“And he said to me, ‘Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.’ Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. ‘I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’ The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book 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, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.”

Throughout our time in the book of Revelation there has been a fixed, single point that we have kept in view, the grounding constant through many great descriptions that are often taken and sensationalized. Revelation tells us of many things – the seven churches showed us both the warnings and the comforts afforded to servants of God in a fallen world. The Seven Seals showed us a world suffering under a reduction of common grace, as it is essentially handed back over to itself. The Seven Trumpets showed us a continued breaking of creation, and a tearing of the veil that separates the physical and spiritual worlds. The seven bowls showed us, not just a reduction or removal of common grace, but a just and holy outpouring of God’s mighty wrath on a world that has hated Him and killed His children. We’ve read of the 144,000, the two witnesses, the rise of the beast and the false prophet, the fall of Babylon, and the lake of fire that is the eternal home of those who have made themselves enemies of God. We’ve read of Christ’s return upon His white horse, of the judgment before the great white throne, and of the eternal home that awaits us with our Father, after this sinful world has been erased. And for every one of these things there is an opportunity to wander off course, to become bogged down in debating and theorizing, to miss the enormity of the forest for our attention to each tree. This book, this weighty record that closes the canon of Scripture, is the revelation of Jesus Christ, given to Him by God in the same way that His entire earthly ministry and the good news of the gospel were given to Him by God, that He who is fully Man would not live in obedience to the flesh that He adopted, but that in His life, ministry, and continual testimony we would see and know that He is fully God. Revelation is not about heaven or hell, or judgment or the end of the world – it’s not about seals, or trumpets, or bowls, it’s not about the timing of rapture, the tribulation, or the identity of the antichrist – it’s about Jesus, it’s His revelation. It is an open invitation to know our Lord, Savior, and King better, and to glorify Him all the more in our understanding. We began by reading in Revelation 1:1–3,

“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”

And where the revelation of Jesus lands us, where we find ourselves as this book draws to a close is eternity – because Jesus is not just our hope for today and tomorrow, but is our eternal hope forever and ever. Let me make sure this is ordered correctly – Revelation is not about eternity, it’s about Jesus, and Jesus is our eternity. He is the Door through which we enter, the Way by which we walk, and He is our Redeemer and Deliverer. Now, as we finish our verse by verse study of this wonderful book we’re afforded an opportunity to look back over all we’ve read, and look forward to all that is to come, and see with reverence and wonder the mark of Christ that is gloriously stamped upon everything, His eternal triumph and our eternal hope.

The Revelation of the Eternal King

1. The Eternal Divide

“And he said to me, ‘Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.”

As we begin with the final section of Revelation, we read that John is explicitly told not to seal up the words of the prophecy that he’s been given, the vast account that he’s written of throughout this book. This is the opposite of what Daniel was told at the end of his own prophetic revelation in Daniel 12:4,

“But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”

Now, without getting too in the weeds on this, there are debates between the religious and academic communities as to the date when Daniel was written. A straightforward reading of the book would tell us that Daniel would have been written during the Babylonian exile, during the sixth century BC. There are many scholars on the other hand who will insist that the book was written sometime in the second century during the Maccabean revolt. They will largely point to linguistic differences, stating that the writing fits the second century and not the sixth. The problem with this is that, while linguistics can be incredibly helpful (they aid tremendously for example in identifying false gospels that were written by the Gnostics well after the time of the Apostles), they’re not always a bulletproof method of dating a text. Languages change, they shift era to era, region to region, and this was even more pronounced in antiquity when communication and therein the spread of language was drastically reduced compared to what we know today. There also of course isn’t anyone alive today who spoke the Aramaic and Hebrew of antiquity, meaning that these timelines are determined by comparing other texts from that era – it can be an incredibly helpful and educational method, but it’s not ironclad. In truth, there’s a much greater bias supported by the academic insistence that Daniel wasn’t written in the sixth century – because sixth century authorship by Daniel means that the book was prophetic and was written by who it says it was written by. The second century authorship on the other hand could have been observational rather than prophetic, and certainly wasn’t written by Daniel. This is ultimately a way for non-believers to call a piece of inerrant Scripture a forgery and cast doubt on the Bible as a whole. But, if we take into consideration that Daniel is specifically told to seal the book until the time of the end, and that there are events in Daniel which not only overlap with Revelation, but also apply to the intertestamental period, the rule of Antiochus IV, and the Maccabean revolt, it makes sense that there’s historical record of Daniel having particular prominence during the second century, but not at the time of its writing. Daniel is told,

“Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase…”

What does that mean? What can we make of these words, knowing the information and history contained in the Word of God? What can we make knowing church history? Knowing the history of the world, the rise and fall of empires and nations, and the patterns that we have displayed again and again across the width and breadth of humanity? Paul writes in Romans 1:18–23,

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

The “knowledge” of man has increased over time – it increased among the people of Canaan during the centuries that the Jews spent in Egypt, while the Canaanites built their iniquity to its completion and its eventual judgment. It increased from the time that Daniel was given his prophetic vision to when Antiochus IV, persecuting the Jews, thought is a good thing to sacrifice a pig to Zeus on an altar in the temple. As man scours the fallen world, and our self-perceived knowledge grows, we see the repeated trend that in our supposed abundance we begin to insist that it is man who should be deified, that it is humanity who holds the power, who governs and dictates what our reality is. Our wickedness – the same wickedness we’ve held since the fall – blossoms, flourishes, and spreads in our knowledge, and for Daniel’s part we can see where he was told to withhold his vision and its explanation until the time was right for them to be made known. If we compare this to what John is told, we can see a stark contrast – one prophet told to seal up the words he is given until an appointed time, the other told to seal away nothing of what he has been told, because the time is now. The most obvious difference between why the two men are told these things is not time, place, or culture, but the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. We often think of the “end times” as pertaining to the tribulation, but the truth is, we’ve been in the end times since Jesus was born. The prophecies that we read of, whether they come to pass in a day or a millennia, are ultimately upon us. Another key difference between Daniel and John seems to be their overall comprehension of what they were shown. Toward the end of the book, when a timeline is presented and Daniel can’t quite hear or understand what is said he is told in Daniel 12:9–10,

“… Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.”

Again, Daniel and John have their striking similarities, but we can also note key differences around this matter of comprehension. Through the first six chapters of Daniel we see a great amount of divinely given insight in the prophet, as through God’s blessing he interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and reveals the meaning of the mysterious writing on the wall that appears before king Belshazzar. He is also shown to be a man of great faithfulness and surrender before the Lord. His faithfulness doesn’t end when we arrive at chapter seven, as he’s given a series of visions of great and terrible things that are to come, but we do see a break in his comprehension. The visions often leave him in a state of confusion – not of faithless worrying, but disturbed in his heart until God sends a messenger to explain what Daniel has been allowed to see. In Revelation however, there’s a comparative shift in how John sees things. It’s not as though the beloved Apostle has a perfect understanding of everything revealed to him – he falls to the ground like a dead man before the glorified Christ, in a very similar way to how Daniel responded before the angelic messengers that were sent to him. In Revelation 5 John began to weep at the sight of the seven-sealed scroll, not grasping that the One worthy to open it was in their midst. Twice, overwhelmed, we’ve seen as he broke, and forgetting all sense of reason, and fell to worship the angel who was simply acting as messenger in explaining the glory that John was seeing. But for many, many other things, John seems to have a profound sense of understanding, or at the very least, peace and acceptance for what he’s seeing. I don’t suggest in the slightest that one man was somehow better than the other – both Daniel and John were devoted servants of God. But again, the chief difference doesn’t seem to be time, place, or experience, but rather Christ. It would be unfair to say that Daniel didn’t know Christ, because he knew God, and just as to know the Son is to know the Father, to know the Father is to know the Son. If Jesus can say of Abraham in John 8:56,

“Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”

Then the same could certainly be said for Daniel. But Daniel didn’t know Christ as John knew Christ because the person of Jesus had not yet come into the world, the Holy Spirit had not come, offering the broad, sweeping indwelling available through redemption. The two men knew the same God in deep, wonderful, but ultimately different ways, and we can see that and the condition of the world before and after Jesus’ time on earth reflected in their instructions and their understanding regarding the prophecies they’re given.

“Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.’ Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.”

Despite the fact that the words of Revelation were never sealed, and that this warning and promise has existed with public access for nearly two thousand years, we read that the condition and direction of the world remains unchanged. There is great hope for believers, and there should be great fear for those who are opposed to God, and yet there is no vast alteration of course, no sweeping repentance before the coming judgment. Jesus teaches in Matthew 24:45–51,

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

As I said before, the “end times” began with Jesus’ birth, not some future event that marks the beginning of the tribulation. John is told not to seal the words because the end is not some far off distant thing, despite the years that have elapsed, but is at the very gates. We know exactly when the end began, we know that we are still in the state of ending, but what we do not know is when the end will end. We are given signs to see and descriptions of what will unfold in the final days, but the truth is that the world is fallen, and many of the key elements needed to kick off the tribulation have been in place for thousands of years. This doesn’t mean that we discount what Scripture has to tell us about the final days, it doesn’t mean that paying attention with open eyes, attentive not to the world, but to God is a wasted effort – but it does mean that we can’t afford to be complacent. I’ve known people who believed in a general sense, but they made a conscious decision to delay openly accepting Christ in their youth because they wanted to indulge in their sin, and adopt an image of spiritual maturity later in life. This is pure foolishness, it’s idiocy on a scale so profound I struggle to describe it. The problem (or at least foremost of the many problems) is that a heart and mind that has been transformed by Christ is just that – transformed. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17 concerning our reconciliation to God through Christ,

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

And he writes further in Colossians 3:1–3,

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Who then would think to be so bold as to acknowledge Christ generally, but deny Him personally? Who could possibly be foolish enough to delay submitting before His righteousness, so that in they could spend their youth constructing a house of sin that will either one day entirely consume them, or, best case scenario, they will hate and view with lamentation and regret when they actually submit before Jesus one day and realize all the time and energy they spent in fruitless transgression? And so the idea of misbehaving while the Master is believed to be far off, with the idea that you will clean up your act and present yourself properly before He arrives is pure idiocy – no one will act their way into eternal salvation or damnation, but the clean will be clean, the filthy will be filthy, and all will reap what they have sown, be that the death of the flesh, or the life of the spirit. The gospel of Jesus Christ changes everything – this is obvious and apparent in the lives of believers, but the gospel changes everything whether you believe or not. You may wonder what change the good news could bring forth in a hard-hearted sinner who clings passionately to their rebellion, refusing to die to their sin, and despising the transformation that is offered in Christ. The gospel causes such change in both the lives of the children of God, and in the lives of His enemies, because of what Jesus explains to Nicodemus in John 3:18–19,

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”

And so the change, the profound division that is revealed by the gospel is the one between Light and dark, Good and evil, eternal belonging, or eternal separation. Jesus in His righteousness is either our Savior and Advocate, or our Judge, and the payment given will be reflected accordingly.

“‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”

Heaven is not a game of popularity, it’s not a social caste built around elitism, nepotism, or any kind of wealth of works. God is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, and it is by Him and Him alone that we may, not just slip in by the skin of our teeth, but truly belong in heaven. We read here of the blessing of those who have washed their robes, but this is not an act of us forming or securing our own righteousness, that by this we may have a right to the tree of life, that we may enter the city by the gate, true citizens of heaven. We read in Revelation 7:9–14,

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.’ Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’”

