TITLES OF CHRIST
THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA
DR. JIM DIXON
REVELATION 22:12-13
OCTOBER 23, 1988
They’re called fraternities, from the Latin word “frater” which means brother. Of course, fraternities are sometimes called Greek letter societies because most fraternities are labeled by two or three letters from the Greek Alphabet. Phi Beta Kappa was the first fraternity, established at William and Mary College in the year 1776. Today, there are over 80 different fraternities with more than 12,000,000 members in 23,000 chapters. But there aren’t any fraternities with the title “Alpha and Omega.” There’s Alpha Tao Omega and there’s Alpha Phi Omega, but no Alpha and Omega because Alpha and Omega is a heavenly fraternity rather than an earthly one, and the entrance requirements are very strict. You see, in order to enter the Alpha and Omega fraternity, you have to be God. Now, a lot of people think they qualify but the Bible says only three persons do and those persons are called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is the Alpha and the Omega.
In Revelation, chapter 1, verse 8 the Father says, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the Lord God Almighty.” In the 21st chapter of the Book of Revelation, in the sixth verse, the Father says “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life.” Then in Revelation, chapter 22, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in the 13th verse says “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” Our Lord Jesus Christ takes the very title of God and He applies it to Himself.
What does it mean to say that Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega? Well, biblically it means three things, and these comprise our three teachings this morning. First of all, Christ is the Creator. He is the Alpha. Alpha is, of course, the first letter of the Greek alphabet. It’s the beginning. When we call Christ the Alpha, we are saying that He is the beginning of the creation in the sense that He is the Creator himself.
In the book of Genesis, the first chapter, we are told “In the beginning, God created.” Now the word that is used for God there is not the word “El” which is the Hebrew singular word for God, nor is it the word “Eloah” which is also the Hebrew singular form for God. But the word that is used is the word “Elohim” which in the Hebrew is plural. The plural title of God. In that same first chapter, we see God saying “Let us make, let us make” and this plurality of deity is oftentimes debated by theologians, but most theologians see here a reference in some form to the Trinity. That God, in His fullness created: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This fits with the rest of scripture because we’re told in the Bible that Jesus Christ indeed is Creator.
In John, chapter 1, we’re told that “Jesus Christ was in the beginning with God and is God. All things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything made that was made.” In Colossians chapter 1, we are told concerning Jesus Christ that “All things were made by Him, for Him, and through Him, and in Him all things are held together.” In Hebrews chapter 1, we are told of Jesus Christ that “He did found the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the works of His hands.” He is the Alpha. He is the Creator from the macrocosm to the microcosm, from the farthest galaxy in the distance of outer space, 15 billion light years away to the smallest subatomic particle known to man. All of it reflects His hands.
But what is that to you? If you believe that Jesus is the Alpha, if you believe that He is the Creator? Well, the Bible tells us that the creation worships the Creator. In John, chapter 9, and in John, chapter 20, we see the disciples worshiping Jesus Christ for his mastery over the creation. In Revelation, chapter 5, we see the angels of God, innumerable in number, worshiping Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, for He is the Savior of the creation. And throughout the Bible we see Him honored as the Creator Himself and ascribed worship because of this.
In the 8th Psalm, one of my favorite Psalms, the psalmist worships God. The psalmist writes “Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth. Thou whose glory above the heavens is chanted by the mouths of babes and infants. When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou has created, what is man that thou art mindful of him? Mere man that thou cares for him, and yet thou has made him little less than God. Thou has crowned him with glory and honor. Thou has given him dominion over the works of thy hands, over the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, over everything that creeps upon the face of the earth. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name on all the earth.”
You see, the psalmist looks back to the Alpha, to the beginning, to the creation and worships. If you really believe this morning that Jesus Christ is Alpha, if you really believe He is the beginning, if you believe He is the Creator, you will worship Him.
A great deal could be said about the worship of Jesus Christ. I want to make two points briefly this morning. First of all, if we would worship Christ, we must have broken hearts. We must be contrite before Him…humble. It’s not possible to worship Christ unless we are painfully aware of the sin that is in our life. It’s not possible to worship Christ unless we are wonderfully aware of the grace and the mercy that He has given us. Worship is an overflowing of thanksgiving for His grace, His mercy, His forgiveness…a contrite heart.
