Revelation 22:1-5
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning what a joyous morning y'all this this is some of the best mornings all year um my name is Spencer I am one of the pastors here and uh we are in the final chapter of the Book of Revelation the final chapter the Bible you can flip there on your blue Bibles uh the text will be on the screen today um some of you may have started a reading plan uh at the beginning of this month uh or uh I read the Bible in a year plan we as a Church.
For those who want to be a part of we have a read the Bible in two years plan but both of them um and many of these plans they start the same way they start in the book of Genesis and you read the first two chapters of Genesis and you see creation and you see the Garden of Eden but they also most of them end in the same place too they end in this Final Chapter they were in in the Book of Revelation.
And if you read the beginning and the end you're going to see some similarities you're going to see Eden and then a version of Eden that kind of jumps off the page especially in the passage one verses 1 through five that we're in uh today because the New Jerusalem is a lot like Eden you're going to see a river that very much resembles the the the river that flow through Eden you're going to see it flow through the New Jerusalem that you're going to.
See the tree of life uh again in the the new heavens and the new Earth and what we're reading today and that's because it's very much like Eden which is why theologians will often say that this is Eden restored the the New Jerusalem is Eden restored uh but I actually think that doesn't quite capture uh what's happening in this passage I I think it's a little more than just restored uh you could say reimagine you could say revamped you could say reloaded.
But there's little something extra to this that we're going to see in some of the pictures that we're going to sit in today uh and one of the things I find helpful about and the reason why we slow down as we're finishing out the Book of Revelation one of the things I found helpful in sitting in these pictures is it holds out the end for us in a way that is helpful for our souls it's just so deeply helpful I was listening to a book yesterday and and he was making the argument that people can endure almost anything.
If they know there's an end to it so I mean that that can be a hard workout that can be a really tough project at work like you actually grind and and get to the end of it as long as there's an end like humans need an end uh to be able to make it to it and we have that and I I just another five verses where we get to hold that out in front of us and see this is the end.
For the people of God for Christians this is where we are going and it is helpful for us as we seek to embody what is one of the main themes of this book The Book of Revelation uh it will help us endure to it so I'm going to read the first these first five verses then we're going to walk through a little more slowly uh 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 through the middle of the street of the city also on either side of the river the Tree of Life with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding it fruit each month the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the Nations no longer will there be anything a cursed 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 reain forever Endeavor let's pray Heavenly Father we pray that you might open our eyes to behold the end of reality in a way that would compel our hearts to live every single moment of Our Lives striving for life with you in the new heavens and the new Earth God that will take the breaking of our desires for lesser than things here that will take really for some here today even the breaking of their hope that they put in this life.
So they might put their full hope and faith in you but Lord none of this can be accomplished outside of the work of the Holy Spirit so God I pray that you would work you'd open our hearts to receive your word and it would change us to live striving for that day in Jesus name amen all right so let's sit in this first few pictures verse one it says 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 through the middle of the street of the city so let let me stop there for a moment there's something that's that's really beautiful here that's actually not the main point but I don't I think it's worth stating that this is a city but it's also Rural and it's got some rural elements in it it's it's a garden type City there's this beautiful river that flow goes through it there's uh the tree of life that we're going to.
See in a moment that's fruitful that this is a a Garden City now Chad made the point last week that for some of you that aren't as big a fan of the Cities which Chad also he's from the country he very much loves the country this is hard to be like oh this is where we're going it's it's a city some of you are like ah this but that means there's a lot of people right that's not really my style my wife was uh a big fan one of her favorite movies was The Little Mermaid growing up um it's.
If you haven't seen it um it's about a mermaid and she's little and she really wants to not be a little mermaid she wants to be a little human so she uh she desires to to walk and to be amongst the humans and she sings a song that says I want to be where the people are and my wife like she loves that movie but like it just it breaks right there because she has a shirt that says I want to be where the people aren't cuz she's just not we've talked about this like this be a lot of people there and it's like yeah yeah there's there's going to be a lot of people.
