Jesus, the Son of Man

Introduction

We all have little Christmas traditions that we love, because our parents or family did them for us.

Every year, my wife makes peanut butter fudge a day or two before Christmas. The reason she does this is because Peanut Butter Fudge is something that my mom made every Christmas Eve. In fact, it is hard for me to imagine Christmas without the smell of peanut butter fudge.

In an family, several things happen:

You bring the traditions of your family.

You bring the traditions of your spouse’s family.

You merge them together.

You create new traditions that are special to the two of you.

It is beautiful when those things that you do are passed down to the next generation.

The ways we are remembered most and contribute the most importantly comes from our family - not from the things we accomplish.

David, in 1 Chronicles, has been thinking about His legacy. He has built a large and thriving Kingdom. The people are flourishing. Yet, David says, “I have built a home for myself, but I want to build a house for the Lord.”

When he tells Nathan the prophet his wishes, Nathan speaks to him with the words from God - your legacy will be different.

“The greatest thing you do will not stem from what you accomplish, but instead, it will stem from one who will come from your lineage.”

That lineage traces itself to Jesus. The one and only Messiah.

This promise that God made to David is one of three that God made to different people concerning the child who would come from their lineage: Adam and Eve, Abraham, and David.

CIT: We will see that God is true to His promises, and all of God’s promises find their yes in Jesus.

Read 1 Chronicles 17:11–14

1 Chronicles 17:11–14 ESV

11 When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. 13 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, 14 but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.’ ”

Explanation

Three Men in Jesus’ Genealogy

Adam

Although sin entered the world through Adam, and from Adam to all mankind, so Christ reverses the curse.

Adam and Eve sinned against God in the garden, eating of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.

Romans 5:12 “12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—”

Sin finds its beginning in Adam, but we are all culpable in its continual spread. However, God promises

Genesis 3:15 “15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””

I showed this picture a few years ago, but I think it’s worth showing again. The Christ child destroys the work of Satan and the damage wrought by man.

Joy to the World lyrics: No more let sin and sorry grow; nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.

Abraham

God made Abraham a binding promise, a covenant, that he would make him the father of a great nation.

Many thought this to be Israel. It certain is in part Israel, but more fully, it is the Christ child that the nation of Israel brought forth.

The Abrahamic covenant spoke not of a single nation, but that every nation would be blessed through one of his lineage.

Peter tells us this in saying, “We are a royal priestshood, a HOLY NATION.” 1 Peter 2:9 “9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

While the promise to Adam and Eve is simply that he will roll back the curse of Satan some day, the scale of such an endeavor could never have been conceived by them.

One day, a nation so great that it cannot be numbered will gather across the world and celebrate their blood bought heritage - brought to them by the Messiah, the Son of Man.

David

The Messiah would come from the lineage of David to deliver the people of Israel. Israel thought it was simply for them, but it was for the world.

Because Jesus is the Messiah of Isreal, Jesus is the Savior of the world.

The Messiah was promised to bring a new age and freedom, and that is exactly what Jesus has done.

From these three individuals, we see the scope of what Jesus is doing. He is reversing the curse of sin and death per his promise to Adam and Eve. He is bringing about a new nation - the scale is global! - per the promise He made to Abraham. And this will be done through a Messiah - his Son!

God keeps his promises.

His promises find their yes and Amen in Jesus.

Jesus, the Son of Man and Son of God

We have this perfect miracle. Jesus conceived of the Holy Spirit in Mary. He is fully God, fully man. Theologian, Rhyne Putman, makes an incredible point concerning Jesus incarnation as the God-man - that he is the only child to have ever chosen his own parents.

Fully God

We use the term, “condescension” to discuss the beautiful reality that God came down.

Much like we bend down or get on our knee to talk to a toddler by looking them in their eyes, so God did the same with us.

If you hear nothing else today, let the image of that omnipotent baby remind you that God came for you.

Fully Man

We use the term incarnation around Christmas. It just means, “in the flesh.”

From the book of Luke, you have heard Jesus often call Himself, the Son of Man. This refers to Daniel 7, where we see a Son of Man ruling from God’s throne.

However, it is a man ruling from the throne of God. How could that be? Nearly six-hundred years before Christ came, he was predicted by Daniel.

This man is Jesus.

Jesus being fully God and man is of utmost importance.

Anselm once stated that only God could atone for sins and only human beings need atonement. Therefore, the God-man is necessary for our redemption.

Jesus is the appropriate and sufficient sacrifice. Men, when you get on one knee and propose to a woman, you have to open a little box and gift her a gift that is appropriate and sufficient. He is appropriate in that God looks at Jesus and says, “It is right that a man atones for man.” It is sufficient in that God looks at Jesus and says, “The gulf and chasm of the

Jesus is the King of the Jews, the Messiah. And because of this the prophecies of Jesus the Messiah that we see all over the Old Testament are true of Him.

Jesus, King of the Jews and King of the World

Because Jesus is the King of the Jews, the Messiah, He is the King of the world. What Christ did on the cross, ordained by God before the foundation of the world, paved the way for the destroying of darkness and death forevermore.

Make no mistake - on our planet - no political power, no nation, no individual, no currency, no billionaire, no organization, and no business holds the ultimate sway over the earth.

Death does. We are slaves to sin, and we live in a dark and broken world where death due to sin, reigns.

In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Aslan, who represents Jesus, must sacrifice himself for Edward, who has betrayed his siblings and Narnia.

When telling his plan to Lucy and Susan he says, “when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in the traitors stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards.”

And when the Christ child who grew into a man and died for our treachery, the veil was torn and Death started to work backwards.

Either Hell and Death will eternally reign over all of man, or Christ will. And beloved, make no mistake, King Jesus sits on the throne this morning.

Invitation

Tim Keller // “A God who was only holy would not have come down to us in Jesus Christ. He would have simply demanded that we pull ourselves together, that we be moral and holy enough to merit a relationship with him. A deity that was an ‘all‐accepting God of love’ would not have needed to come to Earth either. This God of the modern imagination would have just overlooked sin and evil and embraced us. Neither the God of moralism nor the God of relativism would have bothered with Christmas.”