More Than A Healing - [John 5:19-30]

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I would invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 5. Just thinking about young Billy, a friend of mine this week.
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You know, sometimes you just know that there's something wrong. A friend in California and I had reason to believe,
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I mean it's a long story but I'll just cut to the chase. I really thought that there was something off and so I emailed his office and I received an auto -generated response that said he would be gone from the office for, let me see if I can remember it correctly, an undetermined amount of time.
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And if you needed help, blah, blah, blah, blah and I just thought, hmm, that's not good. So I emailed him at home and he called me back and he told me that he'd had some difficulty breathing, went in and got some chest x -rays.
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His lungs were just fine. The problem was revealed though in the x -rays because it caught the top part of his kidneys and he had cancer in his kidneys and it spread throughout much of his body and the doctors tell him that he has about a 15 to 20 % chance of surviving.
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So what do you do in that sort of situation? I can't heal him.
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I can offer to pray for him and I did that. I can weep with him and I did that.
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I've known him for many, many years. He's an unbeliever. What's the most important thing?
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Suppose I could cure his disease, even with Billy, if I could get rid of his Crohn's disease.
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Then what? 20, 30, 40 years, whatever the
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Lord has for him, in this life and then he's still on his way to hell. All I've done is extend his life, extend the day of judgment.
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So what I offered was more than a healing, the person and work of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. And I encouraged him to read the Gospel of John and by the way, a friend of mine, another mutual friend of ours said, well, why
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John? Why not Mark? And I said, because I'm teaching through John. And I do like it.
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I like it a lot. But as we come to our text this morning in John chapter five, and we'll be starting in verse 19, just to kind of catch us up with where we are,
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Jesus really kind of shocked the Jews, the Pharisees, John calls them the
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Jews, but they really are the religious leaders, the Pharisees, by claiming God as his own father.
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And as I said last week, it wouldn't be uncommon for a Jew in his own private prayer time to refer to God as my father.
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It wouldn't be uncommon if Jews got together to pray, to say our father, but to say my father in a public setting was to really identify himself as having a singular, unique relationship.
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And that, that made them, it outraged them because they understood what he was saying was
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I am the father's son. There is a unique bond.
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I am the reflection of him just as a human son would be a reflection of a human father.
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So he was claiming to be deity and they understood that. That's why they were so mad.
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They were mad enough that he was flouting as their whole Sabbath system.
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But to say that he was making himself equal with God, that was, that made them livid.
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That was over the top. That was more than they could stand. And this really gets to the heart of John's gospel.
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John doesn't make things easy on the reader. He never backs off of the claim that Jesus is fully
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God. Certainly he points to him as being human, as being fully human.
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I mean, even with the woman at the well, he got tired, he was thirsty. But this morning we're going to see
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Jesus. Now just think about it. If you're confronted, I mean, who likes confrontation, right? And when you're confronted, what's your natural response?
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Your natural response is to slink away or to offer some kind of explanation or to sort of give them what they want so they'll go away.
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Just do anything to resolve the situation. And that's exactly the opposite of what
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Jesus does. They're already mad at him about the Sabbath. They get madder because he says, my father.
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And so what does he do in the face of this opposition, in the face of this anger? He goes on to make more claims about his deity.
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He goes on to expand on his relationship with the father. If they were already wanting to kill him, he didn't do anything to get them to slow down.
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In fact, he just put more logs on the fire. Now we'd seen in the past few weeks two incidents, one in Galilee and one in Jerusalem, in which
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Jesus healed physical illness and infirmity so that we'd know that he had the capacity to do these things.
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But today he's going to make far more glorious claims in our text. And we're going to see him really define his own nature as God in the flesh and as our future judge.
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This little section of scripture really is a primer, a basic introduction to Christology, the study of Jesus.
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And J .C. Ryle said about this passage, he says, it seems one of the deepest things in the
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Bible. Another man said, talking about this, he says, it is his claim to be king and he knew well that the man who listened to his words like this had only two alternatives.
