In context, what we have here
is that Jesus has just been speaking to Nathanael. And He says to Nathanael, Behold,
a true Israelite indeed in which there is no guile or no deceit.
And look at verse 49. This is the proclamation of Nathanael. After Jesus says, Behold an Israelite
in which there is no guile. Here is Nathanael who has been
told by Philip that they have found Messiah who is from Nazareth. To Nathanael responds, What good
can come from Nazareth? Now, Nathanael comes to Jesus
because Philip says to come and see. And Nathanael hears Jesus Christ
say the words. After he says, how do you know
of me? Jesus says, before Philip came to you, I saw you under
the tree. And Nathanael says in verse 49,
Rabbi, Master, Teacher. That's what that means. You are
the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. And Jesus says in verse 50, Because
I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?
Now think about that question for a minute so we can get our
minds back on this text. Jesus is asking Nathanael if
he believes because he saw a miracle happen. And all throughout John's
narrative, what we'll see, not only here but also in the synoptics,
what we'll see is that people cannot come to salvation because
of the witness of a miracle. Because Jesus did many signs
and many wonders, and most people knew He was from God, but they
rejected Him. Why? Because as we heard out
of Romans 3, there is none good, no not one. No one seeks after
God. See, there has not been a human
being that's alive today without the power of God the Spirit who
has sought after Him. Let me say that again. There's no human being that's
alive today that has ever lived, ever in this world, who has sought
after God without the work of the Spirit. If God's Spirit does
not draw a man and give him to the Son, He cannot come. And
the Spirit teaches, the Word of God teaches that the Spirit
draws people out of darkness, gives them eyes to see and mind
to believe through the hearing of the Word of God. So in this
miracle of some people would call clairvoyance, that Jesus
could see something from a distance. How could Jesus see Nathanael
sitting under a tree? You know what else Jesus saw?
Not just the picture of Nathanael under the tree. Jesus knew the
heart of Nathanael under the tree. Jesus knew the thoughts
of Nathanael under the tree. Jesus saw the depths of everything
that Nathanael did not know about himself as he sat under the tree.
Jesus knows the heart of men because He is God. And God was speaking to Nathanael
in the flesh, Jesus the Christ. And He asked him, do you believe
because I say to you, I saw you under the tree? Without even
a response, He continues to answer, because I said to you, do you
believe? You will see greater things than these. And see now,
what we've got before us is the end of the outline of the entire
rest of the first half of John's Gospel. And then the latter half
of John's Gospel is the exposition of greater things. Because in
the mindset of these disciples, they see the Lord, Emmanuel,
God with us. And they could see because Christ
effectually called them through the Spirit. There are many reasons,
in every way, these Jewish men should have rejected Jesus based
on their culture. And most of them did. But God,
who is the author of salvation, who is effectual unto eternal
life, brought these men to faith. And these greater things than
these, Jesus explains in verse 51. And there's a lot here that
will be explained as we continue to move about this letter, about
this text. But He said to him, Amen, Amen. Truly, truly. It is true, it
is true. I say to you, you will see heaven
opened. and the angels of God ascending
and descending on the Son of Man. And what they had going through
their mind right then is impossible to tell. But they did not have
the Scripture that we have today. They were walking with Him and
learning as they went, and gleaning, and then by the Spirit, by the
Holy Spirit, they would eventually write this all down so that we
could walk with Christ, so that we could be intimate with Christ,
so that we would not have to seek after signs and wonders
and miracles, but we could read the pages of the life of Jesus
and be face-to-face with Christ intimately, spiritually, one
day physically. So let's just look at this for
a second. current events, there are many who would apply to this
mindset. If you understand what a worldview
is, a worldview is basically how you view the world. Through
what lens you would look. Many people look at our world
today with disdain and disgust, horror, fear. Some people look
at our world in a way that is sort of like they adore it. Adoration. Love. Which we see in John's
writings, do not love the world. And yet some people hate the
people of the world, but we just sang a truth that's shown here
that Jesus in His humanity loved His enemies and even taught us
to love our enemies. Love those who persecute us.
Love those who hate us. Love those who put us to death.
