Jacob's Ladder

As some of you are aware, this morning is Pentecost Sunday, or what sometimes is called with Sunday. I admit that here in the States, in least most churches, more or less disregard this in the church calendar, but in other segments of the Christian church worldwide, it is in fact a holiday that surpasses Christmas in its importance is second only to Easter in terms of the liturgical calendar. And this is because Pentecost, of course, celebrates the birthday of the church. It celebrates the events recorded for us in the Book of Acts, chapter 2, where the Holy Spirit was poured out on believers and through the gifting of God, then forged into the body of Christ as a living temple for God. Our Lord Jesus, in the days following His resurrection, met with the disciples, you recall, and on one occasion taught them about the significance of what would happen on Pentecost when he said this in Acts chapter 1. On one occasion, while Jesus was eating with them, he gave them this command, do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about, for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Those words of Jesus have always struck me, and I'm sure they have the same impact on you because when you try to imagine yourself in the position of the apostles on that occasion, you wonder, well, what's the need to wait? Already the works of redemption had been accomplished in Christ, the incarnation had taken place, Jesus' life of perfect obedience had been lived, that merits for us eternal life, his death on the cross had already taken place, his resurrection, which is the means by which we are justified, and he was vindicated, that had already taken place, the disciples' eyes had already been open to believe these things and their hearts inclined so that the light of disciples on the way to Emmaus, their hearts were burning within them as Jesus now opened up to them the scriptures and those things which pointed to himself. They had it all, you would think. Meanwhile, they knew all too well how their fellow Jews were in the same position they had been in and spiritual blindness, a zeal for God, but without knowledge. They knew that the world beyond consisted of Gentiles who were strangers to the covenants of promise were living without God and without hope in this world whose need was nothing but desperate. And yet Jesus said, wait, wait for what? What more is needed? Why wouldn't the urgency just compel them to go out? Wait until you receive that which the Father promised, that gift which you heard me speak about. Well, of course, what they're to wait for is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, for something which is from the world's perspective utterly invisible. You can't see it. When the Spirit of God is given and poured out on your life, when you're baptized in the Holy Spirit, you go home and step on the scales and you're not one ounce heavier. There's no way in which it seems to measure that absolutely indispensable requirement, that ingredient, that work, that presence of the Holy Spirit. And yet Christians through the ages have confessed, of course, this is what makes the Christian faith not just a religion but a relationship. The message of Pentecost, this emphasis on the invisible, of course, goes right to the heart of one of the main obstacles and difficulties of the Christian life. It ranks right up there with the problem of evil or the paradox of the sovereignty of God and human responsibility. The fact that we, who very much inhabit a visible world who are material creatures, we living in this imminent physical existence, are designed to relate to a transcendent God who is inherently invisible, immaterial, spiritual. God alone is immortal. He lives in unapproachable life as Paul writes, he's the one whom no one has seen or can see, and to him be honor and might forever and ever. It's this which gives the Christian faith its distinctive cast, the fact that at its essence it's having confidence in that which we do not see as Hebrews 11 says faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe, what we can see, was formed that God's command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. You see the author of Hebrews pointing us to the ultimate supremacy or the importance of the invisible and relating our faith to that invisible reality. And he goes on and gives examples like Noah who when he was warned about things not yet seen in Holy fear built in ark to save his family. They would be seen one day. Their aspects of our faith that will be seen one day when the heavens roll back like a scroll and Jesus Christ is revealed in glory accompanied by his angelic hosts and comes to claim that which is his own purchase that the price of his blood. But right now, right now faith is being certain of what we do not see like Moses as Hebrews 11 goes on to say who left Egypt not fearing the king's anger. He persevered because he paradoxically because he saw him who is invisible. That's the pattern for our faith. And so we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen for what is seen as temporary but what is unseen is eternal Paul writes and second Corinthians chapter 4. That's the whole nature, the substance of our faith. Now as Natalie and Tammy were reminding us in this wonderful ministry on the college campuses we need to disabuse our contemporaries of the notion that any such faith has got to be an insult to human intelligence as if we have to commit an intellectual suicide to be Christians. In the couple weeks I'd like to come back to this issue of how then can we be so certain of what is invisible. But just for this morning I'd like to focus on the problem itself and some of the light that's shed on it in our text. And again to play off of the fact that this is Pentecost Sunday and it's precisely that fact that