There it is a city and there will be lots of uh people for sure but I don't think that we quite fully understand uh what it will be like to be amongst thousands of years of saints that are living in perfect harmony with one another perfect love binding us together in the presence of God it won't be chaotic it will be beautiful and wonderful in the ways that we can't wrap our minds around but it's not just a city there's these these elements that that bring it to life in a way that is different than some of the concrete jungles that we have here uh in uh in on Earth we do have there I.
Think one city that might picture this somewhat is the city of Singapore um they're they're striving to make this uh Singapore more like a Garden City so there's lots of really pretty landscapes that they've kind of built into the fabric of these buildings because um it's a it's a small country and a small City and you if you look at a bunch of pictures of Singapore you might see elements of like how really neat uh they have built the city but even that quite can't capture it I think you can think of some of the most beautiful elements of creation and Landscapes across the world I think you can use your imagination to think about.
The physical side of what the city will be I think of of the Mountains of Montana how beautiful they are I think of the City of Cape Town South Africa which is a beautiful city you can sort of piece it together but even all of these wonderful uh parts of creation these wonderful cities these wonderful things that we have here on Earth don't quite help us capture what it's going to be like and how beautiful it's going to be I mean Chad even last week was walking us through the the design of of of the city and the gate and the walls and how the streets of gold and the gyms and all of it.
And it's wonderful but we still can't quite wrap our minds around how beautiful it's going to be and yet the physical side of the city is not even the main point the the spiritual reality that's at play is far bigger In this passage far bigger than what we're just physically trying to to picture here because the spirituality plays are wonderful it says the Water of Life this River that's bright as Crystal and all of its beauty flows from the Throne of.
God the father and Christ the son and this is Ezekiel imagery as well uh The Book of Ezekiel chapter 47 and Eden kind of coming together to help us see this wonderful clear Crystal River which is also hard for us to to to picture because the Conger which is a few feet away wherever whatever distance that is is not clear it's quite mudy but this beautiful clear River pictures something bigger than just the physical reality at play there is this uh picture of eternal life that flows from.
God and that's what this is this is pointing to eternal life and really Eternal satisfaction you see water is for you need water to live without a a few days without it you will not live so we're always drinking we always needed to sustain us and there's going to be this eternal sustaining this eternal life that flows from God that fully satisfies it would be a place where we don't thirst any longer there will be Eternal flourishing and and power and Glory that flows from.
God to the people of the city that we'll get to experience for eternity God's eternally sustaining his people satisfying his people says the angel showed me the river of the Water of Life bright as Crystal flowing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city and then it says also on either side of the river the Tree of Life with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month the leaves of the tree were.
For the N the healing of the Nations so a few different things going on here so this is if you read Genesis 2 this is the tree of life that we see uh in the Garden of Eden and it's and its back but it's also again it's Ezekiel 47 Ezekiel 47:12 says 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 so this is what Ezekiel was picturing and seeing and its final form now as Chad talked about last week there is no Temple God is the temple and the picture here is God Sanctuary dwelling living with his people and as he lives with us forever he will sustain us forever he will provide for us forever that the the the tree of life is a picture of Eternal provision that.
God will for eternity provide for his people that there's this appetite in us to be satisfied and God will fully and forever satisfy this urge for fulfillment will be eternally found in him and we can't miss that how how wonderful that would be because so much of our life is searching for the next thing that will satisfy and the next thing that will satisfy and God is saying it is here it is here and you'll eat of the tree and you will be satisfied.
So there's there's a part of that that's really wonderful to sit in to to to realize how wonderful that's going to be but also there there's this idea of of harvest and and fruitfulness that happens every month that if you've ever tried to grow something you know the Harvest is brief if you get it like right now I have a apple tree in the backyard and we lived in this house for 5 years and it has not bore one apple not a one I mean.
Jesus says you'll know a tree B its fruit so it's possible it's not an apple tree it's possible it's a disappointment tree it just never bears fruit and I am about to heed the rest of Jesus's words and cut that sucker down throw it in the fire but I've also got some peach trees that I've planted they're more mature peach trees and I'm excited about the possibility of South Carolina peaches showing up here in the next uh few months but then even that has to go right like it's the the freeze has got to stop at some point and it can't show back up late in the season and freeze the buds and kill the.