Salvation belongs to God alone, and it is only by being washed in the atoning blood of Christ, not through any work of self, that we belong in the eternal kingdom, forever in His presence. Conversely we see the place that is outside of the eternal kingdom, outside the glory and goodness of God, cast forever from His presence. So often we think of hell as being the place reserved for the worst of the worst – even the secular world with its vague belief in an afterlife doesn’t have an issue relegating the murderer to the “bad place.” But what we see here is that the outer darkness is the home of sinners – all sinners. Yes the murderers make their appearance, but we also see the dogs, the unclean who continually rebound upon their own sin, the sorcerers who have coveted dark and wicked powers among themselves, forsaking God. We see the idolater, anyone and everyone who has taken something and placed it above God in their heart and mind. And we see the lovers and practitioners of falsehood, the liars and deceivers, those who have walked in the spirit of Satan, the father of lies. There is a clear dividing line between heaven and hell, between belonging in the kingdom, and being cast into the fire. It is not a division that is made by any human attempt at righteousness, but by surrender before Holy God and the eternal work that He brings forth in each of His children.

2. The Eternal Invitation

“‘I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’”

Something we can sometimes forget is the degree to which God doesn’t owe us anything. Because we were made, we feel entitled to life, but the truth is that our very existence is a blessing, and there is nothing that we as sinners can presume owed to us by Holy God. The fact that God has absolutely no obligation to us only intensifies how amazing His blessings are – not only does He give to us, but He does so when we did nothing to merit it. Of the many, many things this applies to, Scripture itself can be counted as one of our greatest blessings. We didn’t deserve God to give us a living, breathing record, a chronicle of His glory, and His love for us, a detailed illustration of our desperate need for a savior, and a map back to Him. This doesn’t just apply to Scripture as a whole, but Scripture in its pieces – every word, of every verse, of every book is a gift we didn’t deserve. Looking at it this way, we should see that it’s not just the Bible broadly that has blessed us, but each book is a different gift, a blessing in its own way, another testimony to the singular Truth of God. I bring this up now because this is especially relevant to Revelation. This was the last book of the Bible to be written, the last piece of Scripture that we were given, a wonderful explanation that we didn’t deserve. We had the gospels, we had the epistles – we knew that Jesus had come, what He had taught and done, and the further explanation of doctrine and function written in the letters to churches and individuals. Jesus told us that He was returning, and He could have left it at that, but instead He offered further hope where it was entirely unearned. John, Jesus’ friend and Apostle, last alive of the twelve, was exiled on the island of Patmos, working to care for the church from a distance, as heresies and infighting picked at the Bride of Christ. Rather than say that what had been done was more than enough, God gives John this vision, this prophecy to record and share that we all might understand our Lord better than we had before – that we might know His promises and His glory to a greater extent. We read here that Jesus has sent His angel, His messenger to testify to the churches, to offer an explanation and enlightening of the times that are to come, to the comfort of those who follow Him and the glory of God. And what we read here is a reminder to not be dismayed or disheartened, but to rest in certainty in the strength of the Lord. He is both the root and the descendant of David – the Creator and Originator of the king to whom God said in 2 Samuel 7:16,

“And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.”

As well as the One through whom this eternal kingdom is realized. He is the Bright Morning Star, the gift that is given to all who conquer in His name, as He promised to the church at Thyatira in Revelation 2:26–28,

“The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star.”

God’s Word is final, His instruction absolute, and yet despite His power and providence, He is not the God of “because I said so.” His Truth is not up for discussion, and yet His Word is an open invitation that we understand. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:12,

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

Eternity is not a place where the children of God keep their eyes down, obeying and serving in the blind tedium of slaves. Jesus says to His disciples in John 15:14–15,

“You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”

We are blessed to eternally see the face of God, to delight and worship ceaselessly in the presence of our Father, and we are invited, beyond anything we could have ever deserved, not to disbelieve but believe, to not look on in blind confusion but to understand.

