Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – John 5:19-47

Sermon text today is found in John chapter 5 verses 19-47. We’re starting a new section in John here. Really chapter 4 sort of concluded a section and this section opens in much the same way. Not obviously at first, but as we read through this, note the themes from the prologue of John’s gospel that repeat themselves here in Jesus’s discourse on what it means when he comes on Sabbath day.

Please stand for the reading of God’s word. John 5:19-47.

Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do. For whatever he does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all things he himself does. And he will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom he will.

For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but is passed from death into life. Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming and now is 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 to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth those who have done good to the resurrection of life. Those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.

I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesses of me is true. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Yet I do not receive testimony from man.

But I say these things that you may be saved. He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. But I have a greater witness than John’s. For the works which the father has given me to finish. The very works that I do bear witness of me that the father has sent me. And the father himself who sent me has testified of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his form.

But you do not have his word abiding in you. Because whom he sent him you do not believe. You search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life. And these are they which testify of me. But you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive honor from men. But I know you that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my father’s name and you do not receive me.

If another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? Do not think that I shall accuse you to the father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me. For he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?

Let’s pray. Father, help us to hear your word. Help us to understand your scriptures. Help us, Lord God, not to be idolatrous with them the way the Jews were, thinking that somehow in themselves these scriptures bear life. Help us, Father, to hear in them the voice of our savior speaking your voice. Help us, Lord God, to understand your word that our lives may be transformed. Help us to seek desperately after glory, honor, life, and knowledge from you whom we love.

In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

Well, these wonderful songs that we’ve been singing this morning have been preaching to us. I have the great delight and privilege to know the songs and the sermon ahead of time and to know how they almost always in the providence of God flow together very well. Sometimes because we’ve been diligent in our task. Ad has brought most of the songs to the orders of worship over the last six months. And Doug H. and I are diligent to our tasks of forming the order of worship in such a way as it reflects the truth of the scriptures. Then it’s very self-conscious. But sometimes we don’t even know what we’re doing. And yet God brings us these songs that preach the sermon to us before the scriptures are even opened. The songs we’ve sung this morning have very great relevance to the text that we’re considering today.

We sang a fighting hymn against Arianism this morning, did we not? We sang a war cry against those who would deny the triune God. “Of the Father’s love begotten”—it’s a beautiful song. It’s one of my favorite songs. A beautiful song, but it was written as warfare against the heresy of Arius, who taught that Jesus Christ was a created being. The weapons of our warfare are beautiful, are they not, beloved of the Lord? You see the world at war using weapons of war that are certainly appropriate for the church and Christians to use at times. But these are these songs that proclaim forth the triune God. These are the beautiful weapons that God has given to us and that were used by him in the late third and early fourth century to defeat the heresy of Arianism. But our savior in this text before us gives us a very important text for that battle. That battle in the fourth century relied heavily on John chapter 5 and every affirmation of the trinity since then does as well.

And we’ll get to that in the context of this sermon and looking at these verses before us. We move from that beautiful fighting hymn of Arianism to a sung liturgy which you probably didn’t know is what we were doing there as we sang that beautiful song about the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those words are a paraphrase of the liturgy of St. James—supposedly the James who is brother of the Lord, a very early liturgy of the church. We don’t know how early exactly. The early church is clouded with poor historical records, but it was certainly part of that liturgy many, many hundreds of years ago—well over 1,500 years ago. We sang a paraphrased version of a portion of St. James’ liturgy, and we sang that beautiful hymn of Christmas about the ascent of the savior. And that hymn spoke of his descent with blessing in his hand, and then the second verse went on to talk about how he comes to give him himself for heavenly food to us.

And as we read these verses from John 5, we read about the Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Sabbath. That is the context. Remember, I know we spent several weeks talking about the Sabbath, but remember what Jesus is doing here. He’s addressing the charge from the Jews that he broke Sabbath. And secondly, he responded to the breaking of Sabbath by declaring himself to be equal with the Father. He declared himself to be God. Now, in their minds, what that meant was that he was another god. So we now have two gods. And that’s a problem. So Jesus in this chapter 5, in this long discourse, explains what he really was saying when he said that him and the Father are one.

He wasn’t declaring himself to be another god. He was declaring himself to be the second person of the Godhead. Very important distinction. We are monotheists, but we are monotheists who understand that God is one God yet exists in three persons. And our savior teaches that here in the context of John chapter 5.

And as he teaches it he does so in such a way as to say: I am the second person of the trinity. My advent to you in general, and very specifically on the Lord’s day, on Sabbath, on the day of evaluation, on the day when God came to meet with Adam and Eve and judged them and found that they had done evil and judged them for it—on the day when Jesus came to the Sabbath in John chapter 5, in the context of the feast, he descends, as it were, on that day and he brings life.

