All right, why don't you open your Bibles to the book of John
chapter 5? John chapter 5, If you didn't
bring a Bible, we have some underneath the seats in front of
you, and the page number is right up there on the screen,
page 890. My wife Sarah and I have 5 kids.
Our middle three are boys, so I have three sons.
They're all very different from one another, but also they are a
reflection of me in different ways.
So my oldest, Brooks, he is extremely particular and he's
extremely organized, just like me.
I laugh when I walk into his bedroom because he takes his
pyjamas and he folds them and he puts them on his pillow.
I'm like, that's something that I would do, right?
Very, very organized. And my son Max, is very
physical. He always has been since he was
very little. He was always my wrestling Bunny
buddy, and we would roll around and fight each other.
And he's still that way. He's a gym rat now, which is
exactly what I was when I was his age.
My son Jude looks like me. He has the same skin tone, the
same color hair, the same color eyes.
And it makes sense, right? They're my sons, so they share
half of my DNA, the inferior half.
I helped raise them. I helped train them.
They watched me growing up, and so they learned.
And so in a way, they're a reflection of me.
This is why when you observe them, you might say like father,
like son. You've heard that phrase before,
right? Like father, like son.
And that is the title for the teaching this morning, Like
father, like son. Last week we saw Jesus earlier
on in the book of John, chapter 5, healed a disabled man on the
Sabbath. It was a day when you were not
supposed to do any kind of work according to the Jewish
tradition. And so the Jewish leaders find
out that he did this and they begin to question him.
They begin to persecute him because of what he's done.
And Jesus's response is quite shocking.
In verse 17 of chapter 5, if you look back there, it says Jesus
answered them, My father is working until now and he's
talking about how his Father is restoring broken creation.
And he says, and I am working, My father is working and I am
working. In essence, what he's saying to
these religious leaders is my father and I are one, right?
My father and I are one. The Jews understand this says in
verse 18, it says This is why the Jews were seeking all the
more to kill him because not only was he breaking the
Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father.
Listen, making himself equal with God.
And now you know how people get so upset about politics, Like
people can get raging mad about politics.
Imagine how these guys feel, these Jewish leaders, religious
leaders, and here is a man who just broke the law in their
opinion, and he is saying in essence, I am God.
That enrages them and this is what ultimately causes them to
persecute Jesus, Jesus and put him on the cross.
But rather than back down, what we see today in the text is
Jesus actually pushes back. They don't like what he said and
they resist him. But Jesus pushes back and he
says to them, in a sense, I look like God, I act like God, I
sound like God because we are one, like Father, like Son.
So today in the text, we're going to be confronted with the
deity of Jesus, right? Jesus is fully man.
We know that in the flesh he came in as a human, but he is
also fully God. So we're going to be looking at
verses 19 through 30 of chapter 5.
Before I read the text, I want to just give us a moment to
quiet our hearts, to surrender ourselves over to the Bible, to
the truth of Scripture, God's Word.
I encourage you to pray for the Holy Spirit to come and to teach
you and to affect you today according to what we read and
what we hear from God. And so I'll give you a few
moments and then I'll read the text, pray for us, and then
preach. Isn't it beautiful to have some
quiet? OK, let's read John chapter 5
starting in verse 19 says so. Jesus said to them, He's
speaking to the religious leaders now truly, truly, I say
to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what
he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does
that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and
shows him all that he himself is doing.
And greater works than these will he show him, so that you
may marvel. 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. 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 is passed from death to life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here,
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and
those who here 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 judgement,
because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this for an
hour's 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
judgement. Verse 30.
I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my
judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of
Him who sent me. Let's pray.
Father, help us send your Holy Spirit open our eyes, open the
eyes of our hearts, help us to see clearly today this amazing
revelation that Jesus is God, and help us that we would
worship you and honor you and surrender to you as God.
Help me, Lord, as I preach, helping to be faithful to your
words and faithful to your people as I seek to encourage us
and to speak to us on your behalf.
And so have your way, Lord, be glorified in Jesus name, Amen.
So really the big, big point today is that Jesus and the
Father are one. Jesus is the Father are one.
Jesus drives home this point over and over and over again in
this text that he and the Father are one.
Now, just as a little reminder, a little flashback to John
chapter 1. John opens up his gospel in
verse 1. He says in the beginning was the
word. The word we know is Jesus,
right? And the word was with God and
the word was God. Now, have you ever gone on a
trip and you pack your suitcase and you you pack it so full that
you're like sitting on it and trying to like zip it clothes
and there's like sleeves and cords hanging out.
