Who is the Son of Man?

Jesus doesn’t leave us room to “admire” Him from a safe distance. When He calls Himself the Son of Man, He’s tying His identity to Daniel’s promised Messiah and claiming authority that belongs to God alone. That raises a personal question we can’t dodge: what did Jesus say His purpose actually is, and what happens when our expectations collide with His?

We walk through three Son of Man statements that spell it out with clarity. In Mark 2, Jesus meets a paralyzed man and starts with forgiveness, not because the body doesn’t matter, but because sin and the heart are the real battleground. In Mark 10, He flips the world’s leadership ladder and says greatness looks like serving, then He goes even further and calls His own death a ransom for many. This isn’t religious self-help; it’s a picture of a humble King who chooses the cross.

Then Luke 19 brings the mission into focus through Zacchaeus. Jesus stops for the man everyone else writes off, eats with him, and turns a despised life toward repentance and restoration. We also talk about the danger for “church people” who start grumbling at grace, shushing the needy, and protecting comfort instead of joining the rescue. If you’ve been off-mission or spiritually stuck, this message is a reset toward joy, service, and seeking the lost.

Listen, share it with a friend who needs clarity about Jesus, and subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the series.

Transcript

Cold Open And Series Setup

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Yeah. I am way too short for this, Pastor John. Hey. All my short kings. Let's go. Yeah. Wow. Holy sm that's at like high level for me. That was crazy. Oh, good morning, church. Let's just start off with that embarrassment. That's cool. We're all feeling comfortable now. If you've been with us the last few weeks, we've been tracking through our biblical foundation series. And through that, we've traveled through a couple of different doctrines that are essential for understanding the Christian faith all the way from creation, all the way up to last week going through the incarnation. If you want to go back and listen to some of those, we actually have a podcast. There's a QR code here on the screen where you can go back and listen to all the sermons that we've gone through this series, or if you want to recommend it to a friend, those are available there. But last week, we learned about the incarnation and how God came our way, and when he was born into the world as Jesus, he comes close to us in our need. This week we're going to look at how Jesus describes his purpose. How does Jesus think about what he's doing when he's here on earth? Because purpose influences a lot of what we do. For example, believe it or not, it's possible for two people to go somewhere and have very different purposes for why they're there. For example, when my wife and I took the girls to Disney World, her purpose was to enjoy the happiest place on earth. My purpose was to survive it. For her, the purpose was to create these memories that the kids would be immersed in this amazing storytelling. And for me, my purpose was to not let Mickey Mouse take every dollar out of my wallet. Right? You know what this looks like. If you are in college, you know exactly what this means. Your purpose will determine whether you're going to go back and study tonight or go back and party tonight. If you're getting close to retirement, your purpose will determine how you're looking to spend those years of retirement. Which tells us something that our actions will reveal what we believe our purpose is. And similarly, the things that we celebrate and the things that we complain about will reveal to us what we believe the purpose for other people is as well. I say this to say, Jesus came to the earth with purpose. It wasn't haphazard, he had ideas of what he should be doing during his three years of public ministry. So it would seem important that we take time to, hey, Jesus, what did you say your purpose was? What did you come here for? So we don't ever find ourselves in a moment where we're at odds with Jesus because we believe his purpose is something when he's revealed it to be something

Why Purpose Shapes Everything

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else. Right? Think of Peter in Mark chapter 8 when Jesus is beginning to foretell that, hey, he's going to go to the cross and die. And Peter begins to rebuke Jesus. And Jesus responds to him in Mark 8.33. He says, Get behind me, Satan, for you're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Man, I don't know about you. I don't want Jesus to have to say this about me. To say that, hey, Andrew, you missed the point because you tried to make it about your purpose and you never stopped to consider what mine might be. So today we're going to look at how Jesus described his purpose in the gospel by looking at the Son of Man statements that will become clear in a minute. But would you join me in prayer? Jesus, we thank you. God, thank you that we got to worship you already, God. Lord, already in what we sang about today, we've identified there is an amazing and worthy God who's our protector and our savior. There's only one God is worthy, and that's you. And so today, uh God, in these moments, we we rest in the shadow of that kind of God right now. That you're here, you're present. We don't have to look for you or manufacture, you're here right now. And so if that's the case, God, help us to be specially attentive to you and your spirit and your word. God, help us to believe that you might actually want to say something in us through this message right now. God, help us to come hungry, to want one more interaction with you, God. One more wisdom, one more nugget of wisdom, God, one more uh uh approach towards our soul that might make us more like you. God, we desperately want you. Lord, just speak to us. We're open, we're ready, we want you, Lord. Just speak to us, God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, first, we're gonna use this term throughout this morning, the Son of Man. Let me help you define it. If you read the New Testament, Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man 81 times. Either this is a really cool title that Jesus decided to give himself, or maybe this idea, this concept of the Son of Man is something really important for us to know about who Jesus is and what he wants to do. If you go back to the book of Daniel, which was written by a prophet in exile around the year 554 BC, he prophesies about this figure that God will send that will have a victory over the beasts that signify evil in the world. It says this in Daniel 7, 13 to 14. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented

Prayer And Openness To God

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before him, and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting kingdom which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. If you remember when we talked about the covenants a few weeks ago, we realize that God has been promising since the time of David and more uh since the time of Abraham, but more specifically through David, that one of his descendants would come and receive a kingdom forever. And so it was in the Jewish tradition that this son of man that Daniel is talking about is going to be the Messiah that one day is going to come and rescue the whole world. And so when Jesus shows up and he begins calling himself the Son of Man, essentially he's saying, Hey, remember that guy that Daniel talked about 500 years ago? Remember that Messiah that David prophesied about 1400 years ago? Remember that guy? I'm him. That riddle you've been trying to solve since the time of David, I'm that Messiah. The time that we've been waiting for for the whole time, for the longest season, it's happening right now. Jesus seems to have no problem connecting his ministry to the things that we began to see in the Old Testament. This is really important for two reasons. Number one, this tells you that Jesus didn't think he was a wise guru or a teacher. That he claimed to be the Son of God, that he claimed to be the Messiah. If you leave church and you say, boy, that Jesus guy is really smart. Boy, that Jesus guy has some really clever things to say. I think I like to learn about him more. I think I just like the way that he lived. If you leave the church, if you leave church and that's what you get out of this, you've missed the point. Jesus would not have agreed with that statement. Jesus claimed that he was God. And so he must be that or he must be nothing. He deserves worship, not admiration. Jesus is telling us here he is that God. But the second thing is that the second reason why this is important is it helps us recognize, hey, the Old Testament and the New Testament are not two disconnected stories. They tell of one God who graciously came to save the world at great cost to himself. This is helpful for us as we read the Bible, you should be able to go back to the Old Testament and tug on this scarlet thread that'll point you at some point back to Jesus. You should be able to look at the story of Moses

The Son Of Man Explained

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and say, wow, this is helping me understand Jesus a bit more clearly. Jesus didn't have a problem doing this, so we shouldn't either. And so if this is what Jesus understood himself to be, hey, I am the God of the universe. Hey, I'm the Messiah that's come to save. Hey, I'm the Son of God. We've talked about since Daniel. Then it's worth asking the question, hey, what did the Son of Man come to do? The first thing is this the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. If you got your Bible, we're gonna look at Mark chapter 2, verses 1 to 12. It says this. And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them, and they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near to him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. Folks, get yourself some friends that'll destroy private property if it means getting you to Jesus. You know what I'm saying? Hey, be the kind of friend that's willing to destroy private property if it means bringing someone to Jesus. But it says, when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. Now some of the scribes are sitting there questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, Why do you question these things? What's easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, take up your bed and walk. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home. And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all. And they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw anything like this. It's pretty amazing that when you read this, Jesus' first inclination is to forgive the paralyzed man's sin. If I'm the paralyzed dude and I'm sitting there in front of Jesus, I'm like, hey, dude, forgiveness is great, but my legs, Lord. This is what I came for. This is what the buddies broke the roof down for from my legs. But Jesus does this here because I think he wants to prove a point to the scribes and the onlookers that there's a problem that's more difficult than paralysis of the legs. It's paralysis of the heart. The Son of Man is here not to just restore the chaos of our bodies, but the chaos of our souls. Jesus is helping us in this passage see where the battlefield really lies. Yeah, the dude could have had his legs fixed, but if his soul was a wreck, then having working limbs won't help the chaos inside your heart. Man, I've seen people with perfect health and perfect wealth still have no peace because their souls are wrecked. I've seen people with the worst circumstances, the most debilitating physical pain, still have joy because they have peace in their soul because Jesus has real estate in that place in their lives. Man, I think this is critically important for us because so often I find myself asking Jesus to tend to my circumstance instead of tending to my heart. We learn here in Mark chapter 2 that Jesus won't be satisfied with that. That is not what the Son of Man came for. In a world where we're constantly trying to give Jesus directions on how he should bless, what he should prioritize, how he should fix things, Jesus makes it clear here we must begin with the heart. Which makes me ask myself the hard question. Man, what are the things that have grown more important to me than Jesus having my heart? And if I were to look at my prayer life recently, what has gotten more of the word count? Is it my grocery list of things I'm asking Jesus to go chase on my behalf? Or is it asking God, would you root out sin in my life and make me more like you? Am I prioritizing what Jesus prioritized? Or is my closeness to Jesus tethered to those moments when Jesus actually does the things that I'm asking him to do? I say all this to say that Jesus seems to be teaching us here that the Son of Man that Daniel talked about, that David recognized, was serious about the condition of our hearts. Yes, you can ask Jesus to heal your physical needs. He actually deeply cares about that as well. But if you forget that his primary target is your sin, you're gonna be all sorts of mad when his priorities don't align with yours. So we learn first here that the Son of Man, this character that Jesus is, has authority on earth to forgive sins. The second thing we learn is the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. If you got our Bible, we're gonna head over to Mark chapter 10. There's this moment when James and John approach Jesus with a pretty bold request. In verses 32 to 34, Jesus shared that he's about to be captured. He's about to be flogged and killed. And James and John get the bright idea that this is the moment we should ask Jesus for a promotion. Like you know that thing that kids develop when they figure out, hey, now's the right time to ask mom and dad for something? James and John didn't get that. Bros get an A plus for boldness and an F minus for observation

