NAMES AND TITLES OF CHRIST
ALPHA AND OMEGA
DR. JIM DIXON
REVELATION 1:8, REVELATION 21:1-7, REVELATION 22:12-13
NOVEMBER 30, 1997
Fraternities and sororities are oftentimes called Greek letter societies because they are labeled by two or three letters from the Greek alphabet. Fraternity comes from a Latin word meaning brother and sorority comes from a Latin word meaning sister. There are more than 120 different Greek letter societies in the United States with more than 33,000 chapters and more than 15 million members. Some of you are members of fraternities or sororities.
The first fraternity was Phi Beta Kappa. It was the first fraternity found here in the United States, founded at the College of William and Mary in the year 1776. The first sorority was Kappa Alpha Theta, which was founded at DePaul University in the year 1880. But you won’t find any fraternities or sororities called Alpha and Omega. You’ll find Alpha Tau Omega. You’ll find Alpha Psi Omega. You’ll find Alpha Chi Omega, but you won’t find Alpha and Omega because Alpha and Omega is not earthly but heavenly and the entrance requirements are very strict. In order to be part of the Alpha and Omega you must be God.
The Bible says only three persons qualify: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God is the Alpha and Omega. In Revelation, chapter 1 and chapter 21, the Father is called the Alpha and Omega. In Revelation 22, the Son is called the Alpha and Omega. And thus, we come to the meaning of this divine title. This title has three meanings, and we will examine them briefly this morning.
First of all, the title the Alpha and Omega means “The Creator.” To say that Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega is to say that Jesus Christ is the Creator. The word Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. It is the beginning of the Greek alphabet. It was used of God to refer to the fact that He is the beginning of all things, the source of all things, the Creator. And so, when this title is applied to Jesus Christ, when we say He is the Alpha, we are saying that He is Co-Creator with the Father.
When we come to the Book of Genesis, the first chapter, the Bible says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The word for God is in the plural. It is not “eloah,” but it’s “elohim.” There’s a plurality of deity throughout that passage of scripture. That is why God says, “Let us make men in our own image, after our own likeness.” Christian theologians believe that this plurality of deity is a reference to the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We come to the New Testament and to the book of John, the Gospel of John. In the first chapter, we see that our Lord Jesus Christ is called “The Word.” “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” What does it mean to say that Jesus Christ is the Word?
Well, for the Greek-speaking people, the “logos” was the word. To say that Jesus Christ was the Word was to say that Jesus Christ was the mind of God, the logic of God, the “logos.” For the Aramaic-speaking people (and of course in the time of Christ, most people in Israel spoke Aramaic), the “memra” was the word. This was the Aramaic term for word, and to say that Jesus Christ was the “memra” was to say that Jesus Christ was God Himself. Because for the Aramaic-speaking people, “memra” was a circumlocution for God. It was a way of saying God without using the name of God.
For the Hebrew-speaking people, to say that Jesus Christ was the “dabar.” To say that Jesus Christ was the Word meant that Jesus Christ was the creative power of God because for the Hebrew, God created by His Word. God spoke and it came into being. And so, the Hebrew-speaking people viewed the Hebrew word “dabar,” which was the term which means word, as the creative power of God. That’s why in John 1:1 it says, “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” The creative power of God. Co-Creator with the Father.
We come to Hebrews, chapter 1, and the Bible says, “He,” (that is our Lord Jesus Christ), “didst found the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the works of His hands.” We come to Colossians, chapter 1, and the Bible says of our Lord Jesus Christ, “All things were made by Him and for Him and through Him and in Him all things are held together.” Co-Creator with the Father.
If you believe that God in His fullness has created, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and if you believe that Jesus Christ is Co-Creator with the Father, the Alpha, the source of all things, then you will worship Him. If we believe that, we will worship Him because it is right that the creature worships the Creator. In Revelation, chapters 4 and 5, we see the angels of heaven, the angelic hosts, worshipping the Son as well as the Father. In the book of Hebrews, the first chapter, we are told why. It is explained that angels are created but Jesus is the Creator. If this is true of the angelic hosts, if they worship the Son as well as the Father, then it must be true of us. For certainly we are created, and it is right that we worship the Creator.
In Romans, chapter 1, the Bible says that the wrath of God is poured out from heaven upon mankind because we have worshipped the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever and ever. And so here is part of the call of God upon us this morning that we would worship Him, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But when we say that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega and we say that He is the Creator, when we say He is the Alpha, it means not only that we should worship Him but that we must respect the creation. God would ask you this morning whether or not you respect the creation. Do you value the work of Christ’s hands?