Though we hate the wickedness of the world, we ought to love
those who are lost in their wickedness. And loving them means that we
share the gospel with them. We don't argue with them theological
intricacies and nuances. We share the truth because only
in teaching the gospel will they ever see. You see, for the light
will not be overcome by the darkness. But the worldviews that we see
in our culture are a mixed bag of tricks. And we see the economy
rise and fall. We see the offices of our government
from good to bad to worse, from good to bad to worse, depending
on who you talk to. We see people are fearful about
what's happening overseas, what's happening in the hearts of men,
people who believe that the kingdom of heaven is on earth. and that
we as the church need to work to make things more moral and
ethical. The very thing that Jesus came
to save us from, our morality and our ethics and our self-righteousness. Some people who claim Christ
believe that they ought to be about the business of changing
people's actions rather than preaching for God to change their
hearts. We see racism. We see misogyny. We see slavery. There's a corporate
slavery in our world, folks, that a lot of people don't understand
about. A lot of people don't understand
that it even exists. And it's not as prevalent in
the United States, but it still exists here. But, beloved, there
are people who work for the profits of billions for United States
companies who make pennies a month. They're not even allowed to leave
the factories. And if they die, they don't care, they just put
another one in there. And we start thinking of these atrocities,
we think, wow, we need to change the world. But beloved, that's
a great cry. Let's change the world. But do
you know why the world exists? That it may be an object of judgment.
The world and everything in it is passing away. Therefore, do
not love the world. But let's just check ourselves
on that for a minute and go ahead and concede to the reality that
all of us love the world in some degree. Well, you'll have to.
And we have to love the world to keep our grass cut. We have
to love the world to keep our home maintained. We have to love
some portions of things that exist in the world. But there's
a difference in being a good steward and being a worshipper
of something. There's a difference in saying,
well, I want to make sure that I'm clean and healthy and do
my best, but these are not ultimate things. There's something to
be said about speaking out against injustice, if we could dare call
it that, but that's not the ultimate end. As we've learned this past
Wednesday night, that those who give agreement or validation
to wickedness are guilty of the same practice of the same wickedness,
according to Romans chapter 1. So of course we say, no, that's
sinful. We say, no, that's wrong. Even if it doesn't affect us,
we must speak the truth. Why? Not that it changes anything,
but that it honors God because sin offends God, of which we
are all guilty of offending God. This very day, if we sat down
and started writing things that we've done that did not please
or honor the Lord according to the Word, just the last 24 to
48 hours, we'd probably get a good page. Because our thoughts would
start coming to the page. Our hearts would start coming
to the page. Our frustrations would start. Our worry would
start coming. You know, it's a sin to worry.
It's a sin not to rejoice. It's a sin to not consider others
above yourselves. And how many times just in existence
do we not do these things or that we do these things? How
about the fact that we have our Bible sitting next to us and
we'd rather play a game or watch television. be so guilty, but
the truth is, this is not the place for us to transform the
world through behaviors and self-righteousness. The Bible teaches that God Himself
saves men apart from their works. And He does so because heaven
has been opened to us. See, that's what a lot of people
want. They want heaven. Let's pray for world peace. Great,
pray for world peace. But I suggest that we not pray
for something that God has promised would not happen. Well, that
seems odd. Well, that would be like me praying
that God would let me murder someone. Lord, let me murder
someone. Why would I pray that which God forbade? God has promised
there will never be world peace. God has promised there will never
be peace between the world and Him except through Jesus Christ.
And the only ones who have peace with God are those who are by
faith in Christ, you see. It's not about what we do. It's
not about how well we live. It's not about all the good Bible
type things we do and engage in or the Bible studies we have.
It's about faith in Jesus Christ. It's about heaven being opened
as we see today, as we'll see today, and coming down, condescending
Himself to be like humanity and represent humanity in the face
of God, both in righteousness and in justice. Beloved, we've got a lot to pray
about in our world. But I think one of the worst
things that befalls the church today in our culture is that
many Christians believe that being in the church is about
coming to service and attending church. You know, you can't attend
church. You can gather, but you can't attend. There's no such
thing as attending church. Now, of course, we're all here
today attending a service. We're not trying to be cheeky. But in reality, if our heart
is that we're attending rather than being, we have a long way
to go. We have a long way to go. Because God did not save His
people that we might find places to go and glean. He did not create
us to be the food court of spiritual families. I'm going to go here
and get this free piece of chicken. I have a friend that years ago
used to, so frugal, she'd go on business dates and business
lunches and they'd go to the food court. And she'd get the
plate and she'd go around and get the free samples until she
had a full plate. And then she'd eat and she'd do it for her friend.
