In Matthew chapter 8 and 18,
19, and 20, and in the last verse is our subject and our beginning
text today. Now, when Jesus saw great multitudes
about him, He gave commandment to depart unto the other side. And a certain scribe came unto
him and said, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou
goest. And Jesus said unto him, The
foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nest, But the Son
of Man hath not where to lay his head. Now that expression
was pulled out, the Son of Man. Because I want to preach this
morning on the subject, Jesus, the Son of Man. And what it means, and why our
Lord used it, and some of those things. Now, as I said last week,
we came across that phrase in a part of our study, the Son
of Man. And it was used by the Lord Jesus,
referring to Himself in that conversation with Nicodemus in
the third chapter of the Gospel of John. He said this to Nicodemus,
the Son of Man must be lifted up. As Moses lifted up, the serpent
on the pole, so must the son of man be lifted up." Lifted
up in light manner, typically, of that serpent in the wilderness. And this, he said, is a reference
unto the death that he was about to die. In fact, the Lord used
the phrase in verse 13 also in his discourse with Nicodemus. So that we want to study this
matter today, Jesus, the Son of Man. As Son of Man. It is not plural, Men, but it
is Son of Man. And it is not strictly first
person, I, or me, or myself, but it is son of man. But it's more like in the third
person, the son of man. It is the son of man with the
article, the son of man. Now, we remember maybe that in
grammar that a We remember that an article is something that
is used with a noun to give definiteness onto that particular noun. So the is the article and son
is the noun there in that place and in many other. So, let me
set forth some facts from the scripture about the expression
as it appears in our New Testament. You'd be surprised if you count
and notice how many times you run across this expression, most
of them from the lips of our own Lord. Referring to Him, the
Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, let me ask, have
you noticed This is by far, far and away, this is the most frequent
way in which our Lord referred to himself during his earthly
ministry. The Lord uses it to refer to
himself and he uses it more, put together. than all the other
description that he gave of himself. Of course, someone has counted
and has found that this phrase, the Son of Man, broken down in
the Gospel 32 times in Matthew, 14 times in Mark, 26 times in Luke,
and 12 times in the Gospel of John, making a total of 84 times
that we read this expression in the Scripture. And every one
of them, 80 plus, with the exception of John 12 and verse 34, came
out of the mouth of our blessed Lord. Then this word our expression
is four more times only outside of the gospel and in the epistle
that those four times are Acts chapter 7 and verse 56 Hebrews
2 and verse 6 and twice in Revelation chapter 13 verse 14 and verse
24 47 so a total of 88 times in the New Testament does
this phrase appear, the Son of Man. Now, with that frequency
and number, certainly it justifies our making a study of this phrase
and expression and find out all that we can about it. Well, let
me go to some background. The phrase also appears the Old
Testament Scripture. For example, in Ezekiel chapter
16 and verse 2, the Lord called a prophet, Ezekiel, son of man. And he did that a lot of time
in that book. Ezekiel, Psalm 90 times, is he
called the son of man. Again, in Psalm chapter 8 and
verse 4. What is the son of man that thou
dost visit him? The psalmist has written. And
Job. 25 in verse 6, Job said, the
son of man, which is a worm. And so we use it there. Thus
the expression is used in various ways and we have to rightly divide
it and contextually consider it in our study of it. Here's
some ways that I think you'll find it used in the scripture.
