Revelation 22

Click below for the sermon I preached today at Morning Prayer at St. Thomas’, Kilnhurst:

Revelation 22 (26:03, 5.96MB)

Sermon Outline: Revelation 22

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. - Revelation 22.14

Introduction

Following the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese, tens of thousands of Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps until the end of World War Two. Many had American citizenship, but because they had either emigrated from Japan or had been brought up with Japanese culture and values, their loyalty was doubted and they were felt to be a risk to national security now that America and Japan were at war. That particular example was as much about racism as about genuine military concern, but it raises the issue of a tension in loyality when one belongs to two cultures at war.

In Revelation 22, we join John at the end of a guided tour of the city of the future, the New Jerusalem, to which we belong if we are Christians and which is breaking into this present world, seen in local congregations (Hebrews 12.22). At the same time, we live in this world in another city with its own authorities and culture and values, Babylon, which is characterised by persecution of God’s people, temptation of the world with idolatry, sexual immorality and luxury and it exists as much in our society today. It is seen wherever human beings are united together to make a name for themselves in rebellion against God. Babylon and Jerusalem are at war: with which will our loyalty lie? It can only be one or the other, not both. John’s commission from the risen and ascended Christ is to write this circular letter to struggling churches to secure wholehearted faith in and obedience to the Lord. As he comes to the end, he wants us to grasp what the world to come will be like, and then shows us how we should respond.

1. Look forward to the future (vv. 1-5)

This isn’t photography: it’s symbolic, and all the clues are to be found in Scripture itself. There will be everlasting life (vv. 1-2) in fulfilment of what God promised beforehand. See Ezekiel 47, where the river flows and brings abundant life where there was no life. The world characterised by death and decay will be transformed to be a world characterised by life. There is a tree of life bearing fruit all the year round (unlike the apple tree at the bottom of my garden) because it is watered by the river of the water of life. We first met the tree in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2-3) and had Adam and Eve eaten of it, they would have lived forever, but they sinned (what we all do by nature) and so were expelled from the Garden and the way back to the tree was barred. Human experience has been characterised by death ever since. But in the future world, there is free access all the time to the tree and its fruit: human beings can live for evermore. Life will be characterised by wholeness - the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. The emotional and physical scars of living in a fallen world of sin, conflict, hatred, illness and pain will be gone. In Genesis 3, God places a curse on the earth but now it is done away with (v. 3). How is it possible? The river of life which waters the tree of life comes from the throne of God and of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ who is the lamb that was slain, fulfilling all the Old Testament sacrifices, dying in the place of sinners, taking the punishment his people deserved. What will the future life contain? Verse 3 speaks about ‘his servants’ &c. There is one God in Three Persons. In view here is the one God in the Persons of the Father and the Son. At the end of time, he will be king and his rule acknowledged and his people will be occupied in serving him. The relationship is much closer than that between any earthly ruler and his subjects, and it is only in this relationship that we will be fully the people we are meant to be: seeing his face (v. 4) means full perfect knowledge of God (1 Corinthians 13.12) and being changed into the likeness of God (1 John 3.2). That relationship will last forever: we will be marked out as his for eternity. There won’t be anything to mar that experience. Night and darkness (v. 5) are symbolic for ignorance of spiritual truth, evil and death, but none of that will be present in the world to come because God is present, he is the light of the city, we will know him perfectly, there will be no evil, and he will give us life. Our service will have great worth: in some sense we will rule over the new creation under him. Illustration from The Last Battle: the new world is like the old Narnia but is ‘more like the real thing’, ‘my real country’, ‘the land I have been looking for all my life’. A river with the tree of life, in a place where there is no curse, where human beings in the perfect image of God in perfect relationship with him serve him by ruling his world under him - this vision of the future is of God’s original good purposes for us in his world before the Fall perfectly restored and made more glorious.

How should we respond?

