Revelation 22:1-5 Eternal Provisions

You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation. Let's listen in.

Good morning, welcome to Recast Church.

I'm Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here,.

And we're gonna go ahead and get started.

So if you can find your way in and grab a seat, that would be great.

I'm really glad that you're here,.

Not only for the fact that I'd be speaking to empty seats if you weren't, which would be awkward and uncomfortable, but I'm glad that you've gathered together with God's people to worship him this morning.

I mean, that's the intention of why we're here. And the weather hasn't been that great out anyway, so it's good to be inside. But I'm glad that you're here. I have one quick announcement before we dive into our text for this morning and kind of introduce where we're going on this Sunday.

And that is that according to our new bylaws, the elders are going to begin to step off the board at a step, like kind of a staggered process in order to meet those new bylaws where we have some kind of, for lack of a better term, term limits on eldership.

Rob Knold has been on board for seven years since we first started as a church. He's been an elder here. Very grateful for his years of service. And this January, he's gonna receive, he's gonna take a much-needed break from the board.

And so I would think it appropriate for us to just thank Rob for his service. Rob Knold, if you wanna just kind of wave your hand or something. But he's been serving in that capacity for seven years, so grateful for that.

And then further information is that Greg Schrock and Mark Klein, after prayerful consideration and unanimous approval of the board, have agreed to enter the process for elder approval. Now one way you could look at that is it's gonna take two people to replace what Rob's been doing for us for seven years, but that's not necessarily the case.

We've been wanting to grow our board here and we're very blessed to have a couple of men stepping forward and willing to enter into that process. Now that means that the very extensive ballots that we have will be available next week.

And we're gonna be asking for those to be turned in by the church family. Remember, you don't have to be a member here to vote. And so we want everybody to grab one of those. They're gonna begin to be available out here at the welcome table next week.

And they are due November 20th at our family meeting in the evening. So they'll be due by that evening meeting over at the family meeting room on November 20th. And I would encourage you to please prayerfully cast your vote and do not be intimidated by the form.

I know that that form has intimidated people in the past. It's an extensive form that lists out the qualifications of eldership, gives you freedom to answer and respond to has this person blessed you in this area?

Are there concerns? Are there red flags? Are there yellow flags? Are there cautions there? And it's extensive. If you don't know the person that well, you can still vote yes or no, but we do ask that everybody puts their name on that ballot so that we can get a chance to kind of see where we're at and how that's going and also for membership and things like that.

So figuring that out. And I just want to point out the obvious and I hope it's obvious to you. And that is that to conclude kind of the introduction and thinking about new elders is that Recast has indeed been blessed by godly men who have been willing to step up and to serve.

I personally have been blessed as a church planter with men from the very beginning who have been willing to share that load with me and I'm very grateful for them. I am grateful for the service of Rob Canold, Steve Isham, Bruce French, and Mark Downing who are our current elders.

And I want to point out that this is not like a presidential election. Fortunately, we're not going to have them up here and debate and we know that those can turn pretty ugly. So we, no, I'm just kidding.

I know that it wouldn't be in this case, but it's not a presidential election in the sense that you're going to vote for one or the other. We've had people confused about that in the past. We know that because they've commented on the thing.

Well, I think this guy's better than this guy. So I voted for him. That's not, we are voting on both of them and we will bring both of them onto the board if we have approval. And so I just want to be clear about that.

You're not voting between Greg and Mark, but you are voting on the basis of the character of each individual. So that was, I said it was going to be a quick announcement. That was not a quick announcement, but I am a pastor so I know how to talk a little bit.

The Hope of the New Jerusalem

But this morning we're going to be reading and studying a text near the very end of the Bible. We've been marching through the book of Revelation. We're getting ready to wrap it up. Next week will be our last sermon in the series, Thy Kingdom Come on the book of Revelation.

But this week we're taking just the first few verses of chapter 22. And remember that what we're doing is last two, or two weeks ago, I was gone last week, but two weeks ago we were taking a tour of the new earth and the new Jerusalem.

