Revelation’s Closing Invitation – COME!

Revelation’s Closing Invitation – COME!

[this article is in process and so is not finished quite yet. Please don’t read at this point]

“The revelation of Jesus Christ…” (Rev. 1:1). John the Divine left no doubt about the purpose of his Book of Revelation. His very first words in his prologue were that his vision was an unveiling of Jesus. His baffling and otherworldly writings in this book were not primarily about future events, or the destiny of human life on planet earth, or all those mysterious activities in the heavenly sphere. John was writing first and foremost about the Person of Christ, and he intended everything in the book to point back to Him. Revelation was a lifting of the veil on the full identity and activity of Christ. It is a revelation of Jesus, from God, concerning Christ Himself. The Godhead is both the primary source of John’s vision and its main subject. Everything in this extended vision that came to John straight from heaven is to be understood through the prism of Christ. Regardless of how dramatic, puzzling or profound its contents, everything in John’s vision is intended to help us discover more of Christ and deepen our knowledge of and love for Him. All these events in Revelation that seem to pique the reader’s curiosity are nonetheless streams that are meant to lead us back to the River of Life. Perhaps it would do us all well if we continue to remind ourselves of Paul’s declaration as we read John’s vision… “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2). So then, we can’t let ourselves get too sidetracked, too stuck in the weeds, with these fancy special effects in John’s vision… the beasts and the dragons and the angels, the numbers and colors and gemstones, the symbols and metaphors and poetic imagery… After all is said and done in Revelation, St. John has composed an essentially Christ-centered book.

Gold Mine: Another way of looking at the book of Revelation is to strap on your miner’s helmet and search for Biblical gold. In John’s vision are many gold mines that have Jesus Christ as the source… Mines like His appearance in His glorified presence, the Logos of God, the seven titles of Christ, the words to the seven churches, the seven Beatitudes, and the many songs of worship that come straight to us from heaven! And there is more! Mining all the gold in Revelation will make us wealthy with His treasure for all of eternal life. But all those fancy special effects in John’s vision are only fool’s gold if they distract us from Jesus.

“Come!” say the Spirit and the Bride; and whoever is listening, echo, “Come!” Is anyone thirsty? Come! Whosoever wishes, all who earnestly desire, come and drink, slake your thirst with this free gift of the Water of Life! (Revelation 22:17).

“The Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,” proclaims the Nicene Creed, and all God’s people say Amen! Throughout Scripture, the Spirit is symbolized by fresh water, by the waters of life. Living water from running streams is a picture of the life-saving, soul-satisfying refreshment that can only be given by God through His Holy Spirit. In the Hebrew Bible, the connection between water and the Spirit is in Isaiah 44:3, “I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and my blessings on your offspring.” And In Isaiah 32:15, 20, “Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fertile field… How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters.” When Jesus had that momentous discussion with the woman at the well, He promised her the water that will become in her “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14). Lest anyone be confused about that water of life, John clarified the matter once and for all after Jesus shouted out His messianic invitation, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink! He who believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water!” (John 7:37-38). After which John added, “But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive.” (John 7:39). So when the Holy Spirit said ‘Come’ in Revelation 22:17, He is inviting those who are thirsty to come to Him and drink freely from His fountain of life. Only those who are thirsty, those who are “painfully conscious of his need of those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported and strengthened” (AMP), can receive the Spirit’s water of life. Only the thirsty can have their thirst quenched by the Spirit. The Bride of Christ, the Church, joins in the invitation, appealing to all who are spiritually thirsty to come and drink of the Spirit. Whoever drinks of the Spirit will have an ongoing stream of life flowing out of his heart. And this water is free of charge. “Ho! Everyone who thirsts come to the waters; you who have no money, come!” (Isaiah 55:1). John’s final appeal in Scripture is the divine invitation of the Holy Spirit to come to Him for life-giving water. As the Father made clear in Isaiah 41:17, “The afflicted and needy shall rejoice exceedingly, for when they shall seek water, but there is none, and their tongues are parched with thirst, I the Lord God, will hear them; As the God of Israel, I will not forsake them.” The Spirit’s invitation to come and drink is simply a profound gesture of God’s mercy.

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink!” (John 7:38), which point us directly to passages like Isaiah 55:1, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me! For as Scripture says, ‘From His heart shall flow streams of living water;”; that only the waters of Jesus as found in the Holy Spirit could possibly satisfy us at the deep spiritual level; that He wanted to remind us of the powerful ’thirst” passages in Psalms, such as Ps. 63:1,   “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”  Maybe Jesus was hinting that it is easy for us to suffer spiritual dehydration in a world that has nothing to offer but broken wells instead of the fountain of life in God. O

The Fresh Waters of Christ. 

