Guard His Words - Revelation 22:1-7

[0:00] Hey guys, thanks for listening to our Calvary Chapel Charlotte podcast. I will walk by faith and not by sight.

[0:49] Praise the Lord. Turn to Revelation 22. When I first was studying earlier in the week, I thought maybe we'll do the whole chapter in one shot.

[1:05] Then I thought maybe we'll get through verse 16. I planned on getting through verse 11, which was the hope, but we may not get past verse 7. So, sometimes you're studying and the Lord's like, hey, why don't you focus on this for a little bit?

[1:26] I'm like, all right, okay. All right, so we've finished Revelation 21. We looked at the new heavens and the new earth and the new Jerusalem coming down.

[1:39] Revelation 22 will kind of finish looking at that in part, and then it will go into essentially the last message or the last word in the book here, in the letter of Revelation, the book of Revelation, and then, of course, it's the last in our Bible.

[1:57] But we saw that the new heavens and new earth, there is a lot of features to it that are very familiar. It's not going to be something that's unfamiliar to us. There are people groups. There's leaders. There's a value system.

[2:08] There's travel. There's time. There's at least one city, one mountain. There's a lamb and his bride. So, it's not going to be like some kind of really weird, multi-dimensional thing that we're not able to process.

[2:21] You know, we know that much of what we experience is a shadow. We know that even like the tabernacle that was built is a shadow of what is actually in heaven. So, it's not going to be something unfamiliar.

[2:33] I think by the time we get there, it's going to be the most familiar thing. It's going to feel so perfect and so right being there like this is what life is about. And we saw that, as he said in Revelation 21, 27, there it shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination or makes a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

[2:57] The Lamb's book of life will hold the names of all those who've partaken of his life by faith from beginning to the end. The only way we come to God is by faith.

[3:08] That it's impossible to please him except by faith. We looked at the former things have passed away. Remember that nice little rhyme? Anybody remember the little rhyme? The former things have passed away and righteousness is here to stay.

[3:19] Hey, there you go. But they're gone. The former things have all passed away. And we'll be in a time where we don't have to worry about a second fall. We won't have to worry about the curse and sin.

[3:30] We'll see some more of that tonight. But I was reading the scripture in 2 Peter, and I know it's a lot to put up there. But in 2 Peter chapter 1, beginning in verse 3, it says, According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that's called us to glory and virtue.

[3:50] He's called us to glory and virtue. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust or through desires of the flesh seeking to be gratified now at the cost of all else.

[4:13] That's the promises we have. That's what we partake of. Then we jump down to verse 12, and he says, I would then not, wherefore I will not then be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and be established in the present truth.

[4:29] We're going to read about a lot of future things. We've been reading about a lot of future things. But it is a present truth that we are grounded in. It's not for something, well, that's for a way, that has no bearing upon my life.

[4:39] No, it is a present truth. These exceeding and great precious promises, the fact that we've been called into glory and virtue, man, that's something I can't wait to partake of even more than I do now.

[4:50] But that's a present truth that we are to be established in. We may not always know how the word of God will be accomplished, but we can always know that it will be accomplished.

[5:02] I don't know how it's all going to play out. I mean, we're reading about things that we have the information that we're given, and we try and use what we can understand of it, use the information we have based on other information in the scripture to say, man, this is what's coming.

[5:17] But I don't know how that's all going to play out. But I do know that it will be accomplished because it's God's word. We're going to see this phrase tonight and throughout this chapter that we are to keep or to guard these words.

[5:30] We're to guard the truth. We guard that by how? Like Peter said, establishing ourselves. Establishing ourselves in the word. This is the present truth. This is our present reality of truth.

[5:42] There will be a day where we're going to be with him. We'll see his face. We'll be in a new Jerusalem, and it's got some pretty wild, cool things. That will be my present truth. This is the present truth I'm established in right now.

[5:56] And so we're going to look at that tonight as we are those who I believe God has called us to guard his words, to guard his words in our lives, and then in this world as well. So we're going to look at a bunch of themes in the end of this book, end of the book of Revelation, end of the book of the Bible, end of this big book.

[6:17] But we're going to see the word come is going to come up seven different times. Seven, right? It's Revelation. Revelation is full of sevens. And it's in verse seven, I think, is the first time Jesus will say, behold, I come quickly.

[6:30] And as I was studying, the Lord just brought me back to that. He's like, hey, I just want you to talk about that. And so we're going to hunker down in that for a little bit. We're going to look at what does it mean when Jesus is saying, hey, what does the Bible say about his coming?

[6:43] And I think it is important. I don't want you to believe something based on what I said. I don't want you to think like I do just because I think that, and I had maybe a way of putting it that was like, yeah, that was kind of like a really good way of putting it.

[6:56] I want you to be able to look at your Bible and say, that's what the Bible says, and I will receive it. So I hope this gives you food for thought. I hope that helps establish you in the present truth that God has you in.

