Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #14 of Revelation chapter 21 and we are looking at Revelation 21:6:

And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

When God says, “It is done,” He means that all Scripture and all prophesy has been fulfilled.  Everything He had spoken from the very beginning and all the way through the Bible has been fulfilled.  It is finished.  All His statements concerning the end of the world, the salvation of the elect and the promises of God concerning the new heaven and new earth that were given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the spiritual seed have been accomplished and it is now done.

Then the Lord goes on to say, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.”  He is “Alpha” and He is “Omega.”  This is not the first time that Christ has said this.  When we first began the Book of Revelation, it was declared two times.  It said in Revelation 1:8:

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

It was also found in Revelation 1:10-11:

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia;

Twice in the opening chapter of the Book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus Christ declared that He is “Alpha and Omega.”  He is also the beginning and the ending and the first and the last.  All three of those statements are synonymous.  To be the beginning means the same as being the “first” or being “Alpha.”  To be the ending means the same as being the “last” or “Omega.”  The words “Alpha” and “Omega” are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, so Christ is the first letter and the last letter and this is an interesting way that God uses to describe Himself.  These are additional names God applies to Himself.  “Alpha” and “Omega” are found four times in the entire Bible and all four times they are in the Book of Revelation.  We read them twice in chapter 1 and we read it once in our verse in Revelation 21, verse 6 and the fourth and final time is in Revelation 22:12-13:

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

God is very consistent in joining the words “Alpha” and “Omega” together with the beginning and the end and the first and the last.  Of course, that helps us to understand that this is exactly what He means.  Christ is the beginning.  According to the Bible, He is the first born from the dead, but it also says in John 1:1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Then it goes on to say in John 1:14:

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…

Christ is the Word made flesh and He is also the Word that was in the beginning and the Word that is God.  It is He that created the world in the beginning, according to Genesis 1:1:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The Bible says that Christ, the Son, created the heaven and the earth and that is because He is God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  We should not be confused because Christ is called the “beginning” when we know that God has no beginning and no end.  God is eternal.  He has always been in everlasting past and He will continue into everlasting future.  This is why when we read of Melchisedec in Hebrews, chapter 7, we are reading about God Himself.  Speaking of this mysterious character that appeared on the pages of the Bible in the Old Testament, it says in Hebrews 7:3:

Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.

Melchisedec was a theophany.   It was an appearance of Christ in history before He was born of the Virgin Mary and entered into the world in a body that was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary.  This was an appearance and He showed himself in a body as “Melchisedec,” but because it was actually God, it is said that He had “neither beginning of days, nor end of life.”  So when we read that Christ is the Alpha and Omega (the beginning and the end), we have to qualify that statement with the understanding that God has no beginning.   In the beginning of this world, Christ created this world and He is the “beginning” as the first born from the dead.  He is the “beginning” in that sense.

When we go back to the Old Testament, this is what God tells us in Isaiah 48:3-5:

I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.

Here, God is saying that He has declared things from the beginning.  He is more specific in Isaiah 46:9-10:

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

Notice how God speaks of declaring the end from the beginning, “from ancient times the things that are not yet done.”  We read in our verse in Revelation 21, where God said, “It is done.”  They are the ancient counsels of God and sometimes His counsels take us back to the foundation of the world.  Where did He declare them?  There is only one place we can find declarations from God and that is the Bible.  The Bible is a declaration of the words that God has spoken and it is there He has declared “the end from the beginning.”  So we are not surprised that He said to Daniel, “Shut up the words and seal the book” until the time of the end and then knowledge would increase.  God had declared it in the Bible and hidden it until the proper time in history.  At the time of the Great Tribulation these things were opened up, as we live at the very edge of the end of the world in the Day of Judgment. 

Jesus is “Alpha” and He is “Omega.”  Even people in the churches recognize that this is referring to Jesus.  He is also the “beginning and the end” and, again, all the churches would nod their heads in agreement and they would understand that in the beginning He spoke and created the world: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Jesus was God in the beginning.  Not all the churches, but any that were reasonably faithful in times past would recognize that He possessed full knowledge at the beginning.  But when it comes to another name for Christ that says He was the “beginning and the end,” they say, “Well, yes, that is a name that applies to Christ, but He does not know when the end will be; He does not possess that information.”  You can see what a ridiculous an idea that is to think that the one whose name is “the end” does not possess information concerning the timing of the end.  That idea is not found in the Bible.  That is the idea of the church and they do not really think Jesus is entirely God because they think He does not possess all the knowledge of God.  They do not think about what it says about what God knows, in Acts 15:18:

Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.

