(10) And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. (11) And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. (12) 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.
Let’s be just honest here this was a garbage year. I believe that yes God is working through this pandemic, that we stand at the threshold of something awesome, but that doesn’t mean that I still can’t call this year and the things I have dealt with and dealing with just garbage.
Today I plan to be very simple and encouraging. I am not a Pastor; I am just a minister of the Gospel and today I just felt God prompting me to just give you and I a simple reminder of the gift that God gave us through His son. I am not saying anyone doesn’t know or doesn’t appreciate the gift that we have but in moments like these where we might feel like we are feeling our way through darkness, you are moving but you can’t see anything. I just want to remind you and myself that there is light still in the darkness.
I. When we need to reach something that is higher than us, we use a ladder, same principle applies when I need to reach something that is lower or need to climb down into a hole; I need to use a ladder. A ladder is no good if it can’t reach the top or the bottom. There is no reason to use a ladder if all it’s going to do is get you stuck in the middle.
A. Have you ever asked yourself, how high is heaven above the earth? How great is the distance that separates man from God, and sin from the most High? If we could extend a ladder to heaven, how long would that ladder have to be to get us into heaven? How high is the distance between heaven and earth that separates man from God?
1. It was a ladder that Jacob saw in his dream, a ladder from heaven to earth. That ladder would not be something that would be built with man’s hands. It was not a revised attempt on Jacob’s part to complete what his ancestors attempted to build in the land of Shinar. This was no Led Zeppelin song this stairway to heaven was none other than Jesus Christ! Jesus, that which joins heaven to earth, and God to man.
2. It can only work if the ladder touches both ends, the highest height with the lowest depth. So the Most High had to descend to the most low of depths so that those in the lowest depths could ascend to the highest heights. The Most Heavenly had to become earthly so that those who were earthly could become heavenly.
a. The Most Holy had to join Himself to the most unholy, the Holy One joined to the lowest of sins, the Most Sacred to the most profane ...So Christ the ladder, the one that would join earth to heaven would descend to the bottom of Jacob’s ladder to the deepest depths of darkness, to the lowest rung of degradation and judgment.
B. At the bottom of that ladder Christ would find a world full of people whose “heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: A world where Man [that is] born of a woman [is] of few days, and full of trouble, a world where sin abounded. Where men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:
1. A world that changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator:
2. Such is in the world; we are a broken and damaged people. I don’t think I have ever heard someone say that they would rather leave where they are to live in a dump. Even the Jefferson’s said Well, we're moving on up. People want to go up; not down. The penthouses aren’t on the ground floor, that’s reserved for parking and dumpsters, the penthouse sits way up top.
3. I read in a Christmas card the poem, He came from a mansion to manager, from the streets of gold to a stable cold, from royal robes to swaddling clothes, from His Father’s world to a Jewish girl, from the angels’ praise to the shepherds’ gaze, from that city afar to a wise man’s star, from perfection to rejection, from the throne room of God to the stable’s sod, from all that’s good and pure and holy to all that’s base and vile and lowly.
4. We were out Christmas Shopping and we assumed that some of the items on our list would still be available so we waited to see if they would be discounted. To our surprise the store was selling out of the item and it was only available at this particular store. So, we had to go to several of these stores in the area to finally find someone that had it in stock. When we got there, I saw just one sitting on the shelf and was like “Favor”, but once I pulled off the shelf, I saw why it was still there. The box was dented and worn, it was not very appealing to look at, but its contents seemed to be intact. I knew the receiver of the gift didn’t care about the outside they would only care about what is on the inside. I knew this was probably going to be the only one I would find, so instead of judging it based off its condition, I bought it because the one that was receiving it wouldn’t care about what the outside looked like they would only care about what’s inside. Jesus came to a broken world to restore a broken people, He looked at all of us that were damaged and discarded, He looked past my exterior and saw the value within, He chose me!
C. Here is a little nugget for all of you that like deep things. Prior to my opening text, Isaac sent Jacob out to seek out a bride. Jacob was on the journey of the bride-groom when he would encounter this dream of a ladder. During the Hebrew wedding of ancient times, in order for there to be a marriage, the bridegroom had to first make a journey from his house to the house of the bride. It didn't matter where she lived, across the camp or across the desert; wherever she was, he had to journey to her.
