Well, after more than a dozen sermons in John chapter one, today we're gonna have our final message on this first chapter of the fourth gospel. So if you have your Bibles, you can grab them and please turn with me to John chapter one, beginning in verse 43. John chapter one. beginning in verse 43. We'll be focusing our study only on the final three verses of this chapter, but we're going to read the entire paragraph just so that we have the context in mind. Specifically today, bear this in mind as we approach God's Word, we'll be looking at the three titles of Christ which appear in these final verses. So if you take notes, just lock these away into your brain, that Jesus is the Son of God, the King of Israel, and the Son of Man. He's the Son of God, the King of Israel, and the Son of Man. All right, John chapter one, beginning in verse 43 and reading to the end of the chapter. This is the word of the Lord. 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 in 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 answered 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. This is the word of the Lord. Let's bow our heads and pray. God, we thank you so much for giving us your holy word. We thank you, Lord, that you did not leave us in the darkness, but that you sent us your spirit to guide us into all truth and that you gave us your word that we might know you and call upon you to be saved and live our lives in accordance with your will. God, we thank you that you are the Son of God, the King of Israel, and the Son of Man. God, open our hearts right now. Lord, let me only speak that which is in accord with your truth. And Lord, just divert my mind and my mouth and stop me if I'm going to say anything contrary to your truth. to your gospel, Lord. God, open the hearts of all who are sitting here today, hearing your word. Let them hear directly from you. Let your word pierce their conscience and draw them to faith and repentance. In Christ's name, amen. All right, you may be seated. So for those who are visiting us, we've spent several times I think it was 12 or 13 sermons in John 1, which is just one of the richest chapters, I think, in the entire Bible. I really tried to honestly make it as few sermons as I could. I didn't want to go crazy and preach two dozen, though I think that could have been totally possible. Well, today we are coming to the end of John chapter one and looking at these three titles of Jesus. Jesus is the son of God. He is the king of Israel and he is the son of man. Let's look now at God's word together. The first thing we read is that the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. Jesus decided to go to Galilee and he finds Philip And as soon as Philip and Andrew begin to follow Christ, we learn from John 1, they start evangelizing their family and friends. Philip here in this passage we read today is called by Jesus to be his follower. And then perhaps immediately afterwards, he goes to find Nathanael. And he says to Nathanael, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth. And though Nathanael seems to have some doubts at first, he follows Philip, he agrees to follow him, and he goes to meet Jesus. And as Nathanael is walking toward Christ, our Lord says to him, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Or as the King James reads, in whom there is no guile. And Nathanael, he's thrown off by this. He's a little confused. Just as Jesus had greeted Peter the day prior by telling Peter who he was, by telling Peter who Peter was, so also today Jesus begins the conversation by revealing to Nathanael that he already knows him. And he not only knows his name and where he is from, but he knows something about his character as well. And Jesus says he knows this because he saw Nathanael before Philip had even gone to find him. And because of that fact alone, that Jesus could see him when he was still a far off and know not only who he was, but what his character was. Because of that, Nathanael gives this powerful proclamation in verse 49 of our text. Look with me now at verse 49. Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. Now, I do not think that Nathanael knew and understood all the fullness of what those titles he ascribed to Jesus meant. but he knew that this was no ordinary teacher or prophet or ruler. This Jesus was someone unique. This was the promised Son of God and King of Israel that God's people had been eagerly waiting for for many long centuries. You know, I do not think that we in America in 2024 can really appreciate the depths of the religious and cultural expectation that the Israelites had. Even if you count all the way back to our earliest European pilgrims, our nation is less than 500 years old. It's not even quite 250 years old if you count back to the Declaration of Independence. We are a very young nation. And if you think of our particular branch of Christianity, Protestantism, we've only been a distinct Christian group for about 500 years. And what's more, everything today in our culture, it just changes so fast. Like that old phrase that everyone would have 15 minutes of fame in the future. It's probably like everyone would have just five seconds of fame now as you're scrolling past something on your phone and then you're on to the next thing. Everything changes in our culture. We don't stay tied down to