Now I want to direct attention later to the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, but could we, to begin with, just read a few verses from the first chapter, Revelation chapter one, just the introductory eight verses there. Revelation 1 and 1. 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. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of earth. to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 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. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. So now let me ask you or invite you to turn to the last chapter, last chapter of Revelation, the last chapter of the Bible, chapter 22. Quite a long chapter, but we'll read the whole chapter, although it's the latter part really that I want to focus on shortly. A wonderful conclusion to this wonderful book, Revelation 22. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as 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 its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 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, and his name will be on their foreheads, 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. And he said to me, these words are trustworthy and true. 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 behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me. But he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God. 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 you all. Amen. Amen indeed, and may God bless to our hearts the reading of his word. The things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. I don't know if you know this now quite famous passage, the last paragraph of C.S. Lewis's Narnia Tales. The things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us, this is the end of all the stories. That's the line, the witch in the wardrobe, the dawn treader, and so on. And we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them, it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page. Now, at last, they were beginning chapter one of the great story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before. It's a fine passage, a lyrical description, and it fits well with what we've read here. Once before, when I preached on this last chapter of Revelation, which we read, I remember commenting on the fact that since the previous Sunday, when we'd been in chapter 21, with its vision about the new heaven and the new earth and the holy city, One of the members of the church where I was locum at the time had passed on, an elderly man who actually made the decision even at the age of 92 to come with us on a matter of principle out of the denomination into what was then Grace Church and who actually grew spiritually in that 92nd year. And then one evening he went to bed in the normal way and just never woke up. at least not in this world. And the last message that Jim heard, and I read it again at the funeral, was from that previous chapter, 21, 21-4. 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. It is a wonderful message, isn't it, in this last book of the Bible, and tragic that for so many people it is more or less a closed book. Why? Because, well, for one thing, it seems to be often so much couched in terms that, to begin with, seem to be strange and even bizarre. And you read in various chapters of Revelation about curious beasts with several heads and various numbers of horns, and you enter into a world of seals and trumpets and bowls being poured out, thunder and lightning and hail and blood and smoke, all very symbolic language, and some people just find that they get bamboozled by it all. On the other hand, there are some people who claim to have it all sussed out. And revolution, as you know, I'm sure, has been a happy hunting ground for many extremists who have been able to tell you exactly what's going to happen in the future and regarding the end of the world. And I made a note of, I don't know if you know David Ellis, who was with OMF at one time, who has written in his book, As a child, I remember seeing vast wall charts covered with strange-looking beasts all over them, an artist's impression of the visions from the book of Revelation. The charts, so we were to understand, spelt out in detail God's plan for the end times. Master the chart, and you knew exactly what to expect, more or less. Those who preached from their charts seemed to me to be pulling rabbits out of hats. And then he said, cutting to the chase, as the years have gone by, I have not been able to find these specific rabbits in scripture. What I do see is that Jesus will one day return to the world in great triumph. Well, of course, the Bible itself says all scripture is profitable for us, and it's moving sad that for many people, these exegetical conjuring tricks really have meant this is a kind of a closed book to them, which is ironic when we go back to the very first word of the book. In English, of course, the first word is the word the, but in the original, the very first word is revelation. And as you'll probably know, the Greek word for that is apocalypsis, which gives us our English apocalypse. And kalupto is the Greek verb that means to hide something. And apo is the prefix that means to hide. not, or un, you might say. Unhiding is really the very meaning of the first phrase, the first word of the book. And so it teaches us that these are not meant to be obscure things, but encouraging things to tell us about the revelation