The Bible Breakdown: Daily Bible Reading
Welcome to "The Bible Breakdown," where we break down God’s Word so we can know God better. I'm your host, Brandon Cannon, and I'm here to guide you through the pages of the Bible, one day at a time.
Each day, we'll read through a section of the Bible and explore key themes, motifs, and teachings. Whether you're new to the Bible or a seasoned veteran, I guarantee you'll find something insightful or inspiring. My hope is to encourage you to dive deeper and deeper.
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The Bible Breakdown: Daily Bible Reading
Revelation 22: Jesus is Coming Soon
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Revelation, chapter 22,. And today's title is Jesus is Coming Soon. Jesus is Coming Soon and man. What a great finale to an amazing book of the Bible, and so we're going to get right into it. If you have your Bibles, I want to open up with me to Revelation, chapter 22. It's pretty easy to find Just go to the very back and turn a couple pages to the left. While you're doing that, if you're new around here, take just a moment to like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast it really does help and make sure that you are going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. Facebook, this amazing group of people doing a wonderful job and, as always, the more we dig, the more we find. Well, we've made it to the very end of the book of Revelation and, as always, I want to take just a moment and give that disclaimer one more time.
Speaker 1:The book of Revelation is often a very divisive book, and the reason why is because of the endless amount of ways that you can read it. The reason for this is because it is written in a genre of literature called apocalyptic literature, which means it is written in something close to poetry, where it will use symbolism, allusions, metaphors, illustrations, kind of like the parables of Jesus to make spiritual points and references, because of the genre that it is written in, and it leads to the ability to interpret it in various different ways. And so there are many people who will take it and they will say this is exactly what it means and it can only mean this in the future. That's not this podcast. There are many great podcasts that want to go into the future.
Speaker 1:What I'm very interested in is what did it mean to the original early church? Because it wasn't written to us. It was written for us, but it was written to the early church and it cannot mean to us what it did not mean to them, and so the primary meaning to the early church was Jesus wins. If you remember, we've been talking about this idea that the Apostle John had been on the island of Patmos as a political prisoner and while he was there he received a revelation of Jesus, and the revelation was intended to be given to the seven churches that he oversaw, and they were experiencing great persecution from Rome, from Jerusalem, from all these other places that were telling them hey, listen, worship Jesus all you want, but worship the emperor too. And, as a matter of fact, you need to worship the emperor a little bit more than you worship Jesus. And they were dealing with all kinds of pressure to compromise. And so John received this revelation from God. And the revelation is in the end, jesus wins. So don't give up. And over the course of the entire book of Revelation, he writes about how Jesus is going to win. And it's a constant encouragement to the early church to say, yes, bad things are going to happen, but in the end, jesus is going to overcome all of it. And that is one of the things I love about this is that, as it finishes at the very end now, as Jesus is finishing up the revelation, the visions he gave to John, he gives them the marching orders. It's like, okay, now that we've seen all of this and we realize that at some point that all of your enemies are going to be destroyed and that everyone is going to come and they're going to serve and worship you, what do I do with all of that? And that is what he finishes up with today, and we're going to finish up with talking about for all of us. What do we do with the book of Revelation? So, if you're ready, revelation 22,. Let's finish this amazing book together. Here we go.
Speaker 1:Verse 1 says this. Then the angel showed me a river of water of life, crystal as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of Main Street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life bearing twelve crops of fruit and the fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations, just like in the book of Ezekiel, verse 3., verse 4. And then the angel said to me there will be no night there, no need for lamps or sun, for the Lord God will shine on them and they will reign forever and ever. And then the angel said to me Everything that you have heard and seen is trustworthy and true. The Lord, god who inspires his prophets, has sent his angel to tell his servants what will happen soon.
Speaker 1:Then Jesus himself says in verse 7, look, I am coming soon. Blessed are those who obey the words of this prophecy written in this book, verse 8,. I, john, am the one who heard and saw all these things and when I heard and saw them, fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me Verse 9,. But he said no, don't worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers and the prophets, as well as all who obey what is written in this book. Worship only God.
Speaker 1:Verse 10,. Then he instructed me do not seal up the prophetic words of this book, for the time is near. Let the one who is doing harm continue to do harm. Let the one who is vile continue to be vile. Let the one who is righteous continue to live righteously. Let the one who is holy continue to be holy. Verse 12,. Jesus again says look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life. Outside the city are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers and all those who love to live a lie.
Speaker 1:I, jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star, verse 17,. The spirit and the bride say come. Let anyone who hears this say come. Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life Verse 18,. And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book if anyone adds to anything what is written here, god will add to that person the plagues described in this book. And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, god will remove that person's share of the tree of life and the holy city that are described in this book. He who is faithful, or faithful witness to all these things, says yes, I am coming soon. Amen, come, lord Jesus. May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's holy people. Wow, and there you have it. There is the end of one of the most powerful books in the Bible.