I think in this problem we all have with the invisible world in our material nature. This problem we have which makes us apt to envy the disciples who were privileged 2,000 years ago to actually walk with Jesus, to live with Jesus, to listen to the teachings he had coming right out of his lips. I mean yes you and I have the pleasure of having our sins washed away by the blood of Christ but after their wash we're not even wet. But Jesus when he girded himself with towel for example on the night he was betrayed and took a basin of water and washed the feet of his disciples they really were wet there was real water there they could feel it and then they could feel the caress of his self-sacrificing love as the pressure of his hands applied the towel to their feet and cleanse them. And so we looked back with a kind of nostalgia many of us. Oh if only we could have had that experience you know then our lives would be different and transformed we'd be living faithfully giving our lives back and sacrifice for the one who sacrificed himself for us. But of course Jesus realizing this whole issue draws attention to it by telling us indeed John chapter 16 I am going to the Father where you can see me no longer. Yours and my experience is not something you know wrong it's not that oh we found the wrong we're in the wrong church because they don't see Jesus here at Park Street we ought to go somewhere else where you get to have visions of him. Now Jesus is telling his disciples I am going to the Father where you can see me no longer that's the way it's supposed to be during this period and redemptive history. But he also says I tell you the truth it's to your advantage that I am going away don't feel envious of the disciples we get a better deal according to Jesus so it must be so it's to your advantage that I am going away unless I go the counselor the Holy Spirit will not come to you but if I go I will send him to you. Well I want to return to that at the end of our message but you may wonder well what's all this have to do with the text of Genesis chapter 28 what's this have to do with Jacob's ladder that's stairway we read about well it just so happens this is the first passage in the Bible that draws our attention to this problem of the inherent invisibility of God and our innate spiritual blindness. This is where the problem is first highlighted for us when Jacob awoke from his sleep he thought surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it and he was afraid and said how awesome is this place this is none other than the house of God this is the gate of heaven. Jacob I think rightly concludes that it was not the case that at that instant God suddenly and his angelic hosts decided to touch down on planet earth or that just at that moment God created this stairway between heaven and earth that's not that's not the lesson Jacob concludes from his dream. Instead what he concludes correctly it seems to me is that the stairway was there all along that there is this constant communication between heaven and earth the invisible and the visible but that he in his spiritual dullness just hadn't seen it until now. His response when he awoke was surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it this is the house of God this is the gate of heaven and I was clueless until a moment ago until ironically until the scales fell from my eyes and I could see reality for what it really is which happened in a dream. Now I know it doesn't exactly encourage many of us that this insight would have come to our brother Jacob in the context of a dream where apt to discredit revelations that would come in such a modality. I think it's interesting that the Bible is unembarassed about emphasizing the fact that Jacob was really asleep this you know if the Bible were just made up it could invent stories that would be more believable couldn't it say well as Jacob was walking along wide awake this is what he suddenly saw but no the Bible goes out of its way to say that the sun had fallen its nighttime he fell asleep he had a dream after he woke he saw he then realized what was the situation and it's precisely that honesty then that I think helps validate other texts that with no less clarity emphasize that those revelations came in the context not of a dream but of a visible theophany for example when God speaks to Israel out of the pillar of fire and cloud and everyone heard with that loud voice that pronounced the 10 commandments emanating out of that cloud so you know God can do it that way he can do it in terms of intruding thoughts into your thought life he can do it at night when you're asleep and he can do it in the light of day plain and pure and simple out of a burning bush or a cloud of fire and smoke it's all the same now the Bible does in fact sometimes I think indicate and suggest to us that dreams are particularly useful in God's revelation in terms of his approach to unbelievers that comes through in the examples in Genesis it's Laban who's hardly a paragon of spirituality Laban gets a dream Pharaoh gets a dream later in the Bible it's Nebuchadnezzar that God speaks to in a dream and I mean some spiritual giants do too and so I don't want to you know make it a black or white issue but dreams are particularly suitable for someone the likes of Jacob a Jacob who was the antithesis of spirituality because it's in your dream life you know that your defenses are down right you know it's suddenly in your dream life that you're no longer able to crowd out God's revelation with all kinds of distractions your workaholism the obsession you have with sports or the television set or all the other stuff we fill our minds with in order to not be thinking about God I mean that I think it is an honest view of at least the condition which some of us find ourselves but your defenses are all