I didn’t want to do it. There you go. All right. Should I pray again? Did you hear that?
God heard it. Yeah, God heard it. That’s good.
We’re not going to have the Scriptures up during this message, because I want you to turn in your Bibles to each passage, if you would, all right? Old-fashioned way. It’s kind of strange when you’re talking to people and they’re looking this way, you know. It’s very good.
So turn to Revelation, chapter 1. We’re going to be reading a lot in Revelation.
Today, we’ll be considering our Lord Jesus as the Alpha and the Omega, as the Alpha and the Omega. What a huge, majestic subject. I mean, you know, it doesn’t get much bigger, does it? The Lord Jesus is our Alpha and Omega.
So let’s read Revelation 1:4-8.
John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace, from Him Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come;
and from the seven Spirits Who are before His throne;
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To Him Who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood,
and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Behold, He 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.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 21:1-6.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death;
there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain;
the first things have passed away.”
And He Who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”
Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”
I’m looking at you, sister, thinking about your pain. One day there’s not going to be any pain for any of us.
Take note: It is done, says the Alpha and the Omega.
And then Revelation 22:13:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
To be real straightforward, I’m just going to tell you what I’m going to say right now, so that if I flub up, you’ll know where we should have gone, all right?
The Lord Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Almighty Alpha and Omega. And the Alpha and Omega, the Almighty, brings us to the very end, and He says, as the Alpha and the Omega, the Almighty, “It is done.” He’s going to bring the church all the way through, and it will be completed. All that He has purposed, He will do.
That’s simple. So hopefully you’ve got that. So now we can go on.
The Lord as the Alpha and the Omega is so huge. It’s just absolutely tremendous in scope. And I said, “Lord, how in the world can I share on this?” And, you know, I’m not supposed to worry about it, right? Just share on it.
I was just kind of reading through and meditating on Revelation 1, and you shared a little bit on this. But as an introduction, I want to look at Revelation 1:17.
The apostle John, when he saw the Lord as the Alpha and the Omega, said, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.”
And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid.”
Now, this is the one who, in John 13:23 and 25, said:
There was one reclining on Jesus’ bosom, one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.
He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said unto Him, “Lord, who is it?”
This is the one who now, upon seeing something of the Lord—something so big and majestic and mighty—fell on the ground as though dead. Even being in the Spirit, he fell out as dead before the Lord.
What’s the difference? It’s the same man who laid his head on the Lord’s bosom, but now, upon seeing the Lord in all His majesty, His power, as the Alpha and the Omega, he falls—just lays out as dead.
I’ve just been meditating on this quite a bit. I don’t have very many answers, but it does seem that if we see the Lord as the Alpha and the Omega, the first place you will be is at His feet. And that place of worship and service to Him is at His feet.
Both are okay. Both are great: to lay your head on the Lord’s bosom, to be close and have an intimacy with Him. But, you know, if we see something about our glorious, Almighty God, there’s a reverence that comes over us, that we’re in awe of Who our Lord and Savior is. It’s just—He’s big. He’s amazing. He is our God. He is the Alpha and the Omega.
I noticed in John, he laid his head on the Lord and he spoke to the Lord in those two verses. Here, he’s laid out dead, and the Lord puts His right hand on him and says, “Go ahead and do what I want you to do.” That’s the intimacy of the Lord. Even as the Alpha and the Omega, He reaches out His hand and says, “John, it’s okay. Don’t be afraid.”
So that’s just an introduction as we see the Lord as the Alpha and the Omega. May we worship Him. What a picture of love and of grace it was.
I believe the Spirit of God, the Lord Jesus, does want us to see this morning Who the Alpha and the Omega is. You know, there’s only three places in Scripture where the Lord is called the Alpha and Omega. It’s here in Revelation, at the very beginning and at the very end—three places.
In Revelation 1:8, it says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord, “Who is and Who was and Who is to come.” In Revelation 21:6, “It is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” And in Revelation 22, “I am Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
We see three aspects of Who the Alpha and the Omega is: the One Who was, Who is, and is to come; the Beginner and the Ender; the first and the last. Those three things help us understand: Who is this Alpha and Omega?
Now, I must admit, I looked up a lot of commentaries to try to understand this, and I would like to read some of the things that I found out, okay?
Among the Jewish rabbis at this time, it was common to use the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet to denote the whole of anything. They would say, from the first letter to the last letter—like from A to Z—and it means the whole thing, everything in between. It’s not just that He’s the first and the last; it meant eternity.
So it’s equivalent to saying that He was at the commencement of time, and He will be at its close. Our Lord Jesus is the eternal Alpha and the Omega. He was clothed with omnipotence and would continue to exist through all ages to come, as He had existed in all ages past. This is our Lord, the Alpha and the Omega. He’s eternally present, eternally past, and eternally future.