anything. We usually do not live in the same houses that we grew up in or even the same land that we were raised on. Often we don't even live in the same city and state that we were born in. We usually do not worship at the same church we were raised in and often not even in the same denomination or theological tradition. We don't go to the same places our grandparents went. We don't travel in the same ways that our grandparents traveled. We don't communicate in the same ways even that our parents communicated in when they were coming up. Everything in our culture seems to change and just slip into the next thing. Well, in contrast, Many, many Jews could trace their family lineage thousands of years. They knew their identity as rooted in the promises of God given to their fathers. They knew what tribe they were in. They knew who their relatives were. Now I know that the Kennedys here are a great exception, but I think the vast majority of Westerners today don't even know their great-great-grandparents' names. So my point in all of this is that the Israelites had a deeply embedded cultural and religious identity that I think we in our present day actually struggle to understand and appreciate fully. And part of this identity, a deep-seated part of this identity was this groaning. this longing, hoping, anticipating, this waiting that they were all raised with and inculcated in this waiting for God to send his son, who would be a great king to redeem his people. And here in our text today, we see Nathanael as one of those waiting Israelites. He's probably just going about his business as normal one day, taking a quick break from a hard day's work by getting some shade under a tree, probably wondering when he's going to get back home or what he's going to have for dinner that night. And then Philip comes up to him. Nathaniel's just having an ordinary day. And Philip says, Nathaniel, We found him. We have found the one that our people have been waiting for. Nathaniel thinks, what is Philip talking about? No way. No way that you found the one that our ancestors died longing to see. Nathaniel may well have assumed that he, even though he was waiting and anticipating, he may well have assumed that he also would die not seeing God's good promises fulfilled in his generation. Maybe, maybe his children's children's children would see God's covenant promises fulfilled, but not him. But then, then he meets Jesus. He meets Jesus. He has one short conversation with him and he believes. And he says, Jesus, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Philip was right. And now what did these two titles that Nathanael gives our Lord mean? And where does he get these titles from? Does Nathanael just pull things out of thin air? Things that'll sound nice to ascribe to this man to try to compliment him? No, no, no. Like I said, this waiting for this long-expected king was deeply embedded in the Israelite identity. Nathanael had drank in this hope for the Messiah with his mother's milk. Far from making these titles up, he gets them straight from the Old Testament, straight from his Bible. If you have your Bibles open, you're welcome to turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 7. You could also just listen along. 2 Samuel chapter 7, verses 12 through 14. This is one of the places that Nathanael is drawing these titles for Jesus from. Nathanael pairs the titles, Son of God and King of Israel together because they were paired together in the Old Testament promises and prophecies as we are about to see. 2 Samuel 7 verses 12 through 14. This is God's covenant with David. God says this, 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 to me a son. Now, if you were to keep reading in that same chapter, you would see that right after that section I just read, God actually goes on to talk about this promised son sinning. This son sinning. Now, for the children in the congregation, listen, I've got a question for you, all the children. Did our Lord Jesus ever sin? No, he did not sin. As the catechism we're teaching our kids says, no, he was holy, blameless, and undefiled. We know, don't we? We know that Jesus never sinned. So how, we might wonder, could this promise and this prophecy I just read about be about Jesus? Well, on the surface, the promise is actually about King Solomon. Remember, Solomon was David's son. He was David's offspring who would become king. Solomon is the one who builds the earthly temple, which is referred to here as a house for God's name. And of course, Solomon sins in some very, very big ways. But here's another question for the children. Did Solomon's kingdom last forever? No, no, Solomon's kingdom did not last forever. Jesus, that's right. In fact, not only did Solomon die, but in first Kings 11, we learned that God tore the kingdom away from Solomon's family precisely because Solomon sinned. And after his death, the kingdom splits and becomes divided into the northern and southern kingdoms. The kingdom of Israel, which is the larger kingdom, and that's the northern kingdom, and the kingdom of Judah, which was smaller and comparatively kind of more righteous than the northern kingdom. So this prophecy was not ultimately about King Solomon. And the ancient Israelites knew this. There was no doubt about this. That's why they looked to this covenantal promise as their