A Commentary in Simple English on Revelation

CHAPTER 22

This chapter has two parts. The first part is verses 1-5; perhaps verse 6 belongs with these verses. This is the last part of what John has to say about the City of God. Then verses 7-21 are more like Chapter 1. There are several 'words of prophecy' in those verses.

Verses 1-5: Inside the Holy City. The River of Life

Now (verse 1) the angel shows John the River of Life. First, God gave to men a garden with rivers of water (Genesis 2:8-14). Then He gave to men a holy City, Jerusalem, which had no gardens or rivers. Now God gives to men both the city and the garden with its river. This river is a river of power: it flows from the 'throne' of God. It is a river of grace and love: it flows from the throne of the Lamb. It is pure and clear. It makes us clean and it gives life to us. This is another picture from the Old Testament. (See Joel 3:18; Zechariah 14:8; Ezekiel 47:7.) The river that Ezekiel saw flowed out from the Temple: but in the City of God, this cannot be, for there is no temple there.

Ephesus, too, had its river that flowed down from the mountains far to the east. Its source was many miles away. It flowed past the great Temple of Artemis, and then round the north side of the city. It must have been slow, muddy and dirty. John says that the River of Life is far better than that. It flows through the middle of the great street of the city (verse 2) [22.1] No doubt the river will flow far beyond the City; and it will bring goodness and life, like the river in Ezekiel. There were several stories about how the city of Ephesus began. This may have been a thousand years before John wrote. Some of these had to do with a tree. And there was often a picture of a tree on the coins that were made at Ephesus. [22.2]. But the city of God has a far better tree.

a) In Genesis 2:9, God planted the Tree of Life in Eden. Adam (Genesis 2:16) was then free to eat from it. But instead he chose with Eve to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. (Genesis 3:6). Then he could no longer eat from the Tree of Life. So God sent Adam out of the Garden. (Genesis 3:23). But now in the City of God, the Tree of Life is there for everyone. (See verse 14.)

b) But when John speaks about a tree in the Book of Revelation, the thought of the Cross of Jesus is never far away from his thought. It is the Cross on which Jesus died which is really the Tree of Life for us.

c) The Tree of Life produces fruit each month right through the year. And there is a different kind of fruit each month (Jeremiah 17:8; Psalm 1:3). This life we have now is short. Yet sometimes it makes us tired because nothing fresh or different happens. Life is always the same. Life in glory will not be like that. It will have no end. But there will be always something different and fresh. We will never be tired of that life.

d) Then the nations have fought one another. The nations have been 'wounded' in these wars. The leaves of the tree will heal these 'wounds' (Isaiah 53:5).

Then in verse 3, John says that there will no longer be any 'curse' (Zechariah 14:11). When Adam sinned in the Garden, God placed a 'curse' on the 'serpent', the devil, (Genesis 3:14, 15) and on the ground (Genesis 3:17-19). We may feel that Genesis 3:16 is also in part a 'curse' on Eve, the woman. If God takes away the 'curse' there is only 'blessing'. The promise in this verse in Revelation is not only that God will take away the 'curse' of Genesis 3. There will be no other 'curse' to take its place. There will only be 'blessing'. We should also think about Galatians 3:10, 13. Paul speaks there about another 'curse', 'the curse of the Law'. Christ took this away by His death so that God's blessing could go out to all men. There is no curse with Christ's law, which is: -'Love one another'.

The rest of verse 3 is quite wonderful. There is only one 'throne', one seat from which God and the Lamb rule. It will be in the city: but then John says: - 'His servants'. He ought to say: - 'Their servants'. But God the Father and the Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ, are one with the Holy Spirit. They are one God. When the servants of the Lamb serve Him, they also serve the Father.

We have already said that we will not become tired in glory. This verse tells us that God's people will serve or worship Him. They are His servants or 'slaves'. But verse 5 also says that they will reign like kings. We can read a little more about the life we shall enjoy in glory in 21:24 and verse 26.

'They will see His face'. (verse 4) This is the great, final promise, which God gives to His people. We shall not just see Him: we shall see His face. (See Exodus 33:18-23.) We shall see Him, and we shall become like Him. [22.3].

Kings in ancient times often lived in their palaces. Hardly anyone saw them. This was partly to keep them safe. Only a few great and powerful men saw them (Esther 1:14). It was a great honour to see the king (Isaiah 33:17). But this is an honour that all God's people will enjoy in glory.

Think about this along with verse 5. In this life, a man who becomes a Christian is usually given a great deal of light in his mind at first. He sees and learns much of God's truth. This happens quickly. He is sure of the truth of what he knows. But very often as the years go by, he finds there is more darkness in his mind. This may be because of sin; but it may not be for this reason. Perhaps because God does not give us so much fresh light on His truth, we feel we are in darkness. This troubles us, because it does not seem to be right (Isaiah 50:10). We have to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). But John says that in glory it will not be like that: 'there will be no more night'.