Forgiveness Before Healing In Mark 2

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skills. But all along the book of Mark, especially in chapter 10, Jesus seems to be showing the disciples and his onlookers that humility is his primary mode of operation. So it's not really surprised when he responds to their request for promotion this way. It says in Mark 10, 42, and Jesus called them to him and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. See, Jesus is doing two very important things in this statement here. He's identifying the way of the world, and he's also giving you the way of the Son of Man. First, the way of the world. The rulers of the Gentiles that Jesus is referring to, these are the Roman rulers. If you remember ancient history class, they were the conquering force in the ancient world. They had all the power, they made all the rules, they decide who's starved and who is fed in each of the colonies that they were taking over. And in such a culture of expansion and growth, there was going to be rulers and there was going to be people who were being ruled. And in that world, everyone aspires to climb the ladder, to be able to make the decisions for themselves and to put themselves in the position of authority. And so when James and John asked for seats next to the throne, Jesus is identifying, hey, there seems to be this gravitational pull in the world around you that wants you to seek authority before helping other people around you. Man, I think this is really important for us to note because I think that gravitational pull is still at work here in American culture right now. We have this American dream, this subtle desire to climb the ranks and make something of ourselves. We love that the Steve Jobs type folks who uh in our culture, I mean, he was famously known for making that statement. Hey, I just want to put a dent in the universe with all of my creations, but behind the scenes, he was a ruthless leader. We are idolize politicians who can make the world flinch with just a phone call. And Jesus looks at this and says, Hey, it must not be this way among you. Here's the thing: when authority becomes your goal, you get really good at making these mental calculations about your value and people's value. And I think that's really dangerous for our souls. For example, we'll walk into a room and we'll begin scanning for advantageous partnerships. We say, hey, who in this room can help me get to that promotion? Who in this room will help me get that raise? Who in this room will open the door to that relationship that I like? And in that, we're making these mental decisions about who's worth our time and who's not. Man, if that's the framework by which we're operating by, we're gonna have a really hard time tolerating Jesus. Because he just won't play that game. He's gonna look out for the seemingly unimportant one. He's gonna find the outcast. He's gonna have this moment where he's just not gonna play by the world's rules on this. I say all this to say we've got to realize we don't live in a vacuum when it comes to this desire for authority and power. The cultural current of our world around us is pulling us in that way. And if we don't recognize it, we may find ourselves swept up into operating not by a biblical model, but by the world's model. But the second we see, hey, if this is the way of the world, Jesus also says, Hey, you've got to recognize my way, and it's different. Jesus says the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Man, think about that. The Messiah, the one who could have demanded all the immediate loyalty, could have demanded recognition, could have automatically demanded the palace and the throne, chose to serve. That the one who deserved the most lavish kingdom, the one who deserved to be furthest away from me and my sin, decided to wash feet and bear the cross. Jesus here is revealing to us that the nature of the God that's out there is humble and not proud. That the value system of the kingdom is weighted towards lowly service. The question is, is my value system weighted the same way? If that's the case, then would you be like, oh, would would you would you ask yourself the question, hey, where are the places I need to repent because I've tried to assume the throne? Would we ask God to help us to walk into a room and see the people he would want to serve first? Say, God, would you help me to prioritize them before going my way? Would you be willing to walk into church and say, hey, what if it's not about me today? What if my sitting in the room is actually for the sake of somebody else? Would you go to work tomorrow and see people with new eyes of people that Jesus would love to serve, not feel burdened by serving? And in doing so, would we find more joy than we ever imagined? Would you realize there's a special kind of closeness with Jesus because you begin to learn to value the things that he values? And so we're learning that the Son of Man, He didn't just come to seal our, heal our souls, he also came to serve and to give himself as a sacrifice for many. The third thing we learn is this is that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. If you go to Luke 17, you begin to realize Jesus is, we're actually going to park in Luke 19, but I'm getting you ready. Come up for the story here. In Luke 17, you learn Jesus is beginning his final journey to Jerusalem where he'll eventually be crucified. Now we don't know the exact makeup of the crowd that he's traveling with, but many of the people at the same exact time were on their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. And Jesus' fame had spread amongst Galilee and all of Israel. And so there's a good chance that this same exact crowd is the same crowd that's going to bring him to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. You hear more about that next week. But think about it, that means there's a good chance the people in this crowd are religious folks who've got high expectations of what Jesus is supposed to be doing right now. And on the way, Luke records this side quest near Jericho, and this is what he says. Luke 19, verses 1 to 10.