He brings healing to the man who for 38 years was lame. He had brought healing and life to the Samaritans by giving them the water of life. He had raised a boy near from near death just before this account in John chapter 5. His drawing near is with blessing in his hand. He brings life. That’s the focus of the text. Even in his rebukes, he talks about John’s witness and he said, you know, I don’t say these things to hurt you. I say these things that you might be saved. I say these things to bring you to repentance, to accept the life that’s in my hand. I bring these things, he says, that you might be saved. He comes with life in his hand.

But a corollary of the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, who comes as heavenly food for us, bringing life and blessing in his hand, is that if we have closed hands to God’s gifts, then we suffer judgment and condemnation. And that’s the second point he makes in John 5. I’m the one who brings life. That’s why I’m here. But a necessary corollary of that is that he brings judgment.

He declares himself in John 5 to be the Son of Man, a term from Daniel chapter 7. The people are oppressed. Nations will come and oppress them, but the Son of Man will destroy all other kingdoms. He is the Messiah. And Jesus says that he comes as the Son of Man to restore man. He comes as the second Adam to bring life and blessing in his advent toward us. But a necessary correlation is that he will judge and condemn all those who do not receive his gifts.

He comes with an open hand. Do we have an open hand today or do we have a closed hand today? The Jews that he addresses in John chapter 5 had closed hands. What did they have closed hands to? Well, they had closed hands to him. They had closed hands to his honor.

He says, “How can you believe in me? How can you receive me if you seek honor from one another?” Doxology. Now, the point is we’re going to receive honor one way or the other. But if God comes offering glory to us through the forgiveness of our sins and we say that is not needed as our source of glory—our wives like us, our husbands like us, our children like us, our parents like us, the world around us likes us. We have lived our lives in such a way as to get honor and glory from men. That’s where our sense of well-being comes from. If we say that, then our hands are closed to God today and we do not receive his glory that he brings to us.

He says also that you don’t have my word abiding in you. You search those scriptures diligently. You’re good Bible students. But you think somehow that word is cut off or separated from me. You think that knowledge can be obtained through philosophical study and exploration of sacred texts. And this specific text—the Jews trusted in the word of God. The word is our salvation. The word is a lamp to our path. All the things the word says it is. But they became so enamored of that written word that they refused to see that it was a record and testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word come down from heaven.

Jesus comes today and says, “Do you need knowledge? I have an open hand. The word of God comes to you, but you will not receive it if you do not see that it testifies to me. If you think that somehow approaching that word for intellectual attainment, curiosity’s sake, or even a better life, but refuse to love me and to refuse to see that this word testifies of me, then your hand is closed to my gift of knowledge today. And you don’t have the word of God abiding in you. You’re in darkness. You have shame instead of glory.

You may think you’re an important person in the world, in your own little corner of the world. You seek honor from other men. Makes you feel good tomorrow and the next day, but you’re walking around covered with dung, as it were. You’re walking around in shame from God’s perspective because you refuse what he offers to you—the shining brilliance, the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you’re walking around, you might think ever so smart, and you can follow all my didactic outlines, and you can understand the flow of the scriptures, and you can count up the numeric value of each of those scriptures and see the significance of them. And it’s there, no doubt about it. The numeric value of Solomon’s name is the exact number for the number of proverbs in the book. All that’s there. You can get delighted with all of that.

And if you think somehow that you can understand these things apart from the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you go to the scriptures tomorrow in your family devotions not desiring first and foremost to see Christ reflected in them, then you’re walking around in darkness. No matter how much you read your Bible, follow the yearly Bible reading plan, do all your studies, be good scribes and Pharisees. Search the scriptures thinking that somehow in them life will come about—”I understand intellectually the things that God wants me to do today and do them, then that’ll be okay.” No, you know, sermons certainly move us to action and I hope that this sermon moves you to some actions, but sermons also are the gift of Jesus in them.

They’re the gift of the voice of the Savior taking the word of God and making it applicable to our lives and speaking to us in the context of them. And we should love to read the word of God and we should love to hear sermons first and foremost because we want to hear reflected the beautiful brilliance and shining glory, the ineffable sublimity of the Word of God—Jesus Christ and the Father, Son and Holy Ghost—reflected in these words in their orderliness, in their truth, in their literary beauty and their structures. We should delight in that, seeing the orderliness and the beauty, the creative abilities of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit and the Father reflected in those words.

