The Son of Man We've Longed For

6 · The pastor uses a personal story about his son's injury to make the abstract concept of sonship-as-rest concrete and memorable

You know, my son Wes hurt his ankle, I guess, well, back on Thanksgiving, and he was unable to walk really without crutches for quite a while. And I noticed as I was kind of dealing with that with him, my knees started hurting. And I couldn't figure out why would my knees hurt. It's like sympathy pains. Why would my knees hurt when his ankles hurt? Well, the answer is that that boy carries a lot of stuff for me. Over the years, he is really— I mean, he carries the groceries. I haven't carried the groceries inside our kitchen in, I don't know, 5 years probably. And so when he's immobilized, my knees realize, whoa, wait a second, I don't have a son to do the work that I rely on him to do.

7 · The pastor moves from illustration to exposition, citing the naming of Noah as biblical evidence for the cultural pattern of sonship-as-rest

This idea of longing for a son to bring us rest is embedded deep into the culture of God's people. And I want to walk you through that idea this morning. This idea that sun equals Sabbath, this idea that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, meaning he's rested from a work that he's gone to accomplish. We're going to connect all of that together. All throughout scripture, you see people longing for a sun, and most of the time it's not because they want to be able to decorate their little desert nurseries in blue or buy them Tonka trucks instead of Barbies or anything like that. It's extremely pragmatic. They wanted sons because those boys could grow up to protect them and to do the work that they in their old age could not do. Most of you here have heard of a man named Noah. Well, what does Noah's name mean? Well, when Noah was born, his dad, Lamech, said this: I will call him Noah, because out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from our painful toil with our hands. So Noah's dad calls him Noah because he says, finally I have a son who can work this soil that the Lord has cursed and give me comfort and ease. 'From the painful toil of my hands.'

8 · The pastor extends the pattern into the Abraham-Isaac narrative, noting that even in the traumatic moment of near-sacrifice, the cultural expectation persists: the young son carries the wood because the old father cannot

This idea of the Son stepping in to do the work you could not do is consistent throughout the Old Testament. If you know the Old Testament very well, you would know that there's this man named Abraham, and God had promised Abraham that he would have a son both to finish the work that God had called Abraham to do and also to protect and rule as, as, as an ongoing heir. And God calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, or so it seems. Even in that pointed moment, when Abraham is walking his son up the hill to sacrifice him, there's this interesting little detail that you catch in the story. Who's carrying the wood? Right? By this time Abraham's an old man and Isaac's a young man, and they're going up the hill. And what's happening from a cultural perspective Well, everything about that is a culturally appropriate moment. The young man is doing the work that the old man could not do.

9 · The pastor expands the pattern beyond single biblical figures to the Old Testament matriarchs collectively

Throughout the Old Testament, you have all these Old Testament matriarchs, all these women pining for sons because they knew that their sons would get old and slow down and that the work to be done wouldn't slow down. The house would need work. And back then you had to hunt and kill or sow and harvest the groceries long before you ever carried them in. And there's a certain point where harvesting and sowing and killing, that's just too much work for an old person to do, for a tired person to do. So this always leaning in on this idea of a Son will come and give us rest. A Son will come and do the work for us that we could not do. You had all these enemies always lurking on the edges, people ready to attack you all the time. You're not the same ninja at 50 that you were at 20. But God gives you a son, and your son, he can fight for you. He can do the work that you cannot do. This is the tragedy of Naomi when she says, "Call me Mara, for I am bitter." It's not just that she's lost her husband. This finishing force for her life, these sons that are going to do the work she could not do and protect her in a way she could not protect herself.

10 · The pastor makes the sermon's controlling theological claim explicit

You know, in a way, this is all just kind of a long, big cultural longing for God to provide this nation of Israel with a son that would finish all of the promises and all of the work that they knew that had to be done. There was this cultural longing for this Son. And that's going to be the main point of this message. Jesus is the Son that mankind has collectively longed for. We are tired, we are weak, and we want a Son to enter our lives and do the work we cannot do.