“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”

The invitation is given – Jesus calls us to Him, and the right response is a reciprocal invitation – we should want Christ in our lives, we should want our eternity with Him. As He stands at the door and knocks we should open with great joy and excitement, longing to ask Him to enter. Not only because it’s right, but because He is the Rock, the source of the water of life, and what we read here is again confirmation that amazingly, miraculously, we are invited as children of God, as those blessed to thirst for righteousness, to come and drink without price. This is not because the gift we’re offered, the invitation we receive has no value, but because Jesus has already paid the price. When He said from the cross, “It is finished,” He meant it, His sacrifice was complete, the debt of sin was paid, and the invitation was extended, that all who would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life. This is His eternal promise, and our eternal invitation, that we might rejoice and glorify Him in His presence forever and ever. 

3. The Eternal Amen

“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book 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.”

Let me start by saying, this, as with all judgment that comes from God, is absolutely terrifying – but this is also one of those pieces of the Bible that often creep their way out of context. Many people will treat this as a blanket statement for all of Scripture, that to add or take anything away from any part of the Word of God is to bring these specific judgments upon yourself. I understand the logic, and to be fair, it’s not in any way, shape, or form, acceptable to add, or subtract from the Word, nor is it remotely permissible to mislead, redirect, or force personal interpretation onto Scripture. But this idea didn’t suddenly come up at the very end of Revelation, this was a precedent from long ago when Moses said to the people in Deuteronomy 4:1–2,

“And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.”

As a blanket, general statement, to add to what God has said is to claim that His Word is insufficient, and to exalt yourself above the Lord, and to remove from what God has said is to reject the complete holiness of His Word – both directly describe what Satan did with Eve in the garden. What we read of in today’s passage encompasses this – Revelation, being part of Scripture falls under the same protected status as the rest of the Bible. However, if we take this specific warning,

“…if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book 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.”

and apply it to all of Scripture and not specifically to Revelation, we’re stretching what’s being said here, and also failing to appreciate the weight of how and why this applies to Revelation in particular. Firstly, consider that the complete book that we call the Bible isn’t actually a book, but a compilation of sixty-six books. When we read “in this book,” in today’s passage it’s talking about the book in which it’s written, which, before that was the complete work of Scripture, was specifically the book of Revelation. Even if you still want to stretch it to all of Scripture, you can’t, because while Revelation is not the only book of the Bible to describe plagues, it is the only one that describes us having a “share in the tree of life” in this way and the holy city of the new Jerusalem, which would be taken away. The problem isn’t so much with the idea of punishment or exile over altering the holy Word of God, it’s the specificity with which it’s often preached or taught. To unrepentantly blaspheme the Word is going to bring the destruction of the lake of fire, it is going to see you banned from the holy city, and your share in the tree of life taken away. But, if some secular scholar decides he’s going to set straight what he sees as archaic mythology and begins a rewrite on Genesis, he’s not going to wake up tomorrow morning to find a bunch of angry locust demons waiting for him on his front lawn. And while that sounds like an exaggeration, that is exactly how this passage is sometimes twisted and presented. The warning is specific to Revelation in its own way, but to tamper with Scripture should be understood as the blasphemous and spiritually devastating thing it is in a broad sense. It’s fitting that Revelation is placed at the end of the Bible – not just because it was chronologically the last to be written, or because it specifically deals with the end of our world and the beginning of the next. It’s fitting because all of Scripture points us to Jesus, and Revelation shows Him as no other Biblical work does. And this (at least in part) is why the idea of removing or adding to this particular book is so terrible. Imagine you’re listening to a piece of music, and ten seconds into the song someone runs up to you, and pulls your headphones out. Now, you’re probably going to be confused, quite possibly mad, and the flow and cadence of the song is certainly ruined, but you were only ten seconds in. Now imagine the same scenario, but you’re farther along in the song. The music is building, the instruments are weaving together, the parts are harmonizing, and just as everything is reaching its peak, the point that this entire orchestral effort has been driving at from the very beginning is coming to fruition – and someone pulls your headphones out. Having your song interrupted in either fashion isn’t good, but one’s worse. To alter Scripture at any stage, in any capacity is a wicked and terrible thing to do, but to add or remove from Revelation? To tamper with the message that is the great revealing of Jesus Christ in a new and more glorious way than we’ve seen in any other part of God’s Word? To take what is the greatest explicit hope to every saint, and the most dire of warnings to every sinner, and reduce it, embellish it, alter it in any way? It’s a transgression on top of a transgression, a blasphemy upon another blasphemy. And so the punishment – which is not just the punishment for those who add or remove, but is the penalty for every sinner – is explicitly described, that you might have some inkling of the miserable fate that awaits all who have foolishly warred against the Living God, and thought to force their own will or desire upon His promises.