First of all, it is used for humanity, the sons of men, the
race of people that dwell upon the earth. Then we find that
it is applied to a special prophet of God. Son of man, do this,
say this, or that, or the other. And then thirdly, it is used
without question of the Son of God incarnate and dwelling in
the flesh upon the earth. As to remind us, was almost exclusively
used by the Lord in referring unto himself. Even on occasion
when others called him the Son of God, he turned right around
and answered and used the phrase, the Son of Man. And then we notice
that it is never plural when it is applied under the Lord,
never the sons of men. And I think that's probably significant
for how intricately inspired are the scripture. We often read
of sons plural of men, while the Lord's designation of himself
is the son of man. Now, we can study this and push
back. Because the more liberal sect
of Christendom seems satisfied to apply this to the humanity
of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we might, but to neglect of the
deity. They are strong on the humanity,
the human Jesus, but very weak on the deity and the eternality
and the impeccability of our Lord. And so, so many today focus
only on the human Jesus. And they reduce Him to a good
role model. They say, He set a good example. He's a good role model. And so
many of them today are believing in and are preaching a social
Jesus, who would straighten out all the ills of society. As a reformer, they look upon
him as one who in his day fought against social justice and discrimination
and the greed and the corruption in government and in religion. Others look at our Lord and they
see only what somebody called, quote, the ideal man, unquote,
in the human Jesus. One called him the flower of
our race, who might at the same time turn around and strip him
of his deity, of his sovereignty, and more. And some would have
it that in the incarnation, in becoming man, that he'd lay aside
completely his divine nature and attributes, and some are
even close to believing that he put his divine nature in trust
while he were here upon the earth. They might appeal to that passage
in Philippians, the second chapter, that he emptied himself, what
we call the kenosis. He emptied himself and took on
the likeness of a man. Now, using his divine attributes. He used them on many occasions
while on this earth. Thus he did not leave them behind
and he did not make them totally inactive or cast them out. And I would give it as an example.
The transfiguration. The transfiguration on the mount.
Remember it. Could any common humanity on
earth give off such a glory as our Lord gave off in the transfiguration? Oh, I know, Moses' face glowed
when he came down off of the mount, having been in the presence
of God. But concerning the glory of our
Lord, on the transfiguration, the glory of Moses came to almost
nothing. Another example, as the glory
of the gospel far outseed the glory of the law, so the glory
of our Lord far outseeded any that God put in Moses. Now the point, the disciples
were used to the Lord using this definition. designation of himself. They were used to it. They heard
it almost every day. They heard it almost in every
occasion and everywhere he went. And they understood that he meant
himself, that he was referring to himself when he referred to
the Son of Man. I think this can be seen in that
great passage in Matthew 16 and verse 13 and 14, you know, Peter's
great confession. The Lord asks, who do men say
the Son of Man is? And Peter's confession, thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And I hope you won't
weary of hearing it repeated over and over, but this is by
far the most used by the Lord in referring unto himself. And yes, the Lord told the people
that he was one with the Father. John 10.30, I and my Father are
one. He declared an equality with
the Father, even though he called himself the Son of Man. And when he did claim equality
with the Father, they said, you are a blasphemer. John 10.33,
because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God, equal with
God. Again in John 5, 18, making himself
equal with God. And the Lord told the woman of
Samaria, yes, I am he. I am the Christ. John 4 and verse
26. This is one whose eyes he had
opened or whose heart he was opening by degree. And finally,
when she said, we know that Messiah will come, he said, I that speak
unto thee, am he. And he used son of God in John
9, 35 to 37. But as a rule, he did not in
public meetings say very often, I am the Messiah, I am the Son
of God, I am the Lord. Instead, as we mentioned at the
beginning, he most often referred to himself as the son of man,
maybe 80 times in the gospel. He seemed to prefer to use that
in his ministry and interaction with other people. Now we think
on that, how many times he used it, and we might be caused to
wonder. This being so, that raises a
question in my mind. Why then, in the Epistle of the
Apostle, did they drop this expression almost altogether when it was
the Lord's favorite expression of himself? Why did they not
carry it over into their writing? and write often of the Son of
Man. Instead, they fully declare the
glory and the power and the office and the person of our Lord, that
He is the fullness of God dwelling in a body. In fact, there were
times when the Lord commanded His disciples not to make a certain
thing known, not to go here or to go there. You say, where?