11 · The pastor connects the Christmas narrative to the sermon's argument, noting the prominence of aged characters (Simeon, Anna, Zechariah, Elizabeth) who embody this weariness and longing

When we read the Christmas story and we really pay attention, There's a kind of weariness that bleeds through many of the characters. You know, there are more old characters in the Christmas story than there are younger ones by far. And these older people have been waiting and longing and sighing for a Messiah, this Son of Man that would come and bring them rest. So when Jesus is referring to Himself as the Son of Man, He's tapping into this deep cultural longing for a son to come. And guess what has happened consistently throughout the Old Testament story? They keep losing their sons. Pharaoh. Herod. And even in a sense, the sons they're hoping in, like a son like Cain, or a son like Samson. Keep disqualifying themselves through sin. They keep hoping that this son will be the one to complete the work. And each time, these sons fall by the wayside in one way or another. And that brings us to Jesus.

12 · The pastor signals a structural shift from establishing the Old Testament pattern to articulating Jesus' fulfillment of it

So when Jesus refers to Himself over and over and over and over again in the New Testament, in the Gospels, as the Son of Man, He's tapping into this deep, cultural longing for someone to come and complete that which is left unfinished, to do the work that could not be done. So today I want to just give you 4 ways that the Son of Man brings rest to those who see Him as this long-awaited Son. 4 ways that the Son of Man brings rest.

13 · The pastor articulates the first way Jesus brings rest: by working peace with God

The first one is this: He works peace with God. He works peace with God. You know, you've probably heard the phrase, "the peace of God." When life is hard, something's difficult, someone might say, "I'm praying that you'll have the peace of God, a peace that passes all understanding." Jesus says, "I give you my peace and not as the world gives." But you know, long before you could ever have the peace of God, You've got to make peace with God.

14 · The pastor uses Paul Washer's provocative argument to illustrate why peace with God is necessary

There's this guy named Paul Washer, he's a preacher, and he had to give a talk at a college in England and knew that the crowd was going to be pretty against him. And he said to the crowd that morning, mostly college students, "I have some terrible, terrible news that's in the Bible, and I have to deliver that to you today. And it's just so terrible, I hardly even want to tell you what it is." And he builds up this sense of it's really, really genuinely awful news. The crowd is leaning in and they say, "Well, what is it? Quit hyping it up. What is it? What's the terrible news?" And he says, "The terrible news is God is good." He's totally, 100%, entirely, perfectly good. And there's laughter amongst these college students. And one of them even speaks up and says, "Why is that bad news? Why is the fact that God is good bad news?" And he says, "Because you are not. And I am not. And God in His perfect goodness measures all things by His perfect goodness." And God in His perfect goodness and His perfect justice cannot allow sin to go unpunished. If God looked the other way at your sin and my sin, He would not be good. God will not look the other way at your sin or my sin. We need, before we can ever have the peace of God, we need to have peace with God. Apart from this Son of Man, we aren't at peace with God. Not a single person in this room gets to write their own contract with God. You don't get to make your own deal with God. You don't need to come to your own terms. The terms are simple: sin must be punished.

15 · The pastor returns to the immediate context of the primary text—Jesus on trial in Luke 22

Jesus comes as the Son who brings us peace with God. We're in the middle of Luke 22 and we're seeing Jesus on trial. And you know, they can't find anything He's done, but if you were to try to figure out how, well, what did they finally find Him guilty of? What did Jesus actually get killed for? You know, you'd have to say that Jesus is on trial and is essentially found guilty of being too innocent. He's found guilty of being too innocent. He's too innocent to play along. With the power brokers. He's too innocent to condone other people's sin. Too innocent even to look the other way. He's too innocent to shut up. He's too honest. He's too innocent to be bribed. He's too innocent to be seduced. He's too innocent to be scared.

