GENESIS 28:10-17; JOHN 1:51- Christ the Stairway

Introduction

As we mentioned earlier this morning, we have made copies of different Bible reading plans available for your use for 2025. If you’re still working through the last plan you started, that’s fine—there’s no extra spiritual “points” for finishing a Bible reading plan “on time”—but there is enormous spiritual benefit for committing to reading God’s Word every day. So my exhortation is to read every day—whether it is one of the plans we provide or a different one that you find helpful—develop the discipline of spending time reading the Scriptures daily.

The plan that I use most often—the Five Day Bible Reading Program—places the Book of Job at the end of the year. And as I was preparing this sermon, one of the daily readings was from Job 23—as you know, Job suffered terrible catastrophes in his life, and as his friends gather to comfort him they eventually begin to suggest (and eventually outright accuse) Job of deserving his calamities. In Chapter 23 Job cries out in longing for God to appear to him so that he can present his case:

Job 23:3–9 (LSB)

“Oh that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His seat! “I would arrange my case for justice before Him And fill my mouth with arguments. “I would know the words which He would answer, And discern what He would say to me. “Would He contend with me by the greatness of His power? No, surely He would pay attention to me. “There the upright would argue with Him; And I would have escaped forever from my Judge. “Behold, I go forward but He is not there, And backward, but I cannot discern Him; When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him; He turns on the right, I cannot see Him.

The bleakness of Job’s cry— “God, where are you? Let me plead my case before You; let me tell You my side of the story!”—that is a poignant cry that is at the heart of Advent. Our need for God to appear to us to rescue us from our calamity and our guilt and our shame. The desperate need to have Him see and understand and help us in our darkness.

And this is the joy that we find in the darkness of the Advent season—that God has finally revealed Himself fully through Jesus Christ. The plea that Job made in his desolation has been answered. Christ has come to reveal Himself to us—and in revealing Himself to us He has shown us God—as He said to Philip on the night He was betrayed:

John 14:9 (LSB)

...“Have I been with you all so long and have you not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

In the darkness of his calamity, Job cried out for God to reveal Himself—and so Jesus was born on a dark night in Bethlehem as God’s final Word to mankind— “the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone.” (John 1:9).

Job cried out in the darkness of his calamity that God would reveal Himself so that he might be comforted. Jacob dreamed about a ladder reaching down from heaven to earth, with YHWH Himself standing at the top swearing His covenant faithfulness to him as He had to his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham.

And in John’s Gospel, Jesus identifies Himself as the “ladder” that Jacob dreamed about. Turn with me to the Book of John, Chapter 1 (page 887 in the pew Bible.) The encounter is recorded for us in verses 47-51:

John 1:47–51 (LSB)

Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said about him, “Behold, truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to Him, “From where do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

I want to suggest to you that there is a thread running through each of these figures that I have mentioned—Job in his despair, Philip on the night Jesus was betrayed, Jacob preparing to enter Laban’s service, Nathanael seeking the coming of the Messiah. Every one of them were faithful believers who needed to be fortified in their faith. Job said, “God, I know I have not sinned before you, but I don’t know why I am suffering?” Philip heard Jesus speaking of His departure and asked for reassurance that the Father was with them (“Show us the Father!”). Jacob knew that YHWH’s covenant promises rested on his father and grandfather, but needed to know that God was with him. And Nathanael had been faithfully praying for the coming of Messiah, and when Jesus revealed Himself as the Messiah he had been praying for, he believed.

But look at what Jesus says to Nathanael—not just “Good for you—you believed when I revealed Myself to you.” He said, “You will see even greater things than these!” He is going to give Nathanael even greater reasons to place his faith in Him—He is going to continue to strengthen and fortify Nathanael’s faith as their relationship grows.

And this is where we find ourselves today, isn’t it? Whether because you are like Job in the midst of calamity, like Jacob in a season of upheaval with family, like Philip anxious over the trials looming in the future, or like Nathanael desiring to know more of your Savior--

Christ aims to PERFECT the FAITH He has BEGUN in you

Jesus tells Nathanael in verse 51:

John 1:51 (LSB)

And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Jesus says Nathanael (and all of His disciples) are going to “see” three things: 1. The heavens opened

2. The angels of God ascending and descending

3. Christ as the bridge between earth and Heaven

So let us consider these one at a time—just as the author of Hebrews exhorts us to

Hebrews 12:2 (LSB)

[fix] our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith...

