Do you know the Saviour?

Scripture Reading

John 1: 1-23

Hymns

152 – Tell me the story of Jesus

627 – We are climbing Jacobs Ladder

Humorous family whatsapp call about name dropping… you are somebody before you meet
anybody… speaking of other people but you have not anybody like Jesus!

Introduction

Second bout of devastating rainfall just past… on 14 April after the devastating rainfall on 11
and 12 April read news headlines whilst queuing to buy water… Hope washes away… what is left
now after this most recent rainfall after the resurgence of COVID 19, scares of lassa fever last
week and monkey pox this week what is next and what hope is left…

If we haven’t realised it yet human life here on earth is fragile and continually under threat and
alas not just from unseen microscopic enemies that can invade our bodies and destroy us from
within but also from other humans possessed with greed and hatred.

Just yesterday, in response to Ukraine’s please to their allies to send weapons, it was announced
that the US may send long-range missiles systems with a range of up to 70 km to Ukraine.
Missiles that have been transported almost 9200 km from the US, delivered to Ukraine, to be
fired a further 70 km, long range missile indeed. As more of Ukraine continues to be captured
by Russia after they launched a full-scale invasion on 24 February this year. The lingering
question is what will it take for this war to escalate further and wider? Will these long range
missiles be the tipping point for Russia to use even more lethal and devastating weapons?
Where will it end?

I am not here to tell you anything new or that you do probably don’t already know. This world is
coming to an end and if we haven’t sensed that then yet then I don’t know what it is going to
take us to come to that realisation. No wonder some of the greatest scientific technological
focuses are on living in space or some way of preserving human life until a cure for aging or the
many diseases we succumb to can be found.

There is however good news today, hope in a time of despair, certainty when there doesn’t
seem to be anything reliable.

Jesus walked this lonesome valley, Jesus experienced both the sorrow and separation of death,
Jesus died an undeserving death, Jesus triumphed over the grave, Jesus ascended into heaven,
Jesus is interceding, pleading, mediating, intervening on our behalf and soon Jesus will come
again with His reward of life everlasting, joy without limit and peace without disruption and
forever we will be with Him.

This though true and again not something new or something you don’t already know maybe
leads us to a more important question. Do you know Jesus, do I know Jesus, do we know Jesus?
I don’t know at what point in you are, what all you have experienced up to this point, this past
year or week or even this morning. I don’t know what your circumstances are, what is occupying
the recesses of your mind today but what I do know is that Jesus knows. Jesus knows and He
understands. Jesus knows your heart, He knows your desires, He know you and me and we can
cast all our cares upon Him for He cares for us!

The voice in the wilderness

We take up where we left off in our scripture reading John 1:24-51

The time of the Seventy weeks of Daniels prophecy of the coming of the Messiah were coming
to an end and John the Baptist was preaching and baptising in the wilderness. As a voice in the
wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord been preaching…effect of preaching... who all heard
the message… what need in their hearts were awakened…

“Anciently, when a king journeyed through the less frequented parts of his dominion, a
company of men was sent ahead of the royal chariot to level the steep places and to fill up the
hollows, that the king might travel in safety and without hindrance. This custom is employed by
the prophet to illustrate the work of the gospel. “Every valley shall be exalted, and every
mountain and hill shall be made low.” When the Spirit of God, with its marvelous awakening
power, touches the soul, it abases human pride. Worldly pleasure and position and power are
seen to be worthless. “Imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the
knowledge of God” are cast down; every thought is brought into captivity “to the obedience of
Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5. Then humility and self-sacrificing love, so little valued among men,
are exalted as alone of worth. This is the work of the gospel, of which John's message was a
part.” DA 135.1

John and Andrew had heard John the Baptists proclaim behold the lamb of God who takes away
the sins of the world… they come to follow Him…Andrew goes on to tell his brother Peter “We
have found the Messiah”

Jesus finds Phillip and bids him “follow me”.

Phillip goes on to find Nathaniel…

Nathaniel was contemplating what he had experienced at the baptism of Jesus and by all the
baptisms of John the Baptist.

Later on when John the Baptist was in prison Jesus as these very same disciples what they did
they go to see in the wilderness… a reed shaking in the wind… Why have we come here to day?

