How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds: Son of Man | Matthew 16:13-28
March 20, 2016 | Brian Hedges
Good morning. Good to see you all of you this morning. Let’s turn in our Bibles to Matthew chapter 16. And we’re going to be looking at verses 13-28. We’re near the end of our series “How Sweet the Name” based on John Newton’s hymn “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds in a Believer’s Ear.” We’ve been looking at the names of Christ, the offices of Christ, images for Christ. We’ve been in this series for some time. I think today is the sixteenth sermon, and we have two to go. We’re going to talk again on Friday evening at our Good Friday service. So I hope you’ll be here for that at 6:30pm. We’re going to look at another one of the names of Jesus, and then next Sunday morning for Easter will be the conclusion of the series.
The last few weeks we’ve talked about the human nature of Christ, when we looked at Jesus as the last Adam. And then last Sunday we looked at Jesus as the Son of God and thought some about his divine nature. And today we’re going to take another one of these names of Jesus. And I think it is the most misunderstood of Jesus’ names, although it is the most common name for Jesus in the gospels, apart from “Jesus,” and that’s the name “Son of Man.” And the passage we’re going to ground our thinking in is Matthew 16:13-28. This is a critical point in the ministry of Jesus. It’s about halfway into his ministry, and it’s the turning point. Everything changes at this point, in Matthew 16, you have the parallel passages also in Mark and in Luke. So we’re going to read this section, Matthew 16:13-28:
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
This is God’s word.
So three times in this passage, at the beginning (verse 13) and at the end (in verses 27 and 28), three times Jesus calls himself “Son of Man”—at the beginning and at the end, thus framing the whole section. This name or this title, “Son of Man,” I think is one of the least understood of Jesus’ names.
Now when we hear this we think Jesus’ humanity. Son of God—he’s divine. Son of Man—he’s human. And that’s right, there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s right, that’s implied when Jesus calls himself Son of Man. But it’s not all that’s implied. There’s more to it than that. Jesus’ own understanding of the Son of Man title included much more than a reference to his humanity. Some 82 times Jesus calls himself Son of Man in the gospels, on 50 different occasions. So if you count the parallel passages in the different gospels, it’s 50 different occasions, amounting to about 82 times. And get this, with the exception of the crowds asking who the Son of Man is (and they’re probably quoting Jesus) in John 12:24—with the exception of that, the words always come from Jesus. Jesus calls himself Son of Man. No one else does. You never find it in the epistles. The only other place outside of the gospels is in Acts 7 when Stephen sees one “like the Son of Man.”
Now here’s the interesting thing. Unlike some of the other titles or names of Jesus (like Son of David, or Christ, or Messiah, or especially Son of God)—unlike those, this is a name which people did not make an immediate connection to the Messiah. When they heard Jesus say Son of Man, they didn’t really hear anything unique about it, at least initially. Perhaps they were thinking of it in the way we do, in that Jesus was just saying he’s human, he’s a human being. They may have been thinking in terms of Psalm 8: “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Maybe they were thinking like that, and Jesus was just referring to himself as a human being. Or they might have thought that Jesus used the title “Son of Man” to refer to himself as a prophet. This phrase occurs in the Old Testament more in Ezekiel than anywhere else—I think around 100 times in Ezekiel. Ezekiel is a son of man. So maybe they thought of that.
But Jesus seems to have deliberately chosen this name because of its ambiguity. Because it wouldn’t make people make these initial connections. But at the same time, Jesus seems to be deliberately investing the title with deeper meaning by connecting it with a passage from the book of Daniel, chapter 7, where Daniel has this vision of the different beasts and then ascending up to the throne of the Ancient of Days is one like the Son of Man who is then given authority and dominion and a kingdom. And Jesus deliberately, in some of his sayings, connects this phrase Son of Man with Daniel and seems to be investing it with that meaning.
What I want us to do this morning is use this passage as something of a launching point from which to see three different emphases of Jesus’ role as “Son of Man.” We might think of these as three different aspects of Jesus as the Son of Man. So here are the three things:
I. The Authority of the Son of Man
II. The Suffering of the Son of Man
III. The Glory of the Son of Man
Or here’s another word we can put with each one: we want to think about Jesus as the Son of Man in his Kingdom. We want to think about Jesus as the Son of Man in relation to the Cross. We want to think about Jesus as the Son of Man in his Coming, his coming in glory.
