I Was Dead, but…
Easter Message 2014
Revelation 1:1-2:13         4-20-2014
Summary: Revelation is the unveiling of the exalted Christ. The picture in the gospels is an outdated photo. He is robed in splendor as Priest and King, His fiery eyes penetrate and purify and consume, His voice is authoritative and commanding, His words cut both ways and are lethal, His glory is beyond what we can handle seeing, and He is the supplier of life and defeater of death. All that we need in our suffering is life (not removal of the suffering).
Introduction: The Revelation of Jesus
The Exalted Christ
How to Interpret Symbolic Language
Robed in Splendor
Priest
King
Ancient of Days
Fiery Eyes
Voice
Sword
Face Like the Sun
Living One
What Did They Need? Life!
Testing
The Solution to Dying: Living!
What Smyrna Needed Was Life
Thus Saith the Master of Life
Crown of Life
Application Questions (James 1:25)

Introduction: The Revelation of Jesus
These are the words of him … who was dead and came to life again:
That is from Revelation 2:8, introducing the words of the risen, glorified, exalted Christ to His suffering Church. Would you like to know what follows? When Jesus Christ has a special message for a group of His people who are suffering, and He prefaces the message by reminding them that He was dead and came to life again – what sort of a message do you think is about to come out of His mouth? What kind of message depends on us remembering up front that Jesus was once dead?
It is a startling statement when you think about it. That is something no one else can say – not even God the Father. God the Father can say, “I am the First and the Last,” but He can’t say, “I was dead.” Jesus alone can say that, and He does say it as a reminder to this church before delivering the unique message He has for them. Would you like to hear that message? Before I read that message to you, let me give you a little context. Let’s go back to the first verse of this book.
Revelation 1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ…
The book of Revelation (not Revelations – it is just one revelation), is a revealing of Jesus Christ. The word “revelation” means unveiling. When someone wants to make a dramatic presentation of some new thing, they will put it up on a platform with lots of lights and everything else, and then cover it up with a sheet and at a climactic moment when the music hits a crescendo, pull the sheet away and unveil it and everyone gasps and ooh’s and ahh’s at this impressive new thing. The book of Revelation is God doing that with His glorified Son.
It is a very important book because most people know Jesus only in His humiliation. Two thousand years ago God the Son set aside His spectacular glory, before which the angels hid their faces, and clothed Himself instead in human flesh and was born in a lowly, humble way to poor parents in a stable in Bethlehem. He looked just like any other man. He got tired, hungry, thirsty, needed sleep – his mom had to teach Him how to eat, how to walk, how to talk. And as a very young man – early 30’s probably, He is captured, chained, beaten almost to death, nailed to a cross, and executed as a common criminal.
That is the picture most people have of God the Son. Movies about Him, paintings of Him, drawings – all show Him in that humble, weak state. Do you have any photos of your family that are so old you see them and your first thought is, “Man, we sure don’t look like that anymore”? That picture of Jesus that is in most people’s head – that is way out of date. He does not look like that anymore.
Philippians 2:6 Though he was in the very form of God, he did not consider equality with God something to be held on to, 7 but emptied himself, taking the very form of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
That is the old picture. But…
 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place 
The word in verse 9 is the Greek word for exalt (upso) strengthened with the prefix huper on the front (huperupso). God hyper-exalted Him – super-exalted Him. And the purpose of the book of Revelation is to pull the sheet off and reveal this super-exalted, ultra-glorious Christ. Typically on Easter we focus on the gospel account of Jesus’ resurrection that was read earlier. But that is the tip of the iceberg of the significance of the resurrection. That is page one of the story of the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection, and we don’t want to only focus on page one. The book of Revelation gives us the rest of the story and shows us a much more up-to-date portrait of the risen, glorified Christ.
First and foremost this is a book about Jesus. Revelation is not a book about beasts and dragons and angels and 144,000 and four horsemen and Babylon. Those things are mentioned, but only inasmuch as they help unveil the glory and majesty and power and greatness and wisdom and strength and magnificence and supremacy of the risen, exalted, glorified Lord Jesus Christ. So chapter 1 describes Him. Chapters 2-3 show Him tending His church like a Shepherd. And the rest of the book shows Him pouring out His wrath on His enemies and being worshipped and adored by His people and by the hosts of heaven as He brings all history to final fruition. If you did not understand the book of Revelation, now you do. That is what it is about.
