Alpha and Omega

It’s good to be with you again, as I continue to share with you on my special theme for this Christmas Season: Titles of Jesus.

In my first two talks this week, I spoke about two of the simplest, but most wonderful titles of Jesus: Savior and Christ, or Messiah. I explained that God’s salvation is not in religion or commandments, but it’s in a person; the person who bears the name of Savior, Yeshua, Yehoshua, the salvation of the Lord. I explained too, that the word Christ means anointed, anointed with the Holy Spirit. It corresponds to the Old Testament title, Messiah. God promised to Israel an anointed deliverer and king and that promise was fulfilled also in Jesus of Nazareth.

Today I’m going to speak about a title of Jesus which emphasizes that He proceeds out of eternity and spans all time. The title is: Alpha and Omega. It is found in Revelation, chapter 1, verses 7 and 8. Here, the revelator, John, speaks about the visible return of Jesus in Glory, and he says this:

“Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it 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.’”

To understand the full meaning of that title, the Alpha and the Omega, we need to be familiar with a little about the Greek alphabet. The Greek alphabet begins with the letter alpha and ends with the letter omega. Alpha is the first letter; omega is the last, as for instance, in the English alphabet, a is the first letter; z is the last. So, Jesus, we’ve already seen earlier in these studies, is the Word of God. When He says, “I’m Alpha and Omega”, he means, he’s the complete Word of God. Everything that God has to say is summed up in Him. It also means that everything God does begins with Jesus, and everything God does ends with Jesus. He’s the beginning and the ending. It says here, “The Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come.” That’s the same picture. God is now, He was in the past, He will be, all at once. He’s Alpha and Omega. It has a particular application to the close of the present age because the age has got to close in Jesus. He’s going to be the one to bring this age to its close. As He was Alpha at the beginning, so He will be Omega at the end. This is brought out in Hebrews, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, where the writer says:

“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by is Son, [The final message of God, the complete and total message is in his Son, Jesus, and of the Son, the writer says this:] whom God appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.” (NIV)

So you see, Jesus was the beginning of creation. Through Him God made the universe. He was Alpha. He’s also the appointed heir of all things. Everything’s going to be summed up and come to its culmination in Jesus. As the Creator, He’s Alpha. As the heir of all things, He’s Omega. He spans all time. He proceeds out of eternity on through time and into eternity. He is the Eternal, the Uncreated, the Only Begotten of the Father, the Beginning and the End. God transcends time, you see, but He also operates in time. There’s a double relationship. God works in time but He Himself is outside of time and before time. It’s hard for the human mind to comprehend that but there are beautiful pictures in the Scripture which present it to us. For instance, the words of Psalm 90, verse 2, addressed to God:

“Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (NIV)

There’s always a present tense with God in a sense but He’s from everlasting to everlasting. He’s from eternity to eternity. He comprehends all time. He’s the beginning; He’s the ending. He’s Alpha; He’s Omega.

Prophetically, this truth was specifically applied to the coming Messiah, to the coming King, fulfilled in Jesus. For instance, in Micah, chapter 5, verse 2, the prophet said of the Messiah who was to come:

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (NIV)

What a clear prediction that is of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. It was predicted that He was to come out of Bethlehem, the city of David and He was to be the one who was to rule for God, His people Israel. But then it says at the end, “His origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Although He was born as the babe in the stable in Bethlehem, His origin is from eternity. He’s Alpha and Omega. He came into time but He was not of time. He was from eternity; He is to eternity.

Jesus says the same about himself. He was speaking to the Jewish people about their relationship and His relationship to Abraham. They were claiming that they were descendents of Abraham and in essence they said that’s all that really matters. But Jesus said something to them that absolutely startled and shook them. He said, “Your father, Abraham, rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” “You were not yet fifty years old,” the Jews said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!” “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” That’s His eternity, that’s His timelessness. He was born into time, into human history, but He is from before time. He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last.

The title Alpha and Omega also depicts the place of Jesus in our individual lives. It’s not merely in relationship to creation and the universe that He’s Alpha and Omega, but that’s the position that He occupies in the life of each one of us who believes in Him. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 12, verses 1 and 2:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” (NIV)

That’s what Jesus is, the author, the beginner, the Alpha, the perfector, the completer, the Omega and as long as we keep our eyes on Jesus, we find in Him, and through Him everything we need. There’s nothing outside of Jesus that we need. He spans our whole need from Alpha to Omega. The important thing is that we don’t take our eyes off Jesus; that we don’t start looking in some other direction and think that some how Jesus is not able to provide all that we need. He can. He is. He’s God’s whole alphabet, from Alpha to Omega.

Again, we see a beautiful picture of God’s dealings with us in Christ in Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 4 through 10:

“For God chose us in him [that’s in Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” (NIV)

See again, it’s from eternity to eternity. Before creation, before time ever began, God chose us in Christ to be His. That was his eternal purpose. Then in time, He called us. He revealed Jesus to us. He transformed us. He made us into his children. And then, above all that, He made known to us the mystery of His ultimate purpose. Let me read those words again, “He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment.” When time has run its course,God’s purpose is this: “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” It was in Christ that it all began, before time ever began. It’s in Christ that it will all end and find fulfillment and completion after time has ended. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last. He’s all that we need. He’s the entire alphabet from Alpha to Omega.

Well our time is up for today. I’ll be back with you again tomorrow at this time. Tomorrow I’ll be speaking about another wonderful title of Jesus.