Christian and Self-Effort — Roy Hession

Jesus as the Ladder Between Earth and Heaven

Now this evening I want to turn you to John's gospel chapter 1 verse 45 Philip findeth Nathanael. John 1 45 Philip findeth Nathanael. And Says unto him we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph and Nathanael said unto him can there any good thing come out of Nazareth.

I Wanted to understand why he said that he understood his Old Testament and According to the Old Testament Messiah was to come out of Bethlehem. Nothing was said of Nazareth. So when Philip says we found him of whom the law and the prophets spoke Jesus of Nazareth he answers can any good thing come out of Nazareth.

And Philip very wise he didn't argue with him, but simply said come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him behold and is the light indeed in whom is no guile. Nathanael said unto him whence knowest thou me.

Jesus answered and said unto him Before that Philip called thee when thou was under the fig tree. I thought it Nathanael answered and said unto him rabbi that the Son of God that the King of Israel. That was a quick one, wasn't it?

No one being convicted converted Persuaded of Jesus so quickly as this man so full of doubts when he came and. And all Jesus had to say of him before that Philip called thee when thou was under the fig tree.

I saw thee and for reasons that we may see before the end of the evening. It was enough for him. And he fell on his knees thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel. Notice carefully what Jesus said to him.

Jesus answered and said unto him because I said unto thee I saw thee under the fig tree believest thou. Thou shalt see greater things than these. And he said unto him verily verily I say unto thee hereafter ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

Thou shalt see heaven open and the angels of God Ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Do you understand can you guess what Jesus meant by those last words? Surely we remember that dream that Jacob had when he saw a ladder from Set up on earth the top of which reached to heaven and the angels of God Ascending and descending on it, and I believe Jesus was pointing Nathanael and the others back to that old story and Claiming that he and his cross were the spiritual counterpart of that Ladder that Jacob saw in his dream.

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

I think it'd be good if we just turn to Genesis 28 and saw that old incident to which Jesus referred in the New Testament Genesis chapter 28. And Jacob went out verse 10 went out from Beersheba and went toward Herod and He lighted upon a certain place and carried there all night because the Sun was set and he took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillow and Laid down in that place to sleep.

And he dreamed and behold a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it and Behold the Lord stood above it and said I am the Lord the God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac.

The land whereon thou liest to thee will I give it unto thy seed and thy seed seed shall be as the dust of the earth and thou shalt spread abroad to the west to the east to the north and to the south and Indeed and in thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed and behold I'm with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest and will bring thee again into this land but I will not leave thee until I have done that which I've spoken to thee of.

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep and he said surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not and He was afraid and said how awesome is this place. This is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of heaven.

And many centuries after Jesus said to the Nathanael you will see the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. And so Jesus claimed that he himself and his cross Were the spiritual counterpart of that ladder that Jacob saw in his dream which linked To heaven.

Some time ago my wife and I were in Switzerland for some meetings and In the home where we were staying on our last morning there the daughter of the home had to leave to work before we were up and So she left a little note attached to the door of our bedroom a Little note of thanks for our coming and a little note of good wishes to us as we went on our way our way.

And this young woman was taught of the Lord and she included in her letter these words If your pillow Be like a stone There is a ladder Going up from it to heaven and the angels ascending and Descending upon it.

If your pillow is like a stone There is a ladder and that ladder takes this Jesus To us we have it on its own authority that we can take it in that way. And we can have that ladder Even when we're having a hard time Even when our pillow is like a stone.

I want to consider first of all the man To whom this dream was given Jacob then I want you to look with me at the dream itself and then the man in the New Testament who was promised a Realization of the dream in his experience Nathaniel.

Jacob’s Guilt, Loneliness, and Encounter With Grace

It was a very unhappy young man who lay down to sleep in the open air that night. It was his first ever night away from home. He found himself in a strange country on a long journey darkness had overtaken him and He had to sleep in the open air gathering stones for his pillow and Feeling very homesick.

And What I believe added to his unhappiness was the consciousness that the situation in which he was in Was his own fault. It was because he had wronged his brother and Stolen by subtlety the birthright from the dying father Ivan that Esau was infuriated and Vowed to kill his brother and his mother told him there's nothing for it but to leave home and go to her relatives hundreds of miles away.