You know, Jesus Christ Himself said that. He told a story of two men that went up to the temple to pray and worship. He said one man was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thusly with himself. He said “God, I thank you that I’m not like other men: extortioners, unjust, murderers, or even like this tax collector over here because I fast twice a week and I tithe of everything that I have.” But Jesus said the tax collector standing far off would not even lift his eyes towards heaven but he beat his breasts saying “God have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus said “Truly, I tell you, this man went down to his home justified and not the other for he who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself would be exalted.” If you would worship Christ, you must come before Him, humbly.
Then, too, if you would worship Christ, you must respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit within you. Jesus said that all true worship is in spirit. If you’re a Christian, if you believe in Jesus Christ, then He has actually sent His Holy Spirit to live within you, to live within your spirit. True worship flows from within by the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
A lot of people look at outward forms of worship and there are many outward forms. For two years, I attended an Episcopalian church and I went to the Episcopal Church every Sunday in Santa Barbara. We worshiped through the recitation of creeds and through responsive readings and through kneeling on hard kneeling benches. Then too, I’ve had many times where I’ve ministered or where I’ve worshiped in Pentecostal churches, which is my mother’s background. There are a lot of different forms of worship there from loud singing to the uttering of ecstatic sounds, speaking in tongues and prophecy. But you see, the important thing in worship is not the outward form. The important thing in worship is the inward heart and whether worship is really flowing from the prompting of the Holy Spirit in your spirit. You see in the Bible the word for worship, the Greek word for worship and the Hebrew word both mean to prostrate yourself, to humble yourself before God. Sometimes in the Bible, worship is described by a person kneeling on their knees. Other times it’s described by a person bowing their head, sometimes raising their hands, sometimes falling flat on their face, sometimes singing, sometimes dancing, many forms. The important thing is what is your heart’s attitude and is the Holy Spirit prompting your spirit and are you letting it just come forth?
Sometimes people will say to me ,“Well, Jim, how come you don’t raise your hands during the singing of certain hymns or songs?” I’ve had people ask “Well, how come Bob does raise his hands?” I think sometimes people are kind of saying they want me to raise my hands, or they’re saying they want Bob not to raise his hands. This is to misunderstand worship. The outward form is not what’s important, and whatever God prompts you to do in His spirit, in your spirit, you should do. I mean, we don’t care if you shake, rattle and roll as long as you are responding to the Holy Spirit within you, and you remember that there are other people trying to worship next to you. But you see true worship is contrite and is a response to the spirit of God within us. Worship God, worship Christ, Alpha, Creator.
Secondly, He is the Omega, which brings us to our second point because He is not only the Creator. He is also the Consummator. Omega is, of course, the last letter of the Greek alphabet. It is the end. We should understand as Jesus created the universe, so it is that He will consummate the universe and He will bring it to its established end. He will bring it to completion. He is the Omega.
In the first century, there was a problem in a lot of the Christian churches. Some Christians had begun to worship angels. They were fascinated by angelic hierarchy from archangels and cherubim and seraphim to principalities and powers. They worshiped them. And so in the book of Hebrews, the first chapter, God warned them not to worship angels because angels are not the Alpha and Omega. They are not the Creator and the Consummator. We’re told in the first chapter of Hebrews, “Worship Christ, worship God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” The author of Hebrews says “In many and various ways, God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken through his Son whom He has appointed the heir of all things and through whom also He created the worlds. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of His nature, upholding the universe by His word of power. When he had made purification for sin, He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to the name which He has obtained is more excellent than theirs. For of what angel has God ever said “Thou art my beloved son. Today I have begotten the.” Or again, “I will be to him a father and he will be to me a son.” Or again, when He brings a firstborn into the world He says “Let all God’s angels worship Him.” For the angels He says “who creates His angels spirits, His ministers flames of fire,” but of the Son He says “Thy throne, oh God is forever and ever. The righteous scepter is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou has loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness beyond thy comrades. And Thou, oh Lord, did found the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the works of thy hands. They will perish. They will grow old like a garment. Like a mantle Thou will roll them up and they shall be changed, but Thou are the same and Thy years never end.” Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the Creator and the Consummator, He will bring creation. He will bring history itself to its established end.