I mean, it was like. When people work in finance,
they're frugal. No sense in spending $8 on this meal when I can get
it for free. But beloved, we can't be like that as the body.
We can't just watch this video, and listen to this sermon, and
watch this YouTube channel, and read this devotional, and all
this kind of stuff, and not ever consider how we're investing
our lives, our prayers, our personal maturity in the lives of each
other. And that's what's wrong with so-called Christianity in
our world today, is that a worldview has been tainted to be intrinsic,
to be selfish, When the very gospel itself is not selfish,
but condescending. Let's look at the Word of God
this morning. 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, several things in pre-cursal,
in the beginning. Truly, truly, the double verities,
the double amens, it is so, it is so, is an emphatic duplication,
a recapitulation, the repeating of a word by Jesus to show its
absolute importance. And He uses the term, it is true,
it is true, so be it, so be it, to show that He is absolutely
not only saying something that's important, but it's of absolute
truth. And so when we see Jesus use
these terms, it's not a colloquial wisdom. It's not a euphemism. It's not
a phrase. It's not a figure of speech.
It is an emphatic, authoritative reality that Jesus is about to
speak something that is absolute and that it comes from His mouth
in a manner in which it is absolute truth and that it cannot be refuted. Do you understand that? There
are people in our world today who stand in pulpits, who believe
that the Bible is antiquated, which ignores the divine authorship
of the Scripture. And people get upset when the
Bible is read in this way, but God Himself has said that all
Scripture is breathed out by Him and is useful for teaching
and rebuke and correction and instruction and righteousness
that the man of God, the pastor, the elder, this is written to
Timothy by Paul, may be successful in every work that he does. You need counsel? The Scripture
gives it to you. You want intimacy? The Scripture
gives it to you. You want peace? The Scripture
gives it to you. You want relational peace? The
Scripture gives it to you. You're depressed? The Scripture
gives it to you. And there are many who don't
believe that the Bible is authoritative, to which the Bible itself says
they are lost. without hope in the world. For
they reject the very gospel of Jesus, who is the living word,
who spoke it all. So if the Bible is not true,
they're condemned and so are we. You see the point. Because a lot of times when we
see this text, and some people see this text out of context,
then they create a pretext. That means they just take this
little bit and then they just imagine what it means based on
the language of their own world. What does it mean? for Jesus
to say, truly, truly. We better pay attention. We better
put what Jesus says in the context of this sentence right here,
more important than what the pastor is about to say about
it. And prayerfully, through discerning hearts and minds,
prayerfully, through study of the Scripture, not with the footnotes,
not with the study books, Not with the Google searches, but
with the reading of the Word of God, that the Lord would affirm
what I say as truth based on what the Scripture has said. Truly, truly. Not only does He
say truly, truly, but He says, I declare, I proclaim, I say
these things." What is He saying? He's not just sharing something
with them. He's declaring something that is about to happen, truly.
This isn't a figure of speech, beloved. When Jesus says that
heaven will be opened, He is not saying that this is some
kind of a spiritual situation through which you might find
peace internally. Jesus is saying, He declares
and proclaims it right here. He says, what does He proclaim?
Look at the next word. You will see. This is in the
same timbre as the rest of what we've read already in the evangelistic
efforts of John chapter 1. Come and see. Come and see. Come and see. Now Jesus declares,
you will see. You will see greater things than
just the fact that I am the omniscient, omnipresent God. You will see
greater things than that when I turn water to wine. You will
see greater things than that when I do this and I heal this
person and I raise this person from the dead. You'll see greater
things than that. See, general revelation is what
we know the Bible teaches about who God is, as we see in Romans
chapter 1 and other places, that God has made Himself known perfectly,
without fail, through what has been created in the world. So, men are without excuse, for we
know that God exists. But there is no salvation in
believing that God exists. Hear me. Believing that God exists
is not salvation. We must trust in Jesus Christ.
That is salvation. We must believe that God has
revealed Himself specially, particularly in Jesus Christ. The work of
Jesus. The person of Jesus. The heart
of Jesus. The words of Jesus. You will see. See the miracles
the disciples were so amazed with? The miracles that they were so
amazed with, according to Jesus, is basically nothing compared
to the truth that He has come down from heaven. I said to you last week that
the greatest miracle that's ever existed by the hand of God is
to take a dead sinner and bring him to life. We don't need to
see the signs when that's the greatest thing that could ever
happen. Because we have the signs here. We have the wonders here.
