Jesus, The First and the Last

Christmas 2015, 20th Dec, morning service.

[This talk is aimed at Christians, our main Carol Service has a gospel presentation].

A bit of theological truth this Christmas!

John 1:1-14: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus is everything!  Right now He is is in everything and beyond everything.  He is still fully man and fully God and will remain so for all eternity.  He has to for the eternal covenant we now enjoy hinges on Jesus being so.

When we think of Jesus being the First and Last we are taken to the words in Revelation:

Revelation 22: 13: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

(See also: Rev. 1:8, 11; 21:6.)

Jesus is the First and Last Word on All Things!

Among Jewish rabbis it was common to use this expression, Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last letters of the Greek alphabet, to denote the whole of everything.  It was a way of saying everything that can be known or discussed about a subject has been discussed and therefore the alpha and omega would be declared, thus ending a debate.

It’s the last word.  Have you ver been in an argument with someone and they just want to have the last word?  it;s so infuriating isn't it, because you want the last word. My brother an I growing up shared a room for many years.  We had a lot of fights because my brother always wanted the last word.  That was so not fair because I needed the last word!  I would end up mumbling the last word under my breath as we would be going to sleep!  

To the readers of revelation they would have known that this phrase is the clause ending all debate about the meaning of creation, the end times, and everything in between.  

Jesus is the First and Last, the Eternal Word!

Alpha and Omega also means that Jesus is at the beginning if things and the end of all things.  It is equivalent of saying that He existed, exists and will always exist.

He created all things in the beginning:

John 1:3: Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

His second coming will be the end of the creation as we know it:

2 Peter 3:10: But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

He has no beginning, nor will He have any end with respect to time, being from everlasting to everlasting.

Jesus is the First and Last, the Word Made Flesh

Alpha and Omega is also a claim to divinity.  It shows that Jesus is the Word made flesh, He is God.

The idea of the first and the last are embedded in Isaiah and are only attributed to God and His eternal nature.

Isaiah 41:4: Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning?

I, the Lord—with the first of them and with the last—I am he.

Isaiah 44:6: This is what the Lord says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.

Isaiah 48:12: Listen to me, Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am he; I am the first and I am the last.

The first and the last is a phrase then that is used by God to describe Himself.  Jesus uses it to describe Himself too in Revelation.  [Look up my blog on http://pastorkdj.blogspot.co.uk/2015_01_01_archive.html for more insight on this].

This Christmas we are celebrating Emmanuel, God who became flesh:

Matthew 1:23: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”).

We are celebrating Jesus are the word made flesh:

John 1:1 & 14: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. & 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus is God in the flesh!

Jesus is the First and Last Word on Faith

Hebrews 12:2: fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

He begins our faith and carries it through to completion.  He leaves nothing undone.

In John 19:30: …Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

It is really finished!  The word for completed and finished are the same word in the Greek, tetelestai, meaning to finish, complete or accomplish.  

It is the same word used to speak of Jesus in Hebrews 12:2. 

Tetelestai means that sin's punishment is dealt with at the cross.  It means we can go back to God and claim the forgiveness that Jesus has gained for us, time and time again.  He does not grow weary of this.  He does not tire of lavishing His love on us.  He wants us to return to Him.  He wants us to sin-less but knows that until we are made like Christ we will not be sinless.  These words of comfort to our struggling souls refresh us in our hearts: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Jesus is the First and the Last Word in Time*

Colossians 1: 17: He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Time cannot go beyond Him.  I doesn’t matter how long time lasts, it cannot go beyond Christ.  This similar to our previous thoughts this morning on Jesus being the First and Last Word on All Things.

Time is a matter of perspective.  We look at time in the moment or retrospectively.  Our lives are a series of moments that become our history.  We mark these in time.  

Jesus is fully man and fully God.  That means He is the only man in all of history who is not bound by time.  Seated now with the Father (Eph 1:20). He sees time from heaven's perspective.  

Like God, as part of the Trinity, He is transcendent: above all things.  He is not bound to time, He is not bound by time, and He is not bound in time. He is timeless.  

Heaven marks time, but lives outside of it.  Perhaps this is why He is sometimes late according to your schedule!  Yet Jesus chooses to live within your timeframe.  He is not restricted by your time but lives in time with you.  This is paradox.

When Jesus was born He entered into our timeframe, His humanity was subject to our time.  It is not the first occasion that the Godhead had entered our chronological time.  God walked with Adam in the cool of the evening in Genesis.  Throughout the Old Testament there are epiphanies where God, and Jesus, were in our time, although still omnipresent (Psalm 139).  

When Jesus came as a man He began to walk the earth in the same way Father did with Adam.  Now Jesus is seated at the right hand of God it is the God the Holy Spirit with moves through the world, everywhere at once, in time and outside of time. 

Jesus promised the disciples that He would be with them, even until the end of the age.  The word age, sometimes wrongly translated "world," is aion in the Greek text.  It signifies a period of indefinite length or time in relation to what takes place in the period.  It is an all encompassing phrase to describe the time in which the present earth resides and God's plan to work this to its completion.  It is also a binding statement.  Jesus is promising that, although He is about to step outside of time, He is ever present within it.  He is the only person to do this.

Think of it like bookends.  I have two here that were a gift from my brother years ago, their shaped like elephants, which has no theological significance!  These keep the book upright and in orderly fashion.  I can add more books into the middle of them, but the books still stand within the limits and confines of the bookends.  

In the same way Jesus is the First and the Last and we stand in time in between him. It doesn't matter how far the beginning is from the end, how long time is, we still stand between Jesus at the beginning of creation and the end of time itself (have two people stand increasing further apart holding the bookends).

Jesus, because He is God, moves in the space inside the bookends too.  He steps in and out of these.  He is the only man to do so.  

Time, your time and life, are in His hands.

Wrapping this up:

Sometimes we want everything fully explained.  Sometimes we want all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed.  

This Christmas may we be filled with the awe and wonder of Jesus being the First and the Last again.  

May we have renewed faith in who He is and what He has done for us in coming into our existence as a baby, the First and the the Last.

*This point draws on material used in my, as yet unfinished, book. I therefore reserve all rights to the material.