The Son & His Father | Sermon 02/05/2023

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel according to John, chapter 5.

We just saw last week the healing at the pools of Bethesda.

We are moving on now.

We're going to be in verses 16 through 24 in John, chapter 5.

The title of this sermon today is simple, but

exactly what it is.

The Son and His Father.

The Son and His Father.

Starting in verse 16 of the Gospel according to John, chapter 5.

Here now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true God.

For this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

But he answered them, my father is working until now and I myself am working.

For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him.

Because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own father, making himself

equal with God.

Therefore, Jesus answered and was saying to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of

himself unless it is something he sees the Father doing.

For whatever this Father does, these things the Son does also in like manner.

For the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself is doing.

And the Father will show him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to

whom he wishes.

For not even the Father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son.

So that all will honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.

He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent

me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of

death into life.

Thus ending the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray and ask the Lord to bless the sermon.

Lord God, would you please speak through me today, dear Lord, as a vessel, as an instrument, God.

Lord, would you please illuminate the scriptures by your spirit, the same spirit who

gave them to us.

God, please edify your people today, teach us, admonish us, encourage us, Lord.

Let your word do what it was meant to do in each one of us, even me.

God, please be with us, help us to be focused on this word.

I pray this in Christ's name, amen.

Although there have been many, many ways in which men, and I

really mean all men, have tried to take the glory of God or likened

themselves to God in one sinful way or another.

There have been several in the Bible who did so, and it never really turned out well for them.

Before Judah's exile, instead of repenting before the Lord, the people asked the help

of Pharaoh in Egypt to defend them against invaders.

In Ezekiel 29, God says this to Pharaoh, behold, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt,

the great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers, that has said, my

Nile is mine, and I myself have made it.

So the Lord then promises to lay waste to Egypt, to make it a

desolation, for Pharaoh was saying that he was creator, he made the Nile.

And just as God said it, he had Babylon come and tear down the land of Egypt.

And to the ruler of Tyre, the Lord said this, because your heart is lifted up and you

have said, I am God.

This is what the ruler of Tyre said, I am God, I sit in the seat of God's in the heart of the seas.

And the Lord says, yet you are a man and not God.

Therefore, the most ruthless nations will draw their swords against you and bring you down to the pit.

Then God says, will you say I am God in the presence of your slayer?

It was too late for the ruler of Tyre.

God would no longer be mocked.

Then while in exile, King Nebuchadnezzar came to Daniel the prophet.

He was looking for an interpretation for the dreams that he was having as king.

Daniel interpreted the dreams, he warned King Nebuchadnezzar of his sin.

He said that he would become like a beast of the field, he would be driven away from mankind.

He would even eat grass like cattle until he recognized that there is a true king,

the God most high.

Nebuchadnezzar disregarded Daniel's warning though.

It says in Daniel chapter 4, the king reflected and said, is this not Babylon the great which

I myself have built?

This is Nebuchadnezzar.

Is this not Babylon the great which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my

power and for the glory of my majesty?

And literally while Nebuchadnezzar was not even finished saying those words, a voice

thundered from heaven and said, Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom will be removed from you.

And just like that, exactly what the dream showed, Nebuchadnezzar was driven out into the wilderness

and he became like a beast of the field until one day he came to and the necessary time

elapsed and he stood up as a man again.

And he recognized this, that there is only one God,

the God most high whose kingdom he says is everlasting.

And he says, this Lord's kingdom touches every part of the earth.

Humbled, fully humbled.

And lastly, you have King Herod in the book of Acts.

King Herod was making himself out to be God in front of the people.

He even caused the people to yell out, the voice of a God, not just a

man.

And it says he didn't correct the people.

It says that he stole the glory of God, making himself out to be like God.

It says, then an angel of the Lord struck him and he was eaten by worms.

That's what it says.

I wonder if that was like a slow worm eating process or like he died, then worms got him, you know.

I'm looking at your faces now.

I don't know why I brought that up.

The point is, this is deadly serious business.

This is deadly serious business.

In our passage today, the Jewish leaders will accuse Jesus of committing the same

sin of the men that I just told you about.

They will, of course, be found to be dead wrong.

In fact, what makes them wrong is that they are dead.

They're spiritually dead.

They need to be raised to new life.

So starting in verse 16, it

says, for this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the

Sabbath.

Remember, he was just, he just healed the man at the pool of Bethesda.

He told him to pick up his pallet and walk, and the Jewish leaders were mad at Jesus.

This word persecuting, the root word in the Greek is pursue.

Persecution is not some passive harassment.

It is the active pursuit of someone or a people group of a

specific religion or belief to oppress them.