assurance that God would send them a great king one day who would restore and reign over God's people. So it's not that Nathanael or the early church or we today are reinterpreting 2 Samuel 7 by identifying Jesus as this great King and Son of God. We are just correctly pointing out that this promise and this covenant finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. It finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. And there are several instances of things like this in the Old Testament, where there is a prophecy given to God's people and there is a near fulfillment. The prophecy comes true in the very near future, or it partially is fulfilled in the very near future. And then there is a ultimate fulfillment in Christ many years later. Another well-known example that if you were raised in church, you're probably familiar with is Isaiah 7. You can stay right where you are, but I'm just going to quickly read for you Isaiah 7, 14. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. and shall call his name Immanuel." Many churches read this every Advent and Christmas. And we know that Isaiah is talking about Jesus. Amen? We do. There's no doubt. But while Christ was the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy, there was also an immediate fulfillment that happened in Isaiah's day as well. There actually was a young woman, which is one of the ways of translating that word virgin, there was a young woman who gave birth to a son who served as a sign from God to King Ahaz in his generation that the Lord would use the king of Assyria to bring destruction upon the land. That happened. That was a sign given to King Ahaz as a prophecy from God telling him what was going to happen in the immediate future. So that prophecy, Isaiah 7, that we love to read at Christmas had an immediate fulfillment that was true, but it was nevertheless partial. It was a shadow of the real final fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Anyway, the reason I bring all that up is to assure you that just because the covenant promise to David involves this promised king sinning, that shouldn't make us doubt that ultimately God is telling us of the coming of Jesus. who is his Son and who is the King of Israel. Rather, we should be confident that Christ is the fulfillment of all the messianic hopes that God's Word gives us in the Old Testament. Let's look at one more place together where God pairs this concept of Son of God and King of Israel. Turn with me if you have your Bibles to Psalm 2. Psalm 2. This is a Psalm we love to sing at our church. and let's read it together now. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, let us birth their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then He will speak to them in His wrath and terrify them in His fury, saying, as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way. for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. So once again, just like in 2 Samuel, here in Psalm 2, we see the pairing of the son of God, when the psalmist says, the Lord said to me, you are my son today, I've begotten you, that's God's son, and king of Israel. As for me, I have set my king on Zion. Plus, the psalmist includes the title Messiah, or as it comes in our English translations, anointed one as well. All these titles were referring to one particular person. And who is this king that God has set on Zion on his holy hill? And to whom has God said, you are my son today, I have begotten you. Well, it's Jesus Christ. It's our Lord and master, Jesus Christ. And if there's any confusion as to who is in view here, if someone might say, well, it's not so clear, I'm not seeing it in Psalm 2 or in 2 Samuel, we're not gonna go there right now, but Hebrews chapter one makes it abundantly clear that this is speaking of none other than Jesus Christ. And Nathanael, he knew of God's covenant promises to David. He knew Psalm 2. He knew it. Especially as a Jew living under an oppressive foreign government, you can think, you can be sure he was hoping for Psalm 2 to be fulfilled. And when he meets Jesus, he knows. He knows that he has found the Son of God and the King of Israel. Now, does this mean that Nathanael knew right there and then that Jesus was actually God himself? That Jesus was not only the Son of God, but also God the Son? I do not think so. The remainder of the gospel, all the gospel accounts in fact, show that even though Peter and Nathanael made some powerful early confessions of who Christ is, they still did not understand so much. They still were utterly confused about the atonement of Christ and the resurrection. because Jesus would not be the first one to be called son of God either. This was not a title unique only to him. Kings were referred to as sons of God in the Old Testament. Israel was referred to as the son of God, even the firstborn son of God. In the early chapters of Genesis, even we see the phrase sons of God referring to several individuals, it seems, and it's not even agreed upon there, whether it means men or angels. We, in fact, are sons of God if we are in Christ through faith. So it's likely that Nathanael believes Jesus to be the promised Messiah. He believes him to be the promised King of Israel. greater than all kings before him, in fact, who was sent by God, blessed by God, and anointed by God. But did he