Day #365

Sermon - Audio
Rev 19-22 - Reading
Rev 19-22 - Audio

Daily Insights - Please Comment

Chapter 19 deals with two things—the triumph of the pure bride and the final battle of good verses evil.

• 19.3: the smoke goes up—Babylon has fallen never to get up again!
• 19.5: notice that even in the book of Revelation that the fear of God is present. To fear God means to be in awe of him, overwhelmed by him. John in chapter 1 falls down as he is overwhelmed with God.
• 19.7: to be invited to the great messianic banquet was considered to be the greatest of honors. Yet in Luke 14 we discover that those who are wealthy find themselves too busy to go to the banquet, so God invites the poor and outcast.
• 19.10: “for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy: -- most likely this means that Jesus’ life fulfills what the prophets said in the Old Testament concerning the Messiah.
• 19.11: “Faithful and True” these two words mean the same thing. To be true is not about telling some truth, but it is about being true to your word. Jesus is true to his covenant promises, he can be trusted.
• 19.11ff: the changes from the joy of the banquet to the horror of war are striking. This picture of a conquering Christ can make us uncomfortable. We like Jesus meek not military.
• 19.14: “the armies of heaven”: these armies include both the angels and the saints.
• 19.17-18: to not be buried was a huge disgrace in Jewish culture, the ultimate disgrace was to be eaten by animals after your death (cf. the death of Jezebel in 2 Kings 9.32-37)

Revelation 20 is the only place in the Bible that speaks of a millennial reign. The question is when does this reign happen. Historically there have been three main understandings of the timing of this reign

• Pre-millennial: Right now we are living before the 1000 year reign of Christ. The day will come when Jesus returns and reigns with his saints over the world from 1000 years.
• Post-millennial: The 1000 year reign represents a time when the Christian faith and the values of Christianity more and more become prevalent in the world. There will be a Christian renaissance sometime in the future.
• A-millennial: The 1000 years represents the time we are presently in. Satan has been bound by Christ’s work on the cross.

--Whatever view one takes on the 1000 years, two things are clear 1) Satan will be defeated 2) God cares for his saints and allow them to enjoy the benefits of his triumphal rule.

--One of the important questions that comes out of this discussion of the 1000 years is how much Christians can hope to impact and change the world. Premillennialists have the least hope of changing the world, Postmillennialists have the most hope.

• 20.2-3: Satan being bound means that God limits his ability to impact the world.
• 20.5: the first resurrection, most likely this refers to the time when a person comes to faith. This is reflected in John’s gospel, 5.²⁴“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.”
• 20.6: Second death: Jesus promise to the people at Smyrna is that they do not need to fear the second death (Rev. 2.11). The second death is being separated from God for all eternity.
• 20.8: Gog and Magog—Revelation continues with its strong connections to the Old Testament. Gog and Magog are mentioned in Ezekiel 37-38
• 20.12: books were opened: These books reveal the deeds of a person’s life. The idea that we will be judged according to our deeds runs deep in both the Old and New Testaments. The idea is that our deed reveal who we really belonged to in life. It is not that our deeds save us, but rather that they reveal whose we are.
• 20.12: Book of Life—a book that contains the names of those who belong to God.

Revelation 21 tells of God coming down to earth to live with his people and the wonderful results. What we need to catch here is that heaven is not the end of the world. Revelation 21 makes it clear that we will live our eternities on a renewed earth. This idea is important because it reminds us of the scope of God’s redemptive work, he sent Christ not only to die for people, but to renew an entire universe (cf. Colossians 1) 21.1: “a new heavens and a new earth”: The Greek language has two words for new. The word used in Revelation 21 kainos means new in nature or quality. So the new heavens and new earth are a renewed heavens and earth. 21.1: “no longer any sea”: the sea was seen as a place of chaos and evil, allied with darkness—so not having any sea is way of saying chaos is gone, evil has been defeated. In its place is a refreshing spring (see verse 6) 21.3-5: God’s great promise fulfilled, he is now with us and all the benefits that come with being in the presence of God are ours. 21.7: “victorious”: the promise given to the people in the 7 churches is kept. 21.9-21: the city is so beautiful that is goes beyond our imagination (where do you get pearls that are large enough to make gates, diamonds for walls). Notice that the city is actually the bride of Christ, the church. The church now is what it was meant to be, holy, spotless, without any blemish but holy and blameless (Eph. 5) 21.15-18: a perfect cube just like the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament. The city (the church, God’s people) is now the most intimate dwelling place of God. 21.25: “gates never shut” because there is no fear of attack. City gates were shut at night to keep out enemies. The words in Revelation 22 are filled with images from the Old Testament: Ezekiel 47 says, 1The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east)…. 12Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” The warning against adding or taking anything from the book echoes the words of Deuteronomy 4. 2Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you. God’s throne is in the city—just like the tabernacle was built so God could dwell in the midst of the people. tree of life comes from Genesis—it is the tree which God guards after Adam and Eve fall into sin. Now, all who believe can enjoy the tree and all its benefits. 22.3: serve him—we will still serve God in some way when we live in the new creation 22.4: not the mark of the beast, but the name of God will be on our foreheads 22.7: Blessed—another promise of blessing, this one is to those who keep the words of this prophecy. In summary to keep the words of this prophesy means to “Worship God!” (vs. 9). This worship of God means that we commit ourselves to him, do his will, and be a part of his army in the battle against evil—even if we die in service. 22.11: Those who hear the message and fail to respond find their hearts hardened to the ways of God and slide further and further into sin.