down when you're asleep God can get through to the learning center now does that mean that the Bible is overly credulous in naïve about dreams it does it assume that every dream you know is like a mandate from heaven clearly not if we look at the whole testimony of scripture there's tremendous psychological insight it seems to me and about the nature of dreams a lot of times you know there are all kinds of garbage in your dream Job talks about this that when you're in anguish of soul and so on that torment psychological distress spills over into your dreams and he talks about his disquieting dreams in Job 4 and you perhaps experienced that likewise Ecclesiastes 5 says as a dream comes when there are many cares so this speech of a fool when there are many words and neither of them's more reliable the dreams that come from cares are just as misleading as the speech of fools I've had the experience of such dreams as I'm sure you have I remember well thinking of you college graduates the dreams that I often got around exam time one common scenario was there I was in the exam hall and for some strange reason the professor had spiritual insight into my condition and he would actually call from the front of the exam hall up to me and say Hugenberger get out you know what was the point of going through with this farce and then I would wake up and study not quite as much as I should even so but you know it's got acknowledges that sometimes that's all that's going on our dreams and the other hand in a positive way there are dreams that are purely the result of wishful thinking projections of an overactive imagination Jeremiah and Ezekiel the prophets both nail the false prophets for this in Jeremiah chapter 23 there are the false prophets going around who also had dreams you know they they had all this wishful thinking welling up within them spilled over into their dream life and so they actually get dreams but Jeremiah is allowed to see by the enablement of God that these dreams are just delusions of their minds and that's what he calls him in Jeremiah 2326 delusions of their minds wishful thinking I did not send these prophets yet they have run with their message I did not speak to them yet they prophesied but if they had stood in my counsel they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds how can you tell the difference well God tells Jeremiah you tell a difference by the result if it just simply coddles unbelievers and their false security peace peace when there is no peace that's wishful thinking if it nails them and brings the repentance and causes their heart to cleave to the living God that's from the Lord and Jeremiah goes on God says to Jeremiah so therefore let the so-called prophet who has a dream tell his dream but let one who has my words speak it faithfully for what has straw to do with grain declares the Lord is not my word like fire declares the Lord and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces that's how you can tell when the dream comes from God is it like a rock is is it like fire and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces if it transforms your life and it is from God how about this dream that Jacob received what's the evidence of its authenticity well I think of course you and I can tell the it's from the Lord because the text implies it we have the benefit of the inspired author of scripture that acknowledges the veracity of this dream we also hear the echo of this covenant promise that's now renewed to Jacob in the very same words that God spoke when he spoke to Abraham back in Genesis 12 through 22 and to Isaac in 26 now Jacob couldn't have known that but God uses the very same words so it's really God speaking through this dream using his same idioms just as he used earlier how do we know it's God speaking how did Jacob know well I think Jacob might have discerned it because you know this was just not you think he wasn't used to dreams like this you know Jacob was not a spiritual man as I say Jacob was running away from his brother and running away from God Jacob was a creep he was the kind of man who wasn't above defrauding his brother of his birthright deceiving his father blaspheming God dragging God's name through the mud when he tries to deceive his father and says the Lord your God gave me success I mean just can hardly imagine a real believer saying these things Jacob doesn't hesitate to do it because for him religions just the crutch to be used you know when you need it to get your way but now all of a sudden God is speaking to him in his dreams many of us perhaps can attest to a similar experience before I became a Christian I never dreamt about God he was never a part of my thought life it's just like the psalmist the psalmist in psalm 10 says in the pride of the wicked he does not seek God in all his thoughts there's no room for God you know he doesn't even register on the radar but once God has revealed himself to you he's so real he he occupies much of your thought life and yes indeed even starts speaking to you in your dreams and so I suppose that by itself if you had nothing else that would have awakened Jacob to suddenly have God be one of the actors in his dream and of course it's not just the presence of God it's especially what God says it's the validation of the contents in the promises fulfilled let's look at those contents what's the lessons of the latter he had a dream in which he saw a latter according to King James version or the revised version but in more modern translations I think convincingly correctly in our pew bible he sees a stairway a stairway resting on earth with its top reaching to the heaven and the angels of God were ascending and descending upon it and God then speaks to him from that context oh what's the lesson you know I love that American folk him we are climbing