Awaiting Jesus’ Return: The Hope of a World Made New

oh wow my name is keith and i'm so glad that you're here at journey church today come lord jesus these are some of the last words you find in the bible come lord jesus we come to a conclusion of the book of revelation today and these are some of the last words of john as he tells us jesus promised he's coming soon we can have a confidence that he's a god that keeps his word we live in a crazy world the reason this world is crazy we all have some crazy inside of us some of us are more crazy than others today we'll learn that jesus will take all the craziness of this world all of the brokenness all of the pain all of the sin all of the sorrow all that is wrong

and jesus will make it right if you're just joining us i want to encourage you it's never too late to get into the bible john tells us when you read the book of revelation you'll be blessed revelation 1 3 blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near it's good to get into the book of revelation because the book of revelation is all about who jesus and jesus changes everything he brings hope john tells us in revelation 1 7 behold he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him every person will see clearly who jesus is that's why we come before jesus now as we come to the conclusion of this book we see that god gave us this book to

prepare us not to scare us he wants us to know who he is we find in the final two chapters the highlight of all the bible that god has given a promise to all who believe in him the hope of heaven jesus said in matthew 5 12 and the sermon on the mount he said rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in heaven i just wonder what it was like when jesus said these words in a sermon no one knew what heaven was like but jesus was there a sparkle in his eye was was there something in the tone of his voice did he get a little more excited when he said rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great and whoo i did a good job with this place heaven see jesus knew full well that even if you were persecuted for your faith having the hope of heaven is

worth it he knew it was worth it by believing in him you get a great gift called heaven this today could be the most important message i preached because it's all about eternal life so you don't get heaven just because you're born and you die heaven is reserved for those who put their faith in jesus christ and believe in what was done for you by jesus by faith you receive grace and because of that you get the inheritance of eternal life this is not a game this is not a joke it's not a fictional fantasy this is not a man-made religion it's the reality that's offered to us in jesus john was told in revelation 19 9 write this blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb he's telling about this great union that

will take place between the groom jesus and the bride the church it will be a wonderful wedding a feast a celebration something to be experienced where we can hear those words that jesus tells us in the parable well done well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful over a little i will set you over much enter into the joy of your master as jesus tells us in this short fictional story a great big truth god has entrusted to us as stewardship that we're to take what god's given us and to invest it for his kingdom and for his purpose to see that he has a great plan for us and what wonderful words those would be to hear

well done as john concludes the book of revelation we see looking back in history countless productions and and art and music throughout the ages have been inspired by this very vision that we'll look at today in revelation 21 and 22. cathedrals across the world have tried to take this imagery and put it into the form of architecture throughout my own life i look at my view of heaven that has been skewed by hollywood and what others have told me about eternal life and i'll tell you what john describes here is greater thing greater than anything any of us have ever experienced before may i suggest that if we take all the artists in the world every musician and every great biblical scholar that's ever existed

and we were to combine them together and if they were to tell us about the experience of heaven it would compare to that of a four-year-old artist drawing of his home with crayons it wouldn't give you the whole picture not until you experience it and john wants us to use our imagination that one day we'll get to experience what he records here in these words go with me now to revelation 21 starting with verse 1. then john the author tells us i saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed away and the sea was no more everyone shout knew this is not an improved this is not a better version

this is a new this is something none of us have experienced before god's going to do something new and one of the first thing that john tells us about heaven is the sea will be no more in the first century a sea would represent chaos so much would happen on the sea it was a place of emptiness it was vast when you headed out into the sea you didn't know if a storm was coming for john this was personal he was on an island called patmos he was being persecuted for his faith in jesus and it was a sea that would separate him from the shore it was a sea that separated him from community it was a sea that would cause him to be in isolation so now john says in heaven there'll be no chaos there'll be no separation from community there'll be no isolation the sea will be

no more now john is not saying there won't be water we'll learn later today that there will be water but it will be fresh water there's no need for salt for salt is a preservative salt makes you thirsty and we'll see that all the water in heaven is fresh you will thirst no more john says in verse 2 and i saw the holy city a new jerusalem coming down out of heaven from god prepared as a bride adorned for her husband there's not only a new world but we see a new city this is something spectacular that none of us have experienced some of you don't like the city because of what the the city holds you don't like the traffic you don't like the trash you don't like the graffiti but this city has no traffic jams

