"Yes, I Am Coming Soon” | Revelation 22:1–21

Show Notes

Episode 745: 
In this episode, we delve into the topic of the second coming of Christ, as we delve into Revelation chapter 22. This chapter, the last in the Bible, is filled with profound imagery and promises about heaven. We discuss the angel's revelation to John about the river of life flowing from God's throne, the tree of life, and the absence of night, emphasizing the beauty and perfection of the new Jerusalem.

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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, good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Bible guys. Today is Friday. Friday. Yeah, Friday is great and I think. You should start singing the Friday song. Well you mean that real song like it's Friday. It's like you sing good morning to us. Yeah, so if you made Friday by one. Except for that's the most irritating song in ye. But good Morning's not. No, it's not. I love good morning because it is a throwback to one of my favorite. Eras nineteen forties. Yeah. By the way, an old movie that I just watched with my family with Gene Kelly, so same guy and Judy Garland is called for me. And my gal. Have you ever seen it? I don't know. The bells are ringing. For oh yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that song. Yeah, so that's that's from that movie and it's great. Good for you. It is great for you. Black and white. You love the black and white. If you if you're. Out there and you are just thinking yourself, you know what, I'm gonna check out an old black and white film watch for me, my gall it's wonderful. I went on a black and white old movie binge a while back. Really yeah, I don't know, probably January February, so six months ago, and it was all Humphrey Bogart movies. Oh wow, yeah, so Maltese Falcan and yeah, yeah that's cool. Hey, so we are about to read a statement from Jesus that says, yes, I. Am coming soon. There seems to be a theme this week. Yeah, there certainly is, yes, And but before we get into that, we have a segment that desires paced together, piece together, I think is a. Brand new Oh yeah, we've never done this one. Before, and it's called the survival Clever scenario. Imagine you are both stranded on a desert island. Greatly is it only the two of them? I guess, So thank you for that. And it says, imagine you are stranding on a desraland with only a kazoo and a can of beans. Let's hear you debate how you make it out alive. Well, Desiree, this may not go the way that you wanted to go, because I would die in a week, yes, within a couple of days actually, And the end of. The end, and here's how it would happen. I would not survive. Here's how it's how it would happen. Yes, I know. You would start playing the kazoo. Well, there's no question would and you'd be like, if you can enjoy? No no no, no no no no, and I would go And that's how you die. Oh that's how I die. That's how I died, right down your throat. Yeah. Yeah, and then i'd eat the beans. So you told me after years? Yeah, the oh boy. Okay, but we got we have to get off of the island. So what you're saying, we have to get off of the kazoo before we even ate. I think so, well, we'd save it, all right, we'd save it, and I get angry, real hungry. I couldn't help it at that point. You ever, you ever just say mean things and you think why was that being so mean? You just realize you're being hungry. Yeah, that's what happened. So we'd be saving the beans in order to Okay, So here's here's what I think we should do. Okay on the desertland. Yeah, I think we should uh, we should eat the beans. Your best part of that is you go I kill you, you go and then I. Eat the bees. Well you're going down anyways, so you know, it's just I don't want you worrying. You're fretting and worrying. Yeah, uh, I think. So we're on an island. I think what we'd have to do is get some some branches and stuff because we have to escape the island. That's all we're trying to do is get off the island. Well yeah, make it out alive. Sure, yeah, it doesn't say where. Yeah, so we're gonna have to. We have to get some some logs. We have to put them together. So I think what we'll do is we'll take the can. Can you plant beans and get more beans. No not not from the can? No, no, no, they've been cooked. Okay, they make it there. So that's a good idea though. Yeah. Yeah. So then uh, well we'll use the can uh or make nails out of pieces of can so we can put that in Huh. How do you cut a can with rocks? Okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah all right, So so then we make some some nails out of that, and then we'll nail it together into a raft. And then you can be like Jack and I'll be like his girlfriend on the on the raft. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll just I'll just be floating along, right, and then eventually you're playing your canoe, playing your kazoo. Eventually you're to say, never, let go, let me sink. That's right, just let you go. And then just like, because that's how it works in the movies, the raft was big enough for both of them, right, yeah, but he's for some reason not on the raft. Well, it was a door. It was a floating door. Yeah, exactly. I don't know. I don't know how you escape with Again. They did MythBusters and they actually figured out that there actually was enough room for both of them on the door. I totally when I watched the movie, it ruined the movie for me. Well yeah, I was like, are you flipping serious? This is how the movie ends? Yeah? Right, yeah. You know, one of the greatest movies in the history of Rotten Tomatoes in terms of, like, you know, the scores they give it a perfect ten is The Shawshank Redemption. Oh have you seen the Shawshank Redemption. No, we talked about that before. Okay, yeah, you got mad at me about it. Okay, Yeah, that's it's pretty crazy that you've never seen it, it's actually wow anyway, But there's a there's a part at the end of the movie for the listeners who've seen it. There's a part of the end of the movie where I was watching, you know, you just sometimes come across clips, and there was a clip like on TikTok or YouTube or something where where there was a guy that