Jesus as Son of Man

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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Good evening again. I was delighted to come this morning. Thank you very much con pastor

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Connolly To teach on such an important topic

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Anything that has to do with the person nature and finish work is a very important topic because it has to do with the gospel and we know that the gospel is the very means of salvation and We as Christians should have a set as I mentioned before it should have a set foundation

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As to the gospel as to the deity of Christ as to what the Trinity is We shouldn't have a mushy description when someone asks people ask questions non -believers ask questions

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Christians will ask you questions about the Trinity or about the deity of Christ and many times too many

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Christians just have not been adequately taught how to explain justification or the deity of Christ so what you have is and I've seen this over and over when

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Christians are called to explain or they have a question about the Trinity or someone asked him a question about the Trinity sometimes they'll give a oneness

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Pentecostal answer a modalistic description not because they embrace Unitarian modalism but they've never been taught adequately about the

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Trinity they'll describe it in oneness terms or when they're asked about justification they might describe it as a

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Roman Catholic not because they embrace Catholicism but they just didn't they just weren't adequately taught as to what the justification is or redemption or the atonement it goes on and on and unfortunately these days the atonement is defined based on the cause of man's great decision and God cannot intrude on the mighty will of man you just can't do it so what you have is in most descriptions too many times in churches or with Christians you have

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Jesus presented as a somewhat of a beggar on the cross who really wants you to be saved but he can't he just can't get over your mighty will and unfortunately that's not the doctrine of the atonement that's not the doctrine of justification and justification we don't want to define it as a

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Roman Catholic it's not an infusion it's imputation we're credited as righteous people through faith alone deity of Christ we looked at the son of God this morning and we looked how the scripture defines

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Jesus as the son of God being tantamount to God the son even those others were many many people and angels were called and tagged as referred to as a son of God in the

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Old Testament and in the New Testament so what's the deal as I made about Jesus claiming to be the son of God why would that be deity why would that be any different everyone was called sons of God angels judges mighty men

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Adam we're we're called sons of God of course by adoption the Jews felt they were sons of God the fact of the matter is the way that Jesus claimed to be the son of God was was equal and the

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Jews understood this to a claim of ontological deity meaning deity by nature not just representing

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God God's mouthpiece no he claimed to be deity in an ontological way how do we know because the

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Jews picked up stones and they wanted to kill him virtually every time the Jews wanted to kill Jesus it was not because Jesus claimed he was a just a really good moral guy or he he didn't lie or he's really good or he was perfect no they wanted to kill him read the text because he was making claims of ontological by nature deity or co -equality with the father and he himself was making these claims so same with the son of man

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Jesus made it's interesting as I pointed out the son of man was

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Jesus's favorite title of himself he claims to be the son of man including the parallels if you add those up 78 times

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Jesus Christ claimed that he was a son of man and not one time in the gospels did anyone dare to refer to him as the son of man you know when you when you witness when you share your faith when you proclaim the gospel of someone and we we understand we should understand the recipient because if if you're talking to Jehovah's Witness it may be a little different than talking to a

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Muslim but you should know their doctrine and their objections and most of the time they're the same objections but the gospel never changes you know that's going to be the same and as I've said before our role as Christians it should be get to the cross as fast as possible don't spend an hour on false prophecies of the watchtower don't spend an hour showing how just decrepit and depraved

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Muhammad was because you're dialoguing and you're presenting all these things like false prophecies and characteristic flaws and all these

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I mean Muhammad was the worst an hour goes by and I've seen this happen and then they might get a phone call and they have to go eat dinner and they have to go well see you later you know you never got to the cross not one that you just never got to the cross you wasted time on prophecies or something else we don't want to do that however you got to do it get to the cross as fast as possible so dealing with the son of God and as we saw that was tantamount to God the son as not only

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Jesus affirmed that but also his apostles the centurion angels

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God the father even the demons affirmed that and they affirmed it in an ontological way not just mere like Adam or were sons of God by adoption no they wanted to kill him the

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Jews wanted to kill him and the apostles his friends worshiped him well son of man is the same thing 78 times

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Jesus claimed to be the son of man and as with the son of God they're just these are two very significant titles there's many titles used of Christ that denote ontological deity like the

