Transcription
Good morning. Good to see you. Hey, my name is Austin. I have the honor of leading one of our College Ministries, Salt Company Minneapolis. And, uh, yeah, let's go. Is it not a great weekend to be a Golden Gopher? Yes, it sure is. Hey, I'm honored to be with you guys this morning. Uh, like Matt was reading, we're in John chapter 5 again. And, uh, I just want to say that I was really thankful for this text this week and to be able to study it and excited to share some things about it with you now.
But, uh, it reminded me of a phrase that I've heard once upon a time that said, "Clarity is kindness." And this text has a lot to say about clarity because where we're at in the story, we've got a bunch of religious people that have encountered Jesus, but they're confused about what he's doing. They had been reading about a Messiah that was going to come, they had been reading about a Savior of the world that was going to come and do certain things and, and save the world. But Jesus was doing things that they didn't expect. They were kind of confused. And so they need some clarity.
So in Jesus's kindness toward these religious people, and in his kindness towards us, he's going to clear the air on what he's up to and who he is. So he's going to give us clarity on three things in particular: his role, on the resurrection, and on our problem. In his kindness, he's going to give us clarity this morning through this sweet little monologue. And it starts in verse 19. This is giving us some clarity on his role. Would you read again with me in verse 19?
So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of 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. 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 Jesus is giving us some clarity on him as the role of Son of God. He's God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. They've been delighting in one another for eternity past and will for eternity future. And Jesus's role in that is that he is the Son of God. There's a couple really important things that we see about this role right away: that he does exactly what the Father tells him to do, that he sees everything that the Father does, and that the thing that unites the Father and the Son is love. Isn't it awesome that the connection between the Trinity is not this role like master and servant? It's not boss and coworker, but it's Father and Son. They're united by love. It's the thing that motivates Jesus to do everything that he has been doing and everything that he will be doing.
He is in perfect relationship with his heavenly Father. And do you know what happens when somebody looks, excuse me, when somebody is in a great relationship with their father? They start to look like him, right? They look exactly like their dad if they're really tight with themselves. Let me tell you a couple things about my dad. He really loves ice cream. He eats it all the time. And, uh, he married a beautiful woman with high character. And he's got a luscious white beard going right now, okay? I have two of those three things down. The second one, the third is on its way. Maybe not white yet, uh, but hey, I see my father doing all kinds of things and I follow in his footsteps. Some of those things I'm like my dad just because I'm half his DNA, right? But half of his DNA doesn't do the full work. I'm also seeing everything that he's up to. So when I saw him behave as a father, man, I wanted to be like him.
Now, the, the analogy breaks down eventually because even my relationship with my dad is flawed. It's riddled with sin, and there's ways that I want to rebel against him. But Jesus had a perfect relationship with his Father, so he looked just like him. He has the identical nature and heart of God the Father. So everything that he's doing is motivated by the heart of God. And this would have been really confusing for these religious people that are listening because they thought that they had the law down. They thought they had everything nailed down, like who is God, what is he up to. So they thought they knew exactly what the Son should do. But like I said, he, they're confused. They didn't understand why he was healing somebody on the Sabbath and telling him to pick up his mat and go. They're confused. And so that's why Jesus is giving them clarity. He is the perfect imprint of his Father. If you want to know what the Father is like, you can look at the Son and you can see his heart. Jesus sees everything that the Father's doing. They're on the exact same page. It's what motivated Jesus to live a life as a human, fully God, fully human, but without sin. He never rebelled against his Father. He never made a mistake.
As the reason that we make mistakes, the reason that we sin and go against God's good design is because we don't have this same type of relationship with God the Father. We've been separated from him because of our rebellion. We've chose to live a life without him. And so we've been bouncing from love to love that is not our Father, searching for deep connection with him in all of the wrong places. I was able to spend some time with some of my cousins the past few days. And do you remember the time when you were really little? You were like waist-high, and so you'd be running around, maybe a family event, and you knew what kind of pants your dad wore, right? You knew the khakis because that's right, what was in eyesight. But you'd be running around trying to find your dad. And you'd see the khakis and you'd run over and you'd grab the leg and then you look up, you're like, "Oh, that's my uncle." You know, it's like, "That's not my dad's." I got to get out of there, you know. And there's this weird, it's pretty an awkward encounter. But then you go over and then you find the other khakis, you know, of course, they're both wearing khakis. And then you see them. Ah, then you get reconnected with your dad. You were bouncing around to different loves because you had left the presence of your Father. You wouldn't have been disappointed with the leg that you found if you had just stayed put with your Dad. The reason that you're bouncing around and trying to find deep connection and love and being disappointed is because that's not where true deep connection comes from. You were meant to be deeply loved and connected to your heavenly Father. And Jesus is reminding us that that is the source of life. And he was deeply, fully, perfectly United with his Heavenly Father.