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This is just think about these Pharisees here. The listener must either accept
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Jesus as the son of God or must hate him as a blasphemer and seek to destroy him.
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There is hardly any passage where Jesus appeals for men's love and defies men's hatred as he does here.
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He wants them to repent, to believe on him. But he sees their anger, he understands their hatred, and he does nothing to ameliorate it, to lessen it.
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Let's read our text here in John chapter five, verse 19. So Jesus said to them, to the
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Pharisees, truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing for whatever the father does that the son does likewise.
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For the father loves the son and shows him all that he himself is doing and greater works than these will he show him so that you may marvel.
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For as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the son gives life to whom he will.
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The father judges no one, but is given all judgment to the son that all may honor the son just as they honor the father.
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Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Truly, truly,
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I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.
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He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly,
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I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live.
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For as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man.
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Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out and those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
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I can do nothing on my own as I hear, I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
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Now, this morning, I'm going to show you three divine decrees drawn from the text to exhort you to view
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Christ as the single most important truth in life. The single most important reality in life, the single most important event in life.
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He is it. He is central, Jesus, in the midst of this opposition, in the midst of really what was an inquisition, offers an unexpected defense against their charges.
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He doesn't point to his good works. I mean, he could have said, didn't you remember, you know what I've done here?
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He doesn't do that. Instead, he sets up he really he goes on offense, he sets up a kind of a theological showdown with these.
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The experts of his day, the theological experts, the theologians, there are only two possible results, love or hate.
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And really, that's the decision each one of us faces. Our first divine decree to receive the son is to receive the father, to receive the son is to receive the father.
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Essentially, Jesus knows that they're that they want to kill him. And why is that?
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It's because they're opposed to the father. And Jesus gives the Pharisees five truths about himself, five truths about Jesus.
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And those are our sub points here for the first point. Yes, we're going to have sub points.
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The first one, the son acts to subordinate himself to the father. He's explaining this relationship to the father and why, if you receive him, you receive the father.
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First, the son acts in subordination to the father. Look at verse 19.
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So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the son could do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father do.
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And what is the father doing for whatever the father does that the son does likewise?
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Now, when you consider what he's trying to do, he's trying to communicate to them.
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When a human son sees what a human father does, what does he try to do?
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He tries to imitate him. He, you know, how many times will any child will pick up some tool that they've seen their father use and they'll try to, you know, they'll pretend like they're changing the tire or they're doing whatever.
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You know, hopefully they're not pretending to change the oil and dumping the oil into the backyard or something like that. But they kids like to imitate their fathers and they would understand this.
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But he's talking about a much on a much bigger level. It really is kind of amplifying what he said in verse 17.
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Jesus answered them, my father is working until now and I am working. Remember, they were confronting him about why he had told this man to pick up his mat on the
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Sabbath, carry his mat on the Sabbath. This was one of their rules. They didn't really care that he'd been an invalid for 38 years and then been healed.
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They were concerned about their rules being violated. And when they confronted him, he said he was simply doing what his father was doing.
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God, the father can't cease working and neither can he. If God, the father ceased working, as I said last week, the universe ceased to exist.
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I was reading here or I posted on Facebook about the sun. You know, somebody was questioning.
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I think some of you even commented on it. You know, what would happen? How long would the world last if the sun went out?
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And they talked about, you know, it would take some time for the earth to cool down and for all all life to stop.
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But here's the truth. If God takes a second off, everything's over.
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That's right. We're done. We are finished instantly. There's no kind of cooling off period or anything.
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It's done. He is upholding everything by his word. Now, Jesus begins his statement with truly, truly or verily, verily.
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It really is a means of of saying this is a truism.
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It's an axiom. It's entirely trustworthy. You must believe this. What?
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That he does nothing of his own accord. Hendrickson writes of this, he says, it is not simply that he does not act in the independence of the father, but that he cannot act in the independence of the father.