What does it mean to respect the creation? I know that many of you have heard of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis of Assisi was born to wealthy Italian parents. He renounced that wealth. He refused his inheritance. He took a vow of poverty, and he was determined to serve the poor in the name of Christ.
The year was 1224 when St. Francis of Assisi began to experience what some theologians have called the stigmata. The five sacred wounds of Christ began to appear on the body of St. Francis, it is said, as he began to bleed from his hands or his wrists, from his feet, and from his side. Now, historians, scientists, and theologians are not sure what to make of the stigmata, but I think it is safe to say this: St. Francis of Assisi is one of the most respected saints today, both in the Roman Catholic tradition and amongst Christians in general. One of the reasons St. Francis is so respected today was his great love for the creation. He had a great affection for birds and for all of God’s creatures.
I think, at this point, it’s safe to say that St. Francis was a little bit flaky—I mean, just a little bit tweaked perhaps. If he was walking along and he saw somebody fishing and they caught a fish, he would go down by the streamside or the lakeside, wherever they were, and he would argue with them, trying to make them throw the fish back in the water. When St. Francis would take a walk, he would stop here and there, wherever he saw a worm in the path, and he would pick the worm up and carry it off the path to make sure that it would not be stepped on and that it’s life would be spared.
St. Francis refused to allow a tree to be chopped down. He refused to allow a tree to be cut. He cringed whenever a tree was so much as pruned, although he realized that it was needful for the health of the tree. Is that what it means to respect the creation? To be like St. Francis? Well, surely not. It is good that we love the works of God’s hands but if we would really respect the creation, I think the word we need to understand is the word stewardship. You’ve all heard this word. We know that as Christians we are called to be stewards over all that belongs to God, and we are called to be stewards over this world as God gave us dominion over the earth.
The word steward comes from an old English word which literally meant steward or warden of the pigsty. A steward was a person who was originally a person who was in charge of pigs, and the pigs did not belong to the steward. They belonged to the master, but the steward was given care of the pigs and was to do with those animals whatever the master willed. So, as we come to the creation, we recognize that nothing belongs to us. It belongs to Christ. He is the Creator. He is the Alpha, and we are to do with the creation whatever the Master wills.
Certainly, biblically we are allowed to use vegetation for food. Biblically we’re allowed to use trees for fuel and for building purposes. Biblically we are allowed to use animals for food and for clothing. But if we would be good stewards, we do not abuse the creation. We do not kill animals arbitrarily or capriciously. We do not hunt animals to extinction. We respect what God has made and we seek to be good stewards. We acknowledge the fact that one day our stewardship will be evaluated.
If you are working for a company or corporation and they are disposing hazardous waste in illegal ways, you might think you’re getting away with it. But one day you’ll stand before the Creator. If you are driving a car and it does not meet fuel emission standards and you have a friend in the fuel emission business and you’ve somehow managed to get around the law, you’re not really getting away with anything because one day you’ll stand before the Creator. What’s important for us to understand here is that we are stewards. And we want to hear Christ say, “Well done!”
Our stewardship relates not just to our respect for the creation but most of all to our respect for the crown of creation, which is mankind, male and female. How do we respect people? How do we treat people? If we really believe Christ is the Creator, aren’t we going to respect the crown of His creation? How can we love God and not love people?
How we treat human life is of supreme importance and God would ask you today how you regard abortion. I’ve said before (and most of you know) that over 95% of the abortions in this nation have nothing to do with danger to the life of the mother or rape or incest or even gross fetal deformity. The overwhelming majority of abortions in this nation are simply belated efforts at birth control in a culture that has become increasingly promiscuous. More than 30 million babies have been aborted in this nation since the passing of Roe v. Wade. That is a national tragedy, and it is surely repulsive to our Lord Jesus Christ who is Co-Creator with the Father.
Perhaps some of you have had an abortion, and I know that some of you have. Of course, Christ loves you still. And if you would repent, His mercy and His grace is there for forgiveness. But He would have us to understand that human life is precious. It’s precious. If you believe Christ is the Creator, if affects your view of euthanasia. It even affects your view of racism and of poverty because racism devalues human life and poverty devalues human life.
I thank God that yesterday, in the Highlands Ranch Herald, there was an article on our Manna Ministries here at the church. Because Manna Ministries is such a great effort to show the love and compassion of Christ to people who are hurting. It’s an effort to value human life. I thank God for everything you do and everything this congregation does to value human life because Christ is the Alpha. He is the Creator.