And that statement I read at the very beginning was taken from that section in chapters 2-3 where Jesus is tending His church. And by “tending” I mean He is giving them what they need – encouraging them, correcting them, strengthening, rebuking, fixing what’s wrong, warning them of dangers, building them up with promises, giving them hope, guiding them, feeding them – everything they need to prepare for the great hour of trial that is about to come upon the world in the rest of the book. That is chapters 2-3. And there is a crucial connection between chapter 1, and that section in chapters 2-3. All the encouraging and rebuking and correcting and everything that goes on in chapters 2-3 is based on the descriptions of the exalted Christ in chapter 1. Each problem in those churches is fixed by focusing on one or more of the attributes of Christ in chapter 1. And Jesus tells them which attribute will fix their particular problem at the greeting in each letter. The greeting I read you a minute ago was the opening to the letter to church #2. So before looking at the message to that church, and the problem in that church that is solved by seeing Jesus as the one who was once dead, let’s take a jet tour through the vision in chapter 1.
The Exalted Christ
I counted 30 attributes of Jesus Christ in this chapter. Obviously we don’t have time to talk about all of them, so let me just highlight a few.
How to Interpret Symbolic Language
And let me encourage you – as you read these descriptions, do not try to picture them in your mind. That will make you miss the point. These are symbols to be interpreted, not pictures to be imagined.
So with that in mind, let’s take a look at the risen, exalted Christ.
Robed in Splendor 
Priest
Verse 13 describes how He is dressed. 
13 and among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man" dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet 
That is a priestly robe. Just as a priest would tend to the lampstands in the Holy Place, Jesus is here shown as moving through the real Sanctuary of God, tending to the lampstands which are the various churches. It is the ministry of the Church, empowered by the Holy Spirit that lights up God’s dwelling place, and Jesus Christ moves like a priest through the churches to keep them burning bright. That is what we see Him doing in chapters 2-3.
King
But His clothes are not only priestly, they are also royal robes.
13 … with a golden sash around his chest.
That is a mark of royalty and the highest honor. Back in verse 5 He is called Ruler of the kings of the earth. All of the most powerful kings and presidents and prime ministers and dictators – they are all subjects of the great King of kings, Jesus Christ.  He is both a Priest and a King, and so He appears robed in splendor. 
Ancient of Days
14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.
These are the descriptions of the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7.
Fiery Eyes
and his eyes were like blazing fire.
That symbolizes two things: 
1)	His penetrating knowledge of those He judges
2)	The fiery wrath of God to judge those declared “guilty”
He has perfect insight into our hearts, our motives, our desires – He knows why we do the things we do when we don’t know. He sees everything and understands everything and His penetrating gaze is like a laser that has a burning effect on the thing He sees. His eyes represent His attention, and when He sets His attention on something, that thing is perfectly evaluated and judged and what is unholy is burned. When Jesus looks at your heart, something happens to your heart. It is a dangerous but purifying gaze.
Voice
15 …and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 
I have done a lot of rafting, and I have been on a boat in a rapid that was so loud I could literally shout at the top of my lungs, and someone just a few feet away on the boat couldn’t hear me. Earlier Jesus’ voice is described as being like a ram’s horn, now it is like rushing waters. The point is that it is loud, clear official and authoritative. This book is the most commanding thing Christ ever said to His Church. The word “loud” occurs 21 times in Revelation (only two times in all the Epistles – and both of those are referring to Jesus). This was not a silent vision. In the description in Daniel 10 it says his voice like the sound of a multitude (v6). If you have ever been in a stadium full of people and they get loud – it is an amazing thing to think of one man’s voice being that loud. It was so loud, Daniel collapsed in fear. So that is a well-known Old Testament passage, and then when John sees this vision of Christ he says, “It was like what Daniel saw.” In fact, John combines all the images of the vision of Daniel 3, Daniel 10, Ezekiel 9, the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7 and the son of man in Daniel 7 all in one. And the effect on John is even more devastating than it was on Daniel: 
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
He did not just get dazed or a little light-headed. He is out cold – unconscious. Despite what you see in the movies, people generally do not pass out from fear. I have seen people scared to the point of panic, but never in my lifetime have I ever seen someone pass out from fear. John was Jesus’ best friend during Jesus’ humiliation. He once laid his head against Jesus at a meal. That is how comfortable John was with Him. But here he sees Jesus and he goes unconscious. If you saw what John saw you would not be able to stay on your feet. If you cannot imagine something so terrifying that it would render you unconscious, then you cannot imagine what it was like to see this vision of the glorified Christ.