Then John adds that God will write His Name on our foreheads. (See 3:12; 7:3; Numbers 6:23-27.) This 'name' may be a new name that God will give to each one of us. Slaves in John's day might have the name of their owner burnt or 'branded' on their foreheads. No one though that it was wrong to do that to slaves. But sometimes a bad master would burn or 'brand' his slave with words that were shameful or disgusting. At least some people felt that was wrong! Perhaps some of John's Christian readers in the churches were slaves. They might have scars like that on their foreheads. They would never get rid of the shame of those scars as long as they lived. But God promises to give a new life to us. Then all the shame of the old life will be left behind. And the only marks will be marks of high honour.

One of the great 'blessings' Christians have from God is light. He gives light in our minds (Psalm 27:1). And verse 27 promises that in glory there will be no limit or end to this. God will shine on us for ever. And His slaves will 'king it' for ever. There is no thought that we shall rule over one another then; so let us have no idea that we rule each other now. We are only to serve one another in love.

Verses 6 and 7 Jesus will come soon

Verse 6 may just be the end of what John says about the City of God. But it may rather be the final word of all that John has written since 1:1. Or it may just be the start of the rest of the chapter.

John does not say that it is the angel who speaks to him again. But there is no reason to doubt this. The Lord is the God whose Holy Spirit is at work in the prophets. The prophets here and in verse 9 means the prophets who gave their messages to the churches in Asia. For the last part of the verse, see 1:1. John probably does not mean that these things will soon start to happen. Rather, when they do happen it will all happen quickly.

In verse 7, it is of course Jesus who promises again that He will soon come back from heaven to this world. He will come to bring an end to the events that this book tells us about. Then God's servants will no longer have to serve God in a world that hates both them and Him. Then the second part of the verse is the sixth of the seven 'blessings' or 'beatitudes' in Revelation.

Verses 7-21 The last sayings

We have grown used to the care with which John has put his book together. So it would be strange if there were no order or shape to these last verses. There may be seven separate sayings here. But I cannot say anything more than that. However, there is much that is beautiful and wonderful in these verses, even if we cannot see a clear shape.

In verse 8, John says: 'I am the man who heard and saw these things'. Once again as in 19:10, he feels the wonder of what the angel has shown him. So John falls down to worship the angel. (Remember 1:17.) There may well have been people in the churches in Asia who thought that it was right to worship angels (Colossians 2:18). As before the angel does not let John worship him. The angel is only a fellow slave of God. He serves God, just as the prophets of Asia do. If we give God all our worship in this life and in the life to come, we shall not give Him as much worship as we ought to give to Him.

In verse 10, the angel tells John not to make a secret of what he has seen and heard. In Daniel 12:9, a 'man' told Daniel to keep secret the 'visions' which he had seen. They were for a future time, which was far away. But the time when John's book will help God's people is not far off in the future.

Verse 11 is not easy. But the angel may say here something like Jesus did in Matthew 13:30. What is good and what is bad must grow up together until the time when God judges the world. So here the angel says: - 'People who do what is wrong will still do what is wrong. People who are not pure will still be bad‘. It will be like that until the End of the Age. But Christians are holy. They do what is right. Christians must not say:'- It is no good trying'. The world may be very bad. But we must say: -'We will still be holy and do what is right' (Matthew 24:12). We must not let the badness of the world stop us from leading the Christian life.

In verse 12, Jesus says again that He will come soon. He said this in verse 7. But there He said He would come to end this age. Now He says that when He comes, He will also come as a Judge. 'The Lord will judge His people'. But He will not judge against them. He will judge in their favour. He will give to His people the reward for which they have waited so long.

In 1:8, it was 'the Lord God' who said that He was 'Alpha and Omega'. Here it is Jesus who says this. Once again, John makes it plain to us that Jesus is God. He is not 'a god' or anything of that sort. He is nothing less than God. (See Isaiah 44: 6 and 48:12.)

7:14 told us about those who washed their clothes and made them white and pure. This is only a picture, of course. It means that the blood of Jesus makes us clean from our sins. It means that He makes us really holy. So here in verse 14, we are told how 'blessed', how happy such people are. They are 'to be envied'. Other people will look at them and say: - 'I wish that I could go into the City. I wish that I could eat some fruit picked from the Tree of Life'. God gives His people the right to do this (2:7). We shall have the right to go to the Tree of Life and to eat the fruit, which grows on it.