Here's a question that came to my mind as I was reading this text: was, okay, if it says that Jesus can't do anything of his own accord, can't do anything by himself, honestly, I was asking, hey, is Jesus a robot? You know, can he, if he can't do anything of himself, is he a robot? Is he just blindly following? Has no option to choose at all? Great question. No, he's not. He's completely free, completely able to choose. He was given all of the opportunities that we are. Yet, because of his perfect connection, he chose not to leave his Father's hand. He had perfect relationship with God, and he was soaring on the thermals, achieving perfection, doing exactly what he should, living life to the fullest, having full joy because he had full delight in the Father. And because of this, he is the standard. He's the test.
This is what the text says about it. It says, "If you believe Jesus, then you believe God. If you don't trust Jesus, then you don't actually trust God. If you like Jesus, you'll really like God the Father. But if you reject the Son, you're rejecting the Father who sent him." Jesus is clarifying that, hey, you can't get one without the other. It's like if you were to invite me over, my name is Austin Miller. If you were to invite me over and say, "Hey, I like, if you want to bring Austin, but can you leave Miller at home, please? Austin, I want to have you over for dinner, but can you please leave Miller at the door?" I don't really, I don't really want that. I wouldn't know what to do. How would I come? Do I leave one foot out the door? No, I am Austin Miller. I can't separate the two and just bring one in. You can't get one without the other. You can't get Jesus without God the Father. They come as a package deal. So it's true that whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
Question for you this morning: Do you know your heavenly Father? Do you know what he's like? Have you interacted with him? Have you learned from him? Man, a great way for you to get to know your heavenly Father is for you to meet his Son. He's just like him. You can see his character, his heart. You can see that he's perfect, he's holy, he's compassionate, he's pursuing you. The way to honor him is by hearing his words and believing the one that sent him. It's a big deal because it gives you deep satisfaction, deep love, now, deep connection with God, now, but also for your future.
Let's see what the next several verses talk about: the resurrection. What's to come. Verse 24 says, says this: "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. 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. 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. 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."
Jesus is giving us clarity on the resurrection. The future is physical. There's going to be a day when God remakes the world, redeems everything. But what we get to know here is that it's going to be physical. All who have died will raise. We will receive a new body. Some will be raised to experience eternal life. Some will be raised to experience eternal judgment. It's incredibly hopeful for the believer and incredibly scary for the unbeliever. That there is a future that is physical. Some will experience life, others will experience death.
What does it say about who gets what? It says that the one who has done good will be raised to a new physical body and live forever with God. They will never die. The one who has done evil will be raised to experience eternal separation from God, and they will realize how completely holy is God and realize how completely depraved is man. But the reality is that God's plan for the future is not that everyone would just disappear, not that everyone would just turn into spirit and float around, but the, the reality is that the future is physical. Even physical bodies will get new ones. Ain't that crazy? We're getting new, redeemed bodies if we're in Christ. It's going to be so much better than what we've got now.
But how do we know who's going to get those bodies meant for eternal life? Well, Jesus is giving us clarity that he is the judge, right? He's received the authority to execute judgment from God. Why is it that the Father is not the judge, but the Son? Well, it's part of his distinct role, not a human's role, not my role, not yours, but God the Son's role to execute judgment, to say that the decision is either innocent or the decision is guilty. But here's something interesting about Jesus's entire life is that wherever he went, wherever he went, there was judgment there because when you met Jesus, when he revealed himself for who he really was, there was no option to stay in the middle. It was either innocent or guilty. And what anyone would ever realize when they met Jesus, Jesus the Son of God, when he revealed himself to them, was that they missed the mark. They would see that Jesus was the mark of perfection. And when they came in contact with him, the only true response when they saw him for who he really was, was, "You are greater than I am." He is worthy. He is perfect. And so Jesus, in love, made it clear to them that they had missed the mark.