We should come wishing to hear not first and foremost something to do tomorrow. We should come first and foremost wishing to see our savior reflected in the sermon, the preaching of his word, or simply in the reading of his word. We might gain a better insight. We want—we should come desiring above all else that whatever our minds come to as a result of seeking Jesus by reading the scriptures and by hearing them preached. And if we do that, then we have light. And if we don’t, then we walk around—we may think ever so smart, we walk around in foolishness.

But Jesus says they don’t have life. He comes with blessing in his hand. He comes to feed his people. But if you come today thinking that life is mostly about celebrating with other things—if you come today drinking alcoholic beverages by yourself and rejoicing between you, yourself and Irene or whoever it is, you know, if you do that—if you find at the middle of your celebrations isolation from community, isolation from God ultimately, if you come here saying, “I’ve got a pretty good life, you know, and I do want to take communion. It’s part of what I’m supposed to do, but I understand that my life, my manner of life, is a result of my labors and I really don’t need this stuff”—then we come with closed hands and you may take that bread and wine in your hand, but you don’t have life.

You think you’re having a good time in some of your recreations, but you don’t. You’re in darkness. You’re in death and condemnation. That’s what this text tells us.

And we sang about those beautiful things. And then we recited Psalm 98, this wonderful picture of advent. We were—you know, this morning in our high school Sunday school class—we talked about the fourth book of the Psalms, which contain Psalm 98. It’s the center of those 17 psalms that compose the fourth book of the Psalms. And we talked about—the last couple of weeks—the coming of the Psalter. You know, David comes along at a particular point in time, and these psalms—most of them are written at a particular point in time. And they’re written in one sense to celebrate the advent of Jesus to Jerusalem. David brings the ark that had been taken away into Philistine captivity—brings it in stages. He eventually brings it up to Jerusalem and he establishes worship on Mount Zion, not the Temple Mount, Mount Mariah, but Mount Zion.

That ark comes, and there’s an advent of Jesus and the coming of that ark. And David dances and David celebrates with musical instruments. And at the center of that fourth book—the fourth book is all about the movement of history hinged upon the coming, the advent of that ark to Jerusalem in David’s time. And how the Mosaic worship was being replaced now with Davidic worship. And it’ll never be the same. Temple worship would now in the future bring in Davidic worship, psalms, praises, musical instruments, and what moves forward, looking forward to the time when Jesus comes and worship. Now there’s no sacrifices. There’s no veil. There’s no Jew-gentile distinction going on. There’s musical instruments and celebration.

All of that happened at David’s worship center as a picture of what would happen when the greater David and the true ark of God comes to the city of God and affects salvation for his people. And Psalm 98 is about that, and Christmas is about that. That’s why we sing “Joy to the World,” and our text today is about that. It’s about the description of the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And it’s about the life and blessing that God brings to us. It’s about those gifts again that the Christmas tree reminds us about—that we get every Lord’s day in this advent of the Savior to us.

And it’s about the world moving ahead and rejoicing because of the coming, the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why we sing “Joy to the World”—because his advent means of a certainty, of a certainty, I tell you, I assure you, he says several times in this text. Of a certainty, the Lord Jesus Christ’s advent 2,000 years ago and his advent every Lord’s day means that life and blessing are flowing into this world. And the corollary to that is that judgment flows into this world as well.

And all things that can be shaken will be shaken. If you got a foot in the old creation, learn to balance on the other because the old creation is moving away. And “Joy to the World” celebrates that—he comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. Well, that’s what Jesus tells us in John chapter 5. He says, “I am one with the Father. I do bring life on the Sabbath. And if you don’t believe it and you don’t receive my word, my glory, my life, it’s because you don’t love me and you’re going to be judged.”

Just as the Son of Man would come in Daniel 7 to destroy every other empire that raises itself against Christ, any biblical empire based on the word of God apart from the Savior will be crushed by him. And so we sing “Joy to the World.”

And in the providence of God—I didn’t plan this—but this morning we had a violin playing in addition to the piano. And we’ve talked in our Psalms class the last couple of weeks about wanting to do that in this church. Because at the center of the advent of the ark—first picturing the coming of Christ—people are supposed to break out in joyous celebration with blowing trumpets and hitting drums and cymbals, playing musical instruments at his advent. The world moves from spoken worship at the tabernacle to sung worship at the temple accompanied with instruments.

Shall we go back to not having music and not having musical instruments in our worship? No. No. We want to go forward. Remember, we said last week celebrating the Lord’s day is about moving into the future, and the future of worship is instruments everywhere and in this church. Now, these instruments are to be played to the glory of God. We want to—we don’t want to set up, you know, performance worship to each other. We’re doing performance worship to Jesus who comes down from heaven to bless us.

