The Alpha and The Omega

Faith grows when the object of your faith gets crystal clear. When you see Jesus for who He really is, then you can trust Him.

So, in Colossians chapter 1, the question was: Who is Jesus? The focus was on His majesty, His supremacy, Creator, Sustainer. His title? Sovereign King of the universe. And His action? He reigns. Right now, He reigns over everything. And one day, all the evil will be put aside and He will reign in a perfect heaven, a perfect new earth. The invitation to us was when you’re weary and tired and life is not working, come. And the result is He gives us peace.

In Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 11, it answers the question: What did Jesus do? And the focus is on His method. In other words, what did He do? He humbled Himself, took on human flesh, and His title is High Priest. He came and revealed the Father and then He took our needs and He took them to the Father. His action was redemption. He paid the price for our sin and then rose again. And then He says to us, “Here’s the invitation. Follow Me. Descend into greatness. Consider others more important than yourself. And as you take up your cross daily and follow Me, it’s in giving away your life that you find it. And the result is love.”

And then in Hebrews chapter 1, the first three verses, it really answers the question: How did He do it? And the focus here is on His message. It’s the Word of God. We learned He has the Word of God, He speaks the Word of God, He is the living Word of God. And His title, He’s the greatest prophet. And His action: He reveals. He reveals who God is. He reveals what is true. He reveals our need and the solution.

And the invitation is to abide. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you,” Jesus said, “you’ll bear much fruit.” And finally, the result is joy.

He says, “When we are connected, the joy that I have I want to be in you and your joy will be made full.”

And now we are going to look at Revelation chapter 1.

He’s going to answer two questions. Why did Jesus come? And we’ll look at verses 4 through 6. And then he’s going to answer: How will He come again?

Pick it up with me as I read. “To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before the throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”

So, let me just pause, okay? Here’s what I want you to get. He is getting revelation, the word means “to be unveiled.”

And he is giving this to the Church. And he wants them to know, these seven churches, it’s actual churches, right? This isn’t like metaphor. There are seven churches on a very predicable trade route. And he’s sending it to these seven churches.

And then it says, “Well, who is it from?” It’s from God, the one who is – the Father – who was, who is to come. And this little picture of the seven spirits before the throne, the word “seven” is a perfect number. It comes all the way through the book of Revelation. It’s the absolute holy, perfect Holy Spirit.

And then it says, “And from Jesus Christ,” so you have the Father, the Spirit, and the Son. And then it describes Jesus. Who is what? The faithful witness – the Truth. The firstborn from the dead – the Way. And the ruler of the kings of the earth. He brings life. Life and death is in the power of the one and only Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then he goes. “To Him,” Jesus, “who loves us and who has freed us from our sin by His blood—and made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father—to Him,” Jesus, “be glory and,” some translations will be “power.” The idea is dominion. He’s in charge of everything, “…forever and ever. Amen.”

And so, the description of Jesus here, notice, in the present John says, “He loves us,”

In the past, “He has freed us from our sin,” He shed His blood. And then finally, future, “He has made us to be a kingdom,” we’re a part of this kingdom movement and priests.

And notice this, the Son’s relationship with the Father. A kingdom of priests that we would come to know Jesus, we would be transformed, and then we would serve Jesus’ Father and our Father.

I love J.I. Packer. He has this great line in Knowing God. And as I read it, I never thought about it this way. He talks about Jesus as our elder brother. Isn’t that a great picture? An elder brother. That He wasn’t ashamed to take on human flesh and that He’s at the right hand of the Father and we have an elder brother.

Because when you meet Jesus, it’s not like He’s different. He, for all time and all eternity, took on human flesh and became one of us. That’s the depth of His love.

And then it goes on to say, not only why did He come? He came to save us, He came to make us a kingdom, and these priests to His God and Father. But then that we would be on mission with Him.

Look at verses 7 and 8 where he begins to answer the question: Will He come again or how? “Behold, He,” Jesus, “is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.”

And now listen where Jesus describes Himself, “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’”

Now, for you and me as we read this, part of this is like, “Okay, you know, I kind of get the idea that He is coming back and this is what Jesus has done, this is a tremendous introduction of who He is and what He has accomplished. And now He is coming in the clouds.”

And that doesn’t mean a lot to us. You’ll notice in your notes I put all those in bold, because if you were a first century Christian, especially a Jewish Christian, but you have heard lots of messages about Jesus being the Messiah. And where they get this idea, of the Son of man, it was Jesus’ favorite title for Himself.

So often He says, “And the Son of man, and the Son of man, and the Son of man.”

