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<\/a>Revelation 22:1-17<\/b><\/h3>\nRevelation is for us.<\/p>\n
By \u201crevelation\u201d I mean both St. John\u2019s biblion, as well as the entirety of God\u2019s revelation.<\/p>\n
Revelation is for us.<\/p>\n
As far as when the events of St. John\u2019s Revelation will take place, by now you will have noticed that I believe the Revelation is primarily about what Jesus Christ has already done.\u00a0 But what Jesus Christ has already done has cosmic significance for every time and every place, for what He did was establish a New Covenant with man, which means a New Heaven (one into which we can now enter) and a New Earth (one that is now redeemed and being redeemed).\u00a0 What He has done radiates out in the time-warp continuum reaching back to the Old Testament saints and to the farthest reaches of the future, from Tyler, TX to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.<\/p>\n
The fact that John is writing about things that happened in the first century smacks you in the face in Chapter 22.\u00a0 Of course, we remember that John\u2019s original audience is 1st<\/sup> century Christians who are being persecuted and need to be reminded that Jesus Christ has indeed ascended into heaven where He truly reigns.\u00a0 John repeats his teaching that what has been revealed to him are \u201cthings which must shortly take place,\u201d which is repeated here in verse 6 as a kind of closing parenthesis around his initial teaching in Chapter 1, verse 1, that these are \u201cthings which must shortly take place.\u201d<\/p>\n In verse 7 of Chapter 22, Jesus Christ says to the suffering, martyred Church of the 1st<\/sup> century, \u201cBehold, I am coming quickly\u201d (verse 7).\u00a0 What a cruel hoax it would have been if the early Church heard these words repeated several times \u2013 \u201cthese things must shortly take place\u201d and \u201cI am coming quickly,\u201d when 2000 years later none of this has taken place yet!<\/p>\n In verse 10, the angel tells John not<\/i> to seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, \u201cfor the time is at hand<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 What a contrast to Daniel 12:4 where Daniel is told \u201cshut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end.\u201d\u00a0 St. John is, in essence, being told that the end is indeed here, the last days.\u00a0 The 1st<\/sup> century, in which the Old Covenant was catastrophically destroyed and the New Covenant birthed, was the last days.\u00a0 This is why St. Peter, quoting the prophet Joel says, \u201cAnd it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh . . . .\u201d (Acts 2:17), things which Peter says are fulfilled by Pentecost in A.D. 30.\u00a0 This is why the writer of Hebrews says that God \u201chas in these last days<\/i> spoken to us by His Son\u201d (1:2) and then goes on to list the mighty works of Christ by which the last days (New Covenant) have come.<\/p>\n Verse 12: \u201cBehold, I am coming quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n Verse 20: \u201cSurely I am coming quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n Revelation is for us. \u00a0Some will say, \u201cBut if these things have been fulfilled, then they\u2019re all past and not relevant to us.\u201d\u00a0 To which I would say, \u201cThen are you saying that by them not being fulfilled they have been irrelevant to the Church, including St. John\u2019s audience, for 2000 years?\u00a0 And are you saying that the entire New Testament is irrelevant, since Paul\u2019s letters were to 1st<\/sup> century churches and the life and ministry of Jesus Christ in the Gospels is past?\u201d<\/p>\n Revelation is for us, including Revelation.<\/p>\n I believe that Revelation 22 is meant for me and for you.<\/p>\n Even though Revelation and Scripture end in a city, the New Jerusalem which is the Church, it also ends in a garden, which is the New Paradise.\u00a0 Adam was born in a Garden and driven away into a relative wilderness.\u00a0 We were born in the wilderness, but God has re-opened Paradise for busy-ness, the task of tending His Garden.\u00a0 \u201cToday you will be with me in Paradise,\u201d Jesus says to the thief on the cross, and the women mistake Jesus for the gardener after the Resurrection, in the garden in which the tomb lay.\u00a0 What God created good in Genesis 1 and Adam lost in Genesis 3, Jesus Christ has restored and completed in Revelation 22.<\/p>\n Jesus says, in effect, \u201cI am the Tree of Life\u201d (Revelation 22:2).\u00a0 \u201cI am the Vine, you are the branches,\u201d (John 15:5).\u00a0 If you have life in Jesus Christ, the Tree of Life, you will have life indeed, and have it more abundantly.\u00a0 If you eat of the Tree of Life, planted here in God\u2019s New Garden of Paradise, the New Jerusalem, the Church, you will \u201cbear much fruit; so you will be My disciples\u201d (John 15:7).<\/p>\n \u201cI am the light of the world,\u201d Jesus says (John 8:12; the Revelation of John 22:5).\u00a0 No longer do we (even now!) walk in darkness, but we are in the light, as He is in the light.\u00a0 We shouldn\u2019t forget that the highly theological and figurative John of the Gospel is also the John of the Revelation.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if John is saying that this is the Lord\u2019s Day, the New Day, because first there was evening and dark (the Old Heavens and Earth), and then there was morning (the New Heavens and Earth).\u00a0 And God saw that it was good, and there was evening and there was morning, the Lord\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n Jesus Christ then, through the pen of St. John, commands us to keep the words of the prophecy of this book (verses 7 and 9).\u00a0 And what is the commandment that we are to keep?\u00a0 The first one that the angel mentions is \u201cWorship God\u201d (verse 9).\u00a0 In fact, the book of Revelation is all about worshiping God, and our lives are to be all about worshiping God.\u00a0 Remember: all of what St. John sees and hears and writes happens to him while he is in the Lord\u2019s Day in the Spirit.