Heaven Brought to Earth

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Name of Jesus Christ” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 1, 1987.

Sermon transcript

Reading from a few passages in John’s Gospel this morning, we are first of all reading from the first chapter of that Gospel, verses fourteen through eighteen. And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

From that same chapter, beginning in verse 43, the day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee. He findeth Philip and saith unto him, Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses and 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? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. Jesus, say, saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith to him, Behold, in Israel, indeed, in whom is no God. Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me?

Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. 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 saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. From chapter four, reading from verse Seen as the encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me.

The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit. and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah is coming, which is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.”

Our God, this day, your word reverberates throughout the world. It is proclaimed, declared by servants of yours, called truly weak. Yet, Lord, it pleases you to take the weak and through them expound your strength. So now, Lord, under your heaven May that word sound forth and may your people be called and your saints confirmed in the knowledge of the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen. What are you looking for in Jesus? What are you looking for in Jesus? We have been talking about this central figure to our faith for a while now.

We have expounded his name, Jesus, and its significance, its relationship to the whole notion of and reality of salvation. We know that this one Jesus is called Christ. He is the anointed and we have endeavored to feel all that that signifies, truly the anointed one of God. We have said as well that he is Lord, and by saying that we have been bold to affirm that as Lord, he is our owner. Nothing less than that. Our owner. We are owned by Him. We are bond slaves of Christ. But we also confess that Jesus is Son of God. Son of God. And we have thought about that name and understood it along two lines. First, that as Son of God, Jesus is unique. Not that there aren’t others in scripture called Son of Gods.

But Jesus is unique, for in light of everyone else’s failure, Jesus has triumphed. He has succeeded. The failure of everyone else is due to sin. Regardless of how glorious they may appear on the pages of scripture, eventually that sin is unearthed, the feet of clay are revealed, and the idol tumbles. Jesus is unique. the Son of God.

And read along one line, as Son of God, we have said that He is, as any son of a father would be, heir. He is that one to whom the inheritance belongs. And in this case, the inheritance is nothing else than God Himself. Jesus, Son of God, as heir of God. He inherits God.

Is it plain to you now why Jesus can say, out of the fourteenth chapter of John, I am the way, the truth, and the life? No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” You see, as son of God, Jesus is heir of God. No one has passage to God, but by way of Christ, no one becomes an heir of God himself, but through that one who is the heir of God. So if you do not have the Son, then you do not have the Father. Because the Son is the heir of God. And if you are to have God, you must have Jesus. Son of God as heir of God. and thereby our root to God.

But there are many things that we might confess about Jesus as Son of God, and there are many feelings that may well up inside of us concerning this figure of Jesus, and we may be very quick to blurt out, yes, of course, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

And as we say that, we might not yet have said enough. And that is why, you see, at the end of John’s Gospel, we have that marvelous, is there any story quite as large. We have that marvelous story of the confrontation of Thomas with the risen Christ. There may have been, then, you see, an estimation of Jesus as Son of God in Thomas’s mind, despite his disbelief in Jesus’ resurrection. He may have looked upon him much the way that Nathanael did at the end of the first chapter of John, and said, truly, you are the Son of God, the King of Israel. Able to say that, even though this one has died, Thomas not yet understanding and comprehending. But what a marvel in that confrontation between Thomas and Christ. For if there’s anything lacking in his confession of his understanding of Jesus, son of God, it is remedied by that confrontation.

Jesus presents himself to Thomas and Thomas says, My Lord and my God. If, then, your confession of Jesus as the Son of God does not go on to confess with Thomas, My Lord and My God, you have fallen short of New Testament confession. Jesus is the Son of God. But He is also that Son of God who is God. The Word became flesh. Was that the Word God? The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. But what is the significance of the appearance of this one? The Son of God, called the Word, made flesh. What is the significance of this one who has come into the world?

At least as John is pressing us to consider. What indeed does he do? Well, we know all of that compact confession concerning our sin the coming of Christ to die that we might live, he taking our judgment to himself that we might be vindicated, not because of our own goodness, but because of his goodness imputed to us and received by faith alone. The catechism is handy at times, and convenient.

