I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending.
Christ all in all
I. Of creation.
II. Of history.
III. Of Scripture.
IV. Of salvation.
V. In the life of the believer.
VI. In the Christian Church. (D. R. Key,M. A.)
Alpha and Omega
I. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega of human aspirations. He meets men’s strongest yearnings.
1. It is so in reference to theological aspirations.
2. Immortal aspirations are likewise met in Jesus. Men believe in a hereafter. On the last page of life’s book we do not write Finis, but “To be continued in our next.” Christ ministers to this yearning for immortality. “I go to prepare a place for you”; “This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise”; “Where I am there also shall My servant be.”
II. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega of human character. Christ comprehended in Himself every form of excellence. No virtue was lacking; each grace was present. A visitor in Spain, delighted with the paintings of Rubens, asked where his bad pictures were? He failed to discover them. Inquire for the defects of Christ, and you cannot get an answer.
III. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega of human privilege. What is true of the Bible is true also of Christ. It meets all moral needs. There is a bridge in a certain Austrian city on whose parapets stand twelve statues of the Saviour. He is represented in various relationships, as, for instance, prophet, priest, king, physician, pilot, shepherd, sower, carpenter. The country people, coming into town soon after dawn with produce for the market, pause before the sower or the shepherd Christ, and offer their prayers through Him. The artisans, two hours later, repairing to the workshop, bend before the carpenter Christ. Later on the sailor kneels at the feet of the pilot Christ. And in the warm sunlight of the forenoon invalids, creeping out to enjoy the fresh air, rest under the shadow of the Great Physician. Apt symbol of our Lord’s adaptation to universal necessities! He is all and in all. (T. R. Stevenson.)
Christ the Alpha and Omega
I. As it respects the relation in which He stands to the covenant of grace.
II. As it relates to the personal enjoyments and salvation of the true believer.
III. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega of the great works of nature and providence. (T. Hutchings.)
The first and the last
I. First, consider the title as expressive of the eternal duration of our Saviour’s existence. “I am the first,” He says, and thereby claims precedence of all created beings and things. He is before all things, and by Him are all things. “I am the first,” He says, and thereby claims to be coeval with the Father; for if the Father existed prior to Himself He could not be said to be the first. It is a most direct and unequivocal assertion of His divinity. He, as the God-man, the Divine taking upon Him the human, is the Centre and the Sun, the Alpha and Omega, of His own world. This statement is supported by the second part of His title. It points us to an impenetrable future, as the first does to an illimitable past. He is the Omega no less than the Alpha; the end even as He is the beginning. His existence bounds all being. As no one preceded Him, so no one can outlive Him. The Father doesnot live longer than the Son. What could show more clearly that He is dependent on none; that all are dependent on Him. It is of no small importance that you should practically realise this truth. It bears on our conduct, for if the Saviour be what this title claims, He is not to be regarded as a mere man, however holy and divinely endowed, but to be worshipped even as the Father is worshipped. It is conducive to our comfort, for, to say nothing of the efficacy which His dignity imparts to His atoning work, it is a blessed thing to know, amid the trials and the vicissitudes of this changing scene, that there is a Friend who ever lives and who is ever the same.
II. Then we consider the title as expressive of our Saviour’s action in all the movements of the universe. The self-existent and independent one must necessarily be the author and upholder of all created existence. Observe
1. How unlimited is the power which is thus attributed to our Lord. The fact of creation is in one point of view the most stupendous of which we have any knowledge. While all this is awful, is it not delightful to reflect how that power is wielded by our best Friend, by One whose heart is as tender as His arm is strong, and wielded for the welfare of those who put their trust in Him?