John 1:45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in
the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. 46 And Nathanael
said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and
see. 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in
whom is no guile!
As Jesus addressed Nathaniel, Nathaniel was taken aback.

John 1:48 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. 49 Nathanael
answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.

What caused Nathaniel to say that? Jesus touches him, connects with him, appeals to him.

John 1:50 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.

It is a great thing to discover that somebody has known of me before I even knew them. That
was something that really touched Nathaniel’s heart, but Jesus said there is something bigger
than that. There is something that you’re going to discover that is greater than what you have
experienced so far.

John 1:51 And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven
open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

Here is a profound message that Jesus is giving to Nathaniel and to all of us today that the
greatest thing to discover, far greater than all the overtures of miraculous impact that we often
see in Christianity. Even Satan can give people that sense, but here is something greater. Jesus
is the ladder upon which angels communicate from heaven to earth. He said you will see this.
This is the greatest thing that we are to open our hearts to. By God’s grace may He help us to
see this amazing picture of Jesus.

“In the vision the plan of redemption was presented to Jacob, not fully, but in such parts
as were essential to him at that time. The mystic ladder revealed to him in his dream was
the same to which Christ referred in His conversation with Nathanael. Said He, “Ye shall
see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”
John 1:51. Up to the time of man's rebellion against the government of God, there had
been free communion between God and man. But the sin of Adam and Eve separated
earth from heaven, so that man could not have communion with his Maker. Yet the world
was not left in solitary hopelessness. The ladder represents Jesus, the appointed medium
of communication. Had He not with His own merits bridged the gulf that sin had made,
the ministering angels could have held no communion with fallen man. Christ connects
man in his weakness and helplessness with the source of infinite power.” PP 184.2.

Nathaniel realised that Jesus was the real deal. He acknowledges that Jesus was the Messiah,
but Jesus promises that there is something even greater than knowing about Jesus. Jesus wants
us to have more than just a knowledge but a personal experience and trust relationship out of
love for Him. This starts with knowing and seeing the ladder, our connection, our lifeline but
then also taking hold of it by faith and climbing, one step at a time, higher and higher…

Jesus the ladder

Jacob’s vision is what Jesus is referring to. Jacob in his dream saw the ladder and angels going
up and down. This was the ladder that depicted the plan of redemption that was presented to
Jacob.

The ladder represents Jesus, the appointed medium of communication. Had He not with
His own merits bridged the gulf that sin had made, the ministering angels could have held
no communion with fallen man. Christ connects man in his weakness and helplessness
with the source of infinite power. {PP 184.2}
All this was revealed to Jacob in his dream. Although his mind at once grasped a part of
the revelation, its great and mysterious truths were the study of his lifetime, and
unfolded to his understanding more and more. {PP 184.3}

These are the words that Jesus uttered to Nathaniel. You will see greater things than just what I
was unfolding to you in the fact that I saw you under the fig tree. The wonderful sense of
somebody knowing my thoughts before he even knows me is an amazing discovery but He said
greater things are to unfold to you, and in our own minds we are called upon to see a mystery
unfolding to us, as to Jacob. Grasp the thought! The ladder – Jesus is that ladder. As you
contemplate the ladder, what is to unfold to our minds? May God help us to grasp the unfolding
of this message of Jacob’s ladder so that it will become more and more powerful to us.

The ideal of Christian character is Christlikeness. As the Son of man was perfect in His life,
so His followers are to be perfect in their life. {DA 311.4}

Now here comes the striking impact. What is it that we are to reach? We are to reach perfection.
This is the very thing that people are crumbling under in these last days. We cannot be perfect
like Jesus was; look at me I am failing miserably. This is the ideal to reach for. His followers are
to be perfect in their life as Christ was in His.

Jesus was in all things made like unto His brethren. He became flesh, even as we are. He
was hungry and thirsty and weary. He was sustained by food and refreshed by sleep. He
shared the lot of man; yet He was the blameless Son of God. He was God in the flesh. His
character is to be ours. The Lord says of those who believe in Him, “I will dwell in them,
and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16.
{DA 311.4}

This is what we need to reach; Christlike character because Jesus developed a character here on
earth as one with us. Can you see we need to understand the power that will bring us there?