A beautiful reality of God's great love shown for us. Now it's something out there in the future, but it is love nonetheless that we can experience in the hope and the trust and the rest that we have in knowing that there is this good thing that is out there coming for us.

It's good out in the future. Now what you read in the newspapers, and if you're watching any of this, how many of you know that there's some fear in our country? Maybe there's some fear in your chest.

Maybe there's some fear in your life as you look out to what the future holds. But God at the end of his book wants you and I to know that there are good things coming for you if you're in with Christ.

If you're with him, then it is good stuff on the horizon. Chapter 21 described that new earth and new Jerusalem, but now our text will describe some of the provisions of that new place. God loves us enough to promise us his eternal provisions for his people, his preparing a place for his people where we will no longer have pain, no longer have sin, death, sadness, no more darkness.

We will not experience thirst, and there will be no more hunger. Consider what a radically different place that is compared to where you live each day, to where you work, to where you thrive, and where you're trying to function.

This place that we're describing, that God is describing for us, that we're taking a tour of this week is not like Matawan, Michigan. The place that God is preparing for us is glorious beyond comprehension, and John is grasping at words to try to convey it to you and I that we might be encouraged and built up.

And I would give us one caution as we enter into reading this text together. We need to be careful about the conclusions we draw from the biblical descriptions of this eternal place.

I think many in our culture,.

And many you could tune in on the radio, you could hear people who are moved to consider how important we must be in light of God's love for us. We could extrapolate that love that God will show us then in that future kingdom and mistake it for God's provisions for us now and what he must give us now.

In other words, we could look at this rich love poured out on God's people at the end and begin to think that we deserve a little taste of that heaven here and now. But don't lose sight of our Savior, who for the joy set before him endured the cross.

He suffered in this life, but was exalted in the resurrection. We have hope, that is for sure. But we do not have a promise that everything's gonna go our way in this life, do we? I mean, everybody's striving for that, everybody's wanting that, and there's nothing wrong with praying for it, and there's nothing wrong with being that for others and trying to encourage others.

And at the same time, we know that our hope is laid up for us as treasure in heaven. So let's open our Bibles to Revelation 22, if you're not already there, 22, one through five. If you don't have a Bible on your lap, I'd ask you to do me a favor and just raise your hand only because we wanna bring you a Bible.

Eric's got a stack of them in his hand, and we want everybody to have a copy of God's word that you can dig in and see for yourself. And if you don't have a Bible at your home or one that you own, you can just take that one with you.

But we want everybody to have a copy of God's word. And as we read this together, we are looking into the amazing place that God is preparing for those who are his. So Revelation 22, one through five, recast this is what God desires for us to hear from his mouth this morning.

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 12 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. I wanna read that again. Verse three, 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 lamp, no light of lamp or sun for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever.

Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in singing this morning. Father, I wanna thank you for hope. We live in a world that can be full of despair at times, it can be full of frustration, diagnoses, difficult problems that face us each day, relational struggles and strife and problems and difficulties and sin that would entrench us.

Father, there are so many aspects of our life that could lead us to despair and in your text you give us hope. And so Father, I pray that you would put a swing in our steps, those that are in this room that belong to Christ Jesus, those in this room that have given their lives over to him that are in a vital, life-giving relationship with their Lord and Savior, where they've received forgiveness.

Father, I pray that they would receive joy and a swing in their step because whatever assails us, whatever fights against us, whatever wars against our joy cannot break into this place where we have an eternal hope in you.

And Father, if there's anybody in this room who has not tasted that delight, Father, I pray that you would move them to boldness, to seek it, to try to find it in you. We try to find it in so many other things but the only real hope is found in Jesus Christ.

And Father, from a place of delight and joy and rejoicing, may we lift up our voices together as your people this morning. I thank you for each and every person that you've brought together, that our voices might mingle together before your throne and we might worship you.

And I pray that you would show us who you are in your glory and your majesty and your great care and great love for your people. And that from that launching place, we might sing songs, not just with our voices, but with our hearts to you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You can go ahead and be seated, yeah.