I. The Authority of the Son of Man
First of all, the authority of the Son of Man. That’s implied here in Jesus’ question, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (verse 13). And then in Peter’s answer, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This is explicit elsewhere in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus came on the scene as a prophet, as a teacher, a rabbi. But he came with a new authority that left the crowds astonished and amazed and left the leaders of the religious establishment puzzled and perplexed and provoked.
Who was Jesus to be saying and doing the things he was doing? Where did he get this authority? I just want to give you a couple of vignettes from earlier in Matthew’s gospel, where you see Jesus exercising this authority and connecting it to the Son of Man. And here’s what I want you to see throughout. I want you to see that people were upset by Jesus. Not because of Jesus’ miracles but because of his claims and the miracles that substantiated those claims. What was the claim? It was the claim of authority.
(1) So first of all, lets look at Matthew 9:1-8. Jesus came back to his own area, and some people brought to him a paralytic on a bed. And Jesus says something interesting to the paralytic. He says “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” The guy needs to be healed, and Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven.” And then this upsets some of the people. The scribes said, “This man is blaspheming.” So Jesus says: “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For 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”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
What’s going on here? Jesus is doing this miracle to show that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
Here’s the first thing: Jesus was claiming for himself divine prerogatives.
Let me give you an example: I’m going to pick on Wes for a minute. Imagine if Wes Ward did something mean to you. It’s hard to imagine, because he’s so nice. But say he keyed your car or killed your cat. And you’re upset and you’re offended. And let’s say I learn about this and I go to Wes and say to Wes, “It’s all right, I forgive you.” What would you think? You’d think what the heck, you can’t forgive him! He hasn’t done anything to you! It’s my car that’s been keyed, my cat that’s been killed. Only I can forgive him because he sinned against me.
The reason people were upset about Jesus saying, “Your sins are forgiven,” is because they didn’t think Jesus had the right to forgive sins. And for Jesus to say, “My son, your sins are forgiven,” is to claim divine prerogatives. He’s in essence saying, “You’ve sinned against me, I’m forgiving you. Your sins are forgiven.” You see what he’s doing? He’s claiming this divine right by forgiving this man’s sins. And that’s what upset the people. That’s the first thing that’s going on here. And so people become very suspicious of Jesus, they become hostile to Jesus. Who is this? He’s blaspheming, they say. Who is this that claims to forgive sins? They’re really upset because of this claim. But Jesus connects it to this title, the Son of Man. The Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins. And the healing of the paralytic just substantiates this claim.
The second thing Jesus is doing is subverting the entire structure of Jewish religious life. In reality, in Judaism the only way someone could get their sins forgiven was to go to a priest in the temple and offer a sacrifice. And once the sacrifice was offered at the temple, at the holy place, a priest could say, “Your sins are forgiven.” And Jesus is going completely around the establishment. He’s subverting the priesthood, the temple, the whole sacrificial cult, and he’s doing it because he is the true Priest and he is the true Sacrifice and he is the true Temple and he is the true King. He is the true God. And therefore he claims this authority to forgive sins. And that’s just one example, that just one vignette.
(2) Let me give you another one more quickly. In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus is walking through grain fields on the Sabbath day with his disciples, and they start pulling off grain, they start taking handfuls of grain to make a meal and eat. And the religious people get upset. And it’s always interesting: the Pharisees and the scribes are the moral police. They’re always watching to see if people are coloring outside the lines. And they’re especially watching Jesus. And they get upset. “You and your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath,” they said. And Jesus responds essentially with, “The Son of Man is the lord of the Sabbath.” So again, he’s claiming authority. And now he’s claiming authority not just to forgive sin. He’s claiming authority over the whole law. The Sabbath was a part of the Jewish law. And Jesus says the Son of Man is the lord of the Sabbath. And again it’s an instance of his authority.
