5/19/24 Revelation 22:12-21 “The Ultimate Goal in Your Life!”

17 May 5/19/24 Revelation 22:12-21 “The Ultimate Goal in Your Life!”

5/19/24    Revelation 22:12-21           “The Ultimate Goal in Your Life!”

This is the last Sunday on our series of preaching through the Bible.  In spite of some of the shortcomings of this series, I hope that you have learned a little as we went through the Bible this year.  One thing that I have found to be rather difficult is to preach on the proper sections for the various Christian seasons of the year.  For instance, we are in Revelation and this is Pentecost Sunday.  This is a time that we celebrate Jesus giving us the Holy Spirit.  Personally, I think that this is one of the most important Sundays of the year.  It ranks right with Christmas and Easter.  Unfortunately, many times this Sunday comes after Memorial Day when many people are gone.  Hopefully, I will be able to tie the Holy Spirit to our passage in Revelation today.  It shouldn’t be too hard a task but always remember that when I say things like inviting Jesus into your hearts, I mean the Holy Spirit.  It is the Spirit who is here on earth.  And He is everywhere.  He is the one who lives inside of you when you come to know Jesus.  Today, we are going to look at the very end of the Bible.  Let’s see what Jesus wants us to know about the very end or maybe the very beginning.

I don’t know if this has ever happened to anyone else but it did happen to me when I was a kid.  I was a pretty normal little boy who thought his room was clean if he could somehow get to the bed.  Anyway, one time my mother had to go someplace, maybe it was to town as we were raised on a farm. Only someone raised on the farm would know what the term ‘going to town’ means.  She was going to be back in a couple of hours.  I was supposed to clean my room before she got home again.  In a little boy’s mind, this means I would have lots of time for playing and maybe 5 minutes for cleaning.  So she left and I went and played.  I’m not real sure how this happened, whether I lost track of time or she came home early, but she got home before I started in my room.  The next thing I know she is asking me why I didn’t get the room cleaned.  This is a lot like when we keep putting off coming to know Jesus.  He will come back to us unannounced.  We don’t know when He is coming back so we have to be ready now because when He does come back, there are no more second chances like our mothers gave us.

Before we begin I would like to point out an interesting little tidbit.  When I was still a pastor in a physical church, I would list the Scripture readings in the bulletin for the coming week.  These were from the lectionary.  The lectionary is the list of verses composed for every week of the year and it goes for 3 years before it repeats itself.  It is used by many denominations and many pastors preach from it.  I have reasons that I use it when I’m not on another series or doing something else.  However, the lectionary does not include every verse of the Bible, just those that are supposedly more worthy for preaching.  For example, a lot of the book of Numbers is not included.  Anyway, it is a guide for our reading and preaching.

It is interesting to note that this passage was part of the lectionary last week, only parts were left out.  Verse 15 was left out because it was a warning against magic, sexual immorality, murderers, idolators and those who practice falsehood.  Verses 18-19 were also left out.  They dealt with what happens when we try to change the words of the Scriptures.  From what I can see, these people who make this lectionary are trying to create their own god which does not include any judgment.  The god of the lectionary is only a feel good god where there is no judgment.  When you are looking at various things that seem to be very good, take a look at what they do not say.  You may be surprised to find that something that is supposedly as reliable as the lectionary has a political agenda.  Here we have our dear old lectionary doing exactly what verses 18-19 tell us not to do for fear of eternal condemnation.

Moving on, the first thing Jesus says here is I am coming soon!  This is also the last thing so I will get back to it.  Notice that Jesus also says that our reward is with Him.  Jesus will give to us according to what we have done when we get to heaven.  I think this is pretty important on two levels.  The first is that you will get the kingdom of heaven to be yours if you surrender your life to Jesus in this life.  If you confess to Him and ask Him to be Lord and Savior of your life, then He will give you all He has when you get to Heaven.

I think that there is also a second part to this and there may be some disagreement on this.  When you get to heaven, you will be judged by the good works that you have done in this life.  You will also be rewarded accordingly.  All Christians will get to heaven but we will be in different places according to the good works we have done in this world.  This is a hard concept for us to get our minds around.  I think we will be in the perfect place for us and we will not know the difference because it is a perfect place.  Jesus will still be in charge of the tree of life.  Therefore, He is able to give and withhold information about this perfect place.  I know I can’t explain this very well and it is ok to disagree with me.  It is my opinion on this, my ramblings.

The important part of all this is that we keep the word of God.  I have just shown you how the ultimate goal is heaven and you will never get there unless you have Jesus in your hearts.  For many of us this is not a problem.  I have also tried to show you that if you want the best place possible in heaven, you will keep the Word of God.

But what about right now?  If I were graduating from high school next week, I would make a promise to follow the ways of God all the time.  I would do this so that I could have a chance at the best life possible.  We have talked about this before in that you will live longer, happier and wealthier with Jesus than without Him.  That is a fact.  I also told you a couple of weeks ago that I have never met a happy atheist, never!  I look at some of the demonstrations happening in this country and elsewhere and I can only come to one conclusion.  If Satan isn’t behind most of these riots, then I don’t know who is?  If you watch these people, they look like they are in some sort of demon-crazed state.  You don’t need a crazed state to be happy.  You only need Jesus.  You are going to get a lot of pressure not to follow Jesus but don’t cave into this.  You have been raised with some pretty good principles.  Stick to them and you will do fine, better than fine.  This is Pentecost Sunday.  Let the Holy Spirit live in you and guide you in all you do.  You will never regret this.