And get comfortable. I recognize, and I say this often, but those seats that you're sitting in are not the most comfortable in the world. So if you need to get up and stretch out in the back, whatever it takes to kind of keep your focus on God's word for the next half an hour.

So if you need more coffee, juice, donuts, you're not gonna distract me. If you need to get up, restrooms are out the hallway at the end, men's upstairs, women's downstairs. So we ask that you use the ones to the right here, even though there are some down here.

We save those for our kids' ministry. So if you need those, take advantage of that. And then please keep your Bibles open to Revelation 22, one through five, so that you can see that the things that I'm saying are coming from this text.

We're gonna walk through it. We didn't just read it. And then we're gonna talk about something else. We're gonna talk about that text. My conviction and my belief is that God's word is what transforms and changes us as we take it on and believe it.

It's not magical, like you rub it on your face and you'll be better. It's something that you have to believe and trust, understand, and then go out and live. And so that's what we're looking for. We're driving for joy today in this text.

It's there for our delight. It's there for our encouragement.

It's there for hope.

And so keep your Bibles open to Revelation 22, one through five. And this morning picks up right where we left off two weeks ago with the same angel leading the tour for John of the New Jerusalem. And so John records that for us.

And now I have the privilege of leading you on this tour as well that we started back in chapter 22. Remember that John saw in a vision a massive, beautiful city, shining, gleaming, made out of gold and gems and diamonds and all kinds of glittering things.

And it was descending from heaven. And this is the place that Jesus spoke of when he said, behold, I go to prepare a place for you. And in the descent of the city is the answer to the prayer that many of us have prayed over and over, over the course of our lifetime.

Some of us have it memorized where we pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And one day that will be real. One day the kingdom of God will come to this earth and God himself will move into our neighborhood.

He will come and live with us. That's an amazing thing. If you study that concept from the book of Genesis all the way through revelation, your mind should be blown with the thought that God would live among us.

And yet he is choosing to eternally dwell among his people, the very bride of Christ, the city of God coming down to this earth. Now, a couple of weeks ago, we saw the description of the walls. We saw descriptions of streets of gold, the foundations of precious stones, the massive dimensions of this gigantic city.

But now in verse one, the angel shows John a river that flows through the city with the water of life and its source is the very throne of God and of the lamb. So we learn right off the bat that the throne of God is within this city.

It's there within this place that comes down from heaven to earth. The throne is there. And God will dwell in the midst of the city and from the base of his throne, a river of the waters of life flows down the central boulevard of the city.

There's a very clear prophecy, by the way, that we see in Ezekiel that John obviously either was aware of or they both were given the same vision because Ezekiel 47, seven through 12 speaks of a city that flows east out of the temple of God in the New Jerusalem.

Ezekiel receiving, I mean, hundreds of years before John ever lived, Ezekiel was a prophet in the Old Testament and he receives the same vision of a river that flows out of the presence of God. It's lined by trees that yield fresh fruit every month.

And I believe it's quite clear that they received this same vision or John is actually a student of Ezekiel and had some understanding of that. But what he's given is a vision and they both are equally given a vision of the eternal place where we will dwell.

And I wanna just kind of point out when you think about rivers, we probably don't really have a, I mean, I think probably if I mentioned the Bible and rivers, suddenly some might come to your mind but you probably don't think of that when you read about this river.

But rivers have had a pretty significant part to play in the entire history of the Old Testament and New Testament throughout the Bible. The chosen leader of the people of God during the Exodus, the one that was the leader during the giving of the very law of God on Mount Sinai was pulled out of the Nile River.

The river was a means of salvation to him, right? He's pulled out as a baby. The entry into the promised land began with a parting of the Jordan River to let them through and let them into the land of promise.

The earthly ministry of Jesus began with his baptism in that very same river, the Jordan River. Again, a river is significant in that event. And now the eternal city of God will have a river running through it that flows with the waters of life.

And all of that's a big setup to say that if you're reading scripture, it's accurate to say a river runs through it, right? Some of you just had a movie just flash across your mind. But water was a very important provision.

