THE
RESURRECTION TREE
August 18, 2002 pm
Revelation
22:1-2
And
he showed me a pure
river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of
God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either
side
of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of
fruits,
and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for
the
healing of the nations.
Ezekiel
47:5-12
Afterward
he measured
a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the
waters
were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.
And
he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me,
and
caused me to return to the brink of the river. Now when I had returned,
behold,
at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on
the
other. Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east
country,
and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought
forth
into the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass,
that
every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall
come,
shall live... And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and
on
that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade,
neither
shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit
according
to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary:
and
the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.
Genesis
begins
with God sending LIGHT into the world through His Word.
-
John starts with
the beginning and Jesus
being life, which was the light of men.
-
We know Genesis'
"Let there be light"
was not speaking about physical photons and radiation, but rather
CHRIST,
because the sun and moon and stars with physical light came later into
the
picture.
-
But Christ was
not created.
-
He simply CAME in
this form into the
world.
-
Truth.
Revelation
shows
Christ as Light, also.
-
He is seen in
seven branching candlesticks
, in the shape of a tree.
-
And at the end of
Revelation we see a
River of life flowing forth.
Jesus
is here
shown to be the TREE OF LIFE.
-
But yet notice
the statement Jesus makes
as John sees Him in Revelation 1 in this "tree".
Rev
1:18 I
am he that liveth,
and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the
keys
of hell and of death.
Jesus
is seen
after His resurrection in this form.
This
is notable.
He
spoke of His
suffering and glorification the day He rode into Jerusalem
in the Triumphal Entry.
-
Notice
the
language he used.
John 12:23-25 And
Jesus answered them,
saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except
a corn of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit
. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in
this
world shall keep it unto life eternal.
In
speaking of
His death and resurrection, He likened Himself to a seed.
-
God told Satan in
the Garden the there
would come a SEED of the woman.
-
Christ is that
Seed.
-
And His death
would be the burying of
that Seed, and it would resurrect in a stalk.
-
And such plants
have branches.
-
He
would remain ALONE, otherwise.
-
It
is not good that ADAM BE ALONE.
-
This is the LAST
ADAM.
-
So in order to
not be alone and have
MANY, he laid down his life in death and resurrected as a TREE WITH
MANY
BRANCHES AND FRUIT.
And
this matches
the words John heard Christ speak in the vision of Rev 1.
-
He was dead and
is alive forever more.
-
RESURRECTION.
So
this "Tree"
that Christ calls Himself and the church, is THE RESURRECTION
TREE.
-
John 15 says we
are the branches and
He is the vine.
-
He referred to
the post-resurrection
life of His.
-
The resurrection
tree.
God
came to bring
LIFE back to man again.
-
And it had to be
done through DEATH AND
RESURRECTION.
-
We are now part
of His body!
-
We're the
branches!
And
the reason He
spoke of losing your life to find it again, after noting
he is a Seed that must be buried, is because we connect to His
RESURRECTION
LIFE by being CRUCIFIED WITH HIM.
-
I lost my old
life of sin when I was
crucified with Him through faith.
-
I was buried with
Him and arose with
Him!
We
lose our lives
in His death on the cross, and gain them back again in
RESURRECTION.
-
Losing your life
and gaining it back
is nothing less than resurrection!
And
you will gain
it back to life eternal, because YOU BECOME PART OF THE
TREE OF LIFE!
Did
you hear
that?
-
Think about it.
-
When we were
saved and received eternal
life, it is akin to the thought of eating the fruit of life.
Jesus
referred to
eating in order to gain eternal life, which connects His
thoughts to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.
John
6:47-51 Verily, verily, I
say
unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that
bread
of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
This
is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof,
and
not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man
eat
of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is
my
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
John
6:53 Then
Jesus said unto
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the
Son
of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
So He is saying
HE IS THE TREE OF LIFE.
This reference to
eating His flesh and drinking His blood was repeated at
the last supper.
-
He said His flesh
was represented by
the BREAD they would eat.
-
His blood was
represented by the WINE
they would drink.
-
And his flesh
being broken spoke of the
dying of the cross.
-
So this all
points to the death and resurrection.
-
Therefore, we see
its a RESURRECTION
TREE OF LIFE.
John
saw Jesus in
the tree-shaped candlesticks, saying He was dead and is
alive forevermore.
-
And he explains
that the candlesticks
are the churches!
-
We're the
branches!
-
The candlesticks
were shaped like branches
of an almond tree.
What
does this
tell you?
-
We eat the fruit
of life from the tree
of life, Christ Jesus, when we are saved.
-
We who have Jesus
have eternal life!
-
We're not going
to get eternal life,
but we already have it!
-
And then the TREE
OF LIFE is shown as
a RESURRECTION TREE, and WE ARE PART OF IT!
-
In other words,
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!
-
You BECOME A
BRANCH OF THE TREE OF LIFE
when you eat of it.
Its
like eating
of Jesus blood and body and becoming part of the BODY OF
CHRIST!
And
in Revelation
22 we read of the TREE OF LIFE singular in the city.
-
We read of two
distinguishing notes about
it.
-
Its fruit and its
leaves.
-
Its 12 fruit
gives eternal life for each
month of the year.
-
Not just one kind
each month, but 12
kinds for 12 months!
-
VARIETY!
And
its leaves
are for healing of the
nations.
Ezekiel
saw the
same vision, but one thing was described differently in Ezekiel.
-
MANY TREES.
-
Leaves were also
for healing and fruit
grew every month.
However,
Revelation 22 and Ezekiel 47 are really speaking of MANY TREES,
both, because Revelation says the TREE WAS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE RIVER.
-
This is a picture
of the CHURCH MEMBERS
as all part of the TREE OF LIFE.
Psalm
1:1-3
Blessed
is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of
sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law
of
the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he
shall
be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his
fruit
in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth
shall
prosper.
Notice
the LEAVES
AND FRUIT are distinguished.
-
The
leaves will
not whither, because
there always must be healing available to the world through our lives.
-
And
the note of
fruit in its season is
also indicative of the same point Revelation 22 and Ezekiel 47 points
out.
Someone was a
branch of the tree of life to show me the way one day.
-
And
now I am part
of the tree.
Church, you are
part of the RESURRECTION TREE OF LIFE.
People will come
to YOU!
Romans
11:16
For
if the firstfruit
be holy, the lump is also holy: and if
the root be holy, so are the branches.
We
are as holy as
Jesus because we have HIS HOLINESS in our lives.
He
also gave us
HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Stay
locked into
this RIVER -- the Holy Ghost is the river John 7:38-39.
-
It
stabilizes you.
-
Soak
up its life
from your roots.
-
It
keeps you
unmoveable!
One more point:
Song
of Solomon
4:12 A
garden enclosed is
my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
We are also THE
RIVER OF LIFE.
-
But there can be
a problem.
-
WE'RE SEALED UP.
-
WE'RE SHUT UP.
-
We need to open
our lives and get unsealed.
-
Pull out the
plugs!
-
Let the River
flow from your life!
"Oh,
but Revelation 22 is about the time after the rapture!
It's the city that we are GOING TO! It's not us
now."
-
Wrong!
-
Hebrews 12:22
says WE ARE COME TO THE
HEAVENLY JERUSALEM ALREADY!
-
We are what
Abraham looked for!
-
And also, the
following words in Revelation
22 show that this is a NOW picture!
Revelation
22:17
And
the Spirit and the
bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And
let him that
is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life
freely.
He did not say
wait for 2000 years and then you can drink.
- He said come now!
- Come right now to
the waters!
Isaiah
55:1
Ho,
every one that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and
eat;
yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.