Sermon on Revelation 22, for the 7th Sunday of Easter, "Tree of Life"

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The book of Revelation is like a bookend to the Bible, together with the book of Genesis. The first and last books of the Bible, have some important links. The creation of the world is described in Genesis 1 & 2, and the highlight is Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, with the Tree of Life at its center. They could eat from Tree of Life and other trees, but one tree was off-limits—the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Tragically, they took what was off-limits instead of what was permitted. The first sin was disobeying God. Ever since, through all 66 books of the Bible—no one has access to the Tree of Life. An angel barred the way back for Adam and Eve. Humanity fell under the consequences of sin and evil—from Adam and Eve till us now—and our choices haven’t been any different from theirs. We have all followed in their first sin, continuing to disobey God. Looking across human history, the Bible delivers this stark judgment: “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12). That measures up you, me, and every other human being that’s ever lived. This judgment flattens all of us—levels the playing field—and we’re all equally under the judgment of God’s good law.

So if access to the Tree of Life was lost in the first chapters of the Bible, and so on through all 66 books to the very end, how is access to the Tree of Life returned in this last chapter of the Bible? This time the Tree appears in a garden in the middle of the heavenly city New Jerusalem and access has been restored for some people. This shows first of all, that God restores the perfect paradise that was destroyed by sin. God renews and restores His creation, into an even more glorious future. So these opening words of our reading echo back to the beginning of creation:

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God an of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship him.

This is an amazing contrast to all the evil and human misery caused through sin, portrayed in the Bible. It’s a remarkable scene of peace and healing.

In this last chapter of the Bible, the final traces of sin, death, anything accursed, filthy, or evil, is banished out of God’s new creation. There will be no trace of unholiness inside God’s New Jerusalem because the New Creation will once again be free of any sin or evil. It will only be pure goodness, life, light, and perfection. As vs. 15 says: “Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” All who cling to these things, to sin and old rebellion against God, have no share in the Tree of Life and the Holy City. But on the other hand, vs. 14 says: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the Tree of Life and that they may enter the city by the gates.” Here God explicitly grants access back to the Tree of Life for the “blessed.”

So how do we get from the Bible’s judgment that there’s not one righteous person on earth, to this division of the wicked from the righteous; one group forever barred from the Tree of Life, and the other that has access? We all started in the same place: again the Scripture says, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” but it continues: “and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-24). The movement out of that place of sin and death, and into life, comes completely as a free gift, by the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.

Our access to the Tree of Life has everything to do with what Jesus suffered when He died on the dead-wood tree of the cross. The death of Jesus on the cross is the climax of all the story of salvation, the center of the 66 books of the Bible, and the hinge on which everything else swings. The last chapter of the Bible returns us to the Tree of Life again; and we owe it all to Jesus. Those who come to the tree are described as “blessed are those who wash their robes.” We have no power to wash or cleanse ourselves from sin by anything that we have done. This takes away any gloating or boasting that we’ve entered God’s kingdom because we were so much better than everyone else. We were all just as much under God’s judgment before Christ redeemed us. The blood of Jesus is the only cleansing that washes away our sins—that gives us clean, washed robes to stand before God. In Revelation 7:14, John watches a countless multitude gathered around God’s throne, dressed in white. The angel tells him they have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Jesus shed His blood on the tree of the cross to make open to us the way to the Tree of Life, and restore the Paradise Lost through sin.

How will we know if we can be among the saints who gather in the New Jerusalem, or among the wicked who are shut outside in misery? Those outside “love and practice(s) falsehood.” Are we going to cling to evil? Then God will let us have our own way, and we can earn whatever  sin brings us. But if we regret our sin—however great our sins are—if we cry out to God that we are unworthy, but plead for His mercy, He forgives us and washes us clean. Those washed robes are ours in Him. So how do we face our sins? As our “pet sins” that we love and want to keep—or as the chains we want broken? For only God can break them. In v. 17, it says: “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’, and let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” Do you hear what that is? It’s an invitation! Water for the thirsty and life for those who desire it—without cost! Free! The Good News of Jesus is the only promise of salvation that is free; not a system of religious works for us to earn our way up the ladder. Jesus gives salvation freely.

Who is inviting in that verse? The Spirit and the Bride. That is the Holy Spirit, third person of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)—and the Bride is the Church of Jesus. His fellowship of believers throughout all the world and throughout time—those who are joined to Him by faith. The church is pictured as the Bride of Christ, because one of the other great themes in the book of Revelation is the joy of heaven will be a great wedding feast, Christ united with all His followers, the church. So the Spirit and the Bride call with this open invitation to whoever would receive it—“Come…take the water of life without price!”

All who hear this invitation come from the same level playing field of sin and death we mentioned before. None is privileged or closer to God on account of something they have done. We are all completely dependent on the free drink of that water of life. Once in Jesus’s ministry, He met a woman at a well. It comes out in the conversation that He knows of her sinful past—a history of sexual immorality that led right up into her present. Jesus knew of her spiritual thirst and of her chains, even before she recognized them. But He offered to her the living water without price. He told her that the gift of God was to drink His spring of water that wells up to eternal life. Jesus alone can cleanse us from our sins, and set our feet on a new path to life, away from the deadness, thirst, and chains of sin, and into the newness, life, and freedom of His kingdom. He opens the gates of heaven to us, and He grants us access to the Tree of Life, by His  death on the tree of the cross.

The book of Revelation, and the Bible, ends with a solemn warning not to add to or subtract from God’s Word. God’s Word, the Bible, is to be taken with the greatest seriousness, and not tampered with or changed. We are not free to cut and paste it to our own liking, as many have tried. We’re not free to pick and choose—but God’s Word remains whole and intact. When we read it and hear it, it examines our lives and our hearts—exposing our sin, and creating in us a thirst for God, for the Living God. He is the only One who can quench or satisfy that thirst. The warning here is that if we add to or take away from the words of the prophecy of this book, God will add to us the plagues found in the book, and take away our share in the tree of life and of the holy city. Instead, if we faithfully hear the words of prophecy and take them to heart—we will find great blessing, even eternal life as God’s free gift to us. “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” (Rev. 1:3). The believer in Christ, who is blessed, hears Jesus call us, “Surely I am coming soon”—and replies with joy, hope, and expectation—“Amen, Come Lord Jesus!” The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.