Throughout history, throughout Christian history, there have been times when groups of people within Christendom have denied that Jesus was either the Alpha or the Omega or one or the other, and those groups have been referred to as cults. Jehovah’s Witnesses acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Omega, and one day He will bring history to its established conclusion, but they deny that He is the Alpha. They say that in his pre-existence, Jesus was the angel Michael and they say He was not fully the Creator because He was Himself created. You see, for the JW’s, Jesus Christ is kind of the Beta and Omega. Not good enough.
Early in this century, when postmillennialism was popular prior to World War I, there was a group within postmillennialism who acknowledged that Christ was the Alpha, that He was the Creator, but they denied that He was the Omega and that He would consummate history. They said instead that the church was going to consummate history and bring it to its conclusion. So they, too, deny that Jesus was the Alpha Omega. They said he was kind of the Alpha and the Psi, but not quite the Alpha and Omega… cultic.
If you’re a Christian, if you believe that Jesus is indeed the Alpha and Omega, you acknowledge that He will consummate history. You see He has already written the script. The end, the conclusion of the age is already written because He is the Omega. All you have to do is turn to the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, and you see how it’s all going to turn out. Or you can look in the Book of Daniel. You can look in Ezekiel or some of the “end time passages” in the gospels and you can see how it’s all going to work out. Christ tells us that there’s going to come at the close of this age, on the stage of history, a “diabolical and demonic spirit, an individual named anti-Christ.” There will come at the end, a great tribulation, a time of great tribulation. It’ll close with what is called Armageddon. We will see the rapture of the church, the second coming of Jesus Christ, the establishment of the millennial kingdom. We will see the final judgment. We will see the new heavens and the new earth. It’s all written.
If you really believe that, if you really believe that He’s the Omega, that He’s the Consummator, then that’s going to give you a kind of confidence in this world that most people cannot understand. If you really believe that He’s the Omega and you know it’s all going to work out for you and you have eternal life, you’re going to have a confidence this world can’t understand.
Think back to January of 1987, when the Broncos played Cleveland for the AFC Championship. Now, I have to admit, I’m a Bronco fan. I can kind of understand some of the people who normally come to the 11 o’clock service and aren’t here this morning. Think of the sacrifice I’m making. You know, for a person who just likes football, it’s fun to watch a game and you just sit back, you watch any game and you enjoy it. But if you’re really a fan, you have a lot of ups and downs and you have a lot of valleys and mountaintops. You kind of rise and fall with your team. I remember in that January of 1987, Barb and I and my brother and his wife were at the home of a friend and we were watching the game in Cleveland. You remember the game. It had a lot of…it was a close game. It went back and forth and there were times in the game when we were really excited, and then there were times in the game when we were really frustrated. Times when we were really happy and times when we were kind of sad. Then at the end of the game we were really depressed because the Broncos were down by seven points and only a couple of minutes left and they were backed up against their own end zone and it looked hopeless. And that’s how we felt. But then, of course, in those final minutes, John Elway conducted what some have called “the drive.” The game was tied and the Broncos won in overtime.
Well, it’s a strange thing. I taped that game and I saw the second half a second time. When I saw it the second time, it was a totally different experience for me. I didn’t have any of the valley experiences. I never felt down. I enjoyed every minute of it, even when they made a mistake. Even at the end of the game when they were down by seven points, particularly then, backed up to their own goal. I didn’t feel depressed or hopeless because I knew what was going to happen. I knew it was all going to turn out in the end and I had a smile on my face.
You see, if you’re a Christian and you really believe Christ is the Omega, the Consummator of history, you’re going to go through life day by day and you’re going to have that kind of confidence and stability because you know it’s already been written. You’ve seen the end and you know how it works out. It’s going to be well with you. You’re also going to have a sense of responsibility day by day that the world doesn’t have because you know that Jesus Christ is the Omega and He’s the consummator and He’s the final judge. And you know that someday you’re going to stand before Him and you’re going to see Him face to face. You know you have eternal life as a Christian, but you also know that when you stand before Him, your life is going to be evaluated and varying rewards are going to be given. The Lord’s going to see the days and the events of your life. He knows them already. But one day, there will be that day when you stand before Him. The anticipation of that gives you, gives me, a sense of responsibility in the way we live our lives.
