Help everyone to grow through the message that pastor is a share and that you'd help us all be further rooted in you Lord I pray that you'd help to help us to participate in the expansion of your kingdom and Please bless this offering to the furtherance thereof in Christ's name. Amen I Well, good morning. Today's a special day. We're going to have, again, three young people making their vows before God in baptism here at the end of the service. A little forewarning, the water's maybe a little cold. I think they got turned on at one, so we left the machine running, turning it up, but it's not as cold as the grave. But baptism is a very exciting time. We love to see young and old alike coming to the waters of baptism, identifying with Christ who died for them, who was buried for them, who rose for them, who lives to make intercession for them. When we get baptized, we're identifying with our unity in Christ. We are one with Christ. His death is our death, legally. He died for our sins. His rising from the dead is our justification. It's God the Father, God the Holy Spirit saying, we accept this offering on behalf of this individual. And baptism is, in a sense, a sort of vow as well. Because by doing this identification, we're saying, he died for me, I'm going to live for him. And oftentimes, when we do baptisms, I'll take a break from our text, since I've been teaching through Genesis, and I'll go somewhere else. But there wasn't really a need to do so, because our text, I think in many ways, fits very well with baptism. We're going to read this text about Jacob. And as I mentioned before, Jacob is leaving home. He's not a young man. Chronologist, I inaccurately said he was around 70. He wasn't 70, he was 77 when he leaves home. We can gather that by how old he was when he died, how long he spends in Haran, et cetera. Do the math backwards, he's 77. He's not a young kid going to college. He's a 77-year-old man leaving the house of his father, Isaac, and going on a journey to, he believes, find a wife, and he's fleeing his brother who wants to kill him because he's been a liar, a manipulator, and a cheat. which is the fruit of his life. The evidence of his life is up to this point, he is an unconverted man. And I believe as you see in this text, he's still in this text an unconverted man. He's following in the way of the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, but he's not yet the God of Jacob. But by the end of this chapter, he will make a vow to God. It's a conditional vow. Lord, if you'll do these things for me, then I will serve you. Let's see what happens. And he sets up a pillar and he anoints the pillar. It's a stone of remembrance. And he calls the place the house of God. And he says, Lord, if you'll bring me back to this place, then I will serve you. He makes a vow. And He anoints a stone as a remembrance. If I see this stone again, and God has done what I've asked Him to do, then I will serve Him. And God will later call Him on this vow. Now, we don't baptize people on the promise that one day they'll serve Him. Nevertheless, a baptism is a thing of remembrance. It's something we do. We can mark it on our calendar, and we can say, On that day, I made a covenant with God, I made a profession of faith to God, in which I identified in what Christ has done for me, and I committed to Him, in the presence of witnesses, in the sight of God, that my life belongs to Him. That His death is my death, and therefore my life is His life. He died for me, I will live for Him. And we are to remember it. We're to mark it down. and make it a stone of remembrance that we would never forget. Now I entitled this, The House of God and Gate to Heaven. And the point of this morning's sermon is that Jesus is the house of God and the gate to heaven. We must mark and remember our vows to him. If you'd stand with me now for the reading of God's word, we're going to Genesis chapter 28. Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed. And behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am Yahweh. The God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. And you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I did not know it. And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. So early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my Father's house in peace. Then Yahweh shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me, I will give a tenth to you. Let us pray. Father God, we thank you, Lord, that Jesus is our house of God, the Word of God, made in flesh, made incarnate. In you dwells the fullness of grace and truth. Praise you, Lord Jesus. Thank you. Incarnate word for becoming flesh for us, for being the dwelling place of God. And thank you, Lord, for bringing us into union with you so that your church is also a house of God, the dwelling place of God. Lord, I pray that you would fill this house today, that you would be in this place, that you would turn sinners to yourself, that your saints would be strengthened, that we'd be stirred up to faith and good works and love. The Father, you would make us a fervent people. for all that is godly and good and just. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. You may be seated. So this passage, as I said before, Jacob sets up a stone, he anoints the stone, he renames the place Bethel, house of God, so that when he comes back he'll remember this place, remember what has taken place. He puts out this conditional promise to God And I believe this is evidence that as of yet, Jacob is an unconverted man. Later on, he will be directed by God to return to Bethel, to go back by this place. And he will meet with the angel of the Lord and will wrestle with him until the dawning of the day. And later on, when he's blessing his grandchildren, getting ready to depart this world, He'll refer back to that event as the time when the Lord, he met the Lord, the angel of the Lord who redeemed him from all evil. Now he's been raised, shall we say, in a Christian home. He's been taught the law of God. He spent time with Abraham. He spent time with Isaac. He's been to the places that his father had set up, wells that were named after the oaths that God had made to him. and altars that were named after the Lord. He's heard the accounts of how his father was taken by his grandfather to Mount Moriah and was ready to be offered up to God. And God stayed the hand of Abraham and made promises to him that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. He's heard these stories. He's heard the accounts. He's been taught the word of God. But as of yet, he has still not surrendered his life to God. As of yet, He's been a deceiver and a manipulator and a cheat. He hasn't yet got a name change, he hasn't yet got a heart change, but here he has an encounter with God and it's the beginning, it's really the beginning of his journey towards a relationship with Jesus Christ, putting it in our terms. It is a momentous event. Let's look at our text starting with Jacob left Beersheba and went towards Haran. So he leaves Beersheba and he heads towards Haran. Now Haran I should start with Beersheba means the well of the oath, or the well of seven. We've talked about that in past sermons. First of all, Abraham, having brought seven lambs, makes a covenant with Abimelech in this place, and they build an altar, they make sacrifices, he sacrifices seven lambs, but this word seven, this word Sheba means seven, but it also means oath, means both. and both are attached in the text to this place. He makes oaths and he offers up seven lambs and later on God will make an oath to him and Abraham will end up living in Beersheba. He'll live at the place of the oath. This is where he'll end up in. This is where he'll end up living. But Haran is where Abraham starts his journey. When we read back in Genesis 11, Back in Genesis 11 we get introduced to Abraham and for brevity in verse 31 it says, So Abraham began in this land of Haran, which means like a mountaineer, a mountainous region. And then in chapter 12 verse 1, it says, now the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you and will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. As of this point, Abraham doesn't really know the Lord yet. God initiates a relationship with Abraham and says, first he says, leave Ur, they get stuck in Haran and then he says, I want you to get out of your father's house, I want you to leave Haran and I'm going to take you to a place that I will show you. Later on, it will say that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Later on he will be justified by faith and later on he will be called the friend of God. God has initiated a walk with him and Abraham begins that walk that day. He's beginning his walk with God. That's where Abraham's story begins. So Abraham begins his story in Haran and it ends in Beersheba. That's where he ends up living long term. Jacob begins in Beersheba and he's told go back to Haran and get your wife there. He won't get saved in Haran though. It's interesting, his journey will, like Abraham, begin at Haran, he will leave Haran, and he will head back to Beersheba, and along the way he will encounter the Lord. So it's kind of interesting because it's almost like Jacob is starting the process. He has to go back to where Abraham began. He has to begin in Haran and he will end in Beersheba, but as of yet, Jacob doesn't know the Lord. What's also interesting and one of the reasons I wanted to read this Genesis 12 is this phrase, I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. That promise in you, all the families of the earth has been blessed is reiterated to Abraham again, it's reiterated to Isaac and it's reiterated to Jacob, why? Because through Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob will come the line that the Messiah will come. Messiah will come through the seed of Abraham through the seed of Isaac, but not Ishmael, through the seed of Jacob, but not Esau, and through Jacob will come Christ and whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed." Ultimately this points to Christ. Christ is the seed of Abraham, the seed of Isaac, the seed of Jacob, and whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And in this text we see the promise reiterated to Jacob. and you all the nations of the earth will be blessed. This is a very important promise. It is a messianic promise that in Christ, all the nations, all the nations, every ethnicity, every ethnos under the sun. That's why in the Great Commission, we're to go into all nations and preach the gospel, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, because that is the culmination of this promise. It points to Christ. Now as we see this passage very much points to Christ because Christ is the house of God and Christ is the gate to heaven. Alright so later on Abraham will end up living in Beersheba. After he offers up Isaac on the altar, here's later on in chapter 22. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the stand that is on the seashore and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice." So Abraham returned to his young men and they arose and went together to Beersheba and Abraham lived in Beersheba. So he left Haran, a mountainous, rocky, dry place, and he ends up in Beersheba, which is the Well of the Oath. He lives at the Well of the Oath. Every day he can look at that well, he drinks from that well, he can remember, the Lord promised me that he will make my seed as numerous as the stars of heaven, that we will possess the gates of our enemies, and that in me all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Very important. The well of the oath, he lived there. The gospel isn't just for the beginning, the gospel is for every day of our life. Baptism is an initiation ritual or ordinance, if you will. Communion, when we take communion, we do it what? In remembrance of Him. It's covenant renewal. Every week we come to the communion table, we break the bread, we remember, He died for me. His blood is for me. This is the blood of the new covenant. We live in the gospel. It's not a one and done ticket stamped and paid. It's our life. We continue to believe and we continue to walk. We continue to repent. We continue to confess our sins to God. It's where we live. We live by faith. We live by the gospel. Abraham lived at the well of the oath, at Beer Sheva. Alright, let's get back to Jacob here in chapter 28. It says, And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night. Because the sun had set, taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep." It says he came to a certain place, a particular place. Not just an ambiguous place. Sometimes the place in stories isn't very important. It doesn't matter where it was. It's a story and we don't really care about the place. The text says it was a certain place. Later on, we'll find out that the place was called Luz, and he will rename it Beth-El, and he will mark it with a stone. It's a certain place. It's a place that Jacob can come back to and say, this is the place where God made a promise to me. It's marked, it's memorialized, it's remembered, not to be forgotten. It's also a place that his descendants can go back and they can say, kids, that's Beth-El. Something happened at Bethel. What happened, daddy? Well, God appeared to Jacob and made a promise that he would make of him a blessing of all the nations. And he said he would make his sons, his children as the dust of the earth. He was gonna multiply them and that they possess the gates of their enemies. Did God keep his promise, daddy? Oh yeah, God always keeps his promises, son. Because when God swears something, you can bank on it that it's true and it's for you. He memorialized the place. It would be called the house of God and he'd bring them back to the house of God again and again and again to hear, to remember, and to re-stir up the promises that are made. He slept on a stone. And that stone was significant. He took one of the stones and he put it under his head and this stone became, the very stone would be lifted up and he could say, on that very stone, kids, on that very stone, God revealed Himself to me. And I didn't commit to Him yet, but that's where God initiated an experience with me that I knew He was God. And he would remember it. It's significant. It was a certain place. I tell you, Christians, when we have an encounter with God or we make a commitment to God, mark the place, remember the place. When God does something providential in your life, mark it, remember it, give thanks for it. Remember the places along the journey. In the book of Deuteronomy, it names the places of their wilderness wanderings in the first four chapters. They went here, and God did this there. They went here, then they went here, and they could take their children in circles around in the wilderness on a tour, if you will, and they could say, that is the mountain. That is the mountain where God met with our fathers and made a covenant with them. That is the rock. where Moses struck the rock and water came forth. And later on, he was commanded to speak to it and he struck it again. And God said, you won't get to go into the promised land because you struck it. And I said to speak to it. This over here, this is the very place where the waters of Marah with 70 date palms and 70 wells where God supplied water and dates for the people of Israel. And they could go to these places and they could say, history reminds us of the providences of God. Don't forget your history, I tell you, as a side note. It's interesting how people want to revise our history. They want to tear down monuments. They want us to forget the past. But our fathers built monuments to remember certain providential things that God did. They put dates on the calendar when we give thanksgiving to God. They put dates on the calendar when we would celebrate with fireworks. Why? They wanted us to remember so we wouldn't forget the valuable lessons that had been learned and we wouldn't go astray and become a bunch of Marxist communists. Yes, I know that's anachronistic, but you get the point. When God does something significant, you mark it, you remember it, you tell your children about it. Man, I know in my own life growing up, On my own road to coming to know the Lord, I heard the stories of my mother and my grandmother and my father, and I heard about providences in their life, and I heard about miracles that God had done. Not providences, but miracles. Things that God had miraculously intervened. And I love to hear my father's stories. I love to hear the stories of the elders and the older generation that told me of the providences of God. And so when I was in high school and they're telling me that the earth