“On the last day, the great day of the Festival, Jesus stood and cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink!’”  (John 7:37-38, NJB)

This is biblical theater at its best, so the scene deserves to be set. There are tens of thousands of faithful Jews in Jerusalem, on the last and most important day of the 7-day Feast of Tabernacles. And what’s the one thing on everyone’s mind as they gather to celebrate this festival? WATER. It seems that Jesus couldn’t let this opportunity pass.

• They are literally praying for water. If God didn’t bring the “early rains” of October and November, there would be no spring crops, which is crucial to their livelihood. Without the rains, the fields will be thirsty with less irrigation, and the people will be thirsty too with less fresh water.
• The gathered faithful were excited to witness the Water-Libation ceremony, in which the high priest walks from the Temple to the pool of Siloam carrying a golden pitcher, the crowd following him as he walks. He then dips the pitcher into the burbling pool for some “living water,” and then proceeds to return to the Temple, leading the people once again, where he pours the water onto the altar. This is an ancient tradition, and is a popular part of the public service in the Temple.
• This water ceremony is intended to commemorate the famous Mosaic water miracle of Exodus 17, in which Moses strikes the rock chosen by God, and out from the rock pours fresh water for the thirsty wanderers to drink… An historic example of God providing fresh water for the faithful.
• During the water ceremony at the Temple, the people, led by the priests, chanted various scripture passages foretelling life-giving water, passages from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah and other books from the Hebrew Bible. In their chants they always included Isaiah 12:3:  “And you shall draw water with rejoicing from the spring of salvation.”
• Once the water is poured onto the altar, a Temple choir begins to sing the messianic Psalm 118. Messianic fervor was at a fever pitch during this most important day, because scripture tells over and over again of an abundance of water during the messianic era. All the people could think about was the coming of the Messiah and the water that would surely accompany his arrival, providing life and blessing for all people and living creatures and crops.

It was just as the water ceremony was reaching a climax on this last day of the Feast when a young man from Galilee stood up, got everybody’s attention as he interrupted the water ritual, and shouted for all to hear something suspiciously like Isaiah 55:1, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! For as scripture says, ‘From his heart shall flow streams of living water!”

All eyes were on this man Jesus, everyone present turning their attention from the priests officiating the Temple service. Who does this young man think he is, disrupting this important ceremony. Is he claiming to be the Messiah, our source of living water? Is he really claiming to be the rock out of which gushes fresh water?

If Jesus wanted to make a scene, if he wanted to create some drama, he certainly succeeded. The people weren’t sure what to make of this, they were divided about who this man was. But the priests were of one mind. They were furious, offended, their authority challenged by this man who claims to be the source of life and blessing, the one who will send his Spirit out, in fulfillment of Isaiah 44:3-4.

Could Jesus have made this any clearer? At the most dramatic moment of the Feast, he pronounces himself to be the only one who can satisfy our yearning for God, the only one who can quench our spiritual thirst. Jesus states here that he is the one who is the source of living water that will flow through eternity. He is claiming here that streams of living water gush from him, the only spiritual Rock providing fresh water to replenish our spirits, providing the Holy Spirit to renew our souls.

Isaiah 55 – Is Anyone Thirsty || Bible in Song || Project of Love (youtube.com)

I’ve Got a River of Life Jeremy Riddle & Bethel Church January 15, 2012 (youtube.com)

The Song of the Well. The wandering Israelites were once again facing a shortage of water in the sweltering heat of the Sinai desert. Naturally, and rather reasonably, Moses and Aaron soon heard their grumbles and complaints. They arrived at a place called “The Well,” which is “Beer” in Hebrew. Evidently, they had been there at some point earlier, because Yahweh directed them to a well that had already been dug by the leaders of Israel. The people were so grateful and relieved to have the prospect of a flourishing well right there with them that they exuberantly greeted it with a song. They encouraged each other to break out into an historic song of praise and thanksgiving and gratitude. For, they were weary and dehydrated and discouraged, and Yahweh couldn’t have given them a better or a more timely gift. It’s not clear if the people rejoiced in anticipation of the water bursting forth from the well, or while it was actually gushing water to the surface, or perhaps even after the water had already poured forth. This Song of the Well could have been sung in celebration before, during, or after the water burst forth. Maybe the Song was sung that whole time during all three phases of the celebration.