This is the Alpha and the Omega. He is eternally uncreated. He transcends time, and He was before time. Indeed, He’s actually outside of time. But He entered into time, while He remains outside of time.
Turn to Psalm 90:2.
Before the mountains were born,
or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
Psalm 93:2:
Your throne is established from of old;
You are from everlasting.
So our Lord Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, from everlasting to everlasting. He is outside of time, and He is the Creator. He started all things. He’s the first and the last.
Look at Hebrews 1:10-12.
You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the works of Your hands.
They will perish, but You remain;
and they all will become old like a garment,
and like a mantle You will roll them up;
like a garment they will also be changed.
But You are the same,
and Your years will not come to an end.
Hebrews 13:8:
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Our Lord Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He’s the Alpha and the Omega.
This was given to the church right before they were to enter into great persecution. It was given to encourage the church. The Lord was saying to the church, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.”
God is saying here that He is the Author and the Creator of all things; that what He proposes, what He purposes, what He declares, and what He promises, He will do. He will bring to a grand conclusion all that He’s purposed and promised.
He, standing before the church and declaring, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” is saying that to the church. He’s saying that to us as well: “I am your Alpha and the Omega. I am the Alpha and Omega.” What a wonderful thing.
In Revelation 1, in the first declaration that “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” He adds one phrase: “I am the Almighty.” I am the Almighty Alpha and the Omega.
And Almighty means ruler of all, to hold sway over all things. It is used ten times in the New Testament—nine times in Revelation and only once in 2 Corinthians. So in this book, written to the church, He says nine times, “I am the Almighty.” The Lord wanted His church to understand and to know that He was the Almighty God. He holds sway over everything.
Again, what an amazing word Almighty is. And I think the one way to understand it better is just to go through the Scriptures in Revelation and look everywhere that word is used—the Almighty—and see what surrounds that word, so that we can begin to understand the scope of Who this Almighty God is.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is our God. This is the One Who loved us. We are His people, and He is our God. So this is our Almighty God that we’re going to look at today.
Everybody, this is where I want you to turn in Scripture. You probably are already at Revelation 1:8. The first declaration is, “I am Alpha and the Omega, the Almighty.” So the Almighty God is the Alpha and Omega. Turn to Revelation 4:8.
The first verse that I read, just note that it was the Lord God Himself Who was speaking, making that declaration. Here we see four living creatures making the same declaration.
And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty,
Who was and Who is and Who is to come.”
So our Lord Jesus is continually being praised, unceasingly being praised, as the Almighty God—the thrice-holy, Almighty God.
Revelation 11:15-17. Here we see the twenty-four elders declaring our Lord as the Almighty God.
Then the seven angels sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”
And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,
“We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, Who are and Who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.”
So we see that the Almighty has great power, and that He reigns forever. This is our Almighty God.
Revelation 16:7. This is the altar speaking. Did you know that the altar speaks?
And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”
The Almighty has true and righteous judgments. What He judges is true and righteous.
Revelation 16:14b:
To gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.
For our God, the Almighty, is a God of war as well.
This is John speaking in Revelation 19:5-6. Here we have the fourfold hallelujahs.
And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all ye His bondservants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.”
Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.”
Hallelujah! The Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. So our Almighty God reigns.
Revelation 19:15-16:
From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron. And He treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “King of kings and Lord of lords.”
So this is our Almighty God. He wears a robe that has “King of kings and Lord of lords” on it, and His wrath is terrible. This is our Almighty God. Remember, we’re developing a picture of Who this Almighty God is.
Revelation 21:22:
I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are its temple.
Brothers and sisters, as we’ve read through this book and seen the Almighty God, there could be no doubt about the Almighty Alpha and Omega’s ability to execute and to do all that He says He’s going to do.
Throughout this whole book, you see that the Almighty God can and will accomplish everything He says He’s going to do. He’s ruler of the nations; everything He’s planned for the nations, He’s going to do. He’s head over the church; everything He has for us, He’s going to do without fail, because He is the Alpha and the Omega.
It’s such a simple point, but often forgotten. He is able to make His words good. He is able to do that.
The enemy will constantly attack this and whisper to you, “This is not going to happen. He’s not in control. He’s not the King of all. The world’s crazy. The pandemic’s hitting, and who knows what else is going to hit. It’s all out of control.”
Brothers and sisters, our God, the One we serve and love, is the Alpha and the Omega, the Almighty. And as such, what He started, He will complete all the way through.
As Alpha and Omega, He is head of all eternity. I mean, He knows the beginning from the end. He’s even there at the beginning and the end, and in the middle at the same time. How can it be? He’s the ever-eternal One. He’s the all-powerful One. He is the Almighty.
