Revelation Chapter 22 Verses 1 - 2

 Notice, the source of the pure river of water of life is the throne of

God and of the Lamb! Not the seat, not the couch, not the feet, not the

hands, not the face, not the voice, the throne! Many seek the truth of

God (the seat), the couch of God (the blessings and comfort), the feet

and hands of God (the works and miracles), the face of God (the

understanding), and the voice of God in their lives which are ALL

good things! But the throne of God, from which comes forth the

living water, speaks of royalty/majesty, kingship and authority.

 We are to approach the throne of God with confidence in His love.

Confidence and assurity that because of the blood of Jesus, God hears

us. We have audience. Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us therefore come

boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace

to help in time of need.”

 AND, He’s still the King of kings. He’s still God Most High and Most

Holy. Approaching God and forgetting that doesn’t take away from

Him. He is who He is. It takes away from me and I may get what I

need in time of need, but I will miss the majesty of God in my life.

And in so doing, the pure river of water of life.

 And notice the throne is of two persons. God AND the Lamb which

certainly speaks of the Father and the Son being two distinct persons

yet One.

 And one last critical item in Verse 1. This word in the Greek for river

is potamos which can also be translated, “flood.” And so, he showed

me a pure flood of water of life. I love that! There are many that have

this idea and experience of the presence of God, His love for you,

grace for you, provision for you is like a hamster water bottle. You

know those bottles on the side of their cages that they just hit every

time they are thirsty? But that’s not what God has said!

 God says, FLOOD! Isaiah 44:3 says, “For I will pour water on the

thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit

on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” And Jesus

in John 7:38 said that “Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said,

rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

 So, let’s talk about joylessness in Christianity. Powerlessness. No fund

and no passion and no glitter! HA. God doesn’t give me that, someone

says. My friend, with all due respect to difficult season, YOU don’t

give YOU that!

 Jeremiah 2:13 says, “My people have committed two evils, they have

forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves

cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water!”

 What busts your cistern? Where is your heart, life and thinking is God

not the authority! Where is your voice stronger than His? Where are

you lacking humility? Where are you activating pride? God has

said, I will give to him to drink of the flood of living water, I’ll pour it

out all over you, if you would simply come to Me and trust Me! So,

who’s lying, you or God!?

 The streets of New Jerusalem, the way that is, lined and surrounded

and in the midst of the Tree of Life! When was the last time we saw

the Tree of Life in scripture? We haven’t seen it since Genesis!

Introduced in Genesis Chapter 2 and then guarded in Genesis 3 as God

placed a guardian angel to guard the way to the tree of life. So that

man would not eat of it and live forever, not in the state that he was in.

Now open for business! Why, because sin is gone.

 And months? The eternal state somehow there’s time, it appears. Not

time as we know it today with deadlines, never enough time, pressures

and alarm clocks. Something different. Time used in a way to serve

the Lord and the people.

 And what’s this bit about the healing of the nations? Does that mean

there is sickness in heaven? Not so much. The Greek word translated

“healing” is therapeia from which we get our word, “therapy.” So,

this healing is not healing from sickness but rather in the original

language it speaks of care, exhilaration and invigoration… There are

folks out there that think or say you don’t need therapy, or a

counselor… WRONG. Every Christian in the New Heaven gets it!

Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 3

 A bit of an encouragement here. I like to remind myself that this world

is literally under a curse. Not from a wicked witch but from the

presence and effect of sin! So, here’s the thought, everything you’ve

been able to accomplish, get done, even good days, even the things

you’ve been able to keep together, you’ve done so in a curse. So, look,

good job! HA!

 This Greek word for curse in verse 3 is katathema and it is a word that

is only used one time in the entire New Testament, and that one time

is right here. Why? Because this is it, the curse. THE curse. Genesis

3:16-19, sorrow and pain in childbirth for women, friction between the

sexes, the necessity of hard and often futile work for man’s

sustenance, and most of all death.

 All has been righted. All has been healed. Evil is not even a word in

the vocabulary of heaven. And every day is a day where there is no

curse. It has been broken. Lifted. Defeated by the blessing of God

through Jesus!

 His servants shall serve Him, just as they do today. Another way to

say that is His servants shall worship Him, love on Him. That word

latreou, used 21 times in the New Testament which is indicative of our

perfect response to God today. To simply serve Him. That’s the

perfect response in perfection, can’t go wrong now!

Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 4

 I don’t think this is some sort of eternal state forehead tattoo. His

name being on their foreheads is proceeded by them seeing His face.

So, I would take this as a reflection of the immutable glory of God.

That even as John is looking at people that are there, he is seeing the

Lord in and through all of it!

 I was thinking about this once and it occurred to me that the mention

of the forehead is perfect. The forehead is something that you

yourself cannot see. Only others can see it. Even today, in a sense just

as it will be then, folks can see the Lord’s name on me, but I can’t.

And humility enters. So often I only see the Lord’s name on myself.

But I can’t see my forehead!