The objective is to oppress them.

That means at this point, the Jewish leaders were starting to get more organized in their efforts.

Jesus was a nuisance to them.

If you remember in chapter two, he cleansed the temple and caused this big thing where all the

animals were driven out of the temple grounds, and they were annoyed with him there.

But he's now back in Jerusalem during a feast.

And of course, they've gotten word of his deeds that he's done throughout Judea and Galilee and

Samaria.

We've gone over them already.

But now he'll be in the sights of their malevolence.

They are in the sights of their eyes, he is.

The ministry of Jesus was primarily individual -based, but now it has become public and quite hostile.

The catalyst for this instance of persecution, as I said, was the healing of the layman at the pool.

And I think John is indicating it was not simply asking the man to pick up his bed,

but it was also the healing on the Sabbath, okay?

They couldn't stand for these things that he was doing.

And while they're in Jerusalem, possibly still at this temple scene where he had just been talking with this layman who was

healed, all of a sudden, these Jewish leaders come up to Jesus and they harass him.

But Jesus answered them in verse 17.

It says there, my father until now is working and I am working.

He answered is apokronato.

And it is in the aorist middle tense and voice, which the root is

judge or pass judgment.

These two facts are significant since this word and typically

what's called the middle voice are used in legal documents.

That's why this is important.

This type of language He answered is used in a legal fashion.

It's as if Jesus is offering His defense in a court of law

against these charges of these Jewish leaders.

He's offering an apologetic.

He's offering a defense.

The father is working and He is working.

Jesus uses the same exact word.

This is huge because He's saying what the father has done and is doing, I'm doing it too.

He's not just saying that He follows the commands of God, but that He's equal to the

God who gave the commands.

He and His father are working in this world.

And look, everyone forgets about John chapter 5.

We're going to see some amazing things here.

When we think about the gospel according to John and the deity of Christ, we think of John chapter 6

and John chapter 8 and John chapter 17, the high priestly prayer.

And those are wonderful passages.

They're glorious.

We're going to be going over them.

But John chapter 5, we really have to see this.

This really will contain some of the most ordered and direct claims to divinity by Jesus.

But there is something alluded to here that I also think Jesus

was trying to convey.

It surrounds the Sabbath and the work He performs.

There is a promise of rest with the Sabbath, right?

And now there is a promise of eternal rest from dead works because Christ works.

He says, I'm working right now.

In other words, His working is in fact not to gain Himself rest, but Christ's

working is to give us rest.

That's the key.

And God continues to sustain this creation.

He upholds it every second of every moment.

Do they really think God does nothing on the Sabbath?

Do the Jews think on the Sabbath that God stops all that He does?

If He did, I submit to you that the world would fall into the void if God stopped working.

When God rested on the seventh day after creation, we are not to think that He has since remained inactive.

It's quite the opposite.

God continues to work in this world.

And the language in that Genesis account God rested is what's called anthropomorphic.

It's a way for us as men and women, humans to understand the language of God that at that moment, He created the

world in six days and He ceased His work.

And in that anthropomorphic language, He sought to create a day where we would actually rest.

That was God's goal in that.

God is not inactive.

God works and even worked on the Sabbath.

He has to sustain all things at every moment.

One commentator states of this verse, for this self -defense of Jesus to be valid, the

same factors that apply to the Father must apply to Jesus.

So either He is above the law given to mere mortals, or if He operates within the law, it's

because the entire universe is His.

You see, Jesus has every right to work on the Sabbath.

He has every right to work on the Sabbath and heal.

Jesus could have argued in that moment the prohibition of work on the Sabbath was referring

to work normally done the other six days of the week.

We went over that.

They added all these extra burdens, 39 categories of how to obey the Sabbath,

then hundreds of subcategories added to the Sabbath.

You couldn't tie a knot.

You couldn't pick up anything if you dropped it on the floor.

You couldn't light a match so that you had light in your house at nighttime.

They added all these rules to the Sabbath when we went over the basic aspects of the

Sabbath.

But He didn't argue that.

He didn't argue that because it wouldn't have been applicable to the paralyzed man of 38 years

who simply picked up his pallet and walked.

This man's vocation wasn't to pick up pallets and walk.

He's never worked.

He sat there for 38 years.

This is not his vocation.

But Jesus didn't do that.

He says all that power, all those things, all this

work, all that healing,

validates His work.

All that the Father does to work validates His own work.

And the power in that work of healing isn't an impersonal force in a sacred pool,

but it is the very personal work of Jesus and His Father.

With all that said, healing isn't all that He came to do in His work.

And we're going to continue to see Him expound on that.

