Honor The Son

If your new with us today we are going through the book of John.

The book of John really highlights the person and work of Jesus.

It has what theologians would call High Christology.

That means that John is making the point to put the focus on Jesus as both fully human and fully God.

We think about the seven “I am” statements in John.

I am the bread of life.

I am the gate.

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And specifically for today I am the resurrection and the Life.

These all point to a high view of Jesus as the Christ.

As the savior.

As Lord.

John is helping us to see the glory and radiance of Jesus as the divine Son of God who has come to rescue his people.

And he is doing it to serve the purpose of driving us to belief.

John 20:31 “31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Last week we looked at a passage that talks about Jesus’ first time interacting with the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.

He had just performed the miracle of healing the man who had been lame for 38 years.

Sounds amazing.

Sounds miraculous.

Sounds like something to celebrate.

The problem occured b/c Jesus had healed the man on the Sabbath and in the Jewish leaders eyes caused the man to sin by having him pick up his mat.

God had commanded the Jewish people to abstain from working on the Sabbath back in Exodus 31.

Then the Jewish leaders added extra categories to what work meant.

And moving furniture was one of those categories.

So the Jewish leaders were now accusing Jesus of causing this man to sin and saying that Jesus is also a sinner b/c he was also “working” on the sabbath.

But Jesus hits them back with a retort that sets them off.

He says John 5:17 “17 Jesus responded to them, “My Father is still working, and I am working also.””

He basically was saying that you believe that God is allowed to work on the Sabbath.

Well I am the God you claim to worship therefore I am allowed to work on the Sabbath as well.

And it got the Leaders hot.

They were livid.

John tells us in John 5:18 “18 This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill him: Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.”

Well in this morning’s text he is going to further lay down the gauntlet.

Jesus is going to point out the unity between him and the father.

He is going to leave us without a doubt that he is equal to God the Father.

The Divinity of Jesus is essential to our understanding of who he is.

It is essential to salvation.

If Jesus isn’t God than his death was in vain.

If Jesus isn’t God than he doesn’t have the power and authority that he claimed to have.

If Jesus isn’t equal to God the Father than our faith is empty, shallow, and worthless.

If we want to know and love Jesus we have to see him as he saw himself.

And he saw himself as God in flesh.

There are many who claim to be Christian but deny the divinity and equality of Jesus with the Father.

Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are just two examples.

But Church if we want to serve Jesus we need to know who he is.

He is the King of this universe.

He is the Creator of all.

He is the God.

Let’s pray before we dive into our text.

John 5:19–24 CSB

19 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him greater works than these so that you will be amazed. 21 And just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wants. 22 The Father, in fact, judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 so that all people may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.

Unity with The Father

Like I said earlier Jesus wants us to understand his unity with the father so he begins this discourse with

Jn 5:19 “19 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.”

Jesus only does and can only do what the Father does.

They move in perfect harmony.

They move in perfect unity.

Jesus lives in perfect obedience to what the Father instructs.

Jesus came to the earth to reveal to us the heart of God.

Later in Jn 14:9 Jesus will say “The one who has seen me has seen the Father.”

Paul tells us in Col 1:15 “15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”

Hebrews 1:3 “3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

Jesus isn’t a rogue agent out to do his own thing.

He lives a life of sacrificial obedience to the Father.

While at the same time only doing what the Father instructs him to do.

Jesus and the Father are One in Action and in Will.

Jesus cannot act of his own initiative he only does what the father does

So then we have to ask ourselves what is the Father doing that Jesus is imitating.

He is saving people.

He is healing people.

He is continuing on his plan of redemption from eternity past.

We need to remember that the plan to send Jesus wasn’t a back up plan when Adam and Eve whiffed it.

The plan was from the foundations of the earth for Jesus to come and Sacrifice himself so that people could be restored into right relationship with God.

And throughout the OT we see God moving and pushing his purposes forward despite sinning and selfish people.

And what happens when Jesus comes he continues that only now it is not a broken creation that God uses but perfect divinity.

God has always been about saving.

He has always been about restoration.

He has always been about reconciliation.

And now that plan has come to its fruition with the coming of Jesus.

And this saving is done out of God’s love for his creation.

However, Jesus and God the Father share a unique form of love that guides and directs what Jesus does on earth.

john 5:20 “20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him greater works than these so that you will be amazed.”

There is a perfect love, perfect relationship between the father and the son.

One pastor called it “Divine Delight”.

The Father Delights in the Son and the Son delights in the Father.

“All that Jesus does in anchored int he love of the Father, and love is the binding force of the unity in the…Trinity.”

The Greater works probably refers to greater works than the healing of the lame man and points forward to the next couple of verses.

What Greater works is Jesus going to perform?

He is going to have authority over life and Judgment.

He is going to be the way by which people are restored if they believe.

Jesus once again equates himself to God.

Jn 5:21 “21 And just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wants.”

Jesus here is saying that he has the power of life and death in his hands.

For the Jewish leaders they believed that only God “held the keys” to three things

I. The Key of the Rain.

II. The Key of the Womb.

III. The key of the Resurrection of the Dead.

This is good news.

Jesus gives life to those who will believe.

He has the power and authority to do so because he is God.