2. Stay faithful in the present (vv. 6-21)

Just as God spoke his message to his people through the prophets in the Old Testament, so too what the angel has shown John is truth from God and can therefore be believed (v. 6), and the reason it matters how we respond is because Christ will surely come to judge. It is the one who holds fast to the message of the book, i.e. listens to it and does what it says, who is blessed (v. 7). What that means is illustrated in the episode between John and the angel (vv. 8-9): worshipping God alone. Our allegiance should lie with him alone; he is to be the object of our trust and service. This is a public message (v. 10). If having heard it you want to reject it, that is up to you and you will face the consequences; God in his just judgment hands those who want to reject him over to the consequences of their actions (v. 11). Christ will return and all will be judged justly according to the way we have lived our lives and we will receive what is appropriate (v. 12). Christ has the credentials to judge: as Alpha and Omega, he is the one through whom the world was made and through whom it will be brought to a close (v. 13). For some that will be good news. It’s as if we’re wearing dirty clothes - we’re unclean because of our sin and we’re unfit for God’s presence. Washing our robes refers to washing them in the blood of the Lamb, picture language about trusting in Christ who through his death takes away our sin, bearing and facing the punishment for all who trust in him, so that they are clean in God’s sight. They are the ones who enjoy the privileges of vv. 1-5, a place in the city and everlasting life (v. 14). That fits in with the statement that Christ will repay everyone for what he has done, because a mark of someone who has been washed clean through Christ is that they will start to live lives pleasing to God because of the work of the Spirit within them. It is ‘those who wash’ - present tense: Christ through John is caling for ongoing trust and obedience. As for those whose loyalty remains with Babylon, who live the lifestyle of Babylon, they will be shut out (v. 15). This message is authoritative: it comes from Jesus, whose titles signify that he is the just judge and sovereign ruler who saves his people and destroys his enemies (v. 16). So glorious is the blessing that awaits God’s people when Christ returns that the only response is to long and pray for Christ to come. John issues an invitation for thirsty people to come and take the free gift of the water of life (v. 17), free because you can’t earn it: it’s on the basis of what Christ has done, dying on the cross in the place of sinners. This is a letter to local churches: it is possible to be part of God’s gathered people and not have received God’s offer of eternal life. Is that you? Will you take it? Will you turn back to God and seek his mercy and forgiveness on the basis of Christ’s death on the cross? You will be given everlasting life, which begins in part now as God gives you new spiritual life by his Spirit and you will experience it fully in the world to come. Christ through John also issues a warning: we can be baptised members of the church, but if we distort his message, then we will face God’s judgment and our share in the everlasting life of the new creation will be taken away (vv. 18-19). Illustration: I am going on holiday, I have my passport, I get on the plane. With the passport, by the Queen’s authority, I can enter the country. To enter the country, I need to believe what my passport says is true, then act on it by behaving sensibly during the flight and showing my passport to passport control at the end. If I misbehave and my passport is confiscated, I lose the entitlement I once had, and which I could have made use of had I responded rightly. The passport is like my baptism: it promises me or entitles me to everlasting life. To enjoy that, I need to respond with ongoing faith worked out in obedience. If I respond inappropriately, i.e. add to or take away from the words of the book, I will lose my share in the everlasting life to which my baptism entitled me, and which I could have enjoyed had I responded in faith. Taking away from the words of the book is not just about false teaching, but also about failing to do what it says e.g. succumbing to the temptations of Babylon, or failing to repent of the cold orthodoxy of Ephesus or the complacency of Laodicea in its material prosperity. To encourage us, we are reminded of Christ’s certain return and John longs for Christ to bring about all he has promised (v. 20).

Conclusion

Would that be our longing and prayer as we look forward to the future and stay faithful in the present. We can’t do it without God’s help, so John ends the letter fittingly (v. 21): ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.’