Well, Matthew 16 and verse 20, after that great confession was
made by Peter in the name of them all and of us all, you are
the Christ, the son of the living God. We read this after that
confession alone with those disciples. Then charged he his disciples. that they should tell no man
that he was Jesus the Christ. That seems strange, doesn't it,
when we think about it? Here, not tell it, and what he
meant was not yet, of course, as we see. No man that he was
Jesus the Christ. Matthew 17 and verse 9. after
that transfiguration that I was speaking of a moment ago, we
read there, Jesus charged them saying, tell no man the vision
until the Son of Man be risen from the dead. Don't tell it
And yet, you know, some people see things so wonderful they
can't keep it in. But he called himself Son of
Man. Not often did he call himself
the Christ, nor the Son of God, and not me or I, but the Son
of Man, to a cleansed leper. On another occasion, in Matthew
chapter 8 and verse 4, he said to him, See thou tell no man
go and show thyself Unto the priest and you have it again
in mark 7 and 36 and again in chapter 8 and verse 30 But coming
nearer to our subject the son of man Here are some points for
us to ponder and deposit in our memory number one If Jesus is
the eternal Son of God, what did he mean when he called himself
the Son of Man? And why did he use that expression? He also called himself the Son
of God, however, in John chapter 9, 35 to 37. But secondly, is or was Jesus
both son of God and son of man while he were upon earth and
at one and the same time? Is this son of God and son of
man both equally and fully? Number three, as the son of man,
did he still retain his divinity, the fullness of his divinity
and the fullness of his attribute? And four, is there any sense
in which we can say scripture lead us to say that he is still
still, in a sense, the Son of Man. Well, listen to Matthew
chapter 24 and 30. They shall see the Son of Man
coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Not see the Christ coming or
the Son of God, but they shall see the Son of Man coming in
great glory. I wanted to read a couple of
verses out of Acts chapter 7. This is one time when the expression
appears outside of the gospel, and it concerns Stephen and his
great testimony ere he was made a martyr for the faith of our
Lord. as he was about to be stoned
by a mob of rogue Jews, and by the way, led by Saul on that
occasion. And in Acts chapter 7 and verse
55 and verse 56, But he, being full of the Holy
Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory
of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he
said, Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing
on the right hand of God. Jesus standing. So we use them
interchangeably in this place of the scripture. newseth them
interchangeably to refer to one and the same person at the same
time and in the same place at the right hand of God." One and
the same person they are and not two that he saw. Again, in
Matthew chapter 26, this time Jesus is before the Jewish Sanhedrin
court. They have arrested Him and charged
Him with blasphemy. And in verse 63, the high priest
asks our Lord, or actually puts Him under an oath, It's not off
the record, it's on the record. And he uses the expression in
the King James, I adjure thee. In other words, compare Leviticus
chapter 5 verse 1 on that matter. Adjure means to exact or extract
from one an oath or to bind one by an oath, and that by the living
God. And so the question put by that
preface, I'm putting you under oath, before God Almighty answered
the question, and here it is, are you the Christ, the Son of
God? And that's the Lord's claim,
that's what it was about, and the high priest asked him under
oath, are you the Christ, the Son of God? And the Lord's answer
is like this. You said it. You said it. You
have said it. And hereafter ye shall see the
Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the
clouds of heaven. Now I read this quote. This indicates
that the Lord used the phrase Son of Man to refer to His deity
as the Son of God. Who else but Him would be coming
from heaven in great clouds and power? Now that opens the door
to present evidence for the deity of this Son of Man, meaning that
this Son of Man is also the Son of God in all fullness. And at the same time, He's Son
of Man and Son of God. He did not go back and forth,
one time the Son of Man, another the Son of God. He did not cease
being the Son of God to become the Son of Man and did not cease
being the Son of Man to return again to the glory that He had
with the Father before the world began. So, let's put it in another
way. Granting that the designation
son of man refers to his humanity, it does not therefore require
us to understand that he divested himself of his deity by partaking
of flesh and blood like his brethren as we read in Hebrews 2, 14 through
16. He did not put off his divinity. In fact, it's impossible for
God to put off his divinity or divest himself of it. A preacher
wrote, the incarnation did not involve the subtraction of deity
but the addition of humanity." So that he was one person with
two natures, human and divine, in what is called in theology
the hypostatic union, where there is a union but not a mixture
or a bleeding over. from one unto the other, so that
the Son of Man is also the Son of God. Now, there are some texts,
I believe, that show the deity of the Son of Man, that even
in that designation is He divine, the first being His power and
authority to forgive sin. Did Christ forgive sin while
he were here upon the earth? Did he say to one, thy sins be
forgiven, go upon thy way? Well, let's think about that
occasion when the Lord was, I believe in Capernaum, in a house filled
with people, the yard was full, covered around about with a throng
so that nobody could get in. And four men came down the road
bearing a man upon a cot or a bed or a couch before the Lord, and
this man was seriously afflicted with a palsy, sort of a paralysis. You have it three places. You
have it in Matthew 9, Mark 2, Luke 5, an account of this man. And you know how they got in?