said he was interviewing Tim Robbins, and he said it was a cartoon and he said, hey, every question he goes, how did you pull the movie posters so tight? Where you made it so taut that a rock can go through it after getting inside the tunnel? He goes, how did you do that? And and if you know the movie, you know, like, oh my goodness, Like he's correct, and he goes, what what you didn't enjoy the movie, Tim Robbins says, and he goes, yes, he goes, I very much enjoyed the movie up until that part, right, And so it's like it's like what he's really implying is like it ruins the movie, right, And so yeah, I definitely think, uh, what were we talking about? We're talk about getting off the island, Okay, So yeah, I would die desiree. I would die just so that's it. I would I'm not a survivor outdoorsy. I think I think you would do it. I would feel obligated to keep you alive because we got to make it back to the show. That's that's why, that's why not our not our wives, but. Show to the show. Yeah, yeah, which that was my subtle way of say, hey, we should get back to the show. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know how you live with a kazoo and the cannabeans. I don't do you how do you get off the island. I don't know that the cannabeans or the kazoo actually gets you off the island? Right, Well, I mean the nails out of the can was pretty brillian. Yeah, I don't know that that would work, but yeah maybe. Well, I mean, but what you said was pretty awesome. Okay, and then you could be playing a kazoo like like with Iya the Tiger for our theme song. Is where I would totally be able to provide that. Yes, yeah, you wouldn't get sick of that and then did I Yeah? Okay, all right, so you know what. It's ridiculous that that that segment was a long time coming. It was very long timing coming. Yeah. And you know what is also a long time coming? What's that? The second coming? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was a rough one there. Yeah, there's rough I don't even know. But we are going to launch into Revelation chapter number twenty two, verses one through twenty one. Yeah, which these are good ones. Yeah, these are good ones. Revelation Chapter twenty two should be exciting for people. It's by the way, for those who don't know, there's only twenty two chapters in the Bible. I think actually the relation. I'm sorry, in Revelation. I think the other day I actually said twenty one chapters. I think I messed that up. Oh yeah, twenty two chapters, twenty two yeah, yeah, And here's what it says. This is the last chapter yep, in the last book of the Bible. From the last surviving disciples. Yes, so it seems like this is a sit up and pay attention kind of moment. Yeah. Sure, in the Bible, it's kind of a big deal. It says, then the Angel showed me a river. So this is an the angel that's been leading John through the entire Book of Revelation, and me is John. So then the Angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb. He's describing heaven. Yes, So just imagine there's the throne. The throne is the center of eternity essentially, and there's this river, the river that has the water of life flowing gray symbolic, flowing from the Throne of God, clearest crystal flowing from the Throne of God and of the lamp. It flowed down the center of the main street. 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 night, there no need for lamps or son, for the Lord God will shine on them and they will rain forever and ever. Then the Angel said to me, everything you have heard and seen is trustworthy and true. The Lord, God, who inspires his prophets, has sent his angels to tell his servants what will happen soon. Look, I am coming soon. Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book. I John am the one who heard and saw all these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me. Showed them to me, But he said, no, don't worship me. I am a servant 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. That the one who is righteous continue to live righteously. Let the one who is holy continue to be holy. Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter into the gates of the city and eat the fruit of the Tree of Life. Outside the city are the dogs, the sorcerers are sexually immoral, the murderers, the idle worshipers, and all who love to live a lie. 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 freely from the water of life. And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words the prophecy written in this book. If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plague's described in this book. If anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person's share in the Tree of Life and in the Holy City that are described in this book. He who is the faithful witness to all these things, say, yes, I am coming soon. Amen, Come, Lord Jesus. May the grace of God, or may the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's holy people. There you go. That's how he ends it. Yeah, that is how he man So, hey, let's start at the beginning. Jeff, Okay, I'd like to start even before the beginning and jump into the chapter head because it's you know, there weren't any chapters and verses for John. Correct. John didn't say, Okay, I just finished writing chapter twenty one. Now I'm going to write twenty two. Right. So we took the letter that John wrote, and we have actually all the letters of the Bible, and we divided them up into sections to be able to. What yeah, about nine hundred years after I identify, Yeah, after the Bible was done being written is when we started breaking it into chapters and verses. Yeah. Yeah, So if you go back further, he's got this. This angel is showing him and in verse fifteen and chapter twenty one says, the angel who talked to me held in his hand a golden measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. When he measured, he found it was square as wide as it was long. In fact, it's length and with a height were each fourteen hundred miles. And he measured the walls upon them to be two hundred and sixteen feet thick. The wall was made of jasper in the city pure gold as clear as glass. The wall of the city was built on foundation stones inlaid with twelve precious stones. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth Carnelian, the seventh chrystolite, the eighth burl, the ninth topaz, and the tenth chryso praise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 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 Lambar its temple, and the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the lamb as its light. The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city and all their glory. 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 the shameful idolatry and dishonesty, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of life. Then the angel showing the river flowing from the throne down the main street. Yeah right, how cool? Yeah, I mean that's amazing, dude. And you know what's amazing is so there's a statement about heaven in the Bible that says not the half has been told. Oh right, right, So it's interesting how Jesus talked more actually ten times more I think about Hell than he did about heaven. And even though he didn't necessarily describe Hell in great detail, there's still more written about it than there is heaven. And so we only have a few pieces of information about heaven. But what's interesting about everything you just read was those were dimensions that was actually measurements. Yeah right, so fourteen hundred miles. Cub cubed, which is an incredible right, and which is pretty crazy. And then also he talks about think about this. So, so, first of all, a couple of things that we grabbed from your twenty one. You broke the rules and read chapter twenty one. Yeh yeah. Yeah, I'm going to read another verse from twenty one and the Yeah. So here's what we know for a fact. Number one, there's no sun in heaven. God is the source of light in heaven, right, and so he is the one who sits in the center and light flows. Secondly, water flows from the throne, right, So he's the source of life, of light and drink and. The water of life. Yeah. And in the water of life which gives life right to the trees and which are on either side of the street. And it actually does say street, which was cool. Yeah, and those are the trees of life. Okay, so here's another thing about heaven. Let's have a little fun talk about heaven. Did you know. I'm sure you did. But there is an entire rainbow around the throne of heaven. So there is an entire rainbow. So think about this. When God set the rainbow in the sky in Genesis chapter nine for Noah, and he did so as a reminder that he's no longer going to flood the earth, which, by the way, is a promise that God keeps until death, which means it's a constant promise, which is why here it is thousands and thousands and thousands of years later, we still have a rainbow after the rain. You think it's pretty, but but just keep in mind, it's a it's a promise that God made a long time ago, that says, just as a reminder, it's raining, it's gonna stop right anyway. So there's a rainbow around the throne. And then there are angels that swarm around the throne that they're Cherubims and seraphims and with two they cover their eyes with two, they cover their feet with two. They fly so with six wings and there and they're shouting, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty. The whole earth is covered in his glory. According to Isa, right so even. Right now, and they're singing is so loud it shakes the foundation of the temple. Yes, it's pretty impressive. Yes, smoke fills the temple. It's pretty pretty impressive. So right now there's a river flowing from the throne. There's a rainbow around the throne God, God is providing the light source of heaven, and there's angels singing and declaring God's glory. I believe that this city is the place Jesus said he went to prepare that's what I believe. I believe that this is the city. Remember when we just talked about that. Yeah, like I go to prepare a place for you. I think this city is it. But if you go to Revelation twenty one, the very first verses, he said, then I saw a new heaven and a new Earth. This is after God brings final judgment on this planet. He destroys this planet. Everything is wiped out, and then God makes a new heaven and a new earth for the old heaven. And the old Earth had disappeared, and the sea was also gone. So this is now all land. There's no sea. And I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And look, I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, look, God's home is now among his people. He will live with them, and they will be with his people. God himself will be with them, and he will wipe every tear from their eyes, and they'll be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. And the one sitting on the throne said, look, I'm making everything new, right then we get into the description of this incredible all these gems that are the foundation of the building. You got this this city that is fourteen hundred miles cubed. That's from here to from Michigan, from Detroit to Orlando, well even beyond it's almost to Miami. Fourteen hundred miles, right, cubed cubed, Yeah, cubed. So you can't crash a city like that into a planet, right, even a planet our size? Yeah? Right, what's that? John the revelaide or saw Jerusalem coming. So I think what you have is you have the spiritual place that Jesus went to build for us crashing into or coming into the physical place of this new Earth. Right, So the spiritual. He's bringing the spiritually back back to the physical. Right. Right, we were dead spiritually, we were alive. Adam and Eve were alive spiritually. They could see God walking in the in the garden, and they could see the elephants in the palm leaves. Right, they were in both realms, the spiritual and the physical. And then they died spiritually and they lost that ability. So on occasion, angels would pop in and out of their visibility. Right, the angels guarding the garden. Uh uh, Noah heard from God out loud. Abraham saw angels right, those kinds of things. So there were Joshua, it was servant who eyes, yeah, and and they could the angels all surrounding protecting them. At those that are with us are greater than the army that's coming against us. So there's this