The Beginning and The End

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Strive Student Leadership Team

Mission Trip Meeting

BBC - Plan to stay late and use the bounce house as a youth group

No youth group next week

July 7th Volunteer with church

Pick Up Soccer

Summer Cookouts are coming!!!

Question

The first question we are going to look at in this series is a question that becomes foundational to so many of our beliefs, the eternality of God

The question submitted was this, “How is God the beginning and the end but there is eternal life and eternal means forever?”

Which is a fantastic question because it shows me that you are thinking!

And we are going to answer that question tonight!!!

The statement “beginning and the end” comes from , if you want to turn there, we’ll be there most of the night.

But in verse 5 it says this:

“ 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

And so the question being asked is ultimately this, “What does God mean by end?” right?

Because if eternal means forever, why does God say He is the beginning and the end?

And we are going to answer that question tonight!!!

Object Illustration

Have two students come up and grab hold of the rope on each end.

Have them walk away from each other until the rope is stretched out

Take the chicken and tape it somewhere in the middle

“This rope signifies all of eternity okay?

Meaning that if this rope could continue to stretch all the way this way, that’s how long eternity has been....forever that way. And if this rope on this side stretches forever this way, that’s how long eternity will be.

“This is mankind” - “This chicken represents the human race in its existence. So right at the start of this chicken we can turn to Genesis and read about God creating the:

Universe, world, animals (including chicken), plants, sun moon and stars, man and woman - that’s all summed up right here where this chicken is

Meaning - everything else before this has just always been, and everything after this will always be

Do you want to blow your mind and make yourself feel incredibly small? Think about this:

“We might marvel that God is infinite, eternal, and unchanging in his justice, wisdom, power, goodness, and truth. But when you pause to think that He never chose to be this way, nor did anyone else choose to make him this way, it staggers the mind.”

We sometimes sit in awe and wonder at what God created..like the universes, they make us gasp when we see a vibrant image of one of them

Show picture

Or when we see a beautiful sunset, we are amazed by it.

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We might even marvel that God is this infinite, eternal, and unchanging being who is full of power and goodness and truth.......

But, what will really blow your mind is when you stop to think that He never chose to be this way, He’s just always been. No one or no thing chose to make Him this way…it’s just who He is

He has just always been

No one created God

No one determined when He’d start creating the world

He has always been

Before everything there was God

That’s what God means by “I am the alpha, I am the beginning”

Alpha is the first letter of the greek alphabet, and omega is .... you guessed it, the last

Meaning:

“God did not emerge out of many possibilities. Everything, EVERYTHING, emerged out of Him.”

He was the beginning, and He is the end

The truth is, when you allow your mind to think about this, to think about the fact that God has always existed forever and ever, for billions of years before mankind was created....it really puts into perspective the smallness, the insignificance, the tiny amount of time we have as humans on this earth, doesn’t it?

It makes the things that we are chasing seem so so so insignificant

He is eternal

You know, like when a boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with us. Or we get cut from a team or a play. Or we

He has always been

His beginning is infinitely that way, and our beginning is a result of His creation of us, and our ending is the result of Him, and His ending is forever that way

The Omega

But let’s focus on the question now: “What does God mean by being the end?”

What does this END refer to?

Is He saying that at some point everything will end?

Or is He saying something else? Is the end referring to the end of a time period before eternity?

Or even does He mean that at some point He will end?

Well, the truth is this: God will never end. He has no creator so He has no rules to follow. He is infinite. He is eternal. He will ALWAYS BE. He’s forever this way and forever this way

Illustrate Mind blown

So He can’t mean that He will end, or even that everything will end.

But, we do know this world will end though, don’t we?

In fact in verse 1 of we see John talking about a new Heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

Let’s read verses 5-8 again:

“5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

What God means here by the “end” is he is the author AND the finisher of our lives here on earth.

He controls the world because He created the world.

Not only is He the beginning of eternity and the end of eternity, He’s the beginning and the end of our human lives

It’s humanly true and understandable. People are born, and people die.

There’s really not any other option is there?

And notice here in verses 5-8, that there are really two paths we have when it comes to the end:

“To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be His God and he will be my son”

and

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Alright, do you see it?

At the end of our earthly lives, one of these descriptions will determine your eternal state:

You can choose the water of life…Jesus said let all who are thirsty come to me

Or you can choose to be faithless idolaters…and spend eternity in Hell

See God is eternal, He’s the definition, and He WILL determine your fate

And He made us with eternal souls....meaning yes this life on earth will end, but we will spend eternity in one of two places

That’s what God means by I am the beginning and the end.

He’s the beginning of all things, and He’s the end of all things.

All things exist by Him and through Him

All things will exist eternally, like He’s eternal, in one of two places

Closing

Let’s come back to this rope illustration one last time

So here we are, in this tiny part of eternity past, present and future

This is all we get…this little sliver right here

Verses 5-8 of made it very plain and simple for us....

What you choose to do with this brief life you have will determine your eternity

You can choose to take the time you have and pursue idolatry, buy into the sexually immoral culture of the day, you can choose to be faithless.....and in an instant....when your life is over, you will end up in the lake of fire, the second death, the death that does not end

Or

You can choose to come to God, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the one who controls it all, and drink from the spring of the water of life…you can come and put your faith in Him, and pursue Him, buy into His Word, and upon your death here on earth, spend eternity with the Eternal One, God Himself.

If you ever need reminded…just think about the fact that God has always been, that He’s the creator, that He’s the faithful judge.

When we feel small we realize our great need.

He is the beginning and the end....do you know Him?