So Jesus' response in verse 18 is this.

For this reason, therefore, I'm sorry.

So after Jesus' response is verse 18, and John narrates for us.

For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him because He not only was breaking the

Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

So this doesn't sit well with these Jewish leaders.

They're upset.

For saying this, they were now desiring, seeking, longing to kill Jesus all

the more.

The scope of the labors of their persecution ends in the heart with the most

permanent and violent oppression that someone could do.

Murder.

Murder's in their hearts.

And it wants to come out of their hands and onto Jesus.

We see the murderous desires were present for the healing on the Sabbath, but not to this degree now.

This is big to the Jews now.

They want to kill Him all the more because He has called God His own Father

and because He's making Himself equal with God.

They want to kill Him.

The Jews were possibly even remembering at this moment things like Isaiah 40.

To whom then will you liken God or what likeness will you compare with Him?

God says, to whom will you liken me that I would be His equal, says the Holy One.

But we of course know that they disregarded other passages that would speak to the divinity of the Messiah

who is to come.

But they heard all that they needed to hear.

They heard blasphemy.

Blasphemy.

Worthy of death.

Blasphemy.

My and my Father is in what's called the genitive case.

The genitive case in the Greek is a possessive tense, okay?

Jesus is saying, God the Father belongs to Him in a way humans could not.

Jesus does this over 40 times in the Gospels.

My Father, my Father.

When you are with your dad, everyone, when you're with your father and you introduce him to

your friends, hey guys, this is my father.

Only you and your siblings can say it in the possessive way that you can say it.

There's no one in the world that can say, this is my dad like the way you can

say dad because he's actually your dad, okay?

That is what Jesus is doing.

He has a special Trinitarian relationship with His Father.

He's been with His Father since before the world was.

He was sent to earth by His Father and on that mission, His work is the Father's work.

The first charge was of using possessive language of the Father.

The second charge is making Himself equal with God.

And that's seen quite a bit in, as I said, using that same word for work for each of them.

Jesus will say in the very next chapter that He's come down to do the will of God who sent Him.

In Luke chapter 10, Jesus says, all things have been handed over to Him by the Father and no

one knows the Father except the Son.

You see, most of us, again,

some of us haven't grown up with a father, I understand that, but most of us know our

fathers or our mothers, we know them more than we know our neighbors,

more than our neighbors know our Father, we know Him or your mother.

The Son, Jesus, knows His Father with the greatest degree of love and intimacy.

It's perfect, it's completely perfect.

So they are equal together, equal in deity, equal in eternality, equal in power, equal in all.

That is an astute observation by the Jewish leaders.

Yes, He's making Himself equal with God.

Yes, that's what He intends to do.

For to do anything else would be to lie and Jesus cannot lie.

While the Jews think here that they are defending God, the Jews think they're defending God, but they're actually offending Him.

By the way, just to be clear, Jesus is not equal with God as another God,

coming into the picture.

He's not equal with God as a competing God.

That's not what the case is.

We will see now in the following verses what's called a functional subordination of the Son.

A functional subordination.

The Son has a role to play, the Father has a role to play, the Holy Spirit has a role to play in the redemption

of God's people.

In other words, they are equal and yet have distinct roles.

Go to verse 19, Therefore Jesus answered

and was saying to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself unless it is something He sees the

Father doing.

For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

I find it interesting that John has minimized the Jewish leaders so much.

He narrates their dialogue this whole time.

We see no direct quotes.

It just says Jesus answered them.

It doesn't even say directly what these Jews said.

And I think it's because Jesus is supposed to be the complete focal point of this

section.

It's all about Him.

He's the bright morning star that shines brightly.

It's all about Christ.

And Jesus will start speaking here in verse 19.

And get this, He won't stop until verse 47.

This is one of the longest moments of oration by Jesus.

19 -47 He will speak uninhibited.

No one will bud in.

Jesus will speak here.

But in this long oration, He will reveal truth about Himself.

And then He'll even switch to a diatribe style of speaking in which He speaks against the Jews.

But here we see Jesus give the amen, amen.

That's the Greek there.

Truly, truly, amen, amen.

That's where we get the word amen.

Amen, amen.

That is what I told you to be the New Testament version of thus saith the Lord.

Jesus is saying when He says, truly, truly, I say to you, that's the recipe to say, listen up,

heed what I'm saying.

The words of God are about to come out of my mouth.

So He does this.

And Jesus says the Son can do nothing of Himself unless He sees the Father doing

something.

He wouldn't heal on the Sabbath if it's not something He's seen His Father do.

In the manner in which the Father does things, so does the Son in similar fashion.

