His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: Prepare your hearts. You're going to see a conquering king, and he's going to come in the fullness of all his glory. The whole world is going to see this in majesty and in just awesomeness. You know what they're going to do? The same thing John did. We won't get to it today, but when John saw Jesus—now remember, this is the apostle whom Jesus loved, remember the book of John—and yet when he sees him, you know what he does? He becomes afraid because of the awesome awesomeness of God's glory.

Larry: This is His Perfect Love, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. We're developing the study of Revelation right now and today we zoom in on verse eight of chapter one. The second coming of Christ is referenced in one out of every 25 verses, which says something of its great significance. We'll hear more about it today and what we can expect on that glorious day. Not everyone will be prepared for it. Here's Pastor Matt with today's message.

Matt VanderVen: Look at verse eight, something very significant happens here. He says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” What is the first thing you notice with me in verse eight? From verses one through seven. Remember, one through eight is the introduction to the book of Revelation.

Look critically at this for a moment. Good hermeneutics. What are we looking at? What is significant and different about verse eight as you look at that with me here this morning? “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and is to come,” and what? He says, “the Almighty.” He makes it clear to us.

The first thing that you and I have to notice here this morning is that there's a change of speaker. Do you notice that with me? Verses one through seven has a different speaker, John. He’s seeing these things, he’s recording what he sees, he’s doing what Jesus told him to do. Verse eight, it's a change of speaker, it's Jesus himself.

Now, many times we look at this passage and it's one of the beautiful passages to bring somebody like a Jehovah's Witness to, who doesn't believe that Jesus is God or the Son of God. You bring them there and he'll say, “Well, this doesn't specifically say that it's calling out Jesus. His name's not written there. It doesn't say Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ,” which is the Greek for the Hebrew word for Messiah, Messiah in the Hebrew. He says, “says the Lord, who is, was, who is to come, the Almighty.”

Well, stop for a minute. Look at verse seven, “Behold, he is coming.” Who’s he? Nobody questions that verse seven is saying Jesus is coming. Nobody questions that because it's over 1,500 times in one out of every 25 verses in your New Testament speak of Jesus Christ's return. So in verse seven, nobody has a problem knowing it's Messiah.

We'll go to verse nine, “I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Well, who's that talking about? Jesus. So wouldn't it be odd to sandwich in between verse seven and verse nine a separate person of the triune God and it not be Jesus himself talking? Because seven talks about Jesus, nine talks about Jesus. Now all of a sudden I'm going to inject the Holy Spirit or inject God the Father as the Godhead? No, this is clearly talking about that.

Pastor, I need more evidence. Okay. Alpha and Omega. Just look to verse 11. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice as a trumpet saying, 'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, and what you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches that are in Asia: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.'”

Okay, if we just turn to chapter two, just look at verse one, “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write.” Ephesus, you remember, they left their relationship with Jesus. “These things says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand.” We already read about that when we first went through chapter one. He says that back in verse 20 of chapter one, “The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.” It's Jesus.

We know that Jesus says he's in the midst of his church. That's what he's communicating. And when we get there, we'll exegete that in more detail. But that's what he's saying right there to the messenger. Some will say that's an angel or some will say that's the pastor. I happen to believe that's the pastor. But the point is, we'll get there, we'll go into more detail. But chapter two, “to the angel of the church of Ephesus, these things says he who holds the seven stars.” Who’s he who holds the seven stars? Jesus. We just read that in chapter one.

So if we read back in chapter one in verse 11, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” and then he goes on to give the command, “What you see, write in the book and give it to these seven churches.” Then we turn to the seven churches and in the first two verses of that, he says, “By the way, this is what I want you to hear and it's from me.” Well then, who is the Alpha and the Omega? It's Jesus.

Wait a minute, Pastor, I need more. Turn to chapter 21 of Revelation. Look at verse six. We know Jesus is going to bring about the new heavens and earth and he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.” Who said that in the Gospels? “Do you thirst? Come to me and drink from living water.” Are those not Jesus' words that he's already spoken in the Gospels?