Jesus says that by seeing these three things about Who He is and what He has done, He will perfect our faith—strengthen, encourage, fortify and establish our trust in Him.

First of all, let your faith be strengthened by the fact that

I. Christ has OPENED HEAVEN for you

If you note carefully the description of Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28, you’ll see that it does not say there that Jacob “saw heaven opened...”, rather, he saw a ladder that “stood on the earth with its top touching heaven” (Gen. 28:12). But Jesus specifically says that His disciples would see Heaven standing open—the Greek word is a participle-- “You will see opened heaven!” Christ’s coming means that Heaven is now standing open.

The Scriptures use the phrase “heaven opened” in two ways—first, the idea of heaven being opened can be used to describe

The BLESSINGS of FELLOWSHIP with God (cp. Heb. 10:19-20)

When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, both Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospel refer to “Heaven being opened”

Matthew 3:16 (LSB)

And after being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him,

Luke 3:21 (LSB)

Now it happened that when all the people were being baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened,

And in Acts 7:56, when Stephen was being stoned by the Sanhedrin, he said

Acts 7:56 (LSB)

“Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

And in Acts 10, when Peter has his vision of the great sheet full of animals signifying God’s grace to the Gentiles, he said he saw

Acts 10:11 (LSB)

...heaven opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground,

These are all examples of God’s remarkable communication with His people—to signify His pleasure at His Son’s baptism, to strengthen Stephen in the hour of his death, and to open Peter’s eyes to the great inclusion of the Gentile nations in His kingdom.

The heavens are opened for the blessings of fellowship with God. And there is another sense in which the Scriptures speak of “the heavens being opened”, and that is

For the DELIVERY of JUSTICE from God

In Genesis 7:11, as God poured out His judgment on the wickedness of mankind in Noah’s day, we are told that

Genesis 7:11 (ESV)

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.

And in Revelation 19, when Christ rides forth to strike down the nations with a rod of iron, His appearance is described in verse 11:

Revelation 19:11 (LSB)

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sits on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.

The Day is coming when all of the wicked rebellion and hatred and malice of this fallen world will be judged once and for all; perfect justice will ride forth in the One Who is Faithful and True, and He will bring perfect, final and eternal justice and vindication and rescue. There will be no injustice that is not put right; there will be no betrayal or treachery that will go unpunished, no lie that will not be countered with Truth—it will all be rectified on that Day. Heaven stands open for the delivery of God’s perfect righteousness because of what Jesus Christ came to earth to do!

Christ aims to perfect the faith that He began in you—let your faith be fortified by seeing that He has opened Heaven for you, Christian. And secondly, be strengthened in your faith as you consider that

II Christ has RECONCILED you to GOD

Think back to Job’s complaint that we read earlier—that God has hidden Himself, and cannot be found. Or remember when King Nebuchadnezzar insisted his magi tell him what he dreamed along with the interpretation—they objected by saying

Daniel 2:11 (LSB)

“Moreover, the matter which the king asks is difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except gods, whose dwelling place is not with flesh.”

The world of mortals and the world of “the gods” never meet. God’s dwelling place is not with men; He is in the heavens, and we are on the earth. In Exodus, God appeared to His covenant people from the top of a fiery mountain that the people were terrified to touch.

But here as Jesus speaks to Nathanael about Jacob’s dream, He says that he would see “angels ascending and descending” between heaven and earth. Because of the work of Jesus Christ, there is now regular communication between the remote, unsearchable Deity and mortal men—

He REVEALS God’s NATURE to you (John 1:18)

The invisible, unsearchable God of all creation has been made known to you through Christ!

John 1:18 (LSB)

No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

God the Father communicates to you through His Son— the “angels descending” from His throne to His people as “ministering spirits, sent to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation” (Heb. 1:14). Christ reveals God’s grace and mercy to you, he sends His messengers of His grace to comfort and defend you (as He sent Michael the archangel to defend Daniel); He has dispatched His heavenly hosts to serve the ones His Son has purchased by His death.

