I Am–Confidence

Introduction

Every New Year, many people make resolutions. Each person who does this makes these resolutions with confidence they will complete all they resolved to do. The problem with resolutions is that we get down and out when we do not see the results we hoped for as quickly as we want.

We wish that we could get the body, money saved, or whatever it is we resolved to do right now. We may begin well and say things like, “I know this will take time, but I will commit.” Or maybe, “I will take this resolution one day at a time and finish this one this year.” But when a month or two rolls on, we see others eating that cake, or others go on extravagant vacations, we begin to stumble and say, “I will get back on track after_________.”

We lack the confidence and discipline to stay on track. We do because we cannot see the end from the beginning. We do not know the end because we cannot see that part. Please don’t assume that it is our fault precisely because we are limited by time and space. Even though it is not our fault, we must be like all athletic trainers and coaches who say we must envision what we will be at that mark and work toward it.

We have all done this or something like it. Maybe it was not a resolution but a project that you began and never finished. Whatever it is, we have all begun something and never finished it. When we do this, it is because we lack confidence. You may be thinking, “I have plenty of confidence in things I began but never finished.” If that is true, then what stops you from doing them?

Confidence is not necessarily about the skill or money to complete an action but also the time it takes. If a project begins and is unfinished, it may be due to a lack of confidence in the time to do it. Some of this lack of confidence in things in life bleeds over into our life of faith.

We struggle to have confidence in the Lord because we struggle to have confidence in life, either with ourselves because of the things we have failed at or because of the letdowns of others. Whichever it is, we struggle with confidence in life and faith in the Lord. But with Jesus, we have no reason not to have confidence. Jesus is our confidence, and He will give you confidence in life when you let Him.

Jesus gives us plenty of reasons to have confidence in Him in Revelation 1:4-8 and Revelation 22:12-13. In these two sections, we read:

Revelation 1:4–8 ESV

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: 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, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Then, in Revelation 22:12-13 we read:

Revelation 22:12–13 ESV

12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Within these few verses, we see we can have confidence in Jesus and our salvation because of who Jesus is and what the Lord does. We can have confidence. After all, we do not need to know how time plays out because we have the God, who knows time from before the beginning to the very end. Not only this, but Jesus is the expressed hope of our faith.

The Expressed Hope of Our Faith

Here in Revelation 1:4-5, we receive this teaching that Jesus is the expressed hope of our faith. We also see that the Father is part of this expressed hope in that He is the eternal one who extends grace and peace. But there is even more in this first verse than the Father and the Son. Yes, the full Trinity here gives us hope in our faith.

Part of having confidence in life involves having grace and peace. True grace and peace only come from knowing the Triune God. When we know the Triune God and know that He spans all time, even before time, from everlasting to everlasting, we will have grace and peace, and therefore we will live with confidence.

One reason for this is that when we know the Triune God, we know God has been eternally present. When we know He has been eternally present, we know He intervened in the past, He intervenes in the present, and He will intervene in the future.

Look at what John said in verse 4 about the “one who is and who was and who is to come,” this pulls from Exodus 3:14 and the great I Am statement from God to Moses, where God is the “I Am who I Am.” He is the unchanging God whose name does not change. Duvall said, “John stresses God’s eternal presence by placing the present-tense description first (“him who is”), and he reassures readers that God will intervene in the future (“is to come”).[1]

Our God is our reason for confidence. Our grace and peace are in our God, who is our confidence. But John does not just stop with this majestic description of the Father to give confidence. No, he continues to speak of the Spirit before His throne. This is the Holy Spirit, and John speaks of His ministries for us. These are wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and fear of the Lord (Isa. 11:2). But it also speaks about the seven “eyes” of the Lord that “scan to and fro throughout the earth” (Zech. 4:10). Simply, this is God seeing and knowing everything that has happened and will happen.

All of this gives confidence, but the ultimate form of confidence comes from our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Because of these, he is our example, hope, and object of our faith.

Jesus lived the perfect life for us and died for us, but the grave did not keep Him. He is currently sitting beside the Father and will sit on the throne of David and rule and reign over all in the Kingdom of God.

