Hear His Voice and Live (John 5:24–30)
It's a beautiful song talking about the holiness, the worthiness, and the exaltation of Christ. And it fits perfectly with our message this morning in John chapter 5. And so if you would turn your Bibles to John 5, we'll be looking at verses 19 through 30. In chapters 5 through 12, we're kind of entering a new scene in the book of John, and we will see a series of Jesus' actions and his teachings kind of going together and focusing on this central question we've been asking, if you've been with us through this series in the book of John, on who is Jesus? And it's not only trying to answer the question of who is Jesus and who do you say that I am, as we keep asking people, but it's also to answer the question, what type of life does Jesus offer? What type of life does Jesus offer you and I?
And John 5 begins, if we remember, and if you want to look down in John 5 towards 1 through 18, John 5 begins with Jesus healing a man by His Word, showing that He gives life. And that miracle leads to conflict with the Jewish leaders about Jesus performing this miracle, this sign, on the Sabbath day. And John explains also why in verse 18 a little bit, that Jesus was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. And then the following verses here that we're going to see, 19 through 47 really, is that exact thing, is how did Jesus show that He and the Father or and God were equal?
And so we're going to see that this morning. Jeff focused on the front part of this teaching last week in verses 19 through 23, and then he gave me this section. I realized this whole section really can't be taken apart, so it's going to be kind of part one, part two of this section in verses 19 through 30. And his focus was mostly on the relationship between Jesus and the Father, and taught how Jesus was showing himself to be equal to the Father in six different ways through this passage. So I'm not going to spend a ton of time on that, mostly towards the second half.
But interestingly, several commentators write about this section in very glorious-type language. They say this section is one of the most profound in the whole gospel. And another commentator said, the discourse that follows the healing in the pool is one of the most exalted in the gospel of John. And so what I want us to do is to pray as we begin this sermon, but also to have us still our hearts and consider the seriousness of God's words here and what He is saying. So let's go before the Father and pray.
Father, we come before You, and I pray, God, that You would convict us in the areas we need to be convicted and comfort us in the areas we need to be comforted, which I do not know, but You do. I pray, Lord, as the teaching of Your Word goes forth, that we'd be able to know You in a deeper way, in a deeper sense, Lord, and trust in You and hear and believe in the Son. I pray, God, that You would work powerfully in us and that the gospel would be effective as You say that it is and you promise that it is and that people will come to saving faith or they will turn to you in repentance because they've been living errantly. We pray these things to God the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let's open John chapter 5, and I want to read through this and kind of give a little commentary as we do, and hopefully the text will make more sense as we go forward. But as I was even mentioning before this to a friend, is almost every line of this section could be a sermon in and of itself, so we'll have some fun with it.
Jesus is responding to His religious leaders, and He says, “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. 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. I always want to remember when we're reading is to read it within the context and who Jesus is talking to and thinking about the Jewish leaders who are hearing this. And immediately they're wondering maybe, how is he saying this? What type of authority is he coming from to be able to say this to us? And who is this the son that he keeps referencing? Well, Jesus will kind of pivot here. Verse 21, he says, "'For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life, to whom He will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.'"
So here's this massive pivot where they're saying, "'Wait, wait, only Yahweh can raise the dead.'" Only Yahweh can give life. He was the one who breathed life into Adam and breathed that into him. Who is this son? Surely this guy can't be talking about himself. Only Yahweh can do these things. Honor the son? Only God deserves honor. He deserves all the honor and all the praise and all the glory. What is this guy saying? Well, Jesus is going to turn the heat up even more. He says in verse 24, He turns up the temperature again, and He switches from the third person, the Son doing these things, to the first person, Whoever hears my word, now he's getting even more intense, and he continues.
Verse 26, if it wasn't enough, he says, Remember that. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good for the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
Verse 30 says, I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, sorry, but the will of Him who sent me. Now you can see the blood boiling in the eyes of the Jewish leaders as they're hearing Him say that He is the Son of God. What only the Father could do, He is claiming to be able to do. And not only able to do, but God has given Him the authority to do. He calls Himself the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Son and he makes it very clear to these people.
These are the types of stories that we see in the other synoptic gospels where they'd want to pick up stones to kill him. They do this. That's why verse 18 is written the way that it is, that they wanted to kill him. They were after him. They wanted to persecute him because he was claiming to be equal with God. Maybe you noticed in this section, and this is how I want to help us to grasp this rich and dense section of Scripture, maybe you noticed some of the repetition here.