Jacob's ladder we were blessed to hear it by our little children not long ago but really in terms of the original context of this text I think you can see that that really isn't quite it is it it's not the point of the lesson is not we're climbing Jacob's ladder or climbing Jacob's stairway to heaven that wasn't the intention it's the exact opposite it's God in his angelic hosts descending this stairway to reach down to Jacob in his catastrophic life it's the message of grace the first lesson is surely the initiative of God's grace reaching down and lifting us up I think in context we can see this even more poignantly because this passage describes this stairway with its top reaching to the heavens in verse 12 that description is found nowhere else in the Bible except in one other passage in Genesis 11 where the citizens of Babel also construct a stairway kind of building with its top in the heaven when we were preaching on Genesis 11 you may remember that tower of Babel is really what scholars call a ziggurat or a step pyramid a stairway pyramid that's what they were building with its top in the heavens and we know about these the Mesopotamia is littered with them there are scores of them ruins of many of them still visible for tourists to see and texts that mention many of them are these stairways to heaven and in fact we have detailed descriptions of the one at Babylon Babylon that means the name of the place means the gate of heaven you'll notice the text alludes to that gate idea gate of heaven and they had this step staircase temple pyramid idea where the steps were enormous the bottom step was 300 feet by 300 feet a platform a hundred feet tall then on top of it where five more steps going up the next one 60 feet so the interval between each of the steps is not like I don't know what the the current laws require for domestic application but you know 11 inch 10 inch step whatever not 10 inches 60 feet 40 feet on the way up until the very top more than 300 feet above your head and on the top of these then was a little temple that was a receiving temple kind of like a heliport and the idea was that the God was supposed to touch down on the heliport the temple at the top which you can't get to and then he's supposed to walk down these enormous steps and come down and bless our mess he comes down to a bottom temple where the worshippers the average person can meet with him that's the idea and in fact in Genesis 11 it worked God seeing this the Bible says he had to come down to see the top you know heaven is so surpassingly exalted that God can't even quite get a view from from it from heaven you'll see has to come down and what does he do does he bless the mess of the Babylon of the Tower of Babel no no he curses him because God's lesson to us all is that the religion that he's endorsing is not some kind of self-improvement project of spiritual attainment where we climb up to heaven but it's rather the lesson of grace of his merciful condescension as he comes down and meets our need and lifts us up and blesses us in spite of ourselves he came down all right in that original stairway and he cursed them and disperse them to the four corners of the earth in curse that may remind you of something that goes on here in this stairway vision but in fact takes place in our case in this sovereign initiative of divine grace his God's promise as he reaches down to Jacob to bless him and scatter him among the nations not this time in curse but in blessing to make us ambassadors for Christ a kind of leaven in the culture of the world to transform it all as messengers of his Jacob was running away from home but he ran right into God because of the grace of God where are you running now maybe God is wanting to stop you in your tracks in the same way that he does with Jacob that's surely the first lesson the second lesson is the lesson that God is present with us even when we're unaware of it when Jacob awoke from his sleep he thought surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it he was here all along and I didn't even know it it's it's this reality of God's presence even when we are spiritually blind that stairway was there all along though I didn't see it I test the money to the uninterrupted true communion and fellowship between heaven and earth a holy God and sinners who are lost in their solitude and rebellion just like Jacob the Thomas and Psalm 139 speaks of it where can I go from your spirit where can I flee from your presence if I go up to the heavens you are there if I make my bed and shield you are there if I rise on the wings of the dawn if I settle on the far side of the sea even there your hand will guide me your right hand will hold me fast if I say surely the darkness will hide me in the light become night around me even the darkness will not be dark to you the night will shine like the day for darkness is as light to you God is present and the third lesson not just the initiative of God's grace stopping us in our tracks not just the reminder that even though we were unaware of it God was there all along even in our Bethels even when we're running away from home and running away from God a third lesson is surely that God will now be with us wherever we go it's not just that Bethel it's not just a park street church maybe the Lord reached you here but now you're heading off to DC or San Francisco or who knows where the message that we take home with us is this very same message that God pronounces to Jacob he says there the Lord stood above it and said I'm the Lord the God of your Father Abraham and the God of Isaac I will give you in your descendants the land on which you're lying your descendants will be like the dust of the earth and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you in your offspring it's it's God's answer to the Tower of