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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:1-2
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
The 22nd chapter of the Book of Revelation is the final chapter in the entire Bible and our God certainly saves the best for last. For as we have seen in the preceding chapter along with the beginning of this one, a very detailed description of the final, eternal dwelling place for all Christian believers is provided and it’s simply magnificent and glorious beyond our comprehension.
In yesterday’s message, we saw where all Jesus disciples, those whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, will abide in an environment of ultimates in the holy city called new Jerusalem.
There will be ultimate worship, not in any temple or church, but because God and Jesus will be present where we can give them our honor and praise every single moment of every single day.
There will be ultimate light as darkness and night will be no more, eliminated by the God who will make all things new. The scriptures tell us there will be no more need for a sun because the Lord God Almighty will emit all the light needed and Jesus will serve as the lamp.
Did I mention that this place would be marked by magnificence and glory?
The third ultimate is ultimate safety. There will never be a time when the pearly gates of the new Jerusalem will need to be closed because there will never be a time when it or any of its inhabitants will be in peril or danger. For just as darkness and night were vanquished by God so too were evil and sin. You’ll remember that Satan and anyone associated with him were cast into the second death, the fiery lake of Hell.
Finally, the new Jerusalem will be a place of ultimate purity for all those who will live there will have been justified and washed clean by the blood of Jesus. They will indeed be holy as their Father God is holy, and be so forever.
This brings us to our verses for today as we are given a little more insight into what we will see in person one day to come. Look again at these opening two verses of Revelation 22:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Just as the element of water helps the physical, human body to survive, so does the spiritual water that is synonymous with eternal life. We shouldn’t think of this actual water like we might see in a worldly river but rather an outpouring of spiritual “water”, flowing out from God and His Son Jesus to bring eternal life to all His believers. This imagery brings me back to the words of Jesus as He spoke with a Samaritan woman at the well. You may remember Him saying this to her:
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14
Here in the new Jerusalem, we find these words of Jesus come alive in a real way as the “water” flowing from Him and the Father wells “up to eternal life” for all Christians living there.
Also of interest here is the mention of the “tree of life”, a reenactment linked to God’s first creative action. Look at these words from the Book of Genesis:
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there He put the man He had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden. Genesis 2:8-10
Here we find God, the Alpha and Omega, taking some things He created in the beginning and replicating them here as He hits the reset button on creation. And just as the tree of life, watered by a river flowing from Eden, was present at the onset of life on earth, so too was a “river of the water of life” flowing from God to nourish a “tree of life” on “each side of the river”, a tree that will bear “twelve crops of fruit” and yield that fruit “every month”. Further, we read where “the leaves of the tree” will provide “healing of the nations”.
If you’re like me, you are absolutely blown away by the majesty of the new Jerusalem, the future forever home for all those like you and me who have placed their belief in Jesus as Savior. We’ll finish this series tomorrow with one last message and I hope you’ll come back to see what else will set this new everlasting, divine dwelling place apart from anything else we have ever experienced.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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