So this service today—the providence of God—these songs, these liturgical readings, have moved us forward into what this text is all about. And this text is, as I said, a reaffirmation of what he said in John chapter 1. Remember in the prologue, he’s close to the Father. He’s one with the Father. He’s going to exegute the Father because he’s always moving closer, closer, closer to the Father. He’s eternal with the Father. He created all things. And now he comes in John 5 to say he created them all and he is recreating them all.

And that means that he is bringing the created order to its fulfillment in his work. That all aspects of the old creation will be destroyed. They’ll be judged and set aside because he’s bringing life. He’s bringing an open hand. And anyone with closed hands today, they’re judged by him. And historically the acts of God are such that they are removed as history goes on from the face of the world.

So God tells us that John chapter 1 is reiterated here. It talks to us about Christology, right? He’s a big word—the doctrine of Jesus. Who is he? He’s one with the Father in this text. And because he’s one with the Father, then a certain eschatology will play itself out. Christology, eschatology—are related here. The advent of Christ who is one with the Father and Spirit means the advent of life and blessing on one hand, and the corollary to it that serves it—the judgment and removal and condemnation of all things that are outside of that, who refuse to open their hands to receive his blessing.

This text tells us indeed that the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ assures us of life and judgment. That Jesus Christ who created the world in John 1 has come now to bring the world to its promised fulfillment. That Jesus who is declared to be ever close to the Father in the prologue in John now declares himself as being shown by that Father in his love, all things, and of seeing all things that the Father does. And all of his works then are a reflection of the Father. There is no work of Jesus that happened as he walked this earth that was separated from the Father. No work. He says that everything that he does is what the Father has willed him to do and that he has seen from the Father—because the Father loves him and shows himself to the Son.

So that unity of Father and Son in the prologue is fleshed out for us here as the savior says that this is what he’s going to do. The advent of Jesus is the advent of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the Father brings life and Jesus heals the lame man and raises up the nearly dead son and will raise up Lazarus later in this same gospel—death to life. The advent of the kingdom of Christ has fully arrived here.

Notice that the text told us that he who believes in the Son has moved from death to life definitively. It is an accomplished fact. What we see is the ultimate goal of all things—the removal of the old creation and the advent of the new—is now definitively occurred through the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will perfect what he came to accomplish—the salvation of the world that he had created.

So this text tells us wonderful things. This text tells us that our lives will bud out, will block out, as it were, with the fruit of that tree. It’s a picture of it. Tree of life, fruits on it, 12 fruits—fruits of the Spirit. Life comes from that tree of life. Jesus Christ has come near. And in coming near, he has caused us and will cause us to have the fruit of the Spirit manifested in the context of our life.

He brings us today those gifts in his open hand—of glory, knowledge, and life. The Jews, he says, refused to move forward to become Christians. They stuck in old covenant time in the old restoration covenant when they were called Jews. Refused to be called Christians and move into the future. This advent of the Lord Jesus Christ is on the Sabbath. And on the Sabbath, he brings forth life and judgment. Life and judgment.

I’ve given you a couple of outlines here. We could just touch on them briefly. I’ve laid out the text, which can be a complicated text. It’s, you know, nearly 30 verses, but I think that we can see a structure in it certainly. In this first half, intended for us to discern. If not, at least we can—it’s a way to organize the text by which to think of it a little bit more fully.

We see in verse 19 that he’s answering them. Well, what’s he answering them for? Well, he’s healed this man on the Sabbath, and they said that he’s violated the Sabbath—number one. And they’ve said that he’s claiming to be another God—number two. And so he’s going to explain here why it is that on the Lord’s day, or the Sabbath, when he comes, life happens. And he’s going to explain his relationship to the Father.

What does he say? He says, “Most assuredly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do. Whatever he does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself does.” There is a unity of Father and Son here that’s described in terms of his action. He can do nothing of himself. There’s a unity of action described for us here. And there is a unity based upon love. The Father loves the Son. And the way the Father’s love for the Son is pictured here or displayed is that he shows the Son all things. He shows the Son all things that he is.

Now, at the end of this first half of the text, at verse 30, we read: “I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” So, do you see the bookends that give to this first section of the text? In this section of the text, he begins by talking about the unity of himself and the Father and he closes by talking about the unity of himself and the Father. And in that discussion, he says there’s a unity of action. So whatever that Jesus does is what the Father is telling him to do, and what the Father does.

There’s a unity based upon love. The Father loves the Son. There’s a unity that’s reflected in communication and dialogue. The Father is always showing the Son himself and what he does. The Son is always seeing what the Father does and being obedient and submissive to the Father. And there’s a unity as verse 30 tells us—of will or volition.