[7:08] But let's see what the Lord has for us and where he will take us as we jump into this text. So we've kind of finished this previous description of the new Jerusalem.

[7:20] We ended there saying that there will in no wise enter in anything that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination or makes a lie, but they which are written the Lamb's book of life. And then we go into verse one of chapter 22.

[7:32] And he, this is the angel, this is his angel buddy that goes all the way back, remember, to the one that opened one of the vials, the bowl judgments. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb.

[7:50] Pure river of the water of life. Well, what we were just talking about this past Sunday, right? Jesus said, if you drink of this water, woman at the well, the water that comes from the well, you will thirst again.

[8:01] But if you drink of the water that I will give you, you will never thirst and you'll have in you a well of water springing up under everlasting life. And here we have a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, that just is continuing to proceed out of the throne of God and the Lamb.

[8:16] And we know that there's no temple in the New Jerusalem because the Lamb himself will be the temple. So it seems that there he is with a throne there and out of it is coming what?

[8:27] Well, out of God's throne, we can see here it's a pure river of water of life. It's flowing purity from God's throne comes purity. It's a water.

[8:37] What does water represent throughout scripture? Satisfaction. A need and a satisfaction. Something that needs to be satisfied and a need and a desire fulfilled. So flowing from the throne of God is purity, satisfaction, and then life is the water of life.

[8:52] I think, what does life water look like? Now, it's pure river of water of life, clear as crystal. Clear as crystal is the same thing that we were told that the New Jerusalem is. That it's clear as crystal, like a jasper stone or like a diamond or whatever.

[9:07] This is some amazing water. I have no idea what life water looks like except this description, but I can't wait to see it. In the midst of the street of it, of the New Jerusalem, on either side of the river, was there the tree of life.

[9:21] I don't know what this means. In the midst of the street, so there's a street down the middle of it, you're going to have the tree of life. Like, I guess it's a variety of tree, a bunch of them. And on either side of the river.

[9:33] So is the river next to the street or is the river in the street? I don't know. But either way, there's lots of trees of life here. And there was the tree of life, which bear 12 manner of fruits and yielded her fruit.

[9:50] Every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. When did we last see this tree of life? A long time ago, right at the beginning of the book.

[10:01] Remember? In Genesis 2, the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. So he's created everything. Day 6 is done. Man has been created. And then he goes and he plants a garden.

[10:12] And it says, out of the ground, the Lord made to grow every tree that's pleasant to the sight and good for food. And so he plants a garden and then, whoop, whoop, he has all these trees just begin to grow right before Adam's eyes.

[10:24] They were pleasant to the sight. They were good for food. You know, it's funny when people say, well, you know, before the fall, we were vegetarians. Well, as far as I know, we were just tree-itarians. We just ate things from the tree.

[10:35] I guess we just ate fruit. It doesn't seem like Adam was digging in the ground. It seems like that the food came from the trees. The tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

[10:47] And a river went out of Eden to water the garden. And from thence it was parted and became into four heads. And so here you can see kind of a picture. This foreshadowing, even in Eden, with the tree of life and the river.

[10:58] But we get more information about this tree of life here in Revelation. It has how many manner of fruit? Twelve. And Eve went for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It just had one fruit on it.

[11:09] It didn't do anything good. I mean, there's twelve on the tree of life. Go for that one. And she went for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We see here it says every month. There's months in the new creation.

[11:22] Some type of time. I don't know what month means other than month. How it will be defined then. But there is a season. And it says here that the leaves of it, not even the fruit, the leaves of it, are for the healing of the nations.

[11:37] So now wait a minute. In Revelation 21.4 we read that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.

[11:49] For the former things are passed away and, sorry, righteousness is here to stay. I'm tired. But there's pain.

[12:00] There's no more pain, but there's healing. No pain, but still healing. Isn't that beautiful? The blessing and the benefit of healing will continue into the new creation. There will be no pain, but the benefit of healing continues.

[12:13] Healing of the nations. Nations just means people group. Groups of people in Scripture. It seems like God will be, even in the new creation, bringing people into a greater unity.

[12:24] For all of creation, I think we'll just more and more and more understand the oneness that we have as a people group now. And there will be no more curse, verse 3.

[12:35] Well, I think he says this very specifically because he's just been talking about the tree of life. And you're automatically going to think, well, if there's a tree of life, is there a tree of the knowledge of good and evil? There shall be no more curse.

[12:48] Because the curse came from what? Eating of a tree. But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. So this tree cures, it does not curse, this tree of life.

[13:00] If the tree of life represents, or the tree of life in this instance in the new creation, there's no chance for its removal. It was removed from the old creation. It's not on this earth anymore.

[13:11] God removed it. But now at this point in time, in the new creation, there's no chance of its removal. There's no forbidden fruit. There's no hindrance to it. You can go and you can receive it.

[13:23] Remember, he had to put the angels to guard the way to the tree of life there for Adam. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it.