Greatness Means Serving In Mark 10

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He entered Jericho and was passing through, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. For all my short friends, amen. That's cool. But listen what he does. So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree to see Jesus, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to that place, he looked up at him and said, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. And Zacchaeus had stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I've defrauded anyone or anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. In our previous Passage we learn that Jesus didn't come just to be served, but to serve. And in this passage, we learn that Jesus didn't come aimlessly, He came to seek and save the lost. Man, if you're here and you are new to this conversation about Christianity, this is incredibly great news. That the God of the universe, who made everything, the God who's out there and who's organized things, that He didn't come, He didn't just leave a stranded, He came to seek and save lost people. That if you're here today and sin is dominating your life like it was for Zacchaeus, maybe you've made wrong choices, maybe you've prioritized certain things that are hurting your soul and the souls of people around you, then today you need to know that Jesus left behind the glories of heaven so he could seek you and he could save you. That's the nature of the God who's out there. He's not a nameless, personless universe. He is Jesus that came to seek you and save you so that you could live. And if that sounds like you, I beg you, would you not leave this church today without talking to someone about what it means to follow Jesus? If that sounds like something, hey, I'm interested in that, or hey, I didn't know that about that's how God operates, would you take the time to ask more questions about that God? But here's the scary thing. I don't think this passage is just good news for the lost. I think it's also reminders for the found. If you've got your Bible and you flip back to 18, in the passage right before this, Jesus is traveling with that same big crowd as they're on their way to Jericho, and a blind man hears that Jesus is coming near, and he begins to cry out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And it says, and those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And in this passage, we've got people that hear that Jesus is having dinner at Zacchaeus' house, and it says, when they saw it, they grumbled. And to me, this is these are two of some of the most heartbreaking passages in Scripture. And in both of these incidences, we've got people that are broken and in need, and they're making an attempt to come Jesus' way, and we see this resistance from people who seem to have it altogether. And I think something sometimes happens to us when we've been in the faith for a while. That we only want Jesus to be for us religious folks and not for the lost ones too. We start becoming better at shushing the needy and grumbling at the company that Jesus keeps because it disturbs our peace. We quickly forget that, hey, I at one point I was a lost one that needed saving too. And for some of us, the more holy we become, the less tolerant we become of sinners around us. Please hear me. I'm not saying play fast and loose with sin. I'm not saying be tolerant with sin. I'm not saying uh stop chasing holiness. I'm asking, do we desire to seek and save the lost like Jesus does? That in a world where the current is already flowing against the way of Christ, where so many things are in the way of someone coming to Christ, will we be a discouragement to sinners or an encouragement to sinners? See, I believe if we're in Christ, we can't help but be on his mission. As we fall more and more in love with who Jesus is, as we recognize, hey, this is who the Son of Man is, and this is what his purpose is, we'll be we'll find this great joy in him. And the more that, the more that our hearts find joy in him, the more our hearts will naturally gravitate towards seeking and saving the lost as well. And maybe in that you'll begin to realize the church is not a cruise ship, it's a battleship. That the search for the lost isn't the effort of a few crew while the rest enjoy the buffet and the games. It's an all-hands-on-deck operation. And maybe if you find that you've been lacking joy in your Christian walk, if you find that you've been stagnant in your faith for a while, if you find that it's easier to point out all the flaws in church and people, maybe you've been off mission. Jesus said in Luke 15, 7, I tell you, there'll be more joy in heaven over