Now this is the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. There is an absolute equality here of actions. Whatever the Son does, the Father does. Now, that is not true of anyone else who obeys God. Now, we’re supposed to be like the Son. Our actions are to conform to what the Son does. So we’re to see ourselves matured and sanctified to where our actions reflect what the Father does. But Jesus declares an absolute equality between himself and the Father in this text in terms of actions.

In terms of actions, he’s saying that him and the Father are one. He’s explaining that rather—that he’d already told them that in verse 17. Now it’s interesting to me that if we think about monotheistic religions that reject the Trinity, and we have two right now—two dominant ones in the news today: Judaism and Islam. And what did we see this last week? The outworking of an Islamic monotheism without an affirmation of Christian Trinity. What we saw were men discussing plans to kill thousands of people being gleeful and joyful about it. Human life meant nothing to them. Meant nothing. Why? Because they have been rebelling against, hating and rejecting the Son for all of their lives.

The Son is the image of God in human form. And as you reject the Son, you reject humanity. Other people mean nothing to you. Jesus comes as our brother. He says, and when you reject Christ, you move against any notion of brotherly love. You know, it’s interesting because the Jews and—you know, they have the same thing going on. There’s a rejection of the Son. And what do we see in Judaism? We see perpetual conflict. Now, I’m not taking one side or the other in the Israeli-Palestinian problem, but I am saying that a Judaism without submission to the Son inevitably seems to move in terms of conflict with brothers.

And so what this text tells us is something very important. It tells us that God exists in Trinity, and that Trinity is expressed not in some abstract theological terms by our savior, but that Trinity is expressed in terms of relationship, in terms of communication and dialogue, in terms of having at its essence love and then a reflection of that love through open communication and dialogue and submission of the Son to the Father.

This is why human beings are so important to us. This is why the family is such an important institution—because it’s a picture of that fellowship that exists in the context of the Trinity. The Trinity exists in love, in a demonstration, a communication and dialogue with one another that is open and free, and the goal of all human communication. And so human society mirrors that covenantal imagery of the triune fellowship of God.

This sublime, beautiful picture—that the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he does. This is reflected in our relationships with each other. To build Christian community without an understanding or a submission to the idea of the Trinity of God is impossible. To build any community is impossible that’s long-lasting. This tells us, you know, again, what our family should look like.

Our family should be headed up by a father who has great love for his children and in that love reveals himself to those children. Right? He is showing the children who he is. He is speaking forth his mind to his children. He has relationship to his sons and by representation his daughters. He’s revealing himself. And children here have before them the image of the Lord Jesus Christ who has a desire to know what the Father is about.

You know, unfortunately, in most homes, you don’t really get ahold of this truth until you’re, you know, middle age, and you say, “Oh, I was supposed to be spending more time with my kids. I was supposed to be revealing myself to my children.” By then, the kids have kind of gotten tired of the whole thing or don’t believe you’re going to do it, and they’re giving themselves over to their Adamic natures, and they don’t really want to hear the old man anymore either. That’s the way the world moves.

You know, if you’re a young parent here today, you should understand that your child is to be the recipient of your demonstration of who you are to them. And if you’re a young child here today, Jesus is the picture for you in the triune fellowship that has existed from all time—of the Son who desires to know who the Father is and desires to please his Father. Right?

And so this Trinity that’s described for us by our savior here is one that has very important implications for our lives.

Then we read that he will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom he will. And if you drop down to the portions that match this in terms of this chiastic structure I’ve given to you: “Father and Son, life in themselves. Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. Why? For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself and has given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of Man.”

The Father’s approach brings life. The Son’s approach brings life. Turn to Psalm 65. You know, you hear these stories in modern novels. You know, a young man says to another woman, “I didn’t know what life really was until I saw your face. I never really lived until I fell in love with you.” Those are good instincts. That’s really a description of what happens when the Son of God draws near to us. It really does bring life streaming forth into our existence, as it were.

Psalm 65 is a nice psalm about how God comes and the year is crowned with his goodness. I’ve preached on this a couple of times. I think I love the text so well for the opening or the closing of a year and the opening of another. God crowns the year with his goodness. Look at verse 9:

“Thou visitest the earth and waterest it. Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God which is full of water. Thou preparest them corn when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly. Thou settlest the furrows thereof. Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof. Thou crownest the year with thy goodness. Thy paths drip fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks. The valleys also are covered with corn. They shout for joy. They also sing.”

