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I encourage you to take your Bibles, if you have one, to turn to Genesis 28. Our scripture reading is also tonight in the bulletin on page 12. Seeing the little ones run around a little this evening reminds me of one time when I was preaching and when we had four boys, five and under, one of my sons got away. from my wife while I was preaching, and ran down the middle aisle, calling out my name. Daddy! It was sweet, but I was embarrassed. Another time when I was preaching, I heard clump, clump, clump behind me, because the nursery door had a separate door. We were meeting at a school, and I thought, please, Lord, don't let that be one of mine. And it was. Genesis chapter 28. We'll be looking, I'm not in a series in Genesis. Juwan will be teaching a Bible study on Wednesday nights, beginning with Genesis 1 and creation here on Wednesday nights after Labor Day in the middle of September will start and encourage you to come and join us at seven o'clock on Wednesday nights. Genesis 28. At the conclusion of the reading of the scriptures, if you'll notice on page 13 in your bulletin, if you could turn there, I will say this is the word of the Lord and encourage you to reply, thanks be to God. Now here, the word of the Lord. Jacob left Beersheba and went to 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. 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 of the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. or I will not leave you until I have done what I've promised 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 early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he'd put under his head and he set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then 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 have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. and all that you give me, I will give a full tenth to you. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks. Before we open in prayer, I just want to encourage you to remember that faith comes by hearing, hearing through the word of Christ. God has given us the gift of the preaching of the Word of God. He's given us the Word of God and the proclamation of the Word of God. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the certainty of things not seen. It's by faith that we believe that something is true. We are called and commanded by God to believe, to have faith in the gospel, in the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again on the third day. We often weaken faith. We struggle to believe. We struggle with the things of this world. Well, how do we grow in faith? We grow in faith by hearing the word of God. So let us pray that God will take his word by the power of his spirit and cause us to grow in faith tonight. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we bow before you and we call on the name of the Lord tonight. And we do pray as faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ that you would give us ears to hear. Oh Lord, so often there's so much noise in our lives, so much noise around us that we can't hear you speaking to us in the word of God. As we meditate on the word and roll it around in our minds, Lord, that's when your spirit can work and convict us of sin and lead us again to Christ and turn us away from our sin as we cry out in repentance and faith to you. Lord, we pray that tonight you would be at work here among us, that you would help me as I bring your word to proclaim it clearly and faithfully, and that you would use the preaching of the word of God, this exercise that the world mocks and scoffs at, and yet which you've ordained to be that which brings people from darkness to light and from death to life from the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of heaven. So Lord, be at work here by your spirit in our midst. We thank you that you promised when we gather in your name that you will be here. Give us all ears to hear and eyes to see ourselves in the scriptures and eyes to see Christ, our Savior, and give us all a heart to believe. Forgive us our sins tonight, Lord, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We make our prayer in Jesus' name, amen. Well, tonight we read in this passage about a ladder. Even kids know about ladders. Everyone I think here has probably a ladder story, right? Everyone here knows somebody who's fallen. I know three people who've fallen tragically off of ladders and been severely injured. One had a severe injury, one had a very bad back injury, and one broke his arm. Maybe you've never really climbed a very tall ladder. Maybe you avoid them. I avoid them now more than I used to. There's something very alluring and inviting and tempting about ladders for kids. They just want to go to them and start climbing up them. I don't know what it is. Even babies, before they can walk, they see a ladder and they start reaching for the first step and climbing up the ladder to see something they hadn't seen before. Even