God wants us to be reassured about what John has been seeing and what we have been reading. This devotional reading looks at how the angel was blessing John – and us through him – and his response.
Nuggets
- Everything John had been shown will happen, and he can take those words to the bank.
- We can’t lose sight that he refers to John’s angel tour guide.
- All that John has described — even if it is literal and not symbolic — is fantastical – and true.
- While John was shown the future, it was also tied to the past – to the prophets.
- We are to watch for these words to come true and live so that we can be blessed for keeping these words.
- John believed the words but took a misstep on the worship.
We are winding up the last chapter of the Book of Revelation. Although there are about ten verses left, the theme is fairly consistent.
- These words are true.
- This is what is going to happen.
- You’d better be ready.
- If you don’t do things God’s way, you’ll miss it.
- You don’t want to end up where you’re going to end up if you miss it.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the Eternity Begins series
The Angel Was Sent
“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.’” (Rev. 22: 6 ESV)
Everything John had been shown will happen, and he can take those words to the bank.
He Said to Me
We can’t lose sight that he refers to John’s angel tour guide.
Remember, Revelation 1: 1 gave us the scenic route in which God’s message was delivered. “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John” (Rev. 1: 1 ESV emphasis added).
Verse 6 reiterates that. “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’” (Rev. 22: 6 ESV emphasis added).
God sent the message, not Jesus. It came by way of the angel, not Jesus.
Jesus was the message. He has always been the message — the Gospel.
These Words Are Trustworthy and True
All that John has described — even if it is literal and not symbolic — is fantastical – and true.
Dragons. Living creatures. Angels. Multitudes. Lake of fire. Destruction of the planet.
But the angel says, “No, this isn’t fantasy. It isn’t just a sci-fi story. It is going to happen just this way.”
I wonder if John ever just shook his head when the vision was over, and he went back to only being a prisoner on Patmos. Did he ever question whether he saw what he saw?
The angel said not to question.
The God of the Spirits of the Prophets
While John was shown the future, it was also tied to the past – to the prophets.
I like the part where the angel tour guide says, “… And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets …” (Rev. 22: 6 ESV). The angel is saying, “The same God who sent the prophets sent me.”
John should have found comfort in that, too. He went from Apostle to prophet with these visions.
If it would have been me, my heart would have been melted when he singled out this group of which I had just become a member.
Yes, John would have remembered that most of the prophets were killed because of the message given to them. And maybe John and the rest of the Apostles didn’t realize that was going to happen when they signed up, but they probably knew the distinct possibility after the crucifixion.
John was good with that. This was validation, a kind of an atta boy.
Ooo, baby! Don’t we need those at times? No, God doesn’t send us letters anymore, even though others. But He sure does give us love letters to our hearts.
Watch for the Blessing
“And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book” (Rev. 22: 7 ESV)
We are to watch for these words to come true and live so that we can be blessed for keeping these words.
Yes, the angel was talking, but no, the angel wasn’t talking. He was the ambassador of Jesus. Jesus was talking through the angel.
This ties back to the end of the last verse. God had “… sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place” (Rev. 22: 6 ESV).
I know. That makes it sound like the coming is going to be immediate — and here we are 2,000 years later.
We have to remember that God works outside of time and space. “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (II Pet. 3: 8 ESV).
What the angel was probably saying is that, “What you’ve seen is a process. It isn’t going to be done overnight. God will start the process soon.”
This is the fifth of six blessings in the Book of Revelation. The book was given for one purpose: so that mankind would know what is going to take place when judgement comes.
We can’t add to this or take away from it — any more than we can add or subtract anything from salvation. In fact, we can’t add or subtract from God’s Word — period.
What we have to do is let these words influence us to choose God — to choose salvation through Jesus.
John’s Response
“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, 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’” (Rev. 22: 8-9 ESV)
John believed the words but took a misstep on the worship.
If we didn’t know before that John stood behind his words, we know it now.
- This is me.
- This is what I saw.
In a way, I can see that John was thanking his tour guide. He was just so overwhelmed by all he saw and knew he wouldn’t have understood half of it if he hadn’t had someone interpreting for him.
John was probably just trying to show respect and gratitude.
But we have to be very careful. If we worship what we see or what is right in front of us, we miss out on the truth. The vision was from God. The angel was just the conduit.
Fellow servants who teach us, like Pastor Steve-types and teachers, should receive thanks — but not worship. Only God should receive worship.
The message is God’s message. The plan is God’s plan. The Person Who puts it all into action is God.