There is a consistency within the Godhead.

The holy persons of the Trinity do nothing outside the will of God.

They are in total harmony with one another.

That's how Jesus can even tell them later, if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father.

I do what My Father tells Me to do.

He is in every way the visible representation of the Father since He is God the Son.

A son, of course, apprentices His Father.

For centuries, if your father was a blacksmith, you'd probably become a blacksmith.

If your father was a farmer, you'd likely become a farmer.

That's typically how it happened.

That's how it was.

Though Jesus is the unique Son of God, may truly be called God and even

declares divine titles to Himself.

And He even lays claim to divine rights, all the things we see in the Word.

At the same time, He is submissive to the Father.

That's what I call functional subordination of the Son in His earthly ministry.

He does what pleases the Father.

And as the verse says, it says He can do nothing of Himself.

Now, this is a tricky word, tricky phrase.

He can do nothing of Himself because then it'll go on to say, unless it is something He sees the Father doing.

And then we will see that the Father shows Him everything.

So that means to say that Jesus knows how to do everything.

He knows everything.

He knows how to do everything.

This is a way of speech that He's using here to show that subordination of the

Father.

But in essence, He's saying, I can do everything the Father can do.

It's limitless.

He can do all things because the point is about who He is rather than what He can do.

Little side note, it doesn't seem the reciprocal is ever said in the Word of God.

What do I mean?

I mean that the Father, it's never been said that the Father does only what He sees the

Son doing.

Okay, we don't see that in Jesus' earthly ministry.

As one commentator said, the Father initiates, sends, commands, commissions, grants,

while the Son responds, obeys, performs His Father's will, and receives authority.

And yet the Son is much more than simply an ambassador.

But He is the second person of the Trinity with divine objective.

The Holy Spirit will also be given orders for His role.

We'll see that later.

Chapters 14, 15, and 16 of John.

Each has their perfect place.

All in all, the one who would conceivably do whatever the Father does must be as

divine as the Father.

He sees what the Father is doing, and for whatever the Father does, the Son does in

like manner.

If you can do what the Father can do, you are not just a man.

You are not just an elevated man.

If you can do what God can do, it's because you are God.

That's what He's claiming.

Verse 20, The Father loves the Son and shows Him all

things that He Himself is doing.

And the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.

We saw that in John 3.

The basis of Christ's coming was love for the world.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will

not perish, but have everlasting life.

The basis of Jesus' coming was love.

Now the basis of the triune harmony and equality of God and the Father is also

love.

For the Father loves the Son.

The love of the Father for the Son couldn't ever be fully comprehended, I believe, by

our finite minds.

This is a love greater than the power stored in all the galaxies of this universe.

This is an amazing love.

This love transcends the natural realm.

Supernatural.

It is undying.

Will never be polluted.

It is as pure as God is pure.

This love the Father has for the Son and this love that the Son has for the Father.

It will never, ever, ever be tainted in the passing years of eternity.

Ever.

Perfect love.

And love from the Father to the Son is given by showing the

Son all that the Father is doing.

So the Father gives His love in showing the Son what He's doing.

Love from the Son to the Father is given by doing all the things that the Father has

shown Him to do.

It's this continuous, unending cycle.

It's this perfect ring.

What this also shows us is that this is not supremely Jesus's love for sinners

that drives Him to the cross.

That sounds crazy, right?

What are you saying, Pastor Wade?

Of course, it's the love for sinners that drives Jesus to the cross.

It is.

That's a huge aspect of it.

But this also shows us that what brings Him to the cross is also His love for the Father.

It's His Father's will He obeys to go to the cross and not simply His own desire to redeem

a people.

All of it comes down to this loving triune prerogative.

The Father shows the Son all the things He is doing.

When Jesus says in the Greek, it says, panta, all things.

That is every all.

That is exclusive of nothing.

Every single thing that the Father has done, He shows the Son.

It is all things.

Peter says in his letter that the angels long to look at these things.

The angels don't get to see all that God does.

And they're not omniscient.

They're not all knowing.

They're not all seeing.

There are an infinite number of things the Father is doing through His creation.

Infinite number of things the Father is doing in His creation.

Accomplishing His will and the Son knows it all.

The Son sees it all and He knows it all.

So the Son is omniscient.

He's also all -knowing.

He's like His Father.

Jesus says, do you see this work of healing?

Do you see what I just did with that lame man?

There will be greater works than these.

This is nothing for me and my Father.

This is just one small thing.

Healing this man who was lame for 38 years.

Wait till you see what we do next.

Now as the Son of God is now totally God and totally man, He possesses two natures.

