Don't Just Hear, Believe!

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John 5:24–29 (ESV)

24 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.

25 “Truly, truly, 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.

26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

28 Do not marvel at this,

for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Opening Prayer

Setting the Stage

In the opening words of John’s gospel, you may recall him saying...

John 1:1–4 (ESV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

In Chapter 5, John is showing us how Jesus taught such truths...

What does it mean to have God walking among us?

How can that be?

Is there more than one God?

When John states in v.1 that the Word was with God and the Word was God...

—> That informs us of a unique personhood of God.

When John says He was in the beginning with God...

And, that nothing could have been made without Him.

—> He’s informing of us of the unique actions of God.

He’s wanting us to know in greater detail of the Truth that Christ is...

Immanuel, God with Us.

How can we understand that God became flesh?

—> Isn’t God immutable, unchanging?

—> Yes. Certainly the Bible teaches this clearly.

How can God take upon Human Nature and not change?

—> By taking upon Himself a human nature without the two natures mixing.

—> So, that you have two natures, in one person.

—> But, those natures being distinct, and therefore two.

Now, as we’ve been studying this passage...

We notice that as someone works through the gospels...

And, as we observe Jesus teaching the people...

We notice, He interchanges with describing Himself as Divine and Human.

We must understand that Jesus is Very God and very Man...

—> Yet in His humanity He is without sin.

Last week, one of the truths that we studied was the fact that Jesus has life in Himself.

He has the authority of judgment and the authority of giving eternal life to those whom He wills to give it.

This morning’s verses begin the second Truly, truly statement in which Jesus expounds upon this truth of the life He gives.

John 5:24 (ESV)

24 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.

Jesus has already taught us in this passage that whatever He does...

It is inline, in unison, the same as the Father.

Whether it is what He speaks, who He heals, who He gives life to...

Everything He does is of the same mind and will as the Divine.

As the Divine Son become flesh.

So, to be clear...

What the Son says the Father says as well.

One cannot say they believe in God...

If they do not at the same time confess their belief in Jesus.

What Jesus says is Divine truth!

It is not another way, another gospel, another alternative route to God.

If you do not believe the Son, you do not believe the Father.

There is only one way to God, and that is the exclusive way of Jesus Christ.

To reject the Son is to reject God all together.

Because...

A Denial of the Son is a Denial of God

If you deny the Word of the Son, you deny the Word of God.

If you deny either, you reject both.

If you reject the Son, if you reject His word, His testimony...

You reject Jesus, you reject God all together.

And, the implication is that you are denying God...

Because there is only one God.

And, your foundation is the same as the Atheist.

If you don’t believe God, whether you say it verbally or not...

You’re behaving and living if there is no God.

And such sinful behavior brings condemnation.

There’s only one alternative to rejecting God...

And, that alternative is a Promise from God the Father given through the Son, applied by the Holy Spirit.

V. 24 is the gospel

What’s the Promise Received?

John 5:24 (ESV)

24 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.

The Promise is Eternal Life.

Well, what does that word Eternal mean.

I mean we’re living now.

Does it mean I’m going to go on like this forever?

Does it mean that I won’t die?

I don’t know about you, but as a Christian...

I’m not too excited about the conditions of this life...

Living as a Sinner in a sinful world...

I want something better.

I want to be, as the Apostle Paul states in Romans 8...

Delivered from this body of death.

I want to obey my Lord perfectly.

To be in awe and a spirit of perfect worship in the presence of my Lord.

What kind of promise of life is being offered in the gospel?

What does it mean when we read of the offer and promise of eternal life?

The Promise is Not only Speaking of Quantity, but much more about Quality of Life.

Our transgressions against God and His Law Bring Eternal Death.

Christ offers/promises eternal life in Himself.

So, the real distinguishing fact of the Promise is the Quality of Existence.

What is meant by eternal life is the God-given is not just an extension of the same...

But, with the extension of life, is the ability to enjoy life as it was intended and purposed by God.