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I am him his claim to be the Asian of his own resurrection which is a great witnessing point for Jehovah's Witnesses because if Jesus was just Michael the archangel the first of Jehovah's creatures how in the world in John 2 19 does he raise himself up I never got a sufficient answer in that so use it well son of man was like these other claims that represented deity true deity ontological deity and when you share your faith with someone either of a different faith as I call it religious atheism or if you or if they're just a garden variety non -believer there's no set pattern in scripture like do it this way but there is the affirmation that the gospel is the power of God for salvation so we always want to get to that as no matter how you do it get to that as fast as possible the crosswork because we don't want to underestimate the power of God in his gospel because using going outside the scripture or using unbiblical concept is doing just that you just don't think

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God's powerful enough you don't think the gospel is sufficient enough doesn't feel sufficient enough so you go to evidence you go to and time or everything else or you say horrible things like hey

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God has a great plan for you this is your best life now I mean things that are totally radically against have nothing to do with the gospel because you just don't think the gospel is sufficient in and of itself never never underestimate the power of God in the gospel that's the means so when you're proclaiming the gospel when you're getting to that point where you're speaking to non -believers or someone in a different that that's in some kind of atheistic religion whether it's a

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Muslim Jehovah's Witness one is Pentecostal we have this weird group I don't know if you guys have it called church it's called

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Church of God not to be confused with the charismatic group Church of God in Christ Church of God they're they're young people that go to the malls and their first line is hey did you know the father has a wife in heaven that's their first line yeah you know they're everywhere they're modalists first of all and they believe you got to celebrate the

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Passover to be saved and all these other things but it's just very interesting that they they can motivate young people to make that their opening line why can't we motivate our young people to go out to the malls the park and say hey did you know

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God is triune hey did you know Jesus Christ is God in the flesh unless you believe in him you'll die in your sins did you know that why can't we be that bold we're trying to stimulate by the heart and all these other things and friendship and let's have a sandwich for we never get to the gospel we can't be ashamed we can't be afraid it's

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God's ordinary means so there's no set pattern so sometimes when

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I'm sharing my faith or when I'm proclaiming when I see an opportunity you know

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I always pray what what's the best way what's the best opener you know sometimes

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I like as we'll see I I really use this too I use this with Jehovah's Witnesses a lot and Muslims what

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Jesus said to the blind man hey do you believe in the son of man is that an excellent question a lot of these people have no idea or they're not really sure what the son of man in it just opens the door to explain the son of man was

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God in the flesh who was worshiped hey do you believe in the son of man the blind man said show me who he is who is he that I may believe in him and Jesus said this is in John 9 37 and 38 the one talking to you is the son of man

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I'm the son of man and the blind man said Lord I believe and he worshipped the son of man he recognized that the son of man was deity do you believe in the son of man excellent question or I'll use what do you think of the

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Christ Jesus asked that question too in the Old Testament this phrase son of man is used about in Hebrew about a hundred seven times in the

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Septuagint the Greek translation is used about a hundred and depends what edition hundred eleven hundred and twelve times in some places the son of man was used generically to denote humanity we're talking in the

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Old Testament at other times it was it was used once of Daniel by the way but about 93 or 94 times it's use of Ezekiel God addresses him as a son of man no it's likely denoting the contrast between Ezekiel's lowly existence as man as we should have the same attitude and God but in the

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New Testament it referred and in Daniel but let's look at the New Testament it referred primarily to either his his divine nature his hypostatic union or his pre -existence sometimes his humanity but not primarily many

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I've heard many sermons on this and they'll quote some references and I'll explain why the son of man because it denotes his humanity and all these things well at a couple places it does denote his humanity but not primarily in fact you can't make that claim in Daniel chapter 7 there's no argument

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I mean it's not argued it's readily accepted the general consent of scholarship sees the origin of the son of man

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Daniel 7 from 9 to 14 you have two objects of divine worship two distinct persons

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I always use this with oneness Pentecostals you have two distinct persons the ancient of days and the

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Son of Man obviously it's not referring to his flesh rather the person of the

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Son of Man it's interesting in the New Testament of all the places that Jesus refers to his pre -existence his eternal pre -existence and all the places that the

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Apostles also referred to as his pre -existing with the

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Father pre -existing in heaven his pre -existence virtually every time the reference is something about the

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Son or the Son of Man or the Son of God the Son not Christ not

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Jesus though Jesus was his given name but normally almost every time there's only two places that I found where Jesus or Christ is in the context of pre -existence and that's 1st

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Corinthians 10 you know the rock that they followed was

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Christ Paul says was Christ but also in Jude chapter 1 verse 5

