How the Book of Revelation Actually Ends

I don't know about you guys, but when it comes to household chores, laundry is probably my least favorite thing.

And the reason for that is I feel like there's a lot of rules about laundry.

Like some things are in warm water, cold water, this and that.

I just prefer to throw everything in one load, turn it on, and we just kind of hope for the best, right?

And that that whole process creates some troubles along the way.

Sometimes you do your load of whites and you throw a red shirt in there, and now you have pink socks for the next six months because you're not gonna buy new ones.

I feel like it's probably the chore that I mess up more often than not.

When my wife and I were first married, uh she was working the business office at the seminary I was attending, so I was a student, she was working.

Uh, and I decided one day that I would help my wife out, and one of the things I was gonna do for her is I was gonna wash her clothes for her, right?

Bold move, because I know women's clothes, especially, like there's there's different warms and colors, and some things can be dried, and some things have to be hung to dry.

It's all crazy.

So I tried to do her laundry for her.

And before I move on to the story, I just want you to know like how kind it was for me to be willing to do that for my for my wife, because I learned another rule of laundry, and that is don't do laundry with an ink pen in your pocket.

Every item of her clothing was ruined.

It had ink stains in her pants and her shirts, and and I tried and I tried and I tried to get those stains out, but they just would not come out.

No matter what I did, I ruined her wardrobe because I tried to wash them with an ink pen and I just couldn't get the stains out.

Today we're gonna talk about your laundry, your spiritual laundry, if you will.

We're gonna talk about the one way that you can actually wash your robes and why this is so important.

And I'm gonna challenge, it's the entire purpose of why John wrote the book of Revelation.

We've spent 10 weeks walking through this book.

A year ago, when we said, hey, we're gonna walk through Revelation, we said, we're gonna walk through Revelation, but we're not gonna focus on what John said to the seven churches at the beginning.

We're gonna focus on the hard stuff, and it's been an exciting journey.

We've seen dragons, we've seen beasts, we've seen a harlot and seven trumpets and seven seals and seven bowls of wrath, we've seen a thousand years, we've seen all kinds of amazing things throughout this book.

And today we wrap things up with the final two chapters that the Apostle John writes for us.

And we we've told you the entire time that this is not a, it was not a letter that was written by John to communicate when the end would come, or the elements of that, sure.

The purpose of John was to give us a call to radical discipleship.

Like, what is it, what does it really look like for you and me to follow Jesus and follow Jesus well?

And again, we we've we've set the framework.

What John is acknowledging is that there is a current reality, and that current reality is that things are not as they should be.

But there's also the hope of a future reality where God makes all things new and sets everything right, and things will be as they should be.

It's the foundation for what John has been writing this entire time.

And we find ourselves, we we we live in that tension because we know because we've experienced it, that the world's not as it should be, and we've read scripture and we've seen the promise that one day all things will be made new.

And John is addressing the tension in which we live.

Let me communicate it a different way.

What John is trying to show us is that there are two kingdoms that are present.

There is the kingdom that we would call fallen Babylon, the kind of the way that he describes it in the text.

It's the the fallen world, the the worldly sins and brokenness.

And then there's a kingdom that was ushered in when Jesus came and he lived among us, and he died a sinless death and rose again, so you may have everlasting life.

And he ushered in his kingdom.

The kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, Jesus' kingdom.

And here's what we know to be true: one of those kingdoms will last for eternity, and one of them will come to an end.

And it's the fallen Babylon kingdom, if you didn't already know, that's going to come to an end.

And this is kind of what Revelation has been pointing to is that the end is coming.

Jesus will one day return and usher in the fullness, the consummation of his kingdom.

And fallen Babylon, the brokenness, the kingdom of this world would end.

Why?

Because here's the secret Jesus won.

Not Jesus will win, but Jesus already won.

Victory was his when he claimed it on the cross.

And here's here's why here's why we know that the world is not as it should be, because as followers of Jesus, we become citizens of that kingdom.

And now, as citizens of Jesus' kingdom, we can look at the other kingdom and be like, oh, that's not right.

That's not how the world should be.

We know how the world should be, but we live in a world that is not as it should be.

And John's entire conversation is what kind of follower of Jesus should you be knowing that?

And today, I think, I think what John is trying to answer for us is the question that every single person in this room has asked themselves at one point in time.

Maybe you ask it now.

How do I get into heaven?

That question John's gonna answer today.

If you have your Bibles, Revelation 21, Revelation chapter 22.

Revelation 22 · chapter mention

We're gonna look at both of those chapters.

We're gonna begin in chapter 21.

So let me let me remind us of where we're at.