The Song. This song has gone down in Jewish history as one of the most famous songs in their entire history. It was evidently already well known before this scene with Moses in the wilderness. It has been dated by historians as present from the earliest of times. It was routinely sung for a long time by the “maidens of Israel” as a routine water-drawing song. And, it was sung for centuries in the Jerusalem Temple as a regular part of the Sabbath worship. The Hebrew word used for the more common translation of “spring up” was  “ali,” which means ascend or go up. So other ways to voice this song would be… Erupt, O well! Sing praises about this well! Flow upwards, O well, and we’ll sing in celebration! Come up, O water-spring! Let the well gush forth! Pour out your water, O well, and we will sing all about it!

Could there be a better picture of the Holy Spirit, the Lord’s River of Life?

I’VE GOT A RIVER OF LIFE (SPRING UP O WELL) (youtube.com)

“Come!” say the Spirit and the Bride. Whoever hears, echo, “Come!” Is anyone thirsty? Come! All who will, come and drink, drink freely of the Water of Life! (Revelation 22:17, MSG).

Revelation 22 – Come, Lord Jesus || Bible in Song || Project of Love (youtube.com)

Spring Up, O Holy Spirit! “The Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,” proclaims the Nicene Creed, and all God’s people say Amen! Throughout Scripture, the Spirit is symbolized by fresh water, by the waters of life. Living water from running streams is a picture of the life-saving, soul-satisfying refreshment that can only be given by God through His Holy Spirit. In the Hebrew Bible, the connection between water and the Spirit is in Isaiah 44:3, “I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and my blessings on your offspring.” And In Isaiah 32:15, 20, “Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fertile field… How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters.” When Jesus had that momentous discussion with the woman at the well, He promised her the water that will become in her “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14). Lest anyone be confused about that water of life, John clarified the matter once and for all after Jesus shouted out His messianic invitation, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink! He who believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water!” (John 7:37-38). After which John added, “But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive.” (John 7:39). So when the Holy Spirit said ‘Come’ in Revelation 22:17, He is inviting those who are thirsty to come to Him and drink freely from His fountain of life. Only those who are thirsty, those who are “painfully conscious of his need of those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported and strengthened” (AMP), can receive the Spirit’s water of life. Only the thirsty can have their thirst quenched by the Spirit. The Bride of Christ, the Church, joins in the invitation, appealing to all who are spiritually thirsty to come and drink of the Spirit. Whoever drinks of the Spirit will have an ongoing stream of life flowing out of his heart. And this water is free of charge. “Ho! Everyone who thirsts come to the waters; you who have no money, come!” (Isaiah 55:1). John’s final appeal in Scripture is the divine invitation of the Holy Spirit to come to Him for life-giving water. As the Father made clear in Isaiah 41:17, “The afflicted and needy shall rejoice exceedingly, for when they shall seek water, but there is none, and their tongues are parched with thirst, I the Lord God, will hear them; As the God of Israel, I will not forsake them.” The Spirit’s invitation to come and drink is simply a profound gesture of God’s mercy. Spring up, O well! Gush forth, O Holy Spirit!

Phil Wickham – Spring Up O Well (Official Pseudo Video) (youtube.com)

“For a tree, there is hope that if cut down, it will sprout again, that its shoots will continue to grow. Even if its roots grow old in the earth and its stump dies in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant.”  (Job 14:7-9).

One would have a difficult time finding a more perplexing book in Scripture than Job. It is ancient, so old that many scholars believe it is the oldest written book in the Bible, written before Genesis, by an unknown author. The land of Uz might as well be the land of Oz since no one knows where that land actually was. Job was a Jew before Abraham, in the sense that he had a direct knowledge of God. The name of God is used 150 times in the book. And yet Job was also a Gentile, since he has no knowledge of the Torah, the Temple, or Israel. In all of Job’s questioning of God, God never actually provides an answer to Job’s suffering. Job asks Why, and God seems to answer Because. All of Job’s ordeal is orchestrated by Satan, and yet Job never has a hint that Satan is even in the picture at all. Job’s plight is to live into the mystery of suffering in the dark.