As the faithful witness, Jesus lived faithfully to the Father’s plan and exposed the lies of Satan. He demonstrated that all the world offers is wrong and only what God offers is right. As the firstborn of the dead, Jesus was raised from the dead; this resurrection guarantees our future resurrection. This means that death is not in victory over us, but Jesus is in victory over death, which means we are in victory over death. It also means that Jesus is sovereign over death, and it is not in control, but He is.

Finally, Jesus being the ruler of all kings of the earth means that no one is above Him. Jesus is the ultimate king, and all authority is His. He is in control of all things, and nothing happens that He does not know about. Also, it means no one can change what He has said is yours through Him. That which is yours and mine through Him is that His blood has washed away our sins. We are eternally His, and no one and nothing can change that. Rest in the Lord, and be confident to boldly go into this new year with His power behind you.

Another reason this text gives us confidence is that we have the God who owns time as our God. He owns time because He created time. There was no time before God said there would be time. He knew then all that would transpire and still created time and everything else. So have confidence because you have the God who owns time.

The God Who Owns Time

In Revelation 1:8, we read, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Alpha and Omega are the beginning and ending of the Greek alphabet. Which means that God is the beginning and the end of all things. But this does not mean He does not care about the middle. No, the “who is and who was and who is to come” covers all of time.

Back in Psalm 90:2, we read, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” He is the almighty and all-powerful creator God, who is God with us in the form of Jesus the Son. We have confidence through this because if the all-powerful creator God decided to come to us in the form of man, we can have confidence He is for us.

If God is for us, nothing can be against us because all is subject to Him. Nothing is above Him or more powerful than He is. We have Him, and with Him is peace and grace, which gives us confidence because, with peace and grace, we have zero fears.

Think about it: He owns time. He owns the one thing we can never get back or get more of when wasted. He owns that most valuable commodity. Also, this means there is nothing outside of His power and influence. We are within time and space, which makes us under His authority. But we are not the only ones under His authority. No, everything that has been created is under His power and authority.

I don’t know about you, but this gives me confidence about as much as anything else. Since all created things are under the influence and power of the Lord, that means all the stuff that I fear is under His authority. If the stuff I fear is under His authority, I should not fear it because my God is powerful and loving.

Also, as we read in Revelation 1:7, the Son is coming again, and all will see Him, and all nations will mourn because of Him. They will mourn because they have rejected Him and attacked those who are His. They have committed evil acts against His faithful followers. Jesus will pay them back for the atrocious attacks and evils they performed.

The Son came once before for us, and He is coming again. Have confidence and peace in this. Know that regardless of what comes in the New Year, the Lord already knows what is coming and has a plan. Know that all the evils that may happen will face their righteous judge when He returns.

You can have confidence in this because He is the Alpha and the Omega. Yes, I know in this verse in Rev.1:8, the Alpha and the Omega is God the Father, but in Rev. 22:12-13 we see that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, too. This means that He will work out all of His divine plans and purposes just as He explains them to us in His Word to us.

The Lord provides us great comfort with this name and His Word. If we want to know all God has planned and the glories that are yet to come, we need to read His Word. We know that the times are hard and people are evil. We know that this world is going down in a hurry. We yearn for a better day. We desire something far better than what we see every day. Our passion is for peace and beauty, true beauty, to prevail. We all tire of seeing the pure ugliness surrounding us daily.

Like the martyrs of Revelation 6:10, we all cry out, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” The pain and tragedies of this planet are more and more every day. We see death and tragedy at every turn. This place is dark and darker all the time. Evil seems to be prevailing at every turn. When, O Lord, when?

Thankfully, since our God is the God who owns time and created everything, we know the Righteous Judge is coming. He will avenge the innocent and correct the wrongdoers. He will overturn all iniquity and stabilize all that is rocked. He is the Righteous Judge who will bring about perfection again. We can have confidence because the Righteous Judge has not abandoned us in this evil world for all time, but He is coming soon.