[13:37] The throne of the Lamb declares that the rule of righteousness has come and not the rule of sin. And it speaks of his servants. And his servants shall serve him. In verse 4, they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads.

[13:51] Servant there in the Greek is bond servant. It's the one that, you know, you stand up against the doorposts and they poke something sharp through your ear and they put the earring in.

[14:01] But it's willingly done. It's one who willingly pledges to his master. So the bond servants, or you could read it, And those who have willingly pledged to serve him, they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads.

[14:17] So three things we see about them. They serve him, they minister. Those pledged to the Lamb, they minister. Those pledged to the Lamb, they have unhindered access.

[14:28] They will see his face. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even also as I am known. 1 Corinthians 13, 12.

[14:41] They will minister, they will have unhindered access, and they will have identity. When did we see names written in foreheads before in Revelation? Well, we had the beast.

[14:52] We said, hey, take the number of his name or of his mark in your hand or your forehead. But before that, we saw what? The 144,000. The witnesses, the Jewish witnesses that were sealed. Remember, he said, do not harm the trees until I first sealed those in the forehead.

[15:07] So it stands for identity. We do it all the time. We wear identity on our foreheads constantly. Wear a hat, it's got the identity right there on it.

[15:19] All the hats in the new creation have Jesus on them. And there shall be no night there. They need no candle, neither light of the sun.

[15:32] For the Lord God gives them light, and they rain forever and ever. I don't know how we'll keep track of months and seasons. But we have three different ideas of light here.

[15:45] We have an absence of light. There's no night. It means there's no chance of light fading. The light will be constant. There will be no absence of light there. No candle means no individual source of light.

[15:57] I won't need my own source. And no sun means no created source of light. Why? For the Lord God gives them light. Lord is the possessor, the one to whom a person or thing belongs.

[16:12] So if we belong to him, he gives us his light. I don't need my own personal source of light. I don't need a created source of light. And I don't need to fear that this light is ever going to fade. Because God will supply an unending source forever and ever.

[16:29] We will live and we will see light forever. How? In God's light. This new creation is only seen in the light of God. There's no sun there.

[16:41] There's no moon. There's no stars. There's no candles. The only way we view this new creation is in the light of God. It's God's light that allows us to see it. You know, I think I should view this creation and this life the same way.

[16:55] Because we've come into the light. We are not of the darkness. We are of the day. We should be those who view everything around us in light of God and in light of his light. I think sometimes, though, I'm more interested in my own personal source of light, my own independent source of light, or I'm looking for a created source of illumination.

[17:13] Instead of coming to the source and saying, God, would you give me perspective on this? Will you shine your light on this? Let me see this in light of your light. Not in light of my light or someone else's.

[17:26] And he said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true. So he comes here to the end of his description, kind of a carryover from the last chapter of our description of the new Jerusalem, the new creation, the new heavens, the new earth.

[17:46] He said unto me, this is the angel still. These sayings, sayings is logos. It's word. The word became flesh. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, the logos.

[18:00] He said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true. Faithful and true means believable and without falsehood. They're believable. They're faithful. They're true.

[18:11] They're without falsehood. And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.

[18:22] The Lord God of the prophets has at this point in time, or whatever we want to call this, this point in Revelation, the Lord God of the prophets has fulfilled every prophecy.

[18:36] There's none left. We see here God's desire isn't to keep us in the dark. He's the source of light, the source of illumination.

[18:48] He didn't say, well, good luck interpreting all of this. I hope you can figure this out. No, he said, specifically, the Lord God of the holy prophets. What is a prophet? One who speaks forth words under divine inspiration.

[19:01] God wants you to understand. He sent his angel to show unto his servants. God's desire is to expose us to his truth. You know, I don't know.

[19:13] It's kind of like slang, like don't expose me. God wants to be exposed, right? God's like, man, expose me. Expose me as much as you can. Stand me up against anyone and anything. Compare me to anything.

[19:23] Put me in any situation. So whether spoken by God's prophet or God's angel, they are faithful and true messengers.

[19:38] Because a faithful and true messenger reveals faithful and true sayings. We're not angels, right? Maybe my wife. Oh, sorry. Right? None of us are angels.

[19:50] But we're all messengers. We all have the potential to be faithful and true messengers. Because we have a faithful and true message. All we have to do is just share that message.

[20:02] Now, it's hard sometimes because of the cost of exposure. It exposes me as what? One who is a bondservant of Jesus Christ. One who has willingly chosen to serve him.

[20:15] It exposes the other person's sin and exposes their darkness. And it's not always a comfortable thing. We in the West have it a lot better than many others have had it.

[20:28] But God's desire is to expose us to his truth. And his desire then is for us to go and take that truth and expose others to it. And to expose ourselves as Christians. We don't have to wear a hat that says, I'm a Christian.

[20:41] Or a shirt that says, I'm a Christian. But our lives should have an identity that says, hey, I'm a bondservant of Jesus. I have willingly chosen to serve him. So here we have one of these interesting words, these timestamp words that he talks about.