there's nothing bad in this city in fact what we see in cities today are racial divisions we see national divisions there's chinatown and koreatown we even see religious divisions in cities and i want you to know that in heaven it's going to be a wonderful city every nationality every race every language will be united no separation no division it will be a great city of god it's described here in an apocalyptic form as that of a bride it's a beautiful picture that god loves this city and john says then i heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of god is with man he will dwell with them and they will be his people and god himself will be with them as

their god normally you go to a city to visit some place or someone for us it happens to be ikea for others you might go for a theme park you might go to the zoo maybe you have some family members there what's so special about this holy city this new jerusalem what's so special about heaven god will dwell there you know in the bible you read god's story that's what's special about the bible it tells you the story of god and from the beginning to the end you see that god has constantly wanted to dwell with his people from the beginning he created a garden and when he created mankind unlike any of his other creation he wanted to dwell with mankind which is exactly what he did and then sin entered the story and

separated man from god but that didn't stop god he continually pursued his people we read stories like enoch that walked with god we read when the israelites were set free from slavery in egypt they were on a journey to this promised land and god was with them he would dwell with them in the wilderness he was a a cloud by day and a fire by night and then they created a tabernacle for god to dwell in it was a tent it was this this temporary place where god would meet with them as they would travel on this journey and then finally they would build this permanent temple a dwelling place for god inside the temple was a unique place it was known as the holy of holies this inner sanctuary so only god would dwell no one could enter the holy of holies except one

person the high priest once a year john now in his biography of jesus life tells us in chapter 1 verse 14 he says and the word who's the word jesus he tells us in the opening line in the beginning was the word and the words with god and the word was god that's jesus how do you understand anything you use words how do you understand god through the word jesus and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glories of the only son from the father full of grace and truth there are 15 sermons packed in this one verse you want to get to know god get to know jesus you want grace get to know jesus you want the truth get to know jesus you want to know the glory of god just get to know jesus this is god that came down and became one of us the creator became

the created almighty god clothed himself wrapped himself in flesh and then john uses this phrase he dwelt among us in the original language he tabernacled among us he pitched a tent some of you like camping god created it he came down in the temporary form he he clothed himself in flesh that was his tent he made himself known and by making himself known he gave us direct access to god where we no longer need to go to a temple see when jesus died on the cross that very curtain that separated the holy of holies was torn in two jesus died on our uh died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins so you no longer need to bring a sacrifice to a temple but now the scriptures teach us that your body is

actually a temple of the holy spirit god wants to dwell in you he's emmanuel he's god with us the writer of hebrews puts it this way therefore brothers since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of jesus by the new and living way that he jesus opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh we have direct access to god and what we read in heaven is there will no longer be a separation you will no longer question you will no longer wonder for there will be no more sin that's what john says in revelation 21 verse 4 he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor

crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away now how do you describe a place like heaven john continually comes to the reality that what we experience now will be no more in heaven so he uses that phrase over and over in chapter 21 and 22 no more no more sea but now we read no more pain god's going to take his thumb on your cheek and wipe away your tear for the last time there'll be no more sorrow nothing to rob you of your joy no one can steal your life any longer oh just think about how wonderful this will be you'll never have to lock a door ever again you'll never have to wonder where you left your keys you'll never have to visit a doctor or an urgent care there'll be

no need for an emergency room any longer you don't have to look over your shoulder to wonder somebody following you no more hurt no more regret just think about the no mores if all is new the former things have passed away that means for me there'll be no more sickness no more drama no more addictions no confusion no being tired no more pulling weeds can i get it amen from the dads come on no more shame no guilt no more solicitors calling you to let you know that your extended car warranty has expired no more weeds no more mosquitoes no more achy muscles from pulling weeds you can see what i've been working on

lately no more poor vision no more hearing loss now these are just the things i struggle with you can have your own no more list it will constantly be new can you fathom it i can't because i've never experienced it and you've never experienced anything like this as well god is going to do something new david seemed to understand this when he writes psalm 23 he says the lord is my shepherd and he understands that one day he's going to have a table before his enemies and it's going to be full of food and his cup's going to overflow he's describing his destiny and he says in psalm 23 verse 3 he says he restores my soul this is so important that we see what