Christ is the ladder that Jacob saw, the base resting on the earth, and the topmost round
reaching to the gate of heaven, to the very threshold of glory. If that ladder had failed by
a single step of reaching the earth, we should have been lost. But Christ reaches us where
we are. {DA 311.5}

He was the ladder. By not a single step must He miss out on touching us. He was the ladder; the
lowest rung came and touched us where we were. Christ reaches us where we are.

He took our nature and overcame, that we through taking His nature might overcome.
Made “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3), He lived a sinless life. Now by His
divinity He lays hold upon the throne of heaven, while by His humanity He reaches us. He
bids us by faith in Him attain to the glory of the character of God. Therefore are we to be
perfect, even as our “Father which is in heaven is perfect.” {DA 311.5}

Here lies the mystery of redemption. The ladder is Jesus. Not by a single rung must He fail to
meet us. In His humanity He comes right down into the bottom of the pit and the ladder
reaches all the way up to God Himself; the character we are to reach.

Right from the beginning we have been delving into this and here at the end we are looking at
the ladder. We are culminating the very end of the process that we are to finally reach which is
perfection of character. We start from the bottom rung of the ladder where it touches us to the
uppermost rung, Christian perfection.

As we meditate upon this ladder, when do we use a ladder? What is a ladder for? It is to climb
from a low spot to a high spot. If somebody has fallen into a deep pit, a ladder is sent down to
reach the person in the depth of the pit so that the person in the pit is called upon to start
climbing out of the pit. There is another picture. Sometimes people can hardly manage to climb
up a ladder and a rope or a chain is let down so that the person in the pit can be reached where
he is. It has to come all the way down. If it doesn’t touch the person who is in the bottom of the
pit can he get a hold of it? Not at all.

It is impossible for us, of ourselves, to escape from the pit of sin in which we are sunken.
SC 18.1}

When you fall into a pit it’s pretty wet in there. When Jeremiah was let down into the dungeon
he came down with a squelch, it was muddy and wet up to his knees. The pit in which we have
sunken is the pit of sin. It’s a terrible condition which we cannot help ourselves to get out of.

Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an
unclean? not one.” “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be.” Job 14:4; Romans 8:7. Education, culture, the exercise of
the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless. {SC 18.1}

Did you notice education, effort, the exercise of the will, these are important exercises.
However, when it comes to the bottom of the pit where we are, is there anything we can do? We
are stuck in the mud. Here we are powerless. The carnal mind, the mind that is fleshly, cannot
change.
They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they cannot change the heart;
they cannot purify the springs of life. There must be a power working from within, a new
life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. { SC 18.1}

What is that power? It’s what we have been studying, the power of the cross.

That power is Christ. His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and
attract it to God, to holiness. {SC 18.1}

There we are grovelling at the bottom of the pit of fleshly sinful mindedness and we cannot rid
ourselves or change our pattern of thinking, so Jesus, the ladder, had to come down and not by
a single rung of the ladder must He fail in touching us where we are. The ladder had to be let
down from the top and not dangle part of the way up; it had to come, squelch down into the
bottom of the pit to reach us exactly where we are. We can’t even move ourselves out of our
muddy condition. It must come and touch us where we are. We are dealing with the mind and
the heart that is so much paralysed by sin. We have been wounded by sin to such a degree.

We have been great sinners, but Christ died that we might be forgiven. The merits of His
sacrifice are sufficient to present to the Father in our behalf. Those to whom He has
forgiven most will love Him most, and will stand nearest to His throne to praise Him for
His great love and infinite sacrifice. It is when we most fully comprehend the love of God
that we best realize the sinfulness of sin. When we see the length of the chain that was let
down for us, when we understand something of the infinite sacrifice that Christ has made
in our behalf, the heart is melted with tenderness and contrition. {SC 35.4}

When Jesus was talking to Nathaniel, He said you will see greater things than what I have just
given you to touch, to feel. You will see the Son of man, the ladder, you will see Him as the
length of the chain that was let down, you will see Him coming right down where you are and
when you feel your utter sinfulness, your absolute hopelessness and you see God’s love coming
and touching you in the most depraved position that you are, this deep sense of the length of
the chain that was sent down for you will do something to you. It will change something inside
of us. In our lethargy, in our condition of sinful hopeless muddiness, something will change
when we see the ladder, when we see the chain, the love of God in that story.