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I would say time I'm using chapter 1 because if you say Jude 4 sometimes people don't know that there's one chapter in Jude so they're looking for chapter 4 1 4 1 5 1 5 most translations will say the

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Lord let's look at Greek most Greek editions most Greek manuscripts there's a few variant readings most

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Greek manuscripts say the Lord delivered the people out of Egypt what does comport to 1st

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Corinthians chapter 10 I think in verse 4 about the rock delivering the people the

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Lord delivered the people out of Egypt right well because of more witnesses and manuscripts even the critical text today the

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Nestea in 28 20 now the 29th edition Jesus delivered the people out of Egypt so it has his given name but it's talking about the person of Jesus not necessarily that you know the name of the age of the

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Lord was Jesus but the person of Jesus Jesus delivered the people out of Egypt I tell you what though there's a there's a few different variants some say

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God but mostly Lord but now there's really good evidence and in fact the revised

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ESV and other some other revised translations now have Jesus delivered the people out of Egypt it's a great deity of Christ passage

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I mean Lord you know it means the same thing but Jesus seems to be the better reading these days what's interesting is there's a variant that's not viable meaning it most likely

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Jude didn't write it but it nevertheless it's in it's in one of the earliest earliest manuscripts of Jude p72 p72 has first and second

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Peter and Jude earliest manuscripts probably 150 175 AD earliest ones we have here's what it says in that it's a variant reading but it's my favorite variant reading it says and it's in the nominus sacra meaning it's abbreviated it says this listen to the title for us

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Christos the God Christ delivered the people out of Egypt it's a beautiful title the

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God Christ delivered the people out of Egypt anyways mostly Sun is used in the context of pre -existence almost every time in fact when we see pre -existence pre -existing appearances of Christ pre -incarnation in the

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Old Testament as the angel of the Lord for the most part typically people will look at that as Christ ologies

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I I think it's more correct to say Julia ology or a

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Christ often ease Julia often II because the word Julius is Sun Sun appearances is probably more correct instead of Christ often ease son of man is well accepted it was derived from Daniel chapter 7

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I'm just gonna read 13 and 14 very interesting though in verse 9 it says thrones plural were set up not a throne but thrones ancient of days and the

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Son of Man two objects of divine worship I kept this is verse 13

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I kept looking at the night vision behold in the clouds of heaven one like the Son of Man was coming and he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him now in verse 14 the

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Septuagint rendering I'm reading and to him was given dominion glory and the kingdom of all the nations on earth according to their kind and all glory to him and the

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Septuagint reads worshipping present active participle they were worshipping the

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Son of Man it's beautiful in the

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New Testament the title Son of Man is used about 84 times 84 times most of the times in the

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Gospels four times outside of the Gospels for occurrences it's very interesting because in the outside of the

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Gospels in Acts chapter 7 where Stephen sees the Son of Man but in Revelation 113 and 1414 the exact phrase in Greek as in Daniel is used most likely

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John was alluding to Daniel 7 13 and 14 where the Son of Man rides the clouds and they were worshipping him one like the

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Son of Man the same work the same language is used the same words are used it's an Arthurist meaning it doesn't have the article

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I think John was alluding to that in these two places in Revelation now as mentioned the

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Son of Man title does represent it is represented in his humanity frequently infrequently though but more so it represents the deity hypostatic union pre -existence humanity for example

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Matthew 8 20 foxes have holes but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head obviously that's a reference to the

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Son of Man in his his humanity I there's not a lot of verses that speak exclusively of a humanity of Son of Man but it is used there's a few more that shows his humanity it represents his humanity most of the time though as mentioned it represents his hypostatic union

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God in the flesh or his deity in pre -existence for example Matthew 16 13 now when

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Jesus came to the district of Caesarea Philippi he was asking his disciples who do people say the

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Son of Man is and we know Peter's great confession remember in Matthew 16 all of 13 to 18 right the context is not

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Peter it's not the context and certainly not Peter as the Pope as the

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Rock no that's not the context the context is not Peter the context is the identification of Christ who do men say that the

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Son of Man is and of course Peter same confession we should have as Christians we have you're the

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Messiah you are the Christ the Son of the Living God then we saw in Matthew 14 61 through 64 this is a reference to his hypostatic union the high priest we saw that earlier are you the

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Christ the Son of God and Jesus answers he actually he adds to that he says yes

