Preaching

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‘The Son Of Man’

Isaiah 9:6 and 7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His governance and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and for ever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

This scripture calls Jesus ‘Everlasting Father’. I wondered why He was called this, as we also call him our Friend, our Saviour, our Lord….Why Father? I found the answer when I understood a bit more about the reason for lists of people’s ancestors in the Bible. Parts of the Bible are like an answer book for that TV programme ‘Who do you think you are?’ that traces back who your ancestors were and information about their lives. People in Biblical times always knew exactly who they were because they knew who their great, great grandfather was and who the generations before him were going back hundreds of years.

While in Gambia, I was invited to the Muslim equivalent of a baptism, which took place in the family enclosure according to their customs. I sat with the elders under a veranda observing the traditional ceremony unfolding front of me. A band seated in front played the usual African drums and other assorted primitive instruments. They interrupted their rendition at intervals while each spoke in turn.

I didn’t understand the music nor the what was being said, I just sat there absorbing the enjoyable atmosphere. My guide was a family member and I asked what the band members were saying, he told me these were the history men. Each one had the job of remembering a segment of the families history and their genealogy which is a list of their ancestors. They knew who they were and where they came from. History was very important to them because it determined what they inherited (land, houses, cattle, valuables) and who they could inherit from. They had no lawyers, no wills written, everything was committed to memory and recited, a skill we in the west have long since lost.

In parts of the bible there are long lists of genealogies, lists of people’s ancestors obviously important in that culture as it is in Africa today. Two of the gospels have the genealogy of Jesus to show the list of His human ancestors and His ancestral rights. His family inheritance was of utmost importance humanly speaking and also spiritually speaking as we will see. Firstly Jesus’ humanity had to be shown and these genealogies were one of the ways throughout scripture that Jesus could quite rightly call Himself a Son of Man.

The gospel writers, Matthew and Luke confirmed that Jesus was a descendant of King David. God promised King David that a descendant of his would inherit his throne and be King for ever. Matthews genealogy proved Jesus was legally David’s heir, Luke’s genealogy established the blood line. King David’s human DNA was in Jesus’ blood.

When Pontius Pilate had a sign made and nailed to the cross over Jesus’ head it said that Jesus was the King of the Jews, he didn’t realise how true that was. Jesus, the descendant of King David was the rightful King of Israel. David was a descendant of Abraham so Jesus was also descended from Abraham, Jesus rightfully inherited the promises God made to Abraham. Promises like ‘I will bless you and you will be a blessing’… and a promise of, ‘too many descendants to count.’ Jesus had the human right to inherit David’s title of King and the name ‘Son of David’. But what about the spiritual significance of the genealogies, the lists of ancestors? And what is the significance of these lists of ancestors to each of us?

Paul writes in Ga 3:16 Now, God made his promises to Abraham and to his descendant. The scripture does not use the plural “descendants,” meaning many people, but the singular “descendant,” meaning one person only, namely, Jesus the Christ. Verse 26 confirms that Christians become children of God through faith and verse 27 tells us that means ‘by that same faith we are one in Jesus.’ Verse 29 then tells that being one in Jesus we inherit the promises God made to Jesus, whose ancestor was Abraham. Therefore being spiritually one with Jesus we benefit from all the promises he inherited from Abraham. Paul also says in Ro 4 that, ‘the faith we have is included in the inheritance,’ Part of our spiritual inheritance is the same faith Jesus had and the same faith Abraham had, Paul calls Abraham ‘the father of our faith.’

Matthew’s genealogy begins with saying Abraham is the father (meaning ancestor) of David and the father (meaning the ancestor) of Jesus, the genealogy ends by saying… ‘there were 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David until the exile to Babylon, and 14 generations from the exile until Jesus the Christ.’ Three 14’s adds up to 42. However when we physically count the list there’s only 41 generations to Jesus. 14 + 14 + 13 = Jesus. So who is the 42nd generation? Spiritually we are that 42nd generation, because we are spiritually descended from Jesus. Listen again to this well known verse from Isaiah about Jesus… ‘his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Jesus is called ‘everlasting Father’. There are 7 scriptures that tell us Jesus, in the spiritual sense, is our father. He is our spiritual Father because He brought about the birth of faith in us. For example speaking of Jesus in Heb 2:13 “Here am I, and the children God has given me.” Abraham’s faith is like spiritual DNA within us, it was passed on to Jesus and then to us. As children of God we all have the capability to become spiritual parents. To be part of bringing to birth the faith of Abraham, the faith of Jesus, in others.

When I met Nina I felt the Lord say that we were going to have spiritual children. As people have to come to faith at Liberty that has come to pass in a measure, but we want more. Like Abraham our father in faith we want children of promise, spiritual children, people who come to life spiritually by knowing and trusting God in their lives.

Life always reproduces after its kind and spiritual life also reproduces itself, after its kind. Its a DNA thing. Many have told me they have felt the life of Jesus in Liberty, the church Jesus began. Therefore Jesus, who is the life, has to reproduce His life in those who seek Him. I have believed from day one that Jesus the King of Glory, would be fruitful through us the children of His glory. In faith Liberty began, in faith we will reproduce, producing children of faith who know and trust Jesus. Its the DNA thing again.