Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #19 of Revelation, chapter 22 and we are going to read Revelation 22:16:

I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

We are getting close to the conclusion of the Book of Revelation.  Here, the Lord Jesus Christ is saying that He has sent His angel to testify of these things in the churches.  When we think of Christ sending His angel, we have to think, “Who is Christ?”  He is the Lord.  Who would His angel be called?  He would be the “angel of the Lord,” and when we read of the “angel of the Lord” in the Bible, it is Christ Himself.  For instance, it says in Exodus 32:34:

Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.

JEHOVAH God is speaking of His “Angel” that will go before them and that would be the “Angel of JEHOVAH,” or Eternal God.  We know the “Angel of JEHOVAH” is God from a couple of different places, but we are only going to look at one of them.  In Judges, chapter 13, we have the “angel of JEHOVAH” making an appearance to Manoah and his wife.  It says in Judges 13:18-22:

And the angel of JEHOVAH said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret? So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto JEHOVAH: and the angel did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of JEHOVAH ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground. But the angel of JEHOVAH did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of JEHOVAH. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

They were visited by the “angel of JEHOVAH” and when the angel disappeared in the flame of the altar it would point to Christ who was the sacrifice or burnt offering for His people and Manoah knew that he was visited by the “angel of JEHOVAH” and then he confirms it was God when he said, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God.”  This proves that the “angel of JEHOVAH” is God and it is this angel that is primarily in view as the Lord Jesus declares in our verse in Revelation 22:16:

I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.

We also know that it says in our chapter in Revelation 22:20:

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Our verse said, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you,” and verse 20 says, “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly,” and this is Christ speaking.  Christ is the one that is testifying these things and, yet, it says that Jesus sent His angel to testify.

God is able to do this and we do not know just how He can do this and be “one God,” but three Persons or how it is He can speak of Himself as though He was speaking of another.  But, remember, it said in Matthew 28:2-6:

And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

There is no doubt that this “angel of the Lord” whose “countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow” is Christ.  This language is only fitting to God.  The angel of the Lord is God and, therefore, it is Jesus and, yet, He is telling the women not to fear and that Jesus is not here, for He is risen.  I do not know how it is that Jesus can speak of Himself that way, but He does so.  Jesus had risen from the dead and He made an appearance as the “angel of the Lord” to declare that He was risen from the dead.

Likewise, Jesus sent the “angel of JEHOVAH’ to testify of these things in our verse in Revelation, chapter 22.  How far can we go in understanding the mystery of the Person of God and His Being?  He is three, but one and we just cannot understand this, but we know it is true.

Again, it says in our verse in Revelation 22:20:

I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.

We wonder why God is bringing up the churches, once again.  The Book of Revelation has told us about the end of the church age, the Great Tribulation and of Judgment Day and so much information that goes beyond the church age.  Yet, in the closing chapter of the Book, God is summing things up by saying that His angel has testified unto you these things “in the churches.” 

The reason is that the Book of Revelation was addressed to the churches.  If we go back to Revelation, chapter 1, it says in Revelation 1:4:

John to the seven churches which are in Asia…

Then it chapters 2 and 3 there are personal addresses to each of the seven churches.  The first three chapters of the Book of Revelation are specifically addressed to all the churches, the corporate church.  We have to keep in mind that the church age was a long period of time that would last 1,955 years, from 33AD to 1988AD, which was almost 2,000 years.  We are in the days after the church age and even after the Great Tribulation and we are living in the Day of Judgment, so from 1988 to now is 27 years.  It is a minuscule amount of time, compared to the church age, which was almost two millennium.  God did give a lot of attention to the churches, even in the Epistles.  There are at least five Epistles that are addressed to the churches: Galatians, 1Corinthians, 2Corinthians, 1Thessalonians and 2Thessalonians.  However, there is information in all of these Epistles that are applicable to God’s people at any time. 