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I'm Christ and I'm the Son of God and he says you'll see the Son of Man coming with clouds sitting at the right hand of power of another person did you know it's very interesting as a side note and of course the priest responded he wanted to kill him son of man son of God it was too much it was too many deity titles to be ambiguous son of man let's kill this guy but it's interesting on in every significant claim of deity ontological deity that we find whether it's the

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I am the co -equality with the

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Father in John 5 I and the Father are one essence we are one thing

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John 1030 all these significant claims that he mentions the

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Father in the same breath he doesn't want anyone to be a modalist I'm distinct from the

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Father I'm remember one is Pentecostals do not believe the Son is God they believe the

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Son represents only humanity and God represents his deity you have

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Jesus as the one person God as a Unitarian God and whose name is

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Jesus and sometimes he's the Father in the Father mode as God and then in the Sun mode he's only human but what do you do with the passages where the

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Son affirms his deity in the same breath as mentioning the Father it's irrefutable so in 1461 of mark through 64 he claims to be the

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Son of Man and the response of the priest was appropriate according to his own doctrine let's kill him let's condemn him to death did you hear what he said also in John 5 25 and 27

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Jesus said there's going to come a time when the dead will hear the voice of the

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Son of God and those who hear him will live and then it says in verse 26 for just as a father has life in himself he gave life the authority to judge to the

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Son do you have life in himself and he gave the authority to execute judgment because he is the

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Son of Man we're looking at his hypothetic

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Union in terms in the context of Son of Man in I won't spend time on this but in too much time in John 6 53 and 64

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Jesus said truly truly I say to you unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in yourself and then in verse 54 well before I read verse 54 this is not dealing with the

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Lord's Supper that I mean that that hadn't happened yet that was a year later and clearly the context is connected with verse 35 in fact in the

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Lord's institution the word for flesh is Soma here at Sark's he's not using it's not the

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Lord's institution here it's connected and it's a beautiful grammatical parallel in verse 35 before I quote 35 and verse 54

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I'll read it literally ha trogon trogon is the word it's a participle that means munching the one munching on the flesh of me munching it's a participle ongoing action the one munching that's the lexical meaning there it's not the normal word for eating munching the one munching on the flesh of me and penone drinking it's a participle munching and drinking on me or on the blood has eternal life the one munching on my flesh and drinking my blood has eternal life well

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Jesus already explained what he meant in verse 35 in verse 35 he says this I am the bread of life he's the bread of life of course it's spiritual metaphorical

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I'm the bread of life then he says the one coming participle they're coming to me the key that's us we keep coming to Christ all the time because we're saved the one coming to me or gominos never never literally never never non -impossibility show hunger he's the bread of life coming to him you'll never go hungry coming to him is the same as munching on his flesh coming to him same syntactical phrases are used

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I mean tenses are used and then he says and the one believing participle just like penone and in 54 drinking the one believing in me will never never not even a possibility thirst at any time so believing in him you'll never thirst that's tantamount to drinking his blood see the syntactical parallel coming to him he's the bread you'll never go hungry that's the same as eating his flesh believing in him you'll never go thirsty that's the same as drinking his blood the same syntactical tenses are used it's beautiful that's what he meant not a divine sushi bar like Roman Catholics believe where you're literally munching not metaphorically not spiritually not figuratively you're literally eating his flesh now the accents and drinking his blood and also we know in the

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Catechism that it's also a soul in divinity you're you're eating all that and drinking all that according to Rome well one of the problems aside from denying a one -time sacrifice because they call the

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Eucharist propitiatory they said it's the same sacrifice it's the same thing so his work is never completed in Rome the work is never ever completed and the

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Lord's Supper they call communion it's a huge sacrifice and it mocks the crossword because it denies it represents the body and blood of it represents his sacrifice over and over because his work was never done well what if I'm taking the

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Lord's Supper at that Roman Catholic Church I think we passed one and you know we're in there say all of us we're taking it and the priest has the power to transubstantiate to change the bread to literal flesh not spiritual in fact

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Thomas Aquinas said this was an ontological change and then the priest has the power he changes the wine to the to the literal blood so we're all eating his literal flesh well wait a second my friend lives in Nepal what if he's doing the same thing that means his literal flesh is here and his literal flesh is in Nepal and Rome and South America and everywhere where someone's doing this blasphemous thing that means

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Jesus's body and blood was not truly man it was ubiquitous truly incarnate he was truly incarnate as truly man but truly man is not ubiquitous so we see what he means in this passage because he already explained what he means by munching and drinking munching his flesh drinking his blood

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I will raise him up at the last day John 8 2028 again it's one of those places where the