believe him to be God himself? I doubt it. We don't know for certain, but I doubt Nathanael had that full-orbed understanding here. But whether or not Nathanael had a totally correct understanding of Christ at this time, it does not affect Jesus's divinity one iota. Nathanael spoke more amazing words than he even knew he was speaking, just as the prophets and the psalmists did before him. but he nevertheless spoke words of truth about Jesus Christ. Jesus was the only begotten Son of God, the unique Son of God, the Son of God who was also God the Son. And I wanna read just one more Old Testament prophecy, and then we're gonna move on to see what it means for Christ to be the Son of Man. This is just a tour de force of Old Testament today. It's not even really a New Testament sermon, it would almost seem, but we're gonna look once more at Isaiah. This is chapter nine, verses six through seven. This is another favorite passage that is often read at Christmas. Isaiah chapter nine, verses six, through seven. This is the Word of God. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Not only is this Messiah the Son of God, not only will he sit on the throne of David, but he shall be called Mighty God and Everlasting Father. Church, only God can be called God. It is utter blasphemy to call anyone else God. And Isaiah is telling us here of Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh. Let's look now at the title that Jesus gives to himself in John chapter one and verse 51. So wherever you might be in your Bible, you can feel free to flip back to our sermon scripture text today. John chapter one, verse 51. 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. Now, Son of Man is an interesting title for Jesus. It is Jesus's most frequently used title for himself in the Gospels. And in fact, no one else in any of the Gospels ever even refers to Jesus as the Son of Man. There is only one place in the whole New Testament where someone aside from Jesus uses this title about Christ. That is Stephen at his martyrdom who looked up into heaven and he says, he sees the son of man standing at the right hand of God. But what does this title mean? Jesus uses it so much. What does it mean? Son of God and King of Israel, we can kind of just almost automatically understand a little bit of what that means. Those are regal titles. They refer to power. We like those titles. We like saying we serve a king, we serve God, but we don't really use Son of Man that often. When we're praying, we don't often use that title. The title is not found in any of our ecumenical creeds. It is not popular. in many of our hymns. You don't really hear people preaching or talking about Jesus with that at the forefront often. For me, when I was starting to get really serious about my faith as an adult and really trying to study the scriptures and get a handle on what do I even believe, trying to understand what do I believe about God, about the Christian life. One of the things at my college that really interested me was apologetics. Apologetics just means a defense of the faith, showing the reasonableness and coherence of the Christian faith. This can be used to strengthen the doubting believer or to enrich his theological understanding or to aid us in evangelism. And I remember, I remember reading the Gospels as a young 21-year-old and coming across this title, Son of Man, and I remember thinking to myself, why is Jesus continually using this title? And I found myself actually getting frustrated because I thought, is Jesus de-emphasizing his divinity? The answer is no, he's not doing that at all. But I thought he's being overly humble and he needed to call himself the son of God more. Because one of the claims that I had heard some unbelievers make at my college campus was that Jesus never claimed to be divine. Of course, that's also completely false. But that's what you hear. Jesus never claimed to be divine. He only called himself the son of man. And one of the tasks of apologetics is to demonstrate that Jesus being fully God and fully man is clear biblical teaching. And I thought, Jesus, if you would only stop using this title son of man so much, then I could more easily prove that you definitely claim to be divine. Now think of that. I never would have said that out loud, but it's almost like I thought, Jesus, you're just not helping me out with my apologetics here. You're making my job of presenting the reasonableness of Christianity more difficult. Then, oh Jesus, if you would just use this other title for yourself that I like more, then more people would believe in you. Then the Bible would be even more clear about you being God's son. Church, that is a ridiculous and sinful way to think, the way I was thinking. What a ridiculous way to think, even if you never say it out loud. The Bible, church, the Bible is perfectly perfectly sufficient, more than sufficient, to teach us about God and to guide us into all truth. And it doesn't matter what we think, we could not have written the Bible any better. And when I say that, I think we can all nod and say, Amen, right? We agree when I say that statement. But have you ever thought, if you're being honest with yourself, Even something as simple as this. Oh, I just wish there was a verse that said this clearly. I just wish that God had said this or that in his word. Then we wouldn't