(3) And again we can just think about so many examples in the gospels, especially Matthew 8 through 15 and 16, where Jesus is exercising his authority in different ways: by teaching, by miracles, by healings, and by exorcising demons. In all these different ways he is exercising his authority. In his teaching he speaks as no man speaks. “Who could speak like this man who with such authority?” And he’s showing authority over the created world, over nature. He could just speak, and a raging storm can come to a standstill. And he’s showing his authority over the powers of darkness as he casts out demons. Now what’s going on in all of those instances of Jesus exercising authority? Here’s what’s going on. He’s showing his kingship. He’s showing that as the Son of Man he’s not merely a human being, he’s not just a Son of Man, which is always how the phrase shows up in Ezekiel, Ezekiel is “a son of man,” Jesus is The Son of Man. He is the man invested with authority. He is the man who will be the king.
There’s a great passage in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. In The Return of the King they are in these houses of healing, and this woman says, “The hands of the king are the hands of a healer. And so the rightful king could ever be known." (J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994) 873.) And then Aragon, this ranger, comes into these houses of healing, and there are all these sick people. And he lays his hands on them, and they’re healed. And it’s a sign that he’s really the king. And that’s why the third book in the trilogy is called The Return of the King. And when I read the stories of the miracles and the exorcisms of Jesus in the gospels, where he’s coming and he’s doing all these mighty deeds, I remember that statement. “The hands of the king are healing hands, and thus shall the rightful king be known.” That’s what Jesus is showing. Jesus is showing that he’s the true King. And he’s the true Man invested with authority from God, who is bringing his kingdom to earth. And he’s showing his essential oneness with God, his deity, his divine nature, along with these kingly claims. That’s the authority of Jesus as the Son of Man
Now here’s the interesting thing: Matthew 16 is a turning point. And it’s a turning point for two reasons. It’s the time when he asks his disciples to make a definitive confession of who he is. “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they give their answers. “Who do you say?” And Peter gives the answer for the disciples. You are the Christ. You are the Son of God. Now that’s a confession that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the King, they’ve recognized it now. He’s the King. And then immediately after that, in verse 21, this is what it says: “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Now that’s a turning point. And that leads us to our second point.
II. The Suffering of the Son of Man
It’s the turning point because from here on, Jesus will continually be telling his disciples that as the Son of Man he’s going to suffer. He’s going to be betrayed. He’s going to be delivered into the hands of the Gentiles. He’s going to be killed. He’s going to be crucified. Now, he hasn’t been saying things like this up to this point. But now he begins to teach them this. And it’s just really interesting when you read through the gospel of Matthew to see how many times Jesus says this, and he connects it to his role as Son of Man. Now Peter, of course, doesn’t understand. He rebukes Jesus. Can you imagine? He rebukes the Lord. What an oxymoron! Here’s the Lord, he’s just confessed he’s the Messiah, the Son of God, and Jesus says he’s going to suffer and Peter rebukes him. So Jesus tells him: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (v. 23) You’re not thinking from God’s perceptive. You’re thinking from a human perspective. Now what is God’s perspective?
This is the great paradox of the gospel: That Jesus is the King, but he’s a different kind of king. He’s the Son of Man with authority, but it’s not the kind of authority you’d think. He’s not coming to crush the enemies. He’s not coming to bring a political revolution. He’s coming to die. The suffering of the Son of Man.
And I just want you to see how many times this is emphasized in the following chapters.
Matt 17:12: But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.”
Matt 17:22: As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.
Matt 20:18-19: “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
Now you see, the further you get, the closer he gets to Jerusalem, the more detail Jesus is giving them about what’s coming. I mean, this is really detailed! He’s going to be mocked. He’s going to be flogged; he’s going to be crucified. Then in Matthew 20:
Matt 20:28: even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Now, Jesus is doing something, he is conflating Son of Man language with Suffering Servant language—the Servant of the Lord from Isaiah. Jesus is combining these two things. So he’s saying the Son of Man came to be the servant, the Suffering Servant, to give his life as a ransom for many.