And whenever you see repetition, it is very important because one of the things that happens in definitely biblical writing is when repetition is one of the ways that they add emphasis. They're not highlighting words in pink or making things bold or putting emojis on the end of things. They are emphasizing things usually by repetition. Holy, holy, holy is like this. the most bold exclamation mark, you know, like grandma on Facebook type post. Like, it's like, ah, holy, holy, holy. It's a serious thing that they're trying to communicate.
Well, what we see in this passage is a chiastic structure, which is what that is, which means a mirroring effect when you see the passage. If you see it this way, I hope you never see it differently. I'll show it here on the screen. And so one of the ways that it's arranged is in thoughts and words with a literary pattern where A and A, 19 and 20 and 30, reflect each other. It says that the son can do nothing on his own accord but only what the Father is doing. And then in verse 30, I can do nothing on my own.
I seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And then the second section shows that the Son possesses the Father's authority. Remember in the passage, it talks about giving life and judgment, and then he repeats it again. Gives life, gives judgment. And the emphasis, I want to show us, there's this crescendo and a beautiful crescendo of this whole passage pointing towards the middle. We usually talk about things, and it's like point A, point B, conclusion, right? That's how you were taught to write papers in high school, whatever, right? But this is designed for our attention to be on verse 24. I only say this because these are the points and the sections of our message, and we'll start out here in verse 19, 20, and 30, talking about how Jesus acts in perfect unity with the Father. in perfect unity with the Father. Since John 1.1, if you guys were here that long, what was that, four years ago we started? No. As the mystery of the Trinity is going to be progressively explained through the Gospel of John. And it culminates in a beautiful way at the discourse of the Last Supper when Jesus is explaining the unity of the Father. But here it is a little foretaste, but also just condensed in this nugget of 19 through 30.
But here again, we see this. And all the Jewish listeners would be sitting there thinking, it's not possible for Jesus to make these claims. And he's saying, truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. and then again in verse 30 went bracketing this passage this is not jesus saying i do this and god you know father specifically specifically does this and it doesn't overlap uh overlap person it's not like saying a person a has given all authority to person b i'm taking my hands off it i'm not involved anymore more than anything what jesus is trying to communicate here is he's trying to show his equality with god
He's not another God to rival Yahweh. He's not saying, I have authority, I possess this, I am God in that sense. In fact, the next verses, the next 20 verses or so, is Jesus' claim to talk about witnesses who would witness to the fact of who he is. not claiming it himself. He's not walking around saying, I'm God, I'm God, I'm God, you should believe in me. He's pointing outward to the witnesses and to others, and he's also not trying to show, because it would be heresy, that he is other than the Father in a way where he's not God. He's not another God to rival Yahweh. He is very God from very God.
He is unique from the Father, especially insofar as the fact that he did not grasp equality with God, but willingly emptied himself to take on flesh and to die for the forgiveness of our sins. But in every one of these statements when he says, Father, Son, Father, Son, over and over and over in 19-30, he is trying to show his equality with God. In every one of these statements, we see that we worship one God in Trinity and a Trinity in unity, neither blending their persons nor dividing their essence, which is a creed from history. We believe in a different creed. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, the begotten of the Father, before all ages, light of light. Very God, a very God begotten, not made of the same essence with the Father. These are the truths of history that have always been pointing back. And when some of these creeds were written, they were written because of passages like John 5, 19 through 30 explicitly.
One of the things that's from this, the unity, Jeff talked about this, I don't want to spend too much time on this point, but one of the points I was really thinking about for us to apply is our dependence on God. Do you depend on God? One of the easiest ways to know if you are depending on God is how much you pray. And I don't mean only praying alone, but also just praying continually to God and knowing and remembering that He is watching and that He is with you and that He is for you and that all of your life should be reflecting Him.
Don't you think it's interesting that Jesus, in perfect union with the Father, would spend hours and hours by Himself in prayer and fasting and communion with the Father in this dark and broken world? You'd be like, hey, where'd Jesus go? He's gone. He's just like out in the woods with his father because he realized how important the dependency on God is. Do you believe and are you recognizing that type of dependency yourself? If the eternal Son of God lived in glad submission to the Father's will, then I think one of the other things is that we are so big on self-reliance. I can do it myself. I don't need God. I don't need his spirit. I don't need his word. I'll figure it out. Like we're the YouTube DIY guys, right? Like I'll figure it out. And then secretly are like DIYing. We tell our wives we'll figure it out. And then trying to do it ourselves.