Think about the, maybe you don't really understand the geography or the context of where scripture was revealed, that very dusty, dry region. In Michigan, in West Michigan, when we use the word wilderness, what do we usually mean?

Oh, the upper peninsula or Canada or something. But it's forest, right? It's woods. Isn't that what you think of when you hear the word wilderness? In this day, in the time and the place where the scriptures are being revealed, the word wilderness meant dry desert, no plant life, just kind of like a hot, dry, parched area, more like desert.

And so what significance would rivers and water have to the original audience who were sitting down and reading this? Rivers were a source of life in that time. And it was a very important image, a very important picture of sustenance and access to moving water.

By the way, moving water, you wanna drink, if you're out in nature, you'd prefer to drink moving water rather than stagnant water that's just sitting there, right? Like, isn't that kind of a principle of, I mean, survival 101, right?

And so to have a river with flowing water was significant in these dry and dusty regions of Israel. But the properties of this water will be pleasing to the eye, according to the text, by its brilliance.

It'll be dazzling to see, but more importantly, this water will give life to all that it touches. If you were to cross-reference back over to Ezekiel, you were to read that passage and kind of understand all that's in there, you would actually see that extensive text about the nature and the properties of this water, that it turns saltwater to freshwater when it touches it, that everything that it touches comes to life and that the waters of this river will team with life.

There will be all kinds of fish and all kinds of things living in it because it just brings life to everything that it touches. That's the imagery of this life-giving water. But of course, where does the water come from, according to our text in Revelation?

It comes from God himself. He is the source. I think we probably have some understanding of this. You're sitting here in a church, so you probably have some notion, at least that the Bible teaches, that all life comes from God and the sustaining of life in this new kingdom, the sustaining of life in that future place where we are told over and over again in Scripture the phrase eternal life is used, where we will live forever and ever.

And the sustaining of life in that kingdom will not have anything to do with human effort as we experience here on this earth. It's not gonna be, the sustaining of life is not gonna be wrapped up in seatbelts, helmets, EMTs, doctors, cautious living, healthy eating,.

A strict regimen of exercise.

That will save and sustain your life. But life flows through the streets in abundance in that place. Not working to stay, not working to stay alive. How many of you have made some choices in your life to try to live longer?

Have you, have you any? I kind of have four, really?

Really, that's it?

I mean, I think some of us are just asleep and then some of us raised our hands, right? But I mean, I think the majority of us, I'm hoping that you've kind of made some healthy choices in your life. I mean, even if it was just to sit down and go, should I eat the big piece of cake or the smaller piece of cake?

Maybe once in a while you've made that kind of choice.

Maybe.

Depends on the day, right? And especially after January 1st,.

There's a little bit better choices.

Just a couple of weeks after, for some reason. But yeah, there's not gonna be that effort. There's not gonna be that push to maintain this life, but it will be sustained for us. The main street of New Jerusalem will be a boulevard, according to the text.

It's gonna be split down the middle. A river will run down the median and the river will be lined with trees. This paints a picture of a pleasant setting, of beauty and of life. But the river isn't normal, obviously, and neither are the trees.

Because the trees are not the oak tree. They are not the maple tree, but they are the tree of life. What we find here in this text is that because the tree of life is growing on both sides, you either have to posit some kind of large tree that straddles the entire river, which I don't believe the text is trying to implicate at all, but that the tree of life is a brand, it's a type, it's a kind of tree.

And there's gonna be more than one of them, even though it appears to be singular, like we might say the oak tree. But there might be many of them. It's the same way in this text. And this is a tree, I wanna remind you, it's important to understand, where have we seen this tree before, the tree of life?

Remember, this is a tree that was kept from humanity after the curse of our rebellion against God in the garden. We were, in part, cast out of the garden of Eden so that we would not eat from this tree.

It actually states that in the book of Genesis, in Genesis 3, 22 through 23, I think it's gonna be on the screen there. Maybe too small for you to read, but I'll read it for you. Then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us.