Peaches and then maybe just maybe if all the conditions are correct in June we'll have a harvest of peaches maybe but that's that's that's work this side of the Fall now that's the thorns and thistles of trying to see fruitfulness and striving to get it and that's our lives y'all that's what we do that we work and strive really hard to carve out moments of of of enjoying the fruit like you might work really really hard to have that one week of vacation that's supposed to be.
So good and so wonderful and you put all your like I just and and that that's going to bring the rest that you need or the enjoyment that you're looking for that you save up money so that you can be able to go to the concerts that are so enjoyable like in a couple of weeks there's a band that I'm obsessed with called the red clay Strays and they're coming to the township and I just missed out the tickets sold out and I you know on the secondary Market they're just ridiculously priced.
So I'm just holding out hope like someone is just going to say hey I can't make it the day of and I get in somehow to see 90 minutes of musical magic but it's just like even just that just that that brief moment of of of fruit that you get to enjoy from your labor as we're searching for that everyone's working hard for those pockets of Joy those pockets of memories and when you finally get them one it's still not enough.
But there is a day that is coming and the picture here of the fruitfulness that God provides is that it will be every month it's not just for a month every month you get to enjoy the fruit that comes from God to be satisfied to have it all eternally met in him and you get this picture of a tree that provides the type of longing that we've so deeply wanted and also its leaves are for the healing of the Nations and the imagery of this is that all the nations every tribe nation and tongue every Christian that has endured and suffered through trials through persecution through the plight with sin and its effects in our.
Lives that there is a day coming where healing happens that the suffering and the trials and the Brokenness of this present life will be eternally healed this is what we saw when uh chapter 21 when it says that he will wipe away every tear from our eyes that it will be a distant memory and I find that to be incredibly encouraging there's a Puritan Pastor English Puritan Pastor in the 17th century named Richard Baxter um and I quote him from time to time you may not know who he is he he was a pretty big deal back in the day.
So big that like in the 17th century he like outsold Shakespeare in popular literature so he was he was a uh a massive deal and he began writing in his 30s when he was told by a doctor uh that he was going to die he was sick we probably think now he had tuberculosis and he was told that he was going to die and he actually didn't he actually lived into his 70s but he lived Liv every day basically in a lot of pain always sick always in pain.
But the first book that he wrote when he was told that he was going to die uh was the Saints Everlasting rest and this book was meant to help picture where we are going and the Eternal rest that we will have from this painful life of sin and suffering and death and I love this quote that he has he says though every man naturally bth sorrow and loves the most Merry and joyful life yet few do love the way to Joy or will endure the pains by which it is obtained they will take the next that comes to hand and content themselves with Earthly Pleasures rather than they will Ascend to heaven to seek It.
And yet when all is done they must have it there or be without it woo he I mean he says that he he articulates The Human Condition well we don't love suffering we don't love sorrow we don't love this we actually love joy but the reality is is that where true ultimate Joy is found most of us don't want the endurance that it takes to get there the pain that comes with that we don't want the calling of the Christian Life that is a denial of self that is seeking uh to be obedient to the will of of.
God that may call trials upon your life and difficulty upon your life that we don't want that that we will content ourselves with lesser pleasures and distract ourselves with lesser Joys and he says oh I love that quote that we'd Ascend to heaven and seek it that we' be a people the Ascend to heaven the Ascend to the city of God to ascend to where ultimate Joy is found and if our aim of our life is not to find Joy there we won't have joy at all and I.
So appreciate what he presses upon us and for the next 40 Years of his life after he wrote this book in pain he ascended through suffering and trials and persecution he ascended to the city of God to heaven or there will be a day where you have joy and you have provision and there is a healing that comes that wipes away the pain of this life where there will be no more war and no more trauma you will not be haunted by your past anymore.
