The Prayer That Ends the Bible | Revelation 21:10 - 22:21

Show Notes

Episode 790: 
In this episode, we explore the final chapters of Revelation, where John describes the beauty of the new heaven and new earth. I read passages that depict the stunning imagery of the Holy City, Jerusalem, descending from heaven, adorned with precious stones and illuminated by the glory of God. We discuss the significance of this imagery, emphasizing the perfect harmony and peace that will exist in God's presence.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, Happy Friday. Oh man, tg im man. And it's everybody's favorite day. It is. It's an exciting day for the Bible Guys. I'm Chris, this is Jeff, and we're glad you tuned in. We are actually wrapping up. Today is our last day, Jeff. Yes, and our dangerous prayers, dangerous prayers and and this week we're talking about prayers of perseverance and uh. And actually today we're talking about the prayer that ends the Bible. Yeah, I guess what that title means is it's the end of the it's the last prayer in the bus. It's the last prayer in the Bible. And uh, there's a certain amount of the attitude is about finishing life with hope and urgency and all those things. It's really cool. Yeah, it's good. Yeah, we're gonna like it. But before we do that, a very urgent thing we have to deal with is everybody's favorite psyche segment on The Bible Guy's podcast. We didn't do it last week, is what I know. And so it's all pent up now, right. What made Chris mad this week? Yeah? So, actually it's ironic the way that this came about. My thought it actually happened, something positive happened which I was so grateful for, which made me mad for the opposite. So so what made me mad? Actually, the mad thing didn't happen this week. It's a good thing that I appreciated, which made me mad for all the bad things. That makes sense, right, Yes, so here's here's the good thing. The good thing that happened was a plumber literally came to my house like today, literally right now, as we're right, yes, yes, and it was a little thing. So, hey, the sinks upstairs are not doing uh you know, they're not acting well, they're you know, they're just they're leaking everywhere. Blah blah blah. Well a plumber. Aren't you grateful for people like your dad? Right? He was an honest person, right, pleasing dishwashers? What was it? No, No, he was a refrigeration guy. Refrigeration guy, so he did is almost all commercial work. So aren't you grateful for the people who would just tell you, oh, you only need a five dollars apart? Oh? Sure, as opposed to the people who try to take advantage of you. And they take advantage and they try to leverage your lack of knowledge in that area. Right, so the good thing happened. This plumber was a good guy. Oh, I'm sorry, your flex capacitor is not working. That's right, it's not flexing. And so it's like and so here's what made me mad. I thought to myself, Oh, thank goodness for this plumber guy. Right, like, he's like he came over and he fixed something for relatively cheap. And then I started to immediately get mad. For for instance, two weeks ago, or maybe it was more than that, my daughter sent me an estimate for her her husband's car branded my son in law, and she said, hey, can you show this to your mechanic and tell me if this is a good quote, right and so and so she sent me the whole thing boo, and it's like thirty five hundred dollars something crazy. And I want to promote, by the way, if it's okay, I want to promote my mechanic because he is wonderful. If you're looking for a good mechanic and you live in the area in Macrome County, I'm telling you, I'm not kidding. He has so many people go in and they're like, my mechanic told me it was going to be three thousand dollars, and my mechanic goes, it's four hundred dollars. This is all you need, right, He's just an honest guy. So those guys are awesome. Those guys are awesome. So it's Rick's tyron wheel on Vandyke Avenue. I know that's it. Yeah. So anyway, so Rick, I send him this big invoice. It's like thirty five hundred bucks, and I say, my son in law daughter wants to know, is this a good deal? And he looks at it and he says, this would be about eighteen hundred dollars in my shop, he said, Because he goes, first of all, they're recommending something that doesn't even make sense. If they're recommending this, they should never recommend this, he said. So he goes, so you already know it's a scam. And on top of that, they're charging too much because of this, And he said, so this should be an eighteen hundred dollars bill, not thirty five hundred dollars. And so you know, he sends it back, and my daughter goes, that is so disappointing because I like this guy. I'm like, yeah, you like him because he's so happy to rip you off. Yeah, yeah, right, So. That's what makes Chris madd What makes Chris mad is on behalf of the world. I just gammers. I don't appreciate the fact that people are choosing to make money the wrong way. If you just be a good guy, then you have people like the Bible guy promote your right. And by the way, Rick's business, he's really busy all the time. You know why he's busy because he's a good guy. Right, make money that way, guys, Yes, you are your business owner, try making money that way. Don't don't try to make money the other way because that makes me mad. Good, Well, thank