Pastor, I need more. Turn to chapter 22. Revelation chapter 22, verse 13. Who's coming again? Over 1,500 times, one out of every 25 verses. Who is it again? Please say it. Jesus. Look at chapter 22, verse 12, “And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, and give to everyone according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” It's a closed case. Revelation 22 closes that case and settles it once and for all.

This is one of the most powerful passages that you could bring a Jehovah's Witness to, to witness to him to say Jesus Christ is declaring the deity, that he is co-eternal with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, because he declares himself the words of Alpha and Omega. This is huge. Alpha and Omega, these are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Among the Jewish rabbis, it was common to use the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet to denote the whole of anything from the beginning to end.

Jesus, as the beginning and end of all things, is a reference to no one but the true God. The statement of eternity can only apply to God. And as I mentioned, Revelation 22:13, which we just looked at, Jesus says, “I'm the Alpha and Omega, I'm the beginning and the end.” And that will be the close. It's equivalent to saying he always existed and always will exist. It was Christ as the second person of the Trinity who brought about creation.

John chapter one, verse three says, “through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made.” At his second coming, it will be the beginning of the end of creation as everyone knows it. God incarnate, that word incarnation, remember when we take it apart, we went through it looking at the Latin, caro. Caro means flesh. Incarnation, in caro, caro being flesh. Jesus Christ in the flesh. We sing often, “Emmanuel, God with us.” God coming out of eternity into life as we know it here in the flesh, living among us.

That doesn't change the fact that Jesus had no beginning, nor will he have any end in respect to time, but he has been everlasting to everlasting. The second meaning of Jesus as the Alpha and the Omega—and this is important—is this phrase identifies him as the God of the Old Testament. This is where I think it's a really powerful witness if you were speaking to a Jehovah's Witness or somebody that wants to deny Jesus Christ's deity.

We need to stop and ask ourselves, is there anywhere in God's Word, anywhere in the Old Testament scriptures where we may see similar language to what we see here? The answer is yes. We're going to get ready to close with this here in a moment. Turn to Isaiah chapter 41, please. I'd like to show you something this morning. There's no doubt what Jesus Christ is unveiling to us and making sure everyone here understands is linking himself to God the Father in regards to the title and the deity and the office.

Isaiah 41. I'm just going to start at verse one and get you to verse four, which is where I'd like you to focus on. “Keep silence before me, O coastlands, and let the people renew their strength! Let them come near, then let them speak; let us come near together for judgment.” What is Jesus Christ coming, the second coming, for? It’s for judgment. Makes sense.

“Who raised up one from the east, who in righteousness called to his feet, who gave the nations before him and made him ruler over kings.” We just actually read that. He's the King of Kings, right? “Who gave them as dust to the sword, as driven stubble to his bow, who pursued them and passed safely by the way that he had not gone with his feet? Who has performed and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am the first and with the last; I am he.” He's declared it right here in Isaiah 41. He makes it very clear to us. Isaiah ascribes this aspect to Jesus' nature as part of the triune God.

It's in several places. Verse four we just read. Just look at 44, verse six. Just turn over to chapter 44, look at verse six. It's only a couple chapters over to your right. “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer.” Who is the Redeemer? Jesus. “The Lord of hosts: 'I am the First and I am the Last; besides me there is no God.'” He declares it again. There's more. Turn to chapter 48, please. Chapter 48, verse 12.

“Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, my called: I am he, I am the First and I am also the Last.” There's a clear indication of the eternal nature of the Godhead. Christ as the Alpha and the Omega is the first and the last again in so many ways. He's the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews chapter 12, verse two says that to us. Signifies that what he begins, he carries through to completion. He's the totality, the sum of all substance of the scriptures, both the law and the gospel. We read that in John 1 and also verse 14 in chapter 1 of John.