We've seen all this stuff, judgment, chaos, all these things have happened in the book of Revelation.

Over the past couple of weeks, we've seen a couple really important things.

Number one, we saw the final battle.

If you remember the final battle, where Jesus, in his robe that had been dipped in blood, followed by all of his saints in white robes, were lined up to battle against the enemy in his army.

And if you remember in that moment, it's one of those, I think it's a really powerful moment in scripture.

Everything had been leading up to this.

We knew there'd be a final battle.

We're ready for it.

If you're in a movie theater, you're eating your popcorn because you're this is the this is the climactic scene that we're going to experience.

And the Bible says the enemy was captured.

That's it.

That's the whole description of the war.

There is no war, there is no battle.

Why?

Because we already said it.

Jesus already won.

There is no battle.

Jesus is victorious.

And the following week we saw the final judgment.

The judgment was cast.

And today we enter into the final realization of Jesus' kingdom.

So let me read for you in Revelation chapter 21, the first few verses.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

This is the passage you've probably heard read at funerals.

It's probably the most common passage to be read at funerals, because this is the story of our hope.

Verse 1.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.

They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.

For the old order of things has passed away.

He who is seated on the throne said, I am making everything new.

Then he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.

Verse 22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.

On no day will its gates ever been shut, for there will be no night there.

So this is this is how it happens.

This is the thing that we've been leading up to and kind of kind of waiting for is when will Jesus enter into the story in final victory.

In fact, the people of God had had longed for this.

They've waited for this for generations.

They've waited for this moment in time for Jesus to usher in the fullness of his kingdom.

But it doesn't look exactly like maybe we thought it would.

There's a couple important things there toward the end.

He says that there is no temple.

Why?

Because the presence of God is in the city, and in the Holy of Holies is now the city.

You don't need a temple in the middle of a city where God is present the way that He's going to be all throughout.

There's no moon and there's no sun because you don't need the light from those things.

Why?

Because Jesus is that light.

But there's an interesting thing there at the end where it says the gates will never shut.

On no day will the gates shut.

This is interesting because cities during that day, they would have like city walls and these big gates, and they would shut the gates at night for protection.

So you couldn't sneak in in the middle of the night and you couldn't get in, you couldn't get out.

That was just kind of the way it was for security reasons.

And here he says the gates will never shut because there is no night.

And it's interesting because when I read chapter 21 initially, it feels like the end.

I mean, the book of Revelation could end at chapter 21.

But then we get these few verses there that says that the gates will never shut.

What we realize is that what John is seeing is not the end.

What John is seeing is an open door.

What John is seeing is an invitation.

What John is seeing is an opportunity.

In chapter 21, as we read through it, we're like, finally it's over, it is done.

And John says, but hold on.

Wait, hold, hold on.

There's one more really important invitation for you.

And I think it's an invitation that the entire book of Revelation has been pointing to.

That John has been preparing us for this moment in chapter 22 because there's been a building image all throughout the text.

You probably noticed it before.

It's a laundry illustration.

He's been talking about the wardrobe of God's people.

He's been talking about robes.

He's been talking about not just what do God's people wear, but also what do the people who are against God wear.

In fact, let me read some of those passages for you.

This is just kind of the thread throughout the text.

Revelation chapter 3.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.

They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.

The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white.

I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my father and his angels.

Chapter six.

Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed, just as they had been.

Chapter 7.

This is the 144,000, and John sees a great multitude of people worshiping God.

He says, And one of the elders asked me, These in white robes, who are they?

And where did they come from?

I answered, Sir, you know.

And he said, These are they who have come out of the great tribulation.

They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Chapter 16.

Look, I come like a thief.

Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.

Chapter 19, fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.

That's the church, the bride.

Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God's holy people.

Again, chapter 19, verse 14.

The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses, and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.

And then we find ourselves in chapter 22, and we hear these words spoken from Jesus himself to John.

He says, Look, I am coming soon.

My reward is with me, and I'll give to each person according to what they have done.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may go through the gates into the city.

Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches.

I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright morning star.

All throughout the text, there's this idea that what we wear matters.

The kind of robe that we have on actually matters.

And here's the question that we've all been asking at some level.

How do we get in?

How do we get to enter into the gates of the city?

The new Jerusalem, the new heaven and the new earth, the place where its gates never close.

Who actually gets to go in?

Jesus answers the question: Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through what?

The gates into the city.

Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, sexually immoral, the murderers, idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

This is the question.

We've all been asking ourselves how do we get in?

How do we know if we're able to enter through the gates into the city?

And Jesus says, Well, it all depends on if you have the right uniform on.