And for most of us Christians, when we hear and read the New Testament and where Jesus says, you know, “The Son of God and the Son of man,” often you’ll hear people say, “When He says, ‘The Son of God,’ that’s when – about deity. And Son of man, well, that’s when He’s talking about His humanity.”

Actually, the opposite is true. When you read the New Testament, actually Abraham is called a son of God. Isaac is called a son of God. The genealogies are all about the son of God. This phrase, “The Son of man,” Jesus said that because what He wanted them to know is that, “I am reaching back about six hundred and plus or minus thirty to fifty years to someone called Daniel,” who as a teenager is ripped out of Jerusalem into the Babylonian kingdom under King Nebuchadnezzar. And he walks faithfully with the Lord for about the next seventy years. And he had this prophecy about the end times.

Let me read it to you, because the Son of man is the most descriptive, He is deity and He is coming back and He is Messiah. Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. Daniel writes, “In my vision at night I looked and there before me was one like the Son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. And He approached the Ancient of Days,” speaking of the Father, and He was led into His presence.”

Now, listen to this, “And He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power. And all dominion, everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” It is the clearest, most graphic passage about the Messiah.

And now we are hearing: This is who Jesus is. And so, he is letting those people who have very little hope, humanly speaking, and who are really struggling and have lost their leaders, and asking, “Am I willing to die for this Jesus?”

He is saying, “This is the Jesus who is the Messiah.” And then we get, I’m just going to warn you, some of the most unusual passages that you’re ever going to find in all the New Testament. And you need to understand a little bit of Jewish background in order for them to make sense. And just a quick aside.

You know, often you’ll have people say, “You know, where does it really say Jesus is God? And, you know, there are three or four very clear passages.” But one particular cult does not believe that Jesus is God. And as I have met them, I have talked with them a lot. And they are young guys, they go on these two-year missions. And I just have, met so many of them and I like them. And I remember, you know, a couple guys came and they like to play basketball so we’d play basketball together and I said, “Do you want to open the Scriptures together?” And they said, “Well, sure.”

And you know, I knew sort of the Mormon doctrine and they told me the things that they were taught. And I said, “You know, the Scriptures clearly teach that Jesus is God.”

And they said, “No, no, you know, that can’t be true.” And they sort of had answers for the, sort of the typical text.

And I said, “Have you read Revelation?” They said, “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” And I said, “‘You know, at the beginning it’s God the Father and what did He say? “The one who is, who was, and is to come. I am the Alpha and the Omega.” ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’” I said, “Well, go down and read at the bottom. It’s clearly Jesus speaking and who is He? He is the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and is and is to come.”

And so, I just want you to understand that sometimes we kind of want to have a little devotional and read the Bible a little bit, but we need to handle accurately the Word of God. God’s Word is the authority. And so, I just want to encourage you with that little aside.

And with that then, let me continue with John’s experience. We are in verse 9. “John, your brother and companion in the suffering,” right? “the persecution and the kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus was on the island of Patmos because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said, ‘Write on a scroll that what you see, and send it to the seven churches.’” And then he gives the churches, “Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

And then verse 12 says, “I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and among the lampstands was one,” are you ready for this? “like the Son of man dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet, with a golden sash across His chest. His head and His hair were like white wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were like blazing fire. And His feet were like bronze, glowing in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp double-edged sword; His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.”

Now, I don’t know about you. First and foremost, you would be terrified and I would be terrified. And we are going to find that John is terrified.

He’s coming to let John and these people in a world that is completely messed up, “I want you to know I am absolutely in control and there is a game plan that is coming.”

And all these pictures that John is experiencing, literally, I am going to go through each one quickly.

But when it says, “The fire,” literally it’s the fire is coming out of His eyes. I mean, this imagery is like, “Whoa!” What does it mean? What I want to do is I want to go through quickly and go through what those are, tell you what they mean, and then we’ll circle back around and talk about: What are the implications for us in a world that is desperate for hope? And maybe some of us are desperate for hope as well.

And so, let me jump in. Here’s a picture of the risen Christ. The general appearance is the Son of man. And what does that mean? It means: I am the Messiah, the Son of God, the Son of man, the Sovereign Ruler of all people and nations, men of every language will worship Me. And that’s what He is saying when He comes. One like the Son of man. His power, His kingdom, His rule forever and ever.

Second picture is His dress. That He is robed with a golden sash. Basically, this is: “I am a greatly honored One who exercises all authority and judgement as a once-and-for-all High Priest, Judge, and King, Prophet and Messenger of God.”