You recognize the language. What power grips John as he writes and paints the portrait of Christ and his significance for us? Son of God, God in the flesh come, what does it mean? What could it possibly mean? Take hold of it now. See it clearly from that fourteenth verse of the first chapter. See it clearly from the fifty-first verse of that first chapter.

Understand that in many of the comments that are made by Jesus throughout this gospel, the significance now of God having come into the world is that He brings heaven down to earth. in himself as if in him a whole new world is being unveiled before you, one that you could never see with your natural eyes.

Do you long for a different world? Do you want a world in which there is no weeping or crying, in which there is no pain or sorrow, in which people don’t hurt one another? Do you want that kind of world? You can see it in Jesus. For Jesus, the Son of God, is God, come down into the earth, and with that descent, heaven itself has descended, and you can see in Jesus. of having this life.

How slow people are to grab hold of it. How obstinate, how obstinate my heart, how hard my own heart. Do you remember the scene in John 6? Oh, what a story. Jesus has multiplied the loaves and the fishes, and then he takes off from the crowd. They pursue him. Jesus tells them the truth about themselves. He said, you’ve come after me because I filled your stomachs and gave you something to eat. Then he goes on and says, I am the true bread that comes down out of heaven. And if you eat of me, you shall never hunger. Is there hunger in heaven? None. Is anyone starving in glory? No one. No one.

But already in Christ, the spiritual reality, the realities that are made real through the Holy Spirit, have become present. Well, does Jesus simply bring heaven down to earth? We read from chapter 4 in John this morning, I have already said that Thomas and Jesus and their encounter at the end of the gospel has to be the greatest story. I’m liable to have to backtrack. All these stories are just so magnificent. The encounter between Jesus and this woman. And you know the story.

We don’t have to go over the details. Simply to zero in on the significance of this one son of God, this one who is God in the flesh, what he means now. For not only by him has heaven come down into our presence, but the future has come into the present. Heaven into our presence, the future. into the present. He tells the woman, there’s an hour coming, but he doesn’t stop there. He says, it’s already here.

The power of this One who is Son of God, God in the flesh, is to bring the future into the present. And what future might that be? why it’s the pure, unadulterated worship of God—worship in spirit and in truth, truth there meaning in the full reality of all those things that are, yes, real in the world. Son of God, God in the flesh, he brings the future into the present, and as such he becomes the true source of our comfort, our peace, our tranquility.

Why are you afraid? Are you older? Are you facing an uncertain future? Should I keep the house? Should I sell it? Should I move where I don’t know anyone? Should I stay near my family and friends? What’s going to happen to me? Am I middle-aged and out of work? What am I going to do? Am I struggling with my family? What’s going to become of my children? Will they believe? Will they love Jesus when they’re older? How am I going to pay for their college education? Am I a student? What am I going to do with my life? Why is life such a hassle anyway? Why is everybody on my case?

Don’t be afraid. This Jesus, Son of God, who is God, brings into your present experience the blessings that we have been trained to think of as belonging exclusively to the future. Not so, he says. If you believe in me, he says, you have eternal life. That’s future. You have it now. You don’t have to wait for it. It becomes a present reality for you. And with that life, there comes abundance. And in that abundance, there is peace. Yes, you’re God. You’re God in Christ.

We’ll take care of you. Why be anxious? Why fret so much about what tomorrow will bring? Will you not rely upon and rest in the only one to whom the future belongs? The only one. There’s a price you have to pay. You have to give up the world. For many it’s too steep a price. Much too steep.

The people in Jesus’ day wanted bread that they could see and eat. Fill their stomachs. That would satisfy them. Jesus would have them feast on food from heaven, spiritual bread, which alone can satisfy the soul. Won’t you rush to Him? He will bring heaven into your life. He will bring the future glory into your present experience. and you will experience unspeakable joy.

Let’s pray. Now, O Lord, we, needy that we are, have been supplied. We have been supplied by you out of heaven We have been given of those things that belong to the realm above, and that realm that we have thought could only come after this world was completed. Yet, even now, through Christ our God, those things are granted to us. And we, Lord, glory in them. We thank you, Lord, that you are blessing your people throughout the world, who, turning their back upon the world, have turned unto you, because you are their only hope. Lord, may we be satisfied fully, since we have turned from the world to serve you.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.