One Like the Son of Man

Happy Sabbath to you! Thank you very much, Emil, for sharing that beautiful, beautiful piece. I know it's pre-recorded, but I think you're joining us here online. So thank you very much. It's wonderful to hear. I'm going to share my screen if I can here for a moment. We'll see how that works. Here we go.

Okay, very good. So happy Sabbath, as I said to you. I'm sorry that we can't be with you in person today, especially having Mr. and Mrs. Phelps in town. It would be great to meet you. And please come again. If this is your second trip, hopefully a third trip, third time's a charm, we'll all be able to meet you when we're actually in person.

I shared a sermon last month in Petaluma that I had planned to share with people in the San Francisco Bay Area actually last week. But because of COVID, I just wasn't quite up to speaking.

If I cough as I do, it's just the lingering effects of that. Because we're meeting on Zoom, we're all together. The plan, of course, was that I shared in Petaluma and that I shared in the San Francisco Bay Area. But because we're transitioning out, I'm afraid I wouldn't have a chance to share this with you in the San Francisco Bay Area. So for you in Petaluma, you'll hear this again, although this time I've got some slides to go with it. Hopefully, it'll be beneficial for you.

We call ourselves Christians. As we are followers of Jesus Christ, a Christian as a follower of Jesus Christ, we believe in Jesus the Christ.

Sometimes we say Jesus Christ, but really what we mean by that is we say Jesus, which is the Greek form of the Hebrew Yeshua. That was his given name, Yeshua. There's a lot of significance to that word, its meaning in Hebrew associated with Joshua.

When we say the Christ, we mean the Messiah. The Christ is the Greek form of the Hebrew Messiah or anointed one. We've brought into English, just like in French and Spanish and others, the term Jesus the Christ, or Yeshua the Messiah, or the anointed one.

Being Christians, I think it's important that we understand as much as we can about who this Christ, who our Messiah is. With this in mind, and as I only have a few more messages with you before I transition to focus full time on the French-speaking areas, I wanted to discuss that title that Jesus himself gave to himself. We often talk about Jesus the Son of God, but we don't often talk about what Jesus more frequently called himself.

By understanding how Jesus referred to himself, I think we can better understand his nature, refuting the erroneous Trinitarian view of God. His very words make it very clear what his nature he and God the Father are. We crush any argument that the Gospels were inconsistent in their presentation of who Jesus was. We'll talk about that a little bit.

This modern scholarship notion of a progressive understanding within the first 90 or so years of the Church in terms of who Jesus was. Finally, we strengthen our resolve to follow our Messiah to the end, despite the obstacles that are thrown our way. We're going to need that as things get more and more difficult ahead.

That simple phrase or title that Jesus used for himself is Son of Man. Son of Man, a title that so elegantly, prophetically, and beautifully captures his nature and his mission. Today, I want to discuss why Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man and why this term should have great significance for us. I've put the word Son of Man up here. I've put the Aramaic writing of Son of Man, which is Kibar inas. We'll talk about why I put the Aramaic up here as we get into the sermon versus the Hebrew. But this is the term that Jesus used for himself. Specifically, in this sermon, we're going to discuss how this term was the primary way that the Jews in Palestine at that time understood that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah. This was the key term. People were very well aware of this term, and when he used it, they knew exactly what he meant. How the traditional understanding of first-century Judaism being completely monotheistic is really an oversimplification and frankly not correct. And why the Church of God continues to teach a duality of the Godhead. That is, God is both God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. Thirdly, how this term reveals the future role of Jesus Christ as ruling over all kingdoms at his return. I hope that when we get done with this message, these three things will be much more clearly understood in your mind and that you will be able to share some of these things with others as it comes up.