david sees that god doesn't reform it he doesn't camouflage it he doesn't use an instagram filter to make his life look fake he doesn't sweep it under the rug or the closet so it looks good but there's still something dirty in there he restores it to its original original intention when god created the garden he created all that is good we've never experienced a life that is perfectly good and one day god's gonna restore your heart he's gonna restore your body and you're going to understand what he intended from the beginning he's going to restore your vigor he's going to restore your life he's going to restore your hope he's going to restore everything that's wrong right now will be made right the master the builder will take out

the original blueprints and he says i'm gonna restore this and bring it back to its original purpose and so john tells us in revelation 21 5 and he who is seated on the throne said behold i am making all things what new also he said write this down for these words are trustworthy and true not one thing not a few things all things will be made new you can believe these words these are trustworthy words these are true words when you believe these words it actually changes who you are in 1871 there was a great chicago fire

that destroyed thousands of homes and one of those homes was that of the great evangelist and pastor dwight l moody and he came to survey all that he had lost and a friend came by and said i hear you lost everything well said moody you understood wrong i have a good deal more i left than what i lost oh what do you mean the friend asked i didn't know you were that rich for preachers aren't rich moody then opened up his bible to revelation chapter 21 verse 7 and he read these words he that overcometh shall inherit all things and i will be his god see moody seem to understand that the things of this world were temporary but he had

something much greater coming so we read that same text in revelation 21 verse 6 and 7 and he said to me it is done i am the alpha and the omega the beginning and the end to the thirsty i will give from the springs of the water of life without payment the one who conquers will have his heritage and i will be his god and he will be my son now who are the conquerors jesus tells the church in revelation two and three that when you believe in him you can be more than a conqueror and when you're a conqueror you get a heritage this is an inheritance it's yours why because you are a child of god god does not bring an end he is the end he's also the beginning for he has no beginnings and we see in him all of what you've been longing for your entire life

will be found in jesus we're all spiritually thirsty for something and we try to be satisfied in so much and we find here this is a water that will never run dry he's worth living for he's worth believing in because this life has no end jesus christ needs to be our greatest priority for when you make him your priority it aligns every other priority when you center your life on him like moody all of a sudden your priorities are aligned you understand what's important and what's not when jesus is the center of your life you begin to understand you're just on a journey you want to live for something more than this temporary life heaven will be incredible yet john warns in verse 8 but as for the cowardly the faithless the detestable as for the murders the

sexually immoral the sorcerers the idolaters and all the liars their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur which is the second death john says not everyone will get into heaven he starts with cowards and he ends with liars see in the first century it would cost a lot to follow jesus at a time when the roman empire required that you must worship caesar as lord for a christian you could lose your life if you refused to call caesar lord you could be put to death if you refuse to say that he is the king of all kings it could cost you and your family a lot jesus warned that to follow him you've got to count the cost it doesn't cost part of your life it

requires your entire life jesus does not want some of you he wants all of you for when you do all of a sudden you have a courage when you do you pray for a boldness that you did not have before you recognize that not everybody will embrace your faith in jesus so the question for our hearts must be are we willing to count the cost because you've got to be willing to give up your old life to receive the new life as jesus says you become born again as paul put it you're now a new creation you're no longer defined by the old but now you have the new see john is not saying that somehow you've never done these things we've all done at least one or more of these john is not saying

if you've lied you can't get into heaven he's saying it's where your identity is once you put your faith in jesus you're no longer identified by your sin you're forgiven of your sin so what john is telling the reader here is apart from jesus you're still identified by who you are and heaven is not your home but when you live for jesus it changes everything you now get the eternal presence of god but apart from jesus you're eternally separated from god it's described as this place of torment a lake of fire and sulfur it's a terrible place we we describe this place in one word and four letters hell it's worse than anyone can imagine we we try to joke about it we try to say oh satan's ruling in hell no he's not

he's being tormented he in eternity we've painted the picture that somehow heaven's going to be boring because it's eternal and all the fun people go to hell but it's complete lie it's a myth that the devil is a liar and a deceiver and wants to try to trick us in our understanding of what heaven and hell actually is and the book of revelation is not hopeless it's all about jesus who offers hope to everyone so what will this new city be like john goes on to describe it in verse nine then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues this is describing one of the mighty angels that was a part of this tribulation time this this judgment that's already occurred earlier in the book of revelation he spoke to me saying come i will show you the bride the wife of the lamb