If you do think of your past you will think of it in the most mature glorified state where all you were led to is this endless Praise of God because God I don't deserve to be in the city because of what I have done but because of what you did for me Jesus Christ on the cross I get to worship you and Delight in you for eternity and that'll be the way that we think about our past verse three we continue to.
See more pictures here it says no longer will there be anything ACC cursed but the Throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him there won't be anything a cursed a cursed is living under the curse of sin no more sin no more living under its curse we just got out of the Christmas season where we sing Joy to the World it's a hymn that Isaac Watts uh wrote and hundreds of years ago.
Now I wasn't there when Isaac Watts wrote this hymn uh but I I think you can look at the hymn and study what he's saying and maybe come to the conclusion that it actually wasn't about Christmas that actually Joy to the world is about this it's about the new heavens and the new Earth that certainly we I love to sing at Christmas because Christ's coming initiates that right but when you look at Joy to the World when you get to to the stanza that says uh no more let sins and Sorrows grow nor Thorns infest the ground he comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found that is all this language.
There is a day coming where there is no more sins there is no more Sorrows the Thorns that make this life fruitless will be gone that he will make His blessings flow for as the cursed is found that that everything that is painful about this life that the curse has touched will be replaced with his blessed Reign like that's wonderful news to know that the curse will not have an effect on us any longer that the death of loved ones that the difficulty of Life uh and and and work and relational Strife with one another that the persistent sin and Temptation that plagues us will be no more that is a wonderful thing to.
Look forward to that in the city of God will be nothing that is our cursed we will live only under the perfect reign of God and we will worship him we will worship him now sometimes when this idea shows up I've heard it said with certain people that will say I just don't know how great Heaven is going to be or how great this is going to be the new heavens and new earth I mean just we're going to sing all the time and it's like.
First off I don't think you're fully picturing because sometimes it's like this disembodied experience we're just floating like angels singing all the time and it's like I don't you're not picturing this well like we have texts that help us see where this is going you need a better imagination based on the text like I want to point you to bigger things that are happening here but also what I think happens is what is undersold is singing itself and worshiping God I think what happens is is that this is kind of seen like I this isn't all that joyful and I I want to push us on on it should be like.
If if if you stand cross-armed and kind of quiet and don't engage in the worship that both we are offered to Delight in in worshiping God and also very clearly commanded to from the Scriptures but you're missing out on this joyful delighting through singing To Our God you're missing out on something wonderful and beautiful like have you ever been in a stadium when the big play happens like this year if you were ly enough to go to the bazou Gamecock game where in the final seconds rocket Sanders got the shovel pass and bulldozed five people into the end zone and the stadium erupted in such a loud praise that it registered on the RoR scale.
Here locally or have you ever been at a concert where a band at the height of who they are and what they're doing playing their best song Maybe you saw journey in the 80s and you were like there when y'all shouted Don't Stop Believing and you felt the electric joy that was in the arena all of that does not compare to the type of worship and joy that we get to have in Christ for eternity so if you are bored with singing or bored by that idea you have not tapped into the joyful worship that we have in Christ.
Now and your imagination is not expanded enough on what it will be when we actually get there and we should we should grow in that now into eternal eternity that leads us to verse 4 which i' argue is probably one of the most powerful and beautiful Promises of the Scriptures verse four they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads they will see his face that we will behold the face of God we will behold the face of.
God Moses who had an intimate relationship with God in ways that hardly any other human who has ever lived will he desired to see the face of God he desired to see the glory of God that is bound up in his face and God tells him in in Exodus 33 you cannot see my face and you cannot see my face and live you will die because sinners in our sinful State cannot behold the glory of God and live we are not capable of living that our sin the presence of.
God we we can't we can't do it and there's this desire to see the face of God but there is a day that is coming that with resurrected bodies that aren't are not under the curse with eyes that are perfectly glorified we will behold the face of God we will see him how wonderful is this that's what makes everything that we're reading about here so much more wonderful like I I I was uh out of town a couple of weeks ago.