16 · The pastor connects Isaiah 9:6 and the Christmas narrative to his argument about Jesus' innocence

You know, Isaiah 9:6 is often repeated during the Christmas time. That's the verse that says, "For unto us a Child is born." "Unto us a Son is given." The reason why that's recited at Christmas time is obviously because Jesus has come as the Son. But it's recited at Christmas because an angel appears to the shepherds and tells the shepherds that are working when Jesus is born, "Go to this city and find Jesus in a manger." Why is God telling shepherds to go to this place and see this child. Why shepherds? You may have heard all sorts of explanations for that, and I'm sure there are many, but here's a simple one: lying inside that manger is a little baby born to die as a lamb, to take away the sins of everyone who would believe in him. And God sends a shepherd to watch this little lamb who will be raised up as the spotless lamb, without blemish, without having ever been seduced or scared, without having ever sinned. And this special Son will do the work that none of us could do. He will make peace with God by giving us His righteousness.

17 · The pastor marshals two New Testament passages to establish that Jesus' work accomplished peace with God

Hebrews 10:12 says, "But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God." Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." You know, before you'll ever have peace of God, you've got to have peace with God. And that's a work you and I, because we are at enmity with God, cannot accomplish. We need a Son to come and finish that work, complete the work that we cannot do. And that's one of the things that this Son of Man comes to do. He comes to win our peace with God.

18 · The pastor introduces the second way Jesus brings rest: by plowing the stony ground of our hearts

Well, there's a second kind of rest that this Son of Man is bringing to us, and that is He plows the stony ground of our hearts. He plows the stony ground of our hearts. You know, that moment in Genesis when Noah's dad says, "Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands." You know, the Bible says that our hearts are naturally stony ground. The Bible says that the biggest problem facing this broken world is the fact that our hearts can't keep hold of goodness. We can identify goodness, we can aspire to goodness, but there's something in us that keeps us from being able to do that which we readily acknowledge is the right thing.

19 · The pastor makes the stony-ground metaphor concrete by describing lived experience: the gap between moral aspiration and moral achievement, the cycle of New Year's resolutions that fail, the frustration of wanting goodness but being unable to sustain it

If we were being totally honest, there are many times when we're judging other people by a standard that we ourselves wind up breaking, much to our own surprise. We live in this weird place where we want good things to grow out of our heart. We want to be more patient. We want to be more self-controlled. We want to be more honest. We want to be more sexually pure. But those things just aren't taking hold in our heart in and of ourselves. And that's because the Bible says our hearts are this ultimate stony ground that seeds just can't get started in. Or maybe they get started in. New Year's is coming around the corner. And New Year's resolutions will be part of that for many of us. And we all know the experience of trying to reform ourselves and see that, yeah, for a minute, for a couple weeks, for a couple months, something will start to grow, a good thing will start to grow, but then the Bible says that the cares of this world come in, distractions come in, evil comes in and plucks out the things that we want to take root there.

20 · The pastor cites Hosea to show that Scripture commands us to plow our own hearts but then immediately identifies this as Law—an obligation we cannot fulfill

You know, the book of Hosea tells us that we're supposed to plow our own hearts. We're supposed to sow righteousness in our own hearts. But you know what else? That's the Law speaking to you right there. That's something you should do and you can't do. You can't do that. You need a Son to come in and do the work that you cannot do. And that's exactly what we see with Jesus.

21 · The pastor returns to Jesus' agony in Gethsemane (covered in an earlier sermon) to show Jesus literally plowing the ground with His blood

A few weeks ago, we talked about Jesus just moments before He said the statement that we're focusing on today. Jesus is kneeling, praying, asking the Father if there's any other way to avoid the cross. But no matter what, no matter what, He will surrender Himself to the Father's will. And there's this moment, we talked about this already, where Jesus is so upset that the capillaries in His face are bursting. His blood pressure is so high, the capillaries in His face are bursting, and blood is coming out of His sweat pores. And they're falling on the ground. Guys, this is all the way back to the beginning of the Bible when God says that because we've sinned, our hearts will be hard like dead ground. And here we see Jesus, the Son of Man, finishing a work that we could not finish on our own. He plows up our hard hearts. He was tempted in every way, yet without sin. He was tempted to live for Himself. He was tempted not to lay down His life for others. He was tempted to run away from faith and refuse to fall to the ground and die like a seed. But He did the work that none of us could do. And He's made it possible for those who put their faith in this Son of Man to find their hearts made new.