We have the death of Jesus Christ and the resurrection recorded
in the Scripture. We don't need to see any more, for our faith
comes through hearing, and hearing through the words of Christ.
If we need something else, we have lost touch. The miracles are nothing, Jesus
says, because He's going to open heaven for them to behold. Isn't
that what we're all really looking for? Isn't that interesting that
even unbelievers are looking for that heaven moment? Unbelievers
are looking for that time when they can say, oh, I've experienced
heaven. And believers are looking for
that day when we can experience heaven. And sometimes we long
for the future that we forsake the present. Sometimes we long
for that day of redemption when it's permanent and full that
we just walk around miserable in this day. When the Scripture
says that we rejoice in this day by putting our mind on that
day, you see. And we're able to walk in the
minutia of today by focusing on the magnificence of tomorrow
in Christ. It seems ridiculous, doesn't
it? How can we do these things? Because Christ has said we have
seen heaven. He's telling these disciples
they have seen heaven opened. Let's unpack that verse for a
moment. Heaven is opened. Well, it gives
an idea that heaven has been closed. Heaven is opened. When has heaven been closed?
It's closed in the heart of every unbeliever. Heaven is not open
because of the fall. The garden has been closed to
humanity. Intimacy with God has been rejected
because He is holy and we are wicked. Is there anyone among
us that believes that they are not evil at heart? I pray that God would show you
that you are not holy, no matter how good you live. And it's amazing
that we can see all the things in the world and we can make
judgments because Christ has made judgments. God has made
judgments. It's okay to go to the Bible and say, okay, the
Scripture says this is not pleasing to Him. Great. But it's not just
because we don't engage in that doesn't mean that we are pleasing
to Him. We're pleasing to Him because Christ obeyed. That's
it. There is no other pleasure in
the mind of our Father except that Jesus Christ obeyed Him
fully as a human being. He perfectly obeyed the law.
That's why faith in Jesus Christ alone is the only way to salvation.
And all across the world today, and yesterday in certain parts,
people are sitting in church services, attending something,
and they're hearing something else besides the gospel of grace.
And because of that, they are continually being condemned every
moment of their life, because they've been given instruction
on how they ought to talk, and how they ought to walk, and what
they ought to do to earn salvation, if they truly are believers. Beloved, what's greater, as we
saw when we went through the first and second letters of the
Thessalonians, as we saw that the work, He who began a what?
He who began a good work in you is what? Faithful to complete
it to the day of righteousness, to the day of judgment. So in
whom do we trust? We trust in He who is faithful,
even in our faithlessness. As Paul would write in Romans
3, what are we to say then? God's unjust? Because man failed? Man was destined to fail. You
hear me? If any man could obey the law
of God to such a way that he could earn righteousness, that
man be God himself. And the only one who has is Jesus. The only one who has is Jesus.
Heaven has to be opened because man cannot see it. Man cannot
enter into it. Jesus says in John chapter 3,
when Nicodemus says, we know that you have come from Heaven.
We know that you have come from God. It's the same thing. We
know that you have come from Heaven because of the works that
you do. See, they put their trust in
the miracles and the power of Jesus. And their hope was in
what He could do in His miracle power, and then they went, wow,
He can do that? He can escape us from Rome. If
He can do that, we're about to be able to worship with such
fervor and such purity. We're going to have this temple
and it's going to be like it was in the olden days. We're
going to honor God again. He's going to be pleased with
us again when the very Scripture that Paul would write to the
Hebrew people that Peter talks about in 2 Peter. It says that
the blood of bulls and goats you did not want. What He wanted was the blood
of Christ, His Son. so that we could be purchased, because we've
been saved by His mercy. Jesus says in Nicodemus, you
cannot see the kingdom. You cannot enter the kingdom,
except you be born from heaven, be born by the Spirit, born of
God. People are always looking for
that place of heaven. Oh, if I could just go on vacation,
it'd be like heaven. I'll take your kids with you. If I could just have this, it'd
be like heaven. If I could just find a church
that was like this, it'd be like heaven. If I could just, you
know, get this situated in my life, it'd be like heaven. It's
funny how we go eat at a nice restaurant and be like, man,
this is like heaven. I will eat a good steak when my eyes close. It's gotta be a good one though.