have this division or this confusion or this problem we're going through right now. Brothers and sisters, whenever we think something like that, we should repent. We should repent. We should not long for something in God's Word that is not there. We can kid ourselves into thinking, well, I just want more of Christ. No, no, no. Christ gave us his word because that is all we would ever need for our faith was his word guided by his spirit. We don't need anything else. And it is sinful to lust after more that's not there. God's word is perfect. Jesus's words and actions perfectly show us his identity as the son of God. There is nothing lacking in God's Word. It is totally sufficient for the tasks of evangelism and theology. We should not want to add to Scripture or think that it would improve our lives or our ministry if there was more there. We have everything we need in God's Word. Everything. Now, did Jesus hide his identity from some people? Yes, he did. But he who has ears to hear will hear that Jesus is fully God and fully man. Like we read in one of our scripture readings today, God through his spirit will guide us into all truth. Another one of the catechisms we teach our children is this. We say, how is Christ a prophet? And the answer is, he teaches us the will of God, reveals God to us, and really was God in human flesh. He teaches us the will of God, reveals God to us, and really was God in human flesh. In all his titles, Jesus is teaching us the will of God. In all of these titles, he is truly revealing God to us. That includes revealing that God is the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and showing us that he really was God become man. Now I say all that, but we still have yet to examine how exactly the title son of man does these things. How does saying he's the son of man reveal that he is God? That might be confusing for us at first glance. How does this title reveal God to us? It's true, there is a lowliness that accompanies this title. There is humility there, but that's not the whole picture. A couple of points that we need to note. First, just as Jesus perfectly represented God to us, so also he perfectly represents us to God. He perfectly represents us to God. Adam was our head. Adam was our representative in the garden. And everyone who is in Adam, which is every single human being born to an earthly father and mother, fell into sin with him in the garden. Romans 5 makes this abundantly clear. You can turn there if you'd like, Romans 5. When Adam sinned, we in that moment were complicit in his sin. because he was our representative and whatever he did counted for us too. Well, Jesus, God's word tells us, is the second Adam or the last Adam. And everyone who is in Christ, that's every human being that is born again, everyone in Christ is raised up with Christ in his resurrection. We fell with Adam, but we are raised with Jesus Christ. Once again, Romans 5 is key here. Beginning in verse 15, this is what the Apostle Paul tells us. But the free gift is not like the trespass, for if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, So, by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous." Praise God. If we are in Christ, and He is our perfect representative to God, which He is, then whatever He does, we are credited with before God's throne. Jesus is obedient to God. We are obedient to God. Jesus never sinned. Well, We've sinned, but just as another one of those catechism questions teaches us, what is justification? Justification is God regarding sinners as if they had never sinned and granting them righteousness. So that in Christ, our representative, we stand righteous before God, just as Jesus is righteous before God. So that's one point about Jesus being the Son of Man, that He is man as man should be, and that He is the perfect representative of mankind to God. Secondly, if you'd like, turn with me to Daniel chapter seven. Daniel chapter seven. And here we're gonna see the heart of the matter about this title, Son of Man. Daniel chapter 7 verses 9 through 14 show us what I believe is the most important reason why Jesus so frequently used this title to refer to himself. This is God's Word. As I looked, 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 thousands 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 beast, 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 people's 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. This is a vision of Jesus Christ coming to God the Father after He has completed His earthly mission of redemption. And God's Word tells us here that this Son of Man is presented to the Ancient of Days. That's God. That's God the Father. And if you notice, the description of God here sounds very much like the description of Jesus in Revelation when He returns. And see what Daniel says, the power of the beast is broken. And the son of man, that's Jesus, is given an everlasting dominion and an indestructible kingdom and glory. And when Stephen is being stoned, he looked up into heaven and he saw Jesus as the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy. He saw Jesus standing there, presented and accepted by the ancient of days and receiving the eternal kingdom prepared for Him. That prophecy is key for us to understand the fullness of this title, Son of Man. He is the one who was worthy to receive