The example of this is the woman that was caught in adultery, Mary. She really believed she was
lost. She was waiting for the first stone to be cast and in that depressing, hopeless sense she
was waiting. As she looked up these men were all gone and only Jesus was there. When, fully
overwhelmed with her deep hopeless condition, Jesus said, where are your accusers? No where,
Lord. Neither do I accuse you. What happened to Mary? She broke down, she realised now the
love and she became the most devoted follower of Jesus Christ of all the others that were
around Him. She knew something, she experienced something and this is what we all need to
experience; the deep touch of the love of God in our own lives that will mould us, that will lift us
out of the miry clay of our carnal sinful mind. She could not lift herself; she could not change
her life. Christ melted her heart.
We all are in this pit of sin, the bottom rung of the ladder. That bottom rung of the ladder
touched the sinner where he was. Jesus descended to the bottom of the pit. We need to see
this; we need to contemplate this so that we become enamoured, that we may become
enthralled with the love that makes the change. We cannot change any other way. From a
painful process Jesus commenced travelling down the ladder of himself. The painful process of
Jesus becoming a little seed into the womb of Mary; that was our first study. He made Himself
of no reputation; He commenced His downward journey.

Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God:

In other words, He didn’t want to hang onto that. He let Himself down out of that.

Philippians 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

That wasn’t enough; he had to come lower still.

Philippians 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

That even the death of the cross must be our study to see the bottom rung of that ladder. We
have gone right through the process of the power of the cross in our studies and we want to
pick it up again and appreciate; when He was at the cross He was obedient even unto the death
of the cross. What was the death of the cross? He said my God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken
me? We are looking at the bottom rung of the ladder, we are looking at the whole length of
which he came down and not by a single rung short of touching us. What is the bottom rung of
the ladder? My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? What is the answer to that, to help us
understand the length of the chain?

Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear
heavy, that it cannot hear:

Wasn’t God the Father with Jesus there? He was right there. Why did Jesus cry why hast Thou
forsaken me?

Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins
have hid [his] face from you, that he will not hear.

Is this the answer to Christ’s experience? Because we don’t think deeply enough to see the chain
that was let down we miss the point. When we cry out I am lost, I don’t feel God, God is not with
me anymore. Why have you forsaken me? Jesus is right there in that very experience with us.
That is the bottom rung of the ladder that touches us in our experience. We don’t often permit
ourselves to actually surrender ourselves to the reality in which Christ called out why have you
forsaken me? It was because my sins that have separated between me and God separated the
sense of God’s presence with Him. When I am in that deplorable condition, like Mary, by heart is
touched. What? My sins were His sins? This is the part that is never enlarged to the mind of the
common Christian today. This is what we needs to be unfolded to us.

Psalm 40:7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book [it is] written of me,

Jesus came; He came down as a chain. Now we look at the length of it. What is the bottom
length of it?

Psalm 40:12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken
hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head:
therefore my heart faileth me. .

Jesus expressed separation from the Father because you and I have a conscious sense of
separation from the Father because of our sins. The description here is so plain; mine iniquities
have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up.

So there we are in the bottom of the pit, not able to look up and there is the ladder touching me
as Jesus cried exactly like that. He touched us where we are when we can’t look up. As we are
feeling the touch of Jesus, the chain or the ladder, something changes within. We experience a
mind of Christ at the bottom rung in the mud.