True joy, true happiness, true pleasure, true satisfaction...

Which, can only be enjoyed and experienced in the fullest, intended quality when sin and its hindrances are removed.

So, the word eternal lets us no that it is not probationary, temporal, for a limited time...

It is everlasting.

And, it is everlasting because it has been earned for us by the merits of Christ.

How Do We Receive the Promise? By Faith.

John 5:24 (ESV)

24 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.

This is the doctrine of justification by faith alone that is expounded upon so clearly in the Epistles.

One receives eternal life, if one believes the Word of the Son.

And, if someone believes the Word of the Son, that person at the same time believes the Father who sent the Son.

I want to say that something very important is said here that Paul expounds upon in Romans.

whoever hears my word

This is a must.

God has ordained that salvation occurs from the hearing of the Gospel.

Romans 1:16 (ESV)

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

If someone does not take in the gospel through the mind...

Which is the foundational first step to Faith...

One cannot be saved.

God has ordained that a person must hear the gospel...

Romans 10:13–14 (ESV)

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

This is straight from the mouth of Jesus...

whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

There’s no other way.

Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.

There’s no other way.

Rather than the condemnation we deserve for our sin...

For our rejecting God.

For our refusal to believe Him...

In Jesus, we have the comfort of knowing that because we believe upon Jesus.

Because we believe His word and testimony.

Because we believe Him, we believe the Father, as well.

Because we believe the gospel of Jesus, we believe God’s gospel simultaneously.

And, because of Christ’s love for us...

We can, at the same time, be assured of the Father’s love, as well.

When we believe upon Jesus, at the very same time we believe upon God the Father, as well.

There’s another component of eternal life that I alluded to earlier...

But, I’d like to finish on this point strongly...

John 5:24 (ESV)

24 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.

We Pass from Death to Life.

That’s what it means to not come into judgment.

We will never have to face the judgment of God.

Why?

Because there is nothing to judge.

In Christ, we stand before God as righteous.

There’s no case against us.

Our slate is clean.

All has been paid.

The record is empty of all transgressions.

So, earlier when we looked at the meaning of eternal life...

We looked at it in the quality of life that we gain in Jesus.

The ability to live life in the fulness of what God intended...

And, the fulness of the splendor, which is what God desires.

The splendor is a righteous relationship with God.

So, here, when Jesus says...

He [the one who believes upon Christ] does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Jesus is speaking to the negative side.

The eternal death we deserve being removed...

So that…we can enjoy the bliss of life with a righteous relationship with God.

So, we can walk back into the Garden of God and enjoy fellowship with Him again.

The flaming sword of judgment had to be quenched.

And, Jesus quenched it fully for those who believe.

So, the Apostle Paul taking these words of Jesus and saying it like this...

Romans 8:1 (ESV)

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

What a beautiful gospel we have been made partakers of, beloved.

We have passed from condemnation to no condemnation.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Notice the past tense...

Already occured?

Jesus says the same thing...

He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

The verdict is already been given.

We’ve already been transferred from the domain of darkness/judgment...

Into the Kingdom of the Beloved Son.

A kingdom of citizens who have a righteous standing with God in JC.

A Kingdom that stands on the righteous, omnipotent power of Christ.

Romans 8:37 (ESV)

37 ...in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

We have Victory in Jesus.

And, that Victory and all the glorious redemptive benefits that are contained in that victory...

Are ours by faith alone in Christ alone.

I pray God let’s me preach this marvelous gospel until the day He takes me home.

Let’s think about this...

This is a breath of fresh air.

One of our greatest battles when we wake up each morning, as Christians...

Is to fight the temptation to earn a standing with God.

To think, that somehow, if I do this or that, such and such...

God will be more for me.

Jesus, our Savior, tells us that all we need to do...

Is believe Him to have eternal life.

So, dear Christian, relax, take a breath, full your lungs to sing His praise.

We have a Savior that has done all that is necessary for us to have eternal life.

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Closing Prayer