The Great City

As part of my preparation for preaching Revelation 22 next Sunday, I thought it would be a good idea to read through the whole book. I’m getting that uncomfortable feeling one has when what one has always assumed is being challenged: I’m beginning to wonder if Babylon is not Rome after all, but Jerusalem. I think I’m going to have to move to Moscow, Idaho. Here are some embryonic thoughts.

For a start, the churches are being troubled by ‘those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan’ (Revelation 2.9, 3.9).

The great city referred to in Revelation is Jerusalem:

‘Their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.’ - Revelation 11.8

Babylon is called ‘the great’ - Revelation 14.8.

The great city which we have already seen is Jerusalem appears to be equated with Babylon in a number of places:

‘The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.’ - Revelation 16.19

“The woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.” - Revelation 17.8

“Alas! Alas! You great city,
you mighty city, Babylon!” - Revelation 18.10

“So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence.” - Revelation 18.21

Furthermore, both Jerusalem in the gospels and Babylon in Revelation are described as the city that murdered the prophets:

“”Therefore 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 earth, from the blood of innocent 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. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the cities that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! See your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ” Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” ” - Matthew 23.34-24.2

“Rejoice over her, O heaven,
and you saints and apostles and prophets,
for God has given judgment for you against her!” - Revelation 18.20

(Don’t miss the verbal link between ‘I send’, ‘those who are sent’ [Matthew] and ‘apostles’ [Revelation] in the Geek. Also notice the parallel ‘thrown down’ in Matthew 24.2 and Revelation 18.21 above.)

“And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints
and of all who have been slain on earth.” - Revelation 18.24

Q.E.D.?

I may or may not keep quiet about this in my sermon to the good people of Kilnhurst. In terms of application, though, I don’t think it makes a great deal of difference: Babylon still typifies proud humanity united in rebellion against God (see Genesis 11) which persecutes God’s people and tempts the world with idolatry, luxury and immorality. The question is: will your loyalty be to Babylon (Old Jerusalem?) which God overthrows or will it be to the New Jerusalem, which he establishes forever?

Revelation 21.5

Click HERE for the transcript of the sermon I preached on Revelation 21.5 on Tuesday evening.

Sermon Outline - Revelation 21.5

In chapel this term, we’re having a series entitled, “If I could only preach one sermon, it would be…” as an alternative to preaching on the lectionary passages so I thought I’d indulge myself and take the opportunity to do a bit of verse-preaching, which is quite hard work to ensure one has expounded the text faithfully. Hopefully, I haven’t set off the alarm bells at Willcox House. As ever, comments are welcome.

Introduction

Community, identity, stability - this is the motto of the world state in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, in which he presents a global society at peace in which disease is abolished, there is no poverty or want, the economy is steady and everyone is content. Isn’t this what we long for, as we open the papers and see the turmoil in the world around us, and as we look at the frustration and pain in our own lives. Can a new world be brought about, and if so how? John is given a vision from God; it’s as if the curtain has been pulled back, he can see into heaven itself and where the universe is heading. Our text is an explanation of what John sees at the climax of history, which takes us to the heart of the message of the whole Bible and is the solution to our questions and answer to our longings:

“And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” - Revelation 21.5

First we see what the future contains:

1. The present order yields to a whole new world

There will be a new creation (v. 1) - in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, this physical world in time and space, and John in his vision of the end saw a new heaven and a new earth. It will have a new people (v. 2), who come from all the nations of the world. It is new not in the sense that it is brand new, from nothing, which would imply that God’s purposes in creation had failed, but new in regard to quality. The world as it now stands is under the judgment of God because of sin. Michael Ramsay puts it well:

“When men and nations turn away from God’s laws and prefer the courses dictated by pride and selfishness to the courses dictated by conscience, calamitous results follow. God is not absent from the contemporary scene; he is present, present in judgment through the catastrophes which follow human wilfulness.”