The Righteous Judge is Coming

Looking at Revelation 22:12-13 we see that Jesus is coming quickly. His reward is with Him to give to each according to his work. Those who have loved His appearing will receive a great crown, but those who have rejected Him and never believed and committed much evil will receive eternal punishment as their reward.

He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end, the first and the last. None are before Him, and none are after Him. He is God. He will do all He has said He will do. No one, and nothing will slip through the cracks.

Many people think they will trick Him and make it through without Him. Much like the twisted and completely corrupt view of Noah and the ark in the movie starring Russell Crowe called “Noah.” In this movie, it loosely follows the narrative of Noah from the Scriptures. It has many weird and twisted views that have confused many people.

One stands out to me above all others, though. It depicts all the earth as corrupt along with the actual narrative, but it has one of Noah’s sons wanting to hang out in both worlds. This son befriends one of the evil rulers, and this ruler sneaks on the ark before the flood waters take him. The son feeds and cares for him because he somehow became wounded as he entered the ark. He makes it through to the end as if he was supposed to be there.

Anyone who knows the story of Noah knows that this is incorrect. Yet, many people looked to that evil man as the victim and Noah as the evil man by the movie’s end. That is what the world wants us to believe because the world is evil still. But this also leads many to believe that they can slip by judgment and make it into glory without the Righteous one.

Our world is twisted and celebrates much evil daily and condemns almost all forms of good. They miss the part where the Lord is coming and will judge all wickedness and condemn all who have rejected Him. There is no slipping by this judgment. All who are evil will be judged, and all who have believed will be rewarded. The Righteous Judge is coming.

What confidence in my life this gives me. I am excited to see my Righteous Judge because I have faith in Him to deliver and save me eternally. I know He has me, and I will be with Him always.

He gives me confidence daily when hope is gone. He restores my soul when I have been depleted by the evil in this world. He delivers me from evil and places me in green pastures. Jesus is my confidence when I can’t move. Jesus is my strength because, without Him, I have zero strength.

I know evil is rampant, and we all see how evil everything is today. We all know that the evilness of the world is abounding. We all know that the only hope for the world is Christ. Well, have confidence, my dear friends. Jesus is coming.

Knowing this should give you peace, and with peace comes grace. As stated above, we can have true confidence when we have peace and grace. True confidence allows us to stand firm in all situations. True confidence through Jesus allows us to look at all the evils of this world and know that it is on the losing side.

So, all those people who die alone without family, babies abandoned, families destroyed by drugs or alcohol, wars that destroy, natural disasters that kill, or any other evil you can think of will lose in the end. The Alpha and Omega will correct all wrongs we brought about. He will fix this wicked and twisted world back to how it was initially created. We can walk into the unknown knowing that the one who knows everything and will judge everything is with us. He has us, and with Him, why should we lack confidence.

Conclusion

I want to end with an illustration from the Gospel of Mark that I believe will really send the import of this I Am section home.

In Mark 4:35-41, the disciples were crossing the sea of Galilee. While crossing the sea, a great storm arose. When this storm arose, Jesus was in the stern asleep. He was with the disciples, who were frantically trying to keep the boat right side up. But Jesus was asleep. They could not believe Jesus was asleep while they were struggling to survive. They must have thought that He would be awake and save them from everything if He cared.

Finally, the disciples wake Him and ask incredulously if He cared for their lives. Jesus looks at them and stills the storm. He then looks at them and asks them why they were so afraid and if they had no faith.

The point is Jesus was with them through the whole storm. He was there when they were afraid and fighting for all they had. He was with them in all aspects of the storm. All they had to do was rely on Him because He is with us through all circumstances. Just because we think He is not doing what we think He should be doing does not mean He is not with us. He is always with us, and He will stop all the bad happening when it is time for Him to do so.

We can have confidence because the Great I Am–Confidence is with us. He is the expressed hope of our faith, He owns time, and He is the Righteous Judge that is coming soon. When you allow His peace and grace from these promises right here to fill you, you will have confidence that no one and nothing can shake. Jesus is with you, and He guarantees your place with Him. He will calm all storms when it is time, but until then, hold on with confidence because Jesus will deliver you soon.