And If Jacob is alone and homesick and disconsolate that night He really has nobody to please to blame but himself. And I believe the stone on which he made which he made his pillow Was symbolic of the fact that he was having a hard time and I'm quite sure He would have felt he felt that this was the last place in the world Where he is going to have a new experience of God as you look round I think he says if anything for God's forsaken place this is and yet that was the very place Where God revealed himself to him so that it's so much so they had to say surely The Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.

Now there may be some of us rather like Jacob. You may be if the truth were known in an unhappy state of heart. Because of the situation you're in yes, we often find ourselves in a difficult situation in difficult circumstances and that sometimes adds to our Sorrow about it all is the fact that to some extent.

It's our own fault. If we're in a jam We may well be to blame for it. We've acted foolishly. We put people against us and here we are in this unhappy situation and deep down. You know you have contributed to it and you may well feel that your pillow is like a stone and when we're in these situations You naturally feel that it's the last situation in which to expect a brand new experience of God.

And yet as in the case of Jacob it may well be the very place where you're going to have such a new experience. So that you'll end by saying Surely the Lord is in this place this place which I thought so God forsaken.

And I never knew it and so this is something of encouragement. For some of us here, and I very little bit very believe if it's true. If the old hymn says our grace it is by both to come into our unlikeliest heart.

We can also say our grace it is by both to come into unlikeliest situation even in yours and You can have a brand new Experience of the Lord even as Jacob did indeed in Jacob's case. It was his first up to then Jehovah had only been the God of Abraham with Isaac.

But at Bethel he became the God of Jacob. So how did he have this revelation of God? And it was a revelation of the God of grace that he had. It was of course by means of this dream and in the dream as he lay there Tossing somewhat uneasily on his pillar of stone.

He saw heaven opened. That was new one to him. He thought obviously for a fellow like him heaven would be shut. But he wasn't he saw heaven opened, but he saw it wasn't unattainable. He saw there were steps leading from him right up to that open door.

I Believe that the Hebrew can be better translated not a ladder but a staircase and he saw a marvelous staircase leading up from where he lay right up to heaven and More than that he noticed that going up on that staircase there were angels and then he looked again, and he saw other angels coming down and There he was lying at the base of this staircase and Above the top of that staircase that ladder.

There was Jehovah himself speaking words of incredible good for Jacob and his seed and Jesus would have a seed in that ladder a picture of himself. It is one of the Old Testament foreshadowing of Jesus.

And I don't know any that teaches us more about the gospel about what Jesus has for us as Christians. Then this beautiful type of the Lord Jesus very often We understand the things in the scriptures better by contrast than any other way.

The Failure of Religious Ladders and Self-Effort

And what a contrast this ladder is To the ladders which we have been trying to erect for ourselves you know man has a Constitutional love of ladders if we want to get to know the Lord. It's always by means of a ladder.

By that I mean there are certain steps to take certain heights to attain certain rules to keep and if you Assiduous in climbing Jacob's ladder don't be don't be Discarded you're gonna get there and you're going to get to know the Lord and it's very simple.

It's by means of a ladder. And if having got to know the Lord we want to improve our relationship with God invariably We see this by means of a ladder. Once again, we frame certain steps. We've got to take or rather.

We're told there are there certain heights. We've got to attain. We must improve we must Do more we must be more devout and there's various rules to keep and If we seek to keep the rules and do what we're told We will without doubt improve our relationship with God and we'll have a deeper experience of him in our lives and if we fall into a pit of Depression and sometimes we do or into a pit of guilt we feel so bad and guilty about ourselves.

We're quite sure the way out Is by means of a ladder. Indeed every psychiatrist. He even a psychiatrist has a different sort of ladder. There's always a ladder. He suggests to you and he counsels you and he things to do and things not to do things to tell yourself and not to Tell yourself and lo and behold, you'll soon be out of your pit.

So he thinks so he tells us and Then in Christian service today, how are we going to enlarge the coasts of the church? How are we going to bring souls to the Lord and Invariably that which the church goes to is some sort of ladder some sort of method.