Not a Waffle House steak. It's not heaven. In fact, we pay money to eat
a good steak and then we go home and go to the bathroom. Sorry for the reality check.
You could just flush the 20 down the toilet. Heaven. You cannot see. Why? Because the mind of man
is hostile to God. It hates Him. It's in enmity
with God. It cannot know Him. It cannot
submit to Him. It cannot understand Him. The
kingdom was hidden from man because of man's rebellion. And now the
kingdom is visible to us. And that's what Jesus is talking
about here. Heaven was off limits, even to the Jews. It was off
limits from the beginning. That's why they had to have a
fake heaven. That's why they had to have a fake place of worship.
That's why they had to have an artificial temple and an artificial
tabernacle. That's why they had to have an
artificial presence of God the Holy Spirit to stick Him in a
box and carry Him around. Oh, but it's God in there. We better put some gold on Him.
Because you know God likes pavement. Nothing like black-topping God's
presence in the streets of gold. Heaven is off limits to those
who are dead in the sin. There's nothing they can do to open heaven for
them. There's nothing that we can do. And many attempts have
been made to make heaven available. Beloved, many people have come
to a false gospel. I'm not talking about the cults,
though that's obvious. I'm not talking about the rituals
and the tribes and all the different things where people have worshipped
nature and worshipped people and worshipped truth and had
different revelations everywhere throughout history. Even in the
days of the prophets, there were false prophets who were having
visions and seeing things and hearing things. And today, even
though the Word of God is complete, there are still people who think
they have the authority to hear from God in a different way and
to sit down and add to Scripture. Let me tell you something, beloved.
If God speaks to somebody and gives them revelation this day,
we best have some blank pages in the back of the maps to add
it. Because if God says it, it belongs in the Bible. And if God hasn't said it, it
won't be found here. Many people have made attempts
to make heaven available. Let's just use ones that we can
understand. Decisional regeneration. What's that mean? You make a
decision today to follow Jesus, you'll be saved. Really? Where's
that in the Bible? Choose you, this day He will serve. That's
Joshua. That's got everything to do with the arm of the people
of Israel, following the command of God for the sake of going
into the promised land, which was a temporal promise anyway.
So, three strikes, you're out, remember? Oh, decisional reconciliation. Confess the Lord God with your
heart. Now, believe in your heart. That's it. You're making a decision.
What's the confession to begin with? By definition, a confession
is a proclamation of the truth. How can something be true before
it's true? That's just ridiculous. With decisional regeneration,
I accepted Jesus. As what? What did He offer you? Well, behold, He's standing at
the door and knocking. No, He's not. Jesus doesn't knock
on the door of unbelievers. Why? Because we bar it on the
other side. We put the furniture up there.
We put grandma's armoire up there. We throw grandma on the pile.
He wouldn't get in. In Revelation chapter 3, that
text where that particular manipulated verse comes from, Jesus is talking
to the church. And He says, you know what? You've
shut me out, church, because of your lack of passion. You've
shut me out because of your disobedience in this area. You've shut me
out, and I want intimacy with you. It's called a picture. You
know what? That's called imagery in literary terms. It's a picture. He says, behold, I'm going to
knock on this door. And I want you to open it. When you open
it, I'm going to come in and be intimate with you. That's not a salvific,
that's not a doctrinal thing. It's a picture of Jesus' mercy. You know what other door he knocked
on? The door to the upper room. When we see Thomas in chapter
20, holy cow, let's just skip it all and go right there now.