He's the fulfilling of the end of the law. We read that in Matthew chapter 5, verse 17. He's the beginning of the subject matter of the Gospel of grace through faith, not of works. Where did we read that? Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9. As a matter of fact, if you were in seminary right now, what age are we living in? It's the age of grace, but it's called the dispensation. The way the church is and the way church history looks at it, they call it dispensations.

The dispensation we're in right now is a dispensation of grace because Jesus Christ deals with you and I in a currency of grace. It's by grace you've been saved through faith, so that you don't boast, so that it doesn't become about you and I. He's good. He knows exactly what we would do. He made us. He knit us in our mama's womb.

So he is found in the first verse of Genesis: “In the beginning, God created.” Elohim, Bara, Ex Nihilo, to quote the Hebrew. God created out of nothing the heavens and the earth. Elohim is plural for God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's not the same as Jehovah. He uses the Hebrew term Elohim right in chapter one of verse one of Genesis. He's also in the last verse of Revelation. He is the first and the last, the all in all in salvation. From justification before God to the final sanctification of his people.

Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the first and last, the beginning and end. Only God incarnate could make such a statement, only God in the flesh, because he fulfilled the law and he came perfectly and sinlessly. Only Jesus Christ could declare that. Only Jesus Christ could quote and say, “I'm the Alpha and the Omega,” linking him back to the deity of the Godhead without it being blasphemy. Anybody else tries to do that, that would be blasphemous.

In what we just read in Isaiah 41:4, Jesus is describing three things. I want us to see what he says here. He's eternal, he's self-existent, and we actually even read it in Revelation chapter 1, verse 8. He says, “who is, who was, and who is to come.” That blows my mind every time I read it because what it's saying is that Jesus is eternal and self-existent and he is all at the same time. He is past, present, and future at the same time. Just try to get your mind around that for a minute.

He's eternal, self-existent, and he's past, present, and future, which is why he can forgive sin past, present, and future. And it was tetelestai, finished, because he is in the midst of his church at all times. In 1 John 1:9, he is faithful and just to forgive all sin when we come to him and confess our sin. Jesus is also what it says right here in closing, “the Almighty.” It's the definite article. He wants us to make sure we're not looking for the second coming of Christ, even those who may be alive who rejected Jesus at that time. You're not going to see this little frail lamb on the scene.

Prepare your hearts. You're going to see a conquering king, and he's going to come in the fullness of all his glory. The whole world is going to see this in majesty and in just awesomeness. You know what they're going to do? The same thing John did. We won't get to it today, but when John saw Jesus—now remember, this is the apostle whom Jesus loved, remember the book of John—this is the same apostle who leaned on the bosom of Jesus. Such an intimacy here, and yet when he sees him, you know what he does? He becomes afraid because of the awesome awesomeness of God's glory.

It's like the Mount of Transfiguration when the three apostles that were up there, Peter said, “It's good that we're here. Let's build tents. Let's not ever go.” The Shekinah glory, the way that he illuminated with such light they'd never seen anything like that and never will till they see Jesus Christ again. Even that, I would suggest to you, is going to pale in comparison to the awesomeness because John knew that. John understood that. Why now is John, after seeing the Mount of Transfiguration, after understanding that awesomeness, he even now will come and he will... how do we know that? Because what does Jesus say to John?

John doesn't come out and go, “I'm afraid.” How do we know? Because Jesus says to John, “Do not be afraid.” We're going to read that next week. So if Jesus is telling you—Jesus doesn't waste his words—if he comes and tells you do not be afraid, it's because you're afraid. I want us to see that. It's so sweet what Jesus does. He literally puts his hand on John and he just comforts him right there. He says, “No, John. You and me, we're good. I'm coming again and yes, the world's going to be afraid. Oh yes, they will. There's no party party in hell as this world thinks it's going to be like.”