Babel it's surely is that can't you hear it God's answer to the Tower of Babel this time coming in blessing from his initiative rusting us forth as missionaries and then but you go by yourself you leave God behind at Bethel not so I am with you and I will watch over you wherever you go and I will bring you back to this land and I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you God is not promising Jacob a life of ease a trouble-free life you read the next chapters he gets into all kinds of trouble that God is promising to be with him even in his trouble Psalm 91 says I will be with him in trouble and I will deliver him and honor him yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me it's not just in the good times but it's in the hard times it's like the opening him that we sang how firm a foundation fear not I am with you oh be not dismayed I'm your God and will still give you aid and then goes on when through the deep waters I call you to go the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow for I will be with you your troubles to bless and sanctify to you your deepest distress that's not just in the hymnal that's in the word of God in Isaiah chapter 43 God's promise to be with you he made to Moses at the burning bush I will be with you he said to Moses and empowered him to be used by him to deliver the people of Israel he said to Joshua in chapter 1 verse 5 I will be with you and I will never leave you nor forsake you it's the same God speaking to us saying the very same things he said to Gideon I will be with you and you'll strike down the midianites and he says to us I will be with you and I will never leave you or forsake you well of course after hearing all this you may feel this is marvelous boy I wish I were Jacob I could use a dream like that if I could just see it once you know I'd be set for life see it once the stairway in living color three dimensions there it is heaven and earth knit by a god of mercy reaching down to me then I'd be all set hearing the promise out of God himself I will be with you not just from Huguenberger I could take that and go with it I'm envious of Jacob aren't you but don't you see the rest of the Bible as it unfolds we realize wait a minute we're in the very same places Jacob in fact we get it we get it transposed to a higher key we get it even better than he could have imagined because Jesus and John chapter 1 says I am Jacob's ladder I am the bridge between heaven and earth I am the gate of God I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except by me he said to Nathaniel truly truly I say to you you shall see the heavens open and the angels of God us sending and descending on the Son of Man don't you hear it it's echoing this passage Jesus in his incarnation is not just the dream that you awaken from afterward and wonder if it's so it's something that happen in real space and real time in real history and it's the starting point of our faith and our confidence that when you've seen me you've seen the Father when you've seen Christ you've seen the bridge between heaven and earth when we've seen Christ we see the word made flesh who made us dwelling among us his glory the glory of the one and only who came from the Father full of grace and truth the one in whom the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form it's the same message of sovereignty of grace you did not choose me I chose you Jesus said to the disciples he stops us in our tracks just like he did with Paul on the way to Damascus he's like the owner of the hundred sheep that leaves in 99 and came and found you and you and you and me stopping us and turning our lives around he's the one who was present even when we were blind to the fact spiritually blind covered eyes stuffed ears hardened hearts and he's the Lord who promises his abiding presence his name is Emmanuel which means God with us as Jesus prepared his disciples for his leaving he said I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you are you living your life like an orphan or do you have the ongoing intimate fellowship of your heavenly Father I'll not leave you as orphans oh it's true it's not going to be seen by the world if something they can't see if anyone loves me he will obey my teaching my father will love him and will come to him and make our home with him I'll ask the Father and he'll give you another counselor to be with you forever the world cannot accept him because it doesn't see him or know him but you know him for he will live in you and will be in you I will not leave you as orphans surely I will be with you even to the end of the age oh we have so much to be thankful for on Pentecost Sunday Christ is with us all may God open our eyes to see the reality that's there that's the premise of our lives may it be like like a Lysha when he prayed for his servant you remember at Dolphan a Lysha and his servant were surrounded by the enemy a human army that was invincible it seemed in a Lysha asks for his servant oh Lord open his eyes that he may see he said those who are with us are more than those who are against us and a Lysha prayed oh Lord open his eyes that he may see in the Lord open the servant's eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around a Lysha that's the way it is the angel of the Lord encamping around those who fear him around you and around me let us pray our Father in heaven we acknowledge our desperate need for your help that our eyes might be opened even as a Lysha servant and even as Jacob's word that night we remember Lord Jesus your word that no one can see the kingdom of God and Lysha is born again and so we pray that you might bless us with the gift of regeneration to allow us to see things as they are and to live in the light of the invisible universe of a God of mercy and grace in whose name we pray amen