By examining the term Son of Man, we can understand fully the great significance of celebrating his sacrifice as a man at Passover and his return as King of Kings on the Feast of Trumpets. And the title of today's message, as I've put up here, is One Like the Son of Man. And this is a phraseology taken from Daniel 7 and in verse 13. So let's begin our discussion in Mark 2 and verse 3, and we're going to read through to verse 12. Mark 2, verses 3-12. So if you turn with me there, hopefully open your Bibles wherever you are in your living room, in your office, or meeting with friends. Mark 2, verses 3-12. It's really important that we read these words together from the Word of God because this is really the very beginning of things. And as you're turning there, allow me to share some context to this verse or this set of verses. Most scholars agree that the Book of Mark was the first gospel, likely the earliest written gospel account. And this is what the Church of God teaches. It was written in Greek, and it recounts an outline of events from the beginning of Jesus's ministry to his death and resurrection. And unlike the other gospels, Mark doesn't share really much context. He doesn't share Jesus's miraculous birth. He doesn't share Jesus's ancestry. He doesn't share his pre-existent nature. Rather, it begins just rather abruptly, very little context, with Jesus appearing after John the Baptist is put into prison. And then it says, Jesus came preaching, and repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. It just jumps right in. And if someone reads just the Book of Mark with no other account of Jesus, you might think that he's just a wise teacher with a certain power of healing. And in fact, modern scholars actually believe this. They argue—and this is an erroneous view. I'm sharing something that the Church of God does not believe, does not teach, but it's good that we understand what mainstream scholarship is putting out there in terms of the gospels. They argue that the gospels were written progressively over the 40 to 90 years after Jesus died.

And that during this time, there was a progression of understanding regarding Jesus's nature. That is, people had a certain view in 70 AD, and they had a different view in 90 AD, and then a different view in 110 AD. And you see this reflected in the gospels. And specifically, this argument goes that Mark, which is the first of the gospels to be written, is showing Jesus to be more of a wise, sage, kind of rabbi-healer person, whereas Matthew and Luke, who wrote later, show him to be God's son, and then John, who wrote last, shows him to be the pre-existent God, and that this is this theological progression. In technical terms, this is called Christology. So if you come across the word Christology, that's what it means. Christology is the study of the nature, person, and role of Christ, or the Messiah, the anointed one. So this is the mainstream view of Christology. But contrary to this, contrary to what many scholars say, the nature of Christ as God was not developed 40 to 90 years after Jesus died. It was revealed by Jesus himself from the beginning of his preaching, the beginning of his ministry, in the first gospel of Luke. Right here, we're about to read it in Mark 2, verses 3 to 12. Jesus revealed himself as being God. This is really important. This is not a progression. He revealed himself to be God in Mark's gospel, in Matthew's gospel, in Luke's gospel, and in John's gospel, consistent from beginning to end.

He did it by using the term, Son of Man. All the disciples knew that Jesus was God and was with God from the beginning. We're going to see that. It's not just that he was God, but he was God from the beginning. There's no progression. We're about to read one of the great proofs of this at the very beginning of the gospel of Mark. If you're hopefully there by now, Mark 2, verse 3, let's pick up the story right here.

It says, This is this beautiful story. It's such a moving story. It's so untold and retold, just to imagine the scene and the effort that went through to present this paralytic before Jesus. In verse 5, it says, Some of the scribes, verse 6, were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts. Why does this man speak blasphemies? It says like this, Who can forgive sins but God alone? Who can forgive sins but God alone? So the story is set up. It is set up to lead us exactly where Jesus wanted to lead that group and how he wanted to reveal himself to everybody there.

Verse 7 is the key. The scribes say, Who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus Christ had just forgiven this man's sins and therefore proclaimed himself God. Now, I've spoken with those who believe that Jesus Christ was not God from the beginning and only became God upon his resurrection after being born a man. These people are called often Unitarians. They accept Jesus Christ as their Savior but believe that there is only one true God and that is God the Father. And yet, when I ask people who have this belief—and again, I try to have respectful conversations, and there's a lot of history of Unitarianism going all the way back to Constantine's mother in the fourth century— when I ask people who have this view why the religious leaders of the first century were angry and hated Jesus so much, the only answer—and the correct answer—is that Jesus claimed to be God. So the question is, was Jesus God or wasn't he? And he just answered that question and now he's going to show the power of God on earth through the healing of this man. And so, I'll ask him in verse 8. But some of the scribes sitting there and reasoning—oh, sorry—and verse 8, And immediately when Jesus perceived in his Spirit that they reasoned thus with themselves, He said to them, Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier? Which is easier? I will ask him in place. Why do you reason about these things? Which is easier? To say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Arise, take up your bed, and walk. But that you know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralytic, I say to you, Arise, take up your bed, and go your way to your house.