Of John. And they barred the door because
why? They were going to die if people found them up there. That's
why. And Thomas wasn't showing up. He went back to do whatever
he was doing because he believed that Jesus had died and perished
and that was the end of it. Well, we tried. We failed. And they talked him into coming. But before he got there, he says,
I will not believe. Matter of fact, the only way I would believe,
which was a lie, is if I stick my hands in the nail scars in
his hands and I stick my hand in his side with a spear. That's
the only way I'll believe. And Jesus didn't knock on that
door. He didn't bang. He didn't cry out the outside
window. Thomas is sitting over there against the wall like this,
watching them pray and celebrate because they've seen the risen
Christ. And Thomas is over there just going, oh my gosh, these
people have lost their minds. They're not even working. They're
going to have repossessions. They're going to have foreclosures. They're
going to lose everything on this dead man. And all of a sudden,
Jesus pops through the wall. Imagine Thomas. Well, this is
a little odd. Who let this guy in? And he says
to Thomas, Behold, my hands, my side. Thomas falls on his
face and says, The Lord of me and the God of me. Why? Because Jesus Christ didn't knock
on any door. He bust right in there and he
saved Thomas without Thomas' permission. Thomas was there
indignant and unresponsive to the truth that Jesus Christ was
alive. The miracle of His resurrection had been witnessed by all of
the other people who had witnessed everything else. And he said,
I will not believe it. And Jesus was merciful. That's
what knocking on the door is all about. He's merciful to bring
His people to intimacy. Heaven being open, historically,
throughout Scripture, has talked about God's revealed grace, knowing
the mystery of God. In Acts chapter 10, in verse
11, it says, "...and saw the heavens opened, and something
like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners
upon the earth." Revelation 4.1, and after this, John says, "...I
looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first
voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, Come
up here, and I will show you what must first take place after
this." The Jews longed for a glimpse to heaven. The Jews longed to
hear a new word from the prophets. The Jews longed to hear a new
revelation about who God was. Enoch walked with God and then
was no more for God took him. Genesis chapter 5. And people just loved Enoch and
loved the story of Enoch and the myth and the legend of Enoch
and the assumption of Moses in different places and all the
non-biblical, non-scriptural writings of history. We have
the book of Enoch and then we see Oh gosh, where is that? My brain went dead. Doesn't matter. Titus or Jude. We see it being
quoted. And what is it that Enoch states,
according to the Word of God, that the Son of Man is coming
back to bring judgment with a bunch of angels. And it's going to
be fierce. How can we accept that? Because
the apostles accepted it, for one. And number two, because
it coincides with exactly what the Scripture teaches. So if
we paraphrase the Scripture and it matches, then we can say,
huh, the Word of God testifies that what you say is true. In John 3, Jesus says, no one
has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven,
and He uses His self-proclaimed title, the Son of Man. See, Jesus
Christ gives a glimpse into the true heaven. Jesus Christ is
the true heaven, and He reveals heaven truthfully. And He's better
than all the previous glimpses of history. He's better than
Abraham. Jesus tells what? The Jews in
John chapter 8, before Abraham was, I am. You know what He says
before that? Truly, truly. So it's not a figure of speech.
Truly, truly. Before Abraham, I say to you. Before Abraham was, I am. I declared
to you, I proclaimed to you. So Jesus is greater than Abraham.
Abraham could not reveal heaven, though he pointed to it. He's
greater than Jacob. In John chapter 4, when Jesus
is talking with the woman from Sychar, the Samaritan woman,
she says, what, are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave
us this well, and we've drank from it himself and his sons
and his livestock and all the people throughout all the history
of our people? And Jesus says, everyone who drinks of this water
will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give
will never be thirsty. The water that I give him will
become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. So
Jesus, as the one opening heaven, is greater than Abraham. He's
greater than Jacob. He's greater than Moses. The law was given
through Moses. Grace and truth came through
Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. Moses
hadn't seen Him. But the God who sits at His side
has made Him known. His name is Jesus Christ, the
Living Word. In verse 14, "...that came and dwelt among us in the
flesh." Listen to the words of Jesus
in John. Or listen to the words to Jesus
in John 9. You are His disciple, but we
are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to
Moses, but as far as this man, we do not know where he comes
from. The man answered, why, this is an amazing thing. You
do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We
know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is
a worshipper of God and does His will, God listens to him.
Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened
the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God,
he could do nothing. He's better than Moses. He's better than Isaiah. As a
matter of fact, Isaiah's words are fulfilled in the coming of
Jesus Christ in many ways. In John 12, we see this. that we had done many signs before
them, they did not believe in Him, so that the word spoken..."
You hear that? So that. That's causation. "...they
did not believe, so that the word spoken to Isaiah..." Listen
to this. "...might be fulfilled, Lord, who has believed what he
has heard from us, and whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed.
Therefore they could not believe, For again, Isaiah said, He has
blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with
their eyes and understand with their heart, in turn, and I would
heal them." Isaiah said these things, get this, because he
saw His glory and spoke of Him, but yet Jesus is saying, now
the glory is truly visible. Jesus, the God of glory, has
come down from heaven, fully God, to execute the will of the
Father for the sake of His righteousness. This is the gospel, y'all. This
is the good news. This is the outline of everything
else you're about to see in John's Gospel. Every miracle, every
word, every teaching, every dialogue, every discourse, everything you
see to the day that he's arrested, to the trials. to the beatings,
to the walk, to the cross, to His death, burial, resurrection,
every bit of it is contained in these words of Jesus. Truly,
truly, I say to you, I declare, you will see heaven opened and
angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Why was John written? That you
may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by
believing in His name you have eternal life. That's why it was
written. Do you believe today, beloved?
