Joel Brooks: If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Daniel chapter 7, Mark 2, Mark 14. Put your fingers in all those. Or you could just look at your worship guide. We have all of those there for you. Last week, we're going through the gospel of Mark.
And last week, we were in chapter 2 where Jesus healed the paralytic man that was lowered to him through the roof. And if you remember, there was a rather intense moment at that point where Jesus, after forgiving this man of his sins, he could see into the hearts of the scribes, knew they were doubting him. And then Jesus said, which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven or to say rise and walk? But that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.
I told you we're gonna take 2 weeks to look at the message because in particular, we wanna look at how Jesus refers to himself as the son of man here for the first time. Because when he said that, it would have been an explosive moment. Granted, it loses a little bit of its effect today, which is why we're gonna spend this morning looking at it to know exactly what Jesus meant when he used that title, the Son of Man. If I were to ask you in this room, what I mean if I were to refer to the boy who lived, 95% of you would know who I'm talking about. Or if I said, he who must not be named, another 95%.
The other 5% of you, you know, maybe you don't have smartphones, or don't go to the movies, or read books. But most of you know if the the boy who lived is who? Harry. Harry Potter. He who was should not be named?
Voldemort. Voldemort. That's right. I mean, it's Those are kind of vague terms. The boy who lived, he who must not be named.
But yet instantly, it taps into a a a cultural awareness that we have. It taps into a narrative that we're all familiar with. It would have been same for the 1st century Jews here, when Jesus dropped the reference, the son of man. Although somewhat lost on us, instantly, everyone knew who he was referring to, and they knew the narrative, to which he was speaking about. It'd be the narrative about this mysterious glorious figure from Daniel chapter 7.
The one who ascends to heaven and is presented by the ancient of days. A kingdom that will never end. The one who is going to judge the entire world. And so that's the narrative that is the hope of every Israelite. So this morning, I thought it'd be a good idea for us to dive into the prophetical waters of Daniel 7 to try and understand why Jesus uses this title of himself.
And for those of you, who might be a little confused when you read apocalyptic literature, you're not alone. Daniel says after he receives a vision, he goes, I've got questions. So it's okay to have lots of questions. We're not gonna read all of what you have before in your worship guide. But I do want to read the first 15 verses of chapter 7.
In the 1st year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and he told the sum of the matter. Daniel declared, I saw my vision by night and behold the 4 winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And 4 great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles wings.
Then as I looked, its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on 2 feet like a man. And the mind of man was given to it. And behold another beast, a second one like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had 3 ribs in its mouth between its teeth.
And was told, arise, devour much flesh. After this, I looked and behold another, like a leopard with 4 wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had 4 heads and dominion was given to it. And this I saw in the night visions and behold a 4th beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth.
It devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it. It had 10 horns. I considered the horns and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one. Before which 3 of the first horns were plucked up by the roots.
And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things. 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. A stream of fire issued and came out before him. A 1000,000 served him and 10000 times 10000 stood before him. The court sat in judgment and the books were opened. I looked because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking, and I looked at the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire.
As for the rest of the beast, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions. And behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came 1 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 people, 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. As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious and the visions of my head alarmed me. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. If you would pray with me.
Father, we thank you for your word. And we ask that through your spirit, you would open up our minds to where we might receive it, we might understand it. Not so we would just know more, but that we might know you. So spirit, would he help us to know you, Jesus? I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
But, lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So far and away throughout the New Testament, the the title that is most often used to describe Jesus is Christ. It's used so much in the New Testament, most people just kind of assume it's Jesus' last name, Jesus Christ.
But it's a title. One that means Messiah, or King, or anointed one. And it's used over a 170 times in the New Testament. But what's interesting is Jesus almost never uses that term. He As a matter of fact, I'm not sure if he actually ever used it.