If you had a robe all the way down, it meant you were either a priest, a prince, or a king. And if you’ll remember in the Old Testament, who wore a sash? It was the high priest. And so, this is a picture of one who has all authority, but one who is going to take the needs of man and bring them to God and take the power and the grace of God and bring it to man. Are you starting to see that for John, this is going to be hopeful.

This is for the whole Church. Life is crazy, it’s falling apart; this is Jesus in this unusual way of presenting Himself that is going to give hope when you understand it.

His head and hair? White as wool. The implication: “I am the holy, eternal One who is before all things. The all-wise, all-knowing God of time and eternity.” This is that picture of Him in Colossians chapter 1. The white and wool is a picture of holiness, of purity.

He knows all things, He is all-wise, He sees the end from the beginning. You don’t have to worry. “I am the One who is going to bring about the best possible ends in the best possible way for the most possible people for the longest possible time. You need to endure.” Over and over and over in Revelation it’ll talk about patient endurance and overcoming.

John actually describes Himself as, “We are the saints who are suffering.” Suffering and trouble, according to Jesus, is a reality in your life. But He has overcome the world. So, it’s trusting His Word, trusting His Spirit, trusting God’s plan. And this is what John is doing.

Notice, His eyes are a blazing fire. It’s this, “I am the righteous judge of all the earth whose judgement is just because I see all things as they are, not as they appear to be.” You don’t hear much about that anymore. But we really need to remember that we will give an account, even as believers, for our life. For our salvation? No. For reward? Yes. And this judge also will be, you think of your friends and my friends and our neighbors and maybe co-workers that don’t know the Lord. He is the judge of all the earth. And there will come a day when He will separate the goats and the sheep, those who have trusted Christ and those who don’t.

Those who say, “Thy will be done, Lord,” and those who say, “My will be done.” And in His grace and in His honoring of people’s will, there will be people apart from Jesus forever and ever and ever.

And part of what He is saying to John is, “It may be hard, but you need to understand I am the righteous judge. It’ll be fair because I see all things.”

But it’s a motivation for us to care and to share and to love and to reach out and not be intimidated by the world that we are living in.
“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and among the lampstands was one,” are you ready for this? “like the Son of man dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet, with a golden sash across His chest. His head and His hair were like white wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were like blazing fire. And His feet were like bronze, glowing in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp double-edged sword; His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.”

First and foremost, you would be terrified and I would be terrified. And we are going to find that John is terrified.

The general appearance is the Son of man. And what does that mean? It means: I am the Messiah, the Son of God, the Son of man, the Sovereign Ruler of all people and nations, men of every language will worship Me.

Second picture is His dress. That He is robed with a golden sash. Basically, this is: “I am a greatly honored One who exercises all authority and judgement as a once-and-for-all High Priest, Judge, and King, Prophet and Messenger of God.”

His head and hair? White as wool. The implication: “I am the holy, eternal One who is before all things. The all-wise, all-knowing God of time and eternity.”

Notice, His eyes are a blazing fire. It’s this, “I am the righteous judge of all the earth whose judgement is just because I see all things as they are, not as they appear to be.” And what you’ll find is He begins to talk to all those churches in chapter 2 and chapter 3. “You think you are wonderful and clean. And I see you as naked and needy.”

In other words, this is the Jesus that He looks at me and He knows what is in my heart. He knows my motives. He knows I might say this but maybe privately I mean that. And He is the One that when people say some things about me that may be not true at all is the One who sees all and puts His arm around me and says to you and says to me, “You can trust Me. I’ll take you through this.”

This is Jesus the judge. You don’t hear much about that anymore. But we really need to remember that we will give an account, even as believers, for our life. For our salvation? No. For reward? Yes. And this judge also will be, you think of your friends and my friends and our neighbors and maybe co-workers that don’t know the Lord. He is the judge of all the earth. And there will come a day when He will separate the goats and the sheep, those who have trusted Christ and those who don’t.

Those who say, “Thy will be done, Lord,” and those who say, “My will be done.” And in His grace and in His honoring of people’s will, there will be people apart from Jesus forever and ever and ever.

And part of what He is saying to John is, “It may be hard, but you need to understand I am the righteous judge. It’ll be fair because I see all things.”

But it’s a motivation both for believers, but it’s also a motivation for those outside of Christ for us to care and to share and to love and to reach out and not be intimidated by the world that we are living in.

Well, then you go to His voice of many waters. I am the One who spoke the world into existence out of nothing and I uphold it by the Word of My power. Old Testament, New Testament.

A lot of people are saying, “I don’t know where God is, I don’t hear.” Jesus is saying, “Like a rushing water…” If you have ever been near Niagara Falls or huge waterfalls, Pssshhhhh.

