OK, we've got some new folks, which is awesome. And Rich said, let's go through this book. So this is Jesus the Evangelist by a guy named Richard Phillips. It's about witnessing. He says he has his, you know, everybody who writes a book and is that smart. So I finally learned you have to have, like, your thesis statement, right? Like, this is why I'm writing the book. And he says, literally, this is why I'm writing the book. So it made it easy for me to figure it out. But two reasons. One is all having to do with witnessing and spreading the gospel. One is to give zeal to probably people like us, the frozen Presbyterians, to spread God's gospel. And then secondly, to reform the witness of maybe some others who have zeal, but their zeal isn't based on the biblical word. So those are his twofold purposes. And in the book, he goes through John's gospel, not in its entirety, but chapter one. and then skips to three and then four, where chapter one is kind of the introduction of Jesus' ministry and John the Baptist. Two is the woman at the well, the cleansing of the temple. No, he doesn't go through those at all, but we're going to. And then three is Nicodemus, and then four is the woman at the well. I said that wrong a second ago. But anyways, to catch you guys up, which I'm not gonna be able to do, but to give you the big picture, so far in the study, we have made it to about verse 40 something. It's right around Nathanael. Yeah, 47-48. Give this to you guys. John's gospel in chapter one is split into seven days, and I think it's supposed to maybe make us think of the creation account in Genesis, but notice that days five and six aren't really there, so that he can say on the third day, which is really the seventh day, which kind of points to the new creation in Jesus. So with that, let's get into it. The tradition in this class is to read something out of somewhere other than John, and then pray, and then get started. So we're going to use Daniel. Why not? And hopefully we can bring this all the way to a close this morning in verse 51. We'll see how we do on that, though. And then Daniel will maybe make more sense. So I need two people who are going to be willing to read this morning. Sure. Awesome. You are going to be the narrator. and then you're going to read the poetry, and that will make more sense here in a second. But go to Daniel chapter 7. Daniel's 12 chapters long. The first part is kind of autobiographical. You know what I'm trying to say. He's talking about his experiences, and the second half he has these visions. Think revelation. Think apocalyptic-type things. I think I've mentioned this before. Is it Ferguson? No, it's not. Somebody said that Revelation is kind of the movie of the Bible, right? It's a vision. And so we're supposed to not only read it with reason, but we're also supposed to be impacted by the language. Well, Daniel's kind of the same way. And we're going to see some of that here in Daniel's vision. We will start in verse 9, which good and yes, awesome, I think. You'll notice that at verse 9, it's kind of the way the words are written on the page makes you think of Psalms like a poem, right? And then if you go down to verse 11 through 12, that's where you're going to read, Johnny. It goes back to kind of the narration. of the story and then back to 13 we get more poetry and that's where you're going to pick up again. So you're going to have verses 9 to 10. Johnny you've got 11 through 12 and then Angela's got 13 through 14. And let me just paint the picture very briefly. What we're not going to read about is what leads right up to this first first line that we're going to read but in John's vision he sees all these beasts and it's this is these things are happening on the earth and it's just chaos there are beasts that are that are just wreaking havoc on the earth it's ugly it's chaotic and it's nasty but in the middle of this nastiness all of a sudden we break from what's happening on the earth and we go to a heavenly courtroom And that's what Angela's going to read, and then we'll take a pause, and we'll go back to the madness and see what happens on Earth, and then we'll go back, and you'll tell us, kind of finish up what happens in the courtroom. So with that, Angela. As I looked, the thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand thousand served him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court sat in judgment and the books were opened. I looked then, because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. So as you read through the rest of Daniel 7, come to find out that these beasts represent kingdoms and kings, if you will, on earth. And when I read through this, I thought of Was it Psalm 2, the nation's rage, that people set up their kingdoms and then God laughs at them kind of a thing? And this is kind of that same story, that these beasts think that they own the earth, but in the end, the ancient of days, God the Father judges them, and only one can come and stand in the holy presence of the Father, and