First and Last
Revelation 1:4-8
Jesus said the last will be first and the first, last. This has made for a great rush for the end of the line. Everyone wants to be first, therefore, they claim the last position ... right? Wishful thinking. People still don’t want to wait and don’t like to wait. This demonstrates a basic flaw in our thinking, because Jesus is both, the first and the last, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. The A and the Z.
4John,
To the seven churches in the province of Asia:
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
7Look, 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.
8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:4-8 (NIV)
The first reference is to God the Father: The one who was and is and is to come. This is a reference to His proper name, YHWH. When He introduced Himself to Moses using this name, He started out by saying, "I am that I am." Another very proper translation of this name would be "I will be who I will be." The Name is God’s claim to self existence. The one who is.
The second reference is to God the Spirit: The seven spirits before the throne. This reference corresponds with the seven lamps before God’s throne that represent the seven churches to whom John is writing. In the Bible, oil is often a symbol for the Holy Spirit and fire is too. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended like fire on the Apostles. So the lamps are the churches, but the oil that fills them and the fire that powers them are the Holy Spirit. There are seven Churches, but the Spirit who fills and fires all 7 of them is one and the same Spirit.
The third reference is to God the Son, Jesus Christ and John describes Him 5 ways:
• Faithful witness
• Firstborn from the dead
• Ruler of the kings of the Earth
• Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
• Him who has made us to be a kingdom and priests
These are references to different things that Jesus did or is doing:
• He told us faithfully who the Father is and what He has done
• He rose from the dead, on his own power, demonstrating His power to eventually raise us too
• He is the rightful King of the house of David
• He died on the cross to pay for our forgiveness
• He has transformed us into people who will rule over angels and who may come personally before God’s throne
And John ends this song of praise by saying:
Give Him glory and dominion for ever and ever
John is starting right out making no bones about the Trinity. Jesus is God and he describes Him that way. Jesus is God, and John gives Jesus praise that is due to God alone. And that praise is not misplaced. The whole book of Revelation is about that identity. John takes this whole book to describe Jesus and His relationship to the Father, to the Church and to the world. It is a powerful and colorful manifesto:
Jesus is LORD!
• Jesus is LORD in the sense that He is God
• Jesus is Lord in the sense that He is the head of the Church
• Jesus is Lord in the sense that He is ruler of the world
• Jesus is LORD!
In this country and in these days of democracy and independence, we forget what that means.
Rightful and absolute owner and master
To say that Jesus is our Lord, is to say that He owns us and He can command us to do whatever He wants, even to the point of laying down our lives or the lives of our family for His own purposes, which He need not reveal to us at all.
• Job experienced this with the Father
• And John is affirming it in Christ
In that sense, Jesus’ Lordship has very little to do with what we accept or believe and everything to do with who He is and what He does. He is Lord whether we like it or not. Willing or no, every knee will bow.
Verse 7 is a strong call to pay attention to the Hebrew Prophets. The coming of the Son of Man with the clouds is a reference to Daniel 7 and that prophet’s vision of the coming of the Son of Man to judge the world and to receive the kingdom from God. The second half of the verse is a reference to Zechariah:
And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
Zechariah 12:10 (NIV)
This is one of the clearest passages in the Hebrew Scriptures that the one who comes to rule the Universe in the last days is the same one who was rejected the first time He came. Not only was He rejected, but when those who rejected Him see Him clearly, they will mourn, both for their decision and for the judgement they are about to receive.
But John expands the significance of this verse. Zechariah speaks of the coming of the Messiah to His own people, the Jews and of their response to His coming. John clarifies that it is not only the Jews who rejected the Messiah, it is all the peoples of Earth.
Those who say that the Jews killed the Messiah are not reading the Scriptures carefully enough. His death is at the doorstep of every person on Earth. In fact, this reference shows that John was not "against" the Jews for killing Jesus, as some have said the Gospel of John indicates. Instead, he is taking guilt that the Hebrew Prophets assigned to the Jews and spreading it worldwide.
But in the midst of all this theologizing we should not lose site of what is being said:
• Jesus is coming again
• When He comes, the whole world will know what has happened
• When He appears, dismay will fill the hearts of all who have not submitted themselves to Him
The second coming of the Messiah will be a world wide and, for many, a catastrophic, event. In other words, the reports you may have seen on the news about Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, are not true. The power given to Jesus when He comes again will not be given by masses of people, but by God Himself. He will not be flanked by body guards. He will bind Satan Himself, He will judge sin, not deny that they exist. And I also don’t believe he’ll have somebody trying to sneak in behind him to fix His audio problems.