and he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city of jerusalem coming down from heaven from god having the glory of god it's radiance like a most rare jewel like a jasper clear as crystal at a great high wall with 12 gates and at the gates 12 angels and on the gates the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of israel were inscribed on the east three gates and on the north three gates and on the south three gates and on the west three gates and the walls of the city had twelve foundations and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the lamb and the one who spoke with me had the measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and its walls the city lies four squares and its length the same as its width and he measured the city with his rod

twelve 000 stadia that's almost 1500 miles its length and its width and its height are equal so john describes the city as that of a bride now who's the bride throughout the new testament the bride has been described as the church the groom is jesus the bride is the church but now we see a whole new description in eternity the city is now described as a bride not the church which is fascinating that the city is not defined by its buildings as we know it's defined by the people and as he gets into the understanding of the city he looks at it and he sees 12 gates and he says there are the 12 tribes of israel this represents the old testament

it represents the those who believed in god prior to the birth of jesus these are god's people and then we see the 12 names of the apostles apostle means one sent by god and we see this represents the followers of jesus in the new testament like that in revelation 4 when we see he's centered in heaven as the throne and around the throne are 24 thrones we see it's the 12 of the old 12 of the new 12 of the old covenant 12 of the new covenant it represents all of god's people which means in heaven there will be god's people which is awesome one day you can go meet adam and asked him why in the world he didn't listen to god one day you can go shake the hand of abraham the father of our faith one day you can go ask some advice from david who defeated goliath how to throw a rock and a slingshot one day you'll get to meet peter who invented surfing

one day you could meet paul who really planted churches that we know today one day you'll get to meet so many heroes of the faith like women like darlene deebler or elizabeth elliott those who have passed on that love jesus they will be in heaven it'll be awesome because heaven is all about the people some of us think of heaven as oh one day i'm going to have a mansion up on the hill no you're not even going to care about a mansion you're in the presence of god what you know about now won't be exciting to you in heaven because god will be exciting it'll be exciting to to be with other people and worship god it will be absolutely wonderful your great great great grandmother who actually prayed for your family to fall in love with jesus and you don't even know her name but she prayed for you to be in church on this day so that you'd get excited about heaven you're going to get to meet her

heaven will be absolutely incredible because heaven is is made up of people and john describes this in such a way that we would understand the foundations and and the very premise of what it's about is all about god's people he goes on to say use human uh terms so that we would understand uh what heaven's all about he talks about this measuring rod and heaven is described here as a cube and this cube is perfectly nearly 1500 miles wide and high we we see it's really interesting that heaven is described as a city that is a cube now what's up with the cube well we go to the temple and in the temple was that holy of holies this inner sanctuary and we're we're told of the dimensions in first kings 6 20 this holy of holies where god would

dwell the inner sanctuary was 20 cubits long 20 cubits wide and 20 cubits high and he overlaid it with pure gold the dwelling place of god in the temple was a cube now the city of god heaven is described as this huge cube that's a city 1500 miles that's a big city what's the point of giving us the descriptions of how big heaven actually is it's meant to say this there's room for everyone this is not a small city it's not like bend where we're saying oh there's too many people here now traffic has gotten so bad there's no more room go back to where you came from right this this city is so big there's room for you to invite a neighbor there's room for that family member there's room for you there's room for

everyone you ought to be inviting people to heaven you should be inviting people to church you should invite people to the hope of what heaven's going to be like john goes on to describe heaven in the most spectacular way he paints the picture of a mosaic of colors using some of the rarest jewels red like ruby and green like emerald and he just describes all these magnificent colors like purple and blue and yellow some of us have been duped to think that heaven will be like a sterile place like a hospital white walls white floors white robes white clouds white angels flying everywhere there's going to be halos harps and handles messiah and you've just got this really boring

view of heaven in your mind john describes all of these rare gems and stones to let you know this is the maker the creator of art is going to display the wonder and the beauty of who he is in heaven so if you've been duped to somehow think it's going to be boring or colorless it will be the exact opposite it will it'll be beyond what you could fathom so he goes on to describe after the colors and the 12 gates were 12 pearls each of the 12 gates made a single pearl and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass we've made heaven a comedic joke that one day

