John issued one last invitation before he offered a benediction. This devotional reading looks at the closing verses of the Book of Revelation.
Nuggets
- Non-believers still receive a call to come for salvation.
- We must be very careful in interpreting God’s Word.
- Soon is relative but not an excuse to put off salvation.
- John’s benediction wished grace for us.
I can’t believe we are here. We are at the final verses of the last chapter of the Book of Revelation.
The parting words, even though they are what we should expect, are informative.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the Eternity Begins series
The Dual Invitation
“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” (Rev. 22: 17 ESV)
Non-believers still receive a call to come for salvation.
The Spirit
Look at who is issuing the call to come: the Holy Spirit and the Bride of Christ – the Church.
We may question why the Holy Spirit is listed on the invitation. It is easy to see when we think about it.
It is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict us so that we can gain salvation. He has many success stories.
How many rejections has He had? That doesn’t take into account the grief that we as disciples give Him with our disobedience.
The Bride
Who is a bride? Not someone who has been married for a long time.
A bride is someone right before the wedding, during the wedding, and immediately after the wedding.
The Church as the bride is waiting for the Bridegroom to get here. We are waiting for the marriage feast of the bride to begin.
Once the Bridegroom comes, the Holy Spirit will no longer have to face rejection.
Come
There is a lot of instances of the word come in that verse. How do we process it to come up with an answer of to whom they are extending the invitation?
Macclaren said that there are actually two invitations here. He clarified, “The first portion is an invocation or a prayer; the second portion is an invitation or an offer. The one is addressed to Christ, the other to men.”
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Either way, the call is to do it now. Sinner, come now to repentance; Jesus, come now for judgment.
Disciples also have to be waiting for Jesus to say, “Come.” He will call His Church – His Bride – home. We just don’t know when that time is going to be and how much of the end time activities will have already been accomplished.
While we wait, we are to obey God’s Word. We are to obey His commandments.
One Who Is Thirsty
In the past two devotions, we’ve had a summary of what the Book of Revelation is all about. God tells us in a nutshell what we have to do to gain eternal life and gives us a partial list of the sins those who lose it. Then Jesus showed up to remind us He is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn. 14: 6).
The outcome is up to us. We have to follow God by asking Jesus to be our Savior and start walking with God, or we continue to follow Satan.
Now, it is again being stressed that we have to choose now. The end is coming,
Yes, we want Jesus to come soon. No, we don’t want Him to come until all who will are going to be saved will be. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (I Pet. 3: 9 ESV).
Yes, at that point, Jesus will be coming to judge the world. We have to be good with that.
How can we be good with looking forward to God’s wrath? We are good by making sure our relationship with God is right. We do that by ABCDing.
Verse 17 says that we need to come thirsting. We need to come as a deer panting for water. “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God” (Ps. 42: 1 ESV).
We’ve got to diligently seek God and diligently seek to win others to Him.
Notcutt said something interesting. He wrote,
“If any thirst after Jesus Christ and His grace; such are called in the text. This thirst is a fruit of spiritual life: for how can a soul thirst after Jesus unless the soul knows Him, and, in some measure, the need it stands in of an interest in Him; and His suitableness to the wants of the soul?”
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We can’t ask Jesus to be our Savior if we don’t know Him. This heart knowledge, not head knowledge, creates the thirst. This thirst bears fruit as knowing Him just makes us want to know Him more as we see Him supplying our spiritual needs.
As with everything else, we don’t create this thirst. It comes from God, who has made our souls want an increase of grace, mercy, and holiness. In other words, we want God.
We are rewarded when we seek God and satisfy our thirst in Him.
- “I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food” (Job 23: 12 ESV).
- “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119: 97 ESV).
Don’t Rewrite God’s Word
“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book” (Rev. 22: 18-19 ESV)
We must be very careful in interpreting God’s Word.
We’ve talked many times that we aren’t supposed to rewrite God’s Word to insert our opinions – especially if they are compromises with the worldview.
Whatever we make our translation to be, it doesn’t hold a candle to what God said. His way is better.
God’s way is also correct. The King James Version has Esau’s blessing wrong. It has where both Jacob and Esau are blessed with the dew of heaven and the richness/fat of the earth (Gen. 27: 18-40 KJV).
We, like Isaac, want Esau to get some sort of blessing, too. We also want it to be a good blessing.
But Esau went to live where Isaac prophesied him to live – in the desert.
Bonar told us one reason why we are not to rewrite God’s Word. He places high honor on it. He wrote, “It is the fullest expression of His mind, the completest revelation of His character.”
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We can’t make God into what we think He should be.
God’s Word tells us Who He is and what His character is. It tells us how we can be restored to Him — through the sacrifice of His Son.
These verses tell us the consequences when we do add to or subtract from — in any way change God’s Word. We lose access to the tree of life.
Lose our salvation — didn’t have it in the first place — call it whatever you want. The result is still the same: we are out of Heaven.
Ooo, baby! Bonar said that we have to be mindful of even how we think about God’s Word. When we have low thoughts about it, we are denigrating it. We are convinicing ourselves that what it says is not true.
Don’t do that! God will not be mocked.
Soon!
“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22: 20 ESV)
Soon is relative but not an excuse to put off salvation.
Stirling summarized what will occur at Jesus’ Second Coming.
- Jesus will appear in His glory.
- Disciples — both alive and dead — will meet Him.
- These heavens and this earth will cease to exist.
- The final separation will occur when Jesus separates the sheep from the goats.
- Rewards and repayments will be distributed.
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We have to be prepared for it. As Homilist said, we can’t be apathetic or deny it. We can’t be stymied with fear.
We have to embrace it and welcome it. We have to yearn for it.