\u00a0 Everything that St. John writes is an act of worship because it is his faithful response to the Revelation of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n And what is our appropriate response whenever we see and hear the Revelation of Jesus Christ?\u00a0 It\u2019s to fall prostrate before Him as if dead and worship Him, so that He might lift us up.\u00a0 I see this kind of worship as a kind of recapitulation of our death and life.\u00a0 We are dead in our sins, and when we come before God we are keenly, bodily, aware of this.\u00a0 But when we come before Him after having eaten from the Tree of Life and having drunk the Living Water, we are baptized with Christ and eucharistized with Christ and not only die with Christ but are raised with Him to new life and ascend with Him into heaven.<\/p>\n The book of Revelation is all about worship because the revelation of Jesus Christ always leads us to worship!<\/p>\n For this reason, the book of Revelation if filled with heavenly songs, the songs of the angels.\u00a0 And we are to join in with all the angels and archangels and all the heavenly host, singing with them with all of our might.<\/p>\n Our worship, though, is more than just singing songs and bowing down.\u00a0 One of the ways that we bow down or ascribe \u201cworth ship\u201d to God and acknowledge Him to be the Lord is simply to obey Him.\u00a0 And our obedience is how we reign<\/i> with Christ: \u201cThy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.\u201d\u00a0 When we are united to Jesus Christ by dying to ourselves and denying ourselves, we will be raised with Him as well.\u00a0 Therefore, we must crucify ourselves, joining ourselves to the one who not only obeyed for us but also died for us.<\/p>\n Initial, progressive<\/i>, and final<\/i>.<\/p>\n Jesus Christ is coming quickly!\u00a0 Not only initially to the 1st<\/sup> century churches in Asia Minor and not only finally at His Second Coming, but also progressively, here and now, to us.\u00a0 And so He says not only to the 1st<\/sup> century churches of Asia Minor and the Church Triumphant in all her glory \u201cBehold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to His work\u201d (verse 12) \u2013 He also says it to you<\/i>.\u00a0 To you He says \u201cBlessed are those who do My commandments that you may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city\u201d (verse 13 \u2013 yes, I\u2019ve changed the words a little).<\/p>\n Initial, progressive<\/i>, and final<\/i>.<\/p>\n But because our obedience is initial, progressive<\/i>, and final, and we in the process<\/i> of redemption and salvation, the Tree of Life that Christ offers us, which is Himself, is a Cross.\u00a0 Adam died by a tree, and Christ saves us by a Tree.\u00a0 That Tree is a painful one, but this pain is a good pain because it is by our suffering with Christ that we are united to Him that finally<\/i> we might be done with sin and suffering and death.\u00a0 It is by hanging on the Tree of Life with Jesus Christ that we will be enabled to enter Paradise with Him.\u00a0 Ouch!\u00a0 It hurts like Hell in the beginning, but it feels like Heaven in the end.<\/p>\n Revelation is for us.\u00a0 It is all about worship and it contains what, along with the Lord\u2019s Prayer, is to be our most basic and profound prayer: \u201cCome, Lord Jesus!\u201d<\/p>\n The Spirit and the Bride say, \u201cCome!\u201d<\/p>\n Let him who hears say, \u201cCome!\u201d<\/p>\n Let him who thirsts come!<\/p>\n I do not believe that when we pray to Jesus to come that He who died for us will be stingy or sluggardly.\u00a0 I do not believe that because Jesus Christ came to the 1st<\/sup> century Christians and will come finally and completely at His Second Coming that He will not also come to me this very day.<\/p>\n Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.<\/p>\n Whoever you are this morning; whatever you\u2019re doing with your life; whatever your sufferings: Jesus Christ says, \u201cI am the Tree of Life, and I am the River of Living Water.\u00a0 Come!\u201d<\/p>\n The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.\u00a0 Amen!<\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0 \u201cCome, Lord Jesus!\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Points for Meditation:<\/b><\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 Consider learning to read the book of Revelation in light of what Jesus Christ has already done and in light of what it means to you, here and now.<\/b><\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 In what ways is Jesus Christ calling you to come to Him?\u00a0 How well have you obeyed His call to come?\u00a0 What will you do to come more faithfully?<\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He comes in many ways: Bible reading and meditation; prayer; public worship; fellowship with the saints; obedience; taking up your Cross and denying yourself; joyful celebration; loving service to others, etc.\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n Resolution:\u00a0 I resolve to come to Jesus Christ today.\u00a0 Having heard the commandment of the Lord to \u201cCome,\u201d and the reward that He promises for coming and worshiping and obeying, determine to come to Jesus Christ today!\u00a0 Find one specific way to come.\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n \u00a9 2013 Fr. Charles Erlandson<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Revelation 22:1-17 Revelation is for us. By \u201crevelation\u201d I mean both St. John\u2019s biblion, as well as the entirety of God\u2019s revelation. Revelation is for us. As far as when the events of St. John\u2019s Revelation will take place, by now you will have noticed that I believe the Revelation is primarily about what Jesus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2856,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[154,265,266,268,301,4,1605,1678,1995,2285,2389,2487],"class_list":["post-3030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-give-us-this-day","tag-anglican","tag-bible-commentary","tag-bible-devotional","tag-bible-study","tag-book-of-common-prayer","tag-daily-devotional","tag-new-covenant","tag-paradise","tag-second-coming","tag-the-church-triumphant","tag-the-revelation-of-st-john","tag-tree-of-life"],"yoast_head":"\n