you, Chris. Don't you agree? I do agree? Yeah, I agree. That's a good one, right there. So sometimes the things that make you mad, I'm like, yeah, that's kind of a chrisism. But this is for everybody. Well, yeah, this is just be honest, make an honest living. If you're making an honest living, if you're doing the right thing, you're treating everybody right, you'll have far more work than you. Need what is the what is the percentage of all of my what made Chris mads where you think it's a criticism versus a universal like, I agree. I don't know. Ninety ten I'm joking. No, No, it's the other way. Ninety percent for us, ten percent for you. That's what I'm saying. All right, Yeah, yeah, all right, yeah, thank you, Chris. Is that is that true? I think so? Okay, I think it is, because if it's true, then thank you, because I do feel like I only get mad on behalf of everybody else. Yeah, not always, but most of the time. Can I when we translated because we're going to read the last few words of the Bible. Yeah, and he's describing heaven. Oh yeah, and then he's describing Wait, how we lock it down? Wait we didn't transition. I know, I'm just transitioning. I'm sorry, because there's nothing to be mad about heaven. No, but hey, uh, it's one thing to misrepresent and be inaccurate. Yeah, sometimes people misunderstand heaven. Yeah yeah, yeah, well you know you know who didn't misrepresent Jesus? He didn't oh John John, John didn't represent He wrote it down as he saw it. That's right. That's right, John saw Jerusalem coming down. John the revlad he saw Jerusalem coming talk about Joel. There you go, So John the Revelad, I'm only supposed to read from verse twelve on where Jesus says, look, I'm coming Si fine, Okay, heard a great voice saying, come up on. There it is egg same all right, come on. So I was supposed to read verse twelve in chapter twenty two. But would you mind if I went back and just read a few verses out of chapter twenty one and just describe all of heaven? I will allow it. Yeah, yeah, okay, okay. Where is the last prayer? Is? Come quickly, Lord Jesus. That's last prayer. Yeah. We're just looking forward to Jesus coming back. And I think a lot of people are afraid of Jesus coming back. It's because they don't know what's gonna happen. Well, he does have eyes like fire, yeah. Feet like brass. Yeah. Okay. So here's what John says in verse and I'm sorry that I have to add all this des But in chapter twenty two, verse ten says, so he took me up in the spirit to a great high mountain, and he showed me the Holy City Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God. It's shone with the glory of God and sparkle like a precious stone, like jasper, as clear as crystal. The city wall was broad and high, with twelve gates guarded by twelve angels, and the names of the twelve tribes of israelre written on the gates. There were three gates on each side east, north, west, south, and the wall. The city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The angel who talked to me held in his hand a gold measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. When he measured it, he found it as a square as wide as it was long. In fact, it's length and width and heights were each fourteen hundred miles, so fourteen hundred miles cubed as this city coming down from Heaven into this new Earth that God created, basically that symbolic of the idea of the spiritual and the physical realm combining again right like it was in the in the in the Garden of. Eden, which by the way, this is chapter twenty one. Yeah, that's what I said. Yeah, yeah, and then we'll finish up chapter. Twenty Yeah, but you said twenty two refore you. Read Oh I'm sorry chapter twenty one, Verse ten. Then he measured the walls and found them two hundred and sixteen feet thick according to the human standard used by the angels. Gulp. Yeah, it's a big, big place, Yeah, big place. The wall was made of jasper, and the city as pure gold, as clear as glass. The wall. The city was built on foundation stones inlaid with twelve precious stones. The first was jasper, second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelion, the crystal lite, the eighth burl, the ninth topaz, the tenth crystal praise, the eleventh Jason, and the twelfth amethyst. So just a sparkling city, right. The twelve gates were made of pearls, each gate from a single pearl, and the main street was pure gold, as clear as glass. I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty in the lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. So now you've got kings and nations. It's human society as it was supposed to be. That's what it's in its perfection. With God as the ruler, Its gates will never be closed at the end of the day because there is no night there, and all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city. Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of life. That's why you need Jesu said, you must be born again. Yeah, it's an unbelievable it's one of the coolest. Yeah, I mean, you could break that down. I mean, there's so many podcasts and TV shows and studies that have just tried to break this thing down. Holy but this outrageously beautiful city where God has re established the spiritual realm and the physical realm together combined, so you're living in both all the time. With God is the King, no need for night, because God is the light. There's no need for a temple because he's the center of our worship. There's only always peace and perfect harmony among humanity. Then it says, then the Angel is going into chapter twenty two. Then the Angel showed me a river with the water of life, crystal, it clears, crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. So there's water fountains. Can you imagine how beautiful this is going to be. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. No longer will there be a curse upon anything, for the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him, and they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. And there will be no knight, there no need for lamps or sun, for the Lord will shine on them and they will reign forever and ever. Then the Angel said to me, everything you've heard and seen is trustworthy and true. The Lord God, who inspires his prophets, has sent his angel to tell his servants what will happen soon. Then Jesus says, look, I am coming soon. Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book. Then John said, I John am the one who heard and saw all these things. When I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angels showed them to me. But he said, no, don't worship me. I am a certain of God, just like you and your brothers, the prophets, as well as all who obey what is written in this book. Worship only God. Then he instructed me, do not seal up the prophetic words in this book, for the time is near. Let the one who is doing harm continue to do harm. Let the one who is vile continue to be vile. Let the one who is righteous continue to live righteously, and let the one who is holy continue to be holy. He's saying, hey, go ahead. The people are going to sort themselves out right, the good versus the evil. So Jesus said, look, I'm coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning, and the end. That's how he started this book. By the way, blessed are those who wash their robes. He's talking about in the Blood of the Lamb that happened in the previous chapter. Outside, they will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life. Outside the city are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idle worshipers, and all who love to live a lie. Jesus said, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning Star, the Spirit and the bride. Say. Come, Let anyone who hears this say, come, Let anyone who is thirsty, come, Let anyone who desires drink, to drink freely from the water of life. And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book, if anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of Prophecy, God remove that person's share in the Tree of Life and in the Holy City that are describing this book. He who is faithful witness, he who is the faithful witness to all these things, says, yes, I am coming soon. Amen, Come Lord Jesus. May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's Holy people. That's a lot. So the last big prayer is Amen, Come Lord Jesus. Yeah, that's it. So it's a dangerous prayer on one side, but on the other side, it's the culmination of everything we've been hoping for. Right, It's not something God doesn't tell these these things that make us afraid. God tells us these things to let remind us he's in control. He's in charge, and it is going to work out just like he said it would. And so you know, we literally just read the back of the book and Jesus wins. So nothing else should scare us. Did I ever tell you? I think I told you this before, maybe I didn't, But did I ever tell you that we had this thing at our Bible college and it was called Fellowship Week, and you sort of had to be there, and a bunch of preachers came in and so the whole field house is filled with probably I don't know, maybe a thousand preachers from around the country. And one guy gets up and I don't even remember his name. I don't even remember this this guy's name, but he got there and he said Revelation, chapter one, verse one, and he started to read Revelation, and all of a sudden, you're sort of, you know, wondering when he's gonna get done, and you realize that he's not looking at his notes, and it's up on the screen behind him, but he can't see it. There's no teleprompter, you know, in the field house, big gymasium. So he reads all of number one, chapter one, and you realize that he isn't memorized. And then he continues on in chapter two and then he what he does is he uses no other words other than the Bible, but he starts preaching it with passion, right, and he's describing the things just like this, but he's only reading right. And he goes through all twenty two chapters. Wow, And it took him like forty eight minutes the whole book, and he had memorized from chapter one to chapter twenty two every single word in Revelation. His message was a forty eight minute reading through of the entire book. Wow, yeah, and just screaming it yeah, and then and then finally and I remember it. So there is no possible way in my entire the rest of my life that I can't read the end of this book and not see the eruptive applause of everybody standing to their feet and going. And then it was like a twelve minute standing ovation from every pastor in the room who's thinking, I can't believe this man has memorized twenty two chapters verbatim in front of everybody and preach it with passion, and somehow