is billions of years old and that we came from monkeys, I'm like, man, I don't know how, I don't wanna reject science, but I know there is a God in heaven. And I don't know the answers to all these things, but I know that God is real because the people that I know and love and trust are not lying to me. And later on, a lot of those science questions were answered. But on my journey, it was the testimony of those that came before me and the providences of God when I didn't have my questions answered that say, I don't care what that person says. I know there is a God in Israel. I know that my Redeemer lives. And I am not going to listen to the world because I trust the God of my fathers. Mark it. And remember, What happens at this place? Verse 12, And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Now it says here that it was a ladder, and you may have a footnote in your Bible that says it could be a staircase. I tend to think it's a staircase. But it doesn't really matter. Whatever it is, he sees in the vision a way to go up and down. And it reached all the way to heaven. Remember, it's a dream. This is a dream. It's a vision. It's teaching him something. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on him. Now, this isn't a ladder for him to climb up. This is a portal, if you will. Maybe that's the wrong word to use. It has too many connotations. But the angels come up and down on this ladder, and he's looking at it. And it's not a ladder for him to come down. And I bring that up because God has to come to us. We cannot ascend to him. Especially at this time, it's very clear that in order for us to be saved, we don't go up by steps. God needed to come down. We couldn't work our way up to him. He had to come. This is not an invitation for him to earn favor with God. It's God sending forth angels to do things in the earth at his commission and his plan. In Exodus 22, I'm sorry, chapter 20, verse 22, this is right after the Ten Commandments. What do the Ten Commandments do? They show us our sin. They show us our depravity. They show us our need. And immediately after the Ten Commandments, God says this. And the Lord said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the people of Israel, You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. An altar of earth shall you make for me, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen, and every place where I cause my name to be remembered. I will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones. For if you wield your tool on it, you profane it and you shall not go up by steps to my altar that your nakedness be not exposed on it. He says, when you make an altar to offer up sacrifices, it's going to be very plain. It's it's not from hewn stones. It's from stones from the field, because I don't want your eyes being on the substance of the altar. I want your eyes on the lamb of God. If you lift a tool against it, you pollute it. If you bring your works to the table, it pollutes it. It's in Christ alone that we are saved. And then he says, I will come to you and bless you. You're not to try to ascend to me. This altar's not gonna have steps. In order for you to be accepted, God has to come down. In order for us to be accepted with God, God had to become flesh and live a life and to fulfill all righteousness, be baptized, and then obey and be tested and be crucified and rise again, because in order for us to ever go to God, first he had to come down. I will come down, it says, and I will bless you. You shall not come up by steps. Your nakedness will be revealed. When you try to earn your way to heaven, God's gonna expose you for what you really are. The law shows us our sin. The Ten Commandments shows us our sin. The altar shows us our Savior. When we come to the Lord's table in remembrance of Him, we behold the Lamb who died for us, who said on the cross, it is finished, tetelestai, paid in full. That's what we behold. That's where the focus is. Not on us, not on the preacher, not on the church, but on Christ who died for us. He had to come down. Now here, he's going to make a promise, getting back to Jacob in 28, 13, and behold, Yahweh stood above it and said, I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. He didn't say, I am your God. I am the God of your father, Abraham. I'm the God of Isaac. As of this point, I am your father's God. And then he goes on to make promises. The land on which you lie, I will give to your offspring, your seed, literally seed. Very important word in Genesis. It's used over and over again, many, many times. Your seed, your offspring, shall be like the dust of the earth and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. And you and your seed, your offspring, shall all the families of the earth be blessed. There it is again. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." So God makes him a series of promises. I count eight. He says, this land, I'm going to give it to your seed. I'm going to give it to your offspring. Jesus, according to Galatians 2 and 3, Jesus is the seed of Abraham. And he said, all authority is given to me in heaven and earth. He gets it all. Not just Israel, he gets it all. He says, I'm going to make your offspring as the dust, a multitude. This has been a reiterated promise again and again to all the patriarchs. He says, they'll spread abroad over all the earth, to the north, to the south, to the east, to the west. And all the families of the earth shall be blessed through them. That is a promise. You know, I was thinking about this as many times as this is emphasized. We're His by redemption. We're children of Abraham by faith, Galatians says. We're included in this promise by faith where we have union with Christ and Christ is the seed of Abraham. So we are included in this promise because we are in Christ and Christ is the seed of Abraham. God wants us to be a blessing to all peoples. When you think about practically speaking the Sermon on the Mount, how many times it emphasizes that we are to bless and not to curse. We're to be a blessing. It's a bit of a tension because on one hand as Christians, we're called to despise and hate everything that is evil and corrupt. We're to hate immorality. We're to hate sin. Lots of hate for us as Christians. But simultaneously, we're to love our enemies. We're to bless those that curse us. We're to do good to those that hate us and despitefully use us. We're to bless and curse not. God wants his people to be a blessing. Ultimately, it's Christ and him, all the nations of the earth are blessed. But Christ wants, everywhere the gospel goes, it brings blessings. It brings literacy. It brings charitable institutions. Hospitals go up. Houses to care for the infirmed. People start adopting children. They take in the widow and the orphan. This is church history. The gospel goes out. It goes to the north, the south, the east, and the west, and everywhere the gospel goes, communities spring up, and there's blessings that flow. God wants his people to be blessed, but more importantly, he wants us to be a blessing. Just yesterday, I was hearing a person talk, not a Christian broadcast. It wasn't a Christian broadcast. It was actually some guys talking about exercise. And they were talking about a study in which they found that people who are generous and give are substantially, statistically, much happier than people who simply, like dollar for dollar, you get more joy out of giving $1,000, is what the study was saying, than you do by getting many times that. I think that should be no surprise to us as Christians because Jesus said it's better to give than to receive. God wants us to be a blessing. And I don't just mean financially. I mean the way we speak, the way that we live. We're to be good neighbors. We're to be godly people. We're to be a blessing. Now, people may hate us because of the gospel and the truth that we stand for. That is also a reality. But many people will be attracted to it. There's as many verses that talk about the church being attractive to the world as there are verses talking about being despised by the world. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. God calls us to be a blessing. Anyway, he says, I will make you a blessing and you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you. I'll be with you and I'll keep you. Keep you means guard, keep, shamar. We've covered this word many times in the book of Genesis. Adam was called to guard and keep the garden, to keep. I'll watch over you. God's saying, I'm going to protect you wherever you go. I've got your back and will bring you back to this land. I will never not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. I will keep my promise." God makes this promise. It's unilateral. It's one directional. In this case, it's not conditional. He just tells Jacob, this is what I'm going to do for you. I promise you. You can bank on it. Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Yahweh is in this place and I did not know it and he was afraid and said how awesome is this place? This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven Now we have this word awesome here Unfortunately, we use the word awesome It's kind of a devalued word and actually I I don't Given modern connotations, I don't know why the ESV translated it as awesome. The word here, Yare, is a fearful place. You look at the way this is translated, it's like, you notice it says that he was afraid. He was afraid. And how awesome is this place? I don't know how you would translate the sentiment, but it's like, there's an aspect of this. This encounter with God isn't merely warm and fuzzy. It's kind of terrifying. He's just come into contact with the God of the universe and he's like, this place is different, this is fearful. He is in awe, so you get the word awesome, but there's a sense of fear in this word. Yare is translated fear or fearful, terrifying in many places. How awesome is this place? This is none other than God. Beit Elohim, the house of God, the word Beth, Beth in Hebrew, Beit, Beth, you see it in the words like Bethlehem, house of bread, Bethphage, I think that means house of figs, Bethshemesh, house of the Son. Well this is Beth Elohim, the house of God, shortened to Beth El. It will be called Beth El. This is none other than the house, the dwelling place of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Now here we have clear typology, and it's not me reading into it because Jesus alludes to this, as we'll see in a little bit. This place is the house of God. Later on, it would be one of the places that the tabernacle would be, at Beth El. And then after that, later on, when there is a civil war in Israel, and the ten tribes break off from Judah and Benjamin, or Judah and and Levi and Benjamin down there. Later on this will become a place of idolatry because people are able to take a place and turn it into a place of idolatry. But for a while at least the tabernacle will be there. A lot of good things happen in Bethel. But God moves the tabernacle to different places. It's at a place called Shiloh, which means peace for a while. Then eventually, the house of God will be the temple in