The Spirit and the Bride Say, “Come!”

Revelation 22:6-21

Immanuel – 9/4/22

Halloween to Labor Day. 35 sermons. Of all the sermon series I have preached through so far, Revelation has been my favorite. I’ve gotten to know this book quite intimately over the past 11 months and have been more amazed by it than ever before.

It is stunning to behold the artistry of John – inspired by the Spirit – woven into Revelation: the symmetry, the symbolism and vivid images, the absolutely exultant view of God, and the wonderous graces He lavishes upon His Church – His Bride. It is just as stunning to behold the judgements that come rushing upon the unrepentant like unrelenting hammer blows.

And all of this is infused with an incredible volume of Old Testament quotations and allusions, unlike any other book of the Bible. I have quoted other passages extensively throughout this series, but I have hardly scratched the surface. One thing is for sure, you will miss the point of Revelation if you are not reading it through the lens of the Old Testament!

Additionally, Revelation is a highly symbolic book. These symbols are impossible to understand without the Old Testament.

Purpose

Look back and remember the journey we have been on.

Consider how Revelation has bearing on our lives today.

Remember

I’d like to start this sermon in the way that I began the series. To study Revelation is to engage in eschatology; for eschatology is the study of the last things, or the end times.

There are four primary methods of interpreting eschatology: dispensational premillennial, classical premillennial, amillennial, and postmillennial. All of them, as you can hear, place Revelation’s millennium – the 1,000-year reign of Christ – as the defining centerpiece of understanding eschatology.

If you want to hear brief descriptions of each view, you can listen to the first sermon I preached on Revelation from 10/31/21.

But know that the different eschatological views all belong to orthodox Christianity; meaning that you can hold any of these views and still belong to the same family of faith. I know there are many that don’t agree with my take on Revelation, and that is ok. We are all still brothers and sisters in Christ – so long as you believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Of those views, I am postmillennial. The primary reason is that I believe this interpretation perfectly harmonizes with the overarching theme of Scripture. The main point of the Bible is covenantal; meaning, the Bible reveals how God relates to humanity, and He always relates to humanity through covenant. Therefore the main point of Revelation is covenantal, not to give a description of how events will play out in the future.

When God became flesh in the man Jesus Christ, everything changed. The covenant of law, often called the old covenant, was fulfilled in Christ. It was the end of the old, the end times for the old covenant. It was the beginning of a new age, a new covenant, and with it came the kingdom of God.

This is why Jesus began His ministry with this announcement:

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” -Mark 1:15

The old covenant was fulfilled and passing away, and Jesus was bringing the kingdom of God. The gospel is the good news of this powerful, transformative change.

But, even though Jesus initiated a new covenant and inaugurated the kingdom of God, there still lingered vestiges of the old covenant. The old covenant was still practiced in Jerusalem: priests, animal sacrifices, temple worship, etc. It was a system that had been deeply corrupted by self-righteousness.

It was out of this corrupted system that Jesus was rejected and killed, that the early church was persecuted. Additionally, the same first-century church deeply struggled with what to do with all that old covenant stuff. It was a system that God was bringing to an end, and judgement was coming to all those who insisted upon clinging to such a self-righteous system.

This impending end – of all the remnants of the old covenant – is everywhere in the New Testament.

In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. -Hebrews 8:13

The end of all things is at hand. -1 Peter 4:7

For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and appose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved – so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last! -1 Thessalonians 2:14-16

Very much of Revelation is concerned with this wrath that has come upon the Jews; Jews that rejected Jesus for laws and traditions. An incredible number of Jews were saved, but the majority came under judgment. Jesus called these the days of vengeance:

“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near…for these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.”

-Luke 21:20,22

“On you (Jerusalem) may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth…Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” -Matthew 23:35,36

Indeed, within 40 years of Jesus speaking these words, the armies of Rome surrounded Jerusalem and would burn it to the ground. In wrath, God was avenging all the righteous blood spilled by those that called themselves His “chosen people.”