teenagers, you know, want to get on a ladder and climb up on the roof. My 84 year old grandfather at the time, he's long gone now, but I remember going to see them in college and I asked my grandmother when I got to the house in Missouri, I was in Kansas, came over to see them and I said, where's grandpa? And she said, he's out on the ladder. I think he climbed up into the walnut tree. He was 84. He'd gone to the top of the ladder and then climbed up in the tree to knock down to kill the caterpillars in his walnut tree. He said, they need to die. And I said, grandpa, you're going to die. I want to show you tonight in this story from Genesis 28, how the ladder in Jacob's dream is a parable for us. It's a picture. It's a shadow of a real ladder, of the true thing. It's a type. It's a type of Christ. It's a picture of Jesus Christ and what he's come to do. In other words, the latter we read about this evening from Genesis 28 tells us about the person and work of Christ. Now, maybe before even we get into that, you might be asking, well, is that legitimate? Can we even do that? Is that forcing something onto the Old Testament story? Well, Jesus himself said that he is in all of the scriptures from the beginning to end. They all sing about him, they all speak of him, they all proclaim him. After his resurrection, he was with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. One was Cleopas and another one is not mentioned. And he opened up for them all the things concerning himself, from Moses to the prophets, He revealed himself in the scriptures. He is the word. And so he is found everywhere in the scriptures. He is the ark of Noah. You think about that. If you're not in the ark, you're not saved. If you're not in Christ, you're not saved. The ark is the only thing that saved them. God will provide a lamb, Abraham said. Jesus is the lamb of God. Moses, the mediator, is a picture of Christ. David, the king, is a picture of Christ. All the kings were shadows of Christ, the real king. All the priests, all the prophets in the Old Testament. The Passover lamb is a picture of Christ. This ladder here in Genesis 28 is a picture of Jesus. In fact, Jesus himself makes that connection. Did you know that? In John chapter one. If you want to turn there in your Bible, you can see that yourself. Jesus was calling his disciples to himself, the 12. He'd already called Andrew and Peter. In John chapter one, verses 43 to 51, he calls Philip and Nathaniel. He actually called Philip first. Philip goes back to Bethsaida, tells his brother who's sitting under a fig tree. He says to him, we found the Messiah, come and see. So he comes, Nathanael comes. You read in verse one, or excuse me, verse 46 and following. Philip says to Nathanael and says, we've found the one the prophet spoke of, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said, come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, verse 47. and said of him, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit, meaning he tells it like it is, which he just did. Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Now who knows what Nathanael was doing, but Jesus saw him and he didn't think anybody was watching him. Nathaniel answered, 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? Oh, you will see greater things than these. And he said to him, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. He's the latter, you see. He's the ladder that's mentioned here in Genesis chapter 28. So I'll ask the question. There's an outline in your bulletin if you'd like to follow along. I have three points for you tonight. It's on page 14 in your bulletin. How is Jesus, or excuse me, how is this ladder a picture of Jesus? How is Jesus portrayed in this ladder? So we find in Genesis 28, there's three points. Well, it bridges heaven and earth, it comes to a great center, and it comes with incredible promises. So how is Jacob's ladder a type of Christ? First of all, it bridges heaven and earth. So we read in Genesis 28, there's a ladder that touches the heavens and touches the earth. There is a great separation between God and man. There's a great divide. We're estranged from our creator, far off from God. It's evident in our nature. We're messed up as human beings. There's something in us that's wrong. We're born with rebellious hearts. I think if you asked any of the parents of these little ones here tonight, did you teach your kids how to say no and run away? Did you teach your kids how to disobey? Nobody had to teach them. In fact, even older siblings don't have to teach their younger siblings how to disobey. It comes from within them. There's something wrong in us. And it's evident, it's evident when we look inside our hearts, just as it's evident that we see the character of God everywhere we look. It's evident in creation that God is infinite and that he is invisible, that he's almighty, that he's loving, that he orders all things, that he's beautiful, that he's powerful, that he's eternal, that he's a fountain of life. But