Revelation 22 vs 1-5

Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 1
•So here is the source of the fountain of the water of life mentioned last week in Revelation 21 verse 6! After John hears, “Behold, I make all things new,” he hears, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts and he who overcomes (refreshed and fueled by this water of life), shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My Son.”
•Notice, the source is the throne of God and of the Lamb! Two major points in and of themselves there. First, the source is the throne. Not the seat, not the couch, not the feet, not the hands, not the face, not the voice…the throne… Why be some emphatic about that? Because 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 (the ingestion and application of the Word) which are ALL good things…, but the throne of God, from which comes forth the living water…speaks of royalty, kingship and authority of God.
•That’s major because so often I approach the Lord with my own agenda and my own desires and my own cares and my own complaints looking for what I’m looking for…, but is that any way to approach the Almighty? Not hardly and in so doing I often must miss what God has for me! Must? Yes, hold that thought!
•When if I am truly seeking the Lord, I will approach Him, I will go to God, my whole attitude towards Him will be, “Lord, not my will but Your will be done in my life!” That’s where you find the life…dropping your agenda and adopting His! That’s to approach the THRONE!
•Why must I miss what God has for me? I approach the throne and set my throne right in front of His and begin the conversation. God, I need this, I want this, this is happening to me and it’s not fair, God why haven’t you done this and why have You done that and on and on… And God delivers to me my petitions. Prayer is granted on the spot then guess what I’m free to do…remain in the flesh and do it again…no good! And God knows it! So, He, at times, as the Bible says in Isaiah Chapter 1:15, as we stretch out our hands before Him, He will not hear, or better stated, He will not heed…He answers “no”…, for our own good…so that we might learn to forsake our throne and accept His.
•You know, my throne is so rickety! Barely holding together. Made from whatever I can find and its thrown together and its embarrassing…truly. God’s throne, His authority, His heart, His ways, perfect…powerful…praiseworthy by all people from all times… What does the Lord desire for you, in you, through you and with you in your situation and circumstance? Are you seeking that? Because that is to approach His throne and that is the source of living water…
•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. “Why?” You might say. “Why can’t it be just like one throne and the Lamb is on God’s lap?” Huge problem with that perspective. Several places in the Bible we read that God will not share His glory…it’s actually an impossibility. No created being can contain His glory and Isaiah 44:6 says, “There is no other god besides Me.” And so, we have a truth. If there is one throne and two persons then there is one God and two persons…pretty simple, certainly clear.
•And one last critical, (awesome), item before we move on. 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. And I dig that. Why? Because many have this idea that the sufficiency of God’s mercy, grace, love and truth 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.” Man the reality and presence and wonder and love and truth and power of God is not, in truth, some dripping heavenly faucet… It’s a rush, it’s a flood, it’s rapids…it sweeps you away! You’re immersed, lost in the current, to the point that you even burst forth with it!
•“Oh Matt, that’s not my walk man…mine is joyless, floodless…that’s just you.” NO! That’s JUST YOU! Jeremiah 2 says that the people have done evil and forsaken the fountain of living water by hewing out for themselves busted, cracked, broken cisterns that cannot hold water! What busts your cistern? Where are you lacking humility? Where are you lacking living faith? Where are you activating pride? Where are you afraid to be found out…because 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!?
•I dig the picture…the continual flood of loving/living water from the very throne of God and of the Lamb…restricted to no one from God but so often restricted…lay it down and get in on this!
Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 2
•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. Now open for business! Why, because sin is gone. Why was the guard put there in the first place? So that man would not eat of it and live forever, not in the state that he was in.
•God has now made all things new, removed all and everything that was harmful and not good…and all of that because of the cross. This is what the cross did. This is what Jesus accomplished. Simple, clear…He accomplished life! That’s why God call is “born again” when you accept Jesus Christ…because before that…no life.
•Not just one kind of fruit either. A different kind every month. Life in the Lord isn’t bland. It isn’t just Church, work and football…ha! Life with the Lord is life alive! Filled with adventure, growth, learning, furthering, deepening…coming alive while even alive!
•And months? So, is there time? It would appear so. But aren’t we outside of time at this point? Yea, it would appear so…so how? Got me! Open your ideas past your senses, man…are we spiritual? Yes. Are we physical? Yes. Do we eat? Yes. Is there joy and emotion? Yes!
•A glimpse is given to us by Jesus Himself in Luke 24:37-43. “Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” So, they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence
•The resurrected Jesus shows up in all His wonder and what does He say, “Do you have any food?” And the scripture says, “When they gave Him a piece of fish and some honey, and saw Him eat it, they knew He was not a phantom.”
•Do we drink? Yes! Verse 17 in this same chapter tells us to take of the water of life freely! “Oh man, I’m confused!” Don’t be! Be at peace. What is to come is beyond us…beyond this, it’s eternally better, astronomically wondrous and by faith we can see it, but faith transcends senses and grasps through trust (and honestly, a bit of anticipatory imagination…because what is ahead is like nothing we’ve ever seen)!
•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 exhilaration and invigoration…
•Do you ever get tired of being tired? Man, I do…How awesome will it be when we are with the Lord, surfing the rapids of the river of life…fishing maybe if you’re not into surfing…skipping gold rocks, eating some good fruit and continually revived by the leaves of the Tree of Life!
Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 3
•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. All has been righted. All has been healed. Evil is not even a word in the vocabulary of heaven…the curse, singular, the Great Harlot, singular, pain singular, pride, singular, depression, singular…gone…replaced with the throne of God and the Lamb…precisely the process that begins to happen in your own heart when you live after the things of God, filled with the love and grace of the Jesus!
•And His doulos latreou Him…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…after all, that’s the perfect response in perfection…can’t go wrong now then!
Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 4
•I was thinking about this. Why not put his name on our arms or chest or awesome heavenly six pack abs? I mean when is the last time you saw someone with a tattoo on their forehead? Then it occurs to me, everyone can see the Lord’s name on me…but me. And humility enters. So often I only see the Lord’s name on 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…
•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 tweets and groan in your heart as what you’ll do for them is so much more than what they do for you! (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…And be more concerned with them seeing His name on mine….
Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 5
•Ah this word for night, it’s nyx in the Greek and it also means stupidity…laziness…shame, darkness, weariness…all that is gone. The singular curse, gone. The perfect fellowship with God restored. The wondrous and complete picture of what God created us for in the first place…absolutely and eternally reinstated…all because of the cross of Jesus Christ. And that will forever be on our minds, literally, and as we enjoy the light and the warmth that emanates from Him, without interruption or partiality, as John writes here, “forever and ever.”
•I wonder if you have heaven in your heart. That’s what you have if you have opened your heart to the Holy Spirit. You have a glimpse of this…what we just talked about. You have the down payment, the guarantee as the Bible would say and that, Peter writes, is hope and that hope leads to a life of power and purity. A life of eternal significance and substance. A connection with your Creator…would you call upon Him today…ask Him to show this to you…He will, in Jesus’ name.