We don't want to actually rely and trust God and give him everything. Many believers confess Christ with our lips, but then we run our schedules and our money and our parenting and our decisions as practical atheists. And we're like, well, science says this, so we should do that. And common sociologists say we should do this, and finance experts. And we don't actually turn to God and His Word as the only thing that we really truly need. alongside those things, and over and above those things. This text calls us to abiding dependence on God. And obviously, we don't act in perfect unity with the Father. Only Jesus could. But it should be our desire to live and be in perfect unity with our Lord, to follow His precepts, and to do what He has commanded, and to not do what He condemns.
And one of the central truths of that dependence on God is the fact that we are already united with Christ. That we have unity with God. And he prays for this later. He prays that we would have unity with one another and with him as Jesus has unity with the Father. You think about verses like, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, it is he that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do what? Nothing. Jesus is not a myth. And the Bible is not a moral framework on part with Hinduism or utilitarianism. He is our present help in time of need.
So one way you can think about it is how much are we praying? How much do I care about prayer? How much am I going before the Father about my needs and about my life? Another way to think about it, though, and this I see far too common, is when people are living their lives in such a way where they are saying, what can I get away with? And find a Bible verse to maybe support. Well, the Bible's not super clear about that, so I mean… What can I get away with rather than would this glorify God and exalt Jesus Christ? You see the difference? So many of us are living in such a way where we're trying to get away with living a life of self-reliance apart from God rather than trying to glorify Him with everything. Jesus does not let us think that way. He will not let us think that way because it's not for our good and his glory.
Our passage continues when he starts talking about life and judgment. We find out that Jesus is our life and our judge. In this passage, he says, 21-23, it says, If you go in verse 25, again, that mirror happens. He says, And then he starts talking about the authority to execute judgment. One way I want to break this up is that in verses 21, 23, Jesus is talking about present life and present judgment. And in the later sections, he is going to talk about future life and future judgment. So we're going to see this.
One of the ways he talks about present life, I'll show this here in verse 21. This, of course, should remind us of what? John 1.1. And the key of all of John, if you want to unlock an understanding of any part of John, is to look back at the prologue. John 1 says, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And then all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. And then what's the next verse? In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Jesus is given the ability to give life and to take life. The Son gives life also to whom He will. And here, when we're talking about in this section, Jesus is implying multiple things by using the term life. He's implying that Jesus is also giving bodily life now as a creator of all things, not only the quantity, but even the quality. And Jesus, like, having Christ is actually going to give us the fullness of life, pleasures forevermore, joy for all time. That's what the type of life that God is going to give through Christ. He is also saying that He gives new life. You guys remember what happens in John 4? Nicodemus, what does he say he needs? He says, He needs to be born again, born anew. He needs spiritual new life. And Jesus then also has the power to take it as a judge. And then we're going to see that we haven't seen it yet in John 5, or at this point in John. We are also going to see that Jesus has so much power as God that he can raise people from the dead. And he has power also, and he will be, raised from the dead himself, which is what is going to affirm and validate his deity.
In verse 25, it says, truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and this is an important part, and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. And so what's happening here is in verse 21, 25, Jesus is talking about salvation life. about new salvation life that is given to Christians when they believe. Did you know that you possess eternal life now? This is the life that Jesus is talking about. If you are a believer in Christ, you possess eternal life now. It makes it very clear in verse 24, which we'll get to here in a little bit, that we have passed from death into life and we have eternal life now, presently, if you are a believer in Christ this morning.
The people in the first century receiving this and us today, Scripture is going to explain to us that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. The Bible says that our minds, our hearts are depraved. We don't know what we want. And if you're like, I do know what I want, actually, Caleb, and you would say, even that is corrupted and vain, and you don't even realize it. One passage I like about this says, our souls are like a raging sea that cannot rest. And we bring nothing to the table for our salvation besides the sin that nailed Jesus to the cross. Dead in our trespasses and sins.