On August 10th, 70 AD, the temple in Jerusalem fell; not one stone was left upon another. Irrevocably, the old covenant, all its systems, all those who clung to those systems, had forever vanished away. It was the end of that time. They were the last days of the old age.

There is one other critical element to remember. Revelation was written during the reign of Nero, during the reign of the 6th king in Revelation 17, the king that John says, “is” – meaning presently reigning as king. From 54-68 AD, Nero reigned as the 6th Caesar of Rome. This means John received Revelation before Jerusalem’s temple was destroyed, by the Romans, in 70 AD.

Everyone who claims that Revelation was written later, after the temple was destroyed, ultimately hangs their claim on an extrabiblical text by Eusebius, who is quoting Irenaeus, who is quoting Polycarp; and that text has dubious interpretation problems.

Seen through the light of a transition of covenant, that the old covenant is ending and the new covenant is emerging, the book of Revelation profoundly and powerfully opens itself to the reader.

Part 1 of Revelation, from chapter 1-3, Christ delivers seven messages to the Church. With intimate knowledge of the Church, Jesus delivers judgments meant to lead to repentance and incredible promises for overcoming. If we, church, are going to carry Christ’s victory into our age, and the future, how we need to drink deeply from the promises of Christ!

Part 2, in chapters 4-11, we enter the glory and worship of heaven’s temple. Jesus, the Lion and Lamb, opens the scroll of the new covenant; judgment and salvation sound forth with seven trumpets. The walls of Jerusalem, its temple, and the old covenant, come crumbling down. A new temple is given to humanity.

Part 2 ends with these words:

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever…Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant was seen within His temple. -Revelation 11:15,19

Part 3 of Revelation, from chapters 12-22, picture the same covenantal transition in another vision; some elements are the same as in part 2, most are different. There is a harlot bride, a dragon, beasts, and the victorious Lamb upon Zion with His elect. From God’s temple in heaven, judgments are declared. Seven bowls of wrath are poured out; at the end of which the old covenant, and all those who clung to it, are fallen.

Then John sees seven visions of the new covenant and of promise. Each of those seven visions reveal the victory of Christ through the gospel – the very message carried by the Church.

Each vision gives a single symbolic picture to a progressive and unfolding reality; a reality of the kingdom of God growing like a mustard seed. For just as Christ was victorious in John’s day, His victory has spread throughout the globe in our day, and His victory will be complete and final upon His future return.

After these seven visions of new covenant victory, John is told that he will see the Bride of Christ, the Church. But when He looks to see, he beholds the New Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. The New Jerusalem is the temple of God, at its heart the throne of God, and within it is found the New Eden.

All of it is a symbol of the Church, the Bride of Christ. Every image of the New Jerusalem is true for those who are in Christ; just as the New Testament calls us to live, in this moment, as its citizens. And yet, we long for its consummation and await the day when the New Jerusalem has come in fullness, the day when Jesus returns.

When John records Revelation, sometime before 68 AD, all the things I have just reviewed were prophesies. The judgments had not yet come. The graces had yet to be fully unfettered.

Revelation is a book about a transition of covenants; and, in John’s day, that transition was going to come to its dramatic completion in a very short time. Revelation is not primarily concerned with the climax of history, but the climax of a covenantal transition.

Part 3 of Revelation, and the whole of the book, concludes with a warning and an invitation.

Read Revelation 22:6-21

Thematic Details

We can read verse 6 and just gloss over its details, critical details, details that illuminate the whole of the book.

What we have read in Revelation is trustworthy and true. You can bet your life on it. No matter how dark this world may seem, Christ is victorious. He reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords. Satan is defeated. The unrepentant will be judged. His elect are eternally secured. The gospel will win. Jesus will return. We will be resurrected to life eternally. His words are trustworthy and true!

For what’s the point of Revelation if we cannot trust the God who reveals it?

Also, we see in verse 6 that God is the God of the spirits of the prophets. All the prophetic mysteries of old are revealed in this book. The new covenant, the hope and longing of the old, is beautifully pictured here.