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Son of Man Jesus Christ affirms that he's God and mentions the Father in the same breath so when

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Jesus said when he lift up the Son of Man when he lift up the Son of Man then you will know that I am unpredicated

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I am Jews understood this then you will know that I'm the eternal God then he says

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I do nothing on my own but I say these things as the Father instructed me he mentions the

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Father in the same breath the same verse as affirming that he's God Son of Man is

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God Son of Man in reference to his divine pre -existence John 6 62 what if you see the

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Son of Man says Christ what if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before is that not a simple dimple verse what if you see the

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Son of Man ascending to where he was before he was in heaven in chapter 6 alone eight times it mentions he came from heaven he came out or out of heaven or from the

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Father eight times in just chapter 6 alone John 3 13 he tells

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Nicodemus no one has ascended into the heaven except ha act to Rano the one from heaven the

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Son of Man Jesus also associates his his identification of the

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Son of Man with our salvation mark 1045 the

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Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his literally says his soul his life as a ransom for the many that's what the

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Son of Man does the Son of Man was on that cross he was God in the flesh he had to be

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God it to have infinite value of the atonement but we know in scripture the

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Son of Man was on the cross also identified as the Son of God on the cross by the centurion truly this was the

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Son of God mark 1529 same dialogue with Nicodemus chapter 3 14 and 15

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Jesus says as by the way this is the context of 316 no one ever quotes these verses people just throw out

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John 3 16 as it if it's at some kind of invitational universal kind of interpretation there and they put a big banner at baseball games well the context starts in the garden in the in the wilderness verse 14 he says as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the

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Son of Man be lifted up the Son of Man was on the cross showing the means of salvation and everyone believing in him and this is the same phrase in 15 as in 16 everyone believing in him has life eternal we believe in the

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Son of Man he was crucified for us he was God in the flesh he pre -existed we worship him just like the

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Son of God of course then you have verse 16 after he sets forth the context everyone believing in him shall not perish by the way that that's a that's really a blessing for us it's not invitational that's not how the greek reads it literally reads pass ha pisto on everyone all the one singular everyone believing present active present tense it's a promise to us we're believing who is the world in 16 it's the ones doing the action of the participle of the verb the ones believing that's who you want that's who the world is jews and gentiles that are believing john 9 36 and 38 as i mentioned when they put out the blind man talking about the blind man do you believe in the son of man who is he lord that i may believe in him and jesus said in verse 37 you've both seen him and he's the one talking to you and it says lord records the blind man saying lord i believe and he worshiped the son of man gives eternal life mark 210 the son of man has the power to forgive sins we read but so that you may know the son of man has the authority on earth to forgive sins so he told the paralyzed man john 5 26 and 27 as we saw he gave authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man i like 624 do not work for food that perishes food that perishes is your works your your so -called meritorious works all the cults all the religious atheists whether it's roman catholics or one is pentecostals mormons all the groups that have works in order to get something justification or salvation that's food that perishes according to christ don't work for food that perishes but for the food that lasts to eternal life which the son of man will give you the son of man gives us life that's what jesus said which the son of man will give you for on him the father god has set his seal we already saw where the son of man was worshiped by the blind man and in and also in daniel 7 they kept worshiping him in the same way as we saw in hebrews 1 6 the father says the author of hebrews refers to the father it's really interesting in hebrews chapter 1 because from chapter 5 onwards it's as though the author steps back now he's just quoting the father he's just referring to the father when he brings his firstborn into the world again he says to all the angels worship him worship the son that's a commandment to all the adjectives use all the angels worship the son worship him you know it's really interesting as we're concluding here if you look in in most translations in hebrews 1 6 let all the angels of god worship him that's what it says of reference to the son if you look at the little cross note reference at the very bottom and no the cross note references was were not inspired neither were the maps but if you look at the bottom you'll see in most of your translations you'll see a footnote as to pointing to the place where that is quoted from the old testament remember the father is quoting old testament passages referring to yahweh and he's applying it to the son it says deuteronomy 32 43 i think in most of your translations deuteronomy 32 43 right well in most of your translations unless you have a new world translation hopefully not um if you go to deuteronomy 32 43 you'll read it and you do this i don't see anything about worshiping the son there's nothing about worshiping the son it's not even that passage well number one the father you know this is a quotation from the septuagint by the way but here's what's interesting if you look at the masoretic text which is our that's what most of our old testament's based upon masoretic text around 900 a .d.