spiritual realm, we just don't live in it. And I think what's happening here in Relation chapter twenty one is that God is bringing the spiritual back to the physical for us where we're experiencing both. So heaven for us, I believe, is that new Jerusalem. How you think of heaven. After you die, you're going to go to heaven. But when it's all done, God ends time, and now it's just we're moving into eternity. He makes a new Earth, and he brings the New Jerusalem down. He brings Heaven to Earth right, the two come together. And then the description that you get is people always ask what's happening going to be? Like what's he turned? I like to go beyond heaven, the city, the new Jerusalem. I like to get into what's eternity going to be? Like God's going to be our king. Like you said, there's no need for a sun, moona stars. But there's food, right, there's a tree of life, there's crops, there's nations, there's kings, rulers, but there's commerce. They're coming in and out. They don't need to close the gates of the city because it's pure safety and security all the time. There's no night time, there's no more disease, there's no more death, there's no more tears. It's the perfection that God always planned for us in the Garden of Eden. Now finally there's no sin and there's no consequence of sin anymore. And so we go back to the perfect human society that God had always planned with him at the center and us in perfect relationship with him. But there's an economy happening. There's kingdoms that happen, there's rulers that happen, there's nations that happen. All the things that are necessary in human culture and society. That's what it's going to be like. So remember a couple days ago, we were asked, Hey, I wonder if you'd be able to pick where you live or where you go and all that kind of stuff. All the adventure that you feel like you're going to miss out on in this earth. You're going to have a trillion years and then some to work it all out, to go do the thing right, to learn the things. I think that there's hints in scripture that we will continue to grow, continue to develop, that will continue to learn to know all these things. Only now it's the perfect version of what God had planned for us. And so he says, hey, look I'm coming soon. So this is why I look forward to heaven. I'm not afraid of dying. Dying is just the transition from here to there, and then there's another transition when it's all done and he destroys this planet, makes a new one. It's no longer groaning or broken under sin. It's an incredible thing. We should yearn for it, we should desire it, and then we should want to take everybody we know and everybody we meet with us. Yeah, that's amazing and whow So we covered a lot of twenty one, a lot of twenty two, and one thing I was going to want to talk about is you know the dominant color of Heaven. Well I shouldn't say that, I should say the dominant color used to describe heaven. That we know of green green. Yeah, so it's it's yes, is that right? And huh Son of God. I didn't know that that's that's. Uh yeah, that's the dominant that that would be a primary color. Sounds like what you're saying is wicked is biblical not wicked? Uh So he didn't Frank Frank wahum didn't right, wicked. Yeah. So anyway, the bottom line is is, yeah, they talk about trees, they talk about jasper, they talk about emeralds. Uh. And so the dominant color grass, of course, is used to describe heaven as actually green. People may think whites are clouds, right yeah, uh you know, but gold that is as clear as glass is pretty cool. Well, it's it's kind of neat because all of these you know, when you talk about onyx and burrow and tope has chrystallite, uh, amethyst, these are all jam that light shines through and sparkles. It's cool because the light emanates from the city. It emanates from God. That's not we're not waiting for the sun. So my wife and I were just at uh In in uh Okra in what is it called. Yeah, in India, the taj Mahal. Yeah, yes, yes, yes, so uh. The taj Mahal one of the most beautiful human structures ever. It's magnificent. It's this beautiful white marble. But in it he carved in millions and millions and millions of gemstones. And around the tomb of his wife there's this, uh, each panel all the way around is carved marble, and it looks like a like lattice work, but it's all just one giant piece of marble. And then in that marble he has embedded in it, uh, what they call a firestone. And it's it's one of the stones that's mentioned here. It's bright red. It's it's red. It's beautiful to see. It's kind of an orangeish color. But when the sun flows through it, it just lights up like fire, right, And so he has it set so that every morning when the sun comes up, it comes through there, the light comes in just right, and the whole room just glows in this beautiful red. So you can imagine if the light of Heaven is emanating from God's throne and the foundations in the walls of this of this city are all these beautiful things, just the beautiful glow, the stunning visuals of this. We can't fathom how magnificent, how magnificent, how magnificently spectacular this place way you tripped, I couldn't get it. Magnificently spectacular. Yeah yeah, yeah, we can't even fathom it. So there's a lot of tripping in heaven. Yeah yeah, Oh I can't see yeah yeah, yeah, this is just incredible. Yeah, there's bright lights shining everywhere. Yeah. So this is now now when we keep calling it heaven, but this is eternity. So heaven comes to earth, they blended, we move into eternity from there. So I believe that that heaven is the new Jerusalem that comes down in that. Yeah, that's that's really cool. It's exciting. But it says nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful, idolatry dishonestly, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Lamb's Book of life. So your name needs to be in the Lamb's Book of life, right, and how do you how do you get in the salvation by gay through faith? You trust Jesus. That's right, everyone who calls them the name of the Lord will be saved Romans ten. Are you all right all right, buddy. That's a good place to end, so we will see you hopefully on Monday on the Bible guys. H