Born to be King

And yes, while we should understand that December 25th wasn’t declared the birthday of Christ until some 300 years after Jesus lived, and it’s improbable that was the actual date of his birth.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m strongly convinced that there is never a wrong time to remember, to contemplate, and to talk about any and every part of God’s plan to save us from our sins.

And so with that in mind, and understanding that what we call Christmas holds no special religious significance, it is nonetheless a great opportunity to share the story of Jesus to our friends, our families, and to the world.

After all it is this time of year that songs that proclaim Jesus to be the savior of the world, to be the son of God, the word become flesh, and king of kings and the Lord of lords are played over public radio waves and listened to by millions.

And that is a message that our world needs to hear isn’t it? I mean how many people out there hear the name Jesus and think “Yeah he was a great man, but that’s all that he was. He had great teachings regarding love, mercy, grace and forgiveness, but he wasn’t God.

And while those songs are filled with the titles that we give to Jesus, how many of them refer to Jesus by the title that Jesus himself preferred to call himself?

You know, from the moment Jesus began his public ministry there was one title that Jesus used to identify himself way more than any other title. You know what it was? He didn’t use Messiah, or christ, or Son of God most often. No what Jesus preferred was a title that we rarely if ever call him by.

Yet what I hope to show you this morning is that Jesus’ favorite title for himself is brilliant in that it comes from a very deep understanding of God’s intention for mankind and our failure as the human race to live up to that intent, and it also shows Jesus’ foreknowledge of his role in the redemption of mankind and we will see that through Jesus use of this title, “Son of Man,” that he’s making a much bigger statement about himself than we often realize.

it is there is a title that we are going to talk about this morning that Jesus preferred to call himself by more than any other.

Son of Adam - Son of man - Ben Adam

When we look at the OT scriptures which would have informed Jesus’ use and the understanding of the phrase around him, we see that the phrase “son of man” would have definitely been understood to mean exactly what it sounds like it means.

In hebrew the phrase would be Ben Adam meaning the son of Adam or mankind and it’s first used in the OT in to show the very distinct differences between God and man.

Numbers 23:19 ESV

19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

Numbers 13:19 ESV

19 and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds,

Man can lie, God can not lie. Man changes his mind and doesn’t do what he says, God does what he says that he is going to do.

So often times we look at verses such as and use it to excuse our sinful behavior. In an effort to justify ourselves or to make ourselves feel better we’ll say something like “Well, I’m only Human.”

But is that the way we should look at ourselves? I think Jesus’ use of “Son of man” as a title for himself reminds us of the fact that we were meant for so much more than we often realize.

Recall that in the beginning, way back in Genesis that God created man and women in his own image, and that he gave us charge over His creation.

What an incredible thought! The God of the universe, the creator of everything gave to us dominion over his creation.

You know it’s this thought that David wrote about in .

Psalm 8:3–9 ESV

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

I’ve mentioned before how when I start to feel overwhelmed about my problems, I love to go outside on a clear night and just look up at the stars and think about how incredibly vast the universe is, how God made it all, and how small in comparison to all of that that I am.

Psalms 8:3-

You would think that knowing that would produce a feeling of meaninglessness, of unimportance of my live as compared to the vastness of the universe I’m just a small speck hurtling through space on a blue marble of a planet.

And that’s what David says in verse 3-4, Who am I, who are we as the son of man that you care for us?

We say, We’re only human, merely human, but God says, “I’ve made you a little lower than the heavenly beings and I’ve crowned you with glory and honor and given you dominion over my creation and put all things under your feet.

What right do we have to call ourselves Only Human? There’s no such thing in the eyes of God! We were made to glorify God in our lives, in our relationships, in our worship, in our management of his creation!

That’s what we were made for, but we as a race and as individuals reject glorifying God and instead choose to glorify ourselves when we choose to sin.

So when we sin we fail at being truly human.

But Jesus, in using the title “Son of Man” is not using that title to refer to fallen humanity, but to what God meant for humanity to be and how he will be what we could have been, should have been, and should be.