He also veils His glory in His humanity.

Jesus, the God -man, gets to participate in the things the Lord has

predetermined from eternity past.

He will even be shown.

The Father will show Him greater works than these.

This God -man, Jesus, in His earthly ministry, He will be shown greater things

and therefore Jesus will get to perform greater things.

They will marvel because of His works.

Just as the people were astonished by the parting of the Red Sea, by the pillar of cloud, they will

marvel.

They will see deeds of heaven occur on earth.

May astonishment give way to faith.

Amen.

Go to verse 21.

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to

whom He wishes.

Jesus gives them insight on these greater works.

What are these greater works?

Healing isn't the only thing He can do.

Just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so does the Son.

So does the Son.

And it's different than men like Elijah.

It was clear that Elijah, when he was able to raise someone from the dead, he petitioned the Lord

Yahweh and he was an instrument of God for this.

Jesus is no instrument.

Jesus is not simply an instrument or a vessel through which power will come through Him from the Father and out of Him.

Power comes from Him.

He in Himself possesses the divine power to do this.

This raising from the dead and giving life can speak to three types.

Generative life.

Generative life.

Regenerative life.

And eternal life.

That's what Jesus can do.

He can generate life.

He can regenerate life.

And He can give eternal life.

First, God made Adam from the dust.

He took something that was seemingly dead and He made it alive.

He took dust and He made a man.

He made it alive.

The prologue in chapter one shows us this, that Jesus is the creator.

It gave us a glimpse.

It pulled the veil back before the world was when it first started.

Jesus, the Logos it says, the Word, was the light and life of all men.

It was through the Son of God whom the light came into the world and also the life.

It was the Son of God through whom life dawned on creation.

Jesus created and He comes to recreate.

I've talked about that so many times.

Secondly, the Father has raised people from the dead in this world throughout the ages.

That's another form of generative life.

We're not talking about regenerative life, but when someone is already alive and then they die and then God

miraculously brings them back to life, that's still generative life, okay?

So Jesus can do that.

The creation bends to His will and if He declares it and He wills it, death will leave a man or a

woman and life will be sown back into them.

Jesus can do this too.

You have several moments of this sort of astounding miracle in the Gospels.

You see it take place in Luke chapter 7.

We at least have four accounts in the Gospels where Jesus raises people from the dead.

Four accounts.

Luke 7, the Lord Jesus approached the town of Nain.

He saw a funeral procession on the way leaving the city and in the

coffin was a young man, the only son of a widow, which is a death sentence.

This widow has only one son.

He's now dead.

And when Jesus saw the procession, his heart went out to the woman and he said, don't cry, don't cry.

Jesus came close and He touched the coffin and He said to the dead man, young man,

I order you to rise up, get up and obeying the divine order from the powerful

mouth of Jesus, the dead man sat up out of the coffin and began to talk.

Amazing.

Their mourning was turned to awe and praise.

They even said God has come to help His people, they say.

In Luke 8, the Lord was surrounded by crowds when Jairus, a synagogue leader, came to Him,

begging Him to visit his house and heal his dying 12 -year -old daughter.

Jesus began to follow Jairus home, but on the way, a member of Jairus' household

approaches Jesus and Jairus and says, I'm sorry, your daughter is already dead

and Jairus breaks down and he says, don't be afraid, be believing,

be believing, she will be healed.

Upon arriving at Jairus' house, Jesus took the girl's parents, Peter,

James and John, they entered the room where the body lay.

There he took this little girl by the hand and he said, my child, get up, get up.

And that body can do nothing but obey Jesus Christ.

She stood up.

Her spirit returned, it says.

He told them to give her something to eat.

I imagine when you've been dead a little while, you might need to eat something.

People were utterly amazed, it said.

In John 11, most of us know that account, Lazarus, a good friend of Jesus and Bethany, he was

rotting in the tomb for several days when Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth.

And he did, he lived.

That is the account with the famous two -word verse, the shortest verse in the Bible in John

11, is Jesus wept.

Shortest verse in the whole Bible.

And that was that moment.

He lived.

And lastly, the fourth time we see Jesus raise people from the dead is somehow by His power just

emanating from Him from the cross.

In Matthew 27, it says that when Jesus died, the whole earth shook,

the rocks were split, the temple veil was torn in two,

tombs broke open, and bodies of many saints, it says, were raised to life immediately at

Jesus saying, it is finished.

Unreal.

We're talking this regeneration, this coming back to life in mass.

So those are the generative qualities, life -giving abilities of the Father and the Son.

But also this verse can mean that the Son has the same power to grant regenerative

life.

He can regenerate people.

