THE BEGINNING AND THE END Key Verse: Revelation 1:8 8. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. I. There are three instances in the Book of Revelation which declare Christ’s equality with God the Father (Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13). A. Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. In Hebrew, the equivalent letters are aleph and tau. B. These two Greek words express totality. The beginning and the end includes all in between. When we speak of someone saying, “He knows it all from A to Z,” we mean he knows everything about a certain subject; he knows it from start to finish and anything in between. II. “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord God, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). A. Observe that this is a little different than the KJV translation which omits “God” after the word “Lord” in this verse. It should be there according to more recent editions of the Greek New Testament (e.g., the Textus Receptus and the text of the United Bible Society). B. John makes this as a self-declaration of God the Father. He must have heard Him say it and recorded it as he heard it. C. It begins with the emphatic egṓ, which in Greek is not needed to express the first person singular. In Greek, the person is indicated with the ending of the verb. In this instance it is the verb eimí, meaning “I am.” With egṓ preceding the verb, there is added emphasis. 1. He is declaring that He is the only one who can make such a claim because it is a claim which, if not made by God Himself, must be taken as the worthless claim of a mentally deranged person. 2. This must not be taken as meaning anything less than the explanation of the same expression in Revelation 21:6 also applied to God the Father adding “the beginning and the end.” a) The word “beginning” is hē archḗ which means the “origination.” (1) This word is used in an active sense meaning the cause of everything as in Revelation 3:14 where Jesus Christ is designated as “the beginning [hē archḗ] of the creation of God.” This means the cause of God’s creation. (2) Also in John 1:1, we have the statement, “In the beginning was the Word.” Here also the word archḗ occurs in its active sense. It does not refer to any particular beginning which would have required the definite article. In Greek the statement is ēn archḗ, “in beginning,” and not “in the beginning” as the English translation renders it. Before there was any beginning, the Word, Christ, in His preincarnate state of self-existence, had been. The verb ēn, translated “was,” is not an aorist past tense, but an imperfect, which would take us back from where we are to a humanly inconceivable beginning of creation when there was nothing except a self-existent God. He is called ho Lógos, which basically means intelligence (“logic” is derived from lógos), and Word, which became the expression of God’s intelligence. b) The end does not mean that God will have a terminal point of His self-existence, but that just as He is the cause of all creation, He is also the one who is going to consummate His creation. This is what is called in the NT suntéleia tou aiṓnos, of which our Lord spoke about in His eschatological statements in Matthew 13:39, 40, 49; 24:3; 28:20 (cf. Heb. 9:26). The correct meaning is “the consummation of the age.” Unfortunately this important expression is mistakenly rendered as the “end of the world.” Suntéleia is derived from sun, “together,” and telós, “end.” A similar word, the adjective téleios, “complete,” is used substantively in the statement, “I am the beginning and the end [tó téleios].” The same God who made time and space will also bring this world of ours to a completion of its present existence and purpose. This creation will not forever remain as is. That is what we have revealed in the Book of Revelation: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth …” (21:1). The word new in Greek is kainós which means “qualitatively new.” III. The third reference to Alpha and Omega is to Jesus Christ (Rev. 22:13). A. It is used in the context of Christ’s Second Coming in glory to execute justice in distributing rewards and punishments according to our works (Rev. 22:12). B. This “end consummation” (télos, suntéleia) is connected with Christ’s return to earth: “Behold I am coming [érchomai] quickly.” In this context, the word translated “quickly,” tachú, does not mean “soon,” but “suddenly, in a moment” (cf. the Greek word atómō, meaning in such a short, small fragment of time as to be indivisible; 1 Cor. 15:52, “in the twinkling of an eye”). IV. Christ being who He is, can satisfy our every need. A. Observe how Revelation 2:6 closes: “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” That is what God can give to every one who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as being equal with God. B. In spite of all that man does to blaspheme and renounce Jesus, He took upon Himself the form of a servant in order to die for our sins so that we can have salvation freely, simply through faith (Eph. 2:8–10; Phil. 2:6–8). Bible Study Taken From Sermon Starters 52 New Testament Outlines Volumes 1–4 Spiros Zodhiates,: AMG Publishers.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 09:57:25 +0000
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