Jesus the First and the Last

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last. (Revelation 1.17)

Would our response be any different from that of John the apostle’s if we saw Jesus? John lived for three years with His teacher, stood at the foot of His cross, ran to the tomb when he heard the witness of Mary Magdalene that it was empty, stood in the room when Jesus appeared fully alive with the marks of crucifixion on his hands and side. John watched as His Lord ascended into the heavens. And now, in the heat of his island exile He sees Jesus is his supreme glory!

No effort at human holiness could ever give us feet before the perfection of God. John fell on his face and it is here that John met with Jesus once again, and we join him. Jesus is the first and the last, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus does not wait for humanity to achieve perfect holiness, He steps down and speaks forgiveness for our sin, clothes us in His righteousness and says, “Fear not, I am the first and the last.”

Before we breathed our first breath, born in sin, Jesus was. When we first felt the sting of conviction in childhood as we betrayed our Creator’s passion, Jesus was. As we walk our journey of faith gawkily and ungainly, Jesus is. As we service Him with awkward efforts and sincere passion Jesus is. And as we look into the future and even beyond our finite vision is able to see, Jesus will be. Over our past, present and future, Jesus stands and says with His right hand on our shoulders, “Don’t be afraid.”

Jesus, thank you that you speak peace over my life. You call me to freedom and confidence in your supremacy as the first and the last.

Jesus the Alpha and Omega

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1.8)

As we read the news of yet another attack, another stabbing pain into the heart of our humanity by men bent on torture, we ask ourselves, “Will this ever end?” Bombings, beheadings, ruthless pillaging of innocent women and children. We look back through time and see the seeds of human failure and the generational harvests we’ve sown for ourselves in sorrow. We lose sight of the beginning in the bloody trails of our history.

Praise God we have a great high priest who’s name is Love! Jesus is the alpha and the omega. Before we brought sin into the world through our pride Jesus stood at the dawning of His creation and spoke love. Jesus is the alpha. Nothing comes before Him. Nothing stands next to Him. God alone is the absolute source. And after the days stretch over the horizon Jesus stands at the end of time and speaks love. Jesus is the Omega. His love calls those who have suffered for His name into everlasting peace. His love calls those that have rejected His name and His people to enter their chosen destination—eternity apart from God.

In Jesus the alpha and the omega we stand encouraged, though our hearts break and our backs are broken, though our souls ache with the strain and our minds cannot reconcile the persecuted existence of His church. Jesus is the almighty. He had the first word and He will have the last.

Jesus, I rejoice in your almighty sovereignty. Although I do not understand what you allow I believe you are reaping glory for your name and your people.

Jesus the Liberator

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood (Revelation 1.5d)

See Jesus there. His body held by nails to the cross, held by His love. Crucified is the one who loved us from before the creation, before we were formed by His hands and knit together in the womb. Raised before all humanity in hatred and disdain is the one who loves us—is loving us—without ceasing. His words, suspended from the cross, were not justified condemnation. We nailed Him there. We mocked Him as we placed a crown of thorns on His brow. Instead, He spoke forgiveness. He speaks forgiveness still. His sacrificed life spoke love. He speaks love still.

In Jesus’ enduring love we find undeserved freedom! Bound in slavery by our failure and fears, Jesus bore our sin and shame and invites us to everlasting freedom. He loosed the chains of our sins by His death and liberated us for eternity by His resurrection. Liberated, Jesus has commissioned us as His kingdom of priests to carry His cross. In every language, among every people, across space and time we lift up His crucified body as a light in the darkness beckoning oppressed people to freedom. We proclaim liberation for the captive, not from a place of power, but beneath the wide spread arms of the crucified King.

John, exiled on the island of Patmos and far from the persecuted people he pastored, was given a great revelation. John saw in the face of the resurrected Christ the enduring promise of God’s redemption. Exiled John was no stranger to grief and isolation. He experienced them at the foot of the cross, one of the few who followed Jesus there. To his persecuted people John reminds them—He reminds us—of Jesus Christ the liberator, the one who loves us and looses us from our sin by His blood.