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The Pharisees were upset that Jesus had made himself equal with God.
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And he says, listen, I'm just doing what my father does. And and I am
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I do nothing on my own accord. I just follow him. I do what I see him doing. Now, again, they would readily accept that of a human son and a human father, but they're not willing to accept it because they reject the whole relationship, because in their minds, a and this is important for us to understand a son is equal to his father.
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So when he says is my father, they get upset and he says, well, what are you guys upset with?
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My father's working on the Sabbath, so am I. I'm just doing what I see the father do. And in fact,
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I can't do anything. Apart from what he wants me to do, Jesus is not a rival to the father.
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He's not and neither is he less than the father. He is fully equal. But by agreement of the
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Trinity, the triune God, he is sent by the father, submits to him and does his will.
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Now, we could go on about how that's true, and we could explain that the
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Holy Spirit is sent by the father and the son. That's what's called the economy of the Trinity. And it just allows us to understand that even though father, son and spirit are all equal, they all have different roles.
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But in summary, what Jesus really saying here, here's here's the picture that they would say we love the father.
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But they want to kill him, and he says, you say you love the father and hate me, but I am doing what the father does.
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How can you hate me when I'm doing what the father does? How can you hate me when I'm doing perfectly what the father would have me do?
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There's an inherent contradiction to that. So how how do we apply this?
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Well, if the son is able to submit to the father, if he does everything that he is supposed to do perfectly.
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Then it ought to impact, even though he's fully equal, it ought to impact our thinking. There's no difference between a husband or wife, but they have different roles.
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A wife is to submit to her husband. Why? Because that's her role. The son submits the father.
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Why? Because that's his role. We are citizens of the United States, most of us.
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So what do we we're all residents of the United States. So what do we do? We submit to the government.
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For those of us who work, we work for thus and such a corporation and we work for this entity of the government.
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What do we do? We submit to our boss. We're members of the church. What do we do?
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We submit to the elders. Why? Because that's the way God has ordained things. He sets a structure and it's the same within the
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Trinity. It helps us to understand the idea of subordination.
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It doesn't make Jesus less than the father. Second thing is the more that we know about the
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Godhead, the more in awe we ought to be of the fact that God would save us. When we see this, really, ultimately, what happens?
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God the father chooses, God the son dies, and then the Holy Spirit regenerates and seals these.
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Ultimately, it is not about the gospel is not about us, it's about God, that's what I'm trying to say.
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It is one constant expression of the Godhead. In fact, I'm just going to turn to John chapter 17 for a moment.
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I'm going to read verses 5 to 10. John chapter 17, verses 5 to 10.
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This is the high priestly prayer where we really get fantastic.
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Insights into the Trinity, the relationship between the father and the son, listen to verse five.
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And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed, before there was anything.
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Verse six, I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.
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Yours, they were, and listen, and you gave them to me and they have kept your word.
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Now they know everything that you have given me is from you, for I have given them the words that you gave me and they have received them and come to know in truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me.
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I am praying for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
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All mine are yours and yours are mine. And I am glorified in them. So what is this? We are one complete object.
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We are chosen by the father, given from the father to the son. And sometimes I think we get so caught up, especially in the current world of evangelicalism, you can go back to John chapter five.
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The current way of viewing Christianity is God loves us.
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He's fixated on us. It's all about us in the pews.
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And when we look at what the scripture says, it's about the love that the father has for the son.
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The son has for the father. And we are the objects of that love and literally the objects, the gift, as it were.
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You know, I mean, to be a little bit crass about it, it's like the Christmas gift here. The father gives to the son, oh, it's the elect, you know, and then he does what he's supposed to do and he gives them back to the father.
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This is the picture. It's not we're so lovable. It's about the inner
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Trinitarian love. It's about the love that they have for one another. And we get the byproduct of that.
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We were blessed by that. Our second truth about Jesus here.
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Second, some point is the son acts in accordance with the father. He does exactly what the father.
