Summary of passage: Jesus is coming to reward those according to what they’ve done. He’s the Alpha, Omega, First and Last, Beginning, End. Blessed are the righteous who have the tree of life. Outside the gates of the city are the dogs who are immoral and practice falsehoods. Jesus is the Root, Offspring of David, the Morning Star.
Questions:
6) Part personal Question. My answer: He’s the Alpha, Omega, First and Last, Beginning, End, the Root, Offspring of David, the Morning Star. The first and the last or alpha and omega because everything starts, ends, and everything in between is his. He is the beginning, the middle, and the end for every Christian.
7a) Blessed are those who accept Jesus as their Savior and not blessed are those who don’t.
b) Personal Question. My answer: Those who accept Jesus because he lives inside of me via the Holy Spirit.
8 ) Personal Question. My answer: Pray to be more like Jesus.
Conclusions: All personal. No meat. I love how Jesus uses all his titles here. We see most of them in Revelation and throughout the Bible. It’s a culmination of who he is.
End Notes: Be ready. This is stated 3 times in this chapter (verses 7, 12, 20). It’s meaning is not soon but when they come it will be in rapid succession. The church and us are meant to be ready always.
“And My reward is with Me.” The word for “reward” means to “pay for service—good or bad” (more literally, as a “wage”). Jesus will compensate the saints (Revelation 11:18) as well as the unrighteous (2 Peter 2:12-13). A believer shall be given the gift of life and rewarded for good works, whereas the unbeliever shall be given the wages of death (Romans 6:23). There is no partiality with God. He “will render to each one according to his deeds” (Romans 2:5-16).
What you do here matters.
Jesus uses titles normally associated with God. Alpha and Omega is in Revelation 1:8; 21:6. The First and the Last is in Isaiah 41:4. Jesus wants to leave no doubt he is a Triune God.
There is debate about who speaks this last beatitude in Revelation: John, an angel, or Jesus.
Some versions say blessed are those who do his commandments instead of who wash their robes. The difference stems from a Greek word: HOIPLUNONTESTASSTOLAS (washed their robes) or
HOIPOIOUNTESTASENTOLAS (do His commandments). This would be a copyist’s error. Still, the meaning is clear. This is the desire of our hearts. Obviously, we all fail. But our desire is to keep his commandments and wash our robes. That is what matters. The unbeliever has no such desire.
We saw washing of robes in Revelation 7:14 or washing in Jesus’s blood. It means fully committing to the Lord Jesus Christ, our lives.
Being on the outside is not literal here. There are not throngs of unbelievers standing outside the New Jerusalem. It means they are not in the eternal city. Jesus is making clear one last time who will stand with him and who will stand against him.
Dogs here is a derogatory term for the morally impure or unbelievers (Matthew 7:6; Philippians 3:2). Dogs were considered unclean and despised.
Jesus assures us here the Book of Revelation is his word to us, the churches, to be known.
The Root is a Messianic title (Isaiah 11:1). It shows that Jesus is both the Creator of King David and His descendent. Jesus spoke this same idea in Matthew 22:41-46.
The Morning Star is another Messianic title from the Old Testament (Numbers 24:17) and the New Testament (Revelation 2:28). Just as the Morning Star (generally held to be the planet Venus) shines and welcomes the new day, so does Jesus.
Fun Fact: This is the first reference to the church since the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3.
