Theological term
Son of Man
17 sermons · All terms
The Ascended King
Daniel 7:13–14 presents the Son of Man receiving everlasting dominion, glory, and a kingdom from the Ancient of Days — a vision that finds its fulfillment not in a yet-future event but in the ascension of Christ following the perfection of His mediatorial work. The passage is read as the restoration of the dominion forfeited by the first Adam, now conferred upon the last Adam who succeeded where the first failed. Four heads structure the exposition: the identity of the one who receives the kingdom, the identity of the one who grants it, the nature and scope of the kingdom conferred, and the unshakable confidence this reality affords kingdom citizens. The sermon closes with a call to praise the ascended King and to pray for the advance of His kingdom with confidence that it shall never pass away.
The Arrival of the Hour
John 12:20–26 presents the arrival of the appointed 'hour' — the cross — through two interconnected scenes: Gentile Greeks seeking an audience with Jesus, and Christ's own declaration that the Son of Man must be glorified through death. The universal scope of redemption, foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament and confirmed in the Greeks' arrival, demonstrates that Israel's Messiah is the Savior of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Christ's death is not merely exemplary but substitutionary and necessary — the grain of wheat that must fall and die to produce much fruit — grounding both the imputation of His righteousness to believers and the certainty of their eternal union with Him. Genuine discipleship flows from this: those who by grace receive Christ are marked by a radical reorientation away from self-love and this present evil age toward willing service and following of the Lamb.
The Consubstantiality of the Son, Part 2
John 5:24–30 presents Jesus responding to the Jewish charge that he made himself equal with God — not by retreating, but by affirming it through two divine functions: authority over life and authority over judgment. This sermon works through the declaration of that authority in eternal life (vv. 24–25), the rationale grounded in the eternal generation of the Son from the Father (vv. 26–27), and the promise of his authority on the final day of judgment (vv. 28–30, previewed). Central to the argument is the doctrine of consubstantiality — that the Son shares the one simple undivided divine essence with the Father from all eternity — which grounds both his power to effectually call dead sinners to life and his right to preside as judge of all the earth. The sermon calls hearers to receive Christ by faith, since only God himself can save sinners, and it is the voice of the Son of God alone that awakens the spiritually dead.
The First Disciples of Jesus
John 1:35–51 records the calling of the first disciples of Jesus — Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip, and Nathanael — and the passage frames their coming to Christ as the inevitable fruit of John the Baptist's preparatory ministry and the sovereign grace of God. The sermon traces how each disciple is drawn to Christ, how each immediately brings another, and how the accumulating titles given to Jesus in this section — Lamb of God, Rabbi, Messiah, Son of God, King of Israel, Son of Man — build a Christological portrait that mirrors the prologue's declaration that the Word was God. Christ's omniscience in knowing Nathanael and his royal authority in renaming Simon Peter underscore that these disciples are not choosing a teacher but being conquered by a divine Savior. The pattern of Andrew fetching Peter and Philip fetching Nathanael becomes the sermon's model for evangelism: those saved by sovereign grace become, without coercion or manipulation, propagators of that same grace.
The Cross Predicted and Rejected
Mark 8:31-33 records Jesus' first explicit prediction of His suffering, death, and resurrection — a proclamation that shattered every nationalist expectation of a triumphant Messiah. The sermon works through two movements: the cross predicted (vv. 31-32a), where Jesus identifies Himself as the suffering Son of Man whose death and resurrection were decreed by God from eternity, and the cross rejected (vv. 32b-33), where Peter's rebuke earns the reply 'Get behind me, Satan' because man's thoughts about the Messiah stand in direct opposition to God's. Rooted in Isaiah 53, Daniel 7, Hosea 6, and Psalm 118, the exposition argues that penal substitutionary atonement — the Son of Man bearing the wrath sinners deserve — is the only ground of eternal life, and that the same Christ who prepared His disciples for His own suffering now calls His people to take up their crosses in this present evil age.