22 · The pastor uses personal testimony to illustrate the theological claim

I grew up in the church. And I went through a whole period of time where I knew the thing I wanted to do and ought to do, but couldn't find any animating power inside of me to make it happen. And then Jesus, the Son of Man, the Son came who could finish the work that I could not do. And He came and plowed up my heart by applying His soft heart, the righteousness of His soft heart to me.

23 · The pastor introduces the third way Jesus brings rest: by defeating our enemy

Kind of rest that we get from Jesus, and that is we get rest from our enemies. I wonder if you've seen this picture before. I put it in the slides. Let's see if we can pull that up. Have you seen that picture before? So what you've got in this picture is Eve surrounded by fruit, but she's clutching the one piece of forbidden fruit, and around her leg is the serpent, the serpent who deceived her. And on the other hand, you've got Mary pregnant with Jesus, and she's comforting Eve, and look where her foot is. Her foot's on the head of the serpent.

24 · The pastor exegetes Genesis 3:15, highlighting the grammatical details that point forward to a male offspring ("he") who would crush the serpent

At the very beginning of the Bible, see Genesis 3, the very beginning of the Bible, after God has confronted Adam and Eve for their sin, He makes this promise, He says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman." He's speaking to the devil. "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring." and he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Offspring, kind of circle that in your mind, and he, masculine pronoun. Your offspring and her offspring, and he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. From the very beginning, God promised that he would bring a Son of Man into the picture to destroy the work of of the devil. And it was a work that no other son could do.

25 · The pastor uses imaginative reconstruction to help the congregation feel the weight of Eve's experience

I want you to think about what it felt like for Eve. She had just sinned, she had just lost the most beautiful and perfect reality that any of us could ever know. It's impossible for us to understand how beautiful it was. She had just lost that, and God says to her almost immediately, I want you to know, I'm going to give you a male offspring that's going to be able to defeat the serpent that's deceived you. Now imagine, right, just promise that, and then she has 2 boys. 2 boys. And she's thinking, well, that was quick. One of these is going to grow up and step on the head of the serpent. He's going to— one of these is going to grow up and wrest control away from the enemy and allow us to be restored. One of these is going to— one of my boys is going to grow up and have dominion over the devil. And then imagine when the one gets killed by the other. And now she's got a dead one and a banished one. And those sons weren't her hope. Those sons weren't going to give her what she'd always wanted.

26 · The pastor generalizes the pattern: throughout the Old Testament, promising sons keep appearing and then failing

That very story gets repeated over and over and over and over in the Bible. The people of God keep thinking they have the Son to step on the serpent's head. And each time these sons in which there was so much hope invested fail them in one way or another. Even guys like David or Samson wind up selling out to sin. And this elusive Son who will bring dominion over the devil We think we got him, we don't got him. We think we got him, we don't got him. This might be the one, it's not the one.

27 · The pastor introduces Revelation 12 as the "cosmic" version of the Christmas story, presenting an apocalyptic reframing of Jesus' birth

You know, if you read the Christmas story to your kids, and as they get older they seem to get a little bored with it, you could always read them Revelation 12, which is the cosmic Christmas story. It's the PG or PG-13 rated Christmas story. Let me read a little bit of that to you. And I want you to keep holding in your mind this idea of the people of God waiting for this Son, right? Revelation 12:1, "And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. And she was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth." Another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon with 7 heads and 7 horns, and on his head 7 diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child, he may devour it. She gave birth to a male child, 'One who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was caught up to God and His throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God in which she was to be nourished for 1,260 days.'

28 · The pastor interprets the symbolism of Revelation 12

There's quite a bit of artistic symbolism in this passage. What you need to understand is that this fulfillment of the long-awaited Son of Man The woman in this picture, it's not just Mary, it's not just Eve, it's the people of God. The people of God giving birth to the Son who would come and rule in dominion over the devil, and the devil is grotesquely crouched before this woman in labor, ready to consume this child before it is born.