There’s a second meaning to this title Alpha and Omega. Christ is not only the Creator, but He is also the Consummator. When we say that He is the Alpha and Omega, He is the Creator, and He is the Consummator. The word Omega is the last word of the Greek alphabet. When we say Christ is the Omega, we are saying that He is the end, that He will bring all things to their predetermined conclusion. He will consummate history itself.
In the Book of Hebrews, the first chapter, the Bible says of our Lord Jesus Christ, “He didst found the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the works of His hands. They will perish but He remains. Like a mantle, He will roll them up and they will be changed but He is the same and His years never end.” Creator. Consummator.
We are the generation that is on the brink of a new millennium and people approach this dawning of a new millennium with different attitudes. For some people, December 31, 1999, is just going to be the mother of all parties. But for other people the date is kind of ominous. It represents the birth of a new millennium as well as the birth of a new century. Some people feel like perhaps it means that history is approaching its consummation and some Christians think that with the dawning of a new millennium, perhaps Jesus Christ is about to come again, that His second coming is truly imminent.
It was Archbishop James Usher who, in the 17th century, predicted that Christ would come in the year 2000. Bishop Usher believed that in God’s dealings with mankind, there were only 6,000 years and that God worked in 2,000-year increments in His most significant acts. So, 4,000 years before the birth of Christ, the divine inbreathing took place and Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. Two thousand years before Christ, God called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans and God established the children of Israel. And then Bishop Usher believes that 2,000 years after the birth of Christ would come the consummation of the age, the second coming of Christ and the final judgement.
But that kind of thinking is ludicrous. It really is ludicrous. First of all, we do not know when the divine inbreathing took place. We do not know when Adam and Eve were formed. God alone knows that. And we don’t even know when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans. Bible scholars and historians speculate and debate regarding the date when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans and sojourned. The span of their opinions covers more than 200 years.
We don’t really even know the date of this new millennium which is approaching. I mean, we really don’t know when we hit the year 2000. You might think, “Well, how can that be?” But it all goes back to the 6th century when a man named Dionysius Exiguus, who historians now sometimes refer to as “Dennis the Short” or “Little Dennis,” was charged by Pope John I to create a Christian calendar. He was supposed to create a Christian calendar using the birth of Christ as a pivot, moving backwards from that birth and moving forward from the birth. When Little Dennis or Dionysius Exiguus began to reckon the years, since in the 6th century there was no concept of zero, he did not regard the first year as a zero year and that’s what he should have done. The first year should have been double zero—and then at the end of a century, one double zero, the end of another century, two double zero.
But it didn’t work like that. He started right out with one. When he came to January 1 in the year 100, only 99 years had passed, not a century. Only 99 years had passed, and 100 years didn’t pass until you came to January 1, 101. And so, it has continued to this day and 2000 years really will not arrive until we get to January 1, 2001, as opposed to January 1 in the year 2000. But really, even that is not accurate because Dennis the Short was not able to properly determine the date of Christ’s birth you see. He misplaced the pivot on his calendar.
The Bible tells us that Christ was born during the reign of Herod the Great. Historians now know that Herod the Great died in 4 BC. He died in 4 BC, so Christ had to have been born either in 4 BC or perhaps in 5 BC—which means that the new millennium has already come and gone if you date from the birth of Christ. The new millennium has already come and gone if you want to date accurately from the birth of Christ. And so, when you get to December 31, 1999, have a good time!
In fact, we are actually having a party here at the church. We’re already planning it for December 31, 1999. You ought to come here because if Christ does come that night, what a great place to be raptured from! Right? But Christ does not schedule His activities on the basis of human calendars. He will come again but no one knows the day or the hour. And I would submit to you no one knows the year. Certainly, there are signs of His coming and many of these signs are being fulfilled in this generation. Certainly, He is coming again. He will come with power. He will come in glory. He will judge the nations. He will judge the living and the dead. He will receive His people unto Himself. He will “beat our spears into pruning hooks. our swords into plowshares. Nation will not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore.”
He is the Prince of Peace, the Alpha and Omega, the Consummator. He will not only consummate history, but He will consummate your personal history. He is your Creator, and He is your Consummator. And one day you will stand before Christ and all that will matter in that day is whether or not you believed in Him, whether you loved Him, whether you embraced His substitutionary atonement on Calvary’s cross as payment for your sin, and whether you committed your life to Him as Lord and Savior. That’s all that will matter. Before Christ, we stand or fall.