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I mean, this is similar, but. He said to be of the father in John one, 14 and chapter four, he said the will of his food was to do the will of him who sent me.
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But look at verse 20 for the father loves the son and shows him all that he himself is doing.
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One man says of this perfect sonship involves perfect identity of will and action with the father.
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And in that verse in verse 20, the verbs loves and shows him denote continuous action.
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There's constant love, constant display of what the father is doing.
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For the son and the son is constantly obedient, that's what we would expect.
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When it look at what verse 19 said just back there, it says what he sees the father doing, that's what he does.
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So there's this relationship, the father shows the son, the son does what he sees the father doing.
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And Jesus cannot act in any other way than in accordance with the father's will. It's the nature of the triune
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God that each of the persons of the Trinity works in perfect harmony with one another.
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There's no conflict. Third truth, the son acts with the same authority as the father.
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Now to some, the fact that the father submits to or the son submits to the father and does as the father wants indicates that Jesus somehow has a lesser standing.
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But that's not the case. They just have different roles and look at verse 20 again, the second half of it and greater works than these, he will show him the father will show the son.
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Why? So that you Pharisees and others, obviously the readers here of the gospel may marvel.
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Well, what works is he talking about? He's talking about miracles. What miracles are you talking about?
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Well, the healing on the Sabbath, other things that maybe aren't recorded in the Gospel of John, but greater works than taking a man who had been an invalid for 38 years and healing him.
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Greater than that's greater than healing. What could be greater than that? Well, just keep reading because we find out raising the dead for one verse 21 for as the father raises the dead and gives them life.
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So also the son gives life to whom he will. The Old Testament would teach over and over again, the
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Pharisees to be very familiar with this, that God alone could raise people from the dead, even with Elijah and Elisha.
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They were just vehicles of the power of God to raise people from the dead.
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And here Jesus is making the claim that he can give physical life. Well, he'd already restored that one young man in Galilee who was near death and he would raise the dead, the young lady, the young girl and also
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Lazarus. I mean, there's a great display. That's more than he that's more spectacular than healing, raising the dead.
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That's greater. Here's another truth. The son acts in place of the father.
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Here's another greater thing that Jesus will do. He will pass judgment. Look at verse 22.
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I mean, greater than healing. How about being the ultimate judge? Verse 22, the father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the son.
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You want to talk about trust. You want to talk about complete investment. Jesus says all judgment has been given to the son right here in front of the
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Pharisees. Jesus tells them that the ultimate judge is none other than the person they want to kill.
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If he was trying to smooth things over, if he was trying to patch things up with the Pharisees, he wasn't doing a very good job.
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But this is a truth that's consistent in scripture. Mars Hill, Paul, during a sermon, says what he says of Jesus, that God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.
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That man is Jesus Christ. If they were set on killing Jesus because.
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They thought he was guilty of blasphemy, well, they might as well exactly know what they are plotting, they are plotting the murder of their judge.
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Sounds like a bad move. Fifth truth about Jesus, the son deserves all the honor due the father.
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Look at verse 23, that all may honor the son just as they honor the father, whoever.
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And we heard this in first John, chapter two this morning. Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him.
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Again, this is reminiscent of Psalm two. I mean, this is throughout the scripture. Think about it.
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If God, the father sent the son into the world to redeem a people, do you think he wants them to honor him?
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Absolutely. And you can't say that you honor the father without honoring the son.
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And here's the crushing blow. The Pharisees wanted to kill him. Why? Why were they so outraged with Jesus?
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Because he made himself out to be equal with God. Right? Blasphemy. They were going to protect
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God. This is a blasphemy is an untruth told about God. He made himself out equal to be
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God. They wanted to kill him for it. So ultimately, they would say, if you press them, they would say, we're going to protect
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God. We're going to protect his reputation. We're not going to let this interloper say false things about God.
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We're going to protect the father. Does the father need protecting?
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I don't think so. What do they actually want to do?