of God. And I often quote in connection with it, that hymn that you may know about, you know, for all the saints, Whereas a bit that says, when the strife is fierce, the warfare long, steals on the ear, the distant triumph song, and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong. It says, hallelujah. But what a word it is really, this message of revelation. So lyrical, so subversive, and so practical. And this evening, I want to really pick out three main themes from these closing verses out of the many things that might be dwelt upon and refer to the call of the gospel, the completeness of the Bible, and of course, the coming of the Savior. But let me expand, first of all, on what I just said about the content of Revelation being, in the first place, lyrical. Well, it does strain the bounds of human language and concepts to express the greatness and the grandeur and the glory of God, his purposes both in history and beyond history. The majesty of the language in this book really does speak to us of the majesty of God himself. Some of you will know well the Confession of Faith, which similarly uses such majestic language about the Bible. There's a reference to the majesty of the style of it. Let me quote it. It says, the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, and the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole is, what? To give glory to God. And it goes on to speak about the full discovery the Bible makes of the only way of man's salvation and the many other incomparable excellencies and the entire perfection thereof, as it says, arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the word of God. a lyrical book in many ways, also a subversive book. That was one of the other phrases I used just now, by which I mean that it spells out a message of judgment on all the powers and principalities that think that they can take on God. And of course, they end up in the dust of history. Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane. That has been really the story of the centuries. And the image of the throne is one which is prevalent throughout the book of Revelation. In fact, I think it's 45 times a throne is mentioned in this book. In the great vision of chapter four, it was the first thing that John saw. I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne in heaven. And you might imagine somebody reading that for the first time saying, what? In many ways, the thing was ridiculous. I mean, it was obvious that the throne was in Rome, wasn't it? Rome ruled the world and woe betide any pathetic little church that threatened to disturb that actuality to the lions within. But that was the vision. And then again, as the book draws to a close, chapter 22 that we've read, verse three, the throne of God and of the lamb will be in the city and his servants will worship him. And that's the message, whatever powers there may be to challenge the living God. Well, I wonder if you've ever heard the fact that when the Japanese captured or occupied Korea during the Second World War, they banned Korean preachers from preaching from the book of Revelation. And that's really what I mean by calling it a subversive book, a dangerous book. to all those who seek to defy the living God, whether it's that kind of in-your-face persecution or the forces of an abstract PC-ness of today that poses a threat to Christian commitment and witness. So lyrical, subversive, practical was the other word that I used just now. This book with all its strange images and cartoon-like figures really in many ways, beasts with unusual numbers of heads and all that sort of thing has an essentially practical purpose. It was meant to hearten believers and it's still meant to do that. It was meant to sound out a message that whatever may happen, God is ultimately in control and he will bring things to their appointed conclusion at his time and in his way. And it may come to have more and more of that ministry for us in the days to come as the pressures against Christian commitment and witness become stronger in this land that we once regarded as a land of freedom. But whatever pressures there may be, whether it's in the first century or the 21st century, well, the famous Eugene Peterson expressed it with characteristic vigor for him when he wrote a few paragraphs into Revelation, the adrenaline starts rushing through the arteries of my faith and I am on my feet alive, tingling. So with all that, let's look at these closing verses really. Verse 14 says, 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. The seventh of seven beatitudes of Revelation. Wonderful words of blessing which really give a kind of a study in themselves. As you know, seven is the number of completeness and seven beatitudes, conveys the perfect blessedness that comes to those who trust in Christ. Here it talks about them washing their robes in that mixed metaphor of scripture. Robes washed white in the blood of the lamb. And what's that about the right to the tree of life? There's the reversal of the curse of Eden. Wonderful promise. They entered into this magnificent city, the holy city, which is described in chapter 21 in all its brilliance and beauty. But of course, it also speaks of a division. The Bible plainly says that. Not everyone will land up in the happy land, or whatever they call it. It says frankly that not all will enter in through these gates. That 15th verse talks about some who are left outside, the dogs, and that's thinking there not