The next thing I want to bring up here is that we are to wash our robes so that they will be clean and we can go through the gates to heaven.  This again means that you are to go to Jesus and confess your sins to Him so that you are clean and can go to heaven.  If you don’t do this, then you will be one of the dogs that hang around outside the gate which is a polite way of saying ‘hell.’  Please remember that the Jews hated dogs.  This would be the worst kind of insult.  Then Jesus names some of the sins that will keep us out.  The modern lectionary doesn’t want you to know what will keep you out of heaven because they think that everyone will be there.  I’m here to tell you today that everyone will not get to heaven.  If you are an unrepentant sinner committing these particular sins, you won’t get there.  The road is wide that leads to hell.  The path is narrow that goes to heaven.

So we have all of this bad stuff that can and will cause us to go to the wrong place if we are not vigilant.  But the Good News here is that Jesus came for us.  He came for you.  He is the beginning and the end.  He is the first and the last and everything that is in between.  Not only that, but Jesus tells us once again that He is the one who was foretold in the Old Testament.  He is the root and offspring of David.  He is the ultimate fulfillment of all the prophecies.  Furthermore, He is the seeds we are planting this spring.  He is the buds on the trees.  He is the baby robin dancing the wonderful robin dance of spring.  He is everything that we have ever had and He is everything that we will ever get.

I don’t care if you are 9 years old today or 95, Jesus Christ is your future.  If you find you are in a hole today, come to Jesus for help.  If things are so bleak that darkness would seem brighter than where you are, come to Jesus.  He will help you out of these places.  If you are doing great, come to Jesus.  If you are doing so-so, come to Jesus.  That is all the He has ever wanted from us.  He wants to be your best friend.  He wants to help you throughout eternity.  This is the love He has for you that we don’t understand.  Quit trying to understand everything and believe in Jesus.  I repeat, believe in Jesus!  He is the way, the truth and the life.

Now we come to the climax of the book.  The Spirit invites you to come.  Whoever is thirsty come!  Whoever wishes, let them come and drink of the water of life.  There are no restrictions to this.  This is open to anyone and everyone.

This whole book comes right down to this.  Jesus Christ is for everyone on the earth.  He is for the poor and rich, the strong and lame, the loser, the handicapped, and the criminal.  We have found that when we have Jesus in our hearts, we will have a better life.  He may not cure you of your physical illness, but He sure will help you deal with it.  If you don’t believe this, then ask someone like Joni Eareckson Tada who has lived her life as a quadriplegic.  There are millions of stories of the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit and they are all true.

Before I finish I want to stress one of the things that we are not to do that is happening everywhere we look.  We are not to change one word of Scripture.  The UMC in their general conference just changed a whole bunch of Scripture to make it feel good.  Now I think that when John wrote this, he was thinking in terms of just the book of Revelation because the Bible hadn’t been put together yet.  But we have to remember who is inspiring all the writings of the Bible, including Revelation.  I think that God inspired John to include this warning and it is for the whole Bible.  That is the neat part of being God.  You know all things for all times.  Do not change any words of the Scriptures or you will pay dearly for eternity.

One of the arguments you hear is that all the various versions of the Bible are different and therefore these editors are in eternal trouble.  I don’t think so because if you look at these changes, they are for the most part, cosmetic.  They try to say the same thing in modern English.  However, there are versions out there that I would not use because they have changed the meaning of the Word.  This also applies to those people who interpret or twist the Word to say what they want it to say.  I think that this is how many Christians will and are losing their way.  If you don’t think so, then why does the lectionary leave this out?  They do that so that they can shape God to their liking.  I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes for judgment!

Now let’s go back to the beginning which is also the ending.  Jesus says, “I am coming soon.”  This is a true statement especially in the light of how time is so much different for God than it is for us.  Personally, I don’t think there is time in heaven as we know it.  I think that it is timeless.  I get this from the Bible and much of the literature of those who have glimpsed heaven for a moment.  Jesus is coming and He could be coming next year, next week or in the next hour.  The important part of this is are you ready?  He will come suddenly and unexpectedly but He will come.

He will also come to each of us individually as we end our journey on earth.  We also don’t know if we will die in 50 years, 50 weeks or 50 minutes.  But we can be assured, if we have asked Jesus into our hearts, that when He comes to take us home individually, we will be with Him in heaven.  I pray that eventually I will see every one of you there also.  I also pray that you will be keeping and doing the things He has told us throughout the Bible so that others, our neighbors and friends, will be there also.  This book we have just finished is the greatest love story ever told, ever printed; the story of the love of God for us, for you.

Joseph Smith tells a story told of a member of his church who was in a book store trying to figure out which Bible to purchase and what other materials he would need to further his quest to know Jesus better.  This can be a daunting task.  This member looked up to see someone else from the congregation rushing across the room, obviously in a great hurry.  The member thought the person in a rush might have some advice for him so he took off after her.  When he intercepted her he asked, “Could you help me?  What Bible should I get and what other materials might be good to help me understand Jesus better?”  To his amazement even though she was clearly in a big hurry, she stopped and answered all his questions.  She helped him find a Bible, other materials and she explained them very carefully.  In other words, this woman knew what her real mission was and it wasn’t rushing across this bookstore and being in a hurry.  I would guess that both these people will someday meet again when they are finally home with the Lord.

That is our ultimate goal, to live with Jesus forever.  Our short term goal is to follow Jesus in this life so that we can have the best lives possible here.  This is not possible without Jesus.  This has been a great study on the Bible and I hope that everyone buys one of those read the Bible in a year Bibles.  Jesus has made following Him so easy.  Just read, study, pray, and worship and you will find this to be true.  Jesus loves you and will never leave.  Thank you Jesus for all you do.  Let’s pray.