The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. Revelation22:17
We've taken a whistle-stop tour through John's Revelation. We've reminded ourselves that the message of Revelation is not about _the_ end. It is not even that "the end is nigh."
Rather, the message of Revelation is, "when it feels like the end or that the end is nigh - remember this: God is in charge and evil will not have the final say!"
And so this amazing Pastoral Poetic Prophetic Postage from John has been the comfort of the church in the catacombs, the security of the persecuted church in the Reformation, the inspiration of the churches behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains and the solid rock of churches in North Africa.
Its core comfort is that God is aware and active in the midst of the pain and heartache of the world. Its key truth is that evil is a beast that will ultimately be brought to book. One of my New Testament Profs, Pieter de Villiers, wrote a book about Revelation and entitled it "Leviathan on a Leash."
But beyond the comfort of knowing that God is with us and that evil is limited, there is an even more important message in Revelation and it repeated and reiterated in so many ways and pictures throughout the book: "Whoever is thirsty can come!"
Revelation speaks of beasts, dragons, calamities, earthquakes, signs, trumpets, candlestands, churches and angels, but emerging through the chaos in the brightness of His glory is Jesus Christ the Champion riding on the white horse of victory - the Son of God who gave Himself for all and conquered death and sin and Satan.
He is our Champion and He offers us life-giving, thirst-quenching water in the midst of a chaotic and broken world and if we drink we will be satisfied!
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And this brings us to the end of our series on Revelation.
Hope you enjoyed it!
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
