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REVELATION - Behold, I am Coming Soon
Studies in the Book of Revelation
BOOK 7 - YES, I AM COMING SOON! (REVELATION 19:11 - 22-21)
PART 7.7 - JESUS CHRIST GUARANTEES THAT HIS PROPHESIES WILL BE IMPLEMENTED (REVELATION 21:6-21)

1. The Revelation is Faithful and True (Revelation 22:6-9)


REVELATION 22:6-9
6 He said to me, “These words are faithful and true. The Lord God of the spirits of the prophets sent his angel to show to his bondservants the things which must happen soon.” 7 “Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” 8 Now I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who had shown me these things. 9 He said to me, “See you don’t do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”

These Sayings are True: The inspiring angel assured the seer John that the sayings in the Book of Revelation will be accomplished completely. The visions and prophesies of the judgments and the provided glories are not dreams or tentative tales of horror, but symbols for real events and developments, which really have to happen. The salvation plan of God will be executed exactly and precisely. All what the all-knowing LORD had foreseen and decided to do in His wisdom and mercy, will happen inevitably.

John himself had seen the vision of the huge New Jerusalem built from gold and jewels and had heard the great promises of God through which he has testified his unveiled presence with his church family. However, the complete comprehension of this revelation exceeded his human mind. These images have to be explained through the grace of the Holy Spirit, otherwise they remain powerless like beautiful empty shells. Therefore the angel assured John in the last paragraph of the final revelations a third time, “These sayings are faithful and true!” (Revelation 19:9; 21:5; 22:6; see also 3:7; 15:3; 16:7; 19:2; and other verses).

The guarantee of the angel does not only refer to the new creation of heaven and earth, but also to all other sayings of the Book of Revelation (Revelation 22:7.9.18-19; and other verses). His testimony is of great relevance and belies those who smile at or scoff at the sayings of the revelation of Christ. A holy severity and an eternal love are upon this last book of the Bible which summarizes all preceding books.

The Spirit of the Prophets: We could read at the beginning of the Book of Revelation that the Holy Spirit appears as a plurality of spirits. He had revealed himself in the image of seven lamps of fire before the throne of God (Revelation 1:4.12-13.20; 2:1; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6). Therewith each of the seven church leaders in Minor Asia was assured of the power of the Holy Spirit. The same applies also to all churches in the world, as the number seven does not only refer to the seven real churches but also to the total number of all churches (Revelation 1:4; 4:5).

The seven eyes of the Lamb of God and his seven horns symbolize both his own omniscience and comprehensive power and the omniscience and power of the Holy Spirit (Revelation 5:6).

The plural form in the Greek version of Revelation 22:6, spirits of the prophets, speaks of a particular spiritual gift which is assigned to and provided from the Lord for each of the called witnesses of Christ and which is rooted in the same Holy Spirit and is one of his several operations.

The Holy Spirit does not operate and serve on his own and separately, but subordinates himself to The LORD God, as Jesus had always honored his Father, “Verily, verily, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for what things soever he does, these also does the Son likewise.” (John 5:19). The three autonomous persons of the holy trinity are lowly in heart so that none of them operates independently, but always in complete unity and harmony with each other. Our God is a lowly God, full of holy love. He wants to generate also in us his characteristic traits.

The Lord sent his angel to the exiled apostle so as to reveal him what events are going to descend upon the churches and upon godless mankind. The patriarch did not maintain that only to him visions about the future had been shown, but he witnessed explicitly that several servants of the Lord in the Old and New Testament had received revelations, visions and inspirations from their Lord. So, John served in humility and denied himself so as to give all honor to the Lord of the spirits of the prophets.

Behold, I Come Quickly! Either it was an angel who transmitted an urgent message of his Lord to John after this introduction or the Lord Jesus himself addressed the patriarch, “Behold I come quickly!"

This warning cry is the real topic of the whole Book of Revelation. All announced judgments and promises depend on the coming of Jesus. In the closing part of the Book of Revelation this exciting, special announcement appears three times so that we realize at last: The Lord will really come again! He will surely come! He will come quickly and soon. Do we wait for him? Do we prepare ourselves for his coming? Are we looking forward to his arrival? Do we long for him? Is he the purpose of our live or do we always follow after money and honor? This warning cry wants to lead us to repentance, joy and tidiness of our whole life.

In this paragraph the Lord is using seven times “I", but not out of proud or egoism, but in order that we may realize that nobody is more important in this world than Jesus! On his I our future is based. In him are the fullness of blessings, the power, the eternal life and all operations of God. As he says “I”, therefore, we know that he lives! And he makes us his “you". He is longing for us. He wants to meet us, soon and quickly!

The reminder call of the quick coming of Jesus encourages us to read through the sayings of prophesy in the Book of Revelation of John and to memorize its content so that we may not be surprised by the educational judgments of the Lamb nor by the bowls of wrath of the Almighty. The Lord wants to protect us from the deceit of Antichrist and his crafty harlot Babylon. He calls everybody blessed who faces the purpose of the world's affairs in a spiritual active and alert manner and is not dopey.

The Seer Avows Himself to his Visions: John at first had mentioned also other prophets of the Old and New Testament besides himself as receivers of revelations. In addition, the Lord had his saying, “Behold, I come quickly” engraved like a seal of truth into the Book of Revelation. And now, John himself was also prepared to testify in the first person that he is responsible for the content of this book. He himself had heard precisely all revelations which he had written down in this book and had described faithfully frightening as well as comforting visions. Through this testimony the seer emphasized his own authority as the last, still living apostle of Jesus Christ in order to witness the divine origin of his book.

In the same breath the patriarch confessed his fault that being overwhelmed by the sovereignty, glory and majesty of the angel of inspiration he was tempted the second time to worship him (Revelation 19:10). As the angel was an ambassador of God and not of satanic descent, he turned away immediately each kind of worshipping angels and testified that only God is worthy to be worshipped. The angel said at the same time that he is a servant of God. He called himself a fellow servant of all prophets and of all believers who keep the prophecies of God, learn them by heart, ponder them in their hearts and tell them other people and live according to the revealed salvation plan of God. Both the angel and the apostle John focused their heart completely on the Lord and want to announce and write only what He wished.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You that You sent the angel to Your apostle John in the prison of interrogation on the isle of Patmos to reveal to him the Book of Revelation of John and to confirm to us that each word in it is a clear truth. We also praise You for Your own necessary message that You come quickly. Train us in watching Your arrival with expectance. Amen.

QUESTION:

  1. How do you practically watch out for the coming of Jesus?

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