[20:58] He says, I will show my servants things which must shortly be done. That word shortly in the Greek is to come into existence with speed. Haste.

[21:09] So it's not like shortly like, you know, your kids like, when are we leaving? Soon. Are you done yet? Soon. It's not like soon as in, like, we will get there in a little bit.

[21:19] The idea is shortly to come into existence. So like when it happens, it comes fast. When it happens, it comes with speed. With haste. I don't know if you've ever been to an air show, right?

[21:31] And you're waiting. And you're waiting for the, you know, the fighter jet to fly over or the whatever. And it's like you're waiting. And all of a sudden it's like, hey, there it is. Vroom. And it arrives in haste.

[21:41] It's not like a slow process. It's not like the little biplane that you're like, there it's coming. I can see it coming. There it happens fast. It doesn't mean it's necessarily coming soon. Maybe you're going to wait three hours for that thing.

[21:52] Maybe you wait it all day. But when it comes, it's fast. To shortly come into existence. So he says, I want you to understand the things that when they come, they will come quickly. There are specific things that will happen suddenly to who?

[22:08] Those pledged to God. Right? The ones that are his servants. The ones that are pledged to him. Verse seven. Behold, I come quickly.

[22:20] This is now, we've just, we've been, the angel's been talking and John's been talking to us and whoop, now Jesus jumps in here. It's like, he just, he's like, hey, by the way, speaking of things that must happen shortly.

[22:32] Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book. This is Jesus. Jesus. It's funny, you know, maybe your Bible's like mine.

[22:43] It's got the red. Right? And again, it wasn't like when John was writing this. After he wrote it, the letters went, magically turned red. Like, that was Jesus. There are sections in here that, you know, we get down to 12 and 13.

[23:00] 14 could easily still be Jesus. There's multiple places that it could be Jesus talking. So, this is one of those that's definitely Jesus talking.

[23:11] Behold, I come quickly. And this is where I want to kind of sit and hunker down. We're going to look at some Greek. We're going to look at some tenses and some definitions.

[23:21] What does the Bible say? Then we can do with that what we will. But what is it saying? You know, it's interesting. The idea of the rapture, you know, to use that word today is almost like in some instances, like, oh, I don't like that.

[23:37] I don't like it. I don't even use it. I'll use resurrection. Because where Paul talks about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians, it's like, okay, I'll use that term. But I think sometimes we use terms that are not in the Bible.

[23:51] And the word rapture is not in there. And you have to then know what the definition is, right? Someone says, oh, you believe in the rapture? You believe in some crazy type of thing where I'm just going to take you out of here and you're no good for anything in this world and whatever, whatever.

[24:04] And it's like, well, let's define our terms. There's another term that's not in the Bible. You know, second coming is not in the Bible. It's not a term that's in Scripture. So you have to define what do you mean by that.

[24:15] I think we do ourselves a disservice when we take terms and use them to have meaning in the Scripture, but we don't define them well enough. And then all of a sudden we're attached to a term or someone attaches us to a term.

[24:29] And it's very hard then to get around that. The idea of second coming, it pigeonholes us into like, well, there's going to be a second coming. Well, actually, there's a lot of comings when you read what Jesus is going to do. He's going to come for his church.

[24:41] He's going to come to judge the world. He's going to come and rescue Israel. He's going to come and set up a kingdom. There's a lot of comings. But I want to have a faith and I want you to have a faith that's based on what the Bible says.

[24:55] So I want to be able to take what the Bible says and then boom, you do with that what you will. But this final word where Jesus is saying, I come quickly, this word of arrival is for who?

[25:07] For the keepers of the word. It's who he's talking to here. It's not to fulfill punishment for the wicked, but to fulfill a promise for the righteous. So he's bringing us back around to remember that.

[25:21] In Revelation 3, this is to the church of Philadelphia. He says, behold, I come quickly. Quickly there means without delay. When it happens, nothing can stop or delay it.

[25:34] So that's a little different than our word shortly, which is to come into existence with speed or haste. The idea of this is there will be nothing that will stop this when it happens. Behold, I come in a way that cannot be stopped.

[25:48] Hold that fast, which you have. Let no man take your crown. Him that overcomes, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God. And where's that temple? We've just been reading about it.

[25:58] There is no temple. It's the lamb who's there. He is the temple. In Jesus, we become a pillar. And he shall go no more out.

[26:09] And I'll write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from God. I'll write upon him my new name.

[26:21] So he's coming in a way that cannot be stopped. For what purpose is he writing to the church of Philadelphia? He says, hey, I'm coming to do this for you. The word come just simply means to make one's appearance.

[26:33] To make one's appearance here. You were not here. You were there. And now you make an appearance. It appears seven times in Revelation 22 throughout four verses.

[26:44] Verse 7, 12, 17, and 20. We have the word come. Heavily emphasized here at the last pages of the book of the Bible. So he says in verse 7, behold, I come quickly.