He says, “Oh no.” He says, “They're going to take notice. Every eye is going to see me coming on the clouds and I'm coming in judgment.” He says, “But not you, John. Not you, beloved. Not you, beloved, not me. We don't need to be fearful because Jesus is going to put his hand on us to say the same: 'No, you're my beloved. You're mine, I'm yours. This isn't for you. I don't want you to be afraid. Them? Oh yeah, judgment.' I came the first time to give salvation. I'm coming the second time to bring judgment. I have been long-suffering, patient, that all may come to salvation.”

So he's Almighty. That's what he's trying to tell us here, the Almighty. I think we just skip over that word, “the Almighty.” No, it's an awesomeness. And also the third thing that he's telling us by being the Alpha and the Omega is what? He's divine. We have so much to see as we get to verse nine. First service got a little farther this morning, so we'll catch you up next week. But I want us to see here, just pausing for a moment, the reality of what we just learned here this morning.

I don't want to assume all of you that are here this morning, I don't know if you're saved. I don't know if you've asked Jesus Christ to truly be your Lord and Savior and if you really believe what you say you believe. Only you know, that's between you and Jesus. No man, no person can ever judge anyone's salvation. No one has the right to do that. No one has anyone's Holy Spirit.

But if you haven't asked Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior, if maybe you're sitting here and you're not even certain if you're saved and you know—I mean, we've only gotten just through the introduction. We didn't even get into everything yet. When we start getting into this, every soul here wants to be certain that they can say, “I'm yours and you are mine. I am saved and it is well with my soul.”

If you don't know Jesus Christ today, I want you to come forward and I want you to pray with one of them. We want to get a Bible in your hand. It's not because of anything else. We don't want a single thing from you that way. We just want to know that you are eternally secure with Jesus Christ. If you are backslidden, if you've been struggling with addiction—I know “backslidden” is not a biblical term, but we're all fluent in Christianese here. If you're backslidden, if there's addiction, if there's things you're struggled, if your marriage, whatever it could be, and you need prayer, don't walk out of here without getting in right relationship with God.

Come up and pray. Come up and seek anointing and prayer. The Bible tells us in James, if any of you are sick, come to the elders of the church, let them pray over you that you may be made well, you may be healed. If there was sin, anything in that, that you would be made well. Today is the day of salvation. What are we waiting for? Amen. Every one of us should be saying Hallelujah. Our God, Jesus, is risen and he is the glorified king.

Larry: That is Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. We're going through Revelation now at the present time. Pastor Matt, we have been working to expand the reach of His Perfect Love in recent weeks. Would you tell our listeners a bit about where they can access the programs now by podcast?

Matt VanderVen: Larry, we're very excited that we can make podcasts now available to our listeners of His Perfect Love. We're excited to be on oneplace.com and we'd love our listeners to access the recorded teachings on OnePlace and all other major podcast platforms. We truly want this to be an encouragement of their faith. This can be where they listen and download the teachings. They can also go to the Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore app from an Apple or Google Play Store, free of charge.

They can also go to the church website, ccharrisburg.org. They can click on menu, online resources, teaching library. To get more engaged with the podcast, if they go to our main website, ccharrisburg.org, they can click on the podcast marquee at the bottom of the website page. Podcasts are a great way for our listeners to be able to listen on the go in a consumable and flexible way that works for their busy schedules.

Larry: Look for us at hisperfectlove.org, oneplace.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. We can't thank you enough for your prayers for this ministry. Please pray that as God's word goes forth, that lives will be greatly impacted for the glory of God and people will grow by his grace and love or even enter into a relationship with him.

If you have a prayer request, please send that our way. You can email that to us through our website at hisperfectlove.org. If you live in the Mechanicsburg, PA area, we hope you'll stop by for a visit. Just like you hear on the radio, Pastor Matt teaches verse by verse through the Bible here at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek gathering on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. We're located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to ccharrisburg.org for more information. Then join us next time when Pastor Matt will pick up where we left off in Revelation here on His Perfect Love.