But we hear the voice of the Son of God. And we, echoing in like Ezekiel 37, we are like dead, dry bones in a grave who hear the voice of God and stand up and receive flesh and walk. And it echoes kind of what just happened in John 5, right? It echoes what happens in the beginning of our chapter. The paralytic is healed and he stands and he picks up his mat and walks. I love how Acts talks about this with Jesus. He calls Jesus the author of life. And then it says, we actually sang it this morning, author of life, and it says that death, it was not possible for death to hold him. Death could not hold him down. He is the present life who gives life.
And part of the life that we ought to live is connected here as well and explained even in the term honor. The life that we live now should be a life of honor and honor of the Son. Honor means just to revere, to worship, to value at a high price. And what this means is that we need to honor the Son and in cultivating an internal disposition of reverence and submission towards Jesus and responding in worship of Him. You know, sometimes when I'm talking to my kids and I'm trying to give a command and they don't do what I tell them to, I'm guessing some of you parents do the same thing. You ask the question, did you hear me? Right? It's a good question. It's a question that then implies, if you heard me, you would have obeyed. Or else, you did hear me, and what? You're disobeying. And the Bible also, in the same type of way, explains this as honoring your father and your mother.
Honoring the Lord is one of the ways that we honor the Lord, that we live for the Lord, that we revere Him, that we hold Him in awe, that we value Him as a high price, is we hear His voice and we do what He commands. And it is obvious as we do what He commands that we are practicing good fruit versus bad, which John talks about. We're walking in light versus darkness, which John is going to echo over and over and over again. It's going to bring us back to these phrases. jesus is the present life but he's also the present judge now maybe that's a new concept to you many of us have thought that well jesus he's the nice one with like long flowing hair has a lamb like over his shoulders on a felt board you know that type he's the one who brings salvation and love and you picture the jesus with like the big thumbs up or whatever but the thunder cloud god that can't be seen in the old testament that's the one everyone needs to be scared of that's that's god and his wrath and whatever what we're going to find here in a deeper and deeper way through this passage is actually the father has given all judgment to the son.
And this judgment, in verse 22, is in direct correlation to those that Jesus will raise from spiritual death and give spiritual life. Four chapters after this, Jesus is going to say, for judgment I came into the world. Whoa. That's a different understanding of what Jesus is here for. This does not mean, of course, that the Father is not involved at all in judgment, as much as there's a declaration that the Son is co-equal again with the Father in judgment. But to an Orthodox Jew hearing this, they would say, wait, in Genesis 18 it says, Jehovah God was the judge of all the earth, so I'm going to judge you. And the major irony here is that you have the Jewish leaders judging the judge of all the earth in their midst. And they don't realize that. And Jesus tells them, if you don't honor me, you are actually not honoring the judge of the earth.
Jesus is also presently judging us. So, He's judging us, believers and unbelievers, in a sense, in how we live our lives. One of the ways He does this is even with discipline, to keep that analogy in is discipline just like a good father disciplines his children in love god disciplines us and directing us towards sanctification to be more like the sun uh recently i uh my kids came home from the homeschool co-op that they were they go to and uh i asked them just as i normally do how was your day what would you know what did you learn what was going on. And Carter was explaining to me all the things that they learn and whatever else. And Piper just immediately, she's two, by the way, he immediately looks at me and says, I didn't hit anyone. And then is like, can I have a chocolate chip? which is her prize. So if that says anything about her. But you discipline the ones that you love and you care for. And she might have done that a few times, so sorry all those in the nursery.
But one of the ways that Jesus is presently judging us is by directing us in the right direction, disciplining us in the right direction. We see this with the churches in Revelation. We see this with Jesus watching and listening and holding people to account. We are presently being judged for a future judgment. What does this mean then for us too? Well, it means that what you do matters. right? How you spend your time matters. And it also means, like, who are we to think that we can hold something ourselves and hide it from God? And we sit here and we have sin that is unrepentant and take communion wrongly. Ecclesiastes 12 says, for God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or it is evil. We're not deceiving anybody because God is our present judge. And no one likes to be judged. We all get a little finicky about it. And a lot of times people will respond and be like, well, what about you? You're whatever. But the other thing, which we'll explore even more later, is that Jesus is a perfect judge.
What can you possibly say to Jesus when he's like, you did this? Well, you, you, you know, it's like, what are you going to say to Jesus? You have a perfect judge, a just judge, and he's the one who's presently seeing what we're doing and how we're living our lives, both believers and unbelievers, and will hold us to account every word spoken. And part of that brings us then to the future life and judgment. The present life and judgment of God is inextricable from the future life, really, right? Because the future will reveal the present. And on the last day, all things will be revealed, as we just mentioned, every hidden thing.