Do you believe? Are you trusting in Christ in
the midst of doubt? Are you trusting in Christ in
the midst of sin? Are you trusting in Christ in the midst of confusion,
anger, bitterness, health problems, marriage problems, financial
problems, spiritual problems? The angels of God ascending and
descending. Does that sound familiar? It's the dream of Jacob. It's
a dream of Jacob in Genesis chapter 28. He dreamed, and behold, there
was a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached heaven,
and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending
upon it. What does it look like? See, it's not a ladder. If it
was just a ladder, it'd be an opportunity, wouldn't it? You
see this? If there was a ladder to step
back there, it was always an opportunity. Kids could climb
up it if they wanted to, if their parents weren't watching. And
we moved it because they kept climbing. If there's a door and
it's a little bit of a jar, you can go in it. If there was a
ladder, there was an opportunity, it'd just be a ladder and it'd
say, welcome. Heaven with an arrow pointing up. But this isn't
a ladder of opportunity, this is a ladder of intimacy. This
is a ladder of activity. This is a ladder that has no
room for us to walk. This is a ladder that's got no
spot for you and I to climb, because the angels of heaven
are ascending and descending. This is a conduit. See, if the
Bible were written today, it'd probably say that Jacob had a
dream about a conduit, or a fiber-optic cable between heaven and earth. It just doesn't have the same
pizzazz, does it? So, like God's on the internet
now? No, this is intimacy. God intimately
came to earth and He never shut the door. So that the activity
of God is continually working in the lives of His people. Beloved,
this is the Gospel. God who is on earth is eternally
tethered to heaven from which He came. Jesus Christ came to
give uninterrupted access to the Father, continual blessing,
continual knowledge, continual ministry, continual salvation
until He returns. What else are we looking for? That's what we want. That's what
we're looking for. That's what we're longing for. That's what
we're hoping for. We're trying to experience it
now, but beloved, we don't have to experience it. It's with us. He is with us. This is the day
that Christ is with you today. You might say, well, I want to
experience that. Two weeks ago I picked my Bible up about five
times in the sermon. You can only experience it this way.
You can only experience it through the pages of Scripture. You can't
experience God through any supernatural mojo. But you can experience God supernaturally
through the pages of Scripture. And the Holy Spirit teaches us.
Now we close this sermon out with this last phrase. These
angels, this conduit, this uninterrupted access. I cannot speak today.
To heaven. is ascending and descending on
the Son of Man. It's a whole other sermon. The Son of Man. Jesus Christ's
self-taken title comes straight from Daniel 7. I saw in the night visions, and
behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came One like a Son of
Man. It's a simile. That means He was human. He was
like a human. We know that Jesus was born of
a virgin. He did not have earthly, fleshly, sinful father. He had an earthly, fleshly, sinful
mother that needed redemption, but did not have a father of
this world because the Holy Spirit conceived in her. Jesus Christ. He's become like a Son of Man.
And He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before
Him. No one has ever seen God, but
the God who is at His Father's side has made Him known. Matthew
26, Jesus speaking. You have said so, but I tell
you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the
right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. See,
Jesus, as the Son of Man, took His humanity as top importance. Why? Because He didn't have to
prove Himself to be God. He was vindicated on that count.
And secondly, if Jesus had just come as God, if Jesus had just
come in His divinity with all power, and stood and performed
all miracles, man would still be lost. Man would still go,
wow, that's God right there. Ooh, I'm scared. I hate Him. And if He'd come with all power
and ferocity and decided that He would just like destroy anybody
who didn't bow down to Him, many people would bow down out of
preservation. Beloved, the good news of Jesus is not bowing down
out of fear. It is bowing down out of love.
It is bowing down out of adoration. It is bowing down because God
has taken a hard, cold, dead sinner, and made Him alive that
He might see the glorious beauty of His majesty, so that He could
see the love that God the Father had for us before the foundations
of the world. And in kindness, He gave us eternal life. In kindness,
He caused us to be born again. See, this is the good news. And
this is possible because Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son, who
is eternally God, became a human at the same time He was eternally
God. And He took on humanity so that
He would be God eternally and He would represent man before
God. He represents man in His humanity.
