We have covered quite a few names for God. In this series, we have studied 12 and today we will look at one more. If we were to look at every name or title for God, we could go on for years. One website I found list 950 names for God from the Bible.[i]
There is only One
God, in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But because God is so important and His
character is infinite and people have experienced Him in so many ways, we know
God by many, many names. Don’t ever
forget, though, that every name refers to the One True and Living God revealed
in Scripture from the very first verse of Genesis at the beginning of the Bible
to the last verse of Revelation at the end.
All of Scripture is the story of the One God who created us and saved us,
whom we will worship for all eternity.
Let us read together
a passage that reveals one more important name for God.
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,” says
the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to
come—the Almighty One.”
There are 24 letters in the Greek alphabet. The very first letter is Alpha. The word alphabet we use to describe our own ABCs, actually comes from the first letter of the Greek alphabet—Alpha—and the second letter—Beta. These two words or letters are combined to give us Alpha-Bet to designate our 26 letters—A-Z. The Greek alphabet only has 24 letters, the first is Alpha and the last is Omega.
You may realize doctors and scientists are using the Greek alphabet
to name variants of the COVID-19 virus. The
variant all over the news right now is the Delta variant. Delta is the 4th letter of the
Greek alphabet, which indicates it is the 4th variant of this virus. There was the original COVID-19 out of Wuhan,
China. Then there was Alpha (the first
variant) out of the UK. Beta came from
South Africa. Then Gama was first identified
in Brazil.
The Delta Variant is a far more infectious and faster growing variant
than the others. That is why it Delta is
causing more sickness and spreading more rapidly. But if Delta is the 4th letter in
the Greek alphabet, are there more variants coming?
According to Alvin Powel of the Harvard Gazette, a
publication of Harvard Medical School, “Variants have continued to develop and
spread since the emergence of delta. The World Health Organization has
designated variants Eta, Iota, Kappa, and Lambda “variants of interest” and is
tracking 13 additional variants that originated in the U.S., Brazil, the
Philippines, Indonesia, Colombia, and other nations.”[ii]
It would seem, we are going to be living with COVID-19 for
a while. The verdict is still out on how
well we will live with COVID. Will future
variations of this virus be less lethal?
Will the human immune system evolve to be better equipped to handle this
illness? Or will a future version of
COVID be more deadly than anything we have seen so far?
I wish we knew the answers to these questions, but human
understanding is limited. All we know is
what we know and all we can do is do our best.
Thankfully, we have some treatments that help people heal and we have vaccines that—after over 350 million vaccinations in America—has proven itself
to be safe and effective. Nothing is
perfect, but you are more likely to be struck by lightning than have a life-threatening
reaction to the COVID vaccination. And
the vaccines are over 80% effective in warding off COVID or greatly reducing
the severity of the illness. I think the
hope is that if enough people are vaccinated, we can slowdown the spread and mutation
of the virus so that future variants won’t have a chance to take hold and get
out of control. If we can do that, then maybe
the virus will become something like a common cold.
But I’m not here to talk about COVID. My purpose is to talk about God. And in Revelation 1:8 the Lord God says He is
the “Alpha and Omega—the beginning and the end”. God is the first and last and everything in
between. While we forget what happened yesterday
and we don’t know what might happen tomorrow, God knows it all perfectly. We have no control over what tomorrow brings,
but God is in control of it all. He is
the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the one who is and always was
and is still yet to come.
Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
God existed before the world was created.
Before there was a thing called earth or heaven, before there was light
or darkness, before there was time, God was.
And though He needed nothing, out of love God created a beautiful planet
with mountains and oceans and plants and animals and people. And God saw that it was very good.
Unfortunately, people
didn’t love God the way He loves us. We
rebelled and tried to make life all about us and what we wanted. Even though a loving relationship with God is
all we needed to be truly happy and fulfilled, we turned our backs on God and
chased our own selfish dreams. But God
didn’t turn His back on us. From the
very beginning, God has been working to save us from ourselves. And throughout the pages of the Bible, we can
clearly see God working to bring us back to Him.
- God called Noah and his family to enter the ark and
leave behind a world that had become overwhelmed by evil and to make a
fresh start in a new world.[iii]
- God called Abraham to leave his country and go to a
new land where God would make Abraham the father of a great nation and a blessing
to all the families of the earth.[iv]
- God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery
into the Promised Land to be a holy nation, dedicated to God.[v]
- And the greatest example of all is Jesus Christ. Jesus called people to accept the relationship
God offers them.
Before the world began, God already knew you and knew you would be sitting here in this sanctuary right now, with all your personal concerns swirling around in your head—fears, anxieties, hopes, dreams, disappointments. God already knew about all the things that would be overwhelming us today. We might feel overwhelmed, but He is not. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. God always was and…
“Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.” (Romans 8:34)
I don’t know what you were thinking when you decided to come to church today. I don’t know what you are thinking right now, but I know what Jesus is doing right now. This Scripture tells me Jesus, the one who was with God in the beginning and
who is God, the one who healed the sick, brought sight to the blind, the one who made the deaf to hear and the lame to walk, the one who never sinned, but was crucified to atone for our sins, Jesus is pleading to God on your behalf right this very moment.
God is. God is right this moment, extending His grace
and forgiveness to you. Right this very moment, God is ready to welcome all who sincerely repent and trust
Jesus as Lord. Right now, God is ready to grant you the gift of eternal life with Him where
there will be no more sickness or sorrow or death, where every tear shall be wiped
away and every hurt will be healed. God is here, right now. Won’t you turn
to Him while there is still time? I sincerely hope you will, because…
“Yes, I am coming soon!” (Revelation 22:20)
Jesus promised us He would come again
After Jesus
rose from the tomb, he spent 40 days with his disciples and then he ascended to
Heaven where he sits at the right hand of God in the place of highest honor,
pleading for you. When Jesus ascended into Heaven, He promised he would return. (See John 14:3)
Some critics
and skeptics scoff that Jesus hasn’t “returned in the clouds” in nearly 2,000
years. I can assure you of this, you will meet Jesus face to face in your
lifetime. Either Jesus will come in the clouds for the whole world all at once or Jesus will come for you personally when you take your last breath.
Revelation 1:7 tells us, “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.”
Everyone will face Jesus one day. Will you rejoice to see Jesus, or will you mourn? Will you be overwhelmed by love or fear and dread? Will you spend eternity in paradise, rejoicing with your loved ones and celebrating with a feast or will you spend eternity suffering the tortuous separation from God, the Source of Life, in what the Bible variously describes as “the outer darkness”, the lake of fire, the second death, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teethe? It is the place most commonly known as Hell.
God
is still to come and whether that is an incredible good thing or and incredibly
bad thing depends upon the choice you make today.
For
God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the one who is, who
always was, and who is still to come.
