The Revelation 22:1-2 | Episode # 1188

May 6, 2026

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

The Revelation 22:1-2

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

Well, we're in Revelation 22. We're going to spend the next three weeks finishing up the book of the Revelation. It's been a long journey. It's been a fun journey. Journey. Has it not fun fun chapter. Because it's, you know, it's kind of the final word in the Bible. Well, it is the final word in the Bible. It's the final word of scripture. And it's, it's one of those passages where John sees as these things as they, as they are at the end. And so in many ways, I guess it'd be. It was appropriate for Norman to give his testimony tonight. Cause we're, we're, we're going to, to the presence of God and how God's going, how it's going to be at the end. And it says, and he showed me, and he's talking about the angel that is, is leading him. John says, and he showed me a pure river, river of water, of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Now this is, this is the picture of the river of life. And, and the river of life runs through the middle of the great city, Jerusalem. Okay? And it flows from the throne, which is at the center of the city, and it flows out. And it is the river of living water that Jesus told the woman at the well that he would give her. He said, I'll give you water that wells up to eternal life. It is the cleansing and the teaching and the revelation of God by the Holy Spirit. Water represents. That represents the cleaning and the cleansing and the revealing of God through His Word. And so you have in heaven, even though we're in the presence of God, you have a continual learning, growing, knowing about who God is. Even though you know all things. You're going to explore things in heaven in your mind and in your heart. Well, in the, in, in the new Jerusalem, you're going to study those things and you're going to think about them for a long time. And, and I. I will say this about. About this river of life. So many times people say, well, I just want to know everything right now. Well, one of the things. One of the. One of the ways you glorify God is that you allow God to reveal Himself to you. And then the Bible says that we're to ponder him, we're to meditate on him, we're to think on these things. And one of the ways you're gonna do that in heaven is you're going to begin to. Even though you may have the knowledge or the information, you're going to begin to put those things together in your mind. And I dare say most of the things that God has taught me that are things that abide or last a long time are the things that are tied to different aspects of His Word, different areas of His Scripture. And I've had to ponder those things or think about those things or consider those things for long periods of time. And I will say this to you, that if you're ever really going to understand God's Word in any real depth, and I'm not just saying understand it completely. I'm not even saying that. I'm not even close to that. I'm talking about understanding God in a depth that is beyond just the very superficial. And I always say, if you're going to just study God for the superficial, it can at times be like this paper, okay? This paper's like onion paper. You know what I'm talking about? And the outer layer of the onion is very dry, okay? And if you're studying God's Word and all you're doing is just taking the outer layer, sometimes that can seem foreign and dry to you, okay? And what you have to do is you have to get beneath that and begin to understand how God's Word ties together with. With each other. All of it runs together. In fact, the Bible references itself, and you need to hear this. The Bible references itself 66,000 times in scripture. Did y' all hear that? The Bible makes reference to another passage or speaks, and in it, what it says is in tandem with something else 66,000 times in scripture. 66,000 times, which means each book on the. Of the Bible on average, references some. Something else in Scripture a thousand times. Okay? Now, if you just thought about that and how Scripture references itself and ties together, how long would it take you to ponder that, just to know it? How would. How long would it take you to ponder it, to really know it in its depth. To see things. To see things as, as you're, as you're reading, as you're meditating on them, as you're thinking about those things. And by the way, thinking all these things requires effort. It requires energy. It requires you actually, you actually to wonder, to look things up, to think about them, to allow God to say at some point in time, okay, you see this, and then he has to let you think about that for a while before he allows you to see this and understand that. And so no wonder the disciples after three years were not very. They were very experienced, but they weren't very knowledgeable. Okay, they had the information, but the reason you have all these books written 20 and 30 years later is because these men had to spend 20 and 30 years pondering what God had told them and what they had experienced in Jesus and what they knew of the Old Testament. They had to spend that time working it out and, and living it out and seeing God do it in their lives before they really knew. That's how you can have Peter having been told by Jesus at least four times that are listed in scripture. But we know that Jesus said these things over and over and over again, told these parables over and over and over again. And when I say he told them over and over and over again, he would tell them to the different populations. So if I gave you a parable and, and I was speaking to someone who was maybe Jewish, I might tell the parable with this way. And then if I was speaking to somebody who was Roman, I might add something, I might change it a little bit so that their mind could focus on it. And so oftentimes people say, well, you know, scripture, sometimes, sometimes the stories aren't exactly the same. You know, the, the gospel writers