1. What a perfect setup for what was to come. The bridegroom is a shadow of Christ, and we are each born to be the bride, but in order for there to be a marriage, the joining of the two, the bridegroom which means the one who joins himself, must always journey from his house to the house of the bride.
a. Two thousand years ago the Bridegroom Jesus undertook the journey of the bridegroom. He traveled not across a city or desert, but across time and space from heaven, the house of the Bridegroom, to earth, the house of the bride.
b. By tradition the bride can’t travel to the bridegroom. The bridegroom is the one that has to come to the bride. We in the same way, can never reach God or heaven on your own. It is God who journeys to you. He comes to your tent, to your life ...no matter where you are, no matter what your life is like, no matter how far away you are from Him. He still comes to your house, to wherever you are. And no matter where you find yourself, He will be the One to come to you and to knock on the door of your heart. And what does the bride do? What are we supposed to do when He comes knocking? Open up, you open up and let Him in and make a covenant with Him to be His.
c. After that the bridegroom (Jesus) leaves us, so that He can make preparations during this time of separation to bring us to His home the Kingdom of Heaven. As the betrothed bride of Christ, we may still look the same, be around the familiar, our home, our life, is still in this world and though it may seem that nothing has changed, it has. We have changed; with our covenant relationship with Christ, we are no longer of this world. We are in it but not of it. We no longer belong to our circumstances, our past, our sins, our limitations. He chose us and we belong to Him and all that He has is now ours! The next time the bridegroom comes it’s to take us away to Himself. This moment we are in is just that a moment, we are His and we must keep preparing for His soon return.
2. From my opening text this is the only time in scripture that the word ladder is ever used. God’s gift to man on that first Christmas was the means to undo the sin and shame that Adam and Eve brought on God’s precious creation. The roadmap to God’s prophetic declaration of bringing man back to Him was being laid out.
3. I have shared this before but it is worth repeating that only Jesus could fulfill over 300 prophecies.
a. Mathematically speaking, the odds of anyone fulfilling this amount of prophecy is mind blowing and computer melting. Mathematicians put it this way: 1 person fulfilling 8 prophecies: 1 in 100 Quadrillion,(that’s 15 zeros after that 100) the odds of 1 person fulfilling 48 prophecies: 1 chance in 10 to the 157th power which is called a Googolplex number.
b. But 1 person fulfilling 300+ prophecies: that goes beyond the last named of numbers which is Graham's number, which by definition cannot be written with conventional notation, it was developed by mathematician R.L. Graham. He states that it is so large that, even if all the matter in the universe was converted to pens and ink, it still wouldn't be enough to write out the number in its entirety. So then 1 person fulfilling over 300+ prophecies can only be summed up with; Only Jesus the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last;
4. When Mary made that last push through the matrix the womb was the uniting of Heaven to Earth. A ladder was giving to us whereby heaven could reach us and we could reach heaven. The ladder reveals the two natures of Jesus Christ. He is both God and man in one person. As a man, He was set upon the earth. As God, He remained the eternal Son of God, infinite, eternal and unchangeable. As a man, He reached all the way down to earth and as God, He reached all the way to heaven. This ladder bridged the gap between heaven and earth… between God and man.
a. When my girls are in the pool and they find themselves tired or feel a little overwhelmed by the depths of the water they know that all they need to do is get themselves to the ladder. If they can at least get one hand on the ladder they know they are safe. Just reach up and touch the ladder! Right now, take this moment and reach up.
b. So that no matter how low you find yourself, no matter how lost you are, no matter how sinful, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far from God you are ... no matter how deep in the pit you find yourself in ... All you have to do is look for the ladder and it will be there to take you out. The ladder will be there with its one end touching the bottom of your lowest depths, and the other end touching the Most High.
II. When I think of Christ leaving His throne in Heaven to come and dwell among men, there is just one thought that I keep having as to why God sent His Son the way that He did and let me say this before I get any kick back from all you. I do know what the Bible says and understand it completely.
A. I understand Hebrews 10 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, [and] not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those [sacrifices there is] a remembrance again [made] of sins every year. For [it is] not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
1. I know that 1 Corthians 15 says And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
2. I know that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and that our sin separates us from God. I also know the Bible teaches we are all sinners and none of us is righteous before God (Romans 3:23). Because of our sin, we are separated from God, and we stand guilty before Him. Therefore, the only hope we can have is if He provides a way for us to be reconciled to Himself, and that is what He did in sending His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross. Christ died to make atonement for sin and to pay the penalty of the sins of all who believe in Him.
3. It is through His death on the cross as God’s perfect sacrifice for sin and His resurrection three days later that we can now have eternal life if we believe in Him. The fact that God Himself has provided the offering that atones for our sin is part of the glorious good news of the gospel that is so clearly declared in 1 Peter 1:18-21: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, [as] silver and gold, from your vain conversation [received] by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
B. With that out of the way I believe that God had to do it that way because He knew that man would come back on Him and say, “You don’t know what is like to be me”! Come on now who here has never told someone that before as validation to why you had to do, say what you did, act the way you did. It’s an easy out to just throw out” you don’t know what it’s like”.
