Revelation 22:17-20 - Come!

•The last several verses in the entire Bible prominently use the word “COME.”

•COME - "to move toward or into a place thought of as near or familiar."

•My niece Macie won't come to me but she will my daughters. Why?

•Because they are more familiar to her - kids only go to who they KNOW!

•People don't ask Christ to come or come to Him because they don't know Him.

•However, if I offer Macie food or drink she’ll come - she knows there’s a reward.

•The word "come" is used in three ways in these verses (2 requests & a promise):

•1) From us to Jesus (vs 17A).

•The Holy Spirit and the Church collective ask Him to come.

•We as individuals ask Him (..."Thy kingdom come...") in two ways:

•a) come to reign on earth as king.

•b) come “through” us into the earth.

•2) From Jesus to us (vs 17B).

•“Let anyone who is thirsty come” - who is thirsty? All of us.

•Thirst is a matter of nature - God made us to require water.

•But the need can be met with the real or with the fake (water vs coke).

•Meeting our thirst with anything but God leads to temporary, not permanent satisfaction.

•3) A promise from Jesus (vs 20) - His reassurance is our reward.

Revelation 22:18-19 - Misrepresenting God

•In between the two verses about “coming” we have a threat about the way we treat God’s Word.

•The warning is two fold:

•1) Don’t add to them (vs 18) - this is heresy.

•2) Don’t take away from them (vs 19) - this is apostasy.

•I believe this can be summed up in this statement - Do NOT misrepresent God.

•This warning is to:

•1) The copyist (the scribes who made copies for distribution) - this can be applied to preachers of today.

•2) The hearers (all of us) - the way we live our lives must not misrepresent God.

•This is what the Reformation was all about.

•People sought to “reconcile” God’s Word with culture. But the reformers chose to:

•Restate, Reaffirm, and Reapply God’s truth to all of life, regardless of the culture.

•The punishment for misrepresenting God’s Word is like the one Jesus stated in Matthew 18:6 about leading weaker people astray.