Jesus Is Coming Back Series

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

“Jesus Is Coming Soon”

Rev 22:6-21

I. Prologue

II. Messages to the churches

III. Last days

IV. Epilogue

John finishes the book with some assurances and some final instructions concerning the book.

Tom Constable observes three basic features of the epilogue.

Three emphases mark this epilogue. First, this prophecy is genuine (vv. 6–7, 8–9, 16, 18–19). Second, Jesus will return imminently (vv. 6–7, 10, 12, 20). Third, the unfit should beware, and the faithful should take courage (vv. 11–12, 15, 17–19). The whole epilogue is very similar to the first chapter in many ways. Thomas Constable, Revelation 8–22, p. 493.

A. An angelic assurance

1. This prophecy is from God 22:6

And he said to me, "These words are faithful and true"; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place.

The same angel who revealed the New Jerusalem not only assures John that everything he has heard is faithful and true because they came from God Himself. It was God’s desire to reveal the final events of the age. These were not bad dreams or figments of his imagination or something falsely forecast by evil spirits. People get visions all the time. Not all of them are from God. The angel assured John that these visions and the information in them were truly from God. The Lord Himself revealed this information. The same God who inspired the Biblical writers of old disclosed these truths.

But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. 2 Peter 1:20-21

Revelation is faithful and true because God inspired it.

The angel repeated the means of revelation already affirmed at the beginning of the book.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Revelation 1:1-2

2. Jesus is coming soon 22:27

The angel appears to be relaying Jesus’ words to John.

And behold, I am coming quickly.

This is either the idea of soon or the speed at which He will carry out these things when He does come.

3. There is blessing for reading and heeding this book

Jesus repeats the blessing from 1:3.

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

Here, there is a blessing for the one who “heeds” the words of this book.

Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.

The word heed has to do with guarding, watching, preserving, keeping (observing).

The concept has to do with embracing and taking the words of Revelation to heart.

This book, more than any other, promises blessing to those who read and heed it.

B. John’s assurance

This is the first time John has personally addressed the reader since chapter one.

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.

John assures his readers as he did in chapter one that he personally experienced these things.

They were visions he saw and words he himself heard. I believe John refers to ALL that he had seen and heard not just the last vision. John seems also to summarize an earlier response (19:10) to angelic revelations he received. These visions were so overwhelming and the angelic messengers so awesome that his immediate response was to give reverence to them.

And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God." Revelation 22:8-9

It is possible he did it again but he should have known better after the first angelic correction.

Paul warned the Colossians not to get enamored by angelic messages which distract from the real source.

Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. Colossians 2:18-19