This is the epilogue to the book.
Verse 1-2
“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
“In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
There will be no sickness, we will have continual health. The tree of life will provide life for all, as it was initially intended to do back in Genesis.
Verse 3
“And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:”
No more sin, no more death - no more curse. It is hard for us to imagine what it will be like with no curse, we live on a world that is cursed, everything will be perfect then.
Verse 4
“And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.”
Remember the people of earth took the anti-christ’s sign on their foreheads, this is in contrast to that. We are His, we will bare His mark.
Verse 5
“And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”
We are going to reign as kings.
Verse 6-7
“And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.”
“Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”
The words shortly and quickly indicate rapidly.
We have a promise given to us if we keep (think on and remember) the things told in this book.
Verse 8-9
“And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.”
“Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.”
John once again is so over come with what he sees that he falls down at the feet of the angel to worship, even through he knows better. The angel has to rebuke him again. Our worship should only be to God.
Verse 10
“And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.”
The word time here means ‘the next event’ The book is not sealed, as time goes on we are discovering about Revelation as we get closer to this period of time.
Verse 11-12
“He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.”
“And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”
Here we have the word ‘quickly’ again. It is coming soon.
We have a tendency to become lazy in our work for Him, if He is coming soon we need to get working for Him, we don’t have long left to increase our rewards.
Verse 13
“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”
What He has started, He finished. Both with the earth and with us, it may be hard when He is working on us to perfect us, but it will be worth it in the end.
Verse 14
“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
This is the 7th and last beatutude.
So we have the right to access the tree of life. Adam, and Eve, because of sin, where refused that right,but everything is back in order again.
Verse 15
“For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”
He is underlining the fact that sinner will not be here.
Dogs come off very poorly in Scripture, they were scavengers in New Testament times and were regarded as unclean.
Verse 16
“I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”
This reminds us that this whole book was sent to the seven churches.
Verse 17
“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
Here is an invitation to all to accept Jesus as their Saviour and receive an eternal life.
Verse 18-19
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:”
“And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”
This is a warning to all. There are many translations of the Bible that take away and add to the original. It is important that we stick to the closest version of the original text that we can get.
Verse 20-21
“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen”
John is eager for the Lord’s return. He has seen many things, both terrible and wonderful. He looks forward to eternity in Heaven.
The question is are we ready for this time. When will He come to take His children home. The thing is it may be years away till that time, but we could see God long before that, we are always only one heart beat away from death and a lost opportunity.
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