Christ has reconciled you to God by His work on the Cross, revealing God’s nature to you, and

He CARRIES your PLEAS to God (Rom. 8:34)

This is what is pictured by angels “ascending” to heaven from earth--your prayers and petitions being carried up to the Father through Jesus Christ. Job’s lament in the dark, “Is anyone up there to hear my prayer? God, where are you?” has been answered by His work:

Romans 8:34 (LSB)

...Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Heaven stands open to you through Christ’s work—and He has reconciled you to God. He has spoken His Final Word to you in Christ; all that you need to know about God’s love and mercy and grace and kindness and justice and righteousness has been revealed to you in the excellencies of Christ. And you do not have to wonder whether God hears your pleas, whether He sees you in your need—Christ Himself continually intercedes before His Father to bring your prayers and petitions before His Throne.

Fix your eyes on Christ as He aims to perfect the faith that He has begun in you—see how He has opened Heaven for you; see how He has reconciled you to God. And see here also how

III. Christ has GUARANTEED your HOPE

Remember, Jesus told Nathanael that his faith would be fortified by seeing three things: The heavens opened, the angels ascending and descending, and the Son of Man as the bridge between heaven and earth. Our faith is strengthened as we consider how Christ has opened Heaven for us, and how He has reconciled us to God. And so we come now to the last part of this verse—the angels are ascending and descending not on a “ladder” or “stairway” (as in Jacob’s dream), but “on the Son of Man”.

Now consider the context of our text again—Jesus is speaking to Nathanael, who He has already recognized as “a faithful Israelite”. And to Nathanael’s ears, Jesus calling Himself “Son of Man” would have immediately reminded him of the prophet Ezekiel, where YHWH calls him by that title over 90 times in his book as a way of emphasizing the humble humanity of the prophet:

Ezekiel 2:1 (LSB)

Then He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet that I may speak with you!”

Ezekiel 3:1 (LSB)

Then He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”

Ezekiel 4:1 (LSB)

“Now as for you, son of man, get yourself a brick, set it before you, and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem.

It’s important also to notice that Jesus calls Himself “The Son of Man” right after Nathanael says in verse 49

John 1:49 (LSB)

...“Rabbi, You are the Son of God...”

Here you have both sides of your blessed Savior presented to your view, Christian—the Son of God, the Word made flesh, the exact representation of the glory of the Father. Equal in every way to the divinity of God the Father, perfect in power, love and purity, God Himself manifested before you.

And that perfect Deity, that utter and complete and eternal equality with God has come to you as the Son of Man—just as utterly and completely and undeniably human in every way—except without sin. As Athanasius states it:

He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time; and he is man from the essence of his mother, born in time; completely God, completely man, with a rational soul and human flesh; equal to the Father as regards divinity, less than the Father as regards humanity. Although he is God and man, yet Christ is not two, but one. He is one, however, not by his divinity being turned into flesh, but by God’s taking humanity to himself. (Quoted in Gibson, Jonathan. Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Daily Worship (pp. 175-176). Crossway. Kindle Edition. )

That Christ presents Himself here as “the Son of Man” is utterly vital for your salvation, beloved, because it is as the Son of Man that

He has SUFFERED your PENALTY

Here in John’s Gospel Jesus identifies Himself as the Son of Man thirteen times—and each time it is in connection with His suffering and death. It is gloriously true, as Nathanael confessed, that Jesus is the Son of God; but it was only as the Son of Man that He could suffer and die. Flesh and blood must pay the penalty for the rebellion of flesh and blood; only a Man could die for men. But a mere man could not pay for the sins of other men, because every descendent of Adam is tainted by Adam’s sin. And so only the Divine, sinless Son of God could pay the price, and only the human Son of Man could suffer the penalty. And in doing so, the Son of Man guarantees your hope of being reconciled to the God of Heaven!

As the Son of Man, Christ has guaranteed your hope by suffering your penalty. In His humiliation and death on the Cross, He satisfied the wrath of God against your sin and bore in His flesh the punishment you deserved; by shedding His blood He paid the blood-guilt that you owe before God.

But the Scripture speaks of another way that Christ the Son of Man guarantees your hope. Turn with me to the Book of Daniel, Chapter 7—it’s on page 745 of the pew Bible—look with me starting at verse 13:

Daniel 7:13–14 (LSB)

“I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And came near before Him. “And to Him was given dominion, Glory, and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not be taken away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.