Jesus, thank you for freeing me in your love, through your immense sacrifice.

Jesus the Ruler of Earth's Kings

Grace to you and peace… from Jesus Christ… the ruler of kings on earth. (Revelation 1.5c)

The way of the cross is excruciating. Every year men, women and children across the world remember the journey Christ made to the cross. We remember how He was spit upon. We remember how they jeered and cursed His name. We remember how He was beaten and whipped, mocked and tormented. On the way to the hill where He was crucified, with the cross heavy on His torn shoulder He was bruised for our transgressions, crushed beneath the weight of our guilt. Above His head, swollen and discolored, hung the inditement of His crime: King of the Jews. He died a rejected king.

As people we don’t sit well with grief. We want to rush through the pain to resolution, from the broken moment into the victory. Jesus on the cross is too painful for us to sit with for long. But as Good Friday looms on the horizon, as the hours of this night will lead Jesus from the table with His disciples to the crucifixion in the morning, may we choose to walk Mary and Salome and the nameless ones. May we weep with the women at the foot of the cross.

Yes, we know the end of the story. We know the resurrection is on its way. We know that the Easter sun will chase away the overcast skies of the crucifixion. We know that Jesus is more than just the King of God’s chosen people! We know that with His resurrection Jesus’ rule opened the pathways of the world to His throne. No emperor or dictator is His rival. No president or chancellor His equal. Jesus’ reign is extended over all the kings on earth. In death and resurrection He proclaims a new, everlasting Kingdom to all peoples. We have been saved for more than salvation! We have been redeemed for purpose, for life, for a transformed obedience as a Kingdom of priests.

May we see the face of King Jesus, today, on the way to the cross.

Jesus, thank you for enduring all for the sake of my soul, the sake of my life, redeemed in your love and transformed in your sovereignty. Give me strength to walk with you and carry this cross.

Jesus the Firstborn of the Dead

Grace to you and peace… from Jesus Christ… the firstborn of the dead (Revelation 1.5b)

What does it mean to be firstborn of the dead?

As people born into families we are accustomed to the range of emotions experienced when a new child enters our little familial communities. Generations gather and celebrate the newborn, the child who shares the combined features of the mother and father; a combination woven together into a human life. It’s breathtaking. Grandparents smile on as their children welcome in a host of joys and griefs, celebrations and sorrows.

As people born into a fallen world we are all too well acquainted with the mourning of death. We lay our loved ones to rest, as they fade before ours eyes to occupy a still and quiet place in our memories. We reminisce on ‘that one time’ we spent together, the little quirks and habits that brought us joy, the funny stories we tell by heart. Grandchildren crease their eyes in grief as they say goodbye to the ones they never got to know as well as they wished.

Before Jesus, the best we could hope for after death was an eternity in sheol, that nebulous underworld of shadow and mystery. We gazed to the horizon of our lifetimes, to an end where we were gathered to our fathers, beyond memory. And then Jesus transformed our broken existence with His death and resurrection. He showed the way to pass through death into eternal life. We are no longer burdened with the void of a timeless space, but reborn in Christ to an eternal land of new life with Him before God the Father! Death has lost its sting. In Jesus, the firstborn from the dead, we have immeasurable grace and everlasting peace.

Jesus, thank you for transforming how I see the horizon of time. Thank you for redeeming me and securing my new life in your grace and peace.

Jesus the Faithful Witness

Grace to you and peace… from Jesus Christ the faithful witness (Revelation 1.4b-5a)

It is an incredible blessing to meet with Jesus every day. To find Him waiting for us in the stillness of quiet places. It is easy to find him there if we look. In comfort we rejoice that He is faithful to His word to be with us always. But when the world is spinning out of control like a maniacally turning whirligig, the rapid revolutions of this orb distorting the image of God (the image of God we should see in one another) we find it more difficult to search Him out of the crowd. Our heart cries for Him in the haze of jagged humanity as our eyes are blinded in a blur of color. Our overstimulated eyes cannot discern His features or find His face.