when you die you come to the pearly gates and saint peter will visit you and if you've been good enough you get in that comes out of the book of revelation the idea of the pearly gates we see in comic strips and we we make a joke out of what heaven will be like who gets to go into heaven and somehow we've come to our conclusion you've got to be good enough to get into heaven that's nowhere in the bible you can't be good enough to get into heaven how good is good enough when god is perfect and cannot tolerate sin those that get into heaven have received the gift of grace which is exchanging your sin for god's righteousness that's your free ticket into heaven is jesus christ and when you come to these pearly gates that are painted here it's meant to show you this this rare jewel of how wonderful heaven's going to be and it's yours you won't stop at the pearly gates to meet with peter you're just in so all the jokes that we've made around this to try to

try to lessen the idea of what heaven actually is it's more spectacular streets of gold is to let you know that what you're striving for now will be under your feet in heaven no more need to work so hard to pay the bills to work so hard to pay the bills to go on a vacation that just stresses you out and you want to go back to work and then to repeat this cycle when jesus offers us rest sabbath peace life oh the fruits of the holy spirit what we'll experience forever love joy peace gentleness patience all all the goodness of god and so john explains what will happen in this place in verse 22 and i saw no temple in the city

for its temple is the lord god the almighty and the lamb no steeples no first baptist methodist presbyterian foursquare non-denominational episcopalian no no temple no church for the temple is the lord god the almighty and the lamb and the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of god gives its light and its lamp is the lamb the lamb is this metaphoric language to jesus being the great sacrifice the light of the world came and did what needed to be done so that one day you'll have no darkness no shadow one day wherever you go god is

there with you and by its light verse 24 all the nations will walk the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it and his gates will never be shut by day and there will be no night there they will bring into the glory and honor of the nations but nothing unclean will ever enter into it nor anyone who does what is detestable or false but only those who are written in the lamb's book of life now how do you get your name written in the lamb's book of life it's really simple believe in jesus he writes your name in that book believe in jesus and what he's done for you you're sealed by the holy spirit god is with you he is for you and you change your whole life now you want to live for who he is and what he's done for you think of how spectacular this is this place of no darkness i want you to imagine in

your mind the greatest sunset you've ever witnessed your sunsets are are wonderful because they kind of catch you off guard you didn't know it was coming you can have a mundane day and all of a sudden when you see the colors of of purple and pink and orange painted in the sky it makes you stop there's something majestic in it whether you're a believer or not a believer there's something in you that gives you a bit of an of what's in the sky and sometimes you might even take a picture of it to capture it to show someone else or to remember what you saw because you know that's not going to last forever and then you look at the picture and you say yes that was beautiful but it doesn't give you the same aw as experiencing it augustine many centuries ago was watching a sunset over the mediterranean sea and he penned these words if these are

the beauties afforded to sinful men what does god have in store for those who love him you see the best sunset will not compare to the light god gives us it will be majestic wonderful it will never stop it will never disappear you never have to say oh it's gone i would love to see that again for eternity you will be in awe of what god is able to do and who he is you see the best day of your life on earth will not compare to the worst day in heaven because there will be no worse day you'll get to be with god this is why john is trying to capture your imagination that heaven is far greater for you're now in the holy

of holies john says in chapter 22 starting with verse 1 then the angel showed me the river of the water of life bright as a crystal flowing from the throne of god and of the lamb through the middle of the street of the city also on either side of the river the tree of life with this twelve kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations life has no end nothing will ever die water will never go dry there will never be a drought it will be endless life as john paints this picture he wants our hearts to be stirred this water that jesus offers that he is the living water

will be fully experienced when you have jesus he is the water that will quench your thirst and now you have it in your life jesus said this in john 7 38 whoever believes in me as the scriptures has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water see when you believe in jesus that water now comes into your heart and like david said my cup overflows in psalm 23 you don't keep it we are not the frozen chosen like hey we've got the secret jesus we want this water to come out of us to let the world know that what we have is what they need as well revelation 22 verse 3 tells us no longer