Wes McAdams recently gave a lesson about this and I’m going to steal an illustration that he used to show what this looks like..

Million Dollar Check Illustration

You see we’ve taken the amazing gift of humanity and squandered the opportunity to use it to the best of it’s potential. Some of us have done more with our lives than others, but scripture tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

You know it’s this time of year that there is a lot of talk about gifts isn’t there. In fact I’d bet most of you have tons of gifts under the christmas tree at home and you can’t wait to give them to those you love, and I know the kids can’t wait to open their gifts under the tree.

We’ve taken the greatest gift tha

Some of you might be thinking “I’ll take one of those million dollar checks as a gift”

But do you realize that we were given the best gift of all when we were given our lives? You know some have said that the odds of you being born exactly the way that you are are something like 1 in 400 trillion. We’ve been blessed with an incredible gift of just being born, but what have we done with it?

Well when we chose to sin, we tore it up, we blew our noses in it and tossed it away, we spit our gum in it and in doing so we’ve squandered an incredible opportunity to glorify God with our lives.

We were all given an indescribably great gift

Some of us have done more with our lives than others, but scripture tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. When it comes to what says regarding humanity being crowned with glory and honor and all things in subjection to mankind, Hebrews chapter 2 says we forfeited that because of our sin.

Hebrews 2:5–8 ESV

5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? 7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, 8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.

We were all

Hebrews 2:5-

The Hebrews writer is saying here that we, mankind, had such a great opportunity but at present, our sins have disqualified us from being what God has called us to be!

But that is not the case with Jesus. Jesus is THE son of man. The most human of humans. The one who didn’t take his humanity check and mis-use it, but instead used it to the fullest potential possible to glorify God!

Now you might be thinking What does all this have to do with Baby Jesus?

And the answer is everything!

Because what we see in the birth of Christ is that He is and was fully human. Yes he was also God, We know that the word became flesh and dwelt among us, but Jesus was actually flesh and blood and bone just as we are.

But he didn’t come just to be some cute story that we portray in nativity scenes and christmas plays. He came to be king. He came to be what humanity had failed to be. He came to be crowned with Glory and Honor and to receive a kingdom, which we will talk more about tonight.

He came to die for sinners.

Hebrews 4:15 ESV

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 2:9–18 ESV

9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” 13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.” 14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Hebrews 2:9–14 ESV

Hebrews 2:9-

We rejoice in the birth of Jesus because He became like us physically to show us how we should live spiritually. He was born in the same way we were, he was knit together in his mothers womb with flesh and bone. He was hungry, thirsty, tired, and experienced temptation just as we do yet was without sin. He lived a perfect life showing us what it means to truly be the son of man, and He went to the cross as the unblemished lamb of God shedding his blood for the sins of the whole world.

What does all this have to do with Baby Jesus?

Fully God - Fully Man

The proof of all that? He was raised from the dead and ascended to the father to sit at his right side and to receive and rule His kingdom. The son of man recieved his crown, his glory, his dominion.

You see, what we didn’t do, Jesus did so that through him we too could be brought back to what it truly means to be human. When we obey the Gospel of Christ scripture tells us that we are born again, that we bury that old man of sin in the waters of baptism and that we are raised to walk in newness of life. Not to live for ourselves, but to live the way we were intended to live all along, to glorify God.

Are you living that way this morning? Perhaps you’ve fallen away and you need to come back, there is no better time than now.

Or perhaps you are here this morning and you haven’t been born again. Perhaps you are still living for yourself, in your old way of life without hope and without joy, and without Jesus. We want to encourage you to choose salvation this morning. If you believe that Jesus is the son of God, why don’t you turn away from your life of sin, confess him as your Lord this morning, and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins? There is no better decision that you can make, and we would love to help you with that this morning or any time that you decide.

If you have any need...

Docetism

Son of man - King

Daniels Visions

Daniel 7:9–14 ESV

9 “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. 10 A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. 11 “I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. 12 As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. 13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Daniel 7:9-

Acts 1:6–9 ESV

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Acts 1:6-

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