But if you are one of His, then you have nothing to be afraid of.
17 …Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid.” 
That same hand that held the stars in the previous verse now touches John! And then the words: Do not be afraid. That is not rebuke – it is permission. You see the glorified Christ in His posture as mighty Judge in perfect purity and holiness, with the sharp, double-edged broadsword of judgment coming out of His mouth and the only right response is fear, unless … He gives you permission not to fear.
In our day people are very familiar with that last part, Do not fear. But so often those words ring hollow because we have never presented people with the updated vision of Christ that would make them fear in the first place. They have never contemplated the glory of Christ, so fear is the farthest thing from their mind. But the more we know the real Christ, the more precious and amazing and astonishing are those words, do not fear. It is so important that we see Christ first as terrifying, and then come to a place where we have permission not to fear. There are some problems we have in our spiritual lives that can only be solved by seeing Jesus this way. We see that in church #4 in chapters 2-3. The problems they had in their church could only be solved by seeing Jesus this way, and so in His letter to that church Jesus introduces His words to that church by reminding them that He is the one with eyes like fire, and that His words are like a sword.
Sword
16 …and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.
The word sword is romphaia – that is the huge, three-foot Roman broadsword. They were big and heavy and very difficult to move with very much speed or precision or skill, but they would do massive damage. Basically, if you received a direct blow from a romphaia you were finished. It would literally cut you right in half. Churches like church #3 and 4 that are hesitant to carry out the Matthew 18 process and put unrepentant sinners out of the church – they need to understand this about Jesus. Because Jesus says if we don’t follow the removal and restoration process, He will come with His fire and with His sharp sword that cuts both ways, and deal with those people and it is going to be a rough time for the whole church. He warns us and lets us know that as hard as the Matthew 18 process is, we would be far better off to deal with the fallout from that than to deal with Jesus coming into our church with that sword to clean house.
Face Like the Sun
16 …His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. 
This refers to glory beyond what can be looked upon by man. If you try to look at it, it will blind you; get too close and it will consume you (unless you are clothed with one of those white, robes that He gives to His people, which are made out of eternal asbestos). I saw a video of a girl who claims to have had a vision of the risen Christ and she painted it. But I knew right away that it was not the true Christ that she saw because her eyes were still in their sockets and I was able to look at the painting without passing out. The true risen Christ has glory beyond what we can handle apart from His protecting grace.
Living One
There is so much more in this vision, but before we run out of time let me skip down to the one I mentioned at the beginning.
18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! 
That is the attribute that Jesus reminds church #2 about. Church #2 was the church in the city of Smyrna, and it is one of only two churches that get no rebuke at all from Jesus. Smyrna was a church marked by two things – suffering and poverty. There was such severe persecution in Smyrna that it was one of the most dangerous places a follower of Christ could live in the entire Roman Empire. The Caesar-worship absolutely permeated every nook and cranny of the culture in that city, and so if you aren’t willing to say the words, “Caesar is Lord,” you can forget about finding any work, and it is very likely you will be executed as a rebel against the government.
There were two words for poverty. One is to describe the kind where you have no comforts in life – it is everything you can do to just scrape together enough each day for your family to eat. That is not the word Jesus uses here. This word is the one that refers to such abject destitution that you cannot even come close to being able to feed yourself. You just have to beg, and you are 100% dependent upon the mercy of others for every meal you eat. That is the word Jesus uses to describe the poverty of His followers in Smyrna.
What Did They Need? Life!