He he kind of vaguely affirms that title two times. But usually he goes out of his way not to only avoid this title, but but but to steer you to something else, to steer you to the title of the son of man. For instance, when Jesus asked his disciples in Mark chapter 9, who do you say I am? And Peter gets up there and says, you are the you're the Christ. You're the Messiah.
Jesus indicates he's correct, but immediately says, and you'll see the son of man. He immediately redirects people from calling him the Messiah to calling him the son of man. And this was the title that Jesus would use all throughout the gospels. Why? Why was that the title that Jesus would choose?
The title itself, son of man, it's it's a Hebrew idiom. It simply means human. That's how most often this this title is used. We just read about it in our responsive reading in Psalm 8. What is man that you're mindful of him and the son of man that you should care for him?
It's just the son of man is another way of saying human. However, Jesus didn't go around calling himself a son of man. He said it was the son of man, The human. The human with authority to heal. The human with authority to to forgive sins.
Jesus is clearly referring to the son of man in Daniel chapter 7. And so what I want us to do is just walk through this prophecy. Most of us here are probably familiar with the first six chapters of Daniel. I mean, it's the stuff of all the children's Bibles. The stories we love.
You have Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and the fiery furnace. You have Daniel praying in the lion's den. And then you know you come to Daniel 7 and you just kinda skip over to Hosea. Most of the children's books do. Because there are terrifying visions here.
What are you supposed to do with all of this? But I want us to just kinda walk through this. Chapter 7 begins with Daniel having a vision of, 4 beasts. 4 great beasts coming out of the sea. Each one of these beasts, increasingly becomes more and more alarming, terrifying.
The first is a lion with wings. So a lion that can fly. The second is a giant bear and it's already eating some carcass. It's got ribs in its mouth. Then you've got a leopard, who can also fly, and who has 4 heads.
Very terrifying. And then you have this creature. A creature that doesn't even resemble any kind of animal on earth. So it's just referred to as a beast. And it's described as terrifying.
It's dreadful. It's exceedingly strong. It's got lots of horns on it. And some of these horns have eyes. Apocalyptic literature, easy to understand.
Now, these these visions like this throughout the Bible, visions with beasts and horns, coming out out of them, they're found a number of places in scripture, most notably in the book of Revelation. But what the heck do they actually mean? I mean, are are we supposed to expect, you know, Godzilla like beast to come out of the waters, you know, and start destroying the cities? Or is this a type of symbolism? Well, to get to the answer, we have to go back to the first pages of scripture.
We have to go back to the Garden of Eden. I know I'm always pointing us back there, but you need to always start at the beginning. But you go back to the Garden of Eden where you see Eve being tempted by the serpent. If you remember, God has just created Adam and Eve. He's just given them dominion over the whole world.
In particular, they're they're to have dominion over the beast of the field. But when Eve when she begins listening to the serpent and she is being tempted by the serpent, in that moment, the roles get reversed and she is allowing 1 of the beasts to exercise dominion over her. So when the order of creation gets reversed, in that moment, all of humanity fell. And then in the very next chapter, this theme continues. We follow Adam and Eve's children, Cain and Abel.
Cain gets jealous of his brother, and he begins to have murderous thoughts towards him. And so God comes, and he has a little chat with Cain. And listen to these words, he says. He says, Cain, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.
Notice how God is describing sin as a wild beast that wants to devour Cain, but then Cain is told to remember who he is. He's a human. He's the one who must exercise dominion over the beast, not let it be the other way around. Cain must rule over it, but Cain doesn't. He goes off and he kills his brother.
In other words, in that moment, once again, creation the order of creation is reversed, and Cain is the one who becomes beast like. He acts instinctively. He acts violently. Instead of acting like a human, Cain becomes somewhat subhuman. Now fast forward from there to where you have a world full of canes.
And now these canes have become kings, and they are ruling over large kingdoms. These kings are depicted as beasts by the prophets. Because like Cain, they use violence. They use force to take what they want. They rule in a way that's not like they were supposed to rule as image bearers of God, But they rule in a way that's kind of subhuman.