“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.”

As we’ve worked through Revelation verse by verse I’ve been pretty candid about how my relationship with this book has changed through the years. I’ve gone from feeling an indescribable amount of fear, confusion, and anxiety concerning Revelation, to having a great sense of hope, certainty, and peace. It is not an indecipherable scrawl of prophecy and doom, but a perfect execution of justice against the wicked, a fruition of God’s promises to His people, and a series of events that glorify the Lord again and again. Revelation 1:1 and the knowledge that this book is above all else, the revelation of Jesus Christ has stood as our center point and foundation as we’ve moved throughout the text, but there is another verse that John writes very early on that has also given me a great amount of clarity and peace around the entirety of this book, and that is what he says in Revelation 1:7,

“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”

Before we see anything else, as we’re still in the introduction to the book that was once a letter sent out to the churches, John gives this, he tells us exactly what’s coming, though we don’t have the full context for it at this point. Jesus is coming on the clouds, He is making His glorious and triumphant return, to the great joy and deliverance of those He calls His own, and to the great despair and ruin of those who have hated Him. The tribes of the earth, those who will assemble under their banners for the battle of Armageddon – the ones who embody the very spirit that so hungrily crucified Christ will wail – they will cry out in anguish on account of the resurrected, glorified Jesus. And this is good. It’s as we’ve revisited again and again, the judgment of God is a good thing, the victory of Christ is a good thing, that the righteous should be put into their proper place, and the wicked should be put in their proper place, and that in both acts, God is glorified, is good. The only right response, is “amen,” is complete affirmation and agreement. Not grudgingly – it’s not an amen with a little asterisk next to it that then explains that you’re only agreeing out of obligation and you would really prefer that this didn’t happen. I wish that God’s judgment against the world wasn’t necessary, but Scripture is abundantly kind in illustrating just how necessary and needed it is, as well as showing God’s mercy through the kindness of His restraint through the millennia. What the ending we read here allows us to do is see the spirit of agreement, the goodness that exists uninterrupted throughout this book. Jesus has said that He is coming soon, and the only response, without trepidation or reserve is agreement. I’m not saying that you have to read about the world being brought into ruin with blood and fire, about swarming locust demons, or the treading of the winepress of the wrath of God, and feel nothing but warm fuzzies. These are serious matters, they are dire and disastrous events for the world in which we currently live, and I encourage no one to regard the suffering of another person with unfeeling callousness. But above everything that this book tells us will come to pass, like the Spirit of God hovering above the chaos of the waters in the beginning, is the Truth of God’s goodness, and the agreement of the amen. He is our Light, He is our Rock – without Him we have nothing but confused darkness and despair, but in Him we might look upon the end of our current world with a sense of hope, trusting in His promise of what is to come. John does not end the book of Revelation with a call for fear or worry, He doesn’t counsel us to live out our days with anxiety, never knowing when the hammer blow of judgment will fall upon the world.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.”

That’s his closing sentiment, that is the promise that every believer is given to wear upon the new heart that God has placed in them. The world is going to be terrible, and the world is going to hate us, as it hates our Father, but in this we can take heart because Christ has already overcome the world. We have been blessed with the grace of God, and in this we are delivered, in this we are afforded an eternal, rather than a worldly perspective. Because of this we have a hope and a promise that blesses us to read this beautiful, wonderful book and look upon all that is in it, and with peace in our hearts say, amen.

Pastor Landon’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQURi1hK4lY