Our Risen Savior Is The Beginning And The End Series

OUR RISEN SAVIOR IS THE BEGINNING AND THE END

REVELATION 1:8—18 APRIL 27, 2003

REVELATION 1:8-18

8"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

9I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and 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. 10On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11which said: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea."

12I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man," dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16In 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.

17When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

+ + + + + + +

Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:

For the next few weeks we will be looking at Revelation. There is a lot more in Revelation than what we can study in a few weeks, but it gives us an interesting taste of this last book of the Bible.

Christ is risen, He is risen indeed! That is the message of the simple truth and the powerful fact of Scripture that we hear on Easter and we will hear for the next few Sundays to remind us that every Sunday really is as important and as joyous and as certain as Easter Sunday—the Sunday of Resurrection. We turn to 2 PETER 1:19 where he tells us, "And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” If you have any doubts today, the Lord says, ‘Pay attention and the day star will arise in your hearts and drive out the darkness.’ We will see that comparison of light and dark quite a bit in today’s text. Today, we are reminded that our risen Savior is the Alpha and Omega. In other words, He is the beginning and the end.

OUR RISEN SAVIOR IS THE BEGINNING AND THE END

I. The end of all things evil

II. The beginning of all good

Revelation is a book not as mysterious as one might think. It is the revelation of St. John. In the first few verses that we didn’t read, he has his greetings and blessings to and for the believers. Then he gets right into the letters’ purpose. In verse 11 we read, a voice 11which said: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea." That was the purpose—there were going to be several directions for seven churches. These were early towns that had Christian churches in them.

John continues telling us, 12I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands. We come back to the word ‘seven’. Here the seven represent a lampstand for each church. Now, people put a lot of significance on numbers. The number seven we find in the Old Testament had a lot of meaning. It was God’s ‘covenant number’ where he made his covenant (promise) with mankind and always kept it. Some say seven represents the joining of God and man together in the New Testament—three representing God (the Trinity) and four representing man or the world. Three and four added up equals seven. But we cannot add any more or any less to the significance of these numbers. We simply do not know why God chose the number seven. If we wanted to say anything, we could say God liked the number seven. We see John’s revelation refer to seven time and again.