will there be anything accursed but the throne of god and of the lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him they will see his face what does the face of jesus look like some of us have been duped to think that jesus is like the european jesus with a feathered hair blue eyes white skin he's got a stoic face typically has a chalice and a loaf of bread next to him sometimes does some weird things with his fingers you try to imagine is that the face of jesus that you'll see in heaven john really wants you to know that what you've been told of heaven will be nothing like what you've experienced this will be god in front of you we'll get to see his

face and his name will be on their foreheads this is that metaphoric language our identity will be in what we were made to you are fearfully and wonderfully made by god you're made in the image of god and one day the fullness of the culmination will come where where all of a sudden what's been longing in your heart will be fulfilled and night will be no more they will need no light of lamp or sun for the lord god will be their light and they will reign forever and ever you see john tells us in verse 3 the curse is gone what entered the garden in genesis chapter 3 has now been removed the curse is reversed all of the pain you've ever been through is because of sin

and that will be no more i think of my own life and i've made mistakes i've done things that are wrong even after i've put my faith in jesus i've doubted him i've used him i've abused him i've questioned god when i pray some of my prayers are pathetic some of my prayers are are empty so some of my prayers are selfish prayers yet in all of this god has been faithful he's never left me my earthly father left me when i was two years old my heavenly father when i put my faith in jesus he redeemed my bloodline he calls me a child of god and i have a heavenly father that will never leave me nor forsake me there's nothing i can do that can separate me from the love of god

so when we talk about heaven and the the curse is removed now there's there's no limit to who god is i think of all the broken promises that i've made god i think of all the times that i've run from him and at the end of the day he allows me to return home and wraps me with his arms of grace and he gives me grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace he does not stop lavishly loving me and when i get that for just a moment here on earth it gives me a glimpse of what it will be like in heaven that one day perfection one day love entirely one day i get to worship forever and that's why we're told in

verse six and he said to me these words are trustworthy and true you can believe this and the lord the god of the spirits of the prophets has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place and jesus said this in verse 7 and behold shout behold behold i am coming soon blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book i know you want to be blessed and you can be believe jesus believe his word believe what he said the only one that can stop you from heaven is yourself no one else can stop you jesus offers this free invitation today

to every one of us satan cannot stop you no sin can stop you only if your heart rejects jesus and if you've ever believed in jesus it's time to make him your priority from this day forward i know this pandemic has wrecked so many of our rhythms we stopped going to church we stopped doing things we used to do some of us are doing things we shouldn't be doing now is the day today is the day of salvation now when you walk around your neighborhood you pray for your neighborhood now when you take a shower that's your best worship time of the day showers have great acoustics you sing loudly in the shower when you're in your car you make that your confession time john tells us if you confess your sins

he is faithful and just to forgive your sins now you're going to pray before you speak i'll tell you that would help you a lot most of the time you wouldn't say what you were gonna say if you would just pause and pray because jesus becomes your priority it changes everything when you take him at his word jesus says in verse 12 behold everyone shall behold behold i am coming soon bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done you may not think jesus sees everything now he sees everything you're doing every good deed every good thought every action that you do and even if no one else sees it he's going to reward you verse 13 i am the alpha and the omega the first and the last the beginning and the

end blessed are those who wash the robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates outside of the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexual immoral and the murders and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood this is a warning that eternity is real and you can have the free gift of eternal life found in jesus now the imagery of robes is not saying that you or you would you will wear a robe for eternity this is a picture of what god gives you he gives you the right clothing to get into heaven this is metaphoric he he clothed you in righteousness you didn't earn this it was given to you and the only ones that don't get in they do not have the right robes they don't have the right clothing if you

will and jesus tells us in verse 16 i jesus have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches i'm the root and the descendant of david the bright morning star the root is underground can you see the root no but it's there jesus is here he's humble he's the descendant of david he comes from the davidic line david was a great king and jesus is the king of all kings but not only is he humble he's the bright morning star he's majestic everyone can see it it lights the way this is who jesus is verse 17 the spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears say come and let the one who is thirsty come and let the one who desires take the water of life without price

this is the invitation if you're spiritually thirsty today god says come the spirit is god it's capital s we have one god and three persons it's the mystery one god three persons god the father the son jesus christ and the holy spirit and the spirit of god invites you right now come the bride is the church the church should say to the world come come quench your thirst so john warns in his final words i warn everyone who hears these words of the prophecy of this book if anyone adds to them god will add to him the plagues described in this book if anyone takes away from the words of this prophecy god will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book he who testifies to these things says these are jesus