So in verse 10, for the first time, Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man. And in this context, He says the Son of Man has power, or as the margin of my Bible says—I have a New King James version—authority. He has authority to forgive sins. Now, this is an earthquake, the very ground figuratively, as it were, shook beneath the feet of the scribes and all those present, because Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Son of Man. And why is this so important? Why is it so important? Well, I'd like you to turn with me back to Daniel 7, verse 9, and let's read the prophecy of the Son of Man as seen by Daniel.

Daniel, chapter 7, turn with me back there. And as you turn there, allow me to say that the book of Daniel was at that time and is today one of the most significant of the Old Testament prophecies. And it had a profound impact on the Jews of the first century. The words that we are about to read were read regularly in the synagogues of the first century. And they were one of the reasons that many Jews at the time were looking for a Messiah. And so we're going to then go to Daniel 7, verse 9. We're going to read this passage. And we're going to understand why when Jesus said the Son of Man has authority, has power to forgive sins or to heal, he was going right back to this prophecy. Daniel 7, in verse 9, says, I watched till thrones were put in place, and the ancient of days was seated. His garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire. And so here we are granted a view into the very throne room of God. The throne itself references another vision from the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 1. So there's a very clear tie-in to the throne room of God. And in this throne room we have someone called the ancient of days, which is a very clear reference to God. It was very clear and understood that this ancient of days was seated on this throne. He's God. And the story continues in verse 10. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. A thousand thousands ministered to him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated and the books were opened. Now we've discussed in other sermons the connection between this vision and the vision and revelation of the last judgment, the great white throne judgment. There's a very clear connection as there's a reference to a court, which is a setting of judgment. There's reference to books. There's also reference to books in Revelation as well. And then in verse 11 and 12, Daniel goes back to the previous vision of the four beasts and talks about that, but then picks up this same narrative again in verse 13. So let's go to verse 13.

I was watching in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. So here Daniel has a vision of another being, one called the Son of Man. And this being comes with the clouds of heaven. This is a very clear reference not to a man, but to a spirit being, and not just any spirit being, but a supreme being who rules alongside the ancient of days. Notice verse 14. We'll continue in verse 13.

Wow! This is not just any spirit being. This is God. This is one who rules beside God and who has been given dominion and authority over all peoples. The word dominion here is the word authority in Hebrew. He was given authority and glory in a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. The imagery is clear. This is the same being that would rule the entire earth as described in Daniel 2, with the image of Daniel 2, with that stone that comes down and strikes the ground at the feet of this image of the statue. The statue falls and that stone expands and fills the whole earth. He, the Son of Man, is another divine being, but not the ancient of days. That is, this is a being, which according to Professor Daniel Boyerun of the University of California in Berkeley, whose nature was hotly and greatly debated in the first century, as to whether he was God or something like God, a lesser God, a human being. There was this great debate, according to Dr. Boyerun. And if this being was God, then there is a duality of the Godhead. If God, then he was part of the us. He was part of the us, of let us create man in our image. And if he's the us, then he could also be part of Psalm 110 verse 1, where it says, The Lord Yahweh said to my Lord Adonai, sit at my right hand, which is also referring to God beings, the duality of the Godhead.

And as we read in Mark 2, Jesus was claiming this title. He was claiming this title. So into this great debate of first century Judaism about the meaning and significance of Son of Man and the Ancient of Days and how this ties in, here comes Jesus, the beginning of his ministry, very little context forgiven else outside of the book or in the book of Mark.

And he says, I'm the Son of Man. And it's just set up that he's forgiving sins and he's healing. And this word authority is the same word. Now, of course, Mark was written in Greek. Jesus was probably speaking in Aramaic or in Hebrew. And so this was the same connection. So it's not just the fact that he refers to the Son of Man, but he refers to this word authority that he has that authority.

Mark knew what Jesus meant, and he recorded it for all those who would come after. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ and God the Father are one, two beings who form the divine family, the beginning, as we understand, of the divine family, of which we will all become a part.

