Chapter BY Chapter

Revelation 22 – The Water of Life and The Tree of Life

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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 twelve 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.”

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“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.”

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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.”

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“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.”

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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.

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“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.”

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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.

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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.

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He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

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The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.”

 

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In the previous chapter, we saw the new heavens, new earth, and the New Jerusalem.  In John’s day, people kept a register of the citizens of their city.  If someone did something the community didn’t like, their name could be blotted out of this registry.  They could then be outcast from the city.  Now, only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of Life will be able to enter the New Jerusalem.  The New Jerusalem is called the Bride of Christ – that’s us because we are in it.  The foundation is full of precious jewels because the precious jewels represent us.  The old heavens and earth have vanished and the new heavens and earth must be designed with a new physics because a city that is 1,500 miles in cubic form could not stand on any planet with today’s physics.  It would either sink to the center of a planet or be ripped apart by the rotation of the planet.  This shows us that God exists totally outside of the created universe.  He makes the laws of physics.  The New Jerusalem has gates made out of pearls.  Pearls come from clams and to get clams that big, there must be a perfect world for them to live in to grow that big.  The gates are always open because there is no sin there and no one that would do harm.  Neither is there any animal or anything else that would do harm. 

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Now we come to Chapter 22, and there are a few things to wrap up about the New Jerusalem, and then there is going to be a summary about the book.

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The angel shows John the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb.  It is running through the middle of the street.  This brings to mind the time that Jesus asked the woman at the well to draw him some water.  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”  (John 4:10).  Ezekiel and Zechariah saw a river of living water in their visions of the heavenly Jerusalem.

 

Ezekiel 47:1,

 

“Then the man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar.”

 

Zechariah 14:8,

 

“And on that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea, in summer and winter alike.”

 

So, now in the New Jerusalem there is a river of living water that never ends. 

 

What does the river of living water do?

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1. Give life.

2. Give refreshment.

3. Give eternal life. John 4:13-14, “Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

 

Now, on both sides of the river is the tree of life.  What is the significance of this?

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1. We are now back to the original intention of God for man.

2. The tree of life was taken away from man because of sin.Now that sin is gone, the tree of life can be returned.The tree of life brought eternal life according to Genesis 3:22-24, “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”

3. The tree of life has 12 fruits, one for each month, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.This is reminiscent of Ezekiel 4:12,

 

“Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of all kinds will grow. Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. Each month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will be used for food and their leaves for healing.”

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1. What is the significance of the tree of life having 12 different fruits and its leaves for the healing of the nations?

   • It has a different harvest each month, so there is always a supply of food.

   • With a different fruit each month, you won’t get bored.

   • With the leaves always for healing, there will always be life.No one will die from injury or disease.

   • For a tree to have different fruits, different branches have to be grafted in.Notice that the leaves are for the healing of the nations.If you take a look around the world today, nations are fighting nations.God chose to reach out to all nations and save people from all the nations.In the New Jerusalem, all the nations will be combined into one nation, just like branches will be grafted into the tree of life.This will be part of the healing.The nations will be healed from their differences.The leaves will be there to heal even differences that people have.

 

Verse 3,

 

“No longer will there be any curse.”

 

All of God’s curses on the earth for sin are gone.  It will be a perfect world.

 

Verse 3 and 4,

 

“The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”

 

The word throne here is singular.  The throne of God and the throne of the Lamb are synonymous.  God and the Lamb are synonymous. 

 

His servants will serve him.  Him is singular.  This again reinforces that God and the Lamb are synonymous.

 

Who are his servants?  We are his servants. 

 

What will his servants see?  His face.  What will his face be like?  Will it be glorious?  Yes.  What is the glory of the Messiah?  The glory of the Messiah is the payment he made for the sins of the world.  The glory of his face would be the scars that were made when he was tortured and crucified. 

 

What will be on the foreheads of his servants?  His name.  What is his name? Yeshuah Meshiac, Yahuweh, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

 

Verse 5,

 

“There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.”

 

So, the Lord will light up everything for us everywhere.  No more night.  No time to worry about darkness and what may happen during darkness.  No worries.

 

Verse 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.”

 

There is a definite statement here about special revelation.  It does not say that God dictates to the prophets what to say or write down.  But it does say that he inspires them.  We need to look at how this is said here.  It literally says, “The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets.”  So, it does not say here that he just inspires them.  But he is the God of the spirits of the prophets.  So, he is in charge of the prophets in some way and bringing about what the prophets say and write.  Elsewhere, it says that all scripture is God-breathed.  So, it is as though God breathes out, or even speaks through the prophets.  It is not an inspiration in the sense of a motivation, but it is a charge in the sense that the words of the prophets were given by God’s direction.