we humans, we're a mess. You can see it all around you. and you can see it in your own heart. We don't have to look far. We get into a sticky situation and the worst of us can come out, right? We are evil by nature. We're born rebels, rebels against authority. Left to ourselves, we'd kill off one another. We're selfish. We're inclined to do evil. You scan the history, especially over the last century. And it seems if God's removing the restraints upon us even more and more, particularly in this country, as we go from one perversion to another, and then it's televised all around the world, running from worse to worse. The human race is hopeless and helpless and dead and lost. There's a great distance between God who's holy and a wicked humanity. We need a savior. We need someone to bring us to God. Well, the wonderful truth that God reveals in the vision or the dream that Jacob has is that there is something that bridges the gap. There's a ladder. bridging this chasm between sinful man and his creator. The bottom of the ladder touched the earth, verse 12 says, resting on the earth or set upon the earth, and the top of the ladder reached to heaven. The angels were ascending and descending on it, meaning it was covered in angels, what Jacob saw, going up to heaven and coming down to earth, ascending and descending. What is God revealing here to Jacob and to us? Well, God's revealing he's bridged that gap between the holy God of the universe and sinful humanity. He's reached down to us. And Jacob was even in a rebellious section of the world in the Canaanite region of Luz, that's where he was. God didn't reach down halfway and say, okay, I've come halfway, I've got angels halfway, you gotta do your part. You gotta go halfway up the ladder. He didn't come down halfway or part of the way. From heaven to earth, God has come down all the way to sinful, rebellious humanity. The top was reaching to the heavens with angelic climbers, ascending with our needs and our prayers and our worship and descending with God's blessings and his grace and his gifts. You see, don't you, how this is a picture of the Lord Jesus. He said so to Nathanael, that he is the one who's come to earth. He came to earth in the manger. He touched the earth. God himself was with us. He was given the name Emmanuel. He is the one who bridges the gap. He gave his life as a ransom to bring us to God. He is the one who is the way, the truth, and the life. He's the door to paradise. He's the only name by which we can be saved. By his stripes we're healed. We were strangers far off, enemies dead in Christ, but we were brought near. by the blood of Christ. You see, Christ has done what we were powerless to do. He's bridged that gap between heaven and earth. We couldn't build our own ladder to get to God. And he said before he went back to his father that he would come again and he would take us there up to glory. I will come back and take you to be with me where I am. And when he does come, we'll see heaven open, as he said to Nathaniel, that future day. And every eye will see him. He'll be coming with whom? Who will Jesus come with on that glorious day? With all his holy angels, right? He'll come in all of his father's glory with his heavenly angels. You see, this book is all about God's grace from beginning to end. Every page has on it the work of Christ. God's work is extending to us the ladder, that is Jesus Christ, from Adam's fall to the great consummation in the book of Revelation. It's all about God coming to us in our fallenness, in our sin, and bridging the gap through Christ. Well, secondly, how is the ladder a picture of Christ? It bridges heaven and earth, and also it comes to a great sinner, to a great sinner. Jacob was a cunning snake. He's a liar. Jacob was a thief. He was a trickster. Jacob was not an honorable man. We read in our call to worship this evening from Psalm 146, blessed is he whose hope is in the God of Jacob. Jacob? Why doesn't it say, blessed is he whose hope is in the God of Moses or Abraham? Jacob? Well, because Jacob's a sinner and we need the God who saves people like Jacob. Jacob tricked his brother for his birthright. Jacob tricked his father to receive the blessing. He's a deceiver. He was rotten to the core. And here in Genesis 28, Jacob is on the run. Esau's brother is so mad he's vowed to kill him. Would he ever see his father again? Would he ever see his mother? Would he ever see his home? Should he have done this trick? And now where we find him in Genesis 28, he's alone. He's alone. He's wandering. He's afraid. He's a mess. And he's made a mess. But God, in his amazing grace, comes to one who knows he's a wretch. He comes to one who's been blind to God's ways, who has taken matters into his own hands, who has turned away from God, tricked his brother, deceived his father. God's grace comes to a con man, you might say. He is. God's grace comes to a great sinner. Blessed is he whose hope is in the God of Jacob. Yes, that's my hope, the God who forgives sinners. God