Corona Chronicles - Crown of Gold

Welcome back to the corona chronicles. We are in verse 12 of the last chapter of revelation. I'm gonna be reading verse 12 to 17. Look, I'm coming soon. My reward is with me.

And I will give to each person according to what they've done. I'm the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blesser to 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. Outside of the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices faltered. I Jesus have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches.

I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright morning star. The spirit and the bride say come and let the 1 who hears say come. Let the 1 who is thirsty come and let the 1 who wishes to take the free gift of the water of life. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting, just thinking about what we're discussing yesterday in verse 16.

I Jesus have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. And it is that reminder again that this prophecy doesn't belong just to 1 group of people or to a group of academics or a far off generation. This is for the church this is for the church -- Yeah. -- in every generation it finds itself, its promises. So although they do concern future events.

Yes. They are they are for the people of God in their context. Yep. You know, wherever wherever they found. Mhmm.

And that he is the source of this this great prophecy again. Mhmm. And There's lots of titles for Jesus. Yeah. Yeah.

And, you know, you sometimes see people if they've written the paper. They might have their name b s c m s c p h d m fill d fill, you know, there's all these titles. And, but, you know, they're they're Perfect compared to Jesus' titles, aren't they? Look, alpha and omega beginning and end, first and last, root offspring of David, bright morning star. Jesus, you know, it's another means the Lord saves, isn't it?

And and so this is the 1 who is speaking. Mhmm. And that's why Like, we sure last yesterday, we don't worship the messenger. Yes. We worship this 1.

The beginning and the end, the eternal God, the Messiah, the Christ, this is his his testimony. Yeah. And there's a invitation here isn't there to to come to this Jesus. Come to the 1 who is the beginning in the end. And how do we do that?

Well, verse 14 shows us basically the qualifications for entering. We we get to the gates, you know, the pearly gates as everyone always likes to say, when we get there and you see, say, John or whatever. It's a load of rubbish. But but what is the qualification that we might go through these gates? Well, it's not really that we aren't dogs, is it?

Or that we don't practice magical arts, or that we're not actually immoral. It's that we've washed our robes -- Yeah. -- in the blood of the lamb. And that is the difference here between those who are sinners but washed. Yeah.

And therefore, righteous because of what Christ's done versus just people who haven't done that. Yeah. That's the thing isn't it. And in verse 12 when he says, they're going to they're going to receive according to what they've done. As you say, what the people of God have done is wash their robes.

Yeah. You know? And and that that's the thing because in verse 11, we saw this yesterday, you know. There there are there are life choices that are made, aren't there? Yeah.

You know, that let let the 1 who does wrong, do wrong. Let the 1 who is vile, be vile. Like the 1 who is holy, be holy. You know, in other words, God is going to, you know, reward based on what the decisions that we've made. Yeah.

But it's not suddenly another gospel because the thing that we've done is wash our robes -- Yeah. -- in the blood of Christ. That's that's what that's what saves us ultimately. In grants us entry into this new into this new this new paradise and But, you know, as you say, we we as and we've seen this a lot in rebel there is a there is a contrast to the last, isn't that here? Mhmm.

That's where where the people of God are going and where unbelievers are going. Yeah. And in this case, we would look before the graphic imagery of the fiery lake of Burning Software, which is the second death. But here, we we just said it just says outside. Yeah.

You know, that's the only word outside. In other words, they are the doors have been closed, you know, the party is going on and they're outside. Yeah. You know, they're not they're not in the garden. They're in exile.

Mhmm. And I think this is this is the lord's grace, isn't it? He he tries to communicate not only the glory of heaven but the reality of hell in lots and lots of different ways to make us understand the horror of it and and the need to repent while we can -- Mhmm. -- so we can be on the inside. Yeah.

And it's I mean, we we all have experienced this outside. I mean, we're experiencing this kind of outside now. We were cast out of Eden. Yeah. You know, there's a flaming sword flashing to and fro to prevent us going back in.

So we kind of feel like we're in exile now, don't we? In a sense. And we feel a deep disconnection and discomfort. The world's broken. There's fractures in society and -- Yeah.

-- we we know that things aren't right. Mhmm. But there is an invitation to come in back into eating in a sense. There is. Yeah.

Yeah. And why wouldn't we take that? Why would you be so Why would you want to stay in this state as it is? So if you, you know, if you feel like you want to be whole again. Mhmm.

Then then hear this invitation and come in. Yeah. That's right. And and this is our message, isn't it in verse 17? We you know, the the whole of our message is really just calm, isn't it?

It's like the spirit and the bride, that's us as Christians. We are saying, come lord Jesus. Yeah. You know, some of the some of the scenes that we're seeing at the moment. Yeah.

You know, the just the prejudices, and the prejudices, and the riots, and the the sort of worldly philosophy behind some of these things. You know, it makes us long. You know, can't log g come. But as well as saying come to him, we say come to the world. Yeah.

Yeah. You come lord Jesus and you come -- Yeah. -- world. To know Jesus. Yeah.

It's 2 combs, isn't it? It's it's our message. Mhmm. And it's a free gift, you know, touch 17. That the 1 who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

Is you don't have to work, you know, work at earn or work your way through this gate. You haven't got to bring your list of C's and PSP. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So, well, this is what I've done and who I am. It's simply, there's there's the free gift of the water of life. Yeah. Will you take it? You wash your robes in the blood of the lamb.

Yeah. Yeah. Or will you will you try and get in on your own merit? Yeah. That's right.

Yeah. That's right. Well, we're going to look at the last 1 tomorrow, but that is the invitation we want to leave you with. You know, Jesus says come, wash your robes, join the garden city. Don't try and repay him.

Don't get your checkbook out. He doesn't want your money, he doesn't want your good works. He wants us to come empty handed so we can be on the inside.