He's saying, “John, I’ll tell you what. My Word, My truth, it’s going to go over all the earth. Every tribe, every nation, every tongue. No one is going to miss out. They’ll know who I am.”

And then He goes on, “In the right hand are the stars.” The stars are messengers. And they are in His right hand, a position of honor. Commentators are torn, is that the lead pastor of the church or is there an angel over each church? I don’t know the answer to that. Here’s what I know is He is in the middle of those lampstands and those lampstands are His Church. And He is here to support us and He is going to give oversight and He is going to give protection.

And then out of His mouth a two-edged sword. And, you know, there were two kinds of swords in those early days. A small flat sword and then it was used in close combat. And that’s this one.

And it’s the same sword that is used in Ephesians 6 where the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. This isn’t the written Word or this isn’t even logos. This is a word called rhema. It’s when God speaks His Word. It’s when Jesus was doing spiritual warfare or when we do spiritual warfare and there is demonic activity, we take God’s Word like He did and we quote it and we quote it out loud and we command under the authority of the King of kings and the Lord of lords, “Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.”

And we confront the evil in the world – under control – and you do something in the spiritual world and you do something in the physical world. But it’s rooted in God’s Word and you have an offensive power in the Word of God.

And so, finally, he goes on and he says His face is like shining as the sun.

And all of this is to understand you’ve got hope. There’s a righteous judge, He’s in control, He’s going to bring about the right things at the right time. You need to hang tough, you need to keep trusting no matter what.

And then John saw Him and it says, “I fell at His feet as though dead,” and I can understand that. “Then He placed His right hand on me and He said, ‘Do not be afraid,’” why? “I am the first and the last. I am the living One. I was dead and behold! I am alive forever and ever. And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

And as I studied this I thought, first of all, there’s tenderness in His touch. There’s: I’m in control and the worst thing that can happen to you is not dying. The worst thing that can happen to you is to stop believing. It’s to let your faith waver. It’s to cave into the pressure. And whether that’s cultural pressure or actual danger, Jesus is saying, I’ve got your back. I am for you. I am the Lord, I am God. You have got this and you can trust Me.

And so, as we look at this picture of Jesus and all that He has done, I’d like to go back to our chart before we take a moment and make some real personal application, just by way of review.

The question in Revelation chapter 1, verses 4 to 18, is: Why did He do it? Why? The answer is: His focus was His mission. Jesus came to save the world. Jesus came to redeem the world. Jesus came to make things right. Jesus blazed the trail and then called us to be a kingdom and priests and disciples so that now on the earth, just like when He walked on the earth, there would be light where there’s darkness. There would be love where there is hatred. There would be truth where there’s lies.

And then his focus, not as just on His mission, but His title comes clearly as the righteous judge. We all want justice. Righteous, clear, fair. He sees everything absolutely as it is. And finally, His action is to restore. I love if you would flip back all the way to Revelation chapter 21 and 22, you’re going to find that there’s a new heaven and a new earth. And there’s no tears and there’s no evil. And Satan is gone and sin is gone and death is no more. And everything that God longed to produce and develop in those first two chapters in that perfect environment in Eden, it’s going to be infinitely better.

And you say, “Well, Chip, how could it be better because it was a perfect environment?” It’s going to be better because we are going to understand the depth of God’s love.

If sin had never occurred – and that’s on us, that was our choice – we would never understand God’s mercy, we could never grasp His compassion. We are going to have a day where we really see ourselves for who we are.

And we are fairly nonchalant about this, but there are moments, don’t you get? Where you just realize how selfish you are. When I see my motives, when I see even on my best days…

And I’m going to grasp and you’re going to grasp in this new heaven, in this new earth, and in a life that is not floating around on clouds, but in a life with a new heaven and a new earth and where there are songs to be sung and culture to be made and work to be done and in a perfect environment with the Lord Jesus Christ and no sin and no sorrow and connected to those who have gone before us, in this absolutely perfect environment with an infinite God so we will be learning forever and ever and ever and growing forever and ever and ever.

And have that thing that no matter how much we do well or succeed or relationship gets great, there’s always something missing. That ends. It’s perfect, it’s great, it’s right. And that’s why He says, Hang in there. Trust Me.

I have three questions that I’d like you to really think about.

The first one is: What emotion and thoughts come to your mind as you reflect on the Jesus of Revelation? That’s one to kick around, isn’t it?

The second question is: How does the certainty of Jesus’ return and the challenge to His Church impact your life and your priorities?