2. He carries all things forward to their consummation. He terminates as well as originates all the processes of the universe--all beings, all things, all existence. We are not to think of Him as severed from Bib works, but aspervading and upholding them, and still conducting them all. He is the centre of all forces, the fountain of all law, the sustainer of all existence. Look around you in your own world; in the multitude of the activities that you witness you behold the exercise of His power. It is seen in the flowing river, in the restless ocean, in the rising and setting sun, in the still or stormy atmosphere, in all activities of organic substance, in animal and vegetable life. It is His power that bursts in the budding of the plant; His beauty which is unfolded in the opening flower; it is His providence which shapes the life of the buzzing insect, His will that determines the mode and manner of its death. Even the smallest grain of dust takes its shape from His hands; He directs the course of every particle of spray, every feather andevery snowflake in the breeze. There is nothing too minute for His care, as there is nothing too great for His might. Look into the inner world of the soul, and with equal certainty you can discern His movements there. Not only did He lay down His life to provide redemption for us, but by His Spirit He applies that redemption to the individual soul. The work of grace in its beginning, its continuance, its consummation, is all of Him. There is human instrumentality, but the efficiency is all Divine.
III. Again, consider the title as intimating that all things exist on our Saviour’s account, and actually and ultimately tend to the promotion of His glory. It is not a subject for dogmatism, scarcely for speculation, when we say that the purpose of creation was the manifestation of the Divine attributes, to give expression and embodiment to the truth, the purity, the beauty, the wisdom, the goodness, and the perfection of the attributes which exist in the Divine mind, that God might complacently behold and rest in His works, and that His intelligent creatures, beholding these perfections in the visible universe, might respond to those expressions of the Divine with devout and joyful adoration. Christ came to restore the Divine order which sin had interrupted, and all creation, true to the purpose of its existence, co-operates with Him for this end. His Incarnation is not anisolated fact; it is the centre of the universe, pointing to the past order which has been broken and is yet to be restored. (W. Landels.)
The A and the Z
Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Omega is the last; so that Christ in this text represents Himself as the A and the Z. That is one reason why I like the Bible; its illustrations are so easy to understand. When it represents the gospel as a hammer, everybody knows it is to knock something to pieces; or as salt, everybody who has put down meat in barrels knows it is to keep things from spoiling; or as a salve, that is to cure the old sores of the heart. Anybody who knows the a b c understands that the text means that Christ is the Beginning and theEnd in everything good.
I. He is the A and the Z of the physical universe. By Him were all things made that are made. It is exciting to see a ship launched. The people gather in a temporary gallery erected for their accommodation. The spectators are breathless, waiting for the impediments to be removed, when down the ship rushes with terrific velocity, the planks smoking, the water tossing, the flags flying, the people huzzaing, bands of music playing. But my Lord Jesus saw this ship of a world launched with its furnaces of volcano, and flags of cloud, and masts of mountain, and beams of thunderbolt, while the morning stars shouted, and the orchestras of heaven played, “Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty!” The same hand that put up this universe will pull it down.
II. Christ is the A and the Z of the Bible. Here is a long lane, overshadowed by fine trees, leading up to a mansion. What is the useof the lane if there were no mansion at the end? There is no use in the Old Testament, except as a grand avenue to lead us up to the Gospel Dispensation. You may go early to a concert. Before the curtain is hoisted, you hear the musicians tuning up the violins, and getting ready all the instruments. After a while the curtain is hoisted, and the concert begins. All the statements, parables, orations, and miracles of the Old Testament were merely preparatory, and when all was ready, in the time of Christ, the curtain hoists, and there pours forth the Oratorio of the Messiah--all nations joining in the Hallelujah Chorus.
III. Christ is the A and the Z of the Christian ministry. A sermon that has no Christ in it is a dead failure. The minister who devotes his pulpit to anything but Christ is an impostor. What the world wants now is to be told in the most direct way of Jesus Christ, who comes to save men from eternal damnation. Christ the Light, Christ the Sacrifice, Christ the Rock, Christ the Star, Christ the Balm, Christ the Guide.
IV. Christ is the A and the Z in the world’s rescue. When the world broke loose, theonly hand swung out to catch it was that of Jesus.
V. Christ is the A and the Z in Heaven. He is the most honoured personage in all the land. He is known as aWorld-Liberator. The first one that a soul entering heaven looks for is Jesus. At His feet break the doxologies. Around His throne circle the chief glories. At heaven’s beginning--Christ, the Alpha. Then travel far on down the years of eternity, and stop at the end of the remotest age, and see if the song has not taken up some other burthen, and some other throne has not become the centre of heaven’s chief attractions. But no; you hear it thrummed on the harps and poured from the trumpets and shouted in universal acclaim, “Christ, the Omega!” (T. DeWittTalmage.)