that's the Son of Man. Okay, as we turn back to John chapter 1 now, let's start by reading some of that. But before we do, Johnny, would you open us in prayer? Sure. Father, please bless our time. God, would you please open our minds, open our hearts to receive your word and to hear from your spirit. God, would you teach all of us? Would you help us to worship you by learning about you, by studying your word diligently, God, and by just being sensitive to the leading of your spirit. Thank you again for this time in your name. Amen. So let's all turn to John chapter 1. You've got the prologue, the first 18 verses that take place nowhere because it's just eternal. And then starting in verse 19, you've got the first day of these seven days. And in that day, John shows up and he speaks with the priests and Levites. They ask him, who are you and what are you doing here? And he says, stop asking about me. Jesus is the one who's here. Day 2 starts in verse 29, and John the Baptist basically speaks that whole... that's like his little speech there, 29 to 34, and he's relating about Jesus' baptism, and he's telling everybody who Jesus is. He is the Lamb of God. Come on in. The water's fine, as they say. Let's see, so that's kind of a couplet. That's John the Baptist's testimony, day 1 and 2. Now we are in day 3 and 4, which is another couplet. Day 3 starts verse 35, and then day 4 starts verse 43. In day 35, John points to Jesus, says, again, Behold the Lamb of God. Andrew and probably John together see him point, and they end up following Jesus. Jesus says, What are you seeking? They say, You. He says, Come, and you will see. And then the next day, verse 43, is where we're going to pick up. So verse 43, this is day four, the second day in the couplet here. The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, How do you know me? Jesus said to him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel. Jesus answered him, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? you will see greater things than these. And he said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Last week we made it down to, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. So we're going to attempt to pick it up from there. But kind of the theme, or one of the themes of last week was coming. Jesus said, come and you will see. And then the next day, Philip kind of picks that up again and says the same thing to Nathanael. Come and see. And John 6, right around the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus says, all that the Father gives to me will come to me. There's a certainty to it. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. And last week we read all the way to the end of Revelation where this idea of Jesus calling us and turning us to come kind of turns a corner. You know, we have these guys telling other people, like, we should come and see, just like Jesus told them. And last week we sang, thanks Angela, Jesus I Come, which I thought was awesome, especially as you sing through that hymn or that song in light of what we had studied. But in Revelation, at the very end, the whole thing changes or turns the corner when at the very end, Jesus says, this is Revelation 22, the last book, last chapter of the Bible, the last verses. Surely I am coming soon. And John says, Amen, come Lord Jesus. And of course, that's our hope. I have to say a few more things about 47 and 48 from last week, verses that is, because they're going to be important to us today in finishing off these last couple of verses. So I'll say a couple more things and then I'll get into it with you and we'll banter. Jesus says, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. And we discussed, hey, who else in the Bible is known as a deceiver? And you have to go all the way back to Genesis 28 for one example, which is where Jacob, who is the deceiver. And we'll return to that idea here in a second. But for now, as we look at Nathanael, Jesus says, Behold an Israelite in whom there is no Deceit. What does this imply? About Jesus' relationship with Nathanael. Patrick, I saw the inhale. Before you added that, I was going to say that people assume Israelites were deceitful. Because it's like, finally, Israelite is not deceitful. Go to John 8, 44 for me. My mind went the same place, brother. By the way, for those of you that are new here, we have a little challenge issued at the beginning of the class, and that is to read through the Gospel of John every week. It's 21 chapters, so three chapters a day to build context. And then last week, if you weren't here, we kind of upped the ante and said maybe attempt to memorize the prologue. I've enjoyed it. John 8, 44. Because this is going to be Jesus talking to the Pharisees. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar, and the father lies. So if there is a contrast of some sort, Nathanael is not of the father of the devil, who is the liar and the father of lies, then who is Nathanael of? Jesus points to him and says, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit, then who is Nathanael of? Look at the prologue, verses 9 through 13. The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So you kind of see that Nathanael, we can kind of imply, is of the Father. Let's go to John 6, verse 37 to 40. Context here is Jesus feeds the 5,000. And then the next day he disappears, the people go find him and they say, they don't say this, Jesus says this about them, you just want more bread. And they say, well, what do we have to do to do the works of God? And he says, believe in him who he has sent. In other words, believe in me who came from the father. And these Jews in classic Jewish fashion say, okay, well fine, what sign do you give us? Because Moses gave us manna. Jesus says two things. First, it wasn't Moses that gave you the manna, it was the father. And then in terms of, what sign he effectively says me. There's a lot to that, and we could read all of it, but we don't have time. So for now, 6, 37 to 40. Who's got it? Thank you. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never pass out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. You said through 40, right? Please. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life. And I will raise Him up on the last day. So I've got a sheet of paper that as I read through the gospel in the week, I've got at the top, there's like columns, like several themes. And one of them is that Jesus came from the Father. And that, like every time I come across a verse that has to do with that, I just write down that reference. And that column is getting stupid long, we'll put it that way. And I think that's relative here, relative, meaningful here. Effectively, what we can infer then is that Nathanael is from the Father, and in light of those verses, what that means is that Jesus has called him, and he's going to come. And Jesus is going to do two things. He's never going to let him be cast out, and he's going to raise him up on the last day. Then we get to Nathanael's response. Verse 48. How do you know me? Right? Because when Nathanael walked up, the first one to speak was Jesus. Nathaniel didn't say, hi, my name is, right? How do you know me? Jesus answers, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. You guys remember talking about Peter? It's kind of the same thing. Jesus knows man and what's in him. John 10, 27. Somebody look that up and read it, please. That's a blessed assurance, isn't it? Nathanael said to him, Now in light of what Colby just read, I think we have our answer. But what does Jesus actually say to him? Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. What does that mean? Like literally put the piece, like the story together in chronological flow because Jesus has become flesh and dwelt among us and has invaded time, space, matter, even though he's above all that because he created all that. So if you go back in this day, Philip goes to Nathanael, finds him sitting under a fig tree, and says, we found the Messiah, effectively. And Nathanael says, what? He's from Nazareth? That can't be. And Philip says, dude, just come and see. Well, now what does Jesus say? Is he saying that Nathanael knew the Messiah before it was sitting under the fig tree, and Jesus knew him before that situation. So the voice of Jesus was already in Nathanael's head. The fig tree is kind of just the situation. Nathanael had Jesus on his heart and was able to know that the Messiah was coming much before that situation. Now we get into some speculation. There are some who infer from this, I don't think John says this clearly so that's why I say this is speculation, but some have considered that maybe Nathanael was under the fig tree, you know, reading John's gospel per se, having his personal time with God, maybe reflecting on a psalm or something, I don't know, having some worship time. But that's not clearly stated there. I think this is a small demonstration of some of the characteristics of God. That's what I mean. Before this actually happened, I knew you, and you knew me. That's what I meant. Before he said to come look at the Messiah, we knew each other, and I knew you, and you knew me. It may be that far, Angela, I don't know. But when I look at it through, when I try to look at it through Nathaniel's eyes, I see kind of like him showing up, shaking Jesus' hand, if you will, and Jesus saying, kind of telling him, like, hey, I saw three hours ago, I know what you were wearing, I know where you were sitting. And so he kind of does this small demonstration of the power and the knowledge of God. I think. Yeah. I saw you over there. I know what you're thinking. I like it, because he's probably maybe heard about this guy out there baptizing, talking about the Messiah's here. Nick, you were going to? I was going to say, you know, you look at the fellow on place in verses 15 and 51. It's very much like all the other miracles that Jesus does. You know, I turned the water into wine, I saw him on the fig tree, I raised from the dead. You know, you only believe in