Happily Ever After Series

Happily Ever After-The Last Blessing

CCCAG, July 14th, 2024

Scripture: Revelation 22:10-16

Introduction

Today we finish out our series on the blessings found in the book of Revelation. We will cover the final two blessings, focusing a bit more on the last blessing.

The reason we are only briefly going to touch on the 6th blessing it’s very similar to the first blessing found in Rev 1:3.

Let’s quickly take a look at it and then get into the 7th blessing.

Rev 22:6-7 Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.” (7) “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

These verses, repeated from Revelation 1:3 form the basis of the 7 blessings found in this book.

They tell us that

Jesus is faithful and true.

Jesus is the LORD of the prophets

And then, This scripture also tells us something very important-

Blessed are those who keep the words of this prophecy.

I want to focus for a moment on that word “keep” in the Greek language.

The Word is “tereo” (Tay-reh’-o) which has a duel meaning. It means to guard something, and to protect.

It’s second meaning refers to the most defended part of a fortress- the part that is supposed to be impossible for an enemy to ever conquer.

What two things mean for us in this time we are living in right now-

We as Christians are to guard these truths, and make them the most defended parts of our hearts, minds, and spirits.

Because if we don’t- we end up losing everything.

You’ll notice that the denominations that are collapsing the fastest in our world right now started their slide toward being irrelevant because they rejected the truth of the book of Revelation.

These denominations started their slow slide away from God by saying that Revelations is just “It’s a allegory, not meant to be taken literally”

they started doubting God’s prophetic Word, and in doing so, denied the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of their church’s.

Remember this- the early church fathers unanimously chose the book of Revelation to be part of the canon the bible. That means that the Holy Spirit directed them to recognize these writings as the theonuestros- the God breathed accepted writings of the bible.

We are to keep the words written in Revelation, for they tell us what will soon take place.

But that is not the primary purpose of this book. We often look to it as its the roadmap of the end times- and it does also serve that purpose, but it’s the second purpose of the book.

The first purpose is seen in Rev 1:1

Rev 1:1 says The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave Him to show HIS servants what must soon take place

The purpose of this book is to reveal Jesus Christ as the soon coming King, and then serve as a roadmap to get us there is a secondary benefit of this book.

In fact it’s the reason the entire bible exists- to reveal Jesus to the world.

You and I are charged by God to share that purpose-to reveal Jesus to the world through our love for HIM and the sharing of THE WORD.

That’s the blessing of those who keep the words of this book.

I could say amen at this point as a major bible point has been preached, but we have one more blessing to cover.

The 7th and final blessing found in the book of Revelation is found in chapter 22 if you want to follow along with us this morning. We will start in verse 10.

Scripture

Rev 22:10-16 Then he (Jesus) said to me, “Don’t seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near. (11) Let the unrighteous go on in unrighteousness; let the filthy still be filthy; let the righteous go on in righteousness; let the holy still be holy.” (12) “Look, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me to repay each person according to his work. (13) I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. (14) “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. (15) Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. (16) “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to attest these things to you for the churches. I am the Root and descendant of David, the bright morning star.”