Regeneration can be given to a soul and they can be raised to new life.

The clutches of sin and death cannot hold a person whom Jesus desires to impart salvation

and forgiveness of sins to.

And the act will be so transformative that it says it will actually give someone a new heart.

That's what's happened for you and me.

It will be as though they were dead before and now they are alive.

That's how significantly altering the power of God in salvation is.

It's like as if you were dead, now you're alive.

And with all these abilities Jesus possesses just as the Father does, when the time comes,

just as He Himself was raised in resurrection power, He will do the same to you and me.

He's regenerated us, but one day our physical bodies are going to die and be

sown into the earth.

And one day Jesus is going to return and He's going to raise us from the dead and give us

glorified bodies.

It says that He's the first fruits of that.

In fact, Paul says that Jesus has an incorruptible body.

And that that same body will be given to you and me one day when Jesus returns.

That's a promise.

He will resurrect you to a new body.

That means that salvation given by Jesus comes with new life now,

but also new life later.

Go to verses 22 and 23.

For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all

will honor the Son even as they honor the Father.

He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

The Father has given the role of judge to the Son.

This is more incredible than you would actually think.

Just reading it real quick, you could possibly get this.

But what Jesus is saying is astronomical here.

The Jews have always known the Lord, the one true and living God, Yahweh to be

judge over all the earth.

I mean, I'm telling you, besides John 1, 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word

was God, talking that Jesus has always been God, this is one of the most powerful verses to show the

deity of Christ.

To say that He is judge is to say that He is God.

It's incredible.

When you look at the Psalms, even just the Psalms, there's so many.

Psalm 7, verse 8 says, the Lord judges the peoples.

This is something the Lord does Psalm 9, chapter 9, verse 7 through 8, but the Lord abides

forever.

He has established His throne for judgment, and He will judge the world in righteousness.

He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity.

You see, for God to judge the world in righteousness, He Himself must be perfectly righteous.

That speaks to what's called the impeccability of God.

Jesus must also have this perfect righteousness to be able to judge.

He'll even be given a throne to perform it.

Psalm 50, verse 6, and the heavens declare His righteousness for God Himself as judge.

On and on the verses go.

It appears this is something exclusive to only God.

So what does that make Jesus?

God.

With every single verse, Jesus continues to expound on the Jews' charges.

He makes Himself out to be equal with God.

He does not fear that charge.

He explains it.

He expounds on it.

Yes, He's equal with the Father, and so that makes Him judge.

Later on in verse 27, it'll say, and He gave Him authority to

execute judgment because He is the Son of Man.

Acts chapter 10, Peter says this, we solemnly testify that this is the One who has been

appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead, Jesus.

Acts 17, verse 31, Paul even gets it.

He says, The Father has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man

whom He appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead, the Man Christ Jesus.

All judgment to the Son means all goodness is in Him too.

Do you get that?

Because if you went to a human judge and he came

to judge two parties and to hear the claims of this person and this person,

you know his judgment is flawed.

You know it's possible for judges to make flawed judgments, but to make a

perfect judgment, to be able to make an absolutely 100 accurate judgment, you also

have to be perfect.

That's God.

Because if a judge makes a faulty judgment, there's outcry.

People go, that's a wicked judge.

That's false weights and measures.

That's unbalanced.

That's not equal.

He's not righteous enough to judge these two.

There's One who's righteous enough to do this.

That's God.

That's omnibenevolence.

All goodness.

Omnibenevolence.

It seems though that Jesus is also establishing a connection between giving life and even performing

judgment.

There's a connection there.

Typically, a judge can grant punishment and reward, right?

And that's why in chapter 3 verse 17, Jesus said He did not come into the world to

judge the world, but that the world would be saved through Him.

So some people look at chapter 3 verse 17, go, wait, Jesus says He did not come into the world to judge the world.

So what's up with verse 22?

You see, a judge can hand out both life and death.

Verse 17 of chapter 3 is more about the purpose of Jesus's coming, how it was not meant for

condemnation.

Jesus came to die to save people.

Now in chapter 5 verse 22, He is talking about these roles of the Father and the Son it's a different

category.

The purpose of His coming was salvation, while the result will inevitably lead

to those who reject Him will be condemned.

That's just what it is.

If you reject Jesus Christ, the Messiah, you will be condemned.

But He offers that gospel call to everyone.

What's astounding is that the judge in this case, Jesus, will take the punishment

for those who stand on trial.

Jesus will actually, as the judge, take the punishment for those on trial.

And then He doesn't even just take the punishment.

You get this?

Jesus didn't just take your punishment, but He also then gives you a reward.

That's unbelievable.