Allow me to warn you against Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda and Growing in Grace ministries. This is one of the events that Jesus foretold:
Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
Matthew 24:4-5 (NIV)
• In the 70s it was Sun Myung Moon and Jim Jones
• In the 80s it was Rajneesh
• Today it is Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda
And the parade will not stop. But when Jesus really does come we will know it, because it will not stir a passionate outpouring of money, diamonds, Rolex watches, BMWs and million dollar homes. It will stir an outpouring of grief for the way that Christ was treated when He came the first time, in the centuries since and for the judgement about to fall.
One of the interesting things about this phenomenon of false Messiahs is that it is so international. The self-proclaimed Christs are:
• Korean
• White
• Indian
• and now Latino
John affirms that the return of the Messiah will be a world wide phenomenon, but not in this way:
All the peoples of the world will mourn because of Him
So shall it be
Amen
The very words of affirmation, "So shall it be, Amen!" are international in flare. In this case, John has said the same thing twice, once in Greek and once in Hebrew. It covers everyone that would have originally read his words.
Every eye shall see Him.
He will come in the clouds, not arrive via a heroin addiction and a stint in jail, and claiming merely to be possessed by Jesus.
Jesus the Messiah is not a person subject to change, but the Alpha and the Omega ... the First and the Last.
• The Alpha and the Omega
• The A and the Z
When David wanted to show how important the Word of God was to him, he wrote Psalm 119. He wrote it in stanzas to cover the entire Hebrew alphabet, from Aleph to Tav. By starting each stanza with the successive letters of the alphabet, he was saying, the Word of God is beautiful and valuable to me from beginning to end, from Aleph to Tav. From A to Z.
We have similar expressions:
The sun rises and sets with her ... that is to say that she is as important to me as everything in my every waking moment
I am doing so much I can’t tell if I am coming or going ... that is to say that I am so busy, I am doing everything in all places
He knows his subject front and back ... that is to say, if there was a book on the subject, he would know every page from the first to the last
You clean your house from top to bottom ... that is to say, you clean it all, including the attic and the basement
In this case, Jesus, who John is proclaiming as Lord God, one with the Father and the Spirit
• He is, He was and He is to come
• He is the Alpha and the Omega
• He is the A and the Z
• He is the beginning and the end
• At the beginning of the Bible we see that God created the heavens and the earth
• At the end of the Bible He says, I come quickly
• The book starts and ends with Him
• Time begins and ends with Him
• Creation starts and finishes with Him
When we compare this language to the other language we use, that means that not only is He at the beginning and the end, but He is everywhere in between. All of time is about Jesus Christ. Everything is about Jesus Christ.
Look back at John’s description. Jesus is the
• Faithful witness
• Firstborn from the dead
• Ruler of the kings of the Earth
• Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
• Him who has made us to be a kingdom and priests
In other words:
• He has seen everything
• He is over life and death
• He has power over all the rulers of earth
• He has power over sin
• He has everything in His hand to give
There is nothing in the physical world, the living world, the spiritual world, or the political world of power that does not belong to Him. It is all about Him.
And this clarifies the meaning of Lord and the reason why, when He comes again, all the world will grieve.
• Everything belongs to Him
• And yet we grasp at everything
The people who crucified Christ, the whole world, will grieve because of the consequences of their actions.
But more than that, in this world, we constantly grasp at things that rightfully belong to someone else
• material things
• spiritual superiority
• power
• even our own health and lives
As if they belong to us and we are their rightful owner and master. If this were true, that would make us first and last ... A to Z in our own lives. That would make us number 1.
But we are not first and last in our lives or anyone else’s. We ourselves are not our own, we are created for his pleasure. According to Psalm 100, it is He that made us and we are His.
The day is coming when He will come in the clouds and every eye will see Him. Allow me to explain how you can prepare for that day.
Acknowledge His Lordship now
Examine yourself to see if you behave like you are owned
Does God own you? Is that ownership by default or part of your own willingness to be owned. Is He absolute master of your life?
There is no doubt that He is first and last in creation and in time. Is He first and last in your life?
A few weeks ago, I challenged you to give Him an hour of your week in worship. Did you do it? Was it a challenge? Was it something you wanted to do, or did you grudge Him the time and adoration?
Make worship a priority and enter into it with joy
Do you come here to worship willingly or kicking and screaming? Do you long for more of His presence or do you fail to notice when you neglect Him?
Commit yourself to Him
Have you ever made a commitment to make Him absolute Lord in your life?
That is what Salvation is all about. It is not simply forgiveness for our sins and assurance of heaven. It isn’t about us at all. It is about Him. It is about giving Him ourselves willingly and making Him first and Last in our lives.
What haven’t you turned over to Him?
• Thoughts
• Actions
• Relationships
• Work
• Salvation is not a goal, it is a beginning
• Baptism is not a graduation, it is a start
• Church membership is not an accomplishment, it is the launch of a lifestyle
In our lives we have many commitments, but our first and most immediate commitment is to the First and the Last.
Is He first and last in your life?