So what did they need from Jesus? What do you suppose they prayed for? What would you pray for if you were out of work and couldn’t support your family? How would you pray if you were unjustly thrown into prison like Pastor Saeed in Iran? You would say, “God, I need….,” what?
Well, we don’t know exactly what they prayed for, but we do know what Jesus gave them.
2:10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.  
Before we talk about the first three words of that sentence, let’s think about the last five. 
you are about to suffer
Let those words sink down into your ears for a moment. Imagine you are in Smyrna sitting in church on Sunday morning, weak and lethargic for lack of food, your kids are crying, your home has been ransacked; and Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer.” How would that hit you? Jesus went on:
10 … I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you
Prison? Seriously – I might be going to prison? At that time prison sentences were not given as the punishment for a crime. They had prisons for detaining people – primarily those awaiting trial. Sometimes for other reasons. But usually if you were in prison it was because you were awaiting execution.
“That happens to Christians in Iran or China but … me? After all this suffering I might be going to prison? This is how You answer my prayers?”
And Jesus says, “Oh, that’s not all…”
Testing
10 … the devil will put some of you in prison to test you and you will suffer persecution for ten days. 
This is not the word “test to prove.” This word can mean either “test” or “tempt,” because every hardship is both a test from God and a temptation from Satan. Every single time you suffer in any way, God is testing you and Satan will use it to try to push you into a sinful response – like anger or self-pity or grumbling or discouragement, etc. If you give in to the temptation to have a sinful response, you didn’t pass the test. If you have a godly response, you did pass. Satan’s objective is not just for you to suffer. He doesn’t care about that. What he cares about is getting you to sin. Satan sends suffering your way only to accomplish that goal.
The 10 days is probably a figure of speech that points to this being a controlled, specified time period. God has a purpose, it is totally under His control, it is part of His perfect plan, and so we don’t have to be afraid of it. So if the 10 days is a relatively short, controlled period of time – how long is it going to last?
10 …Be faithful, even to the point of death
How long will this last? Not long – just until death. All you have to do is remain faithful to the point of death. Perhaps the opportunity is extended to them to go ahead and call Caesar “Lord,” and escape execution. Can you imagine that? You are thinking, “My children will be left without parents, the church needs my help, all I have to do is say these words…” So Jesus urges them: “Remain faithful to death.” Christ’s message is not, “Here’s how to get out of the circumstances you are in.” It is this: “I understand you are suffering. Keep it up. Hang in there. Be faithful – not for a long time. Just until death.” 
John 15:20 No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. 
Are we clear about the whole gospel message – what Jesus is calling us to?
How’s this for a Gospel tract: “God loves you and has a plan for you to suffer and suffer and suffer and then die.” That is Jesus’ invitation to mankind.
But it is a loving invitation, because that is the path to real life. Most people will not take that path because they think the solution to suffering is pain relief. Someone is depressed – give him some drugs. Someone is miserable in his marriage – get a divorce. If a pregnancy is going to be a hardship – end it. Just kill the baby; problem solved, and voila – no more hardship or suffering. And so now with all the divorces, and all the antidepressants, and all the abortions, everybody is happy and satisfied and fulfilled, and hardship is a thing of the past – right? No. Our culture has every bit as much sorrow and sadness and distress and anger and frustration as any other culture. The solution to suffering is not relief. How many times have you gotten out of some hard situation and after getting out you were still just as depressed as ever?
The Solution to Dying: Living! 
What we need when we are suffering is not mere removal of the suffering. What we need is what the Bible calls life. Don’t think of life as just having a pulse. That is not the biblical definition. There are atheists who have a pulse just as strong as mine (or stronger), yet the Bible says I have life and they do not. We have a pulse; they have a pulse. Then one day they breathe their last and go in the ground and the exact same thing happens to us. And after that our soul continues to exist; so does theirs. Then our bodies are resurrected; they are resurrected. And we both have ongoing conscious existence forever. And yet the Bible says in this world we have life and they are dead, and in the next world we have eternal life and their situation is called the second death. Now, under what kind of definition of life can all that be true? If it is not mere existence, or consciousness, then what is it?