This is after they've taken, Eve has taken it, gave it to Adam, they've both eaten. Behold, the man has become like one of us, 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. That which was to provide eternal life and the implication is that now that they're sinful, now that they're broken, now that they've messed things up, don't let them live forever.

You wouldn't want to live forever in this state. You wouldn't want to live forever in a sin-cursed world where it's just pain and suffering and difficulty over and over again. And that which was taken from us through the curse will be ours forever for eternal access to it on the new earth.

The garden of God's delights will be right along Main Street. Access to the water of life and the fruit of life be right out in the public spaces. And this last statement in verse two, if you look at it for a second, it's a bit mysterious.

It says,.

Through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

It's a little bit mysterious what that means. What's that got to do with anything? Every single commentary that I read this week interprets the healing properties of this leaf as a symbol for the spiritual healing that all will receive who are there.

All will have received some kind of spiritual healing. The problem is that the tree, the leaves are for the healing of the nations, and there's multiple ways of translating that. The problem is there's no verb in the actual Greek there.

And so the Greek text is not very easy to deal with. What does healing have to do with the leaves of this tree, and how do those two interact? And there's been all kinds of ink spilled over this. Maybe the leaves of the tree in general represent the unity of the nations of the world who will come into the city to eat of its fruit.

Just the common dependence on this crop would symbolize the real and true unity of the world around the provisions of God. Where do you go to get the fruit? Where do you go to get the water? You go into the city of God.

All nations dependent on God. That would produce a strong sense of unity and healing among all peoples. The fact of the matter is he will be the source of the tree. But the big issue with this, and I don't want to spend too much time on it, but the issue of healing is the real issue, and that's the real problem that people have a hard time understanding, is why would you need a leaf for healing in a place where there's no injury?

And so that's where people kind of have to do a little bit of gymnastics to get around this. I have a radical theory, and I'm opposed. I'm going against the advice of my theology professor. I'm gonna share it with you anyways.

But I have a bit of a radical theory, and you guys can stone me later if this is heretical. Actually, it's just a theory, so I'm just throwing it out there. But my thought is that there could actually, and this might be too literal, but there could actually be painless, non-life-threatening injuries that occur on the new earth that the leaves would be used to heal, and that would kind of solve the grammatical issues that you have there.

I only bring that up to everyone to remind you of one particular thing, and that is that we will indeed, for eternity, be physical beings. Resurrection is our hope. Not that our souls would fly away someday, but our hope of eternity is a physical realm where our bodies will raise, and we will indeed have tables, and we will drink water, and we will eat fruit, and we will be physical.

And so I believe that our bodies will abide by some semblance of physics on the new earth. I mean, everybody thinks we're gonna fly. I don't know. I think God would've created us with wings if he desired for us to fly that way.

I think we'll fly with the help of technology. I think we'll develop. We will continue to develop culture, technology, all without sin. That would be a beautiful thing, an amazing thing. I think some of the technologies that we have here will be there.

I don't think we've had enough of a sanctified imagination about what the new earth will be like. And so many of us have kind of thought, oh, you know, that whole harp thing, how many notes can you play on that thing, or floating on the clouds, I guess it's better.

I've actually heard this before. At least it's better than hell. What? Is that as far as we believe in our heavenly father, that he delights to give us good gifts, and we're like, well, it'll be, you know, how many rounds of shine Jesus shine can we sing?

I mean, my goodness. And then you start to think, maybe it's not better than the other place, right? I mean, if it's just repetitive singing over and over and over again for eternity, it's like, that's, to someone that's hell, right?

To someone that's punishment. So I kind of look at it and I go, we just have not thought very clearly about this, about what it's like. And the fact of the matter is we don't know. And so I would caution you about speculation.

I'm just looking at the text going, there's something about healing, there's something about leaves. Maybe there's gonna still be an ongoing healing that happens there, I don't know. Sorry, Dr. Whitmer, for not taking your advice.