Earnshaw felt that John was in a transition time. He was transitioning from seeing the visions to writing about them,
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That can be an exciting — if not scary — time. We go through our schooling. We have the graduation ceremony. Then the change begins.
We are in our own. We may be in a new city or state. We may have left our support system back from where we came.
John was at the graduation ceremony.
As we take our first job, we may be confident in what we know. But we can still have butterflies.
We have to worship Sovereign God who controls the plan, not the angels who helped us learn.
What John did was sacrilegious and sinful. That is sad. He was entrusted with this great task, and he took his eyes off the Truth.
How could John have seen all this and immediately messed it up?
Ooo, baby. Easy peasy. John was human.
Only God and Jesus are going to be perfect. We can’t perfect perfection out of other humans.
But go back to the thought of transitions. How do we go from something so extraordinary back to the normal?
John needed to translate what he was being told into what he needed to do to get to where he was sanctified to get there.
How do we implement a sermon from the Pastor Steve-type into our own lives? Sadly, how many times is the answer, “We don’t”?
We just let the service give us a warm fuzzy. We walk out the door and leave it in the sanctuary.
We aren’t to worship angels. We aren’t supposed to worship the Virgin Mary. We aren’t to worship other people — dead or alive.
We aren’t even to worship ourselves.
We are to worship God and Jesus.
Vaughn made an interesting statement. He said that we are to worship all that is God but nothing that isn’t.
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That allows us to worship Jesus, because He is God.
- “I and the Father are one” (Jn. 10: 30 ESV).
- “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9: 6 ESV emphasis added).
- “But of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom’” (Heb. 1: 8 ESV).
- “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory” (I Tim. 3: 16 ESV).
We worship Jesus because He is the obedient Son of God. He is the Lamb that was slain.
Making the Connections #1
“And he said to me, ‘These words are trustworthy and true …’” (Rev. 22: 6 ESV)
We talked about how fantastical John’s visions were. But what about the flip side?
Think about this. All that beauty and glory. There had to be an air of peace and tranquility about it.
Shouldn’t that be an encouragement to us? I mean, we know we are not going to figure everything out perfectly. We are going to get some right and some wrong.
But isn’t it comforting for us to know that this beautiful resting place awaits us? We just have to constantly praise and honor God.
Making the Connections #2
So, what is worship?
Oh, we think we know. We think we do it at least every Sunday, if not every day.
Thomas said we don’t know. He wrote, “The theme contained in this one word ‘worship’ is much larger and profounder than any of us assume.”
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The public services that we engage in are just the tip of the iceberg. Worship is so much more.
- Knowledge is a component of worship. We aren’t talking head knowledge, but heart knowledge.
- Recognition of the divine presence is crucial. Do we really worship if we are singing the words but don’t aim them at His presence?
- We have to be joining in the divine life. We have to be walking with God, daily taking up our crosses and following Him (Lk. 9: 23). We can’t make it into a spectator sport.
- Self-evaluation to provide self-knowledge is a given. We must care enough to know where we are lacking and want to fix it.
Our souls have to know God and have Him present in our hearts. We have to be obedient and constantly evaluating ourselves to ensure we are remaining obedient.
That is our worship. Not meeting once a week to sing songs and listen to someone preach at us.
We are to be seeking God daily – reading and studying His Word, meditating on it so we can do the self-evaluations, praying to Him.
Only then – when we make God a presence in our lives – not just getting a warm fuzzy every now and then – do we worship.
Thomas said something else. He wrote,
“When the soul is perpetually as conscious of the Divine presence as of the presence of an external world, and partakes of the Divine life as really and as consciously as we partake now of each other’s life, then worship becomes no longer an act to which we compel ourselves, but a state — the constant state of the soul before God — as real, as natural, as unforced, as genial, as sufficing, as gently reciprocal as that of two souls who, together in the same place and under the same conditions live one life.”
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When we make seeking God more than a habit – rather we make it a necessity – then and only then do we worship.
Look at the words Thomas used. Real. Natural. Unforced.
We worship because we want to honor Sovereign God.
That is true worship.
How Do We Apply This?
- Be careful, humble, and charitable when we see great men and women fall under the influence of sin.
- Don’t expect a perfection in others that we don’t strive for in ourselves.
- Don’t say we are so virtuous against the temptations when others have surrendered.
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Father God. We believe the words You had John record. We want to worship You with our lives, seeking You. Amen.
What do you think?
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