Jesus is Coming Soon
1. Worship God (6-9)
6 And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place.
7 “And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things.
9 But he said to me, “Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God.”
The knowledge of him which comes to us through ‘the prophecy of this book’, and by extension through the Bible as a whole, cannot help but bring a blessing, and the blessing is the knowledge of God in Christ given to those who ‘keep’ the words of it. The term used here for ‘keep’ is frequent in John’s Gospel, and means to ‘observe, fulfill, pay attention to’ laws or teachings (AG). The attentive, obedient study of Scripture, therefore, and of this last book which sums it up, produces not a mind stuffed with knowledge, but a spirit quickened into life.
2. Be Prepared (10-21)
10 And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.
11 “Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.”
12 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.
13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.
15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.
16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things cfor the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
17 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 wishes take the water of life without cost.
18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book;
19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.
The words are clearly meant as an encouragement to believers. The evil continue to pursue their way. Well, let them. The Lord’s return is sure and soon. The last word is not with the wicked. The saying may also be meant as a challenge to repentance now. John is saying that there will be no opportunity for a last-minute repentance. The Lord will come too quickly for that. But now there is time. Let people repent while they can.
Verses 14 and 15 make plain who it is who belongs in the city, and who will be left outside. Those whose character and practice are evil (‘dogs’, the pariahs of an eastern city’s slums, symbolize all who are unclean) are on that account barred from the city of God. But those who are admitted do not get in on account of their goodness. The blessing is theirs solely because they have washed their robes—‘made them white’, as John was told in 7:14, ‘in the blood of the Lamb’.
He is not only ‘great David’s greater Son’, Lord and King of the new Israel. He is also David’s Lord; he is Isaiah’s ‘everlasting Father’; before Abraham was, he is; indeed he is before all things (Mt. 22:41 ff.; Is. 9:6; Jn. 8:58; Col. 1:17). He is, in two words, both ‘the root and the offspring of David’, both his ancestor and his descendant, adding another all-inclusive pair of tides to those of verse 13. He encompasses the whole of history.
Then, as the ‘bright morning star’, he heralds the dawn of eternity, telling us that this life is only the prelude to the real life of the world to come; and by sending his angel with this testimony, he shows the love, power, and wisdom of the God who wants to reveal these things to his creatures.
It seems best accordingly to understand the invitation as issued by the church and every member of the church to the outsider. This is made specific with Whoever is thirsty, let him come (cf. John 6:35; 7:37) and the further invitation to anyone who wills to take the free gift of the water of life. People’s deepest needs will be met, though those needs must be felt.
Tampering with the text of the last book of the Bible is a minor matter compared with the sin they really condemn. For if (as our reading has seemed to show) the whole biblical revelation is summed up in this book, and particularly in this last Scene of the book, and in the most concentrated form of all in verses 16 and 17, then of course we dare not add to it or take from it.
For if we believe that what God has said in his book is not sufficient for salvation, but that we need to make certain additions of our own if we are to be saved; or if we believe that some of the demands of God’s book are superfluous, and we can get by without observing them; then we are not only saying that we know better than him—we are (which is much worse) acting as if that were true.
In many places our interpretation of the book has suggested that there is nothing new in it, no extra truth which is not available elsewhere in Scripture. This is borne out by a phrase here, in the second to last verse of the last chapter. ‘He who testifies to these things’ is, as the context makes plain, Jesus Christ the corresponding phrase in the second verse of the first chapter, the ‘testimony of Jesus’, is thus vouched for as a subjective genitive—that is, the word ‘of’ means the witness which Jesus himself bears, and not someone else’s witness to him.
1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John,
2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
John looks for grace for all God’s people. He closes his book by reminding us that all Christians, not just some, depend on God’s free grace.