And I went ahead and shared that anyways. But the leaves have something to do with healing, and the fruit is also not normal. As I mentioned earlier, these trees produce a crop of different kinds of fruit each month.

Just that a tree would produce a crop within one month is a pretty big deal, right? Like, I mean, it takes a while for an apple to form. But this every month, it's gonna have a new and different kind of fruit on this tree.

And then every year, it repeats that process. So there's a new fruit every month, and then after the end of that year, it repeats itself again and starts over again. And that's the implication from the text.

And anybody who tells you, by the way, just from this text, just from that statement alone, people will say, oh, there's no passing of time in heaven. It's all just kind of like free flowing and stuff and on the new earth, it says month, and it says 12 months with a cycle of a year intended there.

We will mark out the months, we will mark out the years according to the production of these trees. And so it's gonna be time, just like we experience now. It's gonna be linear in the way that we interact with each other.

We, again, are created beings. We are not going to become gods and goddesses. We are gonna still be in one place at a time and all of those kinds of things. But this opens a window on the uniqueness of this creation, just that there's a new kind of tree that you and I have never experienced.

And that tells us that there is indeed continuity with this earth, but there's also gonna be differences. There's gonna be changes. This world that God has created has not exhausted his creativity. Did you realize that?

What we experience here in this world and in this place is scratching the surface of the creativity of our God and he will have new things there for us to discover. It'll be, I believe, new trees, as indicated here, a tree that we've never experienced before, but it'll be there and it'll produce fruit every month and it'll be a different kind of fruit.

Anybody ever seen a tree like that? It'd be kind of unique, right? This is a different type of creation. I believe there'll be new trees, plants, food, animals, many other features that we don't know and we don't even conceive of.

Trees that produce a different kind of fruit each month are unnatural to where we live and we can only imagine what other amazing discoveries God has planned for his children on the new earth. When he tells us it's gonna be glorious, he tells us it's gonna be amazing.

The End of the Curse and the Presence of God

In verse three, there's a breathtaking statement that probably didn't take your breath away when you read it. I repeated it because I'm just blown away in my study this week at this statement at the beginning of verse three.

No longer will there be anything accursed. We don't get the impact of that because it's nestled in a word that we don't use very often, but what this is implying is the end of the curse. No more curse.

What is it that you face and experience every day as the hurdle and the struggle of your life?

It's curse.

It's the curse that we brought upon ourselves by sinning against our creator and all of that relational crud that you can,.

I mean, I think probably everybody in the room.

Can think of or speak to a broken relationship that you want restored. Everybody can talk about some physical ailment or difficulty that you've had to endure or go through. Everybody can talk about just all kinds of things and hurdles that have gotten in the way of your joy and happiness and connection with God and connection with others.

All different kinds of things that break that down, but all of those things come down to this one word, curse. A curse that we brought on ourselves. And here, there will be nothing accursed. And that's another way of saying there will be no cursed thing.

What verse three is saying is that the curse that we brought upon ourselves at the creation will be undone.

It will be abolished.

The pain, the toil, the relational animosity, the broken creation, the decay, the reality of death, the scarcity of commodities, the abuse of power, the distance from our maker, all gone. All gone, no more.

How I long for that day. Do you long for this day? Do you see it with eyes of joy and with enthusiasm and with excitement over what he has for us? The fact of the matter is, sometimes the very things that are to produce joy in us are the things that draw us back because it's the very difficulties that we face that get our spirits down, right?

And at the same time, he's here saying, there's a day coming, folks. If you're with Christ, there is a day coming where that will be no more. Anybody excited about that day? Anybody enthusiastic about that place and that he is preparing for his children, those who he loves and those who love him?

Instead of the curse, the presence of our God and the lamb who has saved us. His presence instead of curse. They will dwell in our midst and we, his servants, will worship him. We will behold his face and his name will be on our foreheads as a sign of his ownership over us.

I hope you can feel the glory of verses three and four. The reversal of the curse, the presence of our God and savior, the pure and unsullied worship that we will offer him for eternity, the eternal seal of God's ownership tattooed on our foreheads.