Allow me to quote a passage from a book entitled The Jewish Gospels by Dr. Daniel Boyeran. I made reference to him as a point of support for my position here that there was a great debate about that. Dr. Boyeran is a professor of Talmudic culture at the University of California, Berkeley. He teaches there today. He's just right down the road here from us in Arendelle. He's written extensively about the history and culture of first century Judaism at the time. He, along with others, argued that it is incorrect to believe that the Jews of the first century were strictly monotheists. Monotheism is a belief in a single God-being. Dr. Boyeran teaches and writes that there was controversy on this point because of the writings of Daniel and other Jewish writings, not in the canon that we recognize the scripture, writings such as the parable of Enoch and the book of 4 Ezra, both contemporary writings written about 100 or 200 years before the time of Jesus.

I'd like to quote you, and I have here on the screen, a quote from page 56 of his book. And here's what he says, and you can read the quote on the screen. The reason that many Jews came to believe that Jesus was divine was because they were already expecting that a Messiah or Christ—again, that one is a Hebrew and one is a Greek term—would be a God-man.

Again, we might not use that term God-man, but I'm quoting Dr. Boyeran. This expectation was part and parcel of Jewish tradition. The Jews had learned this by careful reading of the book of Daniel and understanding its visions and revelations as a prophecy of what would happen at the end of time. Let's continue another quote on page 58 of the same book. The objection of the scribes calling Jesus' act of forgiveness—the act we read about in Mark 2—blasphemy is predicated on their assumption that Jesus is claiming divinity through this action.

Hence their emphasis that only the one God may forgive sins, to which Jesus answers in kind the second divine figure of Daniel 7, the one like the Son of Man, is authorized to act as and for God. Pretty powerful stuff. Right from the beginning, Jesus is claiming to be God. No ambiguity whatsoever about it. The scribes understood it, and they understood the references to Daniel 7. Now, before we go further, I think it's important to define our terms. The word in Daniel 7 for one like the Son of Man is kyberanash.

That section of Daniel was written in Aramaic, so the term in Daniel is an Aramaic term. The term simply means human being. That's really all it means. The equivalent term in Hebrew, again, Jesus may have been speaking Hebrew or Aramaic there in Mark 2, is the term ben Adam. We're Son of Adam. I think we've probably heard this before, but the way in Hebrew that you name yourself is you say, Ben, and then the name of your father. Although my name is Tim, I could be called Ben Dennis because my father's name was Dennis.

Ben Dennis. My son Mark Philip can be called Ben Tim because he's the son of Tim. And so in Hebrew, when you say Ben Adam, you're just meaning the son of Adam, which is another word describing a human being. The actual words in Greek in Mark were, it was to anthropo. You probably recognize anthropo because we have the term in English now, anthropology, for the study of human beings. And so this term in Mark 2, the son of man, just says the son of a human being. And it's such an interesting term because that's really all it means, is it means that Jesus was a man, which indeed he was.

Now, really, the brilliance of this term, kibare nass, son of man, both from Daniel 7, 13, and Mark 2, verse 10, is to those outside the Jewish community, it would mean nothing. It would be like somebody standing up and proclaiming in front of everybody that he's a human being. You'd wonder, well, what's the fuss? We know that. That's obvious. He's not an animal. He's a human being.

So what's brilliant about this term is that it would mean nothing to somebody outside the Jewish community. But to most Jews, it would be clear that Jesus is calling himself God and the Messiah. And in that sense, Jesus is kind of hiding in plain sight. He's able to reveal to a certain set of people who he is without revealing to another set of people who he is.

It's really just a beautiful way to share who he was, which the majority of the Jews would understand. I do want to emphasize and make sure I hit this again that we can't think of the Jews of that time as a group of people who all thought the same thing. There were a lot of factions and schools of thought at that time. And there was debate about what Daniel 7 actually meant. Did it refer to God or man and so forth? And so even within the Jewish community at that time, the Romans, of course, were clueless to this, but the Jews were having debates about this.