They got up on the roof, took the roof off, and let the man
down into the very presence of our Lord. And the Lord, in seeing
the condition of the man and the determination of those that
had brought him, said something to that man upon his palate. The words are this, Thy sins
be forgiven. Now here's a great throng of
Jews listening to our Lord. Hearing him say that, some of
the Jews there considered it blaspheming that he claimed the
authority to forgive sin. For such an authority they reason
belongs only unto God. None but God can forgive sin. And certainly they were right. And they called him a blasphemer
for saying to the man, your sins are forgiven. I think the Lord
also forgave the sin of the woman taken in adultery in John's Gospel
chapter 8. Go thy way and sin no more. Now they were right in one thing
and that is that only God can forgive sin. Only God can put
it away Only God can justify a sinner, but they were stone
blind to another truth, that this is God manifest in the flesh,
the Messiah. That this one was the Word made
flesh, as we read in John chapter 1 verse 14. He is Emmanuel, God
with us, Matthew 1 and verse 23. He is God manifest in the
flesh. 1 Timothy 3 and 16. Ah, but their eyes were blind,
holding that they could not see, and their ears were stopped that
they could not hear. And so, when they murmur and
accuse him of blaspheming, and some just thinking it in their
heart, the Lord asks them this question. Which is easier? That is, which is easier to do? Which is easier to be done? To forgive sin, to say, thy sins
be forgiven, or to heal, to say, take up thy bed and walk? Which is easier for our Lord? To cure the soul or to cure the
body? And so he questioned them about
that. Now you can't see sin lifted off of an individual. You just
can't behold it with the naked or the natural eye. It is an
impossibility. When God takes away sin, we do
not see it. It is not visibly manifest either
unto us or the one whose sins are forgiven. Now, you may behold
the after effects of the forgiveness of sin in the changed life that
that individual begins to live, but it cannot be observed with
the eye, but healing is observable. They saw that and they could
not deny it. A man, palsy, hardly able to
take care of himself, gets up off of his bed and walks. Now the question of the Lord,
which is easier? Now, or which is harder? One
might say, well, to forgive sin is harder because it belongs
only to God, while prophets and apostles and others have healed
bodily infirmities by the power of God. And so the Lord did both. Thy sins be forgiven, take up
thy bed and walk. And he proved the greater forgiveness
by the lesser, the healing of his body. Now please note, the
Lord did not first say, be healed and take up your bed and walk
and go on your way. though it would have been something
that they could not have denied at all. Acts 4 and verse 16. We cannot deny, they said, that
a notable miracle has been done. Now the man came upon his bed,
and he came sick and carried by four friends, for he could
not walk himself. And he left whole, and he left
carrying that bed that he came upon. He came on a bed, and he
left carrying it himself on his own shoulder. He came sick in
body, and he left whole. He came a sinner, and he went
away a saint, because the Lord forgave him his sin. And I want
you to notice something. In Mark's account, And in Matthew's
account, the Lord calls that man, son, son, thy sins be forgiven
and such like. Now coming to Matthew chapter
nine and verse six, the Lord tells these skeptics, so that
you will know as proof of my authority to dismiss sin in order
to confirm it, what? Well, that the Son of Man has
authority, and that word is the word exousia. And it means the
authority, it means the right, and it means the privilege. And the jurisdiction is the meaning
of that word. I have the jurisdiction to forgive
sin, and to do it on the earth, that the Son of Man has power
on the earth to forgive sin. That is, in the world, in His
capacity as the Son of Man. And He does not say, as the Son
of God or as the Christ, I have the authority to forgive sin,
but as the Son of Man, under that frequently Use title. Son of man. And by the way, this