He’s not simply a good teacher.

He’s not simply a moral example.

He’s not a man with a God Complex.

He is God with all the authority and power of the God revealed in the Scriptures.

This is the reason we celebrate.

This is the reason we gather.

This is the reason we rejoice.

Because Jesus gives life.

I would be remiss if I did call you to repent and believe this message.

If I didn’t tell you that you need to turn from your sin and turn toward Jesus.

You need to trust that he is the Life-Giving God of the Universe.

Because if you don’t you will spend eternity separated from the love, grace, and goodness of God.

Listen to how Jesus said it.

John 5:22-23“22 The Father, in fact, judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 so that all people may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

Jesus is going to judge you on whether or not you honored him.

On whether or not you saw him as he is or you willfully ignored the truth standing in front of you.

You are not without excuse.

You have heard the message of the Gospel.

And if you don’t Honor Jesus.

If you don’t turn to him he will judge you harshly.

Here’s what he is saying to those Jewish leaders.

If you don’t honor the Son.

If you don’t honor the one standing in front of you, then you don’t honor the father who sent him.

Meaning that those who had devoted their time, their obedience, their money to God were missing the mark when God was standing right in front of them.

Here’s the thing you can’t have God if you don’t have Jesus.

I saw a TikTok just recently and this man said this.

“All faiths lead to the same God”

That is patently false.

All faiths are exclusive.

What we try to do is make faith more palatable for people.

All you have to do is have faith.

All you have to do is believe and that will be enough.

The God you love will bless your simple belief in whatever you want to believe.

But Jesus here is saying that there is only one way to avoid Judgement.

There is only one way to get to God.

There is only one way to be given life.

There is only one way to be made new.

There is only one way to be restored.

The only way is to Honor the Son and by honoring the Son you honor the Father.

And if you honor the son. What happens

jn 5:24 “24 “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.”

If you listen to Jesus.

If you respond to his message.

If you respond the the gospel.

you will inherit eternal life.

You will avoid wrathful Judgement.

If you hear Jesus’ word then you are hearing the very word’s of the Father.

Why? Because they are in perfect unity.

B/c Jesus only says and does what the Father does.

This would have been striking to the the Jewish leaders.

They had God’s word.

They had the scriptures of the what we now Call the OT.

Now if they were speaking to the God who authored it all.

And yet they were still blind to that reality.

If they didn’t recognize, believe, and honor Jesus as Lord they were going to come under judgment.

But if they believed they would go from death to life.

How can Jesus state that.

Because he is the one that gives life.

He is the one that bestows life.

He is the one that makes things alive.

Ephesians 2:1–10 (CSB)

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins

2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,

5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,

7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—

9 not from works, so that no one can boast.

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

This is your call to trust the Son.

This is your call to honor the Son.

This is your call to inherit Eternal life.

Why should you respond to that call?

Jesus tells us in the next few verses.

John 5:25–30 CSB

25 “Truly I tell 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 just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted to the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has granted him the right to pass judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation. 30 “I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

Judgement of the Son

There is a Judgement Coming.

I’m not telling you this in order to scare you into belief.

But I simply want you to know that there will be a day when Jesus is going to pass judgment on all people.

And they will either be found honoring Jesus or they will be condemned b/c they didn’t honor him.

It’s Fitting that this text comes up on this Sunday of all Sundays.

Today is the day that we celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection.

This is the day where we think about Jesus’ new body.

Him rising from the grave and conquering Sin and death.

But here in John he tells that there will be a day when all people will be resurrected and be judged on what they did with the truth of Jesus.

Can you hear the power in this statement.

Can you feel the weight of what Jesus is saying.

By simply saying a word the power of life and death will be witnessed.

If we just jump ahead a few chapters to jn 11.

We see Jesus resurrect a man by Simply calling out his name.

“Lazarus, Come Out”.

I like to think that the reason he called him by name is b/c if he would have spoken to the graves and just said come out There would be innumerable amounts of people coming out.

And one day that will be the reality.

I believe like John does in many ways he is speaking on many levels when it comes to Jesus.

That Jesus is looking forward to the day when the resurrection of dead at the end of times.

But John and Jesus want us to see that he can give us life now.

That Jesus wants us to have life now.

I believe that each of us who believe in Jesus were called by name.

That Jesus saw it fit to say.

“Josh, come alive.”

That’s what that Ephesians passage earlier says.

I was dead, but Jesus made me alive.

And he can make you alive.

If you don’t believe, he is calling out you name and he wants you to respond.

He wants you to trust him.

He wants you to turn to him.

He wants you to have life.

Jesus is concerned with your spiritual life right now and he promises you if you come alive now you will live a glorious life beyond the grave.

Now here’s the thing.

You can ignore his call while you live here on this earth.

You can choose to live your life the way that you want to.

But when it comes to the end of things.

You will not be able to ignore his call.

I plead with you to not ignore his call today.

Be counted among those who honored him.

Don’t be among the condemned.

Be among the redeemed.

Turn to Jesus he’s our living hope.

He is the only one who gives life.

He is the only one that satisfies.

He is the only one who can take you from condemned and facing the wrath of God.

To being a child of the one true king.

Let’s pray.