29 · The pastor identifies multiple historical fulfillments of the dragon-crouching-before-the-woman image

In the Christmas story, That looks like Herod ordering the execution of all the little Jewish boys in Bethlehem. But it also looks like Pharaoh doing the same thousands of years prior, and Haman in the book of Esther attempting to kill all of Israel. There are hundreds of conflicts in the Bible where there's an attempt to rub out the Davidic messianic line. There are historic attempts all over the place. This is Pharaoh crouching before the people of God. This is Herod crouching before the people of God. But this is also sin crouching before the people of God. This is the seduction of sin. This is the seduction of Balaam. This is Saul trying to destroy David. This is David trying to destroy David. This is Abraham nearly selling out his wife multiple times. This is Israel turning away time and time again. This is evil trying to interrupt the Son of Man coming and ruling over the devil.

30 · The pastor brings the narrative to its climax: the crucifixion is the serpent's final, greatest attempt to devour the promised offspring

And when we get to Luke 22 and 23, we see the final attempt. The snake is coiled, the nations rage, there is unprecedented cooperation between the Jews and the Gentiles to kill this man named Jesus. They actually crucify Him, their very best effort to end the life of the Son of Man who will rule over the devil. And even in their attempt to kill Him, they fail. And Genesis 3:15 comes true. The Son of Man, the Son of the people of God, comes, yes, is struck by the serpent, but crushes the serpent. The serpent's head. Jesus is the Son of Man who destroys our enemy when we could not.

31 · The pastor introduces the fourth and final way Jesus brings rest: by reigning over the cursed earth

And finally this: Jesus is the Son of Man, the Son who reigns over this cursed earth. Life is hard, it's confusing, it's disturbing, It will continue to be so. We live in a fallen, broken world who, that up until 2,000 years ago, didn't have a Son sitting at the right hand of the power of God. Everything changed, friends, when the Son of Man appeared. And now he does reign over all the chaos and confusion and pain.

32 · The pastor sets up the Daniel 7 passage by describing its historical context

One of the major references to the title Son of Man occurs in the book of Daniel. Now I need you to picture what it's like in this moment. This happens in the early part of Daniel. The nation of Israel had been invaded And the evil people that had invaded them had this strategy we see elsewhere, this genocidal strategy. What did they do? They went and picked all the best sons out of Israel. And they were going to indoctrinate them as Babylonians, to remove their Jewishness, right? To remove their Yahweh-centered worship. That same strategy we see with Herod and Pharaoh. And Daniel was one of those sons, one of the best and brightest who'd been taken away. He and all the other sons were plucked out of Israel, and like many generations that follow a terrible war, there was a disproportionate number of sons killed already, and now on top of that, these best and brightest that lived are taken away. This is a moment in history when the people of God are very son-poor.

33 · The pastor reads Daniel 7:13-14 and then synthesizes the entire sermon

4. And in the midst of all of this, Daniel sees the Son of Man. Daniel 7:13, "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. 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. Friends, Jesus is the Son that God gave to humanity to do the work we could not do, to give us peace with God, to plow up our stony hearts, to defeat the tempter, the enemy, the accuser, and to rule over the world as Adam was intended to rule in total dominion over this earth. Jesus is the one and only Son that will give us all that we need.

34 · The pastor applies the sermon personally and directly

And here's the question: is He that to you? Is He that to you? Is to you in your heart the arrival of a baby in Bethlehem all the hope you need that says, "Alas, a Son has been given to complete the work we could not complete"? To pull us out of this cycle of futilely trying to farm our own hearts when they're too hard to get anything out of, to pull us out of this cycle of being at enmity with God. He is the one who will do all the things I want done in my life but keep failing to accomplish on my own. He's the Son who will take care of me. And do the work and protect me. And He's the only Son who can do that. I can't do that. I can't morally improve myself to the point of being at peace with God. I can't farm enough righteousness out of this stony heart. I sure as heck can't defeat the devil. Or rule over all of the chaos that this world presents. But unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

35 · The pastor closes with the sermon's emotional and theological climax

The beautiful picture of all this I haven't even mentioned yet is that we couldn't find a son in and of ourselves after thousands of years of trying. That could do this. In order for us to have the Son we needed, God gave us the Son He loved. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish, but have eternal life." The Son of Man that we know will do all we need Him to do is the Son of God. Let's pray.