 

2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God.”  So, it is more like God breathes it out through his spirit and controlling the spirit of the prophets. 

 

And here you have an angels sent to show his servants what must soon take place. 

 

How did the angel show these things to John?

 

By giving him visions.

​By taking him to heaven and showing him things in heaven.

 

Verse 7,

 

“And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

 

This verse is in a paragraph by itself indicating that someone else other than the angel is speaking.  We can safely assume it is the voice of Jesus.  He is coming soon.  He is blessing those who keep the words of the prophecy of this book.  So, it looks like we are going to have a wrap up of this book of prophecy.

 

Verses 8-11,

 

“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.”

 

Ooops! John makes a boo-boo and starts to worship the angel.  The angel promptly corrects him.  The angel instructs him not to seal up the words of the prophecy of this book.  Why?  Because the time is near.  These prophecies will be needed by those that go through these times.  These prophesies are also a comfort to those that eagerly anticipate when they will see the face of Jesus.

 

Why does it say to let the evildoer do evil and let the righteous do right?

 

Because this gospel is not a gospel of Law.  It is a gospel of Grace.  It is not for us to bring recompense for every sin.  Who’s place is that? 

 

Verses 12-13,

 

“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.”

 

So now we have another voice, which can only be God.  The next 2 verses could be a continuation of the same voice, but they are in a separate paragraph.

 

Verses 14-15,

 

“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.”

 

How do we wash our robes?

 

Revelation 7:14,

 

"Sir," I answered, "you know." So he replied, "These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

 

Only by the blood of the Lamb do we have the right to the tree of life. You can’t get there on your own good works. 

 

Verse 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 desires take the water of life without price.”

 

Verse 17 is a separate paragraph.  It is obvious here that the speakers are The Spirit and the Bride together.  It is an invitation to unbelievers that desire to drink of the water of life.  “Come and get it!  Life everlasting!  And it’s free!”

 

Verses 18-19 is in a paragraph by itself,

 

“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.”

 

The first question that comes up is whether these words are from John or Jesus. 

 

Verse 20, which is in a different paragraph starts with the word, “legei,” which means “says.”  Verse 20 starts off with, “Says the one testifying these things, ‘I am coming quickly.’”  It can only be Jesus saying these things.  Verse 20 ends with a confirmation from John, “Yes, come Lord Jesus.”  By putting the verb “says” at the beginning of the sentence, it joins what is said in verses 18-19 with what he says in verse 20.”  So, it makes most sense that verses 18-19 are said by Lord Jesus.  Revelation 1:1 makes it plain that this whole book is about “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.”

 

Now for the content of verses 18-19.  God will add the plagues of this book to anyone that adds to the words of prophecy of this book, and God will take away anyone’s share in the tree of life who takes away from the words of this prophecy.  That is pretty straight forward. 

 

Now we might ask, does this apply to the whole Bible, or to just the Book of Revelation?

 

By stating “the words of the prophecy of this book,” This warning is applying only to the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  That does not mean you can do what you want with the rest of the Bible.  Other passages have similar warnings:

 

Deuteronomy 4:2, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.”

 

Proverbs 30:6, “Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.”

 

The reasoning for this warning is found in Revelation 1:3, “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.”  We need to hear what Jesus says so that we will keep what Jesus says.

 

In Principle, the warning applies to the entire Word of God.

 

Now, there is another application to this warning.  Jesus is saying that no one can add to this prophecy and no one can take away from this prophecy.  There is going to be no more prophecies about the end times.  There can be no more prophet in the sense of having the office of Prophet.  There can be no more prophet saying that he has a new revelation from God about doctrine.  No prophet can come along and say that we should go back and implement Mosaic Law.  No prophet can come along and say that Jesus was wrong when he said that God made man and woman so that the two should be one flesh. 

 

Does this conflict with other New Testament passages about the gift of prophesy?

 

Now, this does not conflict with the apostle Paul’s teaching about the gift of prophecy. 

 

1 Timothy 4:14,

 

“Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.”

 

Romans 12:6,

 

“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;”

 

1 Corinthians 14:1,

 

“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.”

 

Prophecy is useful and still present to convict of sin.  Having the gift of prophesy does not give one the office of Prophet.  God may use prophesy to warn someone of possible harm or to warn someone of possible punishment for their sin.  No one can claim that they are a “New Prophet with a New Revelation about what we should believe or how we should live,” or “The Last Prophet.”  No one can make claims contrary to what the Bible says.  Such people should be avoided and condemned. Jesus is the last prophet.

 

Verses 20-21,

 

“He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

 

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.”

 

Song: Come, Lord Jesus by Prayers of the Saints Live