Have you ever noticed that we
live in a world that's afraid?
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Everywhere you go,
people are fearful?
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And you know, it was Jesus
who said, "Don't be afraid."
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Why?
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Because He's the
Alpha and the Omega.
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In the book of
Revelation we're given this
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stunning picture of Jesus.
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In fact, the title
of the book itself is,
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A Revelation of Jesus Christ.
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He reveals Himself in a
way that we have never seen Him
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in the gospels, except perhaps
at the Mount of Transfiguration.
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In the book of Revelation
we see Him as this glorious
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being sitting,
standing if you please,
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at the right hand of God.
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So we want to take a
look at Jesus today as the
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Alpha and the Omega, and
we want to take a look at
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some of His own
statements about Himself.
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So we're going to the
book of Revelation chapter 1,
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and we're going to
look at verses 8 and 11.
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This is Jesus speaking, "I
am the Alpha and the Omega..."
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What does that mean?
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It's like saying,
"I am the A and the Z.
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I include the entire alphabet.
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I'm the total
sum of the alphabet."
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And Jesus is the total sum.
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Alpha and omega were the
Greek A and Z, if you please.
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They weren't the actual Z,
omega is a different letter.
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But when Jesus says, "I
am the Alpha and the Omega,"
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He wants to
instill in us assurance.
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He wants us not to be afraid.
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Fear is the enemy of faith.
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And yet, everywhere
we turn it seems like
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fear drives the world.
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Fear drives the stock market.
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It drives people's choices,
it drives what people do.
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Many times all day long.
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Fear.
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I'm looking forward to a world
where there is no more fear.
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Won't you be
glad for that world?
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But let's go on to
what Jesus has to say,
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the Alpha and the Omega
here, the Beginning and the End.
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Let's listen to what He says.
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He says, "I am the
Alpha and the Omega,
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the Beginning and the End..."
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"I've got it all
covered, everything in between.
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Your whole life
I've got covered.
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The start of your life
to the finish of your life.
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I've got the
whole world covered,
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from the start of Genesis
to the close of Revelation.
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I am the Beginning
and the End," He says.
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And then He goes on
in verse 8 and He says,
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"...who is and who was and
who is to come, the Almighty."
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Now that's quite a
marvelous statement.
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You know, there's
some people today that
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try to make Jesus as
kind of a secondary God,
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or something like that.
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But here He declares
that He is the Almighty.
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He is the
Creator of the universe.
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And that's a big thing
through the book of Revelation.
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So He and the
Father both are Almighty.
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The Holy Spirit is Almighty.
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But Jesus claims as
the Alpha and the Omega.
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He says, "I am the Almighty."
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And He claims once again
to be the Alpha and the Omega.
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When you get to the end
of the book of Revelation
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He says again that He's
the Alpha and the Omega,
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the Beginning and the
End, the First and the Last.
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So in other words, Jesus
is the sum of everything.
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Now Paul puts it this way.
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Some people have
misunderstood it.
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Paul says Jesus is
the end of the law.
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But really the word, "end,"
there means the goal of the law.
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He's the summation of the law.
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And that's what
Jesus is saying here.
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"I'm the
summation of the universe."
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And He can say that
because He created it.
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He made it.
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I mean, when you look at human
beings and you look at the DNA
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that makes us who we are, it
is an amazing incredible thing.
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Yet, Jesus made all of it.
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He's the Beginning and the End.
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Listen to the apostle
Paul in the book of Colossians,
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it's a very powerful statement.
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One of my favorite
chapters in the New Testament.
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Colossians 1:15-18
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He's talking about
this incomparable Jesus.
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He's saying
there's nobody like Him.
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Now just a few
versus earlier than that
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he tells people that
he's praying that they will be
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mighty Christians.
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I mean, have you ever
seen anybody be baptized
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and get up and say,
"Well, I'm baptized now.
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I just want to be
a weak Christian."
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No.
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People want to be
strong Christians,
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strengthened with the
might of the Lord Jesus,
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as the apostle Paul says.
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What kind of might is that?
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What kind of might is it?
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Well the apostle Paul describes
this might, this mighty Jesus,
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this incomparable Jesus,
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this matchless Jesus.
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Paul says, "He is the
image of the invisible God..."
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What do we mean by the
image of the invisible God?
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You know, we have
people come up and say,
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"Oh, you know, why do you
worship this invisible God?
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Nobody has ever seen God."
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No, no, no, that's not true.
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The apostle Paul says, and
the disciples also declare,
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that Jesus is the
image of the invisible God.
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The world has seen God.
They've seen Him in the flesh.
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This Jesus who walked
Palestine's dusty trails,
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this Jesus who was
hung on Calvary's cross
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and was resurrected, this
Jesus who touched the eyes
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of the blind and opened them,
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this Jesus who spoke
words of hope and courage,
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this Jesus who took on Himself
the burdens of the world,
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this marvelous,
incomparable Jesus,
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He is God.
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If you have seen
Jesus, you have seen God.
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And you see Him
in the Scriptures.
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And we have the testimonies
of the apostles and many others.
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In fact, I think it's
the apostle John who says,
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"We touched Him."
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He's not abstract.
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It's true we
cannot see God the Father,
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but we have seen God the Son.
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And so the apostle
Paul goes on to say,
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"He is the image
of the invisible God,
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the firstborn
over all creation."
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The firstborn of the dead.
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He's resurrected,
He's the preeminent one.
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Without His resurrection,
nobody's resurrection
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is going to count.
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Everybody's resurrection
is not going to happen.
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Or those that have been
resurrected, the few that had,
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they would probably
have to go back to the grave.
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But Jesus is the firstborn.
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In His resurrection
we all have the hope
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of the resurrection.
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Paul goes on to say, "For by
Him all things were created..."