He didn't just take away your hell and the payment that would

require eternal damnation.

He doesn't just wipe that away and forgive you of all your sins.

He even gives you a reward.

He gives you eternal life.

That's what this judge does.

He will endure your sentence for you.

And now Jesus speaks of honor in verse 23.

In a court of law, people will address the judge, your honor, right?

Your honor.

This is even greater than that.

All will honor the Son even as they honor the Father.

And this word honor can mean to recognize the high value of something, but it also can

mean to highly regard or revere someone.

Leviticus 10, chapter 10, verse 3, the Lord said, but, excuse me, by those who come

near me, I will be treated as holy.

And before all the people, I will be honored.

That word honor, when Jesus says that word honor, that should cause the Jews to think

about even passages like that.

God desires honor.

In fact, He said He would honor Himself through the crushing of Pharaoh.

We saw that before.

But because Jesus works as His Father works, gives life as His Father gives life,

judges as His Father entrusted judgment to Him, so now because of those things, the Son

should be honored as the Father is honored.

You see, an ambassador doesn't even closely get the same honor as the King he represents.

No way.

No way.

An ambassador doesn't get the same privileges and honor as the King he represents.

Not at all.

That's not what Jesus is.

Here, Jesus' honor ought to be as the Father's honor.

Jesus is making the Father's honor like His own, equal.

It's not that we honor Jesus as the Father, but He

receives the same level of honor as the Father.

That's the point.

It even foreshadows, I think, Christ's mediation and intercession.

You see, honor to the Father comes through Christ, from us, through

Christ, to the Father.

You must go to God through Jesus.

If you try to go to the Father without the Son, you and I must become the mediator and intercessor and the sacrifice.

But since we are sinful and finite and natural and not divine, it's a futile effort.

I'm talking about the only way to be saved is through Jesus.

That's what I mean.

I'm talking about salvation.

That's the only way.

Jesus is the way, He says.

The truth and life.

So if you dishonor the Son, you dishonor the Father.

If you honor the Son, then you're honoring the Father.

When sending out the disciples on mission, Jesus said in Luke 10, the one who listens to you, listens to me.

And the one who rejects you, rejects me.

And he who rejects me, rejects the one who sent me.

John had three epistles besides this gospel.

He says in his first epistle, whoever denies the Son does not have the Father.

The one who confesses the Son also has the Father.

The Jews were exactly right.

They were 100 % right.

Jesus was making Himself out to be equal with God.

Absolutely.

But they are wrong in thinking that it takes any bit of honor away from the Father.

It takes none away from the Father.

It does not diminish the Father in a single degree.

In fact, the glorification of the Son is quite specifically what glorifies the Father.

That's exactly what Paul says in Philippians 2.

He says that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord to what?

To the glory of God the Father.

The Lord says in Isaiah 48, for my own sake, for my own sake I will act.

For how can my name be profaned and my glory I will not give to another?

The one true and living God will give no glory to anyone else.

And yet, the Son is to be honored.

The Son is to receive glory.

You see, this is a difficult passage.

There's one God, and that's suspended in midair.

That's the truth in the Word of God.

That was our new catechism question today.

Is there one God?

Yes, there's one God.

And that's held up.

That's true.

That's absolutely true.

And all at the same time, the other truth is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy

Spirit are God.

And those two truths are suspended together.

How does my mind reconcile those two truths?

I have faith in the Word.

That's it.

The Trinity is the solution to this.

The doctrine of the Trinity shows us there's one God, and Jesus possesses this deity,

this divinity.

That's what it is.

We have faith in that.

I look at these words of Jesus, and I trust Him.

I trust Him.

You see, the fact is, Jesus' words must either be determined as false, foolish, and blasphemous,

or He ought to be worshipped as God.

That's it.

There's no middle ground.

There's no middle ground.

Jesus' words either ought to be considered foolish, blasphemous, and false, or

He actually is who He says He is.

You can't do anything in the middle.

That's it.

From here on out, from this moment forward, the only way to honor the Father will be if you honor

the Son also.

And that will leave a great many people who think they follow God, but they truly don't.

May God help them.

Truly.

Let's go to our final verse, verse 24.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life

and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

We have come to, honestly, one of my most favorite verses in all the Bible.

Right here.

John 5, verse 24.

Even now, despite the Jew's hardness of heart and persecution towards him, he lights a beacon.

He puts lights down a path.

You may reject me, but you know what?

Let me tell you.

If you hear my words and you believe in Him who sent me, you will not go

into judgment.

You will pass out of death and come into life.

This is truly the gospel in one verse.