The Hearing before the Sanhedrin, Part 1
The trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:57–64) was no honest hearing but a predetermined execution by the highest religious court in Israel, assembled in violation of their own law and Scripture. This sermon examines the setting of the hearing, the fraudulent witness testimony regarding the temple, and the high priest's sworn examination of Jesus — in which Christ openly affirms that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, and Daniel's Son of Man. The temple charge against Jesus is shown to be a deliberate misquotation and misinterpretation of John 2:19, where Christ spoke not of the physical structure but of His own death and resurrection. The Sanhedrin's wickedness is set in sharp contrast to the resolve of Christ, who endures this sham trial in silence and then under oath, fulfilling Isaiah 53 and Daniel 7, in order to accomplish the salvation of His people.
The Great Commission, Part 1
Matthew 28:16–18 presents the risen Christ meeting His eleven disciples on a Galilean mountain and declaring absolute, universal authority before issuing the Great Commission. This sermon examines both the meeting itself — including the disciples' worshipful yet hesitant response — and the nature of Christ's authority, tracing it through eight observations: its prior demonstrations in Matthew's Gospel, its Old Testament background in Yahweh's sovereign lordship over heaven and earth, its active rather than passive character, its expression of Christ's triumph over earthly and demonic enemies, its grounding in Christ's mediatorial office rather than His eternal divine nature, its fulfilment of Daniel 7:13–14, its place within Matthew's kingship-of-Christ theme, and its role as the necessary foundation for the church's disciple-making mission. The practical thrust is that Christ's all-encompassing authority demands total submission in every sphere of life, and that same authority is the sole ground for the viability and confidence of the Great Commission.
The Hearing before the Sanhedrin, Part 3
Matthew 26:65–68 records the formal charge of blasphemy leveled against Christ by the high priest Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin's unanimous verdict that he is deserving of death. This sermon, the third in a series on Christ before the Sanhedrin, examines three movements in the text: the high priest's indictment, the Sanhedrin's verdict, and the physical mistreatment of the Son of Man. The central irony running through the passage is that the one charged with blasphemy is the eternal Son of God, while those bringing the charge are themselves blaspheming — misrepresenting and condemning the Holy One of Israel in fulfillment of the very Scriptures they profess to uphold.
The Hearing before the Sanhedrin, Part 2
At the trial before the Sanhedrin, two false witnesses twist Christ's words about destroying the temple, and the high priest demands to know whether Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Christ's answer — 'it is as you said' — is an unambiguous messianic confession, immediately amplified by his identification of himself as the Son of Man of Daniel 7 enthroned at the right hand of the Father (Psalm 110:1), a claim that converges multiple streams of Old Testament prophecy. The sermon sets this confession against the backdrop of human sinfulness — visible in the kangaroo court's predetermined verdict and willingness to suborn perjury — and calls hearers to see in Christ the true temple-builder of the Davidic covenant, the substitutionary curse-bearer of Isaiah 53, and the only Savior in whom God and sinners dwell together.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 10
Matthew 24:32–35 presents the parable of the fig tree and Christ's solemn declaration that 'this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.' This sermon argues the preterist interpretation: the parable is not a prophecy about the 1948 rebirth of Israel but a sign given to first-century disciples that the judgment on Jerusalem in AD 70 was near, confirming that Christ is presently enthroned at the Father's right hand. The phrase 'this generation' carries the same lexical and contextual meaning it holds throughout Matthew's Gospel — the contemporaries of Jesus — and Christ staked His prophetic integrity on the fulfilment of every detail within that generation. Hearers are urged to let the text drive their eschatology, and ultimately to flee not to the mountains of Judea but to Christ, the only refuge from divine judgment.
The Olivet Discourse, Part 9
Matthew 24:30–31 presents what many regard as the decisive difficulty for a preterist reading of the Olivet Discourse: the Son of Man coming on clouds and the gathering of the elect. This sermon argues that both verses are best understood through the grammar of Old Testament prophetic and apocalyptic language, in which cloud-coming consistently signifies God's judicial intervention against nations rather than a physical, bodily descent. The primary interpretive key is Daniel 7:13–14, read as an ascension text in which the Son of Man comes *to* the Ancient of Days, receives universal dominion, and then sends forth messengers to gather his elect — a movement that corresponds to Christ's post-resurrection enthronement and the subsequent worldwide proclamation of the gospel. Hearers are urged to rest their souls in the present, active reign of Christ at the Father's right hand, and to guard against both false teaching and carnal anxiety by understanding what Scripture actually teaches about the session and kingdom of the ascended Lord.