Wonderful visual imagery—that God, when he comes to earth, he walks around and his paths drip fatness, and the flocks grow up and the sheep get strong and the crops come up. And wherever he walks, the world springs forth into life at his step. You know, that cartoon “Beauty and the Beast” thing that Disney did years ago? You know, at the end of it, when the spell is broken, right? Life flows out into everything and everything becomes restored, and the whole screen shows this progression of life coming—now that the curse of death has been broken. That’s the picture that Psalm 65 gives us.

How can the advent of God who has life in himself—it is of the essence of his being—and Jesus has the same life in himself granted by the Father? How can his advent here be anything other than that very image drawn by Psalm 65? Well, when he comes to us today, he comes as life incarnate.

Now, there’s judgment. That’s a corollary to this. But the purpose, the thrust of this text is that the advent of Christ is the advent of life. We spring forth into life. He comes, he walks among us, and we’re the planting of him, planted in the courts of God. And we’re to spring up—you know, not because we have to, but because as we understand who he is, as we look at the scriptures to see Jesus and honor him, then we see life and we see who we’re to be. We see who we’re to be as fathers. We see who we’re to be as sons, as children, and as parents. We see who we’re to be in terms of honor, seeking honor from him, and our lives flourish because God has life in himself. Jesus is life incarnate.

The Father and the Son give life. Now, this implies that they bring judgment. Verse 22: “Father and Son bring judgment. For the Father judges no one but has committed all judgment to the Son.” And corresponding with that is verse 24: “Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life, shall not come into judgment but is passed from death into life.”

So judgment serves life. It’s a corollary to it, but it is a necessary corollary as well. In verse 25, I think this is very important—actually verse 28—to point out. “Don’t marvel at this.” That’s another indicator, by the way, of the chiastic structure of this passage—the marveling sections at beginning and end. “The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.”

We read that text, and if we’re talking about the advent of God, it certainly means that life has come. But it also means of a certainty that judgment has come. Who does it come to? And he describes the last judgment here, right? This is a picture of the greater marvel. The greatest work is that everybody will hear his voice and come up. You know, it’s sort of like that car commercial for transmission repair. “Pay me now or pay me later.” You’re going to hear his voice one day or another.

And if you hear his voice today, you’ll spring forth to life. But if you reject his voice now, when he calls you up from the grave, you go forth to judgment and condemnation. Now, there is no greater question for us than what’s going to happen to us on the day when all men will be summoned by Jesus to come before him. Is there any greater question than that for us? I mean, in terms of self-interest, by what standard will God evaluate us when we all appear before his great white throne judgment? Is there any bigger importance?

What’s the answer according to this text? Well, the answer according to this text is that those who have done good come to the resurrection of life. Those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. Not what we expected, is it? We expect those who believe in Jesus will come into the resurrection of life. Those who don’t believe in Jesus—to the condemnation of death, the resurrection of condemnation.

Now, we know that what I just said is true also. You know, we’re Reformed and we know the solas and we know that justification is by faith alone and by grace alone and by the merits of Christ alone and our works have nothing to do with that. And those wicked Catholics, they were the ones who were into all those works.

You see, there are many verses like this. We won’t bother to look them all up. You get a concordance out or a cross reference. This is repeated over and over and over. And we do not want to soften what our savior tells us here. Now, it is balanced—because as I said, we read here that those who have received Christ have passed from death to life by their belief and reception of him. That’s the standard too. But here our savior wants these Jews who have closed hands to him to understand that they will be judged on the basis of what they have done. And you will be judged on the basis of what you have done.

You will be judged according to works. That’s crystal clear from this text. Now, the problem with preachers doing that—with saying what I just said by reading this text and say we don’t want to soften this. Jesus uses hard words here. Well, we want to hear those hard words and have an impact on our lives. We want our lives to be different this week. We want to be fearful of evil works and we want to be greatly desirous that our works would be pleasing in his sight—that we would have good works to show him when we’re resurrected. You do want that. I assume I do—because he’s just told us the answer to the most important question we can have, and he’s told us it’s your works.

Now, the problem with saying that is that, you know, it may cause some of you to doubt your salvation. It may cause some of you to become worried. “Well, how many works are enough good works?” And of course, if you’re thinking that way, you’re not thinking right. The good works are this flowing forth of life. If you have life, you will blossom. You will be like that tree. You’ll be adorned with fruit. Those are works. Some, you know, you’ll some more work, some less. So you—that would be wrong thinking. It still may happen though. And probably some of you are going to go away from here today thinking: if that’s the standard, boy, I’m not even sure I’m a Christian anymore.