We need to let that sink into our hearts so that we don’t become fearful and afraid ourselves. We must know that our God is the Alpha and Omega.
And this is wonderfully, to me, brought out in Revelation 21:6:
Then He said to me, “It is done. I am Alpha and the Omega.”
He Who wrought the finished work on the cross is operating and continues to work through the ages from the throne. His work will be completed. His work will be consummated. His work will be concluded.
The Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done.” Brothers and sisters, His will will be done.
If you leave away with nothing else, I hope you leave away with this thought: His will will be done because He is the Alpha and the Omega. What a wonderful thing.
That word, It is done—what does that remind you of? It is finished. It is finished. It is finished.
You know, there’s quite a few similarities in the surrounding part of this verse and the cross.
What did the Lord say on the cross? “I thirst.”
“I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.”
Didn’t He suffer tremendous pain and agony on the cross? And here we just read that He will wipe away all tears and sorrow and pain. All suffering will be gone away. When it is done, all of that is going to be put away.
All that the Lord started—it’s like two mountaintops. You have the cross, and then you have the throne. And all in between, the Almighty God is accomplishing and fulfilling everything that was finished on the cross.
He is completing it in our lives and in the life of the church until the very end. And at the very end, the same Lord Who said, “It is done” on the cross will say once again, as the Alpha and the Omega, “It is done.” It is completed.
And all the way in between, He is the Almighty God. And that should really thrill your heart.
Everything that we’ve been reading about in Ephesians is going to be done, now and in the future. All of His love and grace and mercy that He lavishes on us is lavished upon us as the Almighty God.
Think of the last three verses of Ephesians 1. What a description. The Almighty God, the omnipotent, powerful God, is our Lord and our Savior. Everything that He said about the church—the summing up of all things in Christ—will be accomplished. It will be accomplished.
And I believe that we need to stand on the Alpha and Omega’s promises to us: that what He says will be done, will be done. You know, there’s a stubbornness about faith that, no matter what you see, you declare what God has declared. And what He has declared is based upon Who He is. And Who He is, fundamentally, is that He’s eternal. He’s the Alpha and the Omega.
What a wonderful thing, brothers and sisters.
I told you it would be short. Let’s turn to Isaiah 44.
We’ll read Isaiah 44:6-8, and then turn to Isaiah 46. This is the application part for us.
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
“I am the first and I am the last,
and there is no God besides Me.”
There’s that Alpha and Omega terminology again. Although this is Hebrew, so it wouldn’t be Alpha and Omega, right?
“Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it;
yes, let him recount it to Me in order, from the time that I established the ancient nation.
And let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place.”
The Lord is saying, “Who’s like Me?” There’s no one like Me.
“Do not tremble and do not be afraid;
have I not long since announced it to you and declared it?
You are My witnesses.
Is there any God besides Me,
or is there any other Rock?
I know of none.”
It’s as if the Lord God, the Alpha and the Omega, surveys all of the universe and says, “Guys, there’s nobody like Me. I’ve looked.”
But you know what? There are many voices that rise up that would contradict this and say, “No, there’s a lot of gods like—” No, there’s not.
We’ve got a major religion in the world today who kills and murders and says their god is—whatever. There is no God like our Lord Jesus. He is the Alpha and the Omega. You can look; there is none.
And I love Isaiah 46:9-11.
“Remember the former things long past,
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times things which have not been done,
saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;
truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.
I have planned it, surely I will do it.”
What a wonderful God. Our Alpha and the Omega—what He says is going to happen, what He’s planned is going to be brought forth. Your life and my life are in the control of the Alpha and the Omega.
Satan himself cannot thwart our Lord. The world and the kingdoms of this world will not thwart our Lord Jesus. His church will be built. His kingdom will come. His will will be done.
Brothers and sisters, let’s stand on that. In your personal thoughts, your time with the Lord, when you’re afraid and fearful, stand on the fact that our God, Who loves us and cares about us, is the Almighty God.
Lord, we just love to proclaim and declare what You have declared. We say, “Lord, You are the only God. There is none like unto You.”
Lord, we sing a song: “There’s none like unto You, O Lord, among the gods. There is none like unto You, Lord.”
I pray that deep within our hearts and our spirits, we would be able to stand upon this wonderful fact, this amazing truth, that our Lord Jesus, the Savior of the world, is the Alpha and the Omega.
Lord, we love You and we thank You for this. I pray that there would be a reverence in our hearts, in our attitudes, in our thinking toward You, and awe of You.
Lord, You are as no other person. No other god is like You. Lord, I pray that in the days to come, we would really be able to worship You as the Almighty God. Bless the Lord. Amen.