came to a man whose life was a mess like he came to Paul, who had been a murderer as Saul of Tarsus, calls himself the chief of sinners. Like he came to Zacchaeus, the tax collector, that everybody, everybody in Jericho hated him. Like as he came to the harlot in Luke chapter seven, to the demon possessed, to the thief on the cross who had been hurling insults at Jesus himself along with the other one and all down through history. God has been extending grace to great sinners. God's grace is extended in Christ even to me and to you. Jacob awakes and he realizes, whoa, what's happened? Do you see what he said? This is awesome. Isn't it amazing how they even in those days use that kind of language? This is awesome. How awesome is this place? Why is he saying that? He's exclaiming the love of God to him. Amazing love, how can it be that God would save a wretch like me, that God would come to me? Surely the Lord is in this place. God is here. This is the door to heaven. This is the gate of heaven. This is grace to me. How is this a picture of Christ? Well, the grace of God comes to a great sinner just like God has come to you and to me. And thirdly, how is this ladder a picture of Christ? It bridges earth and heaven. It comes to a great center. And this ladder comes with incredible promises. Verses 13 and following, the promises of God to Jacob are amazing. I will bless you and I will give you this land as an inheritance and I will be with you forever. You go through all those promises, the same kind of promises are given to a greater extent to you. God will be your God and not just give you this land. He'll give you the earth. He will bless the nations through you. And I will be with you even to the end of the age. I will never leave you or forsake you. I'll pardon all of your sins. You think of what comes to us with Christ extending grace from heaven to earth. God has promised us he'll protect our souls from harm. Nothing can touch us. That he'll answer your prayers. He says, I'll use you for my glory. Nothing will separate you from my love. I will feed you. I will love you. I will change you. I will sanctify you. I will bring you to myself. And when I go away, I'll come back and get you. You see, Jesus is more than just an example. As some people would say today, he's more than just a great teacher. Christ is the one that bridges heaven and earth. And here we find a sinner receiving the blessings of God by grace. It's not by works at all. Well, what was Jacob doing? He was sleeping. It's not by his own righteousness. He's wicked. It's by grace alone that God came to him, just as he came to you and me. There's a ladder even right here tonight, right where you are. God is calling all men and women, boys and girls everywhere to repent and believe. He's extending the ladder. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He died on a cross and rose again from the dead. And that's the message we take to the world. that God has bridged the earth, bridged the chasm between heaven and earth. So I ask you tonight, have you believed? Have you believed the gospel? Maybe you're like Jacob and you're on the run from God, ashamed by the past, feeling unworthy, running in disgrace, In a sense alone, nobody knows what's going on inside and wanting to start over. God says you can be born again. Do you see here Christ in the word of God? There is a ladder today extended to you. Oh, there's all kinds of false ladders around. There's all kinds of false towers that people build like Babel to reach to heaven. There's only one. There's only one that God has provided. the Lord Jesus Christ. Jacob said, surely the Lord is in this place. This is the house of God. Well, he's here. He's promised to gather with his people when we gather in his name. Maybe you haven't been aware of it until now. I call you tonight to turn to Christ, to cry out to him and say, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. I need that ladder. I need the grace of God. He's promised he'll come to you. He'll wash away all your sins. He'll give you the gift of eternal life. Praise be to God for the indescribable gift of his son. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we bow before you and thank you for the ladder that you've extended from heaven to earth, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Oh Lord, come and bless your people, build us up in the faith, strengthen our souls, May we be those who point people to the one who bridges heaven and earth, the Lord Jesus himself. Oh Lord, we ask for your blessing on our lives that we will live as grateful people. And we pray you bless the offerings that we bring to you tonight, the tithes and offerings we lay before you. Use these gifts to build your church. Thank you for our savior most of all. We pray in Christ's name, amen.
The Ladder to Heaven
Sermon ID | 82024204395239 |
Duration | 28:11 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | Genesis 28:10-22 |
Language | English |
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