I always approached school with a certain amount of responsibility, and it wasn’t because I liked school. The fact of the matter was that I didn’t like school very much. In fact, whenever Drew or Heather come home and they have a lot of homework, I really feel sorry for them. We have a lot of seminary students here at the church. Some of them are interns. Some are on our staff and just taking a class or two over at the seminary. And when I see them studying or cramming for a final exam or writing a term paper, I really feel sorry for them. I had 10 years of higher education, I know what that’s like. But even in junior high and high school I had this sense of responsibility because I knew that at the end of the class and at the end of the quarter or the semester, I would receive a report card and that report card would go to my parents. My parents were kind of the omega. You see, they were the consummators. It wasn’t simply that I feared my parents, which I must confess I did, but it was also that I loved and love my parents and I wanted to please them. I wanted to hear them say, “Well done son.”
If you really believe that Jesus Christ is the Omega, if you really believe that He is the Consummator, you are going to live life with a sense of responsibility because you want to hear Him say “well done.” You want to hear him say “Come oh blessed of my Father.” Jesus said “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Jesus said “The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son that all might honor the Son the same way as they honor the Father.” He is the Alpha and Omega, the Creator, the Consummator.
Thirdly, and finally, briefly, He is the Eternal One: Creator, Consummator Eternal. You see, the phrase Alpha and Omega does not only mean beginning and end, but it also can mean without beginning and without end. The Greeks didn’t have many words or many phrases that were capable of communicating the concept of eternity. But one phrase they did have was this phrase; Alpha and Omega. To say that Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega is to acknowledge that He is eternal. As the Bible says, that “He has neither beginning of days nor end of life, but He continues forever.” No matter how far back you go in history, He is there. No matter how far in the future you go, He is there. Alpha and Omega, the Eternal One.
Jesus Christ said this of Himself. You will recall in John, chapter 8, Jesus was talking to the Pharisees and that was not always easy. The Pharisees told Christ that Abraham was their father. Jesus said “Well, if Abraham was your father, then you would do as Abraham commanded. But as it is, by your life, you prove the way you live, the way you treat other people, the things you live for, you prove that your real father is Satan.” Well, the Pharisees were very mad and they began to call Christ names. Christ said “If you knew the true Father, if you knew My Father, you would honor Me for He bears witness to me and you would believe in Me and whoever believes in Me will never die.” The Pharisees said “You’re crazy. You have a demon. Even Abraham died.” Jesus said “Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and he is glad.” And the Pharisees said “You’re not even 50 years old. Abraham lived more than 2,000 years ago and you claim to have seen him?” Jesus said “Truly, I say to you, before Abraham ever was, I AM.” The Jews were stunned. They knew what He was saying. They understood that He was claiming to be the Eternal One. He was claiming to be God Himself. That is why they took up stones to kill Him because He called Himself God. You see, Jesus didn’t simply say “Before Abraham ever was, I was.” That would’ve been incredible in and of itself. But Jesus said “Before Abraham ever was, I AM.” The Timeless One. No matter how far back, He simply is. No matter how far in the future, He simply is. You’ll remember Exodus, chapter 14, when Moses was on Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai and God spoke to him out of the burning bush. God told him to go and lead his people Israel. Moses said “Well, what is your name and whom shall I say has sent me?” And God said “Tell the people I AM has sent you.” Yahweh, the Great I AM. The title of God and here Jesus takes that title and He applies it to Himself. “Before Abraham ever was, I AM.” The Eternal God.