In the hard times, in the difficult and pressing seasons, are when we must learn to fix our eyes on Jesus the most. We need His solid, infinite presence as we stumble through the tragedies of this life. We must be like a class of young dancers learning to keep dizziness at bay, fixing their eyes on a single spot as they pirouette. In this erratic world Jesus is reliable. In these deceitful days Jesus is trustworthy. Jesus is the faithful witness who cuts through the visual and emotional distractions with His good news: The Kingdom of God is at Hand.

In mourning, Jesus is there weeping with those who weep. In rejoicing, Jesus can be found among the tax collectors and sinners proclaiming the love of God. In anxiety, Jesus is there with His arm around us, interceding before the Father and speaking peace to our trouble hearts. In persecution, Jesus stands before His image bearers and He reveals His nail-pierced hands and wounded side. No matter the circumstances, not matter the storm, we find grace and peace in Jesus Christ the faithful witness.

Jesus, guide my eyes through the swirling crowd and breaking waves where I can fix my eyes on you. Take your glory from my life as I receive your faithful testimony of your Father.

Jesus the One Who Is, Was and Will Be

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, (Revelation 1.4b)

Grace. Peace. Eternity. Do we have any hope of ever understanding these words, these overloaded ideas and concepts? Grace. God’s grace at the heart of Jesus’ good news is more than just the charming favor of one person to another. It is more than the generosity of spirit of one injured toward another. It is more than simple acts of undeserved mercy toward others. It is more than the meager lovingkindness sourced in the human heart. Peace. Genuine, lasting peace is beyond humanity that all the hopes of cloak wearing politicians and altruistic advocates. True peace can only find its foundation and sustainability in God’s divine power and love.

In the tumult and harshness of this fallen world is it any wonder the Apostles prayed for grace and peace in the lives of the redeemed men, women and children? Humanity cannot help itself. Our attempts of grace and peace are fleeting, shortsighted and, far too often, secretly self-serving. In the burned out, brittle and war-torn world, the Apostles prayed for God’s grace and peace over the lives of those scarred by persecution and targeted by hate.

The source of grace and peace was Jesus Christ. John watched grace flow from His life and peace from His ministry. The source of grace and peace is Jesus Christ. Two millennia after John penned the revelation of Jesus on the island of Patmos, divine grace and peace are still found exclusively in Jesus Christ. The source of grace and peace will forever be Jesus Christ. Jesus is unwaveringly consistent and on that everlasting truth, let us build our lives.

Jesus, you are the everlasting source of grace and peace for all who set their eyes on you. Thank you for speaking grace and peace into mine.

Jesus the Revealer

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. (Revelation 1.1)

Shall we every truly understand the depths of Jesus Christ’s revelation to the humanity made in His image? Can finite humanity every truly grasp infinite truth? Jesus stepped down into His creation and in the train of His glory He drew together all the threads of prophetic revelation from the beginning of space and time. His years of earthly ministry were the narrow neck of an hourglass, channeling all truth and reality through Himself to those searching.

In His Divinity Christ has flipped the hourglass of time over. All the sands of history are falling through Him, revealing His mission and purpose to all who will set their eyes on Him. Every grain that falls point us back to the ascended Son of God, seated at the right hand of the Father. Every verse recorded over the centuries, every witness from the men, women and children who confessed Christ as Lord across the millennia is piled up around the nations. Every passing moment is filled with the gravity of His revelation. Whether the lost will choose to recognize the weight of His eternal glory Jesus continues to rain down on our current existence with His enduring witness of the Father’s love.

As servants of the Most High God, He is calling us to take heed to the times and respond to the revelation that He is proclaiming through Jesus Christ our Lord. May we set our eyes on Him, enthroned at the center of space and time. May we rejoice with the great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us.

Jesus, help me see you more clearly and understand your revelation more profoundly, today.