This was, this is true for anybody who has met Jesus and been totally transformed by him. Is it not like when you meet him, the conclusion that you come to is, "My goodness, you are awesome. I am not." And if that's true about you, you would not say that Jesus did that out of hate. You would not say that Jesus devalued you as a person. You would not say that he cast you out of his presence. That wasn't judgment. His judgment of you being guilty was the most loving thing that he could have ever done for you because it finally revealed who you really were and where you stand in relation to him. And so his judgment towards you saying, "Hey, you need me," is actually the most loving thing that he could have ever said to you. This is the perfect judgment of God, that it would reveal each of our deep needs for grace, for salvation from him, not by ourselves. This is why we need the judgment of God. The best thing that he could do for us is to show us that we need him because when we declare that we need him, we get him forever. This is eternal life.
Like it says in verse 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." If you are in Christ, you will never face ultimate judgment, payment for your sin. If you are in Christ, Jesus took that for you. And so you pass from death to life. Good news for you this morning. If you're in Christ, you're alive. You're living. You've got access to life itself, God the Father, because of Jesus taking your place on the cross. You do not pass into judgment. You go straight from death to to life forever. Can't take that from you. It's done. Jesus has declared you alive because of his authority to execute judgment.
Here's what Jesus knew when he was saying these words to these people, that in a number of days, he would face the ultimate judgment for sin. That the reason that he could say in the future that those would pass from death to life is because he would be the one to face the ultimate judgment of God. Guys, the idea that Jesus was the perfect Son of God in perfect relationship with his Father makes his death on the cross even more astonishing. It sets the basis for the most unthinkable act of love anybody could have imagined. If Jesus was the perfect, true Son of God with amazing connection with his Father, is it not incredible that when he died on the cross, that God turned his face away from the perfect Son? Is that not unthinkable? That they had perfect connection with each other, and God said, "I'm removing my presence from you." Why would they do that? Why would they stop such a perfect connection? Why would they voluntarily do this? Why would Jesus voluntarily separate himself from the love of God so that you could be welcomed in? Jesus lost his perfect connection with God the Father so that you could have access to it. And when Jesus came back to life, he proved that he, in fact, was the ruler of life itself, able to give it, able to rise from the dead, and able to welcome anyone into that same eternal life.
It's the greatest switch that has ever happened. The greatest transfer that has ever happened. That eternal life does not come through good works, but it comes through accepting Jesus as your representative. If you could actually do good, then Jesus wouldn't have done this on the cross. If you could actually achieve perfect connection with God, then Jesus would not have had to be separated from it. But the only good one, Jesus, took your place as the bad one and made a way for you to stand as good through what he achieved for you. The only way you can be good in the eyes of the judge is by trading places with Jesus. He'll take your place on the cross and receive judgment for your sin, and you take his place as the perfect Son of God and receive resurrection life like he deserved. And so now you get to have the identity of the Son of God, adopted, loved, perfectly connected with him because of grace.
Here's what this does. If this is true about you, if you've switched places with Jesus, it boosts your confidence and totally removes fear. If you are seen as perfect in the eyes of God, does this not change just the, the way you live each day? Totally loved, totally accepted, full access to God the Father at any time. If you will ultimately receive resurrection life, if death is just a doorway into resurrection life, does this not remove fear? Does this not increase your love and excitement for what's to come? You have passed from death to life. So what you experience now and forever will be life, and you won't be able to change that. Have you ever tried to turn a popcorn kernel back into just the kernel? Like a fully popped piece of popcorn back into a kernel? No, no, you wouldn't do that. You can't do that. If you've passed from kernel to popcorn, you can't go back. If you've passed from death to life, you can't go back. That was made the most sense to me. I don't know why you can't undo the work of Jesus on the cross that purchased eternal life for you. You've passed from death to life.
Application for this is to enjoy this reality. Just soak in it. The best is yet to come. The worst has been dealt with in Jesus. Eternal security, peace with God. Your sin is not powerful enough to ruin your life anymore. If this is really that awesome though, if this good news of life forever is so awesome, then what has caught our attention? Because let's be honest, we're not focusing on that, are we? There's stuff that always grabs our attention, takes us away from that truth. What is it that has caught our attention? That's what Jesus is going to address next.
The clarity on our problem. Verse 39 says this: "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?"