For instance, in 2Thessalonians, chapter 2, God speaks of the “man of sin” and of the coming of Christ at the time of the end in Judgment Day.  We have to keep in mind that even though God may address something to a particular organization or individual (as he addressed Israel or Judah in the Old Testament), it does not mean that it is exclusively for that entity.  If God addresses His Word to a “church,” it does not mean it is exclusively to that church.  Keep in mind that 1Timothy and 2Timothy were directed to an individual named Timothy, but was it just for his ears?  Also, the Epistle of Titus was written to Titus, but even though it was addressed to him, we know that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God,” and is profitable for doctrine.

So, God is just coming back in our verse to those He was originally addressing in the opening chapters of the Book of Revelation to, once again, speak to those in the churches.  It is a testimony of these things “in the churches.”  Then it goes on to say in Revelation 22:16:

… I am the root and the offspring of David…

Christ is telling us that He is of the lineage of David; He came down through the line of David.  The Bible tells us this in many places, but let us look at Isaiah 11:10:

And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

The root of Jesse is the same as saying the “root of David,” because Jesse was the father of David.  So, Christ was the “root of David” as well as the “root of Jesse.” 

We also read in Isaiah 53:2-3:

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

This refers to the Messiah and it says in verse 2 that he is “a root out of a dry ground.”  This is the same word “root” that is used in Isaiah 11 and it is indicating that Christ will spring forth and He is the “offspring of David,” and the time when He comes will be a time of spiritual famine, as it refers to the dry ground.  It is a time likened to a time when there is no rain and then the Lord Jesus came, the first of the firstfruits or the wave offering.  Remember it said in Joel 2:23 that God would give the “former rain” moderately (righteously) and then He spoke of the former rain and the Latter Rain.  First there was the early period of rain, “the early righteous rain” and it produced Christ who came forth as a “root.”  He sprang forth and entered into the world born of the virgin birth Mary.  Then the former rain would fall at the beginning of Pentecost in 33AD and then the Latter Rain would fall at the end of the church age (after the first 2,300 evening mornings) and throughout the remainder of the Great Tribulation from September 7, 1994 to May 21, 2011.

It says in Revelation 5:5:

And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

It is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is “the Root of David” or the “root of Jesse.” 

Let us just look at one other verse in the last Book of the Old Testament, where God describes Judgment Day (our present time) and it says in Malachi 4:1:

For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith JEHOVAH of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

The references both to “root” and to “branch” identify with Christ.  Christ is the “branch,” according to the Bible.  In Malachi, chapter 1, God is speaking of the Day of Judgment and pouring out the cup of His wrath and it will “burn them up” and “leave them neither root nor branch.”  In other words, there is no Christ, as far as salvation goes.  There is no light of the Gospel.  The door is shut and that, too, is the same as saying there is no Christ to save – Jesus is not doing the work of salvation any longer.

Let us go back to the final statement of our verse in Revelation 22:16:

… I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

The Lord Jesus Christ is “the bright and morning star” and this is derived from what we read in Numbers 24:15-17:

And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.

This “Star” will come out of Jacob and this was a prophecy of the coming Messiah as He would enter into the world as the “bright and morning star.”  The “morning star” is the star you see in the morning.  As God’s people are looking to the coming of the Lord and the likely end of the world and the return of Christ to destroy this world and to take His people out of this cursed earth, we are looking for the “night” of Judgment Day to be superseded by the light of the “bright and morning star,” the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a similar picture to what God did with the first resurrection.  In the case of the first resurrection, God’s people were in the darkness of their sins and then the light of the Gospel penetrated that darkness and brought light and life to their souls.  Now God’s elect are looking forward to the time when we will receive our new resurrected bodies.  We are looking for the “bright and morning Star,” the Lord Jesus Christ, to appear and complete the salvation of our bodies.  It says in 2Peter 1:19:

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

This would point to salvation when “the day star arises in your hearts,” but it also has a second level of meaning as we look for the completion of salvation and for that day to dawn as we wait for the “bright and morning star” to appear after the dark night of Judgment Day.

We are going to stop here and, Lord willing, we will continue our study in Revelation 22, verse 17 in our next study.