From his teaching series Blessed Hope, W. Robert Godfrey explains Revelation 22:17.
Transcript:
[V]erse 17. Here’s the center, the heart of the conclusion, “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.” Now at first glance, maybe when we start to read verse 17, maybe we think we’re already praying, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.” We may think this word “come” is directed to Jesus, but it’s not. It’s directed to the world. This is the great, concluding evangelistic call of the book. As I said as we went through the book, most of the time, the world of Revelation seems sealed into believers and unbelievers. There doesn’t seem much movement back and forth. And that’s because we’re looking at the reality that the church is experiencing most of the time. But here at the end, we’re reminded by John and reminded by the inspiration of the Spirit that we are called to an evangelistic task in this world. We do hope for the conversion of sinners. The conversion of sinners does take place in this world. That’s why history goes on that the elect may be converted, and it’s a beautiful and a tender appeal, the Spirit—that is the Holy Spirit of God—and the Bride, that is to say the whole church of Christ unites in appealing to the world, “Come!” In spite of all the opposition, in spite of all the suffering that the saints have sustained at the hands of the world, they still stretch out their arms and say, “Come, come. Why will you perish?” And, “Come. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” Isn’t that beautiful? It’s a lot like Jesus saying in Matthew 11, isn’t it, “Come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest.” It’s without price. Jesus paid the price so that the many can be called to come.
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