The Identity of the Son of Man
Matthew 16:13–17 confronts every hearer with the most consequential question ever asked: who is the Son of Man? Working through Christ's question to the disciples, Peter's confession, and the beatitude Jesus pronounces over him, this exposition demonstrates that the title 'Son of Man' points not primarily to Christ's humanity but to Daniel's cosmic ruler given an everlasting dominion, and that Peter's identification of Jesus as 'the Christ, the Son of the living God' is the climax of Matthew's Galilean narrative. The sermon argues that this confession is not the product of human wisdom or religious sensitivity but of the Father's sovereign, gracious act of revelation — and that those who receive it are called to live and die in accordance with it.
The Parables of the Dragnet and Scribe
Matthew 13:47–53 closes the kingdom parables with two final teachings: the dragnet and the scribe. The dragnet parable presses the certainty of coming judgment — at the end of the age, angels will separate the wicked from the just and cast the wicked into the furnace of fire — a reality Jesus repeats deliberately so that no hearer can ignore it. The parable of the scribe then turns to those entrusted with the mysteries of the kingdom: disciples who have understood these truths bear a corresponding responsibility to function as faithful householders, bringing out of the treasure things new and old. The sermon calls every hearer either to flee to Christ as the only refuge from the wrath to come, or, if already a believer, to take seriously the stewardship of gospel knowledge.
The Parable of the Tares Explained
Matthew 13:34–43 records Christ's private explanation of the parable of the wheat and tares to His disciples, and the sermon works through that explanation in two movements: the purpose of parabolic teaching and the seven details of the parable itself. The disciples' question falls on the tares, not the wheat, and the sermon follows that emphasis — the final destiny of the wicked, cast into the furnace of fire, stands at the center of the exposition. The identity of the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the wicked one is traced from Genesis 3:15 through the New Testament, establishing that the antithesis between the two seeds runs the entire length of redemptive history. The sermon closes with urgent evangelistic appeal: flee to Christ now, for every person will stand before the Son of Man who is both Savior and Judge.
The Lord of the Sabbath, Part 1
Matthew 12:1–8 presents the Pharisees' accusation that Christ's disciples violated the Sabbath, and Christ's five-fold response that exposes their misinterpretation of God's law. Working through the examples of David, the priestly ministry, the superiority of Christ over the temple, and the prophetic word of Hosea 6:6, the sermon argues that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath — the one to whom the Sabbath institution pointed from its creation in Genesis 2. The Pharisees' legalism, built on the Mishnah's 39 categories rather than Scripture, condemned the guiltless and revealed both antinomian abuse of the law and a failure of mercy. The sermon closes by calling hearers to distinguish authorized Sabbath works (necessity, piety, and mercy) from the twin errors of Pharisaic legalism and contemporary license, and to rest in Christ himself as the fulfillment and Lord of the Sabbath.
Christ and the Paralytic
The forgiveness of sins, not physical healing, is the central miracle of Matthew 9:1–8. Christ's pronouncement to the paralytic — 'Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you' — exposes sin as the problem worse than paralysis and declares the primary mission of Matthew's Gospel: Jesus saves His people from their sins. The scribes' charge of blasphemy is answered not refuted by argument but by the visible healing of the paralytic, which serves as public proof that the Son of Man possesses on earth the divine authority to forgive sins. The proper response to this authority is the response of the multitude: marvel and fear that together fuel genuine worship and praise.
The Cost of Discipleship
Matthew 8:18–22 presents two case studies in discipleship: a scribe who too eagerly volunteers to follow Jesus without counting the cost, and a disciple who hesitates, asking to bury his father first. Working through the first case, this exposition presses the meaning of Christ's self-identification as the Son of Man — drawing on Isaiah 53 and Daniel 7 — to show that discipleship entails not earthly prosperity or ease but rejection, deprivation, and willing loss of temporal goods. The sermon closes by locating the ground of discipleship in the indicative of the gospel: God accepts sinners through Christ, and it is from that acceptance that the costly call to follow flows.