of dogs as household pets as we generally regard them, but as pariahs and scavengers. Those who, and actually if you look at it, you might almost think that the list had been made up for the 21st century. And of course this is the word of God for all ages. Sorcerers, NIV paraphrases it, those who practice magic arts. and how much of that is going on around us with the current spiritual vacuum in our so affluent and yet so secular society being filled with various weird and wicked things, the demonic and the diabolical. in the occultism of modern times. It mentions the sexually immoral. And of course we have this whole sexual revolution as it's sometimes called today. And we can surely see that it is only sheer perversity and willful blindness that prevents people recognizing the chaos that has been the result of it in so many ways. Murderers, Every day, it seems, our newspaper news broadcasts are filled with that. Idolaters, applying to all who worship other things than the Lord God, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. And again, we have a society in which I suppose most people would be committed to generally telling the truth. I mean, there are so many who believe truthfulness is just in general a good thing. Honesty is the best policy, they say. But aren't there so many who will determine that whether it's the best policy or not in terms of the life of this world, they will seek to be honest and truthful unless it suits them. So indeed, that list could have been written for today. But verse 16, there's still the word of Jesus, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and descendant of David, the bright morning star. There's more of that Old Testament allusion, which is such a feature of the whole book of Revelation. You remember Isaiah 11, if let me just recall it to your mind, where it says, a shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse. And here Christ is the root and descendant of David. Numbers 24, 17, there's the prophecy, a star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter arise out of Israel. And there's the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, who is here described as the bright morning star. He is the one who fulfills these prophecies of old. And he is the one who offers life and salvation to all. Not that all will enter in, we know that. And there it talks about open gates of verse 14. And the wonderful message of the Bible is that, and it's proclaimed over and over again, that the way is open to whosoever will to come. And here is the call of the gospel that I mentioned as one of the main themes here. Whoever, it's in verse 17, is thirsty, let him come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. And what are the qualifications? It's not about whoever's living a good life, whoever keeps all the commandments, whoever goes through certain rules. It just says these, what is it? These two things, whoever is thirsty and whoever desires. That's the call of Christ in the gospel. And that's what's well expressed in the words of another old hymn that says, come ye sinners. It says, come ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus stands ready to save you, full of pity, love, and power. Come ye weary, heavy laden, lost and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all. Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth is to feel your need of him. Now there's a lot more about the gospel we could say than that, but there's the word, the invitation, the wonderful message, whosoever will may come. We know a lot about God's election and choice of his people and so on, and yet this is still the constant offer of the gospel, the invitation of the gospel, whosoever will may come. And how wonderful is that? that this book, which so many find so difficult to understand, should end with this tremendous gospel note, this word of gracious invitation. Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take of the water of life freely or without price come to one who is the very center of revelation as of the whole Bible. And we're assured no one who comes to him will be cast out. We have the Lord's own word for that. Whoever comes to me, I will not cast out. So it's a great message and a wonderful invitation of the gospel. The Spirit and the Bride say, this is verse 17, the Spirit and the Bride say, come. Now some take that come as being addressed to Jesus. as a prayer for his coming again, which could actually tie in with, let the one who hears also say, come. And it would also match the prayer of verse 20, where it says, amen, come, Lord Jesus. Could be that's the way to understand the words. But when you add the words at the end of the verse about taking the water of life without price, Well, I believe it's best to see that as the extension of the gospel invitation, the appeal to those who are yet outside of Christ, those who have not responded and closed with the gospel of His grace. Sounded out by the Spirit, well, of course, it's the Holy Spirit who brings people to Christ and the bride That's the church, because it's the church's task to go and spread the gospel. And the world in these days was a world very hostile to the way of Christ, set against the church of Jesus. But in such a word, well, the commission was there all along, wasn't it? Go and make disciples in all nations. and it stands still as the great commission for the church. And then it adds, and let the one who hears say, come. There are the hearers of the