I think also at this point, it's important to contrast the term son of man, which Jesus used for himself and the term son of God, which people used for him. Jesus did refer to himself as the son of God, although if we look in Scripture, it's actually not quite as common as you might expect. There are at least 80 references to Jesus as son of man, and most of those references are Jesus himself calling himself the son of man, like we read in Mark 2. But there are actually very few references. And in fact, there's really only one reference where Jesus kind of says he's the son of God. I put up one, which is a very famous one in Matthew 16, 16. Mr. Karamijian actually gave a sermon on this recently, where Peter says of Jesus, you are the Christ, that is Messiah, the son of the living God. So we know Jesus Christ is the son of God. We're going to define what that means a little bit more precisely here now. But there is a reference where Jesus, as I said, kind of says that he's the son of God. I'd like you to turn with me to John 10, verse 31 to 36. And again, we know that Jesus was the son of God, as many scriptures share, and Peter said as much. But many others around him said it of him. But this is really the only instance in scripture where he says it directly of himself, and that's in John 10, verse 31. So let me get over to John 10, 31 so I can read that. And then let's read that together. John 10, 31 to 36. It says, then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. And again, when I ask people, why were the Jews, why were the religious authorities so upset with Jesus? Well, the answer is because he was saying he was God. And that was blasphemy. And here we have this situation again. Verse 32, Jesus answered them, Here it is. This is the direct accusation. Jesus Christ claimed he was God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law? I said you are gods? If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken, and again, he's referring to human beings, do you say of him who the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said I am the Son of God? This is interesting. He's not actually saying he's the Son of God right there, but he is acknowledging that he has said it in other venues, which interestingly we don't have recorded in scripture, but he's acknowledging that he had said it at other times that he is the Son of God. So the only time Jesus actually claims he is the Son of God, he uses in a passage actually from, he's quoting a passage from the book of Psalms, to show that human beings can be sons of God, can be referred to as sons of God. Let's look at that passage because he's quoting a passage out of Psalm 82 verse 6. So let's go back to the passage that Jesus Christ quotes here so we can understand really how to define this term and what Son of God would have meant in that context.

Psalm 82 and in verse 6, it says here, Psalm 82 verse 6, I said, you are gods, and all of you are children of the most high.

So the word here for gods in Psalm 82 verse 6 is the word eluim.

I think in the Church of God, if you've been in the Church of God for any period of time, you've heard the Hebrew word eluim, and eluim is what we see in Genesis 1.1, and it clearly refers to God, but it can also refer to a mighty one, a human being. So in Hebrew, as I have on the screen, a son of God could be a great one or a king.

So in fact, being a son of God was a term in Hebrew to mean a great one or a king, and it didn't necessarily need to refer to God. In the Old Testament, the king was the anointed one.

That is, the king was a type of Messiah, not the Messiah, not the one we're talking about here with Jesus Christ. But let's see this in Psalm 2. We're in Psalm 82. Go back to Psalm 2, verse 1, and let's read this. Again, we read these verses now, and we can clearly see the prophecy. We can clearly see the discussion of Jesus Christ in these verses, and we know they were inspired that way. But if we just take them in the context of when they were written 900 years before Jesus, 1000 years before Jesus comes on the scene, they were written by David, and they were read in a certain way. Some read them as a prophecy. Some read them as referring to the king of Israel. Psalm 2, verses 1 and 2. Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. This is this famous term, Messiah, or in Greek, Christ, saying, Let us break their bonds and pieces and cast away their cords from them. Look in verse 6. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. This is also a reference to the king of Israel. And I will declare the decree, The Lord has said to me, You are my son, today I have begotten you. There is this physical reference at the time to God's anointed, the king of Israel, the royal line of David. And there is this prophecy of something that was yet to come, the royal line of David. The disciples, when the time came, and they saw all the things that were happening with Jesus, and certainly after his death, they read these passages just as we do today, and they clearly saw a prophecy of Jesus himself being called the Messiah. And that is, again, what the disciples saw, and the true Son of God.

But more than the Son of God, in the sense that the Jews thought about it, because again, this is a reference to a king, a physical king as well. So strangely, in the Old Testament, the term Son of Man meant God, a direct reference to God sitting with God, the ancient of days, and Son of Man in Daniel 7, verse 13.

And the Son of God could mean a human being, often referring to the King of Israel, the royal line of David, the successor of David. And so when Jesus says he's the Son of God, he's saying, I'm the descendant of David. I am the true King of Israel. And indeed, they put King of the Jews on the tree where he was crucified. So clearly, he claimed the title of King of Israel. He claimed the title of King of the Jews. He claimed the title of the royal line of David. He claimed to be the Son of the Living God, as Peter says he was. But he also claimed to be Son of Man. So it's an interesting juxtaposition of Son of God and Son of Man. And I hope these definitions help clarify a little bit. Son of Man means God to those who understand Daniel 7, and it just means a human being to those who don't. Son of God could mean a king, but for those who understood Jesus and who really was, they understood it was more than just the king and the royal line. He was truly that God being who was with God from the beginning.