And I love C.S. Lewis. [Randy Alcorn] He says, “All of eternity is like this line and that tiny dot on that line is your or my little, little speck of time.” And he just asks the question, “Are you going to live for the dot, the right now, or are you going to live for the forever?”

Third question is: How does the certainty of you receiving a resurrected body and living in a perfect, new earth without suffering or sin, united to Jesus and fellow believers, impact your life practices?

And Jesus then ends with an incredible invitation and a command. I love this and I’m so glad that our brothers and sisters in the past have been very faithful to this.

Jesus’ invitation is to join Him in His rescue mission to save the world, to actually see people go from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. To actually be a conduit, in my mind, sort of like a piece of PVC pipe where the grace of God runs through us by our words, our actions, our time, our energy, our money where we are the light and love of Christ, first loving one another deeply and then reaching out and caring. Meeting needs and then clearly sharing the gospel.

His invitation is, “As you go, therefore,” command, “make disciples of all nations.” Well, how? “baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you,” And here’s the promise, “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

You know, it’s not going somewhere, it’s, literally, it’s an adverb. As you are going. As you’re going to the store, as you’re going to work, as you’re out in the neighborhood, as you’re leading one of your kids’ teams. You know, as you are in the marketplace. As you are just being you, make disciples.

That is sharing of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by your life and by your words. And then baptism, certainly it’s when people get wet, it’s really a picture of identification. Help people move from their cultural mindset of their old life that they have died with Christ, they have been raised with Him, and this new identity connected to a body of people. And then as they get connected, “Teach them not to get smarter about the Bible, but teach them to obey what I said.” Because what is the promise? “If you abide in My Word you’ll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

And people long to meet people that are free. Free of all the expectations. Free of, in my case, workaholism or codependency. Free from addictions. Free of trying to live a life that pleases everyone potentially except the One who is most important.

And so, I encourage you. There’s hope. There’s hope because the end is clear and Jesus has said, “I am with you always. I’ll never leave you, I’ll never forsake you.” Don’t confuse hope with it’s going to be easy. He promised it would be hard. What He promised is you’ll never go through it alone.

In our last session, I read the first two commitments that Bill Bright and Henrietta Mears and Halverson made. And they created this Fellowship of the Burning Heart. And if you remember, the first commitment was about spending time with God every day, an hour.

And the second commitment was they were going to live a pure life, that they would be holy before the Lord. And I want to read number three and number four, because they make a lot of sense and they’re a good application to what we have just heard.

Number three is: I am committed to the principle of discipleship that exercise itself principally in the winning of the lost for Christ. Therefore, I pledge myself to seek every possible opportunity to witness and to witness at every possible opportunity to the end that I may be responsible for bringing at least one person to Christ every twelve months.

And then the final commitment they made was: I am committed to the principle that Christian discipleship demands nothing less than absolute consecration or surrender. Therefore, I present my body a living sacrifice, utterly abandoned to God. By this commitment, I will that God’s perfect will shall find complete expression in my life and I offer myself in all sobriety to be expendable for Christ.

This was a group of people that said, “I am going to trust Jesus no matter what.” It doesn’t take more brains than you have, it doesn’t take more experience, it doesn’t take more knowledge. The kind of people that God uses are ones that understand He is the Sovereign King, the High Priest, the Great Prophet, and the Righteous Judge and you see Him clearly and no matter what, you say, “I can trust Him. He’s with me.” He’ll protect you; He'll provide for you.

So, let’s endure. Let’s be that kind of Christian that changes the world just one at a time.

Lord God Almighty, You are doing great things all around the world. And You do it through very regular, ordinary people just like us.

Lord, deliver us from our lethargy. Help us to grasp the clarity and the need of our time and to walk with You and to obey You and to receive Your power that we might give love and grace to every single person that crosses our path.

And so, Father, I ask You right now, in light of who You are, Lord Jesus, in light of what You have done, would You fill us afresh with Your Spirit? Would You make us the kind of Christians that would just come awake from our lethargy? That we would believe that You are the Sovereign King, the High Priest.

Lord, that You are the very message of life and that You’re the Righteous Judge that we could trust You for everything. Would You fill us in such a way that we would be used by You, that we would be available to You, and we would surrender ourselves fully to You? Lord, the world just seems to be in such a mess. And so, like John, we pray, oh God, please help us. Please strengthen us. Please make us the kind of Christians You want us to be.

And, Lord, we need each other. And so, I ask that You would help us to encourage each other day after day that we might walk with You in a way that just changes our little world so that You change Your big world. And I pray that in Jesus’ name, amen.