The Son of Man has opened Heaven for you and reconciled you to God by His death, and in His Resurrection

He has RECEIVED His KINGDOM (cp. Dan. 7:13-14)

that will never be destroyed! When the Scriptures tell us that Christ ascended into the clouds in Acts 1, it is a direct connection to His “coming with the clouds of Heaven” to be given dominion, glory and a Kingdom over every people, nation and language. His reign will never end; His justice will endure for all time—the Son of Man will sit on the throne of a Kingdom that will never be destroyed—when Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man in our text, that is part of the great hope that He guarantees to Nathanael, Philip and the rest of the disciples.

And it is part of that great hope that He guarantees to you, Christian! Christ aims to perfect the faith that He has begun in you by showing you His great work as the author and finisher of your faith. Does it strengthen your faith to know that Heaven is standing open because of His work? Consider all of the times when you are weighed down by the burdens of this sick and sinful world; the pervasiveness of sin that still plagues you, the weakness and frailty of your flesh in disease and decay; the sorrows and desolations of a world scarred by the Curse—look to your Savior and see Heaven opened for you! When Stephen was dying, he looked and saw his Savior standing at the open door of Heaven waiting to receive him. Christian, take comfort and courage in your battles with sin and suffering with weakness that Christ has opened the way to Heaven forever by His own flesh!

Hebrews 10:19–20 (LSB)

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,

Be strengthened in your faith, Christian, by reckoning on the work of Christ that has reconciled you to God forever by His death:

Colossians 1:21–22 (LSB)

And although you were formerly alienated and enemies in mind and in evil deeds, but now He reconciled you in the body of His flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—

He has not only revealed God’s perfect righteousness to you, but He has made you righteous by His work! The Son of Man died in your place, making you righteous before God, but because He lived in your flesh, He represents your pleas and prayers to God—the Son of Man walked where you walk. He suffered as you have; He knows the pain and frailty of this life; He understands! Christian, does it strengthen your faith to know that we have a High Priest who represents us to the Father who knows our weaknesses? As Hebrews 4:15 teaches us, we have in the Son of Ma

Hebrews 4:15 (LSB)

...One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.

Christian, does it strengthen your faith to know that the Son of Man—your Savior—has received an unshakeable Kingdom that will not fail? Does it fortify your faith to reckon on His perfect justice that will someday put all of the sin and rebellion of this sorry world right?

Because it is true, as the angels said to the Apostles on that hillside two thousand years ago that

Acts 1:11 (LSB)

... This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

Just as He went up into the clouds to receive His kingdom, the Day is coming when

Matthew 26:64 (LSB)

...you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

And on that day, Paul writes, it will not just be a few angels descending from Heaven with Him, but He will appear with the entire host of Heaven

2 Thessalonians 1:7–8 (LSB)

... with His mighty angels in flaming fire, executing vengeance on those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

On that Day, will you rejoice at the final perfection of your faith as you see the Son of Man, angels descending with Him from the open gates of Heaven

2 Thessalonians 1:10 (LSB)

...to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed?

Or will that day be the first moment of your eternal misery when He comes to

2 Thessalonians 1:8 (LSB)

[execute] vengeance on [you] who do not know God and who do not obey [His] gospel…?

Look to the Son of Man revealed here in His Word; He aims to perfect the faith He has begun in you—He invites you today to look to Him in faith that you may have Heaven opened, be reconciled to God, and have your eternal hope fixed on Who He is and what He has done when you come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Hebrews 13:20–21 (LSB)

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you in every good thing to do His will, by doing in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION:

Job lamented in his suffering that God seemed impossible to find. How does the coming of Christ in His First Advent provide an answer to Job’s pleas? How does Christ’s Incarnation comfort us in the darkness of our suffering?

What are the different ways the Bible describes “heaven being opened”? How is your faith strengthened by considering the way that Christ has opened “a new and living way” to God through His own flesh?

What do the angels “ascending and descending” in Jacob’s dream represent in our relationship to God? How does Christ’s work make it possible for our words to “ascend” to God? How does Christ represent God’s Word to us? (See John 1:1 and Hebrews 1:1-2)

Nathanael confessed that Jesus is “the Son of God” (John 1:49). Jesus’ favorite title for Himself is “the Son of Man”. What do those two titles together tell us about who Jesus is? Why are both titles essential for Christ to be able to provide your salvation?

Read Hebrews 4:14-16 and Daniel 7:13-14 again. In light of these verses, how does Christ guarantee your hope in His role as “The Son of Man?”