Jerusalem. So God makes it clear. God makes ordinary places the dwelling place of God. When God enters into an ordinary place, a particular place, when his spirit is there, it's the house of God. It's the gate of heaven. It can be anywhere. And so the house of God, in one sense, moves around. This place will be forever remembered as Bethel. house of God. But there will be multiple places that will be a particular place where God dwells, different locales. So Shiloh, Bethel, Ramah, Jerusalem, the temple will be in Jerusalem. And then finally, in the incarnation, Jesus, the word, will be made tabernacled and will become the house of God and Jesus is the gate to heaven. I'll talk a little bit about that in a minute. All right, so verse 18. So early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it and called the name of that place Bethel. But the name of the city was Luz at the first. So, you know, what happens if you're walking along and you see a rock turned up on its side, you're like, oh, some kid did that. Somebody somebody turned that rock up on its side. And but, you know, that rock didn't get there on its own. So later on, Jacob could see that rock and and say, that's the place. That's the very place. And what did he do? He sets it up for a pillar and then he pours oil on top of it. He anoints it. He anoints it with oil. It's a consecration. The word Christ is the Greek word Christos. The Hebrew word Mashiach, Messiah, means anointed one. Christ is the anointed one, the anointed Beth El, the anointed house of God. So He memorializes the event, He anoints the stone, and He renames it. gives it a new name. Later on, Jacob will get a new name. But Christ is the anointed one. Christ is the house of God. And this place points to him. Now, he also made a vow. Verse 20. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, If God will be with me. Notice that if. It's one of those 1,522 ifs of the Bible. It's a conditional statement. God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear so that I come again to my father's house in peace. Then Yahweh shall be my God and this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house and of all that you give me, excuse me, I will give a full tenth to you. So he makes a vow to God. If God will do what he's told me he would do, then effectively I will serve him and I will tithe. It's interesting, this tithing, a tenth, tithe means tenth. We use the word tithe, it means tenth. Abraham tithed to Melchizedek, then Jacob tithed. Later on Israel would read this and say, oh, we're his covenant people, therefore we're going to give God a tithe. Jesus is the priest after the order of Melchizedek. I believe tithing. I believe tithing is for today. And 1 Corinthians 9, it speaks of in the same way that the priests were provided for and in the same way those that preach the gospel should live by the gospel. But I'll just point out that this is before Moses. Tithing existed before Moses. And I think it exists after as well. Anyway, verse 13. Oh, verse 13, it's 31, 13. I'm going to the future. So he memorializes this and he moves on. He goes on to Haran. He'll live there for 20, 21 years, something like that. When it's time to go home, God speaks to him again. He says, I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred. God says, okay, I'm gonna hold you to it. You made a vow to me, now it's time to go back to, I am the God of Bethel. I revealed myself to you, you made a vow to me, I'm holding you to it. When we come to the communion table, we remember our vows to God. We remember His vows to us. We remember His blood is for us. We remember a covenant. What is a covenant? Covenant involves people making, people or God, making vows to one another. We remember our vows. Remember your vows. When you come to the communion table every week, search your heart. Ask God to search your heart. Ask God to expose sin in your heart. Remember your vows. Remember, this body is for you. This blood is for you. Remember your vows and give to God what you pledged to give Him, particularly in the waters of baptism. in a formal way of saying, I belong to God. Bad things might happen to me, a lot of bad things. Jacob is gonna reap a lot of what he's been sowing. He's gonna be deceived, he's gonna be tricked, he's gonna be manipulated, just like he's tricked and deceived and manipulated. But God's gonna remind you, hey, I gave you food, I gave you clothing, and I'm bringing you home. You remember your vows to me and pay what you owe. Christian, pay what you owe. Give your life to God. Now I want to go to the New Testament and sum up here in the New Testament. And the Gospel of John, it's kind of appropriate for the Christmas season. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. When someone wants to get baptized, I like to say two things. We can keep it real simple. Two things that are very important. We need to have the right God and the right Gospel. So I like to talk with people as they're considering baptism. Let's talk about the right God. How many gods are there? That's right, one. Well taught. Is Jesus God? Yes, Jesus is God. Is God the Father God? Yes, God the Father is God. Is the Holy Spirit God? Yes. Is the Holy Spirit a person or do you think he's a force? No, he's a person. We talk about this. There's one what and there's three who's. There's one God and there's three persons. Now I can't comprehend that, but I'm a finite being. I'm not an eternal being. I'm a finite created being. He is the creator. Outside of time and space, before there was a beginning, there was one God and three persons. The same one God who said, let us, plural, make man, singular, and our image, singular. That one God and three persons, we serve the triune God, the Trinity. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. There's two people here being mentioned. Later on we'll learn about a third one, the person of the Holy Spirit. But in this verse, there's two people. God the Word, who's with God, and He was God. He's of the same substance as God. He was in the beginning with God. He, He's a person. He. Not an it, not a force. He. All things were made by Him. Who is this God the Word? The Creator of all things. Genesis 1. Who created all things? God created all things. Jesus created all things. God the Son created all things. And without Him was not anything made that was made. Unlike the Jehovah's Witnesses that say, first God created Michael the Archangel and then he used Michael the Archangel to create all things. No. Nothing was created without him. All things were made by him. He is God. There's never a time when the Son of God was not. He is the eternal Son of God without beginning. Then we skip down to verse 14. And the Word, this person, God the Word, became flesh, literally, and dwelt among us, literally was tabernacled among us. He was tented in flesh. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Jacob in this vision sees a man who he identifies as Yahweh. When Isaac is being offered up on the altar, the Lord speaks from heaven. The angel of the Lord, taking on a temporary physical form, revealed himself as the angel of the Lord and stayed his hand. Again and again we've seen this. Angel of the Lord, in Genesis 18, or 17, 18, when there's three visitors that come to Abraham, there's three visitors, two of them are angels, one is the Lord. Multiple times God took on a temporary physical form. But the incarnation is different. because all those other times God, who is spirit, he's not physical, all those times God took on a form to reveal himself to man, but in incarnation, the creator of the material universe became himself part of the creation. He took on a material body with hands and with feet, and to this day, he's at the right hand of the Father, who is spirit, with a physical body. In heaven, there is a 2,000-year-old man on the throne, in flesh, with a real body. He became flesh and dwelt among us. We skip down later in the same chapter. John wants us to know that Jesus is God the Word that met with Abraham, that met with Isaac, and met with Jacob, and redeemed him from all evil. And so later on, And verse 43, we have some of the apostles, their first encounter, just like Jacob had his first encounter, they have their first encounter with Jesus. And he's going to refer to Genesis 28 here in a second. The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said to him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Now keep in mind, he's never met Nathanael in his life. Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered him, before Philip came to you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. What happened under that fig tree? We don't know. But Nathaniel knew. Did he himself make promises to God? Did he ask God where he was? Did he say, Lord, where is this Messiah we've been waiting for thousands of years? We don't know. But something was going on under that tree. And what Jesus says is, before Philip called you, I could see you even though I wasn't present. Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. I mean, this guy's quick to believe. You're the one I've been waiting for. You're the one I've been praying for. You're the gift that Israel has been waiting for. Verse 50, Jesus answered him, because I told you I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. He's alluding to Genesis 28. Jacob saw heavens open, the angels ascending and descending, but what are they ascending and descending on? Jesus. What's this saying? Jesus is the word made flesh. Jesus is the house of God. Jesus is the gate to heaven. He's the gate to heaven. And if you receive that and believe that, the proper response, when you see Jesus as the house of God, the dwelling place of God, and as the gate to heaven, is to worship Him and make your vows, surrender to Him in repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, trusting in Him alone for your salvation, and make your vow good. Follow Him, surrender to Him. He is worthy. It's a fearful thing to come in contact with the living God. But when you know Him as the one that loved you and gave Himself for you, you can approach His throne with confidence. Can you approach the throne of God with confidence? You can if you know Jesus is your Savior. You know if you've committed your life to Him. And when you make that vow, remember it, mark it, remember it. Don't forget. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you, Lord Jesus, that you came to us. We could not come to you, but you came to us. You made a way for us sinners to approach a holy God. Father, it's a fearful thing to come in contact with you if we come naked and ashamed. But Lord, we thank you for the grace of God that says that by him we can approach you to receive grace and mercy in time of need. We come before a throne of grace. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for making a way, an entrance into the most holy place that we can come in the robe of your righteousness. We can come with the gift of your righteousness. We thank you, Lord, for making not just making it possible, but making it certain as we declare our trust in you in Jesus name. Amen.