don't write the stories the same. No, no, no, they're writing, they're writing the version of the story that Jesus told, okay? That made sense to them, all right? That touched them. That doesn't mean that, remember those parables and those things that Jesus said, those things are very truth oriented, but they're also very deep and they have depth to them. And so I might hear it from Jesus in Capernaum and the way he told it there really struck me. And then you might be in Jerusalem and him tell it to the Pharisees and boy, that made sense to you the way he told it to them. And so oftentimes you'll even find in scripture when these disciples are telling, when they're telling the Story of Jesus. They're telling it from how they saw Jesus. They telling it how they're giving you a perspective. And by the way, we need those things and they have a genuine aspect to them. And so when you think about the river of life that flows from the throne of God, you gotta remember it's life, which is the word. It's revelation. It is cleaning and making everything pure so that you can understand it and get it. And so when we get to heaven, oftentimes people think it's just gonna be boring in heaven. Well, it's only boring if you try to be ignorant, okay? And I'm being real with you, all right? If you think God's boring, that's because you haven't thought about God very much, okay? And straight up, if you think God is boring, you don't know God, okay? Because there's nothing boring about him. There are things that are incomprehensible about Him, There are things that you might struggle with about him, but he's definitely not boring. And most of the stories that change history are written by God in His Word. And so that Word is going to be amazing and wonderful to us for years and generations to come, okay? And, and it's going to happen in your mind in ways that you can't imagine. It says, it says they proceed from the throne of God, which means it's. It's from the very, very heart of who God is. All right? And, and that's why. That's why when we, when we study God's word, I am so focused on God's Word. It's not. Cause I'm. I'm trying to be. It's not because I've tried to in some way be. Dogmatic or somebody say, were you just a fundamentalist? No, I have a proper view of who God is. I have a proper view of how. Who God has to be, okay? Who God has to be. And, and, and you say, well, well, well, how could God. How could God's Word be? So, so how did. Why, how do you know it's true? Well, first of all, I know that God's. That God's over all things. He created all things. He knows all things. He's everywhere. And so if he tells me something, having all of history in front of him, having created all those things, having made those things to glorify himself, if he tells me something in His Word, then that something stands up to every time and every place and all peoples everywhere because it was spoken from one who is all those things. And then is spoken from someone who is innately good, which means he's good to us and he is morally perfect. How he does things is perfect, okay? And so if he says something to me from his Word, just because I don't understand it or just because I can't tie it off to anything doesn't mean it's not. Doesn't mean that in some way I have both, by my ignorance, invalidated his eternal truth, okay? His eternal truth has just, in my own heart, identified to me my ignorance about something about Him. Does that make sense to you? And if you. And until you come to the Word of God, until you come to the Word of God in such a way that you give it its due as being spoken from an eternal good, omni. Everything God, until you come to it at that, from that perspective, you're never going to trust it. And until you learn to trust it, you're never going to know him, okay? You're never going to know him. And until you know him, you're not going to get it. You're not going to get any of it. And oftentimes we treat believers as if they're ignorant and it's not possible for them to get it. So we just got to tell them the basics, and that's all we're going to leave it with. And that's what we're going to talk about every Sunday morning and during Sunday school. We're just going to give them the very, very basics. Well, but Bible doesn't. That's not what I did. God didn't give me the basics. He got me. He gave me the PhD program in 66 books, okay? He didn't. He didn't give it to me so he. So I could remain in ignorance. He didn't give it to me so I could remain in darkness. He gave it to me so that I could have the light. And you got. Some people say, well, Pastor, I didn't even really even believe in Jesus till I was 50. And, you know, there's no way I'm going to know it very well until the day I die, okay, fine. Okay, that's fine. You got 30 years. Go after it. You know what I'm saying? Chase after God for 30 years. If you say I didn't come to Christ until after I had stage four cancer and I only got six months to live. Good. Six months. Have at it. Okay? Chase after him, because you might as well start now, because when you get to heaven, you're gonna ponder God all the time. You're gonna ponder God all the time. Because the things you'll see will amaze you to the point where you can't imagine they're true until you figure out who God is. It says here in the middle of the street and on either side of the river was the Tree of life, which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for healing of the nations. Now, this is strange, and I'm not sure what it means. Okay? It said. It uses the Tree of Life in the singular fashion, okay? And then it uses. If you read it in the Greek, it's going to be something that. I can't imagine what it is, okay? I don't know if they all have the same roots. I don't know if it's the tr. Because it's on both sides of the road. It's on both sides of the river. It lines the river. It. Is it one singular tree with 12 fruits? Is it multiple trees that have one fruit per tree? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what it is. I can tell you this. Yes, ma'. Am. It might be. What? It might be grafted. It could be one organism. Okay? We know that. I have no idea, okay? I'm just telling y', all, like we started in the book of the Revelation. There are things in here that I do not know, okay? There are things in there that John didn't know when he saw that idol that the two antichrists make. And they breathe life into. Into it, and it knows everything, okay? John didn't know what that is. I do, okay? It's a robot, all right? I know what it is, all right? And we're not talking about Lost in Space. Robot. Okay? Well done, Will Robinson. Some of y' all look at me like, what are you talking about? Y' all don't even know what Lost in Space. Do you all know Lost in Space? Well, you just missed out on Sunday Morning because we had to watch Lost in Space right before we went to church. It came, it went off at 9. We had to be at Sunday school at 10. Worship was at 11. Lost in space. You had to hit Lost in Space right at the end and usually didn't get to watch the whole show because I hadn't gotten ready before, or my parents are coming around yelling at my brother Brett and my brother Matt for not getting dressed. And so I was trying to concentrate on the program, and they weren't ready. But so I missed out on some of that stuff. But, but, but. But it's not. But John didn't. Couldn't perceive that. But as we've progressed in Revelation, now I know what it is. Now do I know how it's going to work? I wish I knew it, knew which company created it so I can invest in the stock. You know what I'm talking about? Wish I knew that, but I don't know that either. All right? And we don't know how it's all going to work out. And we don't know if it's going to happen now or it's going to happen 100 years from now. People say, well, it's going to happen tomorrow. That's what Elon Musk says. Okay, that's not necessarily true. All right? Elon Musk says that we're going to have robots that handle everything and do everything in the next five years. And yet he's still building these rocket ships so they can go places to find metals so that he can make the robots actually work. Okay? So those two things don't go together. If he had everything it took to make the robots, he'd just make the robots, okay? But he also wants to go to Mars where there's no oxygen and there's no air and it takes a long time to get there. To do what? I don't know, other than to find a metal so that his robots work. Well, just letting you know. Just letting you know, that's not a conspiracy theory. That's just doing one plus one plus one plus one equals four. All right? I just know how that works. Makes sense, right? All right, so when people tell you that things are going to be certain way, you don't know. You do not know that. I'm just telling you, you do not know. You do not know. Who would have thought that this brash New Yorker would be President of the United States now? Nobody would have thought that. Who wants to elect a New Yorker? I mean, they're rude. Am I right? They. I mean, they talk rude to each other. Who had thought we would. All the Southerners like him. Weird, weird. Strange. Very strange. Am I right? Very strange. Who? I mean, and we. That's right, we like what nobody likes. People from New York, from the south, except for Donald Trump. Everybody else, they don't like. So, see, you keep trying to come up with how things are going to be. You're not in charge. I don't know if y' all know that or not. You are not in charge. You're not in charge. So quit trying to be in charge, all right? God is in Charge. And if you'll seek after him, he'll show you things that'll amaze you for now, and he'll show you the things that you need to know for tomorrow. And he probably is not gonna give you the name of the company either. Okay? Just letting you know, I know Lisa's back there saying, I wish I knew the name of the company. Had to be you. Do you think you know. I don't think you know, Lisa. I'm just going to tell you. You might know, but I don't think you do. All right, He. All right, I don't want to hear Palantir. All right? He says here. He says here in the middle of the street. Now. Now, I want you to hear this. You think 12 fruit, okay? And this is so strange to me, because how many fruit of the spirit are there, huh? Nine. Nine. There's vine. All right? There's nine fruit of the spirit. And you're sitting there going, it's got 12 fruit. And by the way, the fruit of the spirit is singular, okay? And that is an insight into this tree. Because he says. And people won't always say it because it doesn't make sense. The fruits of the spirit have any. How many of y' all ever heard somebody say, the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. How many of y' all have ever heard that? Right? All right, Makes sense, because it's describing nine things. So that's got to be plural. No, it's not. In Galatians 5, 23 and 24. It's not plural. It's singular. So are these trees. Do these trees have all the same fruit and they're 12 of them, or does it not? Now, see, that's something. You're probably going, one day, y' all gonna be sitting by the river, got your feet in water. You know what I'm talking about? You're gonna be looking at these trees, and you'll spend about 20 days sitting there looking at tree going, you know, when he said that, what did he mean? And you're sitting there going, will I really do that? Yeah. How many of y' all would love to have the sun come out and sit by the lake right now and watch the. Watch for an eagle to fly over? How many of y' all would love to do that right now? How many of y' all could do that all day long? Well, think about being on the river in heaven, and they're going to be trees, or a tree with fruits or. Or a fruit and you're going to be sitting there trying to figure it out. And by the way, you're going to be able to see sound, too. Did you know that you only see a certain form of part of the spectrum? You're going to be able to see the sounds people make. Can you imagine that? I mean, can you imagine what that's going to be like? I'm just