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They were actually out to protect themselves, their own power structure, their own rules, this religious system that they concocted.
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I mean, the very idea that you would want to punish someone for picking up a mat after you've been an invalid for 38 years.
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It's insanity. They pretended to act on God's behalf, but what they did was really just accumulate things for themselves, accumulate power and importance for themselves.
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Now, why did the father give over to Jesus all judgments? Because rejection of Jesus is rejection of the father.
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You can't have one without the other. The father loves the son.
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He sent his son into this world to save his people. And the Pharisees want to kill him.
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Now, this is it instantly just reminds you of what the parable of the vineyard where the vineyard owner sends his son and says, surely, you know, after he's killed all these after they've killed all these other messengers, surely they'll receive my son and they'll respect him.
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So our first divine decree to receive the son is to receive the father. You can't have it any other way.
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Second divine decree to receive the son is to receive eternal life. Really believing his word brings new life.
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Look at verse 24. Truly, truly, again, verily, verily, take it to the bank axiom.
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I say to you that whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life to hear his word is equated to what?
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Believing the one who sent him, believing the father. You believe you listen to me. You act on my word.
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You believe the father. Now, it's important to note that here's is not a one time action.
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It's not one and done. It's not even physical activity, right? The Pharisees are standing. I don't know how close to him, but they're standing with him.
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They can hear him. They hear what he's saying. And they just bounce off of them.
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You know, they have no effect on the Pharisees except for to make them matter. And that's not what the point is.
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What is the word of God do for us who are saved? What we hear it and we think, what, what a blessing.
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I love the word of God. I love the gospel. What do unbelievers hear? They hear either nonsense or they get angry.
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And that's exactly what happens here. But isn't it also true? And we don't know what happened here.
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We're not told what you know, what the eventual fate of all these men is. But isn't it also true that is the word alone that reaches people?
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He's giving them the truth right now. The Holy Spirit can use that to change hearts.
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It's in that very moment when the Holy Spirit opens up your ears that you believe that you hear the word for the first time, as it were.
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And God changes your heart. Now, again, it's a constant hearing.
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It is a present participle, which just basically means this. It is an intrinsic part of their being.
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If you're a hearer, you are always a hearer. And what do hearers do? Don't be a hearer only, but be a doer.
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How do we know that you've heard the word of God? Because you act on it. He who hears my word and acts on it will be compared to a wise man, right?
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Believing the word of Christ means believing the one who sent him.
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Why? Because Jesus does nothing and says nothing independently of the Father. Just look at the next words, where it says that the ones who hear, believe and have what?
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Believes him who sent me and has eternal life, has eternal life.
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Every time I hear, I can't help it. I mean, I don't know why, but every time I hear the phrase or the two words eternal life, what do
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I think of? Immediately, what do you think of? Heaven, that's what I think of.
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My thoughts immediately go to heaven. I just think of eternal life as heaven. But this is present tense, has eternal life.
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When did eternal life begin? The moment you were saved, the moment you were in Christ, you have eternal life.
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It's present tense. It cannot be taken. It is preserved for you.
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What does the scripture say? You cannot be taken out of the father's hand.
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Jesus won't lose you, and it says in John 6, Ephesians 2, you are sealed with the
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Holy Spirit. All the power of the Godhead, Father, Son, Holy Spirit is at work to get you where you're going.
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If God has begun a good work in you, he is faithful to complete it. If that's not practical, if that's not encouraging, if that is not something to lift your spirits, whatever your condition is this morning, then
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I don't know what will. Our second truth, believing his word saves from hell, believing the word of Christ saves from hell.
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Again, looking at the text, he does not come into life or into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
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This is really the flip side of having new life, what? That you avoid judgment.
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Now, we know that in some sense there is a temporary judgment or a judgment within life itself.
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How do we know that? In John 3, 18, it says that Jesus has come into the world and it's not to condemn the world, but those who don't believe have been condemned already.