And so the larger the kingdom, the more terrible the beast is that's depicted. So that's why the bible uses the images of beast here. It's it's a subhuman way of ruling through through force and through violence. These 4 beasts depicted here in Daniel 7, they are 4 violent kingdoms. Most scholars think that they are Babylon or Persia or Medea or Rome.
But if you grew up in the church that I grew up in, this would be Hitler or Mikhail Gorbachev or the Democratic party. It would you know, pick your poison, whatever you want here. But, I don't think actually trying to understand what kingdoms these are actually matters that much? All of this just sets the stage for the world world we live in and what comes up next in Daniel's vision. But we live in a world that needs to be purged of evil.
Purged of its sin, purged of its violence, purged of the beast that are ruling. Everyone with me? Alright. Now we get to the fun part. Verses 9 through 10.
Let's read them again. They're they're too important not to read. 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 was like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames.
Its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A 1000,000 served him and 10,000 times 10000 stood before him. The court sat in judgment and the books were opened. So Daniel now in his vision, he's taken up to a room in heaven where there's thrones, where there's the ancient of days taking a seat on one of these thrones.
There's all these creatures, angels serving, 1,000 upon 1,000. 10000 was the highest number, that you had in the the ancient world. So 10,000 times 10,000 really means more people than you can count. It's a it's a breathtaking scene there. It's it's a correct use of the word awesome.
It's just it's it's breathtaking. You cannot see the ends of the people standing before the ancient of days. And then God takes his seat on the throne and he begins to make judgments. You see, they're actually in a giant courtroom here with everyone gathered before the ancient of days. Now one of the the key things you need to notice here is that there's not just one throne.
There are thrones. Thrones, plural, yet only God sits down on one of them. Only the ancient of days. So so this begs the question as you're you're reading this prophecy, as Daniel's seeing this prophecy, What are all the thrones for? Who are they for?
I mean why is only God the one who's worthy enough to sit down on this throne? Why does someone go to all this trouble to put out all of these thrones if there's not anyone to sit down on them? Well, if you remember, humans were created to rule and to reign over this world. So so these thrones were put out there for us, for the humans. We just read about that in Psalm 8.
Once once again, who who is man? Who is the son of man that you're mindful of him? Then it talks about you've given him dominion, dominion over this entire world. These thrones were set out for us. We were created to rule.
But because we rebelled against God, there isn't a single human left worthy enough to sit down on a throne. There certainly isn't a single person righteous enough to open up one of the books and to judge the world. And so the thrones are empty. Only the ancient of days is seat seated. It's actually a really sad scene that you're looking there at.
But then Daniel sees something astonishing, verses 13 to 14. It says, I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came 1 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 in the 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.
So Daniel, he's looking at these empty thrones in this courtroom. And then suddenly he sees someone riding up a cloud who has the appearance of a son of man or a human. And that's the point here. This this person who's ascending doesn't look like those creatures, doesn't look like any one of those beasts. This is an actual human, but not just any human.
Because humans don't typically ride up the clouds, but it's definitely a son of man. But he's riding up the clouds. So he's more than just a man. And this son of man, he doesn't come barging into the courtroom. He's humble.
He waits to be presented to the ancient of days. And when He is presented, He is then given all dominion. He is given all the kingdoms. He's given glory that will never fade. Now God's already promised to give to give this kingdom to a descendant of David.
So, apparently, the son of man is also a son of David. But once again, He's more than just a son of David because He's riding on the clouds. You guys still with me? Freaking out a little? It's alright.
Daniel's got a freak out moment right after this. He says he says, I was anxious and alarmed. I mean, he's probably about to wet his pants. I mean, look look at all that he's witnessing here. This is a lot to take in.
It's actually the entire story of the Bible in a very condensed form, Daniel 7 is. In which you've got humans created to rule in righteousness, but instead they rebel against the creator. They're no longer worthy to sit down on the throne and to rule. As a result, the whole world goes into chaos. Evil reigns.
