The Bible's last words teach us how to live in the last days: trust them, keep them, worship God, and long for Jesus' return.
Speakers
Matt Felton — teaching
Andrew — noted earlier that Jesus' return is all that remains on God's redemptive calendar
A word to be trusted and a word to be kept
Trinity preaches through books section by section, so the church landed on the final passage of the final book. There will be church next week.
John, the last living apostle, exiled on Patmos, wrote these final words after his visions ended.
Jesus divides history in three: he created all things, he entered the world to rescue us by death and resurrection, and he will return.
The Bible's last words teach us how to live in the last days — every day from the resurrection until Jesus returns.
Verse 6: "These words are trustworthy and true." Like an angel sitting on your bed after a long, disorienting dream saying, "John, it was all real."
Trust these words when your marriage is brutal, when money feels like everything, when sin looks sweet, when God seems silent.
Verse 9's "Worship God" is the thesis of Revelation: a book about the war in every human heart over worship. You cannot not worship.
A word for today
Daniel 12:4 told Daniel to seal the book because the time was far off; Revelation 22:10 tells John not to seal it, for the time is near.
Revelation is not just for the last Christians at the end of history — it's for the whole church age.
The seven churches needed to know they cannot lose the war unless they compromise.
No headline from any news outlet is news to God or outside his control. The Lamb reigns right now.
Verse 11 ("let the evildoer still do evil") means the story is written — get on with what you're going to do. It does not mean people can't change; Jesus' whole message is repent.
A word of death and of life
Jesus calls himself the Alpha and the Omega, the same title God the Father takes in Revelation 1 — one God in three persons.
"Recompense" means payment: you receive from Jesus whatever you earned in this life.
Verse 15 lists dogs, sorcerers, the sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters. What links them is the last phrase — everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Romans 1: we exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Sorcery is playing God to control our surroundings; dogs picture the unclean and unwashed.
How can I wash my robes? Revelation 7:13-14 answers: they washed them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Cry out: "Lord, I am unclean. I have nothing to offer you, but you can make me clean."
A word of invitation, warning, and grace
Felton's daughter came to work on his Thursday study day and found the most-repeated word in the passage: come — seven times.
Verse 17 holds three distinct invitations: the Spirit and bride say come; the one who hears says come; the one who is thirsty comes. The congregation said "Come" aloud together.
Verses 18-19 warn with perfect symmetry: add to these words and God adds the plagues; take away and God takes away your share in the holy city.
Two ways to think: bottom-up, where your own sense is the authority, or top-down, where God's word dictates reality. Test yourself on a tripwire issue — hell, gender roles, homosexuality.
Jesus' five final words: "Surely I am coming soon." The first promise, Genesis 3:15, took thousands of years to fulfill.
The Bible's final word is grace, not judgment: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all."
Key Takeaways
Keep the book of Revelation by worshiping God, repenting quickly when your worship drifts.
You are washed only by the blood of the Lamb — bring him your uncleanness, not your work.
Listen to every sermon as words of life and death, and never tamper with Scripture.
Ask honestly: does "I am coming soon" awaken longing in you, or do you hope it's not too soon?