Paul argues similarly in Romans 1 (v. 18, vv. 28-31). Sin has consequences for the whole created order - the creation was subjected to futility and is in bondage to decay, which the Bible traces back to the curse placed on the ground following the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. But that old way of things will come to and end. There is no place for the world of sin and death in the future John sees. It will pass away. Instead, it will have a holy people, prepared like a bride, dazzlingly beautiful, pure and spotless, acceptable to God - what a far cry from the ugly description of humanity in Romans 1. And the world will be characterised by the description of v. 4. Peter sums it up: ‘We are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.’ In Huxley’s novel, this world evokes the following response from John, born outside the world state: “O brave new world that has such people in it. Let’s start at once.” Shouldn’t we feel this way about the vision of ‘all things new’? Isn’t this the world, the humanity, the fresh start we long for, the kind of people we want to be? We desperately need it. How will that come about?

2. The future order comes from the God who reigns

‘He who was seated on the throne’ is John’s way of describing God the Father in Revelation and he is the one who brings about this new world. The brave new world in Huxley’s novel is a horrifying place - solely artificial reproduction, some bred to rule the world, others stunted to be a menial undercless, attitudes implanted by conditioning, everyone kept happy through use of a drug, promiscuity encouraged, literature, art, culture and history all wiped out. It appals John, drives him mad and he hangs himself. It’s a parody of the optimism of those who thought that a better would could be brought about by human reason and science. But it’s right - human endeavour can only lead to a nightmarish world. That has been borne out in history - last century saw two world wars, the atom bomb, genocide. Marxism with its promise of a new era of justice, peace and prosperity if the workers would unite produced dictatorship, brutality, oppression and murder. The perfect world will not come from man - we’re powerless to deal with the root cause of why the world is the way it is - human sin that means the world is under God’s judgment. We’re part of the problem. We can’t change ourselves - all our resolutions to change fail. But God the Father does have the power and ability to do it. He sent his Son into the world to be born as a man and though he was without sin, suffered the judgment of God due to sin in the place of sinners. Death could not hold him and on the third day he was raised, in a very real sense the beginning of the new creation in this creation. It’s a work that’s continuing (the verse is in the present tense) as the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit to work in us through the preaching of the gospel to produce repentance and faith and so unite us to Christ - 2 Corinthians 5.17. Those who are in Christ have a fresh start - their sins are not counted against them, they’re reconciled to God, and the Spirit enables us more and more to put to death what belongs to our old self and live to please God. The work of new creation reaches its climax at the end of Revelation. Just as Christ was raised, the dead in Christ shall rise when God judges the world by the Lord Jesus, and creation which waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. What difference should that make? All the difference in the world.

Implications

The book is a letter addressed to seven churches; God knows there will be those in the congregations who do not yet know this hope for themselves and he makes a wonderful invitation (v. 6b, 22.17b). Are you thirsty? Does the present world fail to satisfy? Do you recognize your own failings before God and long for a fresh start? God invites you this evening to come to him and receive from him the new life he offers through Christ which will last for eternity in the new creation. There is nothing you can do to achieve it - it’s a free gift for all who will accept it. The promise of v. 5 is also a call to persevere. Revelation speaks of the conflict between God’s people and Babylon, human society in opposition to God. There is much that would cause us to forsake the living water that God offers and compromise with the world and seek satisfaction there: persecution, the seduction of luxury and immorality. It is as true of Oxford as it was of Rome. Verse 8 warns of the consequences for those in Christian congregations who do. The church through its union with Christ which is visibly advertised in baptism is the new creation breaking into this world, so in the power of the Holy Spirit we must be faithful to our calling and strive in God’s strength to live out in the present thelives of holiness and godliness and love that characterise the world to come. ‘We are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.’

Conclusion

In a few moments, we’ll gather at the Lord’s Table, which is a sign and seal of God’s new creation, pointing us back to Christ’s death on the cross, bearing God’s judgment on sin, to bring about that new creation, and pointing forward to the joyous life of the world to come. Our present union with the risen Christ is confirmed and renewed as we take bread and wine and feed on him in our hearts by faith.

And that, dear friends, was post no. 300.