trying to give you an idea of what heaven's going to be like. Can you imagine that you're going to be doing that? But by the way, there's only nine fruits, or fruit, unless you study the Latin vulgate. And the Latin vulgate is the original. Is the original Bible that was translated into one language. Okay? They took the Old Testament, Hebrew and some Aramaic and the New Testament, Greek with a little bit of Hebrew and Aramaic, and they translated it or they made a translation like we have. It was called the Vulgate, the Latin Vulgate, the lxx. Okay? All right. And so that's this Bible in Latin. Now, if you study the Latin Vulgate, the Latin vulgate takes nine of those words in the Greek and three of them it separates out into two words because it tries to translate them. And. And three of the words don't translate well into just one word. They actually describe two things. Did you know that? I just found that out today. Just letting y' all know. It's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. That's what's mentioned in Galatians, chapter five. Okay? But as you're translating those words, three words are translated. Three of the words have two words that would properly fill the full translation of it. And so you can easily add generosity, modesty, and chastity. Okay? And you go, well, what are those? Well, y' all know what love is. Norman did a good job at striving that. He said, I can't describe it, but it was good. Okay? And, you know, the love of God's just good. And it's hard to. To describe it because it's really his very character and nature. And if you don't know the Bible, you don't fully know his character, nature. And so you really couldn't describe him fully if you didn't know the Bible. And none of us know the Bible completely, so nobody truly knows the. The goodness of his love. Am I right? All right, so we know what love is. Joy. Joy is not happy. Joy is not happy. Joy is an abiding. It's. It's a. It's A sense of. Of. Of elation that grows from a revelation and a trusting of God. Okay? It's way more than happiness. Anybody who says, I just want my children to be happy, I want to slap you. No, you want them to be holy so that they might be joyful. Okay? If you want them to be happy, go buy them a car. Are you following me? Then tomorrow, when they wreck it, they will not be happy. And you've not given them anything that abides forever, have you? Huh? I mean, how many 16 year olds wreck their first car? All of them. All of them or they don't drive. All right, now, there are some that don't drive. All right? Anybody got a 16 year old that didn't wreck their car? First car? You did. Becca didn't. Which one? Caitlin never wrecked a car until she traded it on her. Oh, yeah, I ran into it. I wrecked her car. All right? That's exactly right. I wrecked her. I said I did. You're right, all right? But it was her car, all right? Kaylin drives like a nut, though. I don't know how she didn't do it. I notice this. I want to. I want to describe it. Generosity. Generosity means willing to give what you have, okay? And I want to. I want to nail those down. Modesty means to be muted in speech and dress, all right? I want you to hear me. Modesty means to be muted in speech and dress, okay? Now, I want you to think about that, all right? It means you don't have to always. You don't have to always be wearing the flamboyant stuff, right? You don't have to always be, you know, saying the crazy mess you say at the parties. And, you know, I'm talking to. I mean, I can look at you. I know who you are. Drew and Diane. I mean, I just start throwing names out, you know what I'm saying? All right? And then. And then finally, chastity is purity, okay? All right? Chastity is remaining pure. It's related to holiness. And so if you actually study the Vulgate, study the Latin, it gives you 12 verses. It gives you 12 of these, okay? And so I think that that's what it means. And you go, are you sure about that? That's what it means. No, I don't. I don't know. We'll all meet there and just sit down and put our toes in the water and figure it out one day, okay? Y' all. All y' all agree to that. We'll hang out for a couple of weeks, have some picnics there at the river of Life and try to figure it out. How's that sound to y'? All? Is it a date? We'll do it, all right? Trust me. We will do it. All right? I mean, I'm being. I'm not being parabolic, okay? We're. We're. We're. We're going to do it. We're going to all hang out together, have a big lake community church picnic by the river of life and try to figure out what the trees is. Okay? Don't bring shovels. We're not digging it up. Okay? All right. Just letting you know. All right? Notice. Notice it. Who bore 12 fruit, each tree yielding its fruit every month, which means it's not a. It's not a seasonal tree. It's. It's yielding fruit all the time, all right? And notice that. Not notice not only that the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And that has to do with. That has to do with all the things that the nations are. All the division, all the hatred, all the. You know. And remember, nations means. Means a lot more than just countries. Y' all think of countries, okay? But you got to remember, most of human history, it's been about tribal affiliations, okay? And. And it's gone far deeper than just your. Your. The country that you live in. And by the way, you get to live in a country that's unlike any country that's really ever existed because it's had people from every tribe and nation in it. Most countries in world history or more. Most nations in world history were just a conglomeration of a. Of a tribal group, okay? With those tribes being either either becoming stronger and dominant or being wiped out, all right? And so Jesus is going to rule, and he is going to heal the divisions of the nations. Notice he's not just going to rule with truth and authority. He is going to provide healing so that there is true, genuine society in the world, okay? And that's what he's saying here.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.