because of that sort of thing. So, as you said, I think it's a demonstration of power, a small demonstration. I know it's in his heart, but I also saw it physically. He's demonstrating, because you look at Nathaniel's, like, how do you know me? I saw where you were sitting. I love it, the compare and contrast, because is Jesus seeing Nathaniel in the fig tree, is that the extent of his knowledge of Nathaniel? Is that all he knows about him, that he was wearing a blue tunic that day? It's just like a flash in the car, it's like, hey. So, and then all the stuff we talked about last week about God knowing his people, knowing his sheep, then we know what Jesus knows about Nathanael, namely everything. He was in the mind of God before time. But then what does Nathanael know, by contrast, about Jesus? Well, in chapter 2, Jesus is going to turn the water into wine in Cana. And then he's going to go to Jerusalem and he's going to cleanse the temple and the Jews challenge him again. What sign do you show for doing this? And his response is. Destroy this temple and in three days I will rise it up and we're going to talk more about that, but obviously Jesus is connecting himself to the temple and that that work on the cross is going to be a big sign. But afterwards he says. This is John 2.23, Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing, but Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness among man, for he himself knew what was in man. And there is a beautiful picture of grace because Jesus knows what is in the heart of man, yet he came down to dwell among men and redeem his people. Now, Pete and Nick, and what they were saying about what Nathaniel knew and understood, we've got to keep the conversation going. In verse 49, we get Nathaniel's confession. Because Jesus says to him, hey, before you were under the fig tree, I saw you. So he gives him this little demonstration, and then what is Nathaniel's response? He calls Jesus a few things, doesn't he? What are they? Son of God. Rabbi, Son of God, King of Israel. Son of God, King of Israel are both kind of messianic overtones, but I think part of what we should maybe notice is that God does this small sign and gives Nathaniel the faith that despite himself he can see the reality and the truth of who Jesus actually is. He is the Son of God and the King of Israel. We could get into a long line about Son of God and where that comes from as we kind of shift from Nathanael to now John's gospel when he writes this gospel and then gives it to the Greeks, Greek Jews I should say, Greek speaking Jews. We've already been over a lot of that. Stuff like Psalm 2, if you remember. I will tell of the decree, the Lord said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And then you see that quoted, cited directly, word for word, and axed several times, I think in Hebrews. And then so you have Luke, and effectively Apostles in the New Testament, unpacking that and telling us that he's talking about Jesus there. And you've got a lot of other places where Son of God shows up. One of which, which I think is going to be relevant to today, I'll read to you, so we don't have to take time to look it up. David, King David asks basically petitions and says, look, I built a huge temple for me. You're still sitting in a tent, God. Let me build a temple for you. And this is the response. When your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be my son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the sons of men." This is Messianic language. It's God saying, I'm going to build my temple and he is Jesus. And guess what? When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men and the stripes of the sons of men. Now we know what that means, right? Because it's not his iniquity, it's ours. Okay, let's turn to the King of Israel then. We're not going to read Zephaniah 3. Zephaniah is an Old Testament prophet. He's got three chapters. That's it. The first two chapters, he is telling Israel about all the bad things the other nations have done. And you can just see them in the room going, awesome. They're all bad. And then he turns the corner in chapter 3 and brings Israel right into it and says, well, guess what? You guys are a bucket of goo as well. And that's the first eight verses or so of 3. And then the rest of chapter 3 is this great hope. In there you see the King of Israel and it's beautiful. Maybe this afternoon sometime you can take a peek at it. We're not going to right now, but we'll look at a few places in John. Turn to John chapter 12 verses, I think we want to start in 13. There's a literary device, which I just learned about. Big words are fun. It's called an inclusio. What it means is like a bracketing. So this is John the Apostle writing his gospel wanting us, through the eyes of the first century Jews, to speak Greek, to see something. So verses 13, 14, and 15, if somebody would read that. This is, sorry, this is the triumphal entry, by the way. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming. Sit in on a donkey's pole. So in verse 13, Even the King of Israel, verse 15, from Joel or Amos maybe, I can't remember. Behold your King is coming. There's your brackets and right in the middle is Jesus. He is the King. If you go forward in the Gospel of John to chapter 18 is the betrayal, 19 trial. It's really interesting, the word king shows up like over a dozen times, I think. Most of it is in the context of humans saying that he's the king, but in a derogatory way, like you're not really the king is what they mean. All the way from Pilot, who actually says, walks out, is it sarcasm, I don't know, and says, behold your king. He's speaking the truth without knowing it, right? Later on he's gonna ask, what is truth? all the way to the sign that they put above Jesus' head on the cross, the King of Israel. But now we have to ask the question in the context of what we're going to get into in verses 50 and 51, and if you look through the whole gospel, is Jesus maybe a little bit reluctant to take the title King? Remember, this is early in his ministry. Can anybody think of examples from other Gospels or from John's Gospel of where Jesus kind of says something like, don't go tell everybody, or disappears quickly? Yeah. Yes. Here's an example. Let's go to John 6. Again, this is the feeding of the 5,000. And afterwards, go down to 615. He feeds everybody. And in verse 14, when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world. Let me read verse 15. Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him a king, Jesus withdrew again to mount by himself. Interesting, huh? And that's another, I mentioned that piece of paper with the themes on it, that's another one is the hour, when Jesus talks about the hour. And you can see throughout this gospel, at least probably the others as well, Jesus's controlling of time. He didn't just parachute into the place of the skull and get strapped to the cross and then beam right back up to heaven. He had a timeline involved and he was gonna do his works so that people may believe. Isn't this like the strangest verse in the world? We're going to take him by force and make him king. Please expound. Yeah, it's great. How do you forcefully make somebody rule over you? It's bizarre, isn't it? I don't know that they were looking for him to actually move over to them. I think they were glad for the full stomachs and wanted that to keep coming. That's the story of chapter 6. And then I think we can take from other parts too, and just from extra-biblical literature, just history of that time period, when a lot of the Jews thought of the Messiah, they were hoping for the big dude with shining armor who's going to put a giant sword and a mace on the side of the Roman helmets. It's good that we don't struggle with that anymore and look for free handouts from our leaders. Let me recap very briefly. We already said this, but just because I think it's weighty, I think it's part of the point. Nathaniel sees this small sign that Jesus gives him. Of course, he's known by Jesus. He's one of his sheep. But he makes that leap of faith through the Spirit and acknowledges that Jesus is the Messiah. And that's right back to John the Gospel mission statement, chapter 20, verse 31. I write all these things and demonstrate all these signs of Jesus so that you may believe that he is the Son of God and have life eternally. And that's really the point, and that's what we are called to do as well. Okay, Jesus' answer. What does he say? What does he say back to Nathanael, who now rings out with this beautiful messianic title for Jesus and says, You are the Son of God, the King of Israel. And what does Jesus say? Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Chapter 16, so in John's gospel, is it right around 13? He doesn't really talk about the Lord's Supper, but that's basically what's going on. And then Jesus, I think it's called the Farewell Discourse. And then he goes on for like, let's see, 13, 14, 15, so four chapters of just Jesus talking as they walk to the garden. And then that ends in the High Priestly Prayer, which is right before the betrayal. Quite a lineup if you go through it all at once. But in 16, let's look for, do you now believe? Everybody turn to John 16, and we'll go verse 28 to the end of the chapter. Anybody who's got it is willing to read. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and am going to the Father. His disciples said, Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech. Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you. This is why we believe you came from God. Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. So the disciples say, Oh Jesus, you're speaking plainly. We know that you know everything and that you come from God, so we believe. Jesus looks him square in the face and says, do you now believe? I'm about to go to the cross. My hour is coming. You're all going to leave me. But what's the last part, Johnny, the very last words? I have overcome the world. You might be faithless, but I still remain faithful. And you talk about a picture of grace. That's the life of a Christian, right? Up and down the mountain. And Jesus takes us up that mountain and then we go crawling back down, running away from him, and then he grabs us and hauls us right back up the mountain in spite of ourselves. So if we take that back to Nathanael then in verse 50, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe you will see greater things than these? Now, you know, I brought that in there because it's kind of the same language of Jesus. And I'm not saying that the two are perfectly parallel, but it's interesting to kind of compare and contrast because on the one hand, Jesus is saying back in 16, when you say you believe, wait, you're all about to abandon me. In chapter one, Nathaniel sees a small demonstration, believes, and Jesus says, you believe, but I'm going to show you more than this. And I think there's a little bit of a parallel theme in that Jesus is saying, um, you, uh, I don't know. Help me out. Maybe like you're going to need more than just this. And guess what? I'm going to do that for you. Believing is a lot more than you think it is. You know what I mean? Go on. Just that, yeah, just that our perception of what trust and faith requires or what is sufficient is lowly and complete. You know, we don't understand really what it costs, but God does and means that. It's also simpler than you think it is. I think, I mean, there's only two places in, well, it's not two places, but there's only two times that the words Jesus was amazed that are expressed. And one says that the faithlessness of Israel, he was amazed at the lack of faith in his hometown. And the other was that the faith of the Gentile soldier. He was amazed. He marveled at his faith. And I know John doesn't use the language here, but I think that, I mean, not that we can blow Jesus out of the water or anything, you know, he's the son of God, he knows everything, but I think there's this sense in which he's, he's, he's struck by Nathaniel's faith. He says, you believe because I told you what color your socks were? I mean, it's what Colby said. Dude, man. Hold on to your... Hold on to your... Yes. Pastor, thank you. John, as he's penning this Gospel, looking back at the other Gospels, and then the whole canon, the whole story, the whole redemptive story, is saying that Jesus is the supreme revelation. He's the culmination of all of this. He's the reason why we have this whole story, and all these thousands of years it's been weaving together. And then you look within John's Gospel itself, and he kind of does the same thing all over again, with this ramp up to the culmination at the cross. We're going to get into some more of that very briefly. Well, Jesus doesn't finish there. He goes on in verse 51 and says, and this is interesting to me, and this spawned a lot more questions to me than maybe I found answers to, speaking of me believing. And he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. So, first off, I say to you. I didn't do a word search or anything, but so far in the gospel, in chapter one and then later on in the gospel, that didn't stick out to me a lot. But right here he's saying, I say to you. But three things. Heaven's going to be opened. Angels of God are going to ascend and descend. on the Son of Man. Now, we're not going to have time to get into the Son of Man, but that's the culminating point I was hoping to get to. But for now, remember how we talked about the deceiver, Nathanael, whom there is no deceit, maybe an echo of Genesis? Let's go to Genesis chapter 28. And while you guys go there, chapter 28, verses 10 to 17, I'll give you a little bit of context. In chapter 27, Jacob steals Esau's blessing. Esau threatens to kill Jacob. Rebecca, Jacob's mom, tells Jacob to flee to Haran to his uncle Ben. But of course, daddy, blind Isaac, has to be brought into the deal. So Rebecca tells Isaac, Isaac, I loathe my life because of Esau's Hittite wives. It says earlier in chapter 26 that they made Isaac and Rebecca's life bitter. Isaac falls right into the plot. He calls in Jacob after Rebecca talks to him, and he says, Jacob, go take one of Laban's daughters as your wife. Don't marry a Canaanite. So Jacob packs up. He's probably, I don't know, on his own, maybe got a few people with him, and heads north. And on the way, we have this encounter in Genesis 28. Who'd be willing to read it? 28 verses 10 to 17. Jacob left Bathsheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and the south. And in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. And Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. So early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Lazarus at first. And Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone, which I've set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me, I will give a full tent. So zero in on his dream first, and then later on maybe on the idea of Bethel. And let's see what we can do with this. Jesus is making an allusion. When he said that to Nathanael, he's