Well, what are you going to do as a result of that? We’re probably going to work real hard to believe in Jesus and do the good works. You’ve understood what we’ve said today. Robert Aurn preached on this text and he said, you know, there’s a worse thing to happen than for some of you to go to the judgment throne a little worried and a little doubtful about your salvation, being relieved by God. And he says, “Of course you’re saved. Of course, your good works have been evident. Your desire to please me and your fear over your bad works was good work. It’s because the Lord Jesus Christ brought life to you.”

There’s worse things than people being kind of doubtful of their salvation for all of their lives and going to the judgment throne and being reassured by God. What’s the worst thing that could happen? If we preach justification by faith alone so much that we think our works are absolutely unimportant and you walk out of here thinking that somehow once saved, always saved. I prayed the prayer—I’m saved. Your life reflects no life, and I never told you that is going to be the basis on which you’re judged. And you get to the judgment seat and you say, “Well, I’ve done all kinds of, you know, I haven’t done any good works, but boy, I sure believed in Jesus. I prayed that prayer 30 years ago,” and you know, “I nailed a little stake in the backyard.” God says, “Go away. I never knew you.”

You see, it’s far more important that we understand this standard—that the belief in the Lord Jesus Christ must be reflected in the life that he evidences in us. As we come to scary texts like these, we don’t want to take them out of the Bible. And understand: if I’ve understood this text right, this advent of Christ brings forth life because of the Trinity of the fellowship of God—Father, Son, and Spirit—changes us. Takes our Adamic, fallen homes and makes new homes out of them. Changes who we are. Changes us from thinking that we got to get glory from man, we got to please each other and we got to get life from each other and knowledge from each other.

Changes all these things. And it brings along the corollary of judgment. The advent of Christ, the Sabbath, the Christian Sabbath, the Lord’s day—is a certainty of judgment. It’s a certainty of life. It’s a certainty of blessing and the giving of life to those who receive him by reading his word. We understand all those things are true in this text.

And we’ve kind of struck it out this way. We see at the center of this—at the center of this particular structure in this first half—is verse 23. To what end? That all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Why does he bring life and judgment? To test where we place value. This word here, “honor the Son,” is the same word that—little Timmy Dolan, you know, his name Timothy—Timotheus—that means dearly beloved or loving God, loved of God. It means great gift, high valuation. Timé in the Greek is a great valuation. That’s the word that’s used here.

We are all to have a great evaluation for the Son just as they have a great evaluation for the Father. And if we do not have a high value of the worth of the Lord Jesus Christ—the highest value—then we’re putting no value on God the Father either. And we have shown and demonstrated that we are in death. The scriptures tell us here that who we honor, where we place our values, is of ultimate importance.

Turn to the second outline, and we see this even more emphasized in the second half of this text. This first half he has described what his advent on the Sabbath is and what it implies. In the second portion of his sermon, his discourse, he brings forth witnesses. Okay, they’ve charged him with Sabbath breaking and being one of the Father. He brings forth witnesses. He’s spoken himself, but he says—as you know, a good believer in the word of God—that it takes by the mouths of two or three witnesses all things confirmed. Not just my witness, but the witness of the Father I’m bringing before you too. And the Father’s voice—you’ve never heard his form. You’ve never seen. But you do have the Father’s voice in his scriptures. And you have seen the Father’s form in my works that bring life to the world.

That’s the flow of this particular text. So what he does is he defends himself by declaring his unity and submission to the Father—the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. And then he brings defense witnesses. The Father’s word witnesses to him. All of the scriptures witness to him. The Father’s works that he has given the Son to do witness to him. And then he moves on the attack. Then he brings testimony against them because he is what he says he is here.

His advent does bring life. And if they refuse life, it brings condemnation. Ultimately, Jesus is not on trial. We always think that we’re trying to decide whether Jesus is—no. We’re the ones always on trial when we encounter Jesus. He is always life-giver and judge. And they think they’re going to try him, but he’s trying them.

He’s bringing forth witnesses in the court here in John chapter 5 to tell them that you rejected Moses. You rejected the voice of God. That was the first witness against you. You thought you could go to Moses’ word, and he spoke of me. You rejected the Father’s word because he spoke about me from beginning to end. And you rejected the Father’s works. You never saw his form. But I am here doing his works, and you have rejected those works. And he declares them to be condemned by God.

He doesn’t desire their condemnation. He talks about John being a burning light—to the end that they might be saved, as I said earlier. But at the end of the day, he says you will not have life. You are dead. You are dead. You are going to suffer and die because of your rejection. And this rejection—as I said at the beginning—is ultimately the rejection of his gifts.

Look in verse 38: “The Father’s word witnesses to the prosecution. You do not have his word abiding in you because which he sent him—because whom he sent him—you do not believe. You search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life. These are they which testify of me. But you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. You don’t take my word. You won’t take my word. You won’t take my life because you won’t take my word. You’ve rejected that.”