Violence covers the entire world. And we're just waiting, wondering, hoping will any human ever be able to come who's actually worthy to judge. That's where we are. Is there anyone righteous enough, one of us righteous enough to come and to sit down on one of those thrones and purge the world of evil? Now now we don't have time to walk through all of this vision.
So I just wanna jump down, to one of the important parts that involves us. Go down to verses 2627. The context here is that this 4th beast, the beastly beast, he is now being judged. Verse 26. But the court shall sit in judgment.
And his dominion, this is the beast's dominion, shall be taken away to be consumed and destroyed to the end. And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high. His kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom and all dominion shall serve and obey him. I don't know if you caught what was going on here. But here, God strips away all power, all of the kingdoms away from this 4th beast, and he gives it to the people of the saints of the most high.
In other words, a day is coming when when all the evil powers of the world are going to be judged. They're gonna be put to an end. And at this moment, all dominion's gonna be given to the son of man. And then you know what he's gonna do with it? Freely share it with his saints.
Amen. He gives it to all of those who are faithful to him. If you're having another freak out moment as you're really trying to, you know, let the penny drop with this, You're not alone. Once again, Daniel, he he's having this freak out moment too. This time, he says, he's alarmed and all the blood drains from his face.
He's about to pass out as he sees what he is seeing here. Now hear me. All of the new testament passages we have about us being co heirs with Christ, you find that here. What Christ inherits, we inherit because he gives it to us. All those passages about us co ruling with Christ, you see it right here.
Passages like Revelation 321, which describe us as sitting on the throne with Jesus, or Revelation 20 that says that we will reign with Christ, or 1st Corinthians 6 it says, we will judge the world. All of that you find right here. Now some of you might have a few questions. I would hope you have a few questions. I've got more than a few.
But one of the obvious ones is this, How's this possible? Like, how can he have what I'm hoping to be millions and millions of saints, millions of people all ruling over a kingdom at the same time. I mean, what does that even look like? I mean, does everybody, do they just pass out crowns to everyone? Everybody gets the scepter?
I mean, who's giving the orders? Who's serving who? What what does it look like for everyone to be a king or queen? Doesn't that just mean no one's a king or queen? If everyone is, what what does this actually look like?
These are great questions. But really, what these questions reveal is that we have a misunderstanding of what it looks like to exercise dominion or to rule. The bible has to to flip it on its head for us. We we have to redefine what having authority or ruling looks like. And Jesus is gonna do this later in in Mark.
In Mark chapter 10, he's gonna pull his disciples together, and he's gonna say this. You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles, they lorded over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be a slave of all.
For even the son of man, he came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. The Son of Man shows us what ruling looks like, and it looks like serving. It looks like using your god given authority and power as a person created in his image to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. To love your neighbor as yourself. Ruling by force, taking what you want is to become like a beast.
But man was created to rule not by taking. Man was created to rule by serving. And can you imagine what the world would look like if man ruled that way? And someday, we won't have to imagine. Okay.
Back to Jesus here. So when Jesus claims to be the son of man, when he picks that title, he is the son of man. First off, he's claiming this. He's claiming to be human. But he's not just claiming to be any human.
He's not a son of man. He says he is the son of man. He is the human. He is the new Adam, the new representation of man. He says, now with him, all of humanity rises or falls with him.
It's Romans 5. Second thing he is claiming is that he is the fulfillment of Daniel 7. He's not only the human. He's the only human righteous enough to ascend to heaven, to sit down on a throne, to open up the scrolls, to judge the nations, to rid the entire world of its evil. Since the moment we first sinned in the garden, all of creation's been groaning Groaning for this son of man to be revealed.
Groaning for someone worthy enough to finally be able to go into that courtroom and to sit down and to judge. Jesus comes and He sits, and He will judge the world, and He will be given all glory, power, dominion, and rule forever and ever. Jesus is saying, I'm that human, the only one worthy enough. So now can you understand the astonishment, the gasp of the men and the women that were gathered in that room crowded together when Jesus looked at him and said, but that you may know that the son of man has authority, not the ability. It's more than ability, but that the Son of Man has the authority on earth now to forgive sins.
