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 unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

John says he heard behind him a great voice, like a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. That raises an interesting question, because the Lord had already said essentially the same thing just two verses earlier. Why repeat it?

I suggest it is because most people do not struggle with the Alpha or the Omega. They do not have much trouble believing that God was there in the beginning. They can read Genesis and say, “Yes, God made the heavens and the earth, and what He made was good.” And most people do not struggle as much with the end either. They know that one day heaven will be right, pure, and good.

Where people struggle is in the middle.

That is where the questions rise.

“Why is this happening?”
“Why did God allow this?”
“Why did He not stop that?”
“Where was God when everything fell apart?”

That is where faith gets tested. Not so much at the beginning. Not so much at the end. But in the middle. In the confusing stretch. In the painful chapter. In the place where you do not know how the story is going to turn.

So what does a pastor do? What does a theologian do? What does a poet do?

He keeps whispering into weary ears, over and over again, that God is still in control. That God is still on the throne. That the same God who did a good work in the beginning is here in the middle and will be faithful in the end.

That is what John is doing.

The repetition is not accidental. It is pastoral.

It is as though the Lord is saying, “John, tell them again. Tell them one more time. Tell them while they are hurting. Tell them while they are confused. Tell them while they are watching life unravel. I am still Alpha and Omega. I have not stepped away. I have not lost the thread. I am still the first and the last.”

I like that.

Sometimes the most needed ministry is not new information. It is repeated reassurance. It is hearing the same truth again until it sinks below the panic and into the soul. The heart in pain often needs to be told more than once, “God is here. God sees. God knows. God will not fail you.”

And that is what we must do for one another.

We must whisper it again and again in the ears of our teenagers, our friends, our neighbors, our husbands, our wives, our children, and even our own hearts. “God is here, and He is going to see you through.”

Do not miss the tenderness in that. Revelation is not merely thunder from heaven. It is comfort for the suffering. It is the voice of the Lord cutting through fear and saying, “I was there at the start. I will be there at the end. And I am not absent in the middle.”

Then the Lord says, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia. John is not to keep the vision to himself. What he sees must be written down and sent out. The churches need this message.

And then the seven churches are named: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

As we will see in chapters 2 and 3, these seven churches speak of the seven epochs of the church age. Each church speaks of a period in church history chronologically and consecutively. They were real churches in real places, but they also paint a larger picture of church history unfolding through the centuries.

Think about that. The Lord is not just speaking to one moment. He is speaking across the whole age of the church. He is speaking to every season, every struggle, every triumph, every decline, every faithful remnant, every lukewarm drift. He is speaking to the whole story.

So before John ever turns to the details of the churches, the Lord first anchors him in this unshakable truth: I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.

That is where hope begins.

Because if He is only Alpha, then He started things well but left us alone in the middle.
If He is only Omega, then maybe things end well, but we are left guessing until then.
But if He is both Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, then we can trust Him with every page in between.

Beloved, that is the word for the middle. The middle of grief. The middle of sickness. The middle of confusion. The middle of unanswered prayer. The middle of heartbreak. The middle of waiting.

He is here.