Today is the great day of methodology. The one thing that's necessary is simply knowing how to and it's a great proliferation of how-to books and Everyone is simply putting towards us a ladder. Which if we climb if we ought to it will lead us to the desired haven and we shall see blessing and outreach in the church and so I would say That man has a natural love of ladders.

And that's the natural thing for us all to gravitate towards. These ladders are really variants of the way of work we all know that by grace are we saved through faith not a work and we're happy to be saved that way, but when it comes to going on and Getting further and getting the victory and getting the fullness Strange we forsake that way by which we began the way of grace and subtly if not quite clearly We resort to some form of work and we begin to fashion and direct our various ladders.

I want to say three things about these ladders Which it is so natural for us to have recourse to and which very often we're taught is the way first of all They do not start Where we are. This good advice we're given these things we ought to do don't take account of the fact that we've been what we've been and Done what we've done.

They all assume that we are better than we really are and we're well capable. It's only we make up our mind to doing this thing. But you know, we are really much lower than our counsellor thinks he doesn't know the whole story of our path and Really these ladders that others were proposed to us or which we propose to ourselves do not reach us where we are.

They all assume that we are better and more capable than we really are and we are hardly able To reach the first rung let alone the subsequent ones and then secondly the top of these ladders Never really reaches to heaven and to victory.

If you do manage to climb The ladder to a certain extent your conscience tells you but that's not enough. There's more you should do there's higher heights that you must get to and Eventually you feel you just can't win.

Take One illustration and I don't select this because it's any more important than the other thing. Take our devotions. They can be a ladder as many other things can be true, but the state of our illustration.

Maybe you felt how lacking your personal daily devotions are. What do you say? David, yes, David. Oh. Are Christians supposed to have a time every day? Yes. Oh, well, no wonder I've not been getting on very well.

All right. I'll set aside a time every day for prayer 15 minutes and you adjust your schedule accordingly and learn the whole day you are having your little time. They're getting on quite nicely and finding it helpful.

Then someone comes along who tells you of course he never spends less than half an hour. Oh. Half an hour. All right. Let it be a half an hour and you make it half an hour and then to spoil it all someone comes along.

And says of course the real successful Christians never spend less than an hour. An hour and so you say all right, let's make it an hour and then to your horror you discover You can't fill an hour. There's no prayer beyond a few minutes and the Bible says.

And to finish you off altogether you pick up the book about praying hard and you found there were whole night. When you didn't go to bed and you say oh you just can't win. You know these laddies they all have something of that order.

That the top of them never reaches the heaven. They never really land you in victory and if you get into a pit and You seek to get out of the pit by means of a ladder. It's only to discover That you put the ladder against the wrong wall and you come out of the wrong side.

Further away from God than you were before more of a Pharisee and therefore further away than you were before and these ladders Attractive as they might seem to be and so reasonable in the event never reach the heaven and Then they all involve climbing after what's a ladder for what's a staircase for but for climbing and What was it?

What is that chorus the children sing? We are climbing Japheth's ladder and we think we must climb and these Prophet answers to our needs all involves striving and struggling on our part. The problem is that though there's nothing wrong with a ladder.

There's nothing wrong with the good advice. We are too weak so often to take it and to climb it and yet the feeble attempt to do so Only lands us in despair. Indeed it was it would seem to me it were better not to have a ladder.

Then having a ladder not having a strength to climb it more than a few steps. And it simply mocked me now, this is typical of all the various prophet Variants of the way of work. It's the gospel we preach to our heart.

Every one of us is a preacher of the gospel here. You are preaching I would say almost every day to your own heart is for no other and you know You don't always preach the right message and very often you tell yourself.

The trouble with you is you haven't managed to climb those Steps of the ladder you you tell yourself is only good when you get higher up all will be well. But the problem is getting higher and thus These ladders are all a disappointment to you.

The Finished Work of Christ and the Power of His Blood

But how different was the ladder that Jacob saw? That ladder that Jacob we're told was set up on the earth. It began exactly where Jacob was lying. And Jesus and his cross Begin just where you are. It's assumed that You have been The sort of Christian you have.