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Well, how is that? Because it is as if the sword of judgment, the sword of Damocles, as it were, is hanging over their head always.
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From the moment they're born to the moment they die, they are condemned. Nothing's going to stop that.
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But for those who are in Christ, that sword has been removed. Why? Because Jesus took the blow for us.
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But those who reject the words of Jesus are the living dead. They will receive judgments.
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For those of us who have not, we have passed from death to life. We've gone from hopelessness to hope.
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But apart from faith in Christ, believing all that he has said, all that is said in the Bible about him, all that he did.
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There is no life. There is no hope. All that awaits is judgment day. When the righteous judge, as we'll see, is
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Jesus. Sends them out of his presence to face the wrath of God forever.
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And that word forever really ought to put a chill in your soul if you don't belong to Christ this morning. Apart from Jesus, there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
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There is no escape. There is no parole. There is no probation. There is no getting out. There's no weekends off.
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Nothing but the ever present penalty of rejecting the sun. Endless misery, eternal sorrow.
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Because for that to end, for hell to end, what would have to stop?
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God himself would have to cease to exist. And we're going to see that that is not possible, is absolutely impossible.
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If you are here this morning and you don't belong to Christ, I urge you.
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Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ this very moment. His perfect life, sinless.
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His death in the place of sinners and his resurrection on the third day. Now, believing his word puts you in right standing with the father and the son.
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Look at verse 25. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is here. When the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live.
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This is truth number three, by the way. For as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself.
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And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. This is similar in some ways to what we've seen before.
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And we're just going to expand on that a little bit. First of all, I would just note, you know, as I said before, if hell is forever, well, why is that?
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It's because God cannot cease to exist. And that's the meaning of this concept here, that he has life in himself.
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It's Exodus 3, 14, it's John 8, 58, I am the self -existence of Jesus, the self -existence of the father.
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God cannot cease to exist. And because of that truth, hell is forever. The judgment is forever.
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Prior to the coming of Jesus, before he entered the world, before his ministry began, men were saved by faith alone.
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There's no difference there. Certainly, we can't look at somebody, I love the life of Samson.
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Why? Because it shows that a complete loser can get saved. There's nothing good about the life of Samson.
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You can go from Judges 13 to Judges 16 and you'll never find a moment where you go, oh, that guy was so faithful in that.
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It just doesn't exist. It's grace alone. That's the only possible explanation for salvation.
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But now, well, they didn't know who Jesus was. Samson certainly didn't know who he was.
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His reliance was on God. He believed that God was gracious and God would save, and he was trusting in some future sacrifice on his behalf.
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But now we know that the Son of God has come in the flesh and those who heed his words, who act on them, will not suffer spiritual death.
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That is what hell is. Those who do not believe, well, there's a theory out there that they'll cease to exist.
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That's not what's going to happen. And then on the flip side, they also will not experience the wiping away of every tear, the end of sin, the joy of being in the
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Savior's presence forever. That is reserved for the saints in heaven. That's what it means to live.
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When we talk about those who hear will live, it talks about eternity in the presence of Christ.
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Eternity with him. That is eternal life. Now, one more note on verse 26.
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It's a clear existence, as I said, of the self -existence, but it also gives us more insight into the economy of the
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Trinity. What does it say? The Father granted the Son. These are anthropomorphic terms.
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They're terms that we would understand so that we can get our arms part of the way around the truth of the
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Trinity. So our first defined divine decree was to receive the
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Son is to receive the Father. Second is to receive the Son is to receive eternal life.
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And our third decree is to receive the Son is to be exempted from judgments.
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To be exempted from judgments. Make no mistake. The final judgment is near.
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Look at verse 28. Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice.
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Everyone, all of them, and come out. Now, what does this mean? Does that mean that,
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I mean, it's going to be like Lazarus, Lazarus come forth. It's not like Lazarus had a choice, right? He was dead.
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But when the master of the universe summoned him forth, he came forth, right? Out of the tomb.