This is a picture, once again. In this life we have to eat and drink to keep our bodies alive. God will give us new bodies in glory, and in some way we shall draw from Him the power to stay alive forever. Outside the city gates and walls there are people who are like dogs which are dirty and eat rubbish. There are also the priests who serve the 'false gods'; they trick people with 'drugs'. There are people whose sex lives are not pure. There are people who kill and there are people who worship 'false gods' and those who cheat. But none of them can come into the City.

In verse 16, John again makes it clear that Jesus is God. Jesus sent His angel. But in verse 6, it was 'the Lord God' who sent the angel. So Jesus is the Lord. He is God. But we must look at this verse with great care. For it is one of the great verses of the Book. Jesus says here that He has not just sent the message to John. Your Bible may have a note here. 'You' does not mean just John. It means several people. Perhaps it means the 'angels' or 'messengers' of the churches as well. God gives the message to all the churches.

Look back to 2:20-29. That is the message to the Church in Thyatira. It is the fourth of the seven messages to the churches. It is the middle one, and the longest one. And there in verse 23 Jesus says: 'All the churches will know...' That is the only thing in those seven messages which connects the seven churches together. Then Jesus says what it is that the churches will know. It is that 'I AM'. And He uses the two words that He used (1:17) when He said: - 'Fear not, I AM the First and the Last'. We have just seen those words in verse 13. They mean that God is everything in between as well! But here again we have 'I AM' in verse 16. Jesus says: 'I AM the Root and Offspring of David'. This 'I AM' is used by Jesus in many places in John's Gospel. But it is also found in each of the other Gospels. It is Jesus who says to us: 'I AM Jehovah'.

In the rest of the verse, we have two pictures of Jesus. One is this. David was the great king of Israel in the Old Testament. He was the king who was to rule the nations. (See the message to Thyatira, 2:27 again and Psalm 2:9.) This verse says that David was like a tree. Any tree must have roots. Jesus was the root from which that tree grew. But then the tree was cut down, David's kingdom came to an end. When that happened, it was not the end. Now growth came up out of the ground. And this new growth is Jesus, who is called 'the Son of David'. (See verses like Isaiah 6:13 and 53:2.) [22.4].

But then we have another picture. We are in darkness. We want to see a new day dawn. And in the sky we see a bright star. And we are full of hope. We know that we do not have very long to wait. Jesus is that bright star (Numbers 24:17). And this is something else that we read before in the message to Thyatira (2:28). When we read what John wrote about the Holy City, we could not see anything which made us think of Thyatira. But this verse more than makes up for it!

In verse 17, the Holy Spirit of God and the Church, the Bride of Christ, speak with one voice. It is the Holy Spirit who works in the Church. The two speak together and say: -'Come'! We are not sure exactly what this means.

a) Christ has promised to come again. (See verse 7 and verse 12.) He is wonderful (verse 16). So the Church wants Him to come again. He will end our weakness and pain. He will end the suffering of His people. - So the Spirit moves in the Church. The Church desires Christ above all and calls out to Him: 'Come'! (See verse 20).

b) But it may be that the first half of the verse is more like the second half. There are sinners who feel their need (Isaiah 55:1). They are thirsty for 'the water of life' (John 7:37). This is a gift, which God will give to those who come to Him. It is free. So perhaps the Spirit of God at work in the Church moves the Church to call sinners to come to Jesus. Billy Bray used to say: -'Come to heaven! If there is one crown short I will willingly go without one'! [22.5]

It is not only the 'Spirit and the Bride' who cry out. Every Christian who hears must join in. [22.6]. So we too cry to sinners: - 'Come!' It is not to the church which we see now that we call people to come. The church now is full of trouble. But we call people to come to Jesus and to the Church in glory, the Bride. And the people may come just because of their need. They are thirsty. (Luke 15:17. The younger son had no better reason to return to his father. He had nothing but his need.)

Verses 18 and 19 are a warning not to make changes in this Book. In ancient times it was common for people to make changes when books were copied. Now that we print books this is not so easy to do (Deuteronomy 4:2).

Then in verse 20, Jesus gives His third promise. 'Yes, I am coming soon'. (See verses 7 and 12.) This time, we reply: - 'Amen. Come, Lord Jesus' (1 Corinthians 16:22). So in verse 7, Jesus said: - 'I will come again. Obey My Word, so that you will be ready when I come'. Then in verse 12, Jesus said: - 'Yes, I will come again. Then you will receive your reward'. Here in verse 20, we have rather the desire which the Church feels that Jesus should come. 'And so we will be for ever with the Lord' (1 Thessalonians 4: 7).

We have no reason to doubt. God has already done what is greater than this. God Himself has become Man. He has been put to shame. He has died. This is wonderful. It seems even more wonderful than what will happen when Jesus comes again.

We wait for glory. We wait until we see God's power. Till then, some Christians have greater gifts. Some Christians have less. But verse 21 tells us what all Christians have at all times (Acts 4:33). 'May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints'.