So, if you look down back at your passage, after verse 28, Jesus switches from talking about eternal life and that type of life now, and some even judgment now, to the future. And He starts talking about a future life, a future judgment. He says, "...do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out." Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. Now Jesus is talking about those who have died and hear the voice of the Lord on the last day when the trumpets sound. He's looking to the future, the future resurrection when we are raised and given resurrection bodies.
Turn your Bibles now to the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 12. I want to spend a little bit of time here. And when you get there, no matter what I say, don't leave Daniel. Just leave your finger right there. I might say, don't be tempted to turn back to John for a second until I tell you. But Daniel chapter 12, we actually see this predicted. And every Jewish person who's listening to this and listening to what Jesus is talking about here is recognizing this, or should recognize this, because it's predicted here in Daniel chapter 12. He says here, verse 1 and 2, but at that time your people shall be delivered. Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. What book is that? The lamb's book of life and so far over even that eternal life that we possess now is our name is being written in the lamb's book of life if you just to talks about it that we are actually seated at the right hand of god right like that are our place is already placed in eternity and we have assurance of our salvation if we believe in the sun but then he says this in daniel chapter twelve or two. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall wake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. So leave your fingers here. What he's talking about is the resurrection of life has believers being raised bodily and going before the bima seat or the seat of judgment. 2 Corinthians 5 calls to this, for we must all appear. So this is everybody, believers, unbelievers, but mainly focused on believers here. We must all appear before the judgment seat or the bema seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. So this seat that we get to stand before as believers, Christians will stand before Christ and will receive rewards for our service, our good works which have been prepared beforehand for us to do, and Christ will evaluate the caliber of our work as a… yeah, just evaluate it. But a person's very presence at the seat indicates not fear, but that we have a union with Christ and are heading toward eternal life with God.
Jesus also here, I think it's important to note, He's not saying that those who have done good get to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, in a sense, that your works, the things that you do, could save you. He's already explained that many times, actually, already in the book of John, all the way up to this point. What He's trying to say is He's not teaching salvation by works, He's teaching that the resurrection will reveal salvation. Works, what kind of people we truly were, because works are the fruit of our faith or our unbelief. We see this also with the presence of light and in darkness and many other analogies that the book of John uses. This is a glorious future. We get to praise and sing and go have a new heavens and a new earth with our glorious God where there is no more sin and no more tears, and they will be wiped away, and we will be with him for eternity and exploring eternity. And we've talked about these types of things before, and I could spend a lot of time there, but I really want to focus also on the judgment because I don't think we spend enough time here.
On the flip side, Jesus as we learn in our passage is also the judge of all those who do evil. And our passage also says that Jesus was given the authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. So if you're in Revelation 12, turn three pages to the left. Revelation 7, I don't know if it's actually three, but if it is, raise your hand. No. But the Son of Man is an interesting title. Why does Jesus say Son of Man here? Son of Man is one of the most powerful self-designations that Jesus makes about Himself. And He uses it over 50 times. And some people think, well, you know, isn't the Son of God title kind of more important? Like, He's saying, Son of God. All of us are sons and daughters of men, right? Like, that's not very unique. Actually, the Son of God title is one that Jews and Gentiles alike would be pretty familiar with. The Greeks would be familiar with it in the sense that they believed that a follower of a deity or someone even created by a deity or a demigod of a deity could be a son of God. And even the Jews believed that some of them were also sons of God. In the Old Testament, we see references to sons of God. Adam, David, Solomon are called sons of God. So, it is uniquely important. I don't want to say that wrongly. It is uniquely important because Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man, right? That's an important phrasing, truly God and truly man. But the Son of Man, arguably, is the most important title. The more important title.
Daniel 7, 13 is where we'll pick it up. And by the way, it is in the judgment context setting. It is in the heavenly court. And I'm opening the books here. Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 says this. Daniel says, I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man. Now picture son of man standing right here, okay? And he came to the Ancient of Days. Person two. Who is the Ancient of Days? God. Good. It's not a trick question. God. And was presented before him. Okay, so the Son of Man then, verse 14, was given dominion, the power to judge and to rule, and glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Now, think about what a monotheistic Deuteronomy 6, there is one God a Jewish person would be processing here. Even after this, it actually says Daniel was anxious and distressed in the very next or a couple of next verses, seeing this vision. What is happening here? There is a son of man, and there is the ancient of days, and he has given him all authority and dominion and a kingdom.
