—the call to
Come and be WASHED (v. 14)
Come and be WASHED (v. 14)
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
Down in verse 17 is one of the most beautiful Gospel- invitation verses in all of Scripture:
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
Beloved, if you really grasp what God’s Word is saying to you here in this verse, it will change your perspective on evangelism forever—this verse is telling you that when the Church (the Bride of Christ) issues the invitation to “Come” to salvation, she is the audible voice of the Holy Spirit!
The Church’s voice in the world, saying “Come for cleansing and salvation to Jesus Christ! Come and be washed, come and be made holy, come and wear the white robes of His righteousness and regain our race’s lost privilege of eating from the Tree of Life” is the voice of the Holy Spirit Himself!
The Holy Spirit uses your voice to issue His call to salvation! That is why Acts 26:17-18 says that God has called you to “open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and the power of Satan to God!” Christian—when you hear the Spirit calling the world to come to salvation—you call the world to come!
And who is this call being made to in these verses? The ones who wash their robes by repentance and faith in Christ may “enter the city by the gates” (v. 14).
Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Think carefully here, because we are tempted to think about the “gates” as being a means of “keeping sinners out” of heaven. But what did we see about the gates of this City in the last chapter?
and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
The gates are open in invitation! The Holy Spirit, in one voice with the Church, the Bride of Christ, is calling to those outside to come and be washed! The word “dogs” in this context (along with the sexually immoral) is probably a reference to homosexual behavior (the same term appears in Deuteronomy 23:18 to refer to male prostitutes.) And we’ve seen earlier that the word “sorcery” (Gk. pharmakeia) involves drug-induced altered states of consciousness.
Church, we are called to summon gay and lesbian and transsexual sinners to Christ! We are called to summon drug dealers and drug and alcohol addicted sinners to Christ! We are called to summon pornographers and adulterers and rapists and molesters to Christ! We are called to summon murderers and abortionists and violent thugs to Christ!
We are called to summon the politicians who worship the power of the State, the and deceivers and perjurers and all who love to twist the facts and slander and lie and distort the truth—we are to summon all of them to come to Jesus Christ to be washed and forgiven and made holy so that they may enter the gates and eat freely from the Tree of Life in the presence of the Lamb forever—and when you call them with the voice of the Holy Spirit, they will come!
And you know they will come, don’t you? You know it because “such were some of you!” The same Holy Spirit who called you through the voice of the Christian who shared the Gospel with you now speaks through you to call them! He calls them through you to come and be cleansed. And Christian, He calls you to
Come and be RENEWED (John 13:10)
Come and be RENEWED (John 13:10)
Christian, look at your life today, look at your heart. Because the same water of life that flows from the Throne of the Lamb for the cleansing of the nations flows for your cleansing as well! Not to be saved again—once you have been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you have become a new creature in Christ, you can never go back to being “unsaved” again!
In John’s Gospel he tells the story of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet on the night He was betrayed. He says to Peter, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean” (John 13:10). Christian, you belong to Christ today, but do you need to come to Him to be renewed? Do you need Jesus to wash your feet today? Have you been losing more battles with sin than you’ve been winning? Have you been making peace with sin you should be killing?
Are you finding yourself drifting away from Christlikeness, and toward more selfishness, more anger? Has your love for God, His Word and His people begun to grow cold? Do you see John’s pure, unbridled joy at the promise of Jesus’ return and realize that your heart has become indifferent to His coming?
You don’t need to bathe again in the blood of the Lamb, but maybe you need Him to renew you today. If so, here is a marvelous promise from His Word, from here at the summit of all redemptive history at the very climax of the Holy Scriptures: “Let the one who is thirsty come! Let the one who desires take the water of life without price!”
The very last words of the Old Testament end with a threat of a curse—the very last words of the New Testament end with a promise and a blessing! And so let us conclude our study of the unveiled hope of the reigning Christ of Revelation with the same words: Come, Lord Jesus! And let me add my voice to the voice of the Holy Spirit to you this morning: Come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!
BENEDICTION
and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:
RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:
Revelation: Four Views, A Parallel Commentary Steve Gregg, editor. Thomas Nelson Publishers, Revised Edition (2013).
Revelation: Four Views, A Parallel Commentary Steve Gregg, editor. Thomas Nelson Publishers, Revised Edition (2013).
A commentary that brings together the four main Evangelical Christian interpretive approaches to Revelation (Historicist, Preterist, Futurist and Idealist).
A commentary that brings together the four main Evangelical Christian interpretive approaches to Revelation (Historicist, Preterist, Futurist and Idealist).
Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation by Kenneth Gentry. Victorious Hope Publishing (2010).
Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation by Kenneth Gentry. Victorious Hope Publishing (2010).
An academic volume that argues for an early date for the writing of Revelation.
An academic volume that argues for an early date for the writing of Revelation.
When The Man Comes Around: A Commentary on the Book of Revelation by Doug Wilson. Canon Press (2019).
When The Man Comes Around: A Commentary on the Book of Revelation by Doug Wilson. Canon Press (2019).
A popular-level commentary that applies the “historical redemptive preterist” view of Revelation. (This was one of the major resources used in this series.)
A popular-level commentary that applies the “historical redemptive preterist” view of Revelation. (This was one of the major resources used in this series.)