If you were drowning; have you heard of a man drowning clinging to a straw? When a person
drowns and he feels that he is dying, he will grab for anything that is there and he will hang on
tight even if it’s a straw thinking it might save him. We are all drowning human beings in the
bottom of the pit in the mud. There is a chain dangling right there and if you are drowning and
a chain is there you will grab it won’t you? That chain has been let down; it’s Jesus Christ. Grab
hold of Him. When we feel condemned by the law, when we feel we are drowning in our sins,
don’t just lament the fact. I see this frequently; people lament about their condition. Cease
doing that. I am drowning yes. I have been bitten by the serpent, I have been weakened by sin,
I can’t do anything but I can as I am drowning, take hold of the chain that is sent down below.
Instead of saying, oh I’m so sinfully helpless, carrying on but not taking hold of the help, the
chain is right there.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Anyone who believes means anyone that will clutch and hold on tight will not perish. It’s so
simple. I am perishing, I’m drowning, the chain is let down; all that I have to do is grab it where I
am, my immediate proximity. It’s right there next to me. Take hold of it as did Mary and Jacob.
Do you remember how he clutched? He had seen the dream and gone through all his
experiences after he had deceived his brother (he was a supplanter) and then he saw all the
experiences with getting his wife and got deceived there; he saw the whole drama and then he
was on his way after all those years back to Esau and he knew that Esau was coming. He was
drowning. He was in a desperate condition and in his desperate condition he went out after he
had sent them all away in the night to spend time in contemplation. What happened?
Somebody touched him. He whipped around and began to fight until he realised who He was.
Jacob “had power over the Angel, and prevailed.” Hosea 12:4. Through humiliation,
repentance, and self-surrender, this sinful, erring mortal prevailed with the Majesty of
heaven. He had fastened his trembling grasp upon the promises of God, and the heart of
Infinite Love could not turn away the sinner’s plea. {PP 197.1}

Jacob had a trembling grasp. In the midst of the morass of all that goes on in the mind with all
the depression, guilt and overwhelming sense of weakness and I can’t achieve, there is the
picture of Jesus touching me where I am as it was Jesus in Jacob’s experience. As we see Jesus
with me in my experience, instead of lamenting and dying, take hold of it with a grasp upon the
promises of God as Jesus did right there at the cross. He took hold of His knowledge of God’s
mercy and He would not let Him go. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. I trust you, I
cling to you.

There Jesus gave us the very answer in the midst of our beholding Him suffering with us He
shows us how to deal with it as did Jacob. The infinite love of God, the heart of infinite love
cannot turn away from the sinner’s plea. When Jesus was there with all our sins upon Him, the
Father did not turn away from him. If He was riddled with sins that were more than the hair of
His head and the Father did not let Him go, will He let you and me go? He demonstrated that He
won’t. This is the path of our meditation that is so essential so that our heart is touched with the
mercy and love of God to the most depraved sinner.

Fastening his trembling grasp, Jacob took hold of Jesus and said I will not let you go unless you
bless me. Do you do that when you are overwhelmed with your depraved condition when the
reality of sin becomes real to us, a state of hopelessness?

Jacob had received the blessing for which his soul had longed. His sin as a supplanter and
deceiver had been pardoned. The crisis in his life was past. Doubt, perplexity, and remorse
had embittered his existence, but now all was changed; and sweet was the peace of
reconciliation with God. Jacob no longer feared to meet his brother. God, who had
forgiven his sin, could move the heart of Esau also to accept his humiliation and
repentance. {PP 198.1}

The change from doubt, perplexity and remorse to a peace that passes understanding is what is
found at the bottom rung of the ladder. We hang onto that and we take the comfort that Jacob
did where we know like with Jesus who is the greatest example, the Father lifted Him out of the
pit and we together with Him if we hang onto Him. All we are to do is to hang onto Jesus and
that beautiful forgiveness and then what happened to Jesus will happen to us because we are in
Christ relying on the Father.

Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock, [and] established my goings.
Jesus was lifted by the Father. He was the chain, He was the ladder and it was as He clung to the
chain, as He clung to the ladder the ladder and the chain lifted Him out of the mud. This is to be
our experience. This is the answer to all our concerns and troubles.

Psalm 40:3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, [even] praise unto our God: many
shall see [it], and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. 4 Blessed [is] that man that maketh the
LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

There are many lies out there. They are the lies that do not embark on Jesus as being at the
bottom rung of the ladder with us. They trust in lies, they trust in lies of salvation different to
what it actually is. We are to see Jesus one with us to relieve us and to give us peace at the
bottom rung of the ladder. There is the turning point at the bottom rung of the ladder if we
cling to that ladder. Jesus came here to absorb us as sinners into Himself.