It stands to say that Jesus just said, all that he just said is of what ought to be heard.

You can't cherry pick.

You ought to believe all that Jesus has said.

And when it's heard, it should cause you to believe God.

Hearing and heeding Jesus's words are believing God the Father.

And he continues to say, the one who sent me, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they stand in unity,

in word, will, and mission.

Thomas, the apostle, will later say this.

He's doubting a bit.

We know doubting Thomas.

He'll say to Jesus, just show us the Father.

Just show us the Father and it'll be sufficient.

I'll keep doing this.

Jesus says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

We went over that even in John chapter one.

He is the exegesis.

He is the visible representation of the invisible God.

It's amazing.

That's how much they are of the same divinity in nature.

He can say, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, they are one.

He will not separate himself from and his mission from the Father.

He couldn't.

They are eternally intertwined.

This is the biggest fulfillment of verse 21.

How both the Father and the Son raise the dead to life.

This verse.

How does the Father and the Son raise those to life?

Like this.

You'll pass out of death.

Jesus uses that divine recipe again.

Amen, amen.

Truly, I say to you, this is the mighty voice of God.

It can't be undone.

It will occur just as He spoke it.

If you hear these words and you believe God, you will have eternal life.

Life never ending will be yours.

And such a one with eternal life does not have to fear the day of judgment.

No fear.

For this one who believes will not come into judgment.

He or she will not stand alone before God for the life of sin that they've led.

Jesus will stand with you.

The judge sees payment was made in full and we shall not come into judgment and hellfire, but

into eternal life in the glories of heaven.

That's the promise.

Does not come into judgment would even be better understood.

Will not be judged negatively.

You will leave the court in favorable circumstances because of the judge who

gave his life for you.

And you will pass out of death into life.

Metabano is the word.

Passed over like Passover.

Pass out of death into life.

You will depart death.

You will leave death.

And it's in the perfect tense right here.

This is amazing because the perfect tense is saying that this is an action that was

already completed, but it continues to bear results forever.

The believer doesn't have to wait until the last day of all things to

pass out of death.

If you believe these words, if you've believed in Him who sent Him, you've already passed out of death

today.

And it will manifest in its fullest manifestation when

Christ returns and resurrects us.

This is an already and not yet promise.

As I wrap this up, church, I want you to understand.

Aside from the deity of Christ, His works, the salvation He offers, and the functional

subordination of the Son to the Father, one of the biggest points

of this section is that there is nothing that God has done in history or in all creation

or in Himself that has ever been exclusive of Jesus.

All that has been done, the Son has been a part of.

All that occurs now involves the Son just as much as the Father.

And the future is Jesus.

And our future is Jesus.

You just received a sermon on Christology and Trinitarian Theology, by the way,

pulled out from the Word.

Remember these things about Jesus, church.

Everyone else tries to find Jesus, define Him another way, that He's an elevated man.

He's got some substance of deity, not all of it.

They'll say He's a prophet.

He was a great teacher.

Some I have heard from their mouth say He's a fraud magician.

Some will call Him an angel.

But remember John 5 when someone says these things, remember who your Savior is.

It's because He is God that He can actually save you.

That's for certain.

It's because He is equal to the Father that His promises will indeed come to pass.

And the love that flows out from the triune relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

overflows from them and onto humanity and it turns into grace.

Grace upon you and me.

Now, I may not have any big applications for you today, one, two, and three for

you to write down, but the fact is some of us have been

looking at our circumstances for far too long.

Some of us have been looking at our situations far too long.

Some of us have been stuck in this sin far too long.

Some of us have been putting this worry far too long.

I guess all that I would say to you today is look back on Jesus.

Will you look back on Jesus?

Will you see how big He is?

Will you see what He promises?

And how much bigger Jesus is than anything you'll ever go through?

Because you've already passed out of death and into life.

Let's pray.

Father, we praise your name.

We praise you, Jesus, the Son.

We praise you, Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

We praise you, the one true and living God.

Glory be to your name.

God, this is in some ways very difficult things to understand.

And yet you've given us your word.

You've given us the Spirit.

And we recognize Jesus's words as truth.

We store them in our hearts.

We live them.

We breathe them.

God, let us see Jesus in a new way today.

Let us see Jesus in the way that He ought to be looked at.

Glorious Son of God.

It's amazing that you would come down from a throne and save a people who would reject

you.

People like us, who would be willing to nail you onto a cross.

People like us, who'd be willing to spit at your face.

But you came for us.

You came because you loved us.

And you came because the Father sent you.

And for that, we love you forever.

We love you in 10 ,000 years.

We love you in a million years.

We love you for all eternity.

Our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.