He assumes you've done what you know you've done and he tells you he's settled for the lot. Way out there on Calvary's cross when he said it is finished and this Jesus and his blood Are available to you on street level and He is not shocked at What you have to tell him this really is the truth.

He is available to you as the true sinner you've been as the one who's done those shameful things. Who's manifested that spirit you have and you're not given something that begins up there where you've never been.

But right down there as deep as sin is. So is the cross of Jesus? Erected and Jesus is available to us on Street level and then I want you to notice that Jacob's ladder the top of it Reached under him.

There was the staircase and it didn't fall short of his justice, but it entered right up there within the veil and this ladder. Which is simply Jesus and his finished work. Bring you right into heaven right into victory.

I Remind you that Jesus Was raised from the dead and went back Right into the holy places not made with hands the top of that ladder reached down to heaven and listen He entered he was raised from the dead and went back into glory.

Do you know how Hebrews tells us by his own blood? Did you know that? Jesus it wasn't raised from the dead just because he was the Son of God. Jesus went back to draw glory. He didn't go back just because he was the Son of God, but Hebrews 13 tells us He was raised from the dead by the blood of the everlasting covenant.

He'd taken our sins and our sorrows. He'd made them his very own. Therefore the penalty of taxing to our sins death with him and then he would have remained. Had the not being power one the working power in the blood of the land and it tells us in Hebrews 13 was raised again By the blood of the everlasting covenant and then Hebrews 9 tells us he entered into the holy place not made with hands with his own blood.

But for that blood he couldn't have gone back there. He's become an effigy of sin. He was made sin, but they shall in no wise enter into heaven anything that defiled it. Not even the Son of God could have gone back there except for the fact.

There was power One the working power in the blood that he said that blood stain of the judgment of God for the sins He'd accepted on our behalf as being exhausted and the everlasting gates lifted up their heads and the king of glory went in.

It is very good. And if that blood was enough to Jesus It's certainly enough to me. He had on himself more sins than Than any man's had the most any man can have his own sin that Jesus had the world. And yet the blood was enough for him and it's certainly enough for you and your father.

And that is not what your spiritual condition or lack of it It covered it Reaches into heaven and the way by which he entered you must enter to by the blood of the everlasting Covenant and if only you're willing To get to him at street level Immediately in him you're at heaven's level.

Of course getting to him at street level is a matter of your willing but you don't get there without repenting. But when you get there that is the power of the blood of Jesus. You're in him At heaven's level and the property reaches unto heaven.

And I want to tell you Jesus really does bring you through in a way that man's ladders never did. And then with regard to Jacob's ladder Jacob was surprised to find there was no climbing For him. He was very glad to see that not only was heaven open that there was a staircase leading up there just fine.

He was about to take his coat off and start the steep ascent to heaven when he noticed There were angels ascending. And the rather angels descending. Those angels ascending were bringing up his needs to God and Those descending were bringing down God's mercy to him.

And he didn't have to do any climbing the angels did it. It was all done there for him in that bliss of heaven. The traffic on the on the land on the staircase on the ladder. And I like to think that an angel going up Make one coming down.

And I like to think they had a little word or two together and the one going up said you know that fella down there. He's in a bad shape. You know, he's as homesick as I've ever seen anybody. He's so full of full of unhappiness and self-pity and he's blaming himself like anything down there.

It's all right said the other angel coming down and said I've just I'm bringing down God's mercy and God's grace for a man in just that condition and He's discovered that this wonderful ladder was different than any other one.

He didn't have to do the climbing. I want to remind you the big point when Jesus told the story was not the ladder. In fact, Jesus didn't actually mention the matter. The big point was the traffic on the ladder.

And you know, it's interesting that famous thing Blessed Assurance picks on this very thing. Angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy. Whispers of love. I tell you the hymn writers Seem to know their Bible better than we do and they see the point and this is a picture of this ladder.

Which is Jesus himself. It's good to know there's a ladder. It's good to know there's a staircase and just as you're bracing yourself for a new promise and a new attempt To be the better Christian and climb that steep ascent to heaven.

You discover you don't need to do it. It's already been done for you in that very Jesus for in Jesus all our needs have already been brought up to God and In Jesus all grace has already been brought down to our level.