I say to you, rise, take up your mat and walk. You can almost hear the gasp. Jesus, he would continue to refer to himself as the son of man for the next 3 years. He would teach his disciples what he meant by having the authority as the son of man. How he has the authority to heal, how he has the authority to forgive, and how he has the authority to judge the entire world.
And then He would go on to tell them how the son of man would have the authority and be able to do these things. And He would do it by taking all of the evil in this world upon Himself and taking it to the grave. Over and over again, he would say how the son of man was going to suffer and to die, but then to rise 3 days later. Mark 831. And and he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after 3 days rise again.
Next chapter, Mark 9:31. For he was teaching his disciples saying to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after 3 days, he will rise. Next chapter, Mark 10:32. And taking the 12 again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to them.
See, we are going to Jerusalem and the son of man is going to be delivered over to the chief priest and to the scribes. And they will condemn him to death. And they will deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him. And they will spit on him, and they will flog him, and they will kill him.
And 3 days later, he will rise. I could go on, but over and over again throughout the gospel of Mark when Jesus refers to himself as the son of man, he says the son of man is gonna have to suffer in order to become the judge of the world and to purge the world of its evil. All of this culminates at the trial of Jesus. The opposition that began against Jesus when He first revealed himself as the son of man, it culminates at his trial when he stands before the high priest. We read about this in Mark, chapter 14.
The scene here is Jesus. He has been beaten. He is bloody. He is bruised. He is standing before all of the elders, the priests, the scribes, and even the high priest himself on trial.
And we read this verse 60. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? But he remained silent, and he made no answer. This is this is a common thing that you you'll find in the trial of Jesus.
He doesn't ever respond until there is a question of authority. Again, the high priest asked him, are you the Christ? Are you the son of the blessed? For the first time, Jesus says, I am. And you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.
Let that sink in After Jesus beaten, bruised, bleeding, silent for his entire trial here when he's finally just straight up asked by the high priest himself if he is the Messiah. He says I am, but I want you to know that I am more than that. I am more than just the messiah. I am the son of man and you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds. In other words, he's saying, you think you have authority over me?
You think that I am standing in judgment before you? Someday, you will stand in judgment before me and I will purge the world of its evil. You think this is a crucifixion? No. This is a coronation.
You think you are killing me? No. I will ascend to my throne. I'm the son of man. This is a king that we worship, the King who will conquer sin and death for us because He conquered sin and death then.
A King who has ascended, who is now seated at the right hand of power. A King who will use his authority to someday renew and redeem this entire world. And a King who will invite us into that reign with him. I don't know what Jesus you you think you're worshiping, but this is a Jesus. This is a true Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man.
This is the Jesus we worship. This isn't this isn't the Jesus you go to for for advice. Or the one that you just you just kind of wanna get a counsel. This is a little cheerleader Jesus who just kind of walks next to you. This is a Jesus you joyfully surrender your lives before.
King of kings, Lord of lords. And Jesus says, you trust me, you follow me, you reign with me forever. Is this the Jesus that you worship? Because there's no one like him. Pray with me, church.
Lord Jesus, forgive us of our casual worship. Lord, you deserve so much more. Thank you for being the human, our perfect representative when he lived the life we were supposed to live, died the death that we were supposed to die. Now all the good that happens to you happens to us. Thank you for being the one worthy, the only human worthy to sit down on the throne, to open scrolls, to judge this world, to purge it of evil.
And, Lord, we long for the day as as we read every headline, as we watch the news, we long for the day when you will come and you will establish your kingdom and reign forever and ever and ever. Thank you for being the Son of God and the Son of Man, and may we worship you as such. And we pray this in the name of Jesus, our present and our future King. Amen.