Revelation 22:18-19

September 8, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 17:55 in the audio file.

Or, Everyone’s Problem with the Prophecy in This Book

One potent way to mess with your enemies is to get your enemies to fight with each other. Give the opposing soldiers something to bicker about between themselves, it should at least distract them. Jesus told the scribes that a house divided couldn’t stand (Mark 3:25), and Abraham Lincoln borrowed the same metaphor. Even Gandalf, in The Hobbit, tricked the trolls into arguing themselves until sunrise when they turned to stone.

I have not discovered secret demon plans to get Christians fighting with each other about the meaning of the book of Revelation, but there has been a lot of infighting among professing believers that has at least distracted us from the real battle. The book of Revelation is a warning against compromise with the world, a call to repentance in the church, and an encouragement that Jesus is worthy to be praised and will bring His plan to consummation at the right time. But believers often display very worldly manners when arguing with each other about what their manner of life in the world should be. The old joke is, the millennium is one-thousand years of peace that Christians love to fight about.

The positive angle to this, and it is really positive, is that there are actually people who care about the truth enough to try to know it and get others to know it. The negatives, though, are also really negative, and we miss out on the blessing that the words of this prophecy promise.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (Revelation 1:3)

And,

“[B]ehold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” (Revelation 22:7)

Both John, who received the revelation, and Jesus, who is the subject of the revelation, promise blessing to those who hold onto the prophecy of this book. We need to get it right so that we know what to hold on to, and we need to hold on to it so that we can be #blessed. If your understanding of Revelation and your system of eschatology do not make you more blessed, and/or if you can’t talk about them in a way that blesses others, then something is very wrong.

Also, there is a severe warning to those who mess with the words of Revelation.

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. (Revelation 22:18-19)

Revelation is the last word of God, that is, the last inspired Scripture. We’ve already finished studying the beginning of the story in Genesis, now we start the end of the story in Revelation. The threats in verses 18-19 are often understood as claims to have additional words of God, or as denials of what has been received as words of God. Don’t add sentences to Scripture, and don’t strike through sentences that are there. That is appropriate application. But at the end of the prophecy of this book, isn’t it also possible that “adding” could come in faulty interpretation, and likewise “taking away” could be a denial, or redefining of something in Revelation itself? This is more than just a lack of understanding, this is a conscious commitment to read the Bible wrongly. Reading rightly is important.

That said, as we begin our hearing and keeping for blessing through the prophecy of this book, I plan to avoid using two phrases in particular, and one larger avoidance in general. You should not hear me say, “If you just read your Bible, ….” There are contexts where such a statement works, but is not our[...]