1. The deities of false religions would find it beneath them to walk among their creation, to sympathize, and understand their struggles. We serve the true and living God; Isaiah 46:9-10 says, Remember the former things of old: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else; [I am] God, and [there is] none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times [the things] that are not [yet] done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
2. Jesus does know exactly what it is like to be us. He gets us. Jesus the one that All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made came to us in that stable in Bethlehem now a helpless baby inside the universe He created, the almighty became the weakest of beings, the hands that stretched out the heavens now too weak to even grasp the hand of His mother, the eyes that see all things now can barely focus, the mouth that spoke the universe into existence now can only offer up the cry of a helpless baby.
a. The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit are omnipresent, they are everywhere at once. They reside outside of time. They are in our yesterday, today, and tomorrow Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. In Isaiah 66 He says The heaven [is] my throne, and the earth [is] my footstool: and again in Isa 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, [that] the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? [there is] no searching of his understanding. When Solomon was dedicating the temple he said in 1Ki 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
b. So in order to fit in creation, Jesus would become the incarnation. The omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient would become specific to time and space, to only one point of space and to only one moment of time. Jesus is universal, the Light of the World, the spring of all existence. Yet now He becomes specific to one culture, one people, one tribe, one house, one genealogy, one family, one life. He becomes a Jewish baby, a Jewish boy, then a Jewish rabbi, walking in sandals on the ground and dust that He created.
3. The Man, Jesus Christ: Although He was the Son of God, the Bible tells us that Jesus chose to come down to earth in the form of a man. Philippians 2 says Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
a. He had a human nature and a human will, but He overcame and never sinned. Because of His overcoming life, He was able to overcome death and today He is seated at the right-hand of His Father in heaven. Hebrews says, Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on [him the nature of] angels; but he took on [him] the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto [his] brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things [pertaining] to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
C. Jesus knows exactly what it is like to be you. He can relate and understand to all your struggles, He knows what it is like to be you.
1. Jesus knew sadness: Jesus wept, Jesus knew temptation: He was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. Jesus knew hunger: Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. Jesus knew poverty: Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. Jesus knew frustration: he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; and said, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise. Jesus knew weariness: Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. Jesus knew disappointment: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks, but you were not willing. Jesus knew rejection: From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. Jesus knew sorrow: My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Jesus knew ridicule: Again and again they struck him…and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid [mocking] homage to him. Jesus knew loneliness: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
2. He doesn’t ask anything of us that He wasn’t willing to do Himself, and He promises to be with us in all we have to go through. He doesn’t stand back, remaining distant from your pain. Instead, He wants to crawl down into the darkest part of your life and shine a light. He wants to take your weakness and make you strong, He wants to take your spirit of heaviness and give you the garment of praise. To heal your brokenhearted, to give deliverance to your captivity, and recover you from blindness, to give you liberty when you are bruised,
3. Heb 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin. He dealt with the same stuff you are dealing with and knows just what you are going through, He understands the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, but rather than giving in and giving up He overcame those urges so that in Him we can overcome all of this (flesh) as well!
4. As Christians, this is important for us. Because He overcame as a man like us, it means that we can also live the same life that He lived while on earth. It is completely possible to follow Christ in truth! If we follow Him, we will also end up like Him and where He is!
III. There is a lot to be said about this year both good and bad, but there seems to be one attack that the enemy wants to bring against the body of Christ and cause us to forget. Maybe this doesn’t apply to you but it does to me. When Christ left His Kingdom and extended the ladder down to us on that first Christmas the Bible says, Luke 2:8-14 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this [shall be] a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
A. The angels brought good tidings of GREAT JOY! Where is your joy at right now?
1. Jesus is many things He is the Almighty One, Alpha and Omega, Advocate, Author and Perfecter of Our Faith, Authority, Bread of Life, Beloved Son of God, Bridegroom, Chief Cornerstone, Deliverer, Faithful and True, Good Shepherd, Great High Priest, Head of the Church, Holy Servant, I Am, Immanuel, Indescribable Gift, Judge, King of Kings, Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Light of the World, Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Lord of All, Mediator, Messiah, Mighty One, One Who Sets Free, Our Hope, Peace, Prophet, Redeemer, Risen Lord, Rock, Sacrifice for Our Sins, Savior, Son of Man, Son of the Most High, Supreme Creator Over All, Resurrection and the Life, The Door, The Way, The Word, True Vine, Truth, Victorious One, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and so much more, but He is also our JOY!
2. It was with joy knowing that we would come back to the Father by the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. On the night of Jesus’ betrayal, He prayed And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Is His joy fulfilled in you?
3. Don’t lose your joy. I know circumstances are not what we want them to be, church might not be what you want it to be, your finances may not be what you want them to be, your job may not be what you want it to be, your classroom may not be what you want it to be, you calling and ministry may not be what you want it to be, your surrounds, health, etc…may not be what you wanted it to be, but remember the joy of the LORD is your strength
4. David said in Ps 30:5 in his favour [is] life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy [cometh] in the morning. Ps 126:5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. In the midst of all this heaviness and weight of spiritual warfare remember Jesus said Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke [is] easy, and my burden is light. Paul said 1Th 1:6 And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: Rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Let’s take back our JOY! In the midst of all this Christ came that we may have life and to be full of joy, have exceeding joy, have great joy! Ro 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