And then verse 41: “I do not receive honor from men, but I know you that you do not have the love of God in you, for I have come in my Father’s name and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, him you’ll receive. How can you believe who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?”

Jesus says this idea of honor or valuation is in both sides here. The word is the same word for a root of doxology. These men sought honor, well-being, praise, and glory from men. And he says, “You, when you did that, you made the fatal choice. You wouldn’t believe my word. You came to the word, but you were seeking honor from other people. You came to the word so that you could impress people. You came to the word that you could impress yourself or your neighbors or your wife or whatever it was. You didn’t honor me. You don’t have life because you never came to me. And there is no life outside of me.”

Jesus says that the critical error, the critical sin of these Jews that drove them to not accepting the gifts of honor, knowledge in the word and life, is that they don’t have love for him. We come to the scriptures. There’s a warning here in this text for Bible students, right? The Bible must always be approached as we approach desiring Christ through the scriptures—never in and of themselves. The test for that is: what do you do with the knowledge? Do you want the honor and glory that comes only from God or do you want to be honored by men?

There’s a warning here for Bible students. Of course, there’s a warning here for Bible ignoramuses, too. Because where is the testimony of Jesus to be found? To be found in those words. You see, if we understand what Jesus is saying here—the unity of the Father and the Son, that his works are seen as a reflection of his word, that his word through Moses, John the Baptist citing Moses, comes to us—then we will have a thirst for that word that drives us to read it more and more, and we will not become idolatrous with it because what we’re seeking to hear in the word of God is the word of our savior. We’re seeking him. We’re loving him.

This is the great test that these men failed. God says, “Where do you place your value today? What’s important to you? How are you going to go about seeking honor from me or from your fellow man? Who are you going to fear or reverence or value more? My image bearers around you that I’ve given to you or myself? Who are you? Who do you love today? Yourself? Are you going to use my word for your own purposes or are you going to honor me? Are you going to receive my gifts today or are you going to walk in disobedience?”

Understand: he says that eschatology has been realized once for all. The eschaton has arrived in the personal work of Jesus in John chapter 5. Sabbath day, high feast—we don’t know which one. Feast of the church going out. Jesus, as he’s supposed to do, comes in advent to his people. And to some of those people, his advent are these gifts—honor, knowledge, life—flowing. His paths drip fatness. But to others—to the ones who refuse to accept him, refuse to do good works because of their love for him, refuse to see him in the scriptures because they do not love him ultimately, and they don’t desire to serve Jesus—to them, today is the day of condemnation and judgment.

Advent’s about the coming of Jesus. The coming of Jesus has the certitude of life and judgment. And the big question is: Do you desire Jesus? Now, we sin. And we know when we’re sinning, we’re not really desiring Jesus. But we come to ourselves, we shake our heads—whoa, what was I doing that all about? The very next thing we should do is desire to please our savior. We should desire Jesus as we go. The scriptures—we should desire his gifts, knowing that there’s no honor apart from his honor. There’s no knowledge apart from his word, and there’s no life apart from him.

Who do you honor, glorify today? Who will you—who did you dress for? You know, you can dress down and somehow not be honoring and reverencing the Son because you didn’t desire him first and foremost today. Or some of you dress up because you want to, you know, please each other. Either way, who do we dress for today? Who do we set this day a heart for? You honor the Lord’s day by desiring in the context of Lord’s day worship the voice of the Savior.

And will you see reflected in your life this coming week renewed relationships? Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, children and parents one to the other—restored again because of the community of the triune God who has visited us today, whose paths drip fatness, and whose life has come to us in great abundance. This is a time of giving of gifts and presents and rejoicing, and it is very fitly a time of that—is a proper reflection upon the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ who comes to give us wondrous gifts. And that gift is all summed up in life and love for him.

Let’s pray.

Father, we do thank you for today. We thank you for the drawing near of the Savior. We thank you, Lord God, for these wondrous words. Help us today to be those who desire more than anything else the word of our Savior, to love him, to obey him and serve him in the power of the Spirit. Help us, Father, to understand that we are given in our Adamic natures to seek honor from each other rather than you. Help us, Lord God, to seek honor from you through the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our persons.

Help us to have our minds renewed by your word. Help us to love your word, knowing that without that word, we don’t hear the voice of the Savior. And help us, Lord God, as well to seek life from him and nowhere else. Thank you, Father, for the advent of life—the certitude of that life-giving power of the Lord Jesus Christ in our midst today. We thank you, Lord God, in Jesus’ name we pray.

Amen.