Well, you can turn back to the book of John. We'll explore this. If you fast forward, though, John also wrote another book, Revelation. And he says in Revelation, he says, he saw a son of man clothed in white. And what did that son of man have? He had a sharp two-edged sword, which shows judgment. And he says, fear not, for I am the first and the last and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore. I have the keys of death and Hades. Chapters later in chapter 14, it says that that son of man has a crown and a sickle. You guys know what a sickle is? Like a chopping knife. Tool, a sickle, in his hand, which he will use to reap the earth. And he will first reap for the harvest all those who will spend in eternity with God forever and bring them there. But then it says this, and he will reap the earth to those who will be thrown into the great winepress of the wrath of God. Who does this? Jesus does this. The Son of Man, the one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy, is what James 4 says. Because Jesus is the one who is given the authority to hold the keys of death and Hades. He is the life giver and the life taker.
He is the judge who sits upon the other throne, the great white throne of judgment, which is the place where people who have rejected the Son and rejected the gospel, they do not hear and believe the Son. That is where they go before. There is not some grim reaper deaf dude with a sickle roaming the earth trying to bring people to hell. There is Jesus who justly and rightly will judge the world and cast the enemies of God into the lake of fire. Calvin noted that the Holy Spirit intended such expressions about hell to confound our senses with dread, and if such metaphors of weeping and gnashing and teeth and fire and darkness and to be away from the presence of God, they should be things that are metaphors that sicken our stomachs, and they should spur our repentance to faith and holiness.
Yes, Christ is our Savior who weeps over His people and longs to gather them all like a mother hen gathers her children. He's a Savior who offers salvation to all who would hear and believe. But hear me this, after this Savior has sacrificed everything that He possibly could give, even death on the cross for salvation to go to the whole world, He will judge the world with perfect justice. And God in His perfection, His holiness, and His justice, which are perfectly holy, perfectly justice. He is those things, and sin cannot exist in the presence of His holiness. And because of His perfect justice, He also must execute judgment on evildoers like any good judge would. You cannot hear the crimes of people and hear the horrendous things that people do and then have a judge say, you know, you're free. Maybe in Washington, but other places, that does not work. I'm just kidding, sorry. I should have said that.
The problem, though, with this is when we say the enemies of God will be judged on the evil. Some of us are okay with that. Yeah, Hitler, right? Terrorists, people like that, convicted murderers. The problem is that we do not see that we are deserving that wrath. And as Jonathan Edwards said, we are like a bug or a spider hanging above the flames of hell. And it is only by the grace of God that he holds us up. We are all enemies of God, evil in our very nature, deserving the wrath of God. And our default destination is going and impending towards hell and our sinfulness necessitates it. And we live in a world that doesn't want to talk about death. We can't even say it in some contexts. And we don't want to talk about hell, and we don't want to talk about the judgment. The fact is this, all men will die once and then the judgment, which is why the question, who is Jesus, is the most important question you will ever hear.
Too many of us see Jesus as some sort of therapeutic sky fairy, some mythic deity that makes people feel good. They read their Bibles insofar as much as they get a text with emojis that has the verse of the day. How great the wrath of God will be on those who treated Jesus like this. How great the shame and grief of fake Christians who sit in pews week after week and do not have reverence for Almighty God. And even for us who do believe, may we take seriously the grace of God as we work out our faith with fear and with trembling. Jesus is to be honored. He is the judge of all the earth, and all will stand before Him. Now, this should sober believers, and it should terrify people who do not believe in Him.
But what is it that actually gives us respite in the most difficult doctrine imaginable? It is that Jesus is a perfect judge. Jesus says in verse 30, my judgment is just. And no one will receive a punishment that they did not deserve rightly. God is not some fickle person who's judging randomly. He desires for all men to be saved, which is why He came to the cross and died for the sins of the world. You know, it's interesting. We're not judged by some far-off deity that is incapable of understanding what we've been through, what you've been through, the difficulties of the world, the temptation and its lusts. Jesus is our sympathetic high priest, and He is righteous, and He lived a human life. He was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin. Acts 17 says, the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent because He has fixed a day of judgment, and He will judge the world, how? In righteousness by a man whom He has appointed. And of this he has given assurance by raising that man from the dead.