words surely i'm coming soon amen john says come lord jesus the grace of the lord jesus be with all amen three times in this one chapter jesus says i'm coming soon this phrase coming soon in the english means will quickly come to pass like a sunset disappears jesus second coming will come quickly three times the number three is the number of perfection jesus gives a perfect promise that he's coming and i love john's response he says amen that means so be it let it be what you said jesus come lord jesus what a great way to end not only this book

but the bible the whole point of the book of revelation is not to learn about what happens in the end but who will be there in the end and when you meet jesus you can do it with joy and with confidence you can know that this book is all about jesus if there's anything confusing in this book you could study it to better understand who jesus is i want to leave you today with jesus words in john chapter 3 verse 16. jesus said for god so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever would you just shout whoever whoever whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life this this phrase whoever is

so wonderful because whoever means there's hope for whoever there's literally hope for everyone see there's no qualifier here jesus did not say you've got to be old enough to understand who i am jesus never said you have to have this figured out before you can believe in me jesus never said you have to be good enough before you get into heaven and jesus said whoever believes in me you get eternal life this is the great invitation for our hearts today jesus said whoever many times some of us are living for the wrong things and we're going to lose eternal life mark 10 39 jesus said whoever finds his life will lose it whoever loses his life for my sake will find it in mark 16 16 after the resurrection

jesus said whoever believes and is baptized will be saved but whoever does not believe will be condemned john 3 36 whoever believes in the son has eternal life whoever does not obey the son shall not see life but the wrath of god remains on him and then this invitation from jesus in john 4 14 but whoever drinks of the water that i will give him will never be thirsty again the water that i will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life see the whoever is an invitation to all the crazy people out there whoever is to kids whoever is to the wretched center whoever is to the hurting to the

hopeless to those who are full of fear there's an invitation from jesus today that you can come to him you know there are only four chapters in all of the bible that are without sin the first two chapters in genesis where god creates a garden and everything is good and the last two chapters where god makes a new heaven and a new earth right now we're in the tension of the in between and what god did in the beginning he's going to do in the end see in genesis chapter 1 god created the earth in revelation 21 god creates a new heaven and a new earth in genesis 1 god creates the sun

the night the sea in revelation 21 we read there's no more sea no more night no more need for a sun for our god is light in genesis chapter 3 sin entered the story and there was a curse brought upon the world and every human in genesis 22 we read that that curse has been reversed this is a beautiful promise of god what started in the garden of paradise [Music] will be a great invitation that we get to be in paradise oh the invitation from god is great see god is asking of you today have you counted the cost if you keep living the same way you're

going to get the same results something needs to change and today is that day would you put yourself in a posture of prayer close your eyes i would like you to spend some time in reflection with god this is your response time if you've believed in jesus is there something you need to give over to him right now lay at his feet is it a burden that you just can't carry and you'll receive the invitation for rest today do you have bitterness in your heart that's stopping you from the joy that god wants you to experience would you bring that bitterness to jesus and leave it there see jesus died on the cross but the good news is he rose from the grave the tomb is empty so you do not need to be empty any

longer would you ask jesus fill me up with your spirit fill me up some of you need to change something serious in your life you've got an addiction you've got a sin you know what it is right now give it to god repent repent means a complete change in thinking you're no longer going to go back to your old ways give it to god right now repent run into the arms of grace he receives you he loves you maybe you need to have open palms right now in a posture of receiving what god wants to give you may his favor be upon you may be blessed [Music] receive it from the lord today in this moment of prayer i want to speak to the person that needs to accept jesus

for the first time today the lord has called your name [Music] and you can have salvation right now i'm gonna ask you do something bold in this moment of prayer this is between you and god i'm gonna count to three when i get to three i want you to raise your hand i'm asking you to do this because to follow jesus requires you to be courageous no cowards get into heaven this day forward you're gonna say i choose jesus so when i get to three if that's you i just want you to slip your hand up so i can pray with you number one you do this because he loves you number two you do this because he died for the forgiveness of all your sins

[Music] three today you choose to follow jesus throw your hand up if that's you you want to follow jesus praise god amen praise god praise god yes