Because just as Jesus, as John's been showing us that there's these two kingdoms, what Jesus indicates for us is there's two uniforms.

That each kingdom has their own uniform.

In fact, the uniform of fallen Babylon looks something like this.

So life is covered with idolatry and pride and greed and emptiness and control, gluttony, lust, anxiety, murder, abuse, sin, anger, adultery, stealing, all those things of this world that the world has been pushing upon us.

This is the wardrobe or the uniform of those who are outside the gates, the dogs, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts.

This is the uniform of those who don't enter in.

But the uniform of those who do enter in is a robe that's been washed clean.

It's been cleansed.

Cleansed of the brokenness and the fallenness of this world.

That is the type of wardrobe that is allowed to enter through the gates.

This is the picture that Jesus gives John.

And this is the picture that John gives you and I.

Here's the thing: these labels that the world puts on us.

The problem is when we wear the robe long enough, they stop being labels and they start being identifiers.

They start being descriptors.

They start being identity.

Some of us have worn this robe for a long time.

We've been living our lives wearing pride, self-sufficiency, or resentment, power, anxiety.

And the things that they weren't just labels of the world put on us at some point, or we put on ourselves, they become our identity.

I mean, no longer was it pride, but it was who we are.

No longer was it self-sufficiency, but it was wisdom.

No longer was idolatry, it's just the way that we live our lives.

And the longer we wear this robe, the more identifiable it gets for us.

And here's the thing: you can wash and you can scrub.

Trust me, I know, you cannot get a stain out.

There's only one way to cleanse our robes.

And before I go on, let me acknowledge also that many of us are trying to wear both robes.

Like if we're honest with ourselves, some of us we've walked in here today, or we go to our small group, or we pray before our meal, or we pray with our kids, we we do some things that make it look like we're wearing the white robe, but then we go other places and throughout the week and we go to work and we hang out with our friends and we do other things that we're wearing this robe.

And maybe that's even more dangerous when we're trying to wear both.

Because what we're doing is we're not just lying to the world, we're lying to ourselves about which robe we're actually wearing.

And I just want to pause for a moment and let you think for a second.

John has been working his way to this illustration the entire time.

The entire time he's been preparing you to ask you this very simple question: which robe are you wearing?

Because it's your choice.

It's a decision that you have to make.

Because here's the secret of the book of Revelation.

The book of Revelation was never about the world.

The book of Revelation was always about you.

John didn't write this to tell churches about the world.

He wrote this so that you would be a greater follower of Jesus, so that you may wash your robe in the blood of the Lamb, so that you may be saved, so that you may enter into the gates.

That's why he wrote it.

It's easy for us to read it and think about it.

It's about this other stuff, this stuff outside of me, but it's never about the stuff outside of you.

It's always about you.

It's always an invitation to you.

So you may be like, well, Tony, how do I go from this to this?

I've tried everything and I can't seem to wash it off.

I can't seem to get the brokenness of this world off of my life.

There's three very simple things you need to understand.

Number one, you cannot clean it.

You can't clean it.

In the same way that I tried to scrub the ink out of my wife's clothes, you cannot wash yourself.

And some of you have tried.

Boy, have you tried.

You've tried everything in your power to figure out how to get this off of you to no longer be identified by these things, and it just hasn't worked.

If anything else, maybe it's gotten like more ingrained into the fabric of your robe.

So the first thing some of you gotta let go of is this idea that you can do it yourself because you cannot.

I still remember the day that I I actually gave my life to Jesus.

Knelt at the rail of my my church I grew up in.

I didn't even know how I got there.

I think the Holy Spirit dragged me up there, and then I had an opportunity.

Do I kneel or do I turn around?

And I knelt, and all I could all I could muster out of myself was, God, I can't do this on my own.

I need you.

It was the first time in my life that I felt the Holy Spirit enter into my life.

It's the first time in my life I was able to put on a white robe.

Some of you, the reason you haven't changed your robe is because you haven't let go of this idea that you can do on your own.

You can't do it on your own.

We've talked about this.

You cannot do it on your own.

So the second thing you need to know is you just have to come as you are.

Like come as you are.

The other thing we try to do is like, well, I don't have to get it all the way clean, but I need to get some of the stains out.

Jesus will never accept me with these stains.

Jesus will never accept me dirty.

He will never accept me unclean.

But Jesus just calls us to come as we are.

Because again, you can't wash it anyway.

So we come to the one who can.

So the third thing is well, it's it's kind of the paradox of the whole thing, is the only thing that washes the stain from your robe is the blood of the Lamb.

And the paradox is that you would never use blood to try to wash something out.

But the blood of the Lamb is the only thing that will remove the stains from your life.