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I fear people tend to think the Second Coming isn’t going to happen in their lifetime, so they put off correcting the condition of their souls — much in the same way we don’t think today will be the day we die. We think we have time for each.
But really, the outcome is still the same. If we haven’t been obedient to God’s laws and commands, we won’t have access to the tree of life.
The Grace of Jesus
“The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen” (Rev. 22: 21 ESV)
John’s benediction wished grace for us.
Yes, even thousands of years ago, someone was saying a blessing for us. Jesus was born just for us. He hung on the cross for us. He rose again for us. He is up next to His Father mediating for us.
Doesn’t that thought make us all ooey and gooey inside?
Regardless of our circumstances right now, God is showering His grace upon us.
Jesus blesses us with His grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2: 8-9 ESV).
Brooke identified this grace as part of His love.
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It is this Jesus Whom we serve and for Whom we wait. This is what John wanted for us.
It is this Jesus Who loved us enough to die for our sins. He became everything we are so that He could pay the penalty for our disobedience.
Bonar felt this blessing summed up all the blessings given in God’s Word. God will extend this grace and love to us eternally. We won’t get halfway through eternity and find out it all been used.
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The best part is this grace and love is extended to all — every nation, every tribe, every people.
It is fitting that the last word of the Book of Revelation — in fact, all of God’s Word — is Amen. So much is wrapped up in that little word.
It has the consent and agreement that it holds when said in the prayer. “We agree that it should happen this way.”
But to me, this Amen has expectation ratcheted up to a much higher degree. This way means no more sin. This way means our actual presence with God.
This is the way it certainly will happen, and we want it to be just that way. We know this is truthfully stated, so we will walk in faith until faith becomes sight.
Making the Connections #1
I have to process what Greenhough said. He wrote,
“There are times when it can hardly be said that the Church does long for the nearer and fuller manifestation of her Lord — when she has settled down into a state of apathy and indifference. And it is just at these times that she grows lax in her evangelistic work, and becomes careless about the world which lieth in wickedness. On the other hand, there are times when the Church is stirred to her deepest, inmost heart for a fuller and nearer manifestation of her Master’s presence. And it is just at these times that she pleads most earnestly and powerfully with sinners, and that her invitations to the world go forth most freely. Calling earnestly for the Lord, she calls most beseechingly to the world. She finds the banquet so rich and full that she cannot but invite the perishing to partake of it.”
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- For three years, God has been telling Pastor Steve that the Church is missing Jesus. For the past two years, He has said it was because the Church is ignorant and apathetic. That condition has been caused by indifference.
- Pastor Steve and I are watching the Torah Class by Bradford. Are we getting our eyes opened! There has been so much translated out of our versions of God’s Word because people wanted the Jewishness out of them for whatever reason. The problem is that means we aren’t understanding what God really wants of us. We need to put it back in so we are worshiping Him His way.
- Yes, we grow lax in our witness. We come up with so many excuses as to why we can’t. It boils down to our refusal to do what God calls us to do. Greenhough said that God will not answer us when all we do is geared to save our own souls. Is that what is meant in Matthew 7: 21?
- Yes, we compromise too much with the worldview. We buy into the “love is tolerance” malarkey. God is not in the business of compromising. As is so evident in the Book of Revelation, He separates. “Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Mt. 25: 32 ESV).
- Sometimes – sometimes! – we get it right. The problem is we aren’t constant, and we should be. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (I Thess. 5: 16-18 ESV).
- When we get it right, it is wonderful!
Making the Connections #2
What? You think the Book of Revelation is the sci-fi book of God’s Word. Think again.
Spurgeon explained it well. He wrote, “Christ will descend to earth as surely as He ascended to heaven, and when He cometh there will be victory to the right and to the true, and His saints shall reign with Him.”
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People who think Jesus is not coming again – in fact, never came in the first place – are going to figure out how wrong they are.
Don’t be one of them.
Making the Connections #3
The cry of this book – in fact, the whole of God’s Word – is “Sinner, come home.” God inspired many men over many years to write of His Plan of Salvation. He wants the Gospel to be told to everyone.
Bonar put it this way. He wrote, “All the predictions throughout the book bear upon this event, and carry forward the Church’s hopes to this great goal.”
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God’s Word – especially the Book of Revelation – is His love letter to us.
Making the Connections #4
Many like to think of the Book of Revelation as pure punishment. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is a book about love, redemption, forgiveness, faith, and grace.
Yes, it does have its fire and brimstone as preachers of old preached. But that is only so there will be no mistake about the punishment waiting for those who disobeyed God.
Isn’t punishment given out of love? When I punished Adam when he was a child, it wasn’t because I hated him. It was because I loved him and wanted him to choose right over wrong.
This isn’t any different.
We are never shown a glimpse of hell. John wasn’t taken down there and given a guided tour so that he could write down a description.
John was invited into heaven. He was shown worship and praise.
John was shown the never ending. Love of God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
What are we each going to do in response to this love letter?
How Do We Apply This?
- Hear the Bride’s and the Spirit’s call and act on it.
- Hear the Lord’s voice.
- Enjoy God’s presence in our lives.
- Never lose faith in the power of the Gospel.
- Don’t limit God’s power by thinking He has given us all He has to give.
- Begin with Christ now.
- Be responsible for how we treat, study, and profit from God’s Word.
- Let the assurance of the Second Coming with its separation, rewards, and punishment control the way we live now.
- Recognize our imperfect nature compared to His glory.
- Live in a state of expectation for the Second Coming.
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Father God. We come to You. We will walk with You daily and follow Your commandments. We wait for Jesus’ return. Amen
What do you think?
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