The Alpha and Omega
I. The Lord Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, because he is the manifestation of God. The use of the various letters is just to articulate your truest self--to render intelligible to others your thoughts and wishes, your feelings and your purposes. And in this sense Immanuel is the Alpha and Omega of the ever-blessed Godhead. He is the articulation of Jehovah’s mind. He is the Word of God. He is the visible embodiment of all that is in the invisible Three-One. Whatever the mind of the Lord Jesus is, the same is the mind of God; whatever the dispositions of the Lord Jesus are known to be, the same are the dispositions of Him whom no man can see; and whatever perfections were seen in the person of Christ, the same perfections reside in the great I Am.
II. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, because of His All-Sufficiency. Like the literal Alpha and Omega, He includes everything within Himself. He is the beginning and the ending, which is, and was, and is to come--the Almighty--the All-sufficient. There is nothing which a believer needs but he will find it in the Lord Jesus.
1. A sufficient Saviour. His name was called “Jesus,” because He saves His people from their sins. You can do nothing which more truly honours Him, than to trust your salvation entirely to Him.
2. A most attractive and assimilating pattern of all moral excellence. In His direct operations on the mind, the Holy Spirit is the immediate sanctifier of God’s people; but it is by revealing the great model of all excellence in the person of the Lord Jesus, that the Holy Spirit changes them into the same likeness.
2. A wise Counsellor and unerring Guide. He knows the end from the beginning; He sees the issue of every undertaking, not only in time, but in eternity. His counsel is wonderful, for it meets the very case; and--what cannot be said of much good advice--He can not only give the best counsel, but He can make you willing to take it. In His ever-living Word, He has left principles available in all the casuistry which ever can occur in your experience--formulae which only need to be filled up with your particular case, and the doubt is at once dispelled--the path is at once made plain.
III. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, because all things that concern the Church are in Him summed up or “recapitulated.” In His person the Church on earth finds its access to God, and the earnest of its everlasting life; and in that same person the Church of the glorified finds the guarantee of permanent joy--the stability of its bliss secured. All that belong to Him are safe within the circle of the changeless love and all-embracing might of Him who filleth all in all.
IV. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, because He is the first and the last, the beginning and the ending--He that liveth and is alive for evermore. There is a power which bade Lebanon rise, and a power which can bid Lebanon and his continental roots subside in fiat chaos again. The day will come when that hoary deep must die--when old Ocean will lift up his waves and clap his cymbal hands no more. Yes, old apparatus of the universe, obsolete version of a system fast verging to decay, ye soon must vanish, and make room for a world where there is no more sea, and for cities which don’t need the sun. But when ye are gone the Fountain of Life will still include in His all-encircling fulness everything that lives. (Jas. Hamilton.)
The security of the Church amid the vicissitudes of time
I. This important information the Saviour is pleased to communicate in this passage.
1. The figurative mode of expression He employs.
2. The evident sense of His communication. Christ precedes all things by the eternity of His nature; He pervades all things by the omnipresence of His Spirit; He survives all things by the immortality of His nature.
II. The solemn confirmation Christ deigns to afford. He announces--
1. The eternity of His duration.
2. The omnipotency in His possession. Christ says that He is the Almighty.
III. The blessed consolation the Saviour designs tobestow.
1. The security it affords to the believer amid the calamitous changes of life.
2. The stability of the Church amid the overthrow of empires.
3. The immortality of the Christian amid the ravages of death. (J. Blackburn.)
Christ--the Alpha
Take Christ first, before you think of doing anything else. Did He not say, “Without Me you can do nothing”? So, then, all you do without Him is sheer nothing, however pious and noble it may appear in the eyes of men. Is Ha not the Alpha, and is not the Alpha the first letter? Then do not try to put a letter before it; do not say to yourself, “I will try to obtain a true recognition of my sins, and then I will go to Jesus and obtain salvation.” This is beginning with the Z instead of with the Alpha. By doing so you make yourself like that fool who said, “I will learn to swim first, and then I will go into the water.” Do you want to know your sins truly? Who is to give you that knowledge but Christ? Do you want to become better and more heavenly minded? Who can give you that godly disposition of heart but Christ? (T. Guthrie.)
The Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.--
The eternity of God
I. The different senses in which the words eternal, immortal, and everlasting, are used by the sacred writers.
1. Sometimes they signify nothing more but only a long duration (Gen_17:8; Num_10:8; Gen_49:26; Hab_3:6; 1Sa_3:13; Exo_21:6).
2. The next sense they are used in is to denote a duration continuing as long as the subject exists, and then putting it in a state out of which it shall never be restored (Num_24:20; Deu_13:16; Jud_1:7).
3. In other places of Scripture the words “eternal” and “for ever” signify in a higher sense a duration, not figuratively, but properly and literally everlasting, without end, though not without beginning. Thus angels and the souls of men are eternal, or immortal.
4. The last and highest and most absolutely perfect sense of the words “eternal” and “everlasting,” is when they signify a duration of inexhaustible and never-falling permanency, both without beginning and without end. And not only so, but including also necessary and independent existence, so as in no manner whatsoever to derive from any other.
II. Some observations concerning this doctrine of the eternity of God in particular.
1. This eternity is a perfection, an attribute, by which God is very frequently described in Scripture, in order to raise in our minds a just veneration of His Divine majesty (Deu_33:27; Rom_16:26; Isa_57:15; 1Sa_15:29; 1Ti_1:17; 1Ti_6:16; Psa_102:24).
2. Not only in Scripture is God frequently described by this attribute of eternity, but even under the light of nature also is He represented to us after the same manner. For since it is in some degree a perfection to be, and a greater degree of that perfection, to continue in being, it is evident, when weconceive of God the most perfect being, we must conceive Him to be infinite in this perfection also, as well as in others. Again, it is evident even to the meanest capacity which considers things at all, that He who first gave being to all other things could not possibly have any beginning Himself, and that He who hath already existed from all eternity, independently and of Himself, cannot possibly be liable to be deprived of His being, and must therefore necessarily exist for an eternity to come.
3. The true notion of the Divine eternity does not consist in making past things to be still present, and things future to be already come, which is an express contradiction. The eternal, supreme cause has such a perfect, independent, and unchangeable comprehension of all things, that in every point or instance of His eternal duration, all things past, present, and to come, must be, not indeed themselves present at once, but they must be as entirely known and represented to Him inone single thought or view, and all things present and future be as absolutely under His power and direction (Psa_90:4; 2Pe_3:8).
III. What use this meditation may be to us in practice.
1. This attribute of eternity, absolute, necessary, and independent, is one of the principal characters by which the true God of the universe is distinguished from false Gods.
2. The consideration of the eternity of God is an argument why His providence ought not to be cavilled at, nor His promises doubted of, even though there be no present appearance of the performances of His promises, and no present way of explaining the methods of His providence.
3. The consideration of God’s eternity is a sure ground of trust and confidence, of hope and cheerfulness, to good men at all times, seeing His protection may be relied on and depended upon for ever.
4. The consideration of this Divine perfection, the eternity of God, is a ground for frail and mortal man to hope for pity and compassion from Him.
5. The consideration of God’s being eternal leads us to a right knowledge and just sense of the excellency of that reward, wherewith He will finally crown those who obey His commandments.
6. If God is eternal this consideration ought to be matter of infinite terror to all impenitent sinners; that He who liveth for ever, as He will reward His servants eternally, so He can punish His enemies as long as He pleases, for there is no end of His power. (S. Clarke,D. D.)
The eternity of God the Son
Contemplate God our Saviour--
I. As He was.
1. He was--in the bosom of the Father from all eternity.
2. He was--a little helpless babe, born in a stable, cradled in a manger.
3. He was--“a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”
4. He was--a sacrifice for sin.
5. He was--again on earth forty days (Act_1:3).
II. He is--His present state and circumstances.
1. He is--glorified.
2. He is--the head of His Church.
3. He is--preparing a place for us.
4. He is--in a state of expectation.
III. He is to come.
1. His second advent is as certain as His first, and depends upon it.
2. He is to come--suddenly and unexpectedly.
3. He is to come--with power and great glory.
4. He is to come--for the final consummation of all things. (DeanClose.)