Then in the final week, you have three statements from Matthew 16:
Matt 26:2: “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
Matt 26:24: The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”
Matt 26:45: Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”
Now, when you put all those together, what it’s telling us is that the cross was absolutely central to the mission of Jesus. Suffering was central to the mission of Jesus. There are these liberal theologians out there who say that Jesus’ crucifixion was unexpected, it wasn’t something that he was looking to happen, it wasn’t something that he expected. That’s not at all what you get when you read the gospels. When you read the gospels it’s really clear. From Matthew 16 on, Jesus knows exactly what’s coming. And he goes to Jerusalem, his face “set like a flint” to Jerusalem. He goes to Jerusalem knowing that this is what’s coming, knowing that this is his purpose, this is his mission, this is right at the heart of what he came to do. You know why? Because Jesus, as the Son of Man, as the king, he came to set up his kingdom not by pushing the Roman boot off of the Jewish necks, but by releasing us from our greatest enemies, our greatest threats: Satan, sin, death, and hell. And he does it by becoming our ransom. He does it by taking our place, by becoming the substitute for sinners. He gives his life as a ransom for many.
Now there’s one more implication of this. Not only is the cross central to the mission of Jesus, but when you keep reading in Matthew 16, the cross is also central to Christian discipleship. You see that in verses 24-26: “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?’”
To take up one’s cross in the first-century was to accept a death sentence. He’s not talking about putting up with your lousy boss or your mother-in-law, something like that. That’s not the cross. The cross is death! It’s execution. If you take up your cross, you’re walking a one-way street to a crucifixion. That’s what Jesus is saying, if you’re going to be my disciple, it means death. It means death to sin, death to self, it means relinquishing your rights to run your own life, it means accepting and embracing the cross, it means, if necessary, you die to be my disciple. The cross is central, not just to the mission of Jesus, the cross is central to Christian discipleship.
Amy Carmichael, a great missionary, wrote some of the best poetry in Christian history, and she reflected on the cost of following Jesus in one of her poems ‘Hast Thou No Scar?’
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who has no wound or scar?
Pierced are the feet that follow me. Not just his feet. Pierced are the feet that follow me. The cross is central to Christian discipleship. So we see here the authority of the Son of Man, the suffering of the Son of Man, and finally the glory of the Son of Man.
III. The Glory of the Son of Man
Matt. 16:27-29: “For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
The first part had to do with his Kingdom, his Authority. The second part had to do with his Cross, his Suffering. And now the third part has to do with his coming. The Son is coming in glory. Here especially is where you see the connections to Daniel 7. The Glory of the Son of Man in his Coming. I just want to quickly trace three movements of Jesus’ coming. Three movements of Jesus’ glory, three unveilings of Jesus’ glory in Jesus’ language like this in the gospel of Matthew.
(1) The first is the transfiguration. Have you ever wondered in verse 28 what that means? Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” You read that phrase “coming in his kingdom,” and you think the second coming. That’s what we think when we read that. But Jesus says some of them won’t taste death until they see his coming. So some people read that and think Jesus is mistaken, that Jesus thought he would come back before the disciples all died and he didn’t, so he was mistaken.
But that’s a misreading of the text, because immediately following verse 28 is chapter 17:1. You know what happens? Jesus, with some of his disciples, goes up on Mount Horeb, and he’s transfigured before them. And they see his glory. They see his glory in the mountain. That transfiguration was an unveiling of the glory of Jesus. They’re seeing something like a preview of coming attractions. It’s a trailer for what’s going to come later. It’s a preview of the coming glory of Jesus. And they’re seeing it unveiled right there as he’s transfigured before them, as his face shines like the sun and his clothes become white as light, and it’s Daniel 7 language. In Daniel 7, the Ancient of Days’ clothing is white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool and his throne a fiery flame. And then this Son of Man comes to him with the clouds and then is presented with the kingdom. Well Jesus is using this language; that language is surrounding everything that’s going on in Matthew 17.
That’s the first movement, his transfiguration.
(2) The second movement is everything belonging to Jesus’ exaltation or what we’d call the first three steps of the exaltation: his resurrection from the dead, his ascension, and his session which means his seating at the right hand of God. You see this in Matthew 26:64. Jesus is speaking to Caiphas the high priest, and they’re asking him, “Are you the Christ? Are you the Messiah? Is this who you really are?” And Jesus responds: “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Now, there it’s explicit. When he says that, the high priest knows what he’s saying. And that’s why they charge him with blasphemy and send him off to Pilate and drum up charges of treason so that he’ll be crucified. They understand now what Jesus is saying, because he’s being very direct in comparing himself to Daniel 7. He is claiming nothing less than equality with the Ancient of Days. He’s claiming nothing less than Messiahship and kingship. He’s coming to the right hand of power, seated at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.