message, those who have responded to the call of the Spirit, joining in the appeal to the world, and in every way that message is sounded forth, come. And how wonderful that the message of Christ is indeed that gracious invitation that says, come to me. A second theme that we've put up there is the completeness of the Bible. That comes into this as well in verses 18 and 19. A pretty stern warning, isn't it, about adding to the words of Revelation or subtracting from them. If anyone adds to the words of the prophecy of this book, God will add to him the plagues described in the book. And again, 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, presumably because he has never actually really been a true believer. But it's very strong, maybe indicating an awareness from the beginning that people would tamper with this book. and therefore there's the warning against such a practice. Perhaps the words apply to the book of Revelation in particular, but actually in the light of other passages, the whole, the thing could be said of the whole Bible. And it is not for us to pick and choose from the Bible. All scripture is inspired by God as well as being profitable for us. And we know there have been people who have added things to the Bible. whether new books or new words of prophecy or whatever. There have been people who have subtracted from the Bible and who said, you don't need to bother about this or that aspect of scripture teaching. We know much about that in recent controversies. And such a practice obviously amounts to assuming that we know better than God, which is of course ridiculous. He has given us the Bible, including this book of Revelation, for our instruction and guidance, and it is for us to come to terms with what is written, rather than seeking to make it as we would like it to be. And these verses, 18 and 19, actually have been likened to the claim, I don't know if you've seen these kind of food adverts before, that say, nothing taken away, just pure, concentrated goodness. That's really what revelation is, isn't it? In fact, it's what the... ...falls. The church will stand or fall according to how it treats this book. Not because, and sometimes our critics accuse us of it, not because we worship a book, it's not that at all, but because it's God's own word which leads us to him, and he is the one we worship. So it's this book that reveals God to us and leads us to God. call of the gospel, the completeness of the Bible, and the other theme that I mentioned is the coming of the Savior, obviously. There it is in verse 20, he who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming soon. Soon, apocalyptically speaking. And there's the prayer, amen, come Lord Jesus. That's in the Greek language there. In the Aramaic that was behind much of the New Testament, the word was maranatha, which you may have seen in various places, and which can be read either as a statement that says maran, which means Lord come, maranatha, the Lord is coming, or as a prayer where the word division is made slightly different, it's maranatha, which is the prayer, our Lord, come, answering the voice, the answering voice of the believer to all that has been taught to say, yes, Lord, come. I'm ready for you to come, ready for you to come again. I'm looking forward eagerly to it. which is not a matter of idly waiting, much less, you know, all these pictures of going to mountaintops and all, but of serving him here and now in this world in readiness for his coming. In exile because of his testimony to the gospel. And that world of these days was by no means an easy world in which to stand for Christ. And this world today is by no means an easy world in which to stand for Christ either. But being ready for his coming means living for him in this world with faithfulness and perseverance. Last expression of the prayer says, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. And this, remember, is the... Is he concluding that somehow or other he must have been misled about Jesus? Or is he complaining and saying, I just tried to be faithful and look at what happens to me? Far from it. And in fact, one commentator wrote in his own situation there as a theologian, a poet, and a pastor. And just in drawing this to a conclusion, I want to add two things to that as we draw it together. He was also a worshiper and an evangelist. But first of all, a worshiper. Because for all the obscurities of this book, And there can be no doubt that it is a book of worship. That's the main thing. It's filled with outbursts of praise. And many passages are actually like hymns of praise, giving rise to a great number of expressions of worship ever since. Even up to things like the Hallelujah Chorus. Words of verse nine, worship God. have been amply obeyed in this book. And whatever else John was, he was a worshiper. And he helps us all to be worshipers too. Secondly, John was a theologian. And I don't know if I should go on to say, and he helps us all to be theologians as well. Well, maybe, in a way. I don't know if you've seen R.C. Sproul's book, which he entitled, Everyone's a Theologian. That is, every believer who thinks about God at all is thinking about, is a theologian in that sense. And it's not, perhaps, that there are truths or teachings in Revelation that we don't get elsewhere in Scripture. But it brings to us so many things, brings things together to expand our view of God. You know, who was it, J.B. Phillips, wasn't it? Wrote, your God is too small. That