See if you would agree with this: living is the opposite of dying. Instead of thinking of it as the opposite of death, think of it as the opposite of dying. What happens when someone is dying physically? What are they losing? If you have ever watched a loved one die over a period of a few months, that’s not a hard question to answer. As they are dying, they decline in several areas.
1.	Strength - The ability to accomplish things and the ability to endure suffering diminishes. 
2.	Appetite - Less and less desire for food and nourishment. 
3.	Health – The various parts of the body and mind are not working right and keep getting worse. 
4.	Growth - Life is a process of growth—bones getting stronger, muscles getting tougher, mental capacity enlarging. Life is an expanding progression. Part of life is making progress in the various aspects of personhood. But that reverses when a person is dying. 
5.	Liveliness – There is a loss of energy, motivation, joy, hope, passion. 
6.	Sensation and sensitivity - Life and alertness go together. Dying and dullness go together. A person who is dying will begin to experience decline in sensitivity to the world around him. His eyesight will fade, his hearing, smell, taste—it all starts to diminish until, when death occurs, there is no sensitivity to any stimulus at all.
So if all that is what dying is, life is the opposite of all that. You are increasing in perception and growth and strength and appetite and health and liveliness. When you have the flu, you seek to get rid of the flu, because the flu steals some of the living out of life.  It is a little pocket of death invading your existence. The same is true for a sprained ankle or a toothache…or depression or anxiety or fear of man or self-condemnation.
Physical life is the opposite of physically dying, and so to understand spiritual life, just think of that same thing in the spiritual realm. Having spiritual life means you become spiritually stronger, able to accomplish more, able to endure greater suffering. Your appetites for spiritual nourishment through Scripture and prayer and fellowship increase. Your spiritual health is strong – all the various parts of your soul are in working order – your emotions and drives and spiritual gifts and compassion and discernment – it is all running like a top - firing on all cylinders. You are growing and increasing and progressing. More and more fruit of the Spirit, more and more righteousness and Christlikeness. Greater and greater capacity to experience God’s love. It is all increasing as you grow. Energy increases, motivation, hope, joy, passion – all increasing. And sensitivity and sensation and alertness increase. You become more and more aware of the real world – the spiritual world. And you see more and more clearly the way things really are.
That is life. That is what the wicked will be bereft of in hell, and that is what we will enjoy in ever increasing measure for ever and ever and ever in heaven. When you see the word life in the Bible, it is talking about life as it should be. Life that is really living. Life as God designed it. Or if I could sum all that up in a single sentence – the closer you get to the way God is, the more life you have.
What Smyrna Needed Was Life
So back to our question – what was it that the people in Smyrna needed? Life! When you are suffering and the thing causing the pain goes away, but you are still just as depressed as ever, why is that? It is because you got relief, but you did not get what you really need – more life (more strength, more joy, more hope, more vitality). If you got mistreated, persecuted, impoverished, imprisoned, and executed, but the whole time the Lord was supplying you with more and more life, you would be much happier than if you got riches, comfort, and ease but declined in life. What the people in Smyrna needed, and what you need and what I need, is life.
Thus Saith the Master of Life 
Jesus knows that, and so He starts His letter to those people with these words:
8 These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who was dead and came to life again.
What does that make Him? The Author and Master of life. First and Last points to His self-existence. God is the only being there is that has the ability to exist in and of Himself. No one else has that power. You and I, in order to continue to exist, require that God sustain our existence. And that is true of every molecule in the universe, every angel, ever demon – every created thing. It all depends on God for existence. But not Jesus. He has the power of existence in and of Himself. That is His divine nature – first and last, beginning and end, self-existent.
And in His human nature, He was dead and is now alive. He actually passed through the gates of death and defeated it from the inside out. He conquered it in every way.
And so all life comes from Him. It starts when He says it starts, it ends when He say it ends, it is enjoyed by those He chooses to give it to, and it is removed from those he takes it from. And we celebrate that every week.
Do you know why, in the book of Acts, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ moved the day of corporate worship from the Sabbath day to the first day of the week? It was to celebrate the resurrection. We gather on the first day of the week instead of on the Sabbath because the resurrection of Christ is greater even than the Sabbath day. And that is why we make such a big deal about Easter. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead proves He is God, it proves Christianity is true, it is the basis of all our faith, it is the guarantee of our own resurrection – it is a lot of things. But when you celebrate the resurrection, don’t forget this. The resurrection of Jesus assures us that He can provide us with the thing we really need: life! And He can do so from the perspective of one who has been through death. He was dead. All the aspects and tentacles of death that affect us – Jesus went through all that.