So before I conclude, I want to discuss one final point about this term Son of Man and its reference to a pre-existent nature. And I want to go through this because some people might listen to this, might say, okay, I'm with you. He proclaimed himself God, and maybe he didn't become God when he became resurrected, as some might argue.

Perhaps he was God at some point before. We don't know when. Maybe he was the first of God's creation. There's sort of that view of this. But there's something else in Mark, and I want us to go back to Mark 2 again, because there's something else in Mark that just debunks that completely. This is not just about Jesus saying that he's God, or he was God, or he was that Son of Man who came, or he was the first of God's. No, he's saying that he is God. He was God from the beginning. And he says that in a way that is very compelling in terms of his role in the creation itself. And it's still here in chapter 2.

So we go to Mark 2. This time in verse 23. Mark 2 verse 23.

And as we read this, I want to ask this question I put up on the screen. Are there too many explanations here? Because sometimes people read this and go, well, you know, Jesus is really just kind of hitting the point over and over again with different things.

But if we read this, we'll actually see that Jesus is moving towards an ultimate point that he's going to make about the Sabbath. It says here in Mark 2 verse 23. Now it happened that he went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and as they went, his disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to him, look, why do they do what is unlawful on the Sabbath?

But he said to them, have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him? Verse 26. How he went into the house of God in the days of Abbotar, the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat, except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him.

So Jesus could have stopped here and explaining why it was okay for his disciples to take grain from the fields on the Sabbath. And in fact, if you look at the literature of the first century, some of the debates among the Jews in the first centuries, many scholars have pointed out that there were these active debates about whether it was lawful to save a life on the Sabbath.

And I could quote you some other passages which sort of argue this. You know, what law takes precedent? Is the law of the Sabbath more important than the law of saving a life?

And so, you know, if we stopped at verse 26, then he would just be another wise rabbi, or perhaps espousing the position of one of the schools of Judaic thought at the time, which actually is pretty consistent. It is okay to save life. And okay, maybe they weren't an imminent danger of death, but nonetheless, there's a hunger here, and so it's okay for them to do that.

But he didn't. He continued in verse 27, and he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

So he, again, are there too many explanations? You know, he gave one, and now he's giving another. No, there aren't. This is where he's leading with this. He's leading to a discussion about the intent of the Sabbath.

And he uses the term here in verse 27, made for man. Made for man. And then in verse 28, he connects, and I'm sorry for the reference, it should say 28 there, not 27. He uses the term, therefore. And this is such an important connection that sometimes we can skip over if we read too quickly.

Therefore, verse 28, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. The word therefore in verse 28 connects the word made in verse 27 with the Son of Man being Lord of the Sabbath.

You see, there's a connection. The Sabbath was made. Well, who made it? Well, the Son of Man made it.

Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus is saying, I know my intention when I made the Sabbath for man.

That's the connection between made and therefore. The Sabbath was made. Therefore, the Son of Man, who I am, who made the Sabbath, is Lord of the Sabbath because I know my intention for that day.

This is a very interesting reference. There's not too many explanations here about why it was okay. He's leading someplace. He's leading to tell the same story that he told at the beginning of this chapter that Mark recorded. The beginning of the chapter begins with his revelation of being Son of Man, and the chapter ends with him declaring himself as Son of Man, the very creator of all things, including the Sabbath day. Because, of course, the Sabbath was the last thing that was made.

Now, we've read two instances here so far where Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man. And in the New Testament, there are many references. I said at least 80 references. We can see Matthew, Luke, and John all record the use of this title for himself.

But I think one of the more powerful sets of verses that describe the true divinity of the pre-existent Jesus can be found in the book of Revelation in chapter 1.

In chapter 1, I'd like you to turn with me to Revelation chapter 1, and we're going to read verses 12 to 18. Because we see here that the Apostle John, who was there with Jesus during his ministry, who heard him say, Son of Man, now is going to hear this term one more time from the glorious and powerful resurrected Jesus the Christ.