For a week and I so missed home and I just when I drove the eight hours back to home when I got home I I didn't go man when I pulled in the driveway look at look at the vinyl sighing on the house and then I stepped in I didn't go oh the luxury vinyl plank flooring look at the backsplash in the kitchen like I just that wasn't what I was excited about I miss my people I miss my wife I miss my kids and I wanted to.
See them and and everything that we're reading about that is so glorious about the tree of life and the city it's not home without God it's not wonderful without him it's just not God is what makes it so deeply wonderful and and and when the Scriptures in Psalm 19 in Romans chapter 1 tell us that creation reflects the invisible attributes of God that some of the attributes that are bound up at the very character of who God is is revealed in his glory and creation I mean think about that being in the desert sky and looking up and seeing the Majesty of the Milky Way or being able to.
See the snowcapped Rockies or the northern lights or the most beautiful parts of creation that all of that is but a mere reflection of the glory of God that is bound up in who he is which is revealed most plainly in his face the face of God the idea here is that you don't truly know someone unless you have seen their face which you know that right like there's there's there's a part of you that until you've seen or you've felt their face that you actually you don't really know them fully that's why.
When you're trying to picture somebody that you're just just like you're you're thinking as soon as you see their face oh yeah yeah that person so was part of when when Co was happening was so frustrating because you couldn't see someone's face but there's something about the face of God that you will actually know him that we will actually know our God like we're supposed to know him that there's this Transcendent power and Glory that flows emanates from him that we.
See in part here in this life that will see in full with brand new eyes to see and behold him and then there's this intimate knowledge of who he is that we will know him like you know your best friend you will know him and that is something that the people of God have longed for Moses longed for it in the book of Exodus uh Philip in John chapter 14 wanted to see the father like there's this this desire to see his face.
Because the power and the glory the majesty and the Wonder and the beauty that's bound up in his face that's why in numbers 6 and the Priestly blessing that's put upon the people it says may his face shine upon you that his character and His glory and his goodness and his blessing may shine upon you that you might live in light of his blessedness that is bound up in knowing him and beholding his face there is a day coming where there will be no more separation between.
God and man that we will not fearfully tremble in his presence that we will see his face we'll be marked by him we see the language of of name on the forehead here this something we seen throughout the Book of Revelation that you will belong to him he claims you you will belong to him and we will Behold our God for who he is the perod and Pastor Richard sibs once wrote he said the Christian will desire to see the beauty of.
God in his house that his soul might be ravished in the Excellency of the object ravished there in the 17th century meaning overwhelmed in joy and that the highest powers of his soul his understanding will and affections might be fully satisfied that he might have full contentment that the desire for the Christian is to one day behold and see God in a way that we will be ravished in the Excellency of who he is that all of our will in our affections and our ultimate desires that that God-shaped hole that we've tried to fill with lesser things here on Earth to be satisfied that.
For the Christian that will be fully filled by God in a way where we will see him and we will no more want and no more uh seek for other things because we'll be fully satisfied in the Excellency of Christ ravished in the Excellency of Christ for eternity what a beautiful gift that we will give have as we get to see and behold and know our God and the final picture I want to look at here for today is in verse 5 and he says a 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 and the first part of that is that there will be no more night night is where suffering is is felt uh where sin infects and does its damage that's the the picture of night here that won't exist anymore that in the city of God there will only be perfect light and righteousness that emanates that flows from God himself there will be no more darkness no more pain no more sadness no more sin and it says they will reign forever that we will reign with.
God forever in the garden God made Adam and Eve to coign alongside him by giving dominion over the world and that rain was broken and fractured when they chose to find their ultimate delight and satisfaction in something else other than him and that rain has been fractured and broken ever since but there is a day that is coming when the perfect reign of God will be invited into to Reign alongside him until then we need to see that clearly because there's a part of us.
Now that wants to rain here on Earth there's a part of us that wants to create and to and to make kingdoms here on Earth that we think are going to satisfy us but you need to understand it never will like we had the snow day this this week and my kids got to play in the snow and they built a a a a snowman very small and we're excited about it because it's yeah you should be this is South Carolina the fact that we had enough snow to build it even a small snowman is amazing and they were.