There's nothing more that I can do since Jesus did it all. There's a new calling. I don't believe that this Particular incident is really teaching us anything about angels there. I believe in angels. Billy Gray has written a book on angels.

But I don't think this particular Incident is meant to teach us anything about angels. It's meant to teach us about Jesus and it means all these aspects of the picture to give us an adequate an adequate picture of him.

What it simply means me. It tells the father that in this Jesus all Fullness should dwell that in him the climbing up has already been done. The coming down has already happened. There's no need for us to aspire to heaven or humble ourselves low or something like that.

It's all done and all the fullness of the Godhead bodily is made available to us right where we are in our misery and need and defeat and It only needs the willingness to acknowledge that fact and there I am at the foot of the Ladder, but coming to the foot of the ladder In him I'm at heaven's level and I want to tell you that's happened in my experience again and again I want to tell you I haven't been able and I haven't needed to try and climb into the holiest of all by my own improvement.

I've had to simply admit where I am and Come as a failure to Jesus on any new point He may show me and when I come such is the power of his blood. I'm through into victory and that without struggling and climbing.

Grace for Christian Living Rather Than Self-Improvement

But you say what about these things in our Christian life? Aren't we meant to do something don't we ought we not to be witnessing. Ought we not to be spending times in prayer. Yes, of course we ought to but not in to get in order to get into the holiest of all.

But because through this matter we've got that I want to tell you you're going to set you're going to have a longer devotions. Are you just fine? How are you going to manage having a half an hour prayer every day when your heart's cold?

Well, there's no song in your heart. I want to tell you prayer will never take away sin. I do not read in my Bible. That prayer bore my sins in its body on the tree even reading the Bible will not take away sin.

This Bible wasn't crucified to me. It's me coming as I am as a failure as a needy empty Christian again repenting of what God that what's gone wrong and then Seeing Jesus has done it all and the blood of King Jesus brings me right through.

Introduction with what was out. I want to pray. Oh, I only come saying to you not that I can't fill up your lot in time. But it isn't long enough and the word and then he has a good time, but I got to rush off to work.

Or the children calls are there other duties? And it's tonight. I want to tell you these means of breakfast are not the way to Jesus. But Jesus found that that ladder available to me where I am is the way to these things and That it is.

I find I'm not committed to weary strugglings which never come off. Promises which he never fulfilled but a continual coming To Jesus as I am and I find I change fall off. My heart becomes free. I rise goes forth and follows him because he's already done it all.

Because all fullness flows in him. I don't need to have to come to the cross and then they think well I'd better go on to Pentecost. No, it's all multiplied to be there at the foot of the cross in that place of brokenness where I confess my name.

What a wonderful picture this is. What a wonderful picture. So there is that set that second part now worded to about the last. We've looked at the man to whom the dream was given. We've looked at the dream itself and then the man in the New Testament Who was promised a realization of the dream in his experience?

Nathanael’s Honesty and the Vision of the Cross

Nathaniel very wisely Philip didn't try to argue with him and try and Answer his intellectual doubts. He just said come and see and as Philip as Nathaniel was coming to Jesus Jesus said behold and is the light in whom is no guile and Nathaniel heard him saying this and he said whence knowest thou me?

I don't think we've ever met Jesus said before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree. I saw you. Now that was deeply significant to Nathaniel. I can only imagine that that fig tree was a very special tree For Nathaniel.

I can only imagine it was that tree Under which he used to sit when he wanted to sit. When he wanted to perhaps try and pray if he wasn't much at praying but there were times when he thought he needed God.

Though he didn't have yet know the Lord. There were times of his most innermost when the most innermost Experiences of his heart were expressed that tree and it would seem to be the previous day. Not a very special time for Nathaniel under his fig tree.

I can only infer and I'll tell you why when we cut in a moment that on that occasion There'd been a taking off the mask of his face and of his heart with regard to God as never before. Because as a result of what happened under the fig tree Jesus could say of him an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile and I believe under that fig tree.