For Job maintained his innocence through all the pain and suffering. He believed that this ordeal was not of his making, that he had already confessed to God whatever needed to be confessed in the past. Job tells his friends, this suffering is not his fault. Through it all, Job continued to trust in God’s basic mercy and goodness. Job trusted that God was ultimately responsible for everything in this world, and that God must have a good reason for this plight of his. If only God would tell him what those reasons are! Job’s ultimate hope was in God, even if God was pulling all the strings in this misery. Job never yielded to the temptation to curse God and die, even during all those moments of dark despair, depression, and his moody mental states. Job’s faith is so strong that, despite his misery, he boldly declares, “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him.” (13:15).

Job never tried to hide his thoughts and feelings from God. He was utterly transparent to the Lord. He laid it all out there for God to see. Job complained to God, he argued with God, he challenged God, he expressed his gravest doubts before God, his darkest thoughts. But he never relinquished his deep faith and trust in God. Job knew he was helpless and vulnerable before a powerful God, and that only God could save him from these calamities. He trusted that God was eminently fair and just, and so he kept his hopes alive. Job was in prayer constantly, he kept speaking to God. “I am not silenced by the darkness.” (23:19). The disturbing thing in the book of Job is, until the big theophany at the end, God kept Job in the dark during most of his suffering. Job cried out to God, but for the most part God didn’t answer. Ellen Davis offers this piece fo insight in her book Getting involved with God… “What goads and guides Job through his pain is simply the determination not to let God off the hook for a moment. Eventually Job’s determination to hold God accountable to Himself becomes his hope of redemption.”

In this particular passage in his book, Job decides to look at nature as he explores the idea of death and the afterlife. He points to a tree and probes the possibility of coming back from the grave. Job decides to think out loud with God about life after death. He was well ahead of his time even considering this topic. God simply hadn’t revealed much if anything to His people about the afterlife. Heaven and the resurrection only came to light in much later Hebrew thinking. Job was a pioneer in this subject, and many would have denounced him as a heretic for even bringing the topic up for discussion. And yet as Job considers, with God as his audience, the possibility of the afterlife, with perhaps his three friends listening in, he actually became what Mike Mason called “the earliest Christian prophet of the resurrection.”

Job insightfully brings up the image of a tree that is able to come back to life after being completely cut to the ground, with dried-up roots and a rotting stump. And yet, Job says, new shoots can sprout if it senses water and taps into a fresh supply. An old dead tree can spring back to life, Job observes, so maybe an old dead person can as well? Job continues to explore this idea as he displays his moments of doubt… “He dies, and dead he remains.” (v. 10). No, Job seems to conclude, it seems like a human being “once laid to rest will never rise again.” (v. 12).

But Job is like a dog with a bone. He continues to contemplate this idea as he asks God to hide him somewhere in the place of the dead until His judgment is done. Hide me in my grave, Job requests, and then don’t forget I’m there! Mark your calendar, God, so you remember me there when I am dead in my grave. So Job repeats his question… “Can the dead live again?” (v. 14). He is earnestly asking for some hope after his intense suffering. In fact, Job declares, “I will wait for my renewal to come!” (v. 14). Another translation puts it, “I will wait until I arise!” Somehow, Job decides, my dead body will become just like that dead tree, it will get a scent of water and become like new again! One can tell that Job has developed an underlying faith in God, that He will make things right in the end.

Job was the Bible’s earliest prophet, anticipating the Messiah, the living water of the Holy Spirit, the resurrection, and the final call of Jesus at the Last Day. He anticipated the gospel two thousand years ahead of its time. God inspired Job to be a spiritual pioneer, even as Job didn’t fully understand everything he was saying. His thoughts and conjectures carried a lot more spiritual weight and significance than he could ever know. Job was an intuitive believer without knowing anything about Scripture or the Temple or anything else that God might have communicated to others. Job was on his own in his thinking, and God was with him all the way. It is so inspiring to see that the oldest believer in the books, probably the first in human history, has all the instincts of a true believer.

The Prophecy of the Dead Stump. When he developed the image of the tree that was cut down, resulting in a dead stump that ended up with new shoots, Job didn’t know he was anticipating the coming Messiah. He didn’t know about the prophet Isaiah’s announcement that “There shall come forth a Shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” (Is. 11:1). Job couldn’t have known that the royal line of David would be chopped down, that the reign of David’s kingdom would be a dead stump, but that the Messiah, the prophesied Son of David, would be a new Shoot sprouting from that old dead stump, just as Job described. Job couldn’t have known that the righteous Branch he imagined would truly, eventually grow out of that old stump. What Job had envisioned as merely an illustration from nature became the perfect picture of the most important event in history. Job anticipated Isaiah, and Isaiah anticipated the Messiah.