In Revelation 1 verse 12, let's turn over there. Revelation 1 verse 12. Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me, and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands. Seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire.

His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. He had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was like the sun shining in strength. And when I saw him, I fell and his feet is dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last.

I am he who lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of death. John says the one like the Son of Man. This was Jesus Christ. He was the first and the last. And this is capitalized in my Bible. Sometimes this is translated Alpha and Omega, and other places translators just go right to the Greek letters for the first and last letter of the alphabet.

Here, he was in the beginning. He was pre-existent, and he will always exist. The Alpha and the Omega. And I mentioned this to the folks in Petaluma, a little humorous parentheses here. One, I heard there's one upside to the pandemic, and that is we're all learning the Greek alphabet. So we've learned about Delta and Omicron, and the next one is called Pi.

So look for that Pi variant coming, and hopefully we'll never make it to Alpha, excuse me, to Omega. Anyway, so we're learning about the Greek alphabet now. The Alpha, the first, and the Omega, the last. This is what John wrote. The Son of Man was the key to the Jews in Palestine, understanding that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah because he claimed the title from Daniel 7.

The teaching that all the Jews of the first century in that area of Israel were monotheists, just as all Christians today must be tranitarians, is just not correct. I quoted Daniel Boyerun. He points out that many Jews of Jesus's time expected the Son of Man, a divine being alongside God the Father, the Ancient of Days. So many were expecting, but what's interesting is that when Jesus shows up, he's not somebody who supports the religious authorities of the time. He is actually attacking the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He's attacking the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of the time because they consider themselves more righteous, and they could not accept him as that divine Messiah.

To this day, they've not accepted him as that divine Messiah, and they're still debating today the meaning of Daniel 7. And this is not surprising because this was the prophecy of Psalm 118, verse 22. This was the prophecy. I'm not going to turn there. You can note it. But Psalm 118, verse 22 was the prophecy that they would reject this person. And Peter understood this prophecy because he quotes it in Acts 4, verse 11, when he says to the Sanhedrin, The stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.

That chief cornerstone. The Jewish leaders of the day had the prophecies, and some like Nicodemus knew the truth. Joseph of Arimathea, another prominent religious leader. Some understood, but none would stand and accept that Jesus was the one prophesied by Daniel.

And this had to be because this was the prophecy that he would be rejected. But the Church of God today must continue to teach that Jesus is the Messiah, and that there is a duality of the God. Just as the Jews of the first century debated this, and many did understand that when Jesus said he was the Son of Man, he was referring to himself in Daniel 7. He continued to preach the duality of the Godhead as the beginning point of God's family.

That God is a family composed of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, and there will be many sons and daughters who will be added to this family. The nature of God is not a closed Trinitarian view of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit as a personage. We don't see a personage of a Holy Spirit in Daniel 7. Neither do we see references to that in the Gospels. So as I conclude, I hope today's message helps reinforce these points I mentioned in my introduction. That this term, Son of Man, was the primary way that the Jews in Palestine and the first century Israel there understood that Jesus was a prophesied Messiah.

That the traditional understanding of the first century Jews and being completely monotheistic is not correct. And why the Church of God continues to teach the duality of the Godhead. That is, God is both the God, the Father, and Jesus Christ, the Son. Again, as I say, is a starting point for God's family with all of us being added to that family. And finally, how this term, Son of Man, reveals the future role of Jesus Christ as ruling over all kingdoms.

Because it says in Daniel 7, verse 13 and 14, that He would be given dominion, that He would be given power, that all nations and languages and tongues and people would be part of His kingdom. And that reference goes back to Daniel chapter 2. Jesus came proclaiming Himself God and sacrificing His life with the intention of returning as conquering King of Kings and Lord of Lords, ruling all nations, as it says He would in Daniel 7, verse 14.

When He refers to Himself 79 times, 80-ish times, as the Son of Man, He reinforced that He is human, like us as we are, but with a mission and purpose for which we also have a role, and that He is God and was God from the beginning, as John 1.1 tells us. Let's follow the Son of Man, the Son of God, our King and Messiah as He leads us towards His kingdom, Jesus the Christ, as we say, Jesus Christ. Thank you, brethren, and I hope this has been helpful.