But it’s interesting when you read Daniel 7. That coming is not the Son of Man coming to earth from heaven. In Daniel 7 you have to ask what direction he’s going. It says he’s coming—but from where to where? And he’s not coming from heaven to earth. The Son of Man is coming from earth to heaven. And so it is the ascension of Jesus that’s in view here. And when Jesus says this, “From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven,” he’s speaking here of his ascension to the Father where he’s lifted up in the clouds and ascends to the Father. Luke 24 and Acts 1 describe his ascension and then his seating, his enthronement at the right hand of God. And that’s part of his glory as the Son of Man. This means that a man, an incarnate man, flesh and blood with a true human body and a true human nature who’s now been crucified and resurrected—a man ascends to the throne.
Now this is what Adam was supposed to be. Adam was supposed to be the man who would be the king for God on earth. And God made Adam and put him in the garden. And the idea was, “Adam, you tend the garden and then extend my reign through the earth, exercise dominion.” And of course, Adam failed. But now, Jesus is given the kingdom. And he ascends in our flesh, glorified, to the Father. And you know what the Father is saying to him essentially? My Son, I am giving you the kingdom. Turn this wilderness into a garden. Bring my kingdom to earth. And that’s what Jesus is doing. So that’s the second movement in Jesus’ exaltation.
(3) And then the third movement is his return, the second coming. And here you have so many passages. Let me just give you two texts.
Matt 19:28: Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
What’s significant here is the phrase the ‘new world.’ In the Greek it’s palingenesia— it means ‘the new beginning.’ It’s the new genesis. It’s new creation. Sometimes this word is translated ‘regeneration.’ In fact, the only other time that word is used in Scripture is in Titus 3:5. And so Jesus is saying in the new world, the new regeneration of the world, the new creation, the Son of Man is going to sit on his glorious throne and you’re going to rule with me. He’s looking forward now to his return.
And you see the same thing in Matthew 25:31: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. And what follows is this great judgment, the separation of the sheep from the goats.
You want to know what my eschatology is in a nutshell? I’ll give it to you in a little story. One time there was a guy who was studying in seminary and he was so confused by all this theology. And one day he was out in the gym playing basketball, and there was this old guy in the gym reading his bible. And the young seminarian noticed that he was reading from Revelation. Now here’s this janitor, he’s not very well educated, he’s not seminary trained or anything, and he’s amazed. Here’s this guy reading Revelation, and seems to be understanding what he’s reading. And he asked him, “Do you get that? Do you understand this book?” And the old janitor said, “I do. It means Jesus is going to win.” That’s my eschatology in a nutshell. Jesus is going to win! He’s coming back, and when he comes back he’s going to make all things new. He’s going to triumph over evil. Once and for all the Son of Man will sit on the throne of glory.
So we see here his authority, his suffering, and his glory. His kingdom, his cross, and his coming. Now what should our response be? As we close here I just want to give you four words without any real exposition. Just four words: Trust: Trust him. Trust the suffering Son of Man who died as your ransom. Submit: Submit because he’s the king. Submit to his kingly authority. Obey Jesus. Imitate: Imitate the Son of Man. When Jesus said the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many, he was teaching his disciples about servant hood, how to be servants of one another. He wants us to imitate him, to be like him, to walk the Calvary road and to serve others. Anticipate: By this I mean look for and long for the glory of the Son of Man in his return.
He’s coming again so trust him, submit to him, and imitate him.
Let’s pray.
Father, we thank you for Jesus our king. We thank you for this man who was and is true man, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, that he is also ultimate man, the second man. He is what Luther called the right man on our side. The proper man. The man who will win the battle. We thank you for that and for his suffering on our behalf. We thank you for the hope and the confident expectation of his glorious return. And as we have received your word and now come to receive the elements of the table we come doing so in this anticipation that Jesus is coming. We’re celebrating what he has done in the past, looking forward to what he will do in the future, doing so in present ongoing fellowship and communion with our Savior, this suffering and yet glorified Son of Man. So draw near to us at the table, we pray now in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Brian G. Hedges