Hebrews 5:7-9  During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death 
He remembers what it feels like to get to the point of desperation where you are literally shouting to God with tears, begging for life. He knows how that feels, which helps us take comfort in His compassion. What is it like to pass through that doorway into the next life? My dad knows, but I can’t talk to my dad. Millions of people have experienced that, but we don’t have access to those people. But there is one person who experienced it with whom we do have contact. And He not only knows what it is like, but He conquered it, and has promised to be with us when we go through it so we won’t be alone.
He came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly. You can hold Him at arm’s length, and run after all the things in this world that promise life. But Jesus said the one who does that ultimately loses life. But the one who gives all that up in favor of following Christ, gains life. Christ offers life, but only to those who seek it from Him alone, by trusting Him more than you trust yourself – trusting Him enough to follow Him.
Crown of Life
If you do that, He will give you life. Look at what He tells them.
10 … Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.
When Jesus says, I will give you the crown of life, that does not mean you are going to get to heaven and get a little hat that says “Life” on the front. It means you will receive life as a reward. But it happens only as we pass through suffering. When the pieces and parts and components of death come and rain on the parade of life, our instinct is to resist that. But Jesus says, “If what you want is the deepest, richest, truest life, you will find that not through fighting against suffering and trying to find the fullness of life in this world; you will find it only by following Me, the Author of life, the Master and Provider of real life. And if you do that; If you follow me, Jesus says, I will lead you right down through the valley of death, through pain, sorrow, suffering, persecution – right through to fullness of life – eternal life.” Right now you are out in a violent, freezing, dangerous storm. And you are huddled under the branches of a little shrub, trying to survive. And Jesus is calling you out from under that little shrub into the warmth and comfort of His Father’s house in heaven. But in between is the yard, which is unsheltered. And Jesus is calling to you, “Make a run for it!” And we come out from under the bush, and we feel the wind and rain, and we retreat back under the bush. Jesus calls, “Don’t be afraid of that suffering. It’s a small yard to cross. It won’t take long. Come on!” And we try again, and get beaned in the head with a big piece of hail, and we retreat back to our little refuge. People see the suffering involved in giving up the security of their old life and coming to Christ, and they hesitate. They run after comfort rather than running after life.
Are you having a rough time? Do you need relief and comfort? Then give up your efforts to comfort yourself, and start running toward the comfort Giver. And there is only one road that goes to the comfort Giver, and it is Discomfort Boulevard. Pain Alley. What you are longing for is fullness of life. And that comes only from the Author of life. And the only way to get to Him is faithfulness to the point of death.
When a person comes to believe that and places his or her faith in Jesus Christ, at that moment He gives that person life. It starts small, but it continues to grow, the more you seek after Him. And if you remain faithful until He returns, when He comes back, He will appear in the sky with power and great glory and every eye will see Him, and those who do not know Him will mourn and be judged. But those who do know Him will see Him as He is and will become like Him. And at that time we will be filled with life, and every trace of death will be gone forever.
Turn in your Bible to that very last chapter in the Bible – Revelation 22. When Jesus comes back, He will give us the crown of life, and then He will take us to a place where there is a river of life!
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 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse.
When He returns, that is where we are going – a crown of life, a river of the water of life, the tree of life. Everything we eat and drink and enjoy will give us more and more life! Don’t miss out on this!
7 “Behold, I am coming soon! 
He is coming. Don’t let His coming take you by surprise, because whatever your condition is when He comes, it will be too late to change.
11 Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy.
Whatever you are when He comes determines your eternal fate.
12 “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. 
14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. 
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. 

Benediction: 2 Timothy 4:8 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Application Questions (James 1:25)
1)	Of the various aspects of life (strength, appetite, health, perception, growth, and liveliness), which do you feel you are most in need of at this time?
2)	What dry wells are you most tempted to seek that water of life from?