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6 The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets,sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.” 7 “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.” 8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9 But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!” 10 Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near. 11 Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.” ~ Revelation 22:6-11
In Genesis 1, the sun was created. In Revelation 21-22, there will be no sun. In Genesis 1, the night was distinguished from the day. In eternity, there will only be light. In Genesis 1, the seas were created. In Revelation 21, there will be no sea. In Genesis 3, the curse is announced. In Revelation 22, there shall be no more curse. In Genesis 3 death is given birth. In Revelation 22, death is eradicated. In Genesis 3, man is driven from the tree of life. In Revelation 21-22, the tree of life is accessible to man. In Genesis 3, sorrow and pain begin. In Revelation, no longer will there be sorrow, pain, death, and tears. The undoing of sin is the story of the Bible.
In v.6 we read, "The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place."
We can always trust God's word for it has always come to pass. The problem is, we are conceived with a hardened heart to God. And, God is the decisive cause of the unhardening of the human heart. But, we must respond with a willing heart in order for the miracle of a changed heart toward God to take place. When the Lord Jesus becomes the object of our faith, it is then that God can begin to work in and through us most profoundly because faith in Him is the opposite of Original Sin which began with our rebellion from Him. After we have been "Born Again" and if we practice patience in our faith in Him, we will see that His word is not only true, but it is also most powerful. It is His word that changes the most hardened of hearts.
In v.7 of today's text we read, "Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll."
In context, the Lord Jesus says three times "He is coming soon." A thief never makes an announcement that he is coming to our house to rip us off. The thief counts on the home owner not being present when he comes. This will be the case with the Rapture of the Church.
In light of this truth, in today's text, we are given three challenging responses. Here in v.7, we are given the first response which is: we ought to have a walk that corresponds with the revealed truth that He is coming quickly! The moment we believe the truth that the Lord Jesus is coming again, we should have a different orientation to life. As a result of being made alive to God through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, this world looses its hold on us. The hold of the Lord God will begin to arrest our hearts away from the longings of this world. And, as a result, our lives or our walk will begin to increasingly be defined by Him.
In v.8-9 we read, "8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9 But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!"
The second of the three responses to the return of the Lord Jesus will be worship. God didn't give us this book of the Revelation to enable us to build clever eschatological charts. God gave us this message so that we might live in the light of of the truth of the Rapture. And, when we do that, we will keep the words of this prophecy, which is to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
Worship is not a one time event, it is a lifestyle. Worship is living the kind of life that God says is the truth. We worship God when we give worth to His word by obeying it. This does not mean we will be perfect, it simply means that God's word will define our choices.
This is what the Apostle John meant then in 1 John when he wrote, "everyone who has this hope of His return purifies himself even as He is pure." What we have learned in our study of the book of the Revelation should change the way we walk and worship. As we read about what is coming down on planet earth and what God has in store really ought to make us less temporal and more eternal in our choices and in our perspective. Our lives speak much louder and believable messages than our lips.
In v.10 we read, "Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near."
The third response is that we ought to be witnessing. The message we have been given must not to be hidden. We must not seal it up. We must not keep it to ourselves. Prophecy is a tremendous motivation in witnessing. In fact, how can we read about the Tribulation, hell and God's judgment of sinful man, and not be moved by it to warn people to avoid it?
Finally, in v.11 we read, "Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy."
When we share the truth with people, we must remember that they will respond positively or negatively. Some will hear the truth and will reject it, and some will hear it and believe it. Our responsibility is to share the truth with others, and it is their responsibility to believe it. Our destiny is not determined by our genetics. We make a choice to follow Jesus Christ or to reject Him, and, that, and that alone, will mark our destiny. We can lead a horse to the water but he must make the choice to drink it.
