Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 1

• So here is the source of the fountain of the water of life mentioned last week in Revelation 21 verse 6!  Notice, the throne of God and of the Lamb!  Two major points in and of themselves there.  First, the source is the throne.  Not the seat, not the couch, not the feet, not the hands…the throne, which speaks of royalty, kingship and authority.  That’s major because so often I approach the Lord with my own agenda and my own desires and my own cares and my own complaints but is that any way to approach the King?  Not hardly.
• And I wonder why problems persist and peace doesn’t proliferate?  Answer > My heart is not able to receive from the Lord.  Think of it this way.  I approach the throne and bark out my petition in some sort of carnal inclination or motive and that prayer is granted on the spot then guess what I’m free to do…remain a flesh ball man…no good!  And God knows it!  So He, at times, as the Bible says in Isaiah Chapter 1:15, as we stretch out our hands before Him, He will not hear, or better stated, He will not heed…He answers “no”…for our own good…so that we might become desperate for Him and therefore free from the flesh.
• And notice the throne is of two persons, right.  God AND the Lamb which certainly speaks of the Father and the Son being two distinct persons yet One.  “Why?”  You might say.  “Why can’t it be just like one throne and they’re playing “lapsies?”  You know, maybe the Lamb sitting on the lap of God…well that’s fine, just one problem.  Several places in the Bible we read that God will not share His glory…it’s actually an impossibility.  No created being can contain His glory and Isaiah 44:6 says, “there is no other god besides Me.”  So there are no other uncreated beings wither…And so we have a truth.  If there is one throne and two persons then there is one God and two persons…pretty simple, certainly clear.
• And one last critical, (awesome), item before we move on.  This word in the Greek for river is potamos which can also be translated, “flood.”  And so he showed me a pure flood of water of life.  And I dig that.  Why?  Because many have this idea that the sufficiency of God’s mercy, grace, love and truth is like a hamster water bottle.  You know those bottles on the side of their cages that they just hit every time they are thirsty?  But that’s not what God has said!
• God says, FLOOD!  Isaiah 44:3 says, “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring!”  And Jesus in John 7:38 said that “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water!”  Man the reality and presence and wonder and love and truth and power of God is not some sort of WWII torture tactic…or was it WWI…you know the steady drop of water on the forehead…
• It’s not like the leaky faucet that keeps you up at night with its constant drip, it’s not just enough when you are thirsty like the hamster bottle…man it’s like JUMAJI!  Ever seen that movie!?  Water RUSHES in man!  Sweeps you away!  You’re immersed in the flood, lost in the current, to the point that you even burst forth with it, man! 
• “Oh Matt, that’s not my walk man…mine is joyless, floodless…that’s just you.”  NO!  That’s JUST YOU man! And oh by the way, why you gotta dam up, shore up the flood for others!?
• Jeremiah 2 says that the people have done evil and forsaken the fountain of living water by hewning out for themselves busted, cracked, broken cisterns that cannot hold water!  Where are you lacking humility man?  Where are you lacking faith man?  Where are you struggling with pride man?  Where are you afraid to be found out…because God has said, I will give to him to drink of the flood of living water, I’ll pour it out all over you man…if you would simply come to Me and trust Me…so who’s lying, you or God!? 
• I dig the picture…the continual flood of loving water from the very throne of God and of the Lamb…restricted to no one from God but so often restricted…lay it down man and get in on this!

Revelation Chapter 22

• This is spysical!  The Tree of Life.  Guarded since the Garden, man.  Now open for business!  Why spysical?  Well here’s some chow man.  Fruit, a different kind every month.  Month?  Yep.  So is there time?  It would appear so.  But aren’t we outside of time at this point?  Yea, it would appear so…so huh?  No, not “huh,” spysical!  Open your ideas past your senses man…are we spiritual?  Yes.  Are we physical?  Yes.  Do we eat?  Yes.  Luke 24:37-43.  The resurrected Jesus shows up in all His wonder and what does He say, “have you any yum yum?”  (sorry I have little ones.)  And the scripture says, “when they gave Him a piece of fish and some honey, and saw Him eat it, they knew He was not a phatom.” 
• Do we drink?  Yes!  Verse 17 in this same chapter tells us to take of the water of life freely!  “Oh man, I’m confused!”  Don’t be!  Be at peace.  What is to come is beyond us man…beyond this, it’s eternally better, astronomically wondrous and by faith we can see it, man…sypsical!  SO cool!
• And what’s this bit about the healing of the nations?  Does that mean there is sickness in heaven?  Not so much.  The Greek word translated “healing” is therapeia from which we get our word, “therapy.”  So this healing is not healing from sickness but rather in the original language it speaks of exhilaration and invigoration…
• Do you ever get tired of being tired?  Man, I do…How awesome will it be when we are with the Lord, surfing the rapids of the river of life…fishing maybe if you’re not into surfing…skipping gold rocks, eating some good fruit and continually revived by the leaves of the Tree of Life! 

Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 3

• Man there is just so much going on in the Greek in the beginning of this chapter!  The Greek word for curse in verse 3 is katathema and it is a word that is only used one time in the entire New Testament and that one time is right here.  Why?
• Because this is it, the curse.  THE curse.  All has been righted.  All has been healed.  Evil is not even a word in the vocabulary of heaven…the curse, singular, the Great Harlot, singular, pain singular, pride, singular, depression, singular…gone…replaced with the throne of God and the Lamb…precisely the process that begins to happen in your own heart when you live after the things of God, filled with the love and grace of the Lamb!
• And His doulos latreou Him…His servants shall serve Him…just as they do today…another way to say that is His servants shall worship Him, love on Him…that word latreou, used 21 times in the New Testament which is indicative of our perfect response to God today…to simply serve Him…after all, that’s the perfect response in perfection…can’t go wrong now then!

Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 4

• I was thinking about this.  Why not put his name on our arms or chest or awesome heavenly six pack abs?  I mean when is the last time you saw someone with a tattoo on their forehead?  Then it occurs to me, everyone can see the Lord’s name on me…but me.  And humility enters.  So often I only see the Lord’s name on myself.  I think of myself so highly and think of myself so solid positionally in Christ and yet God’s heart is for me to grant preference to, grant greater grace…to others…
• Humility man…that is the beginning of service to the King.  Placing others before yourself.  Even as offenses come…even as psshhhhhh’s come when you hear what they say, see what they do, read their tweets and borrow their car and they’ve go Bon Jovi in their CD deck!  HA!  I’m so quick to jump to accusation man and to withhold grace…when I should see the name of the King upon their forehead and not my own…God fix my heart please…so that I might serve You…

Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 5

• Ah this word for night, it’s nyx in the Greek and it also means stupidity…laziness…shame, darkness, weariness…all that is gone.  And this word reign in the Greek, guess how many times it shows up in the pages of scripture…21 times…7+7+7…perfect!
• The singular curse, gone.  The perfect fellowship with God restored.  The wondrous and complete picture of what God created us for in the first place…absolutely and eternally reinstated…all because of the cross of Jesus Christ.  And that will forever be on our minds, literally, and as we enjoy the light and the warmth that emanates from Him, without interruption or partiality, as John writes here, “forever and ever.”
• I wonder tonight if you have heaven in your heart.  That’s what you have if you have opened your heart to the Holy Spirit.  You have a glimpse of this…what we just talked about.  You have the down payment, the guarantee as the Bible would say and that, Peter writes, is hope and that hope leads to a life of power and purity.  A life of eternal significance and substance.  A connection with your Creator…would you call upon Him today…ask Him to show this to you…He will, in Jesus’ name.