How does He do that? When He represents Himself as
God, Jesus even uses the title the Son of Man in John chapter
6 verse 62 when He says, "...and you will see." Then what if I
were to tell you the Son of Man ascending to where He was before,
you see? So we know that Jesus is God
eternally. But what about Jesus working to represent humanity? In John 3, verse 14, Jesus gives
Nicodemus this very clear, or should be, simple instruction.
For He is the Teacher of all Israel. He says, The Son of Man,
as Moses lifted the serpent up in the wilderness, so the Son
of Man must be lifted up. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice.
Jesus is the Lamb of God. Jesus is the only means through
which we can be justified. Jesus is the righteousness of
God. So what Jesus has done in His
life is pleasing to God in His humanity. So God has a human
for which He is well pleased. And then Jesus in His perfection
got on the cross and died so that God can then be well pleased
in His wrath against those who are His so that He can be just
in forgiving them. There's another way in which
the Scripture shows Jesus as the Son of Man, and that's eschatologically,
in the End Times, in John 5. And it says He's been given authority
to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. We'll see
that unfold as we move on in this Gospel. See, we're not to
learn from the patriarchs. We're not to learn from the pastor.
We're not to learn by looking at all these different examples.
We're to learn by looking at Christ. And by looking at Christ,
we see heaven. The kingdom of heaven. Jesus
Christ, the God of heaven, come down. Heaven is available to
us perfectly because the Scripture teaches us of Him. Heaven is
open to us and we can look at the Word of God and we can see
and we can rejoice. We're not looking for more because
we have been given it all. All spiritual blessings are ours
in Christ. We are satisfied that Christ is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Come down and we know Him because He loved us and He gave Himself
for us and He wrote His Word through God the Spirit that we
might see and know Him today and tomorrow. and the next day. Ultimately, the purpose of Jesus'
message here to the disciples will be seen in His crucifixion.
Not all the miracles, but specifically in the crucifixion. And as we
hunger for heaven, we need to remember that we have the Scriptures
to see the miracles. We have the Scriptures to know
the truth. We have the Scriptures to experience God. We have the
Scriptures to have understanding. We have the Scriptures to have
eternal life. We have the Scriptures right
here today so that we can know Christ, and that we can learn
Christ, and that we can live in Christ. And beloved, Christ
has not done this that we may do it apart from each other. He's not done this so that we
can have individual personalized salvation experiences as isolated
islands in the world. As a matter of fact, the very
nature of the Lord's Table is for those who assemble together
in unity. You can't take the Lord's Table
without the body. And you can't take the Lord's
Table without the body that you know. Because that's the point
of it. It's to remember what Christ
has done for the sake of where we are today. It's to remember
that God opened heaven through Jesus Christ and He tore the
veil that separated God and man, which is the flesh of Christ.
That's what this represents. The church is the bride who awaits.
The church gathers so that we may rejoice, learn, and worship. Beloved, I pray that we are not
here as a passive spectator. but that we're here as a passionate
worshiper. Let's pray. Father, it is great
to be able to hear Your Word, to close out this wonderful passage
of Scripture, to be able to come and celebrate
Jesus Christ together as a body. Some of us know each other more
intimately than others, Lord. We have a common bond in the
Gospel. Lord, help us to realize that we've been forgiven much,
so that we might forgive each other, even in grief and gross
sin. Father, when we see each other
sinning, we need to spiritually discern how to approach it. Not
condemn each other, but Lord, approach it in gentleness, lest
we fall prey to the same temptation. God, help us have that type of
intimacy. And I know, Lord, that we would not be able to grow
and mature if we don't have opportunity to forgive and forbear. It doesn't
work without the pain. We cannot mature without the
suffering. We cannot grow into our heart of forgiveness without
being able to exercise it. Just like you grow us in our
faith by permitting doubt and sometimes division. But Father,
one thing is certain. as we embrace the eternal security
of the gospel. In Jesus alone, we know we have
a sound future, despite the nuances of this world. Despite the biting
of our flesh. Because Jesus Christ and His
flesh has suffered the penalty of our sin, and His blood has
been shed. And Lord, we rejoice in Jesus'
name.