The Comfort Of The Eternal City

There is no greater comfort than knowing that Heaven is in your future.

Revelation 22:1-5 Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.

3 No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and His servants will worship Him. 4 And they will see His face, and His name will be written on their foreheads. 5 And 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.

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The book of Revelation is such an encouragement for God's children, that may be a very surprising statement to you, very few people look at the book from that point of view but God's children really should. It is the greatest story ever told that should affect our lives for today and for eternity.

Instead we get too busy analyzing the culture that we live in and the characters that can be found in the news stories from around the world and we attempt to make our times be the end times. We study everything in the book and try to make a literal interpretation of it all that is based on current world events so that we can figure out God's timetable.

We fail to acknowledge that the writer was severely hindered in trying to describe things that are too great to communicate to humans so that they can comprehend and we forget that God didn't allow John to write down everything. (Revelation 10:4)

God didn’t give us the book of Revelation so that we could analyze our culture, so that we could pinpoint social and political analyses of current events. He wrote it so that we might catch the spirit of the coming of Jesus Christ and live in the light of it.

-John MacArthur

How can we think that we are so well informed that we can piece all of this together and figure out the details of Jesus return?

Satan likes us for us to look at the negative aspects of the book of Revelation, he will use anything to get us down, even the best news that God has ever revealed can be used against us.

Reasons to see this book as a source of comfort and encouragement:

✔ Revelation gives us an awesome view of Jesus that you don't get to see very often in scripture. Seeing the glorified Savior as he is today should give me great hope. ✔ Revelation shows me that God is on the throne and Jesus is at his side. The picture of God on the throne throughout the book of Revelation should be reassuring to us as we witness the chaos of this world around us everyday. (Revelation 4:2-10, 5:1-13, 6:16) ✔ I get to witness the final defeat of Satan, God's kingdom comes and the prayers of the saints throughout the ages has been answered. Jesus assures us three times in the last chapter of Revelation that he is coming back to take us to this glorious scene. (Revelation 22:7, 12, 20)

Satan loves for God's children to be deceived into worrying about future events and focusing on bad news. The bad news that you see in today's world will only get worse, don't fret about it, today's bad news is a part of God's timetable.

I need to celebrate the eternal city and my victory in Jesus! I need to be encouraged to live joyfully and let my light shine so that other people will see the incredible hope and comfort that the world cannot explain apart from Jesus.

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