could never have been said of John. For John, actually, has God filled the whole universe, the whole of time. The alpha and the omega, the eternal one. And then thirdly, just briefly, John was a poet. There's nothing prosaic or commonplace about Revelation at all. That message is expressed in vigorous and powerful words brought together with a kind of artistry. It's true that there are weird things in the book, or seemingly weird things, and that's partly because of a failure to come to terms with the poetic element. Many people have emphasized that. Somebody called the book a sacrament of the imagination, to quicken the pulse and set the soul aflame over the gospel, which all too often we take for granted. One writer, Michael Wilcock, in the introduction wrote about it, the truths of revelation are indeed matters for the mind to grasp, but they are presented to us in a riotous procession of symbols with the panoply of music and color and texture and even taste and smell. And perhaps after the, you might say, in some ways, planar books of the other books of the New Testament with their doctrinal and ethical content, he says, John gives us a gorgeous picture book to look at. to look at, as I've suggested, with the mind's eye. Because whenever you try to kind of draw it down on paper, it somehow becomes banal and limited. It's far too big in its appeal to the imagination to be captured on paper. John writes as a worshipper, a theologian, a poet, also as a pastor, of course, yet a practical purpose. And as I've been saying, the whole of this book, and especially this chapter that we've been thinking about, is not a picture puzzle book, a scripture puzzle book. There are things that baffle our minds, but it was written with a definite and a practical purpose. This calls, it said in chapter 14 verse 12, this calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints. John's readers were obviously finding it hard to stand up for Jesus. And John wanted to strengthen and fortify them in their witness, to witness a good confession, to be, if necessary, faithful unto death, sure that there is a crown of life laid up for his believing people. And John was also an evangelist. Of course he was. And that's the thing that we've emphasized most of all. Here's the great gospel call, the gospel about all that God has done. Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take of the water of life without price. I wonder if anybody's heard of the name of Harvey Penick. who was a golf professional who at the age of 90 published his first book, Harvey Pinnock's Little Red Book. He was 90 years old and it sold more than a million copies. In the 1920s, he bought a spiral notebook and he began jotting down his observations about golf over the years. Never showed it to anybody except his son until 1991 when he shared it with a local writer and asked if he thought it might be worth publishing. Well, the man read it and he said, yes, definitely. And he left word with Mrs. Penick the next day that a publisher had agreed to an advance of $90,000. And when the writer saw Penick again, he found the old man greatly troubled. He said, with all his medical bills, there was no way he could advance the publisher that amount of money to have the book published. And of course, the writer had to explain that Penick would be the one to receive the $90,000. Well, in other ways, there's something about human nature, isn't there, that doesn't want to accept something for free. And yet, it's the only way to respond to the offer of Christ. And so it is that this last verse says, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. The gospel is a message of grace, and his grace is sufficient to meet the needs of his people, then, now, and always. Whatever may happen in this world, and we don't know what lies ahead for us as believing people, whatever circumstances may surround us in our lives, his grace is sufficient. And John ends with that, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. And he says, amen. Amen? Well, indeed, so let it be. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for every word written down for our instruction under your inspiration and for this wonderful book with its wonderful message in so many ways, message of encouragement and strength for believing people. And Lord, we thank you for all that it did for people in these early days in encouraging them to be faithful, for all that it has done for your people through all the centuries, through all the generations, for all that it is to us today, this message that assures us of your faithfulness in the calling to us to be faithful. And we thank you for the completeness of the Bible that you've given to us, for the fact that we have it in our hands, and we pray that you would make us always good students of your word, ready to hear, to heed, to listen, to obey what your word says. And we thank you indeed for the call of the gospel, for this wonderful invitation from the one who will come again one day at a time that we don't know But we thank you, Lord, that the day of grace is still with us and that the gospel message sounds forth with all its wonderful appeal, with all its wonderful attraction, with all its wonderful invitation from one who is the King of all kings, the one who says, come to me, all you who are weary and overburdened, and I will give you rest. So may it be, Lord, and we thank you today for your word, through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.