alluding to Genesis 28 here. Tell me about this vision. What's going on in the vision? What does Jacob see? Yeah, that's right. Stairway to heaven. He sees a stairway, a ladder. And the ladder is touching two places. Patrick, where are they? Okay. So what's this about? I'm not just asking Patrick, but if he's got an answer it would be awesome. Anybody else? What's this dream of Jacob's about? If we think about the Theophanies in the Old Testament, If we use systematic theology language, say that Jesus is the eternal image of God, and you can see that right in John's prologue. But if you go back to the Old Testament and you uncover some of these sneak peeks of God to his people, we go to places like the burning bush. I am who I am, and there's a whole bunch of Christ typology in that. One other place we heard in the sermon last week, Captain of the Lord's Army, take off your feet, this is holy ground, Jesus before Joshua saying, am I in your army? No. And there's several, several of them. Abraham, under the oaks of Marm, when Sodom and Gomorrah is about to get destroyed, three guys show up, they're called angels, but two of the angels go down. Anyways, there's a whole lot of Christ typology. So, can we say that the latter, if I said the latter represents Jesus, why would we say that from this vision? He's the only connection that we have today. Notice the words, let's see, what verse is the beginning of this vision? Is it right there in 10, 12? Maybe I'm thinking back in John where he says heaven will be opened. But yes, that's exactly it. He is the access. He is our access to God. He's the only mediator. Now, if we bring that back to verse 51, Jesus is alluding to that, kind of like I am the only way. What does Jesus say is happening? Heaven is opened, angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. We know who the Son of Man is. We'll take five more minutes here and wrap this up. What are the angels doing in verse 51? On the Son of Man. Some of the comments here, I thought, wow, this is, I mean, consider that. If Jesus never came and lived a perfect life for his sheep and took the wrath of God, what would our relationship with angels be like? You ever consider that? Can you go to the Old Testament and consider some angels and some of their work? Not good for the pink pudgies on earth. But because they ascend and descend through Christ, they see us through Christ's eyes like God the Father does, suddenly you now look through the rest of the Bible at what angels do for the church, for his sheep, and the picture turns to quite a different kind of a story, I guess you could say. Back in Jacob, the angels ascend and descend the ladder basically on him, right where he is, and of course Jacob becomes Israel, which becomes God's people. And so once again you have Jesus providing access to God for God's people, and then also that latter Jesus connecting God to his people on earth, his temple, his house, Bethel, all that language is there in Genesis 28, but then you go to John, and remember we were talking in chapter 2, where he cleanses the temple, and the Jews say, what sign do you give us for this? And what did Jesus say, you remember? Jesus is that temple and here you see the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Well, we'll just end it there. Needless to say, we have to move on to Chapter 2, so we'll do that next week. But guys, if you get a chance to look up and just mess around with the Son of Man thing, there is a whole lot there. effectively what's happening here in John. This is a name, Son of Man, that Jesus applied to himself. Remember the last couple of weeks, we've been looking through this whole week, this first week, of all the names that were applied to Jesus? Lamb of God was the first one. You get Rabbi, Son of God, King of Israel, there's a whole others, I think. And then it ends here in verse 51 with Son of Man. But what's unique about that one is it's the one that Jesus gives to himself. And probably referring to or alluding back to Daniel, where you have the ancient of days in heaven in the court. And the only one who can stand in the presence of the Holy God is our Lord Jesus, who counted himself a worm and bore the wrath of God for us. Other thoughts before we close in prayer? He doesn't think of himself as being God's son. He came into the world via man. So that's why he's like, I'm the son of man. He's trying to make it more like a human. I mean, he is God. It wouldn't make sense for him to be like, oh, I'm God's son. I came out of man. So I'm the son of man. He's kind of trying to relate. Does that make sense or no? It is. There is a lot here, Patrick, a lot here. And I like it. I like where you're thinking. And you can just go right back to the prologue. In verse 14, "...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Glory as of the only Son, from the Father, full of grace and truth." Want to close this in prayer? Sure. Thanks. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for giving us another good lesson. Amen.