Unquestionably, Jesus is the central, victorious, glorious figure of Revelation. He is the fulfillment of time. He has brought the kingdom of heaven to the kingdom of the world. All of the Law, all of the Prophets, are fulfilled in Him. All history pivots upon Him. Jesus is the prophetic hope.

This same angel also told John:

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophesy. -Revelation 19:10

Because we carry the testimony of Jesus Christ, because Christ has brought us into special communion with God, we are all prophets of God. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of prophecy, dwells in our hearts and speaks from our mouths and works with our hands. Just as there is a priesthood of all believers, there is also a prophethood of all believers.

This does not mean that we function like old covenant prophets, and we all speak authoritative, special revelations. Instead, the prophethood of all believers highlights a massive difference for how people live under the covenants. In the old covenant, there were only a few prophets, only a few individuals who could hear from God. Now, because of Christ, every Christian hears from God.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. -Hebrews 10:19,22

When we open the Bible and read, we hear the voice of God speaking to us. We do not function like Old Testament prophets. We function like Bible loving, gospel sharing, Spirit led, Jesus imaging, people of God. For He is the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets.

One more detail in verse 6 not to miss. Everything that John has recorded regards things that “must soon take place.” This is another massive theme in Revelation. To be clear, John is not saying that whenever the coming cataclysms and salvations happen, they will happen suddenly. The only way to interpret John’s words in such a way is to abandon the literal meaning of his words.

But of all places, is it not clear that in verse 6 the angel is not speaking symbolically? He is not! The angel is saying that the things in Revelation are soon going to take place. In fact, what we read in verse 6 is almost verbatim what was said at the beginning of Revelation.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants the things that must soon take place. -Revelation 1:1

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written, for the time is near. -Revelation 1:3

You see that same theme repeated, over and over again, throughout this book. We’ll see it numerous times in this final chapter. The coming cataclysms and salvations John saw were about to happen; they were not things more than 2,000 years into the future.

And then the Lamb, Jesus Himself, speaks to John.

Read vs 7

Jesus said He is coming soon. Once more, from Jesus’ own mouth, we see language of nearness. I’ll dive more deeply into this shortly (which doesn’t mean in a few years).

Blessed is the one who keeps the words of this book. Remember what we just read from 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, for the time is near. -Revelation 1:3

There are powerful blessings for those who read, hear, and keep the words of Revelation. At the very least, there are five ways Revelation is a blessing for us today.

If you repent because of what you read here, you will be blessed.

If you draw comfort knowing that your name will be found in the Lamb’s Book of Life, you will be blessed.

If you believe that Christ is victorious and Satan is defeated, you will be blessed.

If Revelation motivates you to advance Christ’s kingdom while longing for the return of the King, you will be blessed.

If it stirs your hope in the resurrection, in seeing the face of Jesus, you will be blessed.

Read vs 8-11

Soon and Today

For the second time in Revelation, John is so overcome that he falls to worship the angel. The other time was in chapter 19, right before the seven visions of the new covenant. Once more, the angel corrects John and directs him to worship God.

Notice, also, how the angel categorizes John. John is a servant with his brothers. The Greek word used for brothers could also be translated as siblings. In other words, all Christians, male and female, are servants along with John. But another category is used too: prophets. Every servant of Christ, every new covenant believer, is a prophet along with John; for we are all to “keep the words of this book.” Again, a prophethood of all believers.

In verse 10, John is told not to seal up the prophesy of this book, because the time is near. This is the third time Revelation’s nearness is mentioned.

An intentional contrast is being drawn with the end of the book of Daniel. There, an angel is giving revelation to Daniel about the time of the end. The angel says to Daniel,

But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end.

-Daniel 12:4

Daniel was to seal up the words because the time of the end was far off, more than 500 years in the future. Only then, with the coming of the Messiah, would Daniel’s book be opened, for it was the mystery of the new covenant.