it was like the best sermon ever. Yeah. Yeah, right, but God's word works out pretty good, Yeah, pretty good. Yeah yeah yeah, but so did. Everything that No, and then amazing yeah, And so everybody just stands up and erupts an applause, and every people are crying in the room. I'm telling you, I'm talking you. It was just amazing. So I love the phrase blessed are those who wash their robes. He's talking about in the Blood of the Lamb. It happens a couple chapters earlier, and there's a there's a place and Paul is writing in the Epistles, and he says, we are clothed in His righteousness alone. Right, So when you place your faith in trust in Christ, everything about our life, the Bible says that we are stained like crimson, Crimson being bright red, bright red stains. You know those are hard to get out. Yeah, and so it shows, it shows bright. It's where the idea for the Crimson letter came from, by the way, right, So this idea of you're marked, there's this bright shame on your white robe, how dare you right? Look? How horrible? And so this is the idea, is that that our sin is bright like scarlet. There's no hiding from it. We are stained by it. And then when we place our trust in Jesus, before we place our face in trust in Jesus. Romans chapter seven, Paul is talking about, Oh what a wretched person I am. The things I want to do, I don't do the things I don't want to do. With the things I wind up doing, I'm constantly chasing my tale spiritually, I can't get all the religious stuff done right. He says, Oh what a wretched man I am? Who can ever save me from this body of death? Because he knows he's completely stained by sin. And then he says, thank God only through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then you turn the page. In Romans, chapter eight, verse one says, so there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And it uses the word in on purpose. It means, the only hope I have is not that I can clean up my stain, but that I'm plunged into Jesus, where God can only see Jesus righteousness. And so then Paul goes on and he talks about we're clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. But then there's a moment, some moment in time, as you come to the end where we have washed our robes in the blood of the Lamb, and jesus red blood cancels out the red of this crimson stain in our sin, and now we have white robes. And he said, it's only the fact that you are clothed in Christ righteousness that now all of us will be able to walk into the city that have placed our faith in trust in Christ. Those whose names are written the Lamb's Book of Life, those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and he says, so all this beauty, all this peace, this perfect human society, everything that God always planned, with God in your presence all the time. The essence of everything good and perfect is because of the of the fact that your robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. And that's why Jesus said you must be born again. That's why Paul says, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There's a moment that you were out of Christ Jesus, and then there's this conscious moment when you receive the free gift and he makes you clean, and then all the rest of these benefits. And that's why we can shout, Amen, Jesus, come quickly, right right, come quickly. If that's what's coming. There's no more death, there's no more disease. He wipes every tear from our eyes, the Bible says, And if we'd just gone a little bit earlier in chapter twenty one, all these things, there's nothing to hold us here when we understand how incredibly great it is on the other side of this. Yeah, So the most important thing is to have your robes washed in the blood of the lamb. I've often thought about this. I've often thought about like my buddy, I have a good friend. He's a pastor in Boston right now, and he's been there for thirty years. But anyway, when I was in college with him, and he said, he goes, can you imagine eternity doesn't end? Right, right? He said, So there's no there's no ending to it. So he goes, if you think about that long enough, he goes, once you get bored, he said, once you get and he starts, he starts going down the rabbit hole. And he actually said, like he says, oh, he goes. If I think I think about it long enough, he said, I just want to throw up. I just can't even imagine. And I said, you do know that there's no sin in heaven, right, So there's no there's no like, there's no you know, jealousy or you know, boredom. You're not gonna be able to feel. I think this, by the way, I think, like boredom to the point to where it's discouraging, you know, boredom, like all those things. I said, I'm pretty certain that those things won't exist in heaven. No, So I don't think I don't think it's possible to feel those things. I said, so in your earthly mind and your broken body and your in your sin nature, I said, you know, these are the things that we wrestle with, right, these these negative thoughts and emotions, and you know, we try to rationalize it away. I'm like, I'm pretty sure all those things will go away in heaven. Yeah. Well, there's no time. This is why he's telling you. So there's no sun, moon or stars right anymore, there's no time, reust out of time. So it eternity sounds horrible when you say there's no end, right because in your mind