JESUS, SON OF MAN

#857                                                                  JESUS, SON OF MAN                                                                                         

Scripture  John 1:35-51                                                                                                                                   Orig. 10/13/89 

Passage:  The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” 39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. 40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter[a]). 43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” 48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” 50 Jesus said, “You believe[b] because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you,[c] you[d] will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’[e] the Son of Man.”

Purpose: Continuing a study from the gospel, here emphasizing the enormity of meaning in Jesus’ reference to himself as “son of man.”

Keywords:          Bible Study                         Parable                Christ                   Identity

Series:  John

Introduction

                It is interesting, and somewhat surprising, that as quickly as we turn from the Synoptic Gospel, and to John, we turn from the regular teaching of truth in parable form.  John never uses the word “miracle,” and he never uses the word “parable.”  These were major elements in the teaching ministry of Jesus, yet, John does not incorporate either in his presentation of the life of Jesus.  You will find “parable” in the King James (10:6), however, the same word found twice more (16:25, 29) is “proverb.”

                While parables are conspicuously absent from this fourth gospel, the use of rich symbolism, and use of “signs,” are conspicuously present.

                Herbert Lockyer says that John “describes . . . some twenty days out of the Lord’s public ministry of three years. . . .  John lived nearer to his Lord than the other Apostles and seemed to understand the inner significance of His messages more than the others, and supplies us with the suggestive imagery He used in His discourses.”

                We are not yet through chapter one, and we have viewed this imagery first hand. There has been the use of the concept “Word” for Jesus.  He calls Jesus “Light.”  He has John the Baptist identifying himself as “a voice.”  Last week, reference was made to the eleven, twelve if we count “son of Joseph,” marks, or signs of Jesus’ identity.

                Keep in mind what John himself says toward the end of this powerful rendering of the life of Jesus.  20:30 “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”

I.             We Learn of Jesus’ Intent to Share the Richness of His Life with His Disciples.  V39 Jesus “sayeth unto them, come and see. . . . They . . . abode with Him.”  Our purpose this morning is to reach where this first chapter concludes.  We will pass by nine of the concepts of identity found in this chapter.  There is a message in every one. Jesus, Lamb of God, Master, Rabbi, Messiah, Christ, of Nazareth, son of Joseph. 

                Before leaving this chapter, however, we must find His meaning, “Son of Man.”  William Barclay isolates 82 uses of this term in the New Testament.  All but one are in the gospels. In Acts 7:56, Stephen said “I see . . . the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”  Of the 81 remaining uses, all but one (John 12:34, about the crucifixion of the anointed) are on the lips of Jesus.

                Revelation 1:13—“And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man. . .”

                Revelation 14:14—“. . . seated on the cloud was one ‘like a son of man.’”

                Hebrews 2:6—“What is man . . . or the son of man that thou visitest him.”

                There are other teachings in these verses.  Perhaps as many as six of the disciples come to light here.  First, there are the two disciples of John the Baptist.  V35 tells plainly.  John, himself, directs them.  You don’t know how tough this is. Or, watch your children go overseas.  One of these two was Andrew, V40.  Examine the level of discipleship.  He went to find Simon Peter, to introduce him to the Master.  We honor him still in every reference to “Andrew” clubs.  He was big enough to let his convert have the larger place.

                An additional word must be said on Simon Peter.   He was won by the direct outreach of another.  Andrew didn’t wait for him to chance upon Christ.  Christ tags him with a change of his name.  His name is not changed from rock to pebble.  Simon means “one who hears,” a marvelous facility of discipleship.  Petra and petros both mean “rock.”

                John himself emerges here.  Also of Bethsaida, youngest of 12, and of the fishing enterprise (of 4).  To him Jesus entrusted Mary. He was called “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” 

                Jesus went looking for Phillip, v 43.  He called both to faith and to follow.  Faith meant he had found the Messiah, to follow meant he must tell others.

                In that spirit, he sought Nathanael. Nathanael owes his conversion to a friend. He was dealing honestly with his doubts, opening mind and heart to the prospect of truth. “Come and see” said Phillip. V46 Nathanael mocks Jesus, then in V49 professes his faith.  V50, 51: Nathanael owes to his conversion the life of fullness.

II.            In a Manner of Speaking, We Learn How Jesus Sees Himself.  “Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”  Some, of course, would say that it means nothing more than that.  It was out of the common idiom of the day.  The Aramaic bar nasha means Son of man. The Hebrew ben adam means the same. 

                Isaiah 56:2 “Blessed is . . . the son of man who holds it (justice) fast.”

                Psalm 146:3 “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no help.”

                Or, that it was self-disclosure not unlike that found in Ezekiel, where the expression is found eighty-plus times.  It is the word from God spoken to his prophet as a specialized address.  It denotes his humanity.  It contrasts his humanity with power, glory, sovereignty of God.

                Daniel is the one, however, who helps us to understand its meaning.  He was given to see the personification of the great world powers.  He describes the vision (Daniel 7:1-14).  It was of four great world powers—Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece.  For three hundred years they dominated.  “A lion with eagle’s wings” (v4); a bear . . . with three ribs in its mouth (v5); a leopard with four heads, and it had dominion (v6); a fourth beast, dreadful, and terrible, with ten horns (v7).  V13 “And I saw in the night, visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven . . .   And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him.”

                John uses the same imagery in Revelation.  1:7 speaks of the one who “cometh in the clouds.”  1:13 “The one in the midst of the seven candlesticks like unto the Son of man.” 

Conclusion

                What you must see, what I must see, is Jesus as He is here pictured.  Daniel uses the imagery of the God-man.  One who is come to serve who is like those whom He has come to serve.  Daniel 7:18 “But the saints of the Most High, shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even for ever and ever.”  V28 “My cogitations much troubled me” “But I kept the matter in my heart.”

                The great need of our time is to see Jesus as He is, as Son of man.  Like John’s two disciples in discovering that Jesus was who John was talking about.  He (Jesus) was the Word, of which John the Baptist was the voice.  Like Simon Peter who was a large chunk of stone, but with care what a useful instrument he would become. Like Phillip, to faith him would be to follow him. Like Nathanael, casting aside our doubts we begin to see the very “heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”

                It must remain unexplored, but there remains the potential of “son of man” for us. Matthew 12:31f, Mark 3:28f, and Luke 12:10, read “all sins will be forgiven the sons of men.”