The Prophecy of the Water. Job was waxing poetic with his phrase “the scent of water.” (v. 9). He was noting that somehow a root from a dead stump is able to sense the presence of water and grow towards it. That water will then enable that dead stump to spring back to life, the source of new life. Job here provides a beautiful picture of how we, even though we ought to be dead stumps, can still receive a source of new life. Roots that appear to be too old and deformed for renewal can nonetheless receive living water, the water of life everlasting. As Jesus dramatically said to the crowd in the Temple, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink’… By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed on Him were later to receive.” (John 7:37-39). The water giving new life to the dead stump is the Holy Spirit, mentioned time and again in the Hebrew Bible. (Ps. 36:9; Is. 12:3, 49:10 and 55:1; Jer. 2:13 and 17:13; Zech 13:1 and 14:8). “For I shall pour water on the thirsty soil and streams on the dry ground. I shall pour out my Spirit on your descendants, my blessing on your offspring, and they will spring up among the grass, like willows on the banks of a stream.”  (Isaiah 44:3-4). This living water comes from Jesus, the Fountain of Life, and renews our lives now and for life eternal. In mentioning the scent of water, Job was being poetic. He was also being prophetic. Little did Job realize that his picture of the scent of water revealed the truth that our salvation and sanctification involves the sensing of the Holy Spirit. Job, without knowing it, also anticipated the ultimate river of life in the New Jerusalem, flowing through the Tree of Paradise. (Rev. 22:1).

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” (Psalm 42:1-2).

God the Father. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, Yahweh God declared Himself to be the fountain of living water. He stated in certain terms that He was the source of spiritual water that would slake the thirst of every person who comes to Him. He alone would provide the waters of salvation to all who would come to Him and drink of His life-giving stream.

1. Jeremiah 2:13. “For my people have committed two crimes: they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug water-tanks for themselves, cracked water-tanks that hold no water.” 
2. Jeremiah 17:13. “Those who turn from you will be registered in the underworld, since they have abandoned Yahweh, the fountain of living water.” 
3. Psalm 36:9. “You give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” 
4. Isaiah 49:10. “They will never hunger or thirst, scorching wind and sun will never plague them, for He who pities them will lead them, will guide them to springs of water.” 
5. Isaiah 55:1. “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters.” 
6. Isaiah 12:3. “Therefore you shall draw water with rejoicing from the spring of salvation.” 

God the Son. As the Son of the Father, Jesus wasted no time in declaring that He will walk in the footsteps of Yahweh. He will continue the Father’s ministry of providing living water to those who are spiritually thirsty. He too is the fountain. Jesus claimed to be on equal footing with Yahweh God by inviting others to drink of Him. He only does what He sees the Father doing, which is spring forth with fresh waters from the fountain of the Lord.

1. John 7:37-38. “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’”  
2. John 4:10, 13-14. “Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water… Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
3. Revelation 7:17. “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water.” 
4. Revelation 22:1. “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, down the middle of the great street of the city.” 

God the Holy Spirit. If the Father and the Son are the fountain, the source, what exactly is the living water they are providing? The living water is the Holy Spirit, flowing freely from the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is who gives us life, who is to be taken into our hearts. The Spirit of God gushes forth from the eternal fountain for our salvation and our transformation.

1. Isaiah 44:3-4. For I shall pour water on the thirsty soil and streams on the dry ground. I shall pour out my Spirit on your descendants, my blessing on your offspring, and they will spring up among the grass, like willows on the banks of a stream.” 
2. John 7:37-39. “If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” 
3. Nehemiah 9:20. “You gave them your good Spirit to instruct them, you did not withhold your manna from their mouths, you gave them water for their thirst.” 
4. Revelation 22:17. “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’ Let everyone who listens answer, ‘Come!’ Then let all who are thirsty come. All who want it may have the water of life and have it free.” 

Jesus the Messiah. By declaring Himself to be the source of living water, the fountain of life, Jesus claimed to fulfill the messianic prophecies of the Scriptures. Christ is the long-awaited Messiah, bringing fresh streams of His Holy Spirit to the thirsty souls of the people.

1. Joel 4:18. “When the Day comes, the mountains will run with new wine and the hills will flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah will run with water. A fountain will spring from Yahweh’s Temple.” 
2. Zechariah 13:1. “On that Day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” 
3. Zechariah 14:8. “On that Day living water will flow out from Jerusalem…” 

‘O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”  (Psalm 63:1).