Speaker 1:And so, as we finish up the book of Revelation, what lesson does it leave with all of us? There's a lot of things he said there at the very end, but what was the one thing Jesus kept saying over and, over and over again I am the beginning, I am the end, I am coming soon, coming soon, I am coming soon. Over and over again, he's saying be an expectation. Now here's the thing the Bible said right here, at the very end. Jesus said I am coming soon.
Speaker 1:However, john received this prophecy 2,000 years ago, so soon is relative. He's saying I am coming, I am coming soon. So live as though I am coming soon. And the early church would have read this and they would have understood that that meant jesus is coming soon according to his timetable. The reason why we get frustrated with that is because we see, soon according to our timetable, jesus is saying I'm coming, so live as though I'm coming soon.
Speaker 1:And so the lesson for all of us is to live with one eye toward heaven. That can be difficult to do, because we put our head down and we get to work and we raise our kids and we have our career and we try to figure out what we're going to do with our job and what we're going to do with college and before we know it, a year has passed and all this kind of stuff, and we can get so just wrapped up in this world that we can forget that. Jesus tells us keep one eye to the sky, because you have no idea when I'm coming, but I'm coming soon. This is especially important when we go through difficult seasons, when we look and you know Revelation or, excuse me, matthew 24 talks about wars and rumors of wars and all these different things before the coming of Christ. We can look and we can forget, because we're looking around us, that we get discouraged.
Speaker 1:But when we live with one eye to the sky, it's hard to get discouraged because we know that at the right time Jesus will come again. And so there's a balance to be had here, because on one end, the early church they were not being told to leave this world. They were being told God's got this world in his hands, that Jesus wins. Therefore, be faithful in persecution, be faithful in serving, be faithful in reaching out to everyone else, because Jesus is coming. In other words, you can trust him. He's going to come, it's going to be okay, can I tell you.
Speaker 1:I think that's the same lesson for all of us today. It's for us to say don't get discouraged, don't give up. Jesus is coming. When's he coming? I don't know. I have no idea. And can I tell you, if anybody tells you they know exactly when he's coming, that's exactly when he's not going to come, because the Bible says nobody knows, only the Father in heaven. And I don't know what his timetable is, but I know he will. And until then we can live with that hope. And so, as we finish one of, in my opinion, one of the most encouraging books in the entire New Testament, our marching orders is never get discouraged because the king has already won. He already told us how it all ends, and it ends with him on the throne and with us in his kingdom. And then, when it's all over, jesus is coming soon. So I want to encourage you today no matter what you're going through, no matter what you're facing, don't give up, because Jesus wins. Let's pray together right now.
Speaker 1:God, thank you so much for the book of Revelation. Thank you, god, that it reminds us that you are coming soon. And though we know that soon for us means right now, soon for you means when the time is fulfilled. So I pray you'll help us to trust in your timing, trust that when it's time you will come, and we trust you in between, that you'll be with us. Your word says that, though we may walk through the valley of the very shadow of death, we will not be afraid for you while be with us. Your word says that, though we may walk through the valley of the very shadow of death, we will not be afraid for you while close beside us. I pray that we will feel encouraged and strengthened today. In Jesus' name, we pray amen and amen. What God's word says in Revelation 1, verse seven. One more time, say it with me. Look, he comes with the clouds of heaven and everyone will see him.
Speaker 1:Now, before we end this podcast on the I don't know how many years this will be on podcast platforms and all the different things, but if you've been with us the very first time we recorded this, we are not quite finished going through the Old Testament or the New Testament, because we never actually recorded Matthew and Mark.
Speaker 1:So we're doing that coming up, and so, if you're with us on the very first time, we've still got two more books to go.
Speaker 1:But here's my challenge to you if you are listening to this on the replay and you have already gone through the entire New Testament, can I tell you if there's one thing better than reading through the Bible, it's reading through the Bible again, because what happens as you continue to read God's word, you're going to start remembering things.
Speaker 1:And what's going to happen, now that you've read through the book of Revelation, when you read through the book of Matthew and we get to around Matthew, chapter 24, and Jesus is talking about future events you're going to look and you're going to go wait a minute, I remember some of that when you get into some of the other things you're going to remember and as it starts to happen, you're going to start to put pieces together and you're going to start to understand the character and nature of God a little bit more. So, once again, I'll tell you the only thing better than reading through the Bible is reading through it again, and so I want to encourage you to make a habit of reading through God's word, one chapter a day for the rest of your life. One chapter a day for the rest of your life, and God will continue to open up your eyes to see him more clearly. Okay, I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for the next part of the Bible Breakdown Podcast.