there's time, right, time has endings and beginnings, isn't any So have you had those moments when you're like, oh, I just wish this moment would never end. Yeah, guess what, they won't. Yeah, it's just going to be always perfection all the time. So it's a totally different concept. I just said all the time. When there is no time, it's perpetual perfection with no loss or no sense of a negative ending at all. So it's only perfection, it's not the So what he's going is, ugh, man, my legs are gonna get tired, I'm going to get exhausted, I'm gonna be bored with this. And all of those things are connected in the concept of time. There is no time. It just is. It just is, and it's just perfect, that's all. And so I think that you won't even have a sense of the fact that yesterday ended and today began. It's just this non stop perfection and beauty and party and all of the things that need to happen for human society to work perfectly. It's an exciting thing, not a dread. That's right. Yeah, that's right. I've referenced this before, but there's a song about heaven if you can see me now you remember reference from that. I absolutely, I absolutely love the concept of that song because you know somebody who passes away struggling with their health and all of a sudden, now they're in heaven and they're perfect, right, and then the reality is it's like it's like, don't don't weep for me. I'm I'm doing really quite well. And it's written from their first person perspective. It's the i'd that song. Yeah, it's just that idea that like, so the verse says, our prayers have all been answered, I finally arrived. The healing that had been delayed has now been realized. No one's in a hurry, there's no schedule to keep. We're all enjoying Jesus just sitting at his feet. And it says, if you can see me now, I am walking streets of gold. If you can see me now, I'm standing tall and whole. And if you can see me now, you know I've seen his face. And if you can see me now, you'd know that the pain is erased. And you wouldn't ever want me to leave this perfect place if you could only see me now, and and and the song is actually quite slow, you know, it's it's like a Vallad type song, right, But but the idea of picturing, you know, somebody saying those words helps us understand like no, no, no, no, no, no, even right now, like there's there's perfection happening, and there's joy, and there's and and there's all these great things and so there's no need to be sad. Just like you said, some people dread Jesus coming back, right, but but but he's but it's nothing to dread. So that's the realction. The Bible dedicates far less time trying to describe eternity than it does describing how to get there right, And it's because we live in a life. Our life is bound by time, and our bound our life is bound by sin. That's why it says there's no more curse. We've been set free from the curse in that passage, right, And so God spends most of his time trying to describe to us how to overcome sin. And we can't do it on our own. It's only through the blood of Christ and what He paid for us. So salvation is by grace through faith. Right, we receive this free gift he offers to us, and then he makes us right and clean. So the words of God he hints at eternity because it's incomprehensible to sinners trapped in time, but he gives us these little glimpses to realize. Dude, when you resolve, when you're able to have your sins forgiven, and that part's resolved, then the only next response is come quickly, Lord Jesus, Just just come quickly, because all the rest of this will be gone. The death. There's no more crying, there's no more pain, there's no more death. There's no more disease, there's no more violence, there's no more hatred, there's no more war. Right, there's no more fear, there's no more crying. Right, It's absolute perfection. It's incomprehensible. So we can say those words, Can we really understand what it would be like to have no more fear ever, to have no more disease ever, to have no more death ever? Right, I don't know that we can comprehend it. So he gives us a few words about eternity, and all the rest of the words is you better prepare because that's when life really begins. Right, And so let's wrap it up by saying so John says, you know, three different times he's quoting read Letters of Jesus where Jesus says I am coming soon. And then John adds amen and and and the words amen mean either so be it or I agree? Or make it so or make it so. That's right, make it so, Yes, you have to reregard. But he says, amen, come Lord Jesus exclamation mark. And so that's that's how we wrap up revelation. That's how the Bible is some you know, and you know, I hate the word end, right, it's the end of the Bible. That's not how the Bible ends, because the Bible actually is one of the only things that will be you know, physical ineternity, so it's that's that's not that type of end. But it's the end of the book, and it's the end of John's revelations. So if you're sick of the crazy things happening society, in society, if you're getting bad news at the doctor, if you're tired of the struggle of this life, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. That's the prayer. It's how the Bible ends, and that's the right way to respond. Awesome. Well, hey, that's our time together, so hopefully we will see you on Monday on the Bible guys,