Well, that’s a very difficult concept for most of us to understand because we live in a time space continuum and everything around us has a beginning and it has an ending. The oldest structures in the world today are the Pyramids of Egypt built before the time of Abraham. 4,500 years old, they still stand today. Seemingly, they have stood the test of time. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, they’ve still survived into the modern world. That, of course, is not true of most of the wonders of the ancient world. The Tomb of Mausolus is no more and all that remains of it are a few pieces that you can go and see in the British museum. The Temple of Artemis, sometimes called the Temple of Diana, built in honor of the fertility goddess, was destroyed in the third century after Christ by gothic invaders. Barb and I and some of you stood there in the ruins of the Temple of Diana and the city of Ephesus, country of Turkey. We saw all that remained. A few pillars broken and eroded by time. The statue of Zeus, which was built in the city of Olympus where the Olympic Games were held every four years, stands no more. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon built by Nebuchadnezzar grow no more. In fact, it’s in this century that archeologists have discovered the ruins of ancient Babylon by the River Euphrates, 55 miles south of Baghdad. You can see that the entire city itself has been covered by the sands of time. The Lighthouse of Alexandria, once the pride of Ptolemy, King of the Ptolemaic Empire, was destroyed by an earthquake in the 14th century. The Colossus of Rhodes was destroyed by an earthquake in the third century before Christ.
Only the Pyramids remain, but even the Pyramids are eroding. Articles recently describe how scientists are trying desperately to preserve the Pyramids from the passage of time, from the erosion of the elements. But it’s a losing battle because in this world everything has a beginning and everything has an ending, including the very bodies that house and cloth our souls and spirits. We have a temporal existence. How hard it is just comprehend eternity.
How many grains of sand are on the beach at Coney Island in New York? How many electrons are in a thimbleful of air? How many drops of rain fall on the city of London in one year? How many words have been spoken out loud by mankind in the history of the world? Most of us haven’t given a whole lot of thought to these questions, but there are some people who have contemplated those questions and believe that they can give answers with reasonable margins for error. The problem is they don’t have numbers or numerical categories large enough to deal with these incredible things and so they’ve developed new numbers. One new number that mathematicians have come up with is the googol. I know most of you have heard of that. I’ve mentioned it before. A googol is, of course, 100 billion billion. A thousand is a one followed by three zeros and a millions a one followed by six zeros. A billion is a one followed by nine zeros, but a googol: it’s a one followed by 100 zeros.
Scientists are just now beginning to understand what incredible number of googol is. The grains of sand on the beach at Coney Island in New York are nowhere near a googol. Only a one followed by 20 zeros. Nothing like a googol. In a thimbleful of air, how many electrons? Nowhere near a googol. All the drops of water that fall over Niagara falls in one year, they’re number equals the number of electrons in a thimbleful of air, but even that is nowhere near a googol. In fact, now scientists claim that all the electrons in the universe do not equal a googol, only a one followed by 79 zeros. If that is true, then surely the drops of rain that fall on the city of London in a year do not equal a googol or even in a thousand years.
How many words have been spoken by man in the history of the world? Only a one followed by 16 zeros, and yet incredibly mathematicians have come up with a still larger number called the googolplex. It is a one followed by a billion, billion zeros, an incomprehensible number. If you could take typing paper and run it all the way from the furthest star in the universe, 15 billion light years away and run it all the way in a straight line to earth and take a typewriter and type a “1” at the point of the furthest star and then start typing zeros in a straight line all the way to earth, you still wouldn’t equal a googolplex.
Now, all of that is meant to boggle our imagination, and I suppose it does. But you see, it really doesn’t help us comprehend eternity because these things are still finite. They still have a beginning and they still have an end. When we’ve been in heaven for a googolplex of years, we’ll have no less time. When we’ve been with Him 10,000 years bright, shining as the sun, we’ll have no less days to sing His praise because He is the Eternal One.
God wants you to know that. “I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you might know you have eternal life.” If you don’t know that you have eternal life, and if you’ve never really embraced Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we want to give you that opportunity this morning. It’s a very serious commitment. It’s not something you should take lightly. If you receive Christ as Savior and Lord, you commit your life to Him. It doesn’t mean that you’ll be sinless. We all sin, but it does mean that you will seek to honor Him all the days of your life because you’ve embraced Him as Lord and Savior, the biggest decision you could ever make. We want you to know this. The rewards are great. He said “I’ve come that you might have life and you might have it abundantly.” and He promises eternal life itself. So this morning, as we close in prayer, we want to give any of you who have not yet received Him a chance to do that. Let’s close with a word of prayer.