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In that same way, everyone in every tomb, in every cemetery everywhere is going to come out.
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Well, what about those who've been cremated? Well, that's really outside the scope of what we're talking about this morning. But the same
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God who is able to bring forth the dead, who is able to create out of nothing, will recreate bodies for those who have been destroyed by fire, whatever their outcome was.
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All of the dead, every single one will come forth to be judged. Now, at first glance, our text seems to tell us that this is based on just our goodness.
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You know, are you a good person? Yes, I am. Okay, then you get to go to heaven. Did you do more good than bad? Yes. Well, you get to go to heaven.
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Well, that's not really quite right. I mean, we have to take this in context. You have to honor the
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Son. How do we know that? Well, because we're going to see that in a moment.
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We're talking about the judge, but it's not just enough to think that you've done good. You have to be a doer, a believer on the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have heard the word and acted on it, even though they're not perfect, they sin, they stumble.
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But their desire is to please the one who bought them, the one who redeemed them. As MacArthur says, it's the direction of your life, not the perfection of your life.
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Why? Because it shows what you believe. What you do tells us what you believe. Again, not perfectly, but the
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Lord knows the heart. He knows his sheep. He knows who are his. He knows what our motives are.
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But again, everyone will face this. And those who have rejected Christ, those who have put the
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Son of God to shame by rejecting his words and his work, they will receive perfect bodies.
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But those perfect bodies will be created to withstand an eternity of torment.
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Well -deserved torment. Jesus again stresses his submission to the
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Father in verse 30. I can do nothing on my own. Not one thing.
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And it's interesting, he says, as I hear, I judge. As I hear what? As he hears the
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Father, just as before he said, I see what the Father is doing. The Father shows me what he's doing now.
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He says, as I hear, I judge. He judges according to what? According to the will of the
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Father. Look at verse 30 again, the second half of it.
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And my judgment is just. Why? Because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
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The Son will pronounce judgment and the Father is going to disagree. No, he's going to be in hearty agreements.
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There is nothing but entire agreement within the Trinity. Father, Son and Spirit work together in salvation.
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And in judgment, they're not going to disagree. It has been given to the
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Son, but he exercises his judgment justly, in perfect harmony with the
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Father. Now, just in conclusion, it's easy to get fixated on our physical condition, on our financial condition, our emotional condition, our marital condition, whatever issue is facing us in life.
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And certainly for my friend, how can you not be consumed by this idea of cancer?
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But what's more important than a healing? What's more important than the here and now? What's more important about how
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I feel? What's greater than having your pain removed, your illness removed, having your limbs restored, whatever the situation is, possessing eternal life?
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Think about it. If my friend could be healed from cancer and then he had to be raised and then face eternity, facing the wrath of God, would he be thankful still that he was healed of his cancer?
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The question for you this morning is, have you passed from death to life? Have you heard the words of our
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Savior and received them? Have you acted on them? Have you honored the
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Father by honoring the Son? Have you believed what the
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Bible says about him, that he lived a perfect life, that he never sinned, that he obeyed the
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Father in everything, that he submitted to the Father perfectly, that he lived the life that you ought to have lived, and that he died the death that you ought to have died, a horrible death, painful, shameful, horrific, disfigured more than any man ever could have been, suffered more than any man ever could have?
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Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you love the
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Son like the Father loves the Son? If not, how can you hope to appear before the
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Son on judgment day and not be condemned? Let's pray.
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Our Father in heaven, this is sobering to consider the words of our
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Lord, even as he faced those who desired nothing more than to put him to death, yet he did not shrink from declaring to them the truth about who he was, who he is, his relationship with you, and why they needed to believe in him.
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Father, if there's anyone here who does not know you, anyone here who has not honored the
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Son, who has not been regenerated by your Spirit, would you even this moment convict them of their sin, cause them to flee to the cross, to for the first time actually hear in a way that would cause them to act?
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Father, we just praise you for the gift of your Son, and we do this in Jesus' name.