[26:56] Quickly, again, without delay. So we have two time frames here. We have shortly and quickly. Shortly is the time frame in which he's coming. Quickly is the action. So he is coming shortly.

[27:08] He's coming in a time frame that when it happens, it'll be fast. And quickly is the action, the way in which he comes. Unable to be hindered. The one who is coming is speaking to his servants here regarding the ultimate purpose of his coming in relation to them.

[27:26] So we see that the emphasis and purpose for his return in relation to these servants is not destruction and damnation. But it's for what?

[27:36] It's for delight. For dwelling. And as you go through the New Testament, you look at the writers of the different epistles, even in Jesus himself. Neither Jesus or any of the New Testament writers will describe Jesus' return as a time when he will come to dwell with the church.

[27:55] None of them describe it as a time when Jesus comes to be with the church. Because why? He's already dwelling with us. He's already with us. Colossians 1, 27 says, To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you.

[28:11] The hope of what? Of glory. The hope of glory. Jesus is not coming to dwell with his church. Ephesians chapter 1, we read, In whom you also trusted, speaking of Jesus, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

[28:30] In whom also, after that you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Good verse to remember and mark down for those who say, well, regeneration comes before belief.

[28:41] Nope. You were believed, then you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Which is the what? The earnest of our inheritance. Now in North Carolina, you do earnest money in real estate when you buy a house.

[28:53] You put some money down. It shows you're in earnest. It shows, yes, I'm going to come back with the rest of it to buy that. This is a little bit in reverse. First, we have been given a down payment of our inheritance until when?

[29:06] The redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. So Holy Spirit in our lives is just the first little bit. Until what? Until what's been purchased is fully redeemed.

[29:18] I don't mean redeemed from our sin like Jesus redeemed us on the cross. I mean the fact that he has purchased a people, the church, he will come and then he will take possession of that at that time.

[29:31] His return in relation to the church is for what purpose? To fulfill that earnest money for the church to dwell with him.

[29:44] If you want, you can turn to John 14 or we're going to be there for a little bit. This is not an exhaustive in any way deep dive into this topic.

[29:57] You know, we're not going to look at the day of the Lord. We're not going to look at Daniel and all of that and piecing all that together. What I want to show you is just Jesus here saying, hey, I'm coming. And what is the purpose of his coming as we read through the New Testament?

[30:11] Some of these scriptures. So in John 14, Jesus has just shocked the disciples at the end of John 13. Because he told them he's going to go away. And they're like, what?

[30:22] And so in John 14, 1, he says, don't let your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

[30:34] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That where I am, there you may be also. Whether I go, you know, and the way you know. If you remember in Matthew 24, Jesus and the disciples, they've just left the temple.

[30:52] And they're walking through the temple precinct. And this is Herod's temple where he took the temple that was built by Zerubbabel. And they come out from captivity from the Babylonians. And he then adds on to that, tells this magnificent structure.

[31:05] And they say, look at all of this. And Jesus goes, not one stone will be left on the other. Jesus wasn't too impressed with the things of this world. And they ask him, they say, what?

[31:17] When will these things be? What is the sign of your coming and of the end of the world? Three questions. And Jesus then goes through and answers that. We think, okay, the sign of his coming is his second coming when he returns.

[31:29] The disciples did not think that. How do we know they didn't think that? Because right here, they're shocked when he says he's going to go away. They didn't expect him to go anywhere. What they're asking when they said, what is the sign of your coming is of your coming kingdom?

[31:43] Okay, Jesus, if all these stones are going to be thrown down, well, when does the kingdom come? What is that sign of your coming? When will these things be? And end of the end of the world.

[31:54] So Jesus is like, oh, I'll tell you. But they at that time did not think to themselves, oh, okay. So he's going to leave and come back. Because here they're like, where are you going? We don't know where you're going.

[32:05] And Jesus didn't say, guys, guys, remember Matthew 24? We talked about this. I'm talking about my second coming. Not at all. Jesus lays down something totally different here.

[32:16] He says to them, in my father's house are many mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

[32:28] Where? We just said, I'm going to my father's house. The purpose is to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself.

[32:42] Not to come and be with you. Not to come and stay with you. The purpose that I'm leaving is to prepare a place for you. Because I'm going to come and I'm going to get you. And I'm going to bring you to where I am. And where I am, there you may be also.

[32:56] Where I go, you know. The way you know. Receive. The word there, receive. To receive you unto myself means to take to. To take with oneself. To join to oneself.

[33:06] Now, usually, I read King James and teach out King James. And a lot of times when I put verses up, I'll go through and modernize it a little. You know? It's like, it's not New King James.

[33:17] It's kind of like between King James and New King James. Right? It's Jared King James. It's probably not a good idea to have a Bible in the end of you. But I left the ye's for a reason.

[33:30] They have to do with Greek tenses. And I don't even understand the reason that they're named the tenses. So I'm not going to name the tenses. But the ye's, the Y-O-U's, I go to prepare a place for you.