He said, oh God, I'm a failure. Oh God, I'm supposed to be a godly man in the synagogue, but I'm a I'm a failure. I'm a failure as a father. I'm not the head, spiritual head of our house and In every other ways I'm a failure and frankly Lord in spite of my religious upbringing I don't know about you so I don't really know you.

And the Lord was content to let Nathaniel Be honest about himself. And Jesus knew that and that's why when he said there's an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile He didn't say an Israelite indeed in whom is no sin.

There was plenty of sin in Nathaniel, but there was no Hiding of sin. Jesus knew that by what went on under the fig tree and when Nathaniel heard that He said you saw me when I was under the fig tree and You knew apparently what went on under the fig tree.

There were only two people who ever didn't know it. One was me and the other was God. You must be God and he's convinced in a moment without the Christ the son of the living God and Then it was to that man That Jesus said you're going to see more than that.

You're going to see heaven and this vision of the cross. With the angels of God Ascending and descending on the son of man. Now these are the ones Who are given a vision of the cross a vision of the ladder a vision of the staircase.

Such as Nathaniel was telling. Those of us who perhaps are learning to be honest who perhaps I don't know whether there's a special place where you pray, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. But perhaps some of us are beginning to take the witness box against ourselves before God.

And we're bearing witness in God's presence against ourselves telling the truth. That we're phony in this area. We're phony in the other and I want to tell you something tremendously restful. Instead of trying to climb the ladder.

Starting Admitting what we really are and I want to tell you the Lord is it's very interesting. You know if anybody in a prayer meeting Doesn't pray the usual prayer of aspiration in the first person plural.

But begins to pray a prayer in the first person singular I and starts admitting where they are. Lord. I've had a bad day today. Lord. I've let you down at the office Lord. I haven't been a witness today.

I'm in bad shape today. If someone prayed like that, what would happen? You know what would happen to you? You'd be praying here. You'd hear that prayer and you. And you wouldn't be the only one. That sort of man would get the interest to people.

It would certainly get heaven's interest. If you want to get God's ear start taking off the mask. I'm not necessarily talking about open public confession, but in actual fact between you and God. It sometimes involves honestly with ourselves too.

But basically with the Lord and God will be able to say to you whatever else he is. He's a failure. Yes, he everything he says about himself is completely true, but I'll say this about him. He's not hiding.

And that man is now a candidate for that vision of the cross. Which he's going to make all things new. He's going to see in the hour of his honesty heaven open for him and the angels of God Ascending and descending upon that dear son of man Echoes the mercy whispers of love to that man and he's going to find that he who felt himself so far off Isn't far off at all.

By the mighty power of the blood of Jesus. He's been brought into the holy Of God's presence and he's back there. And this is a step that it's often reiterated. It's only until the next time when something goes wrong.

And when something goes wrong, you know what to do. Before you didn't the best you knew before was a frantic climbing which got you nowhere. But you know, there's a ladder. There's a ladder custom-made for me.

I know things have gone wrong and you needn't be down Defeated for any longer than it takes you to get to the foot of that ladder again. Only to find Jesus there. The one who forgave still ready to forgive the one who cleansed still ready to cleanse and that power of the blood Bringing you once again into the holy.

And it could be but it could be that some of us the best we Know in our Christian life has been for satisfying and trying to adhere to rules. Informally we've all done it. No one has done it more than I and you know I can very easily slip back to the old way and the Lord had to convict me.

Roy you're striving again. You're not coming to the cross. Struggling instead of repenting, but oh, I praise God. He brings me back to that old rugged cross In your hymn books. We haven't got them here.

Of course, it doesn't matter. We have the hymn beneath the cross of Jesus in most American books. You only have three verses. We have five and the two omitted verses are probably some of the best. Here's one of them.

Oh Faith and happy shelter. Speaking of the cross. Oh faith and happy shelter. Oh Wrecking pride and sweet. Oh Christian place where heaven's love and heaven's justice meet as to the holy patriarch the wonders bringing the gift so seen My Savior's cross to me a ladder up to heaven.

It lies beneath its shadow. But on the father's side The darkness of an awful grave. That gapes both deep and wide but there between it stands the cross. Two arms outstretched to save like a watchman set to guard the way to that eternal grave.