And every wrong will be made right. All of us have suffered wrongs. Have you suffered wrongs? Have you suffered injustices? They will all be undone because Jesus the avenger will not let a single word, misspoken, be unaccounted for on the day of judgment. And one of the most comforting truths in all of this is that God is good. And in Scripture, we see God's wrath. We see Him punishing sin and bad deeds and problems and things. But He's also called a compassionate, gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in what? Steadfast love. And where does perfect wrath and justice but grace and mercy and love meet? Well, they meet on a bloody cross. Because sinners will suffer weeping and gnashing of teeth is what Jesus says, but not before the Son of Man endured it first. Jesus endured the full wrath of God, which is what hell is, on the cross so that we would have eternal life. God's justice was unleashed on Christ, the just who satisfied all those things so that all may be saved. They listened to the voice of the Son.
In our passage, Jesus' central message is not about judgment or hell. He talks about those things. It is about eternal life now. It is Jesus saying, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And you were near the pool of Bethesda, and you were close to the synagogue, you heard the truth, but I am here, and I am the life. And as I mentioned, the crescendo of this passage is pointing from the bottom and the top all to verse 24. So let's look at verse 24 together, which says, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Do you hear that? It is not something that we will get in the future. It is something that we have if we believe in Christ. We possess it now. You have passed from spiritual death to life. You will not come into judgment. Verse 24 is a center of the chiasm, but it is also the epicenter of the message of salvation for all people. It is the gospel of God's redemptive plan and of all history.
And just as the son healed the invalid by the pool of Bethesda by his word, he gives us his word. He says, if you would hear and you would believe, you will be saved. It is as simple as that. If you would but listen to the testimony of the Son and believe in Him who sent Him, you will have eternal life. Romans 10, 9-10 explains this. We've said it many times from here. If you confess in your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. And it goes on. It says, everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame, not be put to judgment. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. John also says in his other book that whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. The message of the gospel is extended for the world to hear. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him, but his invitation is for everyone to hear and to believe the truth of the gospel. Whoever has ears to hear this morning, let him hear. And let God be true and every man a liar.
Scripture References from the Sermon
Explicitly Mentioned References:
John 5:1-47 - Primary text and context
John 5:18 - Jesus calling God His Father, making Himself equal with God
John 5:19-30 - Main passage for the sermon
John 5:19-23 - Relationship between Jesus and the Father (previous week's focus)
John 5:21 - Father raises the dead and gives life
John 5:24 - Central verse of the sermon (eternal life through hearing and believing)
John 5:25 - The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God
John 5:26 - Father has life in Himself
John 5:30 - Jesus does nothing on His own
John 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word
John 1:4 - In Him was life, and the life was the light of men
John 4 - Nicodemus and being born again (referenced)
Genesis 18 - Jehovah God as judge of all the earth
Ecclesiastes 12 - God will bring every deed into judgment
Daniel 12:1-2 - Resurrection to everlasting life and shame
Daniel 7:13-14 - Son of Man coming with clouds of heaven
2 Corinthians 5 - Appearing before the judgment seat (bema seat) of Christ
Revelation 7 - Context reference (though sermon moved to Daniel 7)
Revelation 14 - Son of Man with crown and sickle
James 4 - One lawgiver and judge able to save and destroy
Acts 17 - God commands all to repent; judgment by the man He appointed
Romans 10:9-10 - Confess with mouth, believe in heart for salvation
1 John - Whoever has the Son has life
Ezekiel 37 - Dry bones hearing God's voice and coming to life
Alluded to or Thematically Referenced:
Deuteronomy 6 - One God (Shema)
Genesis 2:7 - God breathing life into Adam
Philippians 2:6-8 - Christ not grasping equality with God but emptying Himself
Ephesians 2:1 - Dead in trespasses and sins
Ephesians 2:10 - Good works prepared beforehand
John 14:6 - I am the way, the truth, and the life
John 15:5 - I am the vine, you are the branches
Hebrews 4:15 - Sympathetic high priest tempted yet without sin
Revelation 20:11-15 - Great white throne judgment
Revelation 21:4 - No more tears
Hebrews 9:27 - Appointed for man to die once, then judgment
Exodus 34:6 - Compassionate, gracious God, slow to anger
Psalm 46:1 - Present help in time of need
Matthew 23:37 - Jesus desiring to gather His children like a hen