dominion and glory before God. Yes, it shows humility. Son of Man shows His humanity and His humility. It is important that we note and never forget that Jesus is fully man, that he is a real human being. But even more powerfully, this prophecy shows that he is the one man who has earned a place in heaven as our King and Savior, and that he is ruling the heavens and the earth right now as the God-man. that He is enthroned right now as the Son of Man, Son of God, and King of Israel, that He is sitting on David's throne, and that His kingdom will know no end. All three of these titles are revealing the same glorious, triumphant, and reigning Jesus Christ. All three communicate that. And finally, What does it mean that the angels of God will be ascending and descending on the Son of Man, as Jesus tells us here? In John 1 51, Jesus says, Nathanael will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Well, several weeks back in our study of John 1 14, we learned that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we looked at how that word dwelt could more literally be translated tabernacled. The word tabernacled among us. He took up his residence among us. He was here among us. And that means that just as the tabernacle was God's dwelling place among men in ancient Israel, so Jesus is God's dwelling place with man now. Jesus is Emmanuel. That word, that title, that name means God with us. He is the touch point between heaven and earth. He is where heaven and earth meet together. He is God's certain and sure abiding presence with his people. Well, you might say, how does that relate though to this strange saying, angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man? Genesis 28, turn with me there if you want. This will be our final Old Testament passage we will look at today. Genesis 28, Jacob is fleeing. Jacob left Beersheba 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 to 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, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised to you.' Then 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 just like Jesus is the tabernacle of God, just like Jesus is the temple of God, so also Jesus is the house of God and the gate of heaven. Jacob saw this ladder and the angels are going up and down on it and he knew that that was the house of God and the gate of heaven. That place was particularly in that moment where heaven and earth were coming together. And so it is with Jesus. He is the place where heaven and earth fully meet. This is one of the wonderful things about the new covenant. No longer do we need to go to a particular plot of land in the Middle East to worship God. We just have to go straight to Christ. straight to His heavenly throne room. We worship Him in spirit and truth wherever we are. He is the gate of heaven. He is the house of God. He is God's dwelling place forever with men, never to be broken, never to be undone, always to remain with us. Now, what are our application points from today's message? We have two very quick application points, and they're simple. First, Trust that Jesus is who the Bible says He is. Just trust that. Among many other things, God reveals to us in this text that Jesus is the Son of God, the King of Israel, and the Son of Man. Son of God, King of Israel, Son of Man. Rest in His work for you. On this Sabbath day, rest spiritually in Christ's work for you. You could never earn heaven on your own. No one is good enough for God. No one can stand before God righteous in his own merits. But Jesus has come to earth, lived the life that we were called to live, one of perfect righteousness and obedience. And he has ascended into heaven and been presented before the ancient of days. And he has received honor and glory and dominion and a kingdom forevermore. He is reigning right now. And secondly, Jesus calls his church to spread the good news that the King has come. Think of that wonderful Christmas hymn, joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King. The King came and yet many did not receive him. But one day, God's Word assures us, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Let us join with Christ in working heartily to tell the world that her King is here, that we have the privilege of kissing the Son. That we get to lay our burdens down at His feet and submit to Him in all things. That He is a loving Lord and Master who is a joy to serve. And we are to worship Him today and eagerly anticipate the day that He is finally acknowledged as Son of God, King of Israel, and Son of Man throughout the entire world. Let's pray together. God, we praise you and thank you that you are our son of God. You are our king of Israel. You are our son of man. You are the one that was presented to the ancient of days. You are the one that has earned a kingdom, and you are the one that saves us and draws us in to your loving kingdom, to your inheritance, and even into your reign, Lord. We thank you for that. We thank you for seeding us with you in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus and giving us everything we need to know and trust and love and obey you. God, we ask your continual blessing today as we continue this service of worship, as we continue drinking in your truth from your spirit, and as we worship at the Lord's table here shortly. In Christ's name, amen.