Zacchaeus And The Mission To Save

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one sinner who repents than the 99 righteous persons that need no repentance. Man, I want us to experience heavenly style joy today. That would we find the same thing that heaven is celebrating when one lost person comes, would we make ourselves up? Would we set our appetite on the same kind of joy that heaven is celebrating right now? Would we similarly desire that kind of thing to enjoy and celebrate those things? Folks, would you prioritize the mission again? Would you fall in love with Jesus' mission to seek and save the lost? Today, as we get ready to close, we learned about the priorities of the Son of Man. We learned about a God who came to heal our sin, a God who chose the path of service, and a God who seeks to save the lost. In a moment, we're going to sing in just a second, and I'm going to ask that in that moment, would you take some time to reflect? Here's a couple of questions that might be helpful for you to process along the way. The first is this, God, where have I wanted you to be something that you did not come to be? God, where did I try and put you in a box that you did not come to be a part of? And maybe you'll find that if you've been overfocused on praying for earthly needs, and maybe the question is, hey, God, where have I wanted to prioritize earthly things instead of heavenly ones? If you find yourself consumed by political discourse and news, maybe the question for you to ask today is, hey, where have I been more concerned with the kingdoms of this world and less concerned with the throne of my heart? God, where have I wanted you to neglect the sinners for the sake of my comfort? Would you make the commitment today to be about God's business? Would you make it a priority to seek and save the lost with Jesus? Would you find a friend here at church and partner with each other and say, hey, we're not gonna rest this week until we go and seek and save a lost person? Would we make a commitment to say, hey, I'm not gonna relax, I'm not gonna hold on, we're gonna hold each other accountable to doing this work that Jesus calls us to as well. And maybe you'll find in that process that there's more to love about Jesus than before. Because we're no longer watching his mission from a distance, we're sitting front row with him. And when we're seeing that transforming work of Jesus, we're realizing not as it just something that's cool to witness, it helps us praise God all the more because we're seeing him differently than we were before. And if you're new here to church, if someone invited you, would you realize that maybe this is not a coincidence that you're here today? That maybe the God of the universe is actually coming to seek and save you right now through the form of your friendship, through the form of this conversation, through the form of the Bible, through the form of his word. Would you realize God is not a passive character in this journey? He's active and he's here right now. That the God who came to seek and save those 2,000 years ago is here to seek and save us now as well. And if so, would you respond to that invite? Would you worship that God? Would you respond to them and find that you freely live? Would you stand and join us in worship? Lord, that's our prayer. God, we just want to make you proud. We just want to give you glory, God, the glory that you rightfully deserve. So, Lord, you help us to lay down our plans. Would you help us to lay down our blueprints for how things should work? And to take up yours, God. And Lord, that in that we might find some rest for our souls. That we're not trying to box you into some lane that you have to stay in, but God, we've given you the free reign and the free authority that you deserve. So, Lord, you humble us. Would you help us to have your disposition to be of great service to the kingdom and not be looking to be served? God, would you help us to yield the battlefield of our heart, to recognize that's what you came to save, Lord, instead of trying to ask for a thousand and one other things, but Lord, to be deeply concerned with sin just like you are. God, would you help us to seek and save lost folks around us? Lord, to not grow weary and doing good. Lord, to not grow wearying of being in the rescue party, but Lord, continuing to find great joy when a lost one comes back to you, Jesus. So, Lord, would you set our sights back on heaven one more time? God, would you repair the condition of our hearts to

Reflection Questions And Closing Prayer

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love the things that you love and to cherish the things that you cherish, God. And Lord, I thank you that in that process is great joy. God, in that process, an opportunity to love you and glorify you more than we have before. And so we say, Yes, Lord, we're available. Here we are, God, have all of us. Lord, as we go from this place, as we go back to jobs and families and places where these thoughts may be challenged moments, God, give us confidence and strength in you. Lord, bless my friends and my family here, Lord, as we go out into this world amongst us. We may be lights in a dark place that people may see us and how we've prioritized your kingdom and want to know Jesus more. So, Lord, would you help us? And God, we thank you. It could be a thousand and one other ways that you do this, but you do it by walking with us day by day. So help us to get used to hearing your voice. Help us get used to seeing you at work, and God, we thank you for that. Lord, we love you, we praise you. Would you bless us and be with you in Jesus' name? Amen. Amen. God bless, church. We'll see you next week.