Remember Revelation’s scroll that no one could open except Jesus? In chapter 1o, after the seven seals had been broken, we see the book (or the scroll) completely opened. The mystery of the new covenant was opened and released in Jesus. What was long ago sealed by Daniel was opened by Jesus.

But John’s revelation, unlike Daniel’s, was not for a time in the distant future. As the angel says in verse 10, the time is near. This verse is trouble for those who claim to interpret Revelation literally, and then apply this verse to a time more than 2,000 years in the future; more than 4 times longer than Daniel’s vision was to be sealed.

Again, in the very next verse, we get the fourth reference to Revelation’s nearness in time.

Read vs 12-13

This is the second time Jesus says He is coming soon! And if it is soon, then clearly He is not talking about His bodily return at the end of history. Rather, Christ is talking about an impending judgement barreling down the tracks upon Apostate Israel. He even says it. He is being recompense. He will repay. As surely as He is the Alpha and Omega, His word will stand. God the Son has the last word!

Again, the last chapter is echoing the first chapter.

Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the [land] will wail on account of Him. Even so. Amen.

-Revelation 1:7

Jesus’ coming would be wailing for the very people who crucified Him. It is not about ethnicity, as if this is referring to a future nation of Jews. No, Jesus is coming in judgement to avenge the innocent blood spilt by that wicked generation. To that generation, Jesus said:

“I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on [the land], from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” -Matthew 23:34-36

Jesus was coming soon, coming on the clouds. Every 1st Century Jewish reader would have immediately understood these words, not as an end to history, but as an apocalyptic trope meaning referring to covenantal judgments.

An oracle against Egypt: Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them. -Isaiah 19:1

Judgements against Israel fulfilled by Assyrian invasion: “Now it is I who speak in judgement upon them.” Behold, He comes up like clouds; His chariots like the whirlwind; His horses are swifter than eagles – woe to us, for we are ruined! -Jeremiah 4:12-13

This language is used so many times in the Old Testament. Each time God did not show up in physical form, nor literally ride on clouds. Rather, He brought judgments. When famine or war or disaster afterwards struck those lands, they knew they were being judged by God. So it was when Jerusalem was destroyed through famine, war, and disaster shortly after Revelation was written. The Jews were to understand these as judgments from Christ Himself.

And indeed, Christ did come in judgment. This is exactly why Jesus said to the religious leaders condemning Him,

“But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” -Matthew 26:64

Jesus, whom the religious elites condemned, would ascend to the right hand of power and be seated as the King of kings. Then He would come in judgment upon those who murdered Him and persecuted His followers. As it says in verse 10, He brought recompense with Him.

But Christ words don’t end there. Like so much of Revelation, what becomes true in the 1st century, progresses throughout all following centuries until the close of history.

But as it is, [Christ] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him. -Hebrews 9:26-28

After Christ appear the first time, He ascended to the throne. (Notice how the writer of Hebrews calls that the end of the ages.)

With all authority in heaven and on earth, He has become the judge of the living and the dead. He will separate the sheep from the goats. He came in judgment upon unrepentant Israel in the 1st century, and He will come in judgment upon everyone who dies in unrepentance. He is the Alpha and Omega, our beginning and our ending.

Read vs 14-15

It is through faith that we wash our robes. But faith without works is dead. To think that you can have faith, and then not live in obedience to Jesus, is to live in a delusion. As John writes elsewhere:

And by this we know that we have come to know [Jesus], if we keep His commandments. Whoever says “I know Him” but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him: whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. -1 John 2:3-6

You have been saved unto good works, works of love and justice and mercy. Let your faith bear the fruit of good works! Or, in symbolic words, put on the robes of righteousness, enter into the New Jerusalem, eat from the tree of life. Belief in Jesus is a call to action. To act is to truly believe. Such is the nature of saving faith.

But all the unbelieving and unrepentant will be left in the wilderness, naked and starving. They were offered clothing, but would not wear it; food, but would not eat; a home, but would not come. Contextualized from verse 15, these are the unrepentant unbelievers, the witches, the sexually liberated, murderers and abortionists, all lovers of self, all liars and those who love lies.