From the point of the world’s beginning and continuing until the end of the world, all the works of God are known to Him and that means He knows everything about everything.  He knew everything about who He would save, when they would each become saved, when His salvation plan would be completed and when He would bring His wrath to judge the world.  These things are all known unto God.  But the churches make a distinction because they do not really understand the concept that Christ is God in the flesh and in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.  They are deceived by their own erroneous doctrine concerning Mark 13:32: “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”  And because they insist there is a lack of knowledge concerning when Judgment Day is that applies to men, angels and the Son, it locks them into a position where they are demeaning the Person of the Almighty God of the Bible because the Bible declares that “times” are not hidden from Him.  It says in Job 24:1:

Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?

God does not hide “times” from Himself because He is God.  The Father knows and Christ is one with the Father, so, of course, He knows when the world will end.  If He knows everything in eternity future, how could he not know the last day of earth’s history and the end of this world?  It is really not thought through in many, many ways and this helps the true child of God to realize that when God speaks of no man knowing or no angel knowing or the Son not knowing, it cannot be a reference to intellectual knowledge.  Rather, it has to do with the experiencing of the judgment.  At the time Christ spoke this, man had not yet experienced the official final judgment of God.  The fallen angels had not yet been judged (which would happen at the cross) and Jesus Christ as the Son of man had not gone to the cross to experience that judgment, but He had already experienced the judgment of God as He died and rose from the dead at the point of the world’s foundation to be declared the Son of God.

Let us just look at the concluding part of our verse in Revelation 21:6:

… I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

Here, we have a statement that is surprising.  It is surprising because this language of giving to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely leads us to think of the Gospel when God was still saving people, but look at the context.  It says in Revelation 21:1:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away;

Then the bride comes down out of heaven and God makes the glorious declaration that He will dwell with His people.  Then it says in Revelation 1:4-5:

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new…

The context is the end of the world and this present creation is passed away.  It is at the point of the creation of the new heaven and new earth when the rich abundant blessings are bestowed upon the people of God.  They are comforted because there are no more tears or death or pain.  God has made all things new – new resurrected bodies, new earth and new heavens.  The former things are done away and this is the point at which God says, “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”  So how does that fit and relate to the end of the world?  This is the last day we are reading about in Revelation, chapter 21.  But remember what Jesus said in John 7:37:

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

There it is again.  “Let him that thirsts come unto me.”  In our verse it said, “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”  It is a quenching of thirst, but John 7:37 is speaking of the “last day, that great day of the feast,” which is referring to the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  Is that a time when God is sending forth the Gospel and still saving?  No, it is not, although this is the verse that some people that are critical of God ending His salvation program on May 21, 2011 and point to and they say, “Oh, Jesus is beckoning to all to come to him until the last day.  It is still the day of salvation and He is saying this on the last day of the feast.”  So they are recognizing that this phrase “the last day” is found only eight times in the Bible and six times it relates to the end of the world and two times it relates to the Feast of Tabernacles (as it does here).  So, yes, the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles relates to the last day of the world, but their point is that this means that God is continuing to send forth the Gospel unto salvation all the way to the end of time.  So they are saying, “You see.  You are wrong.  God did not stop saving people.  He is still calling people to become saved.”

Is that true?  It is interesting that in our verse in Revelation 21 the context is the “last day.”  It is the end of the world.  It is exactly what we look for to occur at the end of the world.  We look for this cursed creation to pass away and we look for a new heaven and new earth to be created and we look for God to remove our sin cursed body and, thereby, remove sin and death.  When you remove sin and death, you remove crying and tears and pain.  So all these things fit perfectly in Revelation 21 with what we expect will happen on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  Of course, October 7, 2015 is that last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

When we get together in our next study, we are going to look more closely at what it means “to thirst.”  What does that mean here when God is calling to those that thirst and saying, “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”