And sometimes we don't we don't think about it this way.

And even in the book of Revelation, we expect Jesus to come in wielding this sword and just destroying the enemy.

And he never does that.

In fact, I'm gonna take a tangent real quick.

In chapter five, it's a beautiful chapter, one chapter we didn't talk about throughout this entire series.

But this is a picture about a scroll.

And John sees this scroll and he realizes that no one can open this scroll.

Here's how here's what the text, this is not on the screen.

Uh, then one of the elders said to me, uh, oh, sorry, I'll jump up a verse.

I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.

Then one of the elders said to me, Do not weep.

See, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed.

He's able to open the scroll and its seven seals.

The lion of the tribe of Judah.

John turns and he says, I saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain.

Standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.

The one that we call a lion is victorious, not because he roars, but because he offered himself up as a sacrificial lamb.

It is by the blood of the lamb that you are saved.

John told us this.

Really early on.

And the picture that we must carry is understand that if you want to wash your robes, it's in the blood of the Lamb.

Nothing else will do it.

The only elixir to cleanse you of this world is the sacrificial blood of Jesus.

This is why when they entered into that final battle, Jesus' robe was dipped in blood.

It was his sacrificial blood.

And his entire army, the saints, the church, you and me stood behind him in glorious white robes because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

It's a picture that John has just showed us.

And now we find ourselves realizing that the only thing that will save us, the only thing that lets us enter through the gates is when we allow our robes to be washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Because of that, John gives us an invitation.

In fact, there's two invitations.

Back to chapter 22, verse 17.

The Spirit and the bride say, Come.

And let the one who hears say come.

Let the one who is thirsty come.

And let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

Here's the two invitations.

Invitation number one, wash your robe.

This has been the call of Revelation the entire time.

There are two kingdoms, and you get to choose which one you want to be a part of.

Which robe do you want to wear?

The robe of fallen Babylon that will cease to exist, or the robe of Jesus' kingdom that will last forever.

It's your choice.

So he says, Come.

Come as you are.

Come with your robe, come with your brokenness, come with your stains, and allow the blood of the Lamb to cleanse you.

Allow him to heal you.

Allow him to restore you.

Allow him to save you.

And for those of you who have already received that blessing, there's an invitation for you too.

And that invitation is to invite others to come.

Because notice he says, the Spirit and the bride say come.

And then he says, Let all those who hear say come.

And in scripture, when you hear the word hear, it's not just I heard what you said, it's actually became obedient to what you have called me to.

So when he says, All those who have heard, all those who have been obedient, all those who have washed their robe, now go and tell others to come.

Your the expectation, your invitation is to invite others to receive what you have received.

It is fascinating to me that we go through this entire book and we see all this imagery, all this power, all this stuff going on, and where John lands the plane with this vision is on the plane on the runway of your decision.

A decision that you have to make.

Which kingdom will you be a part of?

And to highlight its importance, in this final chapter, Jesus speaks three times.

And all three times he says the same thing.

Verse 7, look, I am coming soon.

Blessed is the one who keeps the words of this prophecy written in this scroll.

Verse 12, look, I am coming soon.

My reward is with me.

And I'll give to each person according to what they have done.

Verse 20, he who testifies to these things says, Yes, I am coming soon.

Three times in one chapter, Jesus speaks, and every time he prefaces his conversation with the words, I am coming soon.

There is an urgency to your decision.

Because tomorrow is not guaranteed.

And the reason that John is calling us to radical discipleship is because he knows that one day Jesus will return.

And when he returns, as he said in the gospels, he will separate the sheep from the goats, the clean from the unclean, the washed from the unwashed.

There is an urgency to this, friends.

It's an urgency for your own soul and the soul of those that you know.

So this invitation that John concludes with is a powerful invitation because it is the summation of the entire text.

Which kingdom will you be a part of?

Will you wash your robes or will you continue to wear your old ones?

Because one of them will be destroyed, and one of them will spend eternity in the presence of a loving Almighty God.

The choice is yours.

And the choice is yours because Jesus is coming soon.

Would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus, I thank you for this powerful book.

And God, I thank you for not having John stop at chapter 21.

But coming in powerfully with chapter 22 and the actual call that John's been putting in front of us the entire time.

The Spirit and the Bride say come.

The Spirit of God and the bride, the church, we say come.

So all those who are thirsty, come.

To all those who hunger, come.

All those who are hurting, come.

All those who are grieving, come.

Holy Spirit, may we respond with a sense of urgency.

Not just kicking the can down the road, but actually respond to the call that you have on our lives so that our robes may be washed and we may enter into the gates to the city that will last forever.

It's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.