There’s a third meaning to this title, Alpha and Omega. With this we’ll close. He’s not only the Creator and Consummator but He is also the Eternal One. This title was a way of expressing the concept of eternity. You see, the Greeks had very few words to express the concept of eternity. There was the Greek word “aionios,” which is used in the Bible for eternal life. But there was also this phrase, “the Alpha and Omega.” To say that God is the Alpha and Omega not only means that He is the beginning and the end, but it was used to mean that He is without beginning and without end. He has neither beginning of days nor end of life but continues forever, the Eternal One. Thus, God says, “I am the Alpha and Omega, who is and who was and who is to come.” Everlasting. When we say that Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, we are acknowledging that He is eternal.
For us in our finiteness, this is a very difficult concept. The whole concept of eternity. We live in a time/space continuum. We see the effects of time on all things. You can travel to Egypt today and you can see the great pyramid at Giza near Cairo near the banks of the Nile. Built 4,500 years ago, it is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world (but the only one still standing). The Tomb of Mausolus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world is no more. You can see pieces of it in the British Museum. You can travel today to Bodrum, which was ancient Halicarnassus, and you can see the place where the Tomb of Mausolus once stood. But it is there no more.
The Temple of Artemis (whom the Romans called Diana) is no more. It was destroyed by Gothic invaders in the 3rd century AD. You can travel to Ephesus, and you can see the few pillars that remain of that once great structure. Of course, the statue of Zeus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, built at Olympia where the Olympic games were held, made of gold and silver, no longer remains. In fact, no one can find any of the gold and silver. No one can find a single piece of that once great wonder.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon built by Nebuchadnezzar the Great are no more. They grow no more. It wasn’t until this century that archeologists even discovered the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon, 55 miles south of modern-day Baghdad near the Euphrates River. The lighthouse at Pharos on the island of Pharos, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the pride of Ptolemy, who was the ruler of the Ptolemaic Empire, was destroyed by an earthquake in the 14th century and fell into the Mediterranean Sea. The Colossus of Rhodes, that massive structure on the island of Rhodes which was the pride of the Aegean civilization, was destroyed by an earthquake in the 3rd century AD.
You see, only the pyramids remain, and the pyramids are eroding. The Egyptian government today is trying to figure out how they can preserve these historic structures. But time erodes all things. We live in a world where time causes all things to decay. We look in the mirror, each of us, and we see the effects of time. I know I look in the mirror and I see the effects of time. Living in this time/space continuum, I am finite and you are finite. It is very difficult for us to comprehend infinity. It is very difficult for us to comprehend or grasp or even fathom eternity.
We try to quantify things. We use number words to quantify things, to try to get a handle of things. We use the words one thousand, one million, one billion. These are efforts to quantify. Mathematicians have come up with a new word that is an effort to understand vastness, and the word is googol. To understand what a googol is, you have to understand of course that a thousand is a 1 with three zeroes after it. A million is a 1 with six zeroes after it. A billion is a 1 with 9 zeroes after it. A trillion is a 1 with twelve zeroes. A quadrillion is a 1 with 15 zeroes. But a googol is a 1 with 100 zeroes after it, an incomprehensible sum. It is said that all the words spoken by humanity in the history of the world do not equal one googol. It is an incomprehensible sum.
Now, mathematicians have come up with a googolplex, which I have read is equal to a 1 with a billion billion zeroes after it, a ludicrous number. I mean, it is said that all the electrons in the universe do not equal a googolplex. But these number words do not help us fathom eternity because after a googol of years, there’s no less time remaining. After a googolplex of years, there’s just as much time as ever you’ve had because eternity just goes on and on. That’s why I love the words of that great Christian hymn by John Newton, Amazing Grace, where you come to the part where Newton wrote, “When we’ve been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.” You see, eternity is mind-boggling. If you’re a believer in Christ, He’s the Alpha and Omega and He offers eternal life. That should give you great joy and wonderful confidence and a peace the world would never understand.
I don’t know what you’re going through in your life right now. You might be going through financial troubles. I know many of you are. Or relational troubles. Or maybe you feel rejection where somebody you love doesn’t love you or doesn’t love you anymore. That hurts so much. Or maybe you’re going through health problems. Isn’t that so hard for us in this finite world. Or maybe you’ve lost somebody you love. Maybe a child or a parent or sibling has died, and the pain is great. Even if it’s a Christian loved one, the pain is great. And yet, you know, if you really believe in Jesus and the promise of eternal life, there’s got to be a joy the world can’t quench. There’s got to be a peace and a confidence the world can’t take away because He’s the Alpha and Omega and He’s our Creator. He’s the Consummator. He’s the source of eternal life. This morning as we close, we want to give you a chance, if you’ve never embraced Christ, to do so today as we close in prayer. Let’s look to the Lord.