Remember that Jesus was talking to these religious people that were searching the scriptures. These guys studied the Jewish scriptures. They knew them deeply. And Jesus is calling out one of the most intense ways to call out a religious person, saying, "Hey, you've been searching this whole time thinking that in them you've got life." But they had their eyes so fixed on the scriptures that they missed the Son of God when he was right in front of them. So fixed on the letter of the law that they missed the one who was fulfilling it before their eyes. You see, they be, they became, they started thinking that the scriptures were about how polished they could be themselves, how cleaned up can I be, how much applause can I receive from people around me when they see how polished my life is, how much glory can I receive from the person next to me? Is this not the same thing that takes our eyes off Jesus? Is putting our eyes just on ourselves, trying to polish our own life, trying to clean up our own life, trying to get applause from the person next to us? Maybe the reason that we aren't rejoicing in the life that we have in Jesus is because we are so focused on the life we think we should have according to what our neighbor thinks. We've missed out on the glory that comes from God by focusing on glory that's going to come from the world.
Religion allows you to receive just as much as your neighbor is able to give you. But grace and the presence of God allows you to access full. It allows you full access into everything that belongs to the unlimited God. You got to choose one. These can't coexist. You can't focus on earning applause from people around you while also trying to trying to receive the glory that comes from the only God.
This verse, I remember reading it when I was in college for the first time, and it was kind of in this crazy period of my life where God was just revealing what I was living for. And I remember reading this verse in my dorm and being absolutely overcome with the reality that up until that point, I had lived every second for the applause of the people around me. Every decision motivated by, "What's going to get me the most credit? What's going to make other people think that I'm more awesome if I do this or if I do that?" Completely blinded by trying to receive glory from people. And in God's kindness, he confronted me, saying, "Hey, you cannot receive all that I want for you if you're so focused on receiving the applause from the people around you." It was this confrontation with the love and the holiness of God that told me, "Hey, there's a much better way to live." Not for the applause of people, not for them to be so impressed that your life is so cleaned up, but to live for the presence of God, to see the beautiful God right in front of you.
So I'm not sure what it is that you're focused on, how you're trying to earn applause from people around you. I'm not sure if it's trying to be the greatest parent, trying to impress the parents around you with your new strategy of how you're raising your kids. I'm not sure if you're trying to earn applause from people through all of your accolades, through college and success in classes or in athletics. I'm not sure why, how you're trying to earn applause from people. If it's through the clothes that you wear or like the face that you put on when you're around certain people. I'm not sure how you're trying to earn applause from people. Maybe it's even through religion, through trying to show up to church and impress people with how good you are at following the Christian rules. I don't know how you're trying to earn applause from people. But God's confronting you, saying, "Hey, there's a much better way to live." It's not about polishing up your life. It's all supposed to point you to the one who had the perfect life and laid it down for you to access true life, eternal life, belonging and connection with God the Father. There's a better way to live for you to be completely satisfied with him, regardless of the applause you receive from anybody else. It's not about that. It's about deep connection with God the Father.
Man, what an exhausting way to live to just fight for every second to try to receive applause from other people. What a restful life to receive connection with God, to receive life from his Son. You can be completely satisfied with him. And as you search the scriptures, as you study all of the Old Testament, you'll see that it all points to Jesus. As you read all of the letters that follow his coming, you'll see that they all reflect on Jesus. It's all about him. He's the main event. He's the perfect, holy Son of God. He's the point of it all. Have you missed the point? Have you become distracted by the map that was trying to lead you to a certain destination, but do you need to just put down the map and look at the view and see the life that has been purchased for you by the Son of God? The scriptures were always about introducing you to Jesus so you can see him. So now, would you see him? Would you enjoy him? Would you fall in love with God the Son and what he did to connect you to God the Father? Jesus is laying it all out on the table so that you would have clarity. Clarity about his role, clarity about the resurrection that is to come, and clarity about the best way to live in love with him, the Son of God, that's worthy of praise.
Would you pray with me? Father, thanks for being a God of clarity, one that cares about how we think about you and what we know about you. Thank you for this passage that just gives us a sweet view into your relationship with your Son, that you show him everything that you've been doing, but he knows you intimately. And even through that deep relationship, thank you, Father, for your plan to invite us into it. That you didn't want to leave us out on the outside, but you wanted to invite us into that same relationship. Thank you for sending Jesus to the cross to be abandoned so that we could be welcomed in. Thank you, God, that you give us eternal life through your Son, Jesus. I pray that we would enjoy that now. Would we just enjoy the reality that you have pursued us, that you delight in us as your adopted sons, and that you're going to give us the full inheritance to come? God, encourage us this morning in the way that we need it. I pray that we would see you clearly and that we would give you praise as you deserve for being holy, righteous, and near. Thanks for being with us even now. God, we give you praise and we pray this all in your name. Amen.