is a claim to deity by the Lord Jesus. Any that claim to be able
to forgive sin also must claim that they are God. And any that
will forgive sin must be God, for no one else can forgive sin
or put it away. the Son of Man, but seeing a
man, not a mere man, not a common man was our Lord, but God and
man in one blessed and divine person. Now just to nail down
the point, this He did as the Son of Man. And there are some
other texts with the same claim to divinity. Let's look at them. Mark 14, 61. He's before the
high priest who asked Jesus, Are you the Christ, the Son of
the Blessed? Verse 62, Jesus answered, Am and you shall see the son
of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds
of heaven Matthew 26 and 2 After two days, he tells them, the
Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified. Who is this Son of
Man? But the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
the Son of God. Luke 12 and verse 8, I say unto
you, whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the
Son of Man confess before the angels of God, Who is this Son
of Man but the Lord Jesus Christ? And the me and the Son of Man
are one and the same. Mark 8 and 38. Whosoever shall
be ashamed of me in this sinful generation, of him shall the
Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father
with the holy angel. Who else would ascend out of
heaven with a band of holy angels except the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. Whosoever shall confess me before
men, him shall I also confess before the angels of God. There's one more in Matthew chapter
20 and verse 28. even as the Son of Man came to
give His life a redemption for many. So let's think that the
designation used by our Lord, the Son of God, is in regard
to Himself must also be considered in light of His incarnation and
redeeming work, that this is a part of His being the Son of
Man, that to save His people from their sin, He was made of
a woman, not His divinity. No, she didn't bear his divinity,
but his humanity, so that he was a man, a true man. He was
by nationality a Jew and of a certain tribe, but he was a man, the
son of man. John 4, 9 identifies him, you
are a Jew. How is it that you, a Jew, have
dealings with Samaritans? The Jews have no such dealings. For in the flesh, concerning
the flesh, he came through Israel. Romans chapter 9 and verse 5. His humanity was begotten by
the Holy Spirit in the womb of that woman chosen by God. Luke chapter 1, 30-35. And the
angel told her these words. Listen very carefully. That holy thing born of you shall
be called the Son of God. In other words, he called that
the Son of God, the Holy Thing, the Holy One, the Holy Being
born of you shall be called the Son of God. This is the interaction
between Mary and the angel Gabriel. But in Matthew 1, 18 through
25, there is an interaction between Joseph and what is called the
angel of the Lord, who announces that the offspring of the virgin
would be called Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with
us. And yet he would be the son of
man, a true human man, a man as to gender, with a true human
body and a true human soul, whose soul was trouble, and who dismissed
his spirit when he died upon the cross. And what does that
mean? But that he had the proper kinship
unto us to be our kinsman redeemer. Even though his humanity was
impeccable. And that's a very important doctrine. If you think Jesus might have
or could have or even did sin, it's blasphemy against the person
of our Lord. He had impeccable humanity. What good would fallen humanity
do either him or us? For he need not be a sinner and
he need not be sinful to be the Savior of those that are sinners. In fact, such would make his
sacrifice ineffectual if he were not an impeccable as to his sonship
a man. Now the direct question, if Christ
was a very unique son of God, why did he so often call himself
the son of man? Now a lot of people believe,
you read the commentators, and most of them will take us to
Daniel chapter 7 verse 13 and verse 14, where we read of one
like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came