[33:43] If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. Indicates what's being done. It's someone that's the you is the person that is being done to. So Jesus is the one doing it to them.

[33:54] So we could read it as, I go to prepare a place that I'm making for you. I'm doing this for you, Jesus says. And if I go and do this for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.

[34:07] It's Jesus' responsibility to do that to the person. I'm the one doing that, essentially Jesus is saying. That where I am, there ye may be also. And whether I go, ye know, and the way ye know.

[34:18] Now that changes. And that is not the person that's being done to. That indicates the person who's doing it. So here he's saying, I'm going to do this for you. What's your part? Ye may be also.

[34:30] That where I am, ye may be also. Our part is to make sure we're there. Our part is to make sure we know the way. Our part is to make sure we know where he's going. He'll do all the rest.

[34:42] He says, I'm going to do that part. I'm just going to look at a couple verses. That Jesus' return for the church, Jesus returns for those that are bondservants, that have willingly chosen to serve him, is to receive.

[34:59] John 14, Jesus returns to receive. Jesus starts this idea in John 14, and it's carried all throughout the epistles, that his return is for receiving. He does not say, guys, this is just like Matthew 24.

[35:13] We see Matthew 24 before the church is ever talked about, or birthed, or even indicated by Jesus. First time Jesus indicates a church is when he says to Peter, when Peter says, you are Christ, the son of the living God, and he says, Peter, flesh and blood is not revealed to you.

[35:29] My father is in heaven. He says, and I call you Peter, little rock, but upon this rock, big rock, I will build my church. Future tense. Jesus, in Philippians 3, 20 to 21, Paul, sorry, not Jesus, he says, for our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body.

[35:57] My body feels vile today. It's sore and dirty. But it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he's able even to subdue all things unto himself.

[36:09] Our citizenship is where? In heaven. We're looking for the Savior. To do what? Well, he just promised the disciples to receive us to heaven. Why is he changing our bodies? Because like 1 Corinthians 15, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven.

[36:25] According as he is able to subdue all things unto himself. James 5, 7 to 8, Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husband waits for the precious fruit of the earth and has long patience for it.

[36:42] Jesus is what? The first fruits of resurrection. There will be, after the first fruits, there's then what? The rest of the harvest. When all the harvest will be gathered in. Until you receive the early and latter rain.

[36:55] Again, giving that picture of that which comes first and then the later. Be you also patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draws near. Again, what coming?

[37:06] What are we talking about? Well, I believe based on what Jesus said and then the writings of the apostles as you move forward, they're hearkening back to what Jesus said. He says, hey, I'm coming for you.

[37:17] Be patient. Wait for me. He doesn't talk to them as he's coming at a time of judgment for them or to judge them. Hebrews 9, 27 to 28, And it's appointed unto man once to die, but after this, the judgment.

[37:30] So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. Did that happen? It did. That's why he came to the first time, his first appearing in this earth. And then subsequent to that, unto them that look for him, shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

[37:50] Well, did he appear the first time with sin? I thought he was sinless. Just means the first time he came for the purpose of sin. The second time he won't be coming for the purpose of sin. He has already borne the sins of many.

[38:01] The second time is for salvation. The word means deliverance. So it's not to come and redeem from sin. It's to come and bring the fulfillment of that deliverance.

[38:13] If you want, you can turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. You know, I say I have a lot of favorite verses, but I think 1 Thessalonians 1, 10 is probably one of my absolute favorites, just because when you start to parse it out in the Greek and the actual definitions, it's like, wow.

[38:29] For me, it's right up there with Sunday, where it was like, oh my word, the seventh man for this woman at the well. It's just, God's word sometimes just leaps off the page in ways that are inexplicable.

[38:44] So 1 Thessalonians 1, 10 says that we are to wait, we're speaking of the Thessalonians, that they are waiting, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from wrath to come.

[38:57] And I want to back up, and I want to read from verse 6, and to get the flow of this. Paul's writing to this church in Thessalonica. This is either his first letter, or Galatians could be his first letter.

[39:08] But it's usually believed that Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians is his first letter. So in verse 6 of chapter 1, it says, and you became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit.

[39:23] That's a good word. That my much affliction cannot affect the work of the Spirit in my life, or the joy that he brings. In fact, the way it's written here almost seems to indicate that the two are counterbalancing each other.

[39:38] The more affliction, the more joy in the Spirit. You received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.

[39:48] For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place, your faith to God's word is spread abroad, so that we need not speak anything.

[40:00] Paul's like, I don't even need to tell people about your church. It's like, I go somewhere, and people are like, have you heard about the church in Thessalonians? Man, Thessalonica. Man, they're doing so many great things. It's, oh my word, they're such an amazing body, and they're teaching the truth, and they're loving people, and they're sharing their faith.

[40:17] He says, I don't even need to talk about you guys. People are telling me about you. And verse nine, for they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God.

[40:33] Beautiful, beautiful. Verse 10, so you turn from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven. Paul puts all these things together.