 It shouldn’t be about me seeing God in myself. I think of myself so

highly and think of myself so solid positionally in Christ and yet

God’s heart is for me to grant preference to, grant greater grace, to

others! God and I had a deal when I started this church. “God, You

love them and I’ll judge them! Fix their lives right on up!” And God

said, “Ok, dumb dumb.” HA! We’ve swapped spots over the years.

I’ve put Him on the throne and stepped off of mine. Now our deal is,

“God, I’ll love them and You judge them.” And folks disagree with

me on that. That’s ok. Dumb dumbs… HA!

 Humility is the beginning of service to the King. Placing others

before yourself. Even as offenses come…when you hear what they

say, see what they do, read their posts and groan in your heart. Even,

and this one has been especially hard for me, even what I’ve done for

them and then what they did to me! (That one gets me) I’m so quick

to jump to accusation, anger, frustration and to withhold grace, when I

should see the name of the King upon their forehead and not my own.

Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 5

 John seems a bit preoccupied with the fact that there’s no more night

and no other source of light. He’s mentioned it over and over, again.

So, this is something wondrous to him. Stunning. He sees all these

things and just keeps coming back to, “Yea, and there’s no more

night.”

 This word for night in the Greek can also mean stupidity, laziness,

shame, darkness, weariness. All that is gone! Missing the work and

hand of God in our day or on our lives, not possible anymore. If we

only knew, honestly if we would only remember what we have known,

what we knew in the moment when God showed up, when God

moved, when God gave His mercy and grace…, time and time again.

Serving the Lord and serving each other would be no problem. Such is

the eternal state.

 So, here’s the scene. This is the extreme privilege and promise of God

we have in Jesus Christ. We will see God face to face, and the

implication is that we will know HIM! We will know more in the first

5 minutes of Heaven than the most studied religious scholar that has

ever lived! We will serve Him and we will love, adore every minute of

it to the point that we will think of it as reigning, because that is what

it will feel like!

 That is just good leadership right there! The best leaders don’t demand

authority. They inspire it! And those around them that align with them

feel like a million bucks because the mission is clear, it is noble, they

are valued and they are intensely productive!

Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 6

 These words are “faithful and true.” This place that is prepared for

you and for me. There is an element of faith required in setting your

hope upon it, upon the promises of God; Realizing that this is all a

result of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, and by the grace of God we

have been included, invited, blessed with sharing in His inheritance,

AND, an element of faithfulness today in my life should be present as

I trust in this end game. Faithful is this. Faith surrounds it. It’s all

because of faith. Faith is its foundations having the chief cornerstone

of Christ.

 And true. The angel makes a statement that is obvious to John as his

faith has become his sight…, but for us, a reminder, an

encouragement, a hand on the shoulder, son, daughter, what you are

reading, is true. Everything is going to pass, this is what will not.

Please, this is almost the message behind what the angel is saying in

this statement, please make sure you get here.

 Soon, these things will take place. When? Soon. The word in the

Greek means quickly. Couple of final thoughts here for this week.

First, all that we have read of the end will happen extremely soon. In

the next 100 years for everyone in this room. Each one of us, we may

live until the rapture of the church, however, none of us will live more

than the next 100 years or so. And to be absent from the body is to be

present with the Lord….

 And with the Lord, 1,000 years are as unto a day. And so, the moment

we are with the Lord, breathing our last on this earth, the next moment

all will be accomplished. It will be like a day and Jesus will be

welcoming us into New Jerusalem. This is trustworthy, and this is

true. And this will soon take place.

 Final thought. God will be faithful. I have a mind picture of a child

after a hard day waiting for their father, for their mother to pick them

up from school. Preschool, kindergarten, and the teacher reassures me

that my dad will be here soon. Ok, I’ll wait… I know he is coming for

me…

 The world is not like this. The world will make a promise to you and

then deliver unto itself. The promise only being truly to itself as far as

it is convenient for the promise maker. Perhaps I’m making no sense,

the point I’m getting to is that God is faithful, and I’ve been looking

for that my entire life…

 When I was very young, to create an unhealthy dependance and

obedience out of fear, my mom used to take my sister and I out at

night, (to me it was the middle of the night but all I remember is that it

was dark), and she would drive to some place we had never been, out

in the middle of nowhere, she’d stop the car, and she’d make us get

out. And then she would drive away…

 Those moments, I can’t describe the pain and the fear, every part of

my spirit drained from my chest. And then once she got to almost out

of sight, she would brake, and sit there, and wait for me to run the

quarter mile back to the car, hoping she wouldn’t leave me but that she

would wait for me.

 Intense abandonment issues today as a result. And here’s the worst

part of my issue. It is constantly and consistently reinforced.

Everyone leaves. Jesus said in Luke 18:8, “When the Son of Man

comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

 I don’t know why God made me a pastor of a church and then

disallowed me to put locks on the doors. So many have come and

gone. And gone for the right reasons, and gone for the wrong. I’m still

here. Baptized your kids, rushed in when you were hurting, guided

when you were lost, stood with you, stayed faithful to you…

 Isn’t it crazy… Everyone leaves. But God. He will never leave me/you

nor forsake you. He will be here to pick me up soon. And while I

wait, He yet waits with me. This One I will gladly serve and in doing

so, I reign. In more ways than can be communicated…