to the ancient of days. That's describing something beyond
a mere man. He is not the biological son
of any man. He was not the biological son
of any man. He was not the son of Joseph,
the husband of Mary. He's no ordinary man. And you
see that again in Psalm chapter 80 and verse 17. But then a question
lingers. Since the Lord used it so many
times, raise the question again. Why is it barely mentioned in
the writings of the apostle? in a couple of places, four places,
I believe. But they present Him as Lord,
as Christ, as Jesus, as the Son of God, exalted in the highest
glory, heir. And here He is in the next phase. of his saving work, ascended
into heaven, into the very presence of God himself. And here he is
carrying on his blessed work at the right hand of God, interceding,
we read in the scripture, as the son of the living God before
his eternal Father. He is our great high priest. And so we say again, the title,
Son of Man, relates to the incarnation and the redemptive work of Christ,
that he possessed through humanity, that he gave himself in that
humanity, gave that body, bore our sins in it, nailed to a tree,
he carried our sin in that body. Now, one more text. to kind of
look at and finish up our study. And it's in John's Gospel, Chapter
1, if you want to turn there and kind of follow along. John Chapter 1, and it is with It is with Philip, and the Lord
calling his disciple. Now, the title here that we have,
the Son of Man, all the SOM statements, Son of Man statements, may be
the most intriguing and mysterious found here in John chapter 1
and verse 51. Many times has the Lord had used
that title, and this probably was the first time that he used
it publicly, John 1 and 51. Matthew 8, 20 is the first time
it appears chronologically in the text. But in John 1, 51,
and he said unto him, that is Nathanael, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, hereafter you shall see heaven opened and the angels
of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." Not the
Christ or the Messiah, but the Son of Man. Now, this has to
remind us of the experience of Jacob a grandson of Abraham,
brother of Esau, in Genesis chapter 28, verse 10 through 15, especially
in the 12th verse. When in a dream Jacob, as he
dreamed in the wilderness, a pillar made of rock, he dreamed, and
in that dream he saw a ladder. And the ladder reached from the
earth all the way into heaven. And the angels of God were coming
and going and descending upon that ladder as Jacob saw it in
his dream. Now, here in John 1 51, the Lord
declares himself as the son of man and to be that connecting
ladder. between heaven and earth. And by and through him the angels
come and the angels go. He is their head. He is their
sovereign. They are ministering spirits
to both the Son of Man and also to them who shall be heirs of
salvation. Angels come and minister to the
Lord in His grief and sorrow in the garden before His resurrection. And they are ministering angels
or spirit to those who shall be heirs of salvation. Hebrews 1 and verse 14. They minister to the elect of
God. Who is the Son of Man in closing? John 12, 34. If He's the Son
of Man, how then is He the Son of God too? If He saves sinners,
yet He did not save Himself. They said, save yourself if you
be the Son of God, and yet He did not because He would save
His people. If He is King, If he's king and
the reign is king and have a kingdom and subjects and a throne, then
how can it be that he died? And the Jew could not answer
that. It stumbled them. Here's the king of Israel, and
yet he's put to death. And that stumbled them badly
and many of them. He has all power to save himself
if he would, but he would not because he would save his people
from their sin. Who is this Son of Man? Well,
he's the Son of God from heaven become the Son of Man. Eternally
the Son of God made the Son of Man by that supernatural virgin
birth in the incarnation. Now say this and be done. I'm
not satisfied with the limited way that I was able to put this
together. There's more here than I am able
seemingly to grasp, but may God put it on our heart and continue
to teach us and open our understanding that we may know more and more.