[40:44] I think today, the church, they don't like that first part. I say church loosely. The church here in the West, they definitely don't like the first part through much affliction, so I think they skipped that.

[40:54] And you became followers of us and of the Lord with joy and the Holy Spirit. And then they get down there, and they stop with, and you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. That's our purpose in life, to serve the living and true God.

[41:08] Paul says, well, and to wait for his son from heaven. Are you doing that? Like the Thessalonians were? Whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from wrath to come. Now there are three froms in this verse.

[41:22] First Thessalonians 1.10. To wait for his son from heaven, which he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivers us from the wrath to come. You know, the Greek is like Greek to me.

[41:35] If a genie could come along and say, I'll grant you one wish, it'd be like, can I understand Greek? I'd love to understand Greek. That'd be amazing. But I'm so thankful for my blue letter Bible, my lexicon, and my concordance, and I can just tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

[41:47] And I've just recently discovered the tenses thing. Like, whoa! You tap that, it'll tell you the tense of the verb, and it just, it changes things. It's so cool. But anyway, we have the first from here, and the second from.

[42:00] To wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead. Those froms are out of, or away from. So out of. You could say it like this. We are to wait for his son, who came out from heaven, whom he raised out from the dead.

[42:15] That's what it means. And if that meant that, at the end there, even Jesus, which delivered us from wrath, if that meant that, we could say, out from the wrath to come. That from is different. That from means, departing or removing from.

[42:30] So you'd read it as, and to wait for his son, who came out from heaven, whom he raised out from the dead, even Jesus, which delivers us, by departing and removing us, from wrath to come.

[42:43] It's an amazing verse, amazing sequence. Now, the word wait, is to wait with patience, and trust. Patience and trust. Patiently waiting, and trusting Jesus, his words and promise.

[42:58] Delivered, is to rescue by drawing to oneself. So if we put all this together, read it in Greek definition, 1 Thessalonians 1.10 reads, and to wait with patience and trust, for his savior from out of heaven, whom he raised from out of the dead, even Jesus, which rescues us from a future time of wrath, by removing us, and drawing us to himself.

[43:22] And that lines up perfectly, with the promise Jesus gave in John 14, and carries through that same theme, through the New Testament. Do the writers talk about a time of wrath?

[43:34] They do. That time of wrath, you can look at in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, the first half, will tell you what that is. The day of the Lord, a day of wrath, and a day of woe. But here, for you and I, as he says to the Thessalonians, man, they show us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how you turn to God from idols, you serve the living and true God, and you wait with patience and trust, for his son who comes out from heaven, whom he raised from out of the dead, even Jesus, which rescues us from a future time of wrath, by removing us, and drawing us to himself.

[44:10] I believe that the Bible, teaches what we would define, as the rapture. These Thessalonians, people would accuse people, who believe in the rapture, saying, well, you're just so heavenly minded, you're just so earthly good.

[44:22] Look at these Thessalonians. Paul's like, man, I can't keep you guys down. I'm just hearing about you constantly. You're doing so much for the Lord. Why? Because Jesus said, take no anxious thought of tomorrow.

[44:35] Tomorrow will take thought for the things of itself. But seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Essentially, Jesus is saying, guys, I'm going to come, and I'm going to get you. Be patient, and wait.

[44:46] While you're doing that, don't worry about this stuff. I got all that. Be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. You don't need to worry about that. All of the writers of the epistles write with the sudden appearing of Jesus for his church in view.

[45:03] Paul writes to the Thessalonians. He'll write, we. He says that they are waiting. They have received Jesus's promise. And I think sometimes we almost kind of have this view of like, oh, Paul.

[45:15] The early church. Those are those. What they didn't realize was, you know, they thought he was coming right then, but he meant he was coming a long, long, long time later. Not at all. Paul's received the mystery of the church, the mystery of the gospel to the Gentiles, the mystery of resurrection.

[45:32] The apostles, when Jesus spoke to them in John 14, would have no idea what that all would have meant in its fullness until Paul says, hey, guess what? God showed me resurrection.

[45:44] Let me explain it to you. They all had this sudden appearing of Jesus in view for his church. You know, Jesus is the first fruits and there will be a harvest. When do you harvest something?

[45:55] When it is ripe. I'm so glad Jesus waited for me to ripen before he harvested. Paul says, I long to go and be with the Lord, but it's more needful for me to be here with you.

[46:10] I think the same thing. Man, I would love to be the generation that's called home, but guess what? We will be because the dead in Christ will rise first and then we, which are alive and remain and whoever is alive and remain will be caught up together to meet them in the clouds, to be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord, but it's not to be take part of resurrection.

[46:30] Resurrection happens all at once with all of us. The dead in Christ will come with the Lord and will receive resurrection at the same time as us. But if it means living out a life and having my own personal resurrection of dying and going to be with the Lord and that means like a greater harvest, what's the matter?

[46:46] I'm going to be with him for all of eternity. We've just read about it. I'll be eating those fruit off the tree of life and maybe munching on the leaves. I don't know. Drinking water from a clear crystal stream.

