flowing down the middle of the city&#8217;s<n id="1" /> main street.<n id="2" /> On each side<n id="3" /> of the river is the tree of life producing twelve kinds<n id="4" /> of fruit, yielding its fruit every month of the year.<n id="5" /> Its leaves are for the healing of the nations.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then<n id="1" /> the angel<n id="2" /> said to me, &#8220;These words are reliable<n id="3" /> and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants<n id="4" /> what must happen soon.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">I testify to the one who hears the words of the prophecy contained in this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described<n id="1" /> in this book.

&#8216;I know<n id="1" /> where you live &#8211; where Satan&#8217;s throne is. Yet<n id="2" /> you continue to cling<n id="3" /> to my name and you have not denied your<n id="4" /> faith in me,<n id="5" /> even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness,<n id="6" /> who was killed in your city<n id="7" /> where Satan lives.

<t /><p class="bodytext">&#8220;To<n id="1" /> the angel of the church in Sardis write the following:<n id="2" />p> <p class="bodytext">&#8220;This is the solemn pronouncement of<n id="3" /> the one who holds<n id="4" /> the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: &#8216;I know your deeds, that you have a reputation<n id="5" /> that you are alive, but<n id="6" /> in reality<n id="7" /> you are dead.

The one who conquers<n id="1" /> I will make<n id="2" /> a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never depart from it. I<n id="3" /> will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from my God),<n id="4" /> and my new name as well.

<t /><p class="bodytext">After these things I looked, and there was<n id="1" /> a door standing open in heaven!<n id="2" /> And the first voice I had heard speaking to me<n id="3" /> like a trumpet<n id="4" /> said: &#8220;Come up here so that<n id="5" /> I can show you what must happen after these things.&#8221;

They were singing a new song:<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;You are worthy to take the scrollp> <p class="poetry">and to open its sealsp> <p class="poetry">because you were killed,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and at the cost of your own blood<n id="3" /> you have purchased<n id="4" /> for Godp> <p class="poetry">persons<n id="5" /> from every tribe, language,<n id="6" /> people, and nation.p>

<p class="bodytext">After these things I looked, and here was<n id="1" /> an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe,<n id="2" /> people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands.

So<n id="1" /> I said to him, &#8220;My lord, you know the answer.&#8221;<n id="2" /> Then<n id="3" /> he said to me, &#8220;These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They<n id="4" /> have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb!

<p class="bodytext">The<n id="1" /> first angel blew his trumpet, and there was hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was thrown at the earth so that<n id="2" /> a third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.p>

Now<n id="1" /> this is what the horses and their riders<n id="2" /> looked like in my<n id="3" /> vision: The riders had breastplates that were fiery red,<n id="4" /> dark blue,<n id="5" /> and sulfurous<n id="6" /> yellow in color.<n id="7" /> The<n id="8" /> heads of the horses looked like lions&#8217; heads, and fire, smoke, and sulfur<n id="9" /> came out of their mouths.

The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made<n id="1" /> of gold, silver,<n id="2" /> bronze, stone, and wood &#8211; idols that cannot see or hear or walk about.

Then<n id="1" /> the voice I had heard from heaven began to speak<n id="2" /> to me<n id="3" /> again,<n id="4" /> &#8220;Go and take the open<n id="5" /> scroll in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.&#8221;

So<n id="1" /> I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He<n id="2" /> said to me, &#8220;Take the scroll<n id="3" /> and eat it. It<n id="4" /> will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.&#8221;

These two have the power<n id="1" /> to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time<n id="2" /> they are prophesying. They<n id="3" /> have power<n id="4" /> to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want.

Then<n id="1" /> I heard a loud voice in heaven saying,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;The salvation and the powerp> <p class="poetry">and the kingdom of our God,p> <p class="poetry">and the ruling authority<n id="2" /> of his Christ,<n id="3" /> have now come,p> <p class="poetry">because the accuser of our brothers and sisters,<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">the one who accuses them day and night<n id="5" /> before our God,p> <p class="poetry">has been thrown down.p>

<p class="bodytext">Then<n id="1" /> I heard a voice from heaven say, &#8220;Write this:p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Blessed are the dead,p> <p class="poetry">those who die in the Lord from this moment on!&#8217;&#8221;p> <p class="bodytext">&#8220;Yes,&#8221; says the Spirit, &#8220;so they can rest from their hard work,<n id="2" /> because their deeds will follow them.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

Then<n id="1" /> another angel came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud, &#8220;Use<n id="2" /> your sickle and start to reap,<n id="3" /> because the time to reap has come, since the earth&#8217;s harvest is ripe!&#8221;

Blessed and holy is the one who takes part<n id="1" /> in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them,<n id="2" /> but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.p>