“…All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. 6 He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
7 Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven.
And everyone will see him—
even those who pierced him.
And all the nations of the world
will mourn for him.
Yes! Amen!
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,”[e] says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”
Ah yes, the book of Revelation. The end of the Holy Scriptures, the single book of the Bible that has caused more theological debates about the end of the world than any other. Unfortunately, over the years I have grown skeptical of anyone claiming to have the full understanding or “the correct teaching notes” of this often difficult to decipher vision John the Apostle had on the Island Patmos.
I have come to the conclusion that there will always be a certain level of mystery in how we perceive God, because God is really just too vast for our temporal brains to fully understand. This is why we need His very own spirit living inside of us to relate to Him and also why a healthy fear of Him or humility before Him is the starting point of wisdom. He is an uncreated God who has created all, and all of His creation is sustained through His grace.
The book of Revelations, though hard to fully understand at times, has three primary ways of understanding its prophetic contents.
Prophetic History, a retelling of the historical events involving Jesus and His Church.
A prophetic understanding of the signs of the times we live in. This is in my opinion one of the most incredible feats of Scripture, that we can see the world and culture around us with accurate prophetic understanding in Scripture.
A prophetic understanding of the things to come and what we as the Church can expect to navigate, as we prepare for the return of our great King Jesus.
In many ways the book of Revelation is retelling and telling the events of the past, present and future all at once. Some of its contents are literal, some prophetic, and as we consume it just like other parts of Scripture, we should never deviate from its primary points. These points being that we have hope in Jesus, victory over death, and that though there may be many trials and enemies set before us Jesus is Lord of all and we have overcome through His blood. If we ever read Revelation and forget those facts, we can easily trespass the contextual boundaries of Scripture we are reading.
Really this is the statement Jesus makes to John the Apostle in the introduction to the vision. It’s almost as if Jesus is saying to John, who is under arrest by the Roman empire while having the vision,
“John, what I am about to show you is incredible, amazing, and even terrifying at times. But do not lose heart or forget the fact that even in the midst of all these awesome sights, I, Jesus have the victory, and am King over all.”
This simple fact, Jesus is Lord of all, when settled in our hearts gives us the ability to look at difficult Scripture with hope and security that His plans will prevail even when we don’t understand fully.
I’m sure John the Apostle was having difficulty understanding as he and his peers where being persecuted violently by the Roman empire for their testimonies of Jesus’s Lordship. Which is why I believe Jesus makes the statement I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, which was also the primary alphabet that the Romans used during John's captivity.
This choice of wording is intentional as is the phrase,
“ And everyone will see him—even those who pierced him. And all the nations of the world will mourn for him.”
Jesus is explicitly telling John the Apostle that he is Sovereign King over all. Even those who would persecute and imprison His people. That all though, at times, it feels like the enemy has the upper hand. There is only one true King, and this King has authority over the beginning and the end of the story. Although it feels like we, God’s people, are overcome, the truth is actually that we have already won the victory through Jesus.
As we read through the book of Revelation in our life journals the same remains true in the midst of our often chaotic American culture. The same remains true in the face of whatever trial we may face personally. Through Jesus we have hope. He has overcome and in Him we have won the victory. He is our great and gracious God from beginning to the end, whether we can fully understand all that is going on or not.
Love,
Pastor John
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