[46:59] What's a few more years here? What's a little hardness to endure? The Thessalonians, they receive the word in much affliction. I haven't received the word in much affliction. I've had a little bit of pushback.

[47:10] I've had a little bit of like people looking at me sideways, but what's that? What's that? And he says, blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

[47:22] And that's our word to guard. Blessed is he that guards these sayings, that guards the plain historical, grammatical, prophetic words that are faithful and true. They're faithful and true.

[47:33] I love my Bible. I love that I can just read it and it's a closed loop system, meaning truth here will always eventually come back around and back itself up.

[47:46] There's no like stray truth trees, like what's that verse mean? I don't know. It doesn't fit with any of the rest of them, but I think it means this. And I think this one means this. And I think this one, no, it all fits and all comes back around.

[48:00] But I have to be willing, and it happens so often, just especially now studying weekly, going through and getting to a section of scripture and thinking, I know what this means. And then studying through it, realizing I didn't know what that meant.

[48:13] That wasn't what I thought. I think even this past week, Don and I were just talking about it, how the woman at the well, her response of, oh, well, you say to worship in Jerusalem and our fathers say in Samaria, you know, but who knows?

[48:26] And I've always mostly heard it taught that, well, she's just trying to deflect because Jesus is getting too close to home. But that didn't fit. It didn't fit with her responses and Jesus's words to her.

[48:37] And it's not going to fit if she's going to run into town and get everybody and bring them back. What fits is Jesus is exposing her greatest need for worship. And guys, it doesn't fit.

[48:48] It doesn't fit that Jesus is just going to come to this earth and take over a kingdom either we set up or come and set up a kingdom and we'll just kind of all be here.

[48:59] It doesn't fit with his words. Guard them. Hold them. And I think we're going to stop there for tonight. 2 Timothy 4, 8 says, Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day and not me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

[49:24] There's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, not a crown of like my righteousness that whoops, lose that crown. I lost my righteousness, but it's a righteous crown to have. And Paul says, who is it for? It's for him and also all them that love his appearing.

[49:39] I love his appearing. I can't wait for him to appear. Harkening back to Revelation 3 where we looked at briefly there with Philadelphia, because you've kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of trial and proving, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth.

[49:58] We've just gone through Revelation. Earth dwellers are a specific group of people that are not believers. They are earth dwellers. Those that are a part of this world. Look at the tenses there. We'll keep you, but them that dwell upon the earth.

[50:12] Behold, I come quickly. I come without delay. When it happens, it'll be without delay. Hold that fast, which you have, that no man take your crown.

[50:23] What crown? Take what crown? That crown. Don't let anyone take your crown of loving his appearing. Don't let anyone take that crown. Do you believe in God?

[50:35] Jesus would say, hey, believe my words. And for myself, I've studied and read for decades different people and countless things, and I keep coming back to, yeah, but his words say this.

[50:50] Guard them, guys. Guard them. Hope that was edifying. Hope it gives you some food for thought. God. The last word that Jesus will leave us with when we get to this next time is, surely, I do come quickly.

[51:11] He's coming. One way or another. One time or another. He's coming. And if we don't get to see him in the air, alive, we will see him in the air. We'll be raised.

[51:23] Resurrection is around the corner. He's the first fruits. We experience everything he did. We go down into death with him. We are raised with him. He walked in newness of life. We walk in newness of life.

[51:34] And he was raised and ascended to the Father. And so will we be as well. Comfort one another with those words. Thank you, Father. Thank you for your word, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

[51:45] I don't have to make anything up, Lord. You can just read it. Lord, I pray you'd help us to understand it, Lord. I'm not saying I understand it completely. I'm not saying that I have full knowledge.

[51:57] But I know the one who does. And, Lord, I know your word had a meaning and a definition long before I came into an existence. Your word was already settled in the heavens. Lord, would you settle it in my heart?

[52:10] Lord, I know it can seem crazy sometimes. Even in my own mind, thinking, what do I believe? I think that by just giving assent to these words that I've heard, a spiritual God will do a spiritual work in my life that will last beyond death.

[52:28] And that he's promised a home for me to dwell with him, to be with him. This is crazy. And on top of that, he said, by the way, the reason I'm preparing this place for you is because I'm going to come and get you and bring you here.

[52:43] I want you to come and see my house. But, Lord, we have this wonderful earnest. We have this wonderful down payment of the Holy Spirit. And he is more real to me than anything in this life.

[52:54] And he makes the words of Jesus more real to me than anything I've ever heard. I thank you for that. Lord, I love my brothers and sisters here.

[53:06] I pray, Lord, that they would be people who guard your word. That, Lord, you would impress the truth upon them. That your words would speak to them. That their faith would not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God.

[53:18] Thank you for this time tonight. Thank you for your edification. Help us, Lord, to hold fast and guard that beautiful crown. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

[53:28] Maranatha. Amen.