If these go on in their unrepentance and unbelief, theirs is the eternal and outer darkness. There they will be cut off from every pleasure, every comfort, every beauty, every joy, every hope, every relationship. For all these come from God, and hell is an utter separation from God. It will be an endless nothing, filled only with the sounds of their own weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Again and again, Revelation extends these two: salvation or judgment, hope or condemnation. It is an invitation and a warning, for today is the day of salvation.

Read vs 16-17

Come!

Jesus speaks again. What He says here, what He has said in all of Revelation, what He says in all of Scripture, is for the good of the churches. He is our King and our light in the darkness. He is the dawning of a new day. He is the fulfillment of prophecy and the fullness of promise. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” Let us who hear this Revelation, likewise say, “Come.”

We are the Bride. The Spirit resides within us. We all have heard this Revelation. After hearing Revelation, what practical thing can we do, what bearing does it have on my life? If you are asking that, you have not been listening!

You go out into the desert, into the wilderness, and you suffer its extremes to find the thirsty. And when the Spirit leads you to them, you say, “Come, take this water without price. Drink from the well of the water of life. Come to Jesus and live!” Let rivers of living water flow from your heart and into theirs. Baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Teach them to become disciples of Jesus Christ. Show them how to find others, lost and thirsty in the wilderness.

We are the Bride. The Spirit resides within us. We all have heard this Revelation. We are the ones at the end of this book who proclaim, “Come! Jesus Christ is King!”

The offer is life. The water has no price, though it will cost your life. But you will quickly realize that giving your life away for Jesus is not cost at all, but the greatest joy a human soul could possibly contain. It will fill your heart with an eternity of praise and pleasure. The water is free and its overflow is forever.

Read vs 18-21

If anyone adds to the book of Revelation, they will receive all the covenant curses. Mormon and Jehovah’s Witnesses have added to this book. Some so-called prophets and apostles in churches today are adding to this book. Others take away, perhaps by softening things like judgment and hell. Beware. Curses follow such teachers.

In verse 20, For the 5th and final time in our passage, the nearness of Revelation is highlighted. And for the 3rd time, Jesus says He is coming soon. John’s prayer, spoken at the end of verse 20, found quick fulfillment. For in 70 AD, Jesus did come in judgment upon Jerusalem. The old covenant age was forever removed. The new covenant could continue unhindered, unfettered by the trappings that so ensnared the first churches.

Today the church has grown to fill the world. Billions belong to Christ. Nearly every nation on earth is represented in the kingdom of God. Science, the flourishing of art, hospitals, social services, democracy, ecological responsibility, freedom of religion, freedom of speech; all of these and more have developed from a worldview grounded in the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Even so, and until He does, we continue to pray that Christ would come. We pray that the wicked be judged and the thirsty be saved. We ask that God’s name would be honored in all the earth, that Christ’s kingdom would fill the planet, that the will of God would be done, that Christ would continue to unite heaven with earth; a uniting that will be completed upon His return.

Of this return, Paul writes:

Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

-1 Corinthians 15:24-26

We, church, as ambassadors, as prophets, as priests, a kings under our King, have been given the charge to rule the earth and subdue it, making disciples of all nations, until – through us, Christ’s body – Jesus subdues all His enemies. Here we see that the Great Commission is only completed once Jesus finally and forever defeats death. The Great Commission is fulfilled upon the return of the King.

But until that day, as verse 21 says, we live in the grace of Jesus Christ. May the blessings of Revelation continue to stream into our hearts as we labor for our King. We are the Bride. The Spirit resides within us. We all have heard this Revelation. Let us go into all the nation as say, “Come! Jesus Christ is King! Come, all who are thirsty!”

Next week we will begin a new sermon series entitled, “The Ministry of Reconciliation.” In many ways it is a practical follow-up to Revelation; a way to help us faithfully “keep the words” of Revelation. I hope that it will be a series where we can all learn together how to live obediently to our King, how to be ambassadors and new creations.