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Well, if all things were created
by Him, then He's not created.
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He's the Creator.
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Because all things
were created by Him.
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"...that were created in
heaven," or the universe,
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"and that are on earth,
visible and invisible..."
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There are many
things that you cannot see.
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I remember going home to
my dad one time and saying,
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"Dad, did you know that
this desk," or wood, or whatever
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we were looking at, I said,
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"Dad, that's made
out of atoms that move."
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Now dad hadn't had
the opportunity to study
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a little bit of this that I had.
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And he was a wonderful dad.
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I'm blessed to have had
two great wonderful parents.
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But dad looked at me, and
I said, "They're all moving,
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dad, really fast around."
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"Naw," he said,
"that's not true."
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Because dad couldn't see it.
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It was invisible.
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The apostle Paul, they
didn't have microscopes
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in that day either, but
he said it under inspiration.
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That Jesus is the
invisible, that He made things
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out of the invisible.
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He made things out of the
invisible that are now visible.
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Let me go on.
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In heaven and on
earth, the universe,
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and things we see on earth,
"visible and invisible..."
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So He made the atoms,
He made the electrons,
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He made the molecules.
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He made everything that we see.
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And then he goes on,
"...whether thrones or dominions
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or principalities or powers.
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All things," it says it again,
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"All things were created
through Him and for Him."
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You know, love
doesn't like to be alone.
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The reason Jesus
created the universe is because
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He loves to share.
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You know, if
you're an unselfish person
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you take delight in sharing.
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I mean, to give,
the Bible teaches us,
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is better than receiving.
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To be able to share, to do
something for somebody else
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is better than being
given something yourself.
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And God is love.
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That's why He made the universe.
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And that's why He
wants to share it.
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That's why He's the
Creator of all things.
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He not only made it to share it,
but because He really loves us
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and He cares for us.
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Well the apostle
Paul goes on and says,
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"And He is before all things,
and in Him all things consist."
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These are powerful statements.
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In other words, this is a
statement we cannot grasp.
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In fact, Solomon the great king
said, "The world, the universe,
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basically cannot contain
You, cannot be contained,
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cannot contain You because
you're bigger than all of it."
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Scientists today, when
they talk about origins...
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And we're going to talk,
by the way, about evolution
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one of these times.
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They are mystified, "Where
did all of this come from?"
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It's because this God
that we serve is bigger
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than the entire
creation, if you please.
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He's greater than the creation.
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He goes on to say, "And
He is before all things,
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and in Him all things consist.
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He is the head of
the body, the church..."
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I want to ask a question.
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Is the church important?
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Of course the
church is important.
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I know people say, "Well
yeah, but look at all of the..."
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Yes, you can
find poor human beings
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who have made a mess of things.
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You can find poor
ministers like myself.
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You can find
other church leaders.
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You can find
people who have made lots
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of problems and failures.
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But Jesus still
loves His church.
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Because ultimately it's not man
that's in charge of His church,
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it's Jesus that's in
charge of His church.
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And then the apostle John
in the book of Revelation,
00:11:06.96\00:11:10.47
he gives us this
other, another view of Jesus
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and continues this view
in Revelation chapter 1.
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It's very powerful.
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It's the introduction to
all of the book of Revelation.
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And John says,
"Then I turned to see
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a voice that spoke to me."
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Hears a voice speaking to him.
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And he turned, as we
would, to see who it is.
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Who is this voice?
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And he saw in the midst
of the seven candlesticks...
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Now I want to say that
there is a heavenly sanctuary.
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That's the real sanctuary.
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We'll talk a little bit more
about that as time goes along.
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Because you can't talk
about the revelation of Jesus
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without actually seeing Him move
through the heavenly sanctuary.
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So Jesus is standing here in
the midst of these candlesticks
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and He's dressed as a
priest, if you please.
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And this is what
John goes on to say.
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"...One like the Son of
Man, clothed with a garment
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down to His feet, girded
about with a golden band."
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He appears as a priest.
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He is a priest.
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He is the only
real priest we have.
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"His head and His
hair were white like wool,
00:12:13.13\00:12:17.57
white as snow, His eyes
were like a flame of fire,
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His feet like fine
brass, refined in a furnace...
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He had in His right hand
seven stars, out of His mouth
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went a sharp sword, and His
countenance was like the sun
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shining in its strength."
00:12:36.28\00:12:37.62
Ever try to look
at the sun at noonday?
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That's like the face
of Jesus, as it were.
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"And when I saw Him," John says,
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"when I saw this
glorious picture,"
00:12:44.96\00:12:47.23
he says, "I fell at
His feet like I was dead."
00:12:47.86\00:12:52.90
In other words, all
the strength had left John.
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John just felt like He was dead.
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He was still alive, but
he had fallen before this
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glorious Jesus,
this wonderful Jesus.
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He had fallen before Him.
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And now we hear Jesus
respond to the apostle John.
00:13:08.88\00:13:14.42
"But He laid His
right hand on me and said,
00:13:14.92\00:13:18.53
'Do not be afraid.
00:13:19.26\00:13:22.46
Don't be afraid.
00:13:23.26\00:13:25.97
I am the First and the Last.
00:13:26.53\00:13:29.57
I'm the strong One.
00:13:29.80\00:13:31.24
I'm the Alpha and the Omega.
00:13:31.54\00:13:34.04
No matter what
you're going through,
00:13:34.31\00:13:36.38
I'm in control.
00:13:36.58\00:13:38.01
I am the One who's in charge.
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Don't be afraid.'"
00:13:42.38\00:13:43.72
Listen, Jesus loves you.
00:13:43.75\00:13:46.29
And if we trust
Him, there's no reason
00:13:46.86\00:13:50.16
why we should be afraid.
00:13:50.63\00:13:52.63