So excited to build it and what happened just a few days later sun came and it's gone and that's us y'all that's what we do we build these kingdoms here on Earth thinking they will fulfill they will satisfy they will bring joy if I just have this if I just have that if I can just accomplish this if I can just accomplish that then I'll be okay and then you do it and you're not okay and it's because those things fade and they don't last.
But you're invited into a reigning with Christ that resounds for eternity that has only fruitfulness and and and blessing and satisfaction and joy that does not end so this is where we see that Eden really takes a further step and how it's pictured in the New Jerusalem in a way that is just a little bit better and I think a way that doesn't get discussed enough of how Eden is actually not quite as wonderful as the New Jerusalem is the idea of everything that it will take to actually get there of everything that you'll endure to actually get there in The.
Lord of the Rings series uh when the hobbits leave the Shire Sam wise Gangi is one of the hobbits who goes on this journey to save Middle Earth he he misses the Shire he loves the Shire he didn't want to leave in the first place he loves it and throughout the three books and three movies you see over and over again that he is longing for the Shire he's longing to get back to the sh he misses it he thinks about the food and the hills and how beautiful it is and at the end.
When they finally defeat evil when it finally ends when he gets back to the Shire he appreciates it so much more for what it is because of everything it took to get there and that's why I think the New Jerusalem is going to be that much better that everything that we endure in this life and all the sufferings and all the trials and all the sin and all of the Brokenness and all of the death that all of it that once we.
Finally get there we'll understand oh man how wonderful is this the journey it took to get here was so long and it was so hard and I lost so much but I gain so much more the sufferings of this present life make the enjoyment of the fruit of the tree beholding the face of God it makes all of that so much sweeter which is why we are called to endure that's why at the End of This Book God is helping us.
See the very theme of Revelation to endure because that's where this is going we should leverage all of our Lives to ascend to ascend to the city of God where he will Rule and Reign and we will rule and Reign alongside him for eternity the band's going to come up and we will have an opportunity to worship but I don't want to miss something the reality is is that there undoubtedly is folks here that have actually not fully made this the ultimate aim of their existence that the aim of your life is not to make it to live with.
God forever and enjoy him that if you're honest with yourself the aim of your life is to build kingdoms here to find enjoyment here to find satisfaction here and what Richard Baxter said was true that if you don't make that the end goal God and life with him forever you'll miss out on on Joy for eternity my hope is that if you are honest with yourself and you come to the realization that your life is not fully centered on pursuing God and loving and delighting in him into eternity that right.
Now that in humility you would trust in him that you'd place your faith in him that you'd realize that because you have sought to build kingdoms here on Earth you've sought to be satisfied with lesser things here on Earth that is what Adam and Eve did they rejected God and Ed they they went after lesser things and the wages of that Pursuit what we earn because of that is death and hell but God loved us so much that he did not leave us in our sin.
But he came Jesus Christ came to live a life that we could not live to die on the cross for our sins to have his blood cover our Rebellion so that we might be resurrected into New Life The Very Waters that we s celebrated this morning and the change that happened in the Millers in their life is because they trusted fully in the grace of God and what he has done for them that is offered to you so that you might make the end of your life the chief end of your life there and that you'd spend the rest of your days ascending to that eternal glory ious reality.
But that will not come if you do not humble yourself in faith and as we sing to pray and to ask Jesus to cover your sins and to give you new life in him so that you might in the weeks to come stand in these Waters and declare the change that has happened so that one day you might actually be with us as the people of God by the river by the tree of life looking at the face of God God beholding him forever let's pray heavenly.
Father I pray that you might break the hearts of those who were lost in this room to behold you to trust in you fully and for those of us that that are Christians that we just keep running after lesser things we keep trying to desire Lessing things we we keep trying to chase after things that do not satisfy that we would right now through worshiping you and beholding you repent and turn to you that we might Ascend to the city of.
God and live our lives in light of that we ask this in Jesus name amen.