That's what that verse is like. It is like an overloaded
suitcase. There's so much truth packed
into that verse, and now in John 5, Jesus starts unpacking what
exactly it means that the Word is God.
Verse 19 Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the
Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what He sees
the Father doing. For whatever the Father does
that the Son does likewise. So Jesus is telling these
religious leaders that he and the Father are one in activity
and they are one in purpose in activity and what they do and in
purpose. And he starts this off by using
this little phrase truly, truly. And he uses that phrase three
times in this passage, verse 19, verse 24 and verse 25.
It means something like really, indeed listen up facts, you
know, for show. This is listen to me.
This is this is for real. He's trying to grab their
attention. He's trying to arrest them so
that they would listen to him right now.
So he says, listen to me. He says the son can do nothing
of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing.
Whatever the father does, that's what the son does.
So he says, I don't just come here doing whatever I want to
do, OK? That's not how this works.
I do what the Father is showing me that he is doing in the
world. And so I healed this invalid
man. You read about that last week as
Gordon Yoder was preaching. I healed him.
And remember the scene. He, he was, this is one man, 1
crippled man among many, many suffering people.
But Jesus zeroed in on him and he healed him.
He says, I healed that man because that's what the Father
showed me. That's what the Father was
doing. That was the work that God was
up to right then in that moment. He said, I want you to heal that
one and I want you to heal him right now.
And so Jesus is saying, I heard that.
I heard that that's what God was doing.
And then that's what I did. Now this is a, a quick aside.
It's not really kind of the main point of the teaching, but I
think it's, it's, it's helpful to talk about this.
We believe that God, by his Holy Spirit, can show us what he's
doing right. He can show us what he's doing
in the world through things like prophetic leading, through
different nudges, through dreams, through visions.
God discloses his will to his people.
So just as Jesus saw what the Father was doing, we can also
see what the Father is doing. We don't see or hear with the
clarity that Jesus did. Jesus had unbroken intimacy in
relationship with his heavenly Father.
He heard his Father perfectly. We have sin broken bodies and
minds and and souls. And so we we don't hear like
Jesus heard. But nevertheless we can learn,
we can grow in that ability. I'll never forget I was at a
small group. This is about 20 years ago.
I was sitting in small group with some friends and the guy
who was hosting the group, he was married, newly married, and
he was distraught because he had lost his wedding band.
And so he was telling us about this in small group.
And so we somebody said, well, hey, let's pray.
You know, let's pray. God knows where your wedding
band is. And so we all sat there and we
prayed. And while we're praying, one of
the girls in the group, Becky, she has this vision of a pair of
khakis hanging in his closet upstairs.
And she shares this with the group.
And so guess what? He goes upstairs, he gets out
his khakis and he looks in the pocket and there's his wedding
band. And it was one of those moments
where it's like, OK, the father was showing us what he's doing,
right? God loved him, God cared about
him. Even something that you would
say, come on, a wedding band, yes, God cares about you losing
your wedding band. He revealed what he was doing.
He showed us. I think this is how Jesus
ministered right? The Spirit would disclose to him
if the Father would disclose him through the Spirit and Jesus
would follow. They are one in activity, one in
purpose. If you want to learn more about
that, by the way, come to our training learning to pray for
others. It's in about a month.
We'll start announcing that soon and we'll, we'll teach you how
to how to listen to God like that in in prayer, because Jesus
and the father are one in activity, one in purpose.
Jesus only did what God the father was doing.
We're going to verse 20. He says, 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.
So we see that Jesus and the Father's unity is rooted in
love. It's rooted in a relationship of
love. Jesus was not the Father's
puppet. He was not forcefully controlled
by the Father. The Father didn't bully him or
manipulate him to make him do the things that he wanted him to
do. The Father's work is a good
work. It's a good work.
And he lovingly included his Son in on that work.
The Father who is restoring creation through the Son
lovingly and fully includes Jesus in his work of restoration
and redemption. The kind of image that popped in
my mind about this is like a dad who loves working on antique
cars and, and he loves his son and he wants to share something
wonderful with his son. And so he invites his son to get
underneath that hood of that car with him, learn how to restore
that thing, to bring that thing back to life again.
It's, it's, it's not just I need a help or will you please help
me? But it's out of love of sharing
this wonderful experience and opportunity together, he says.
And greater works than these will he show him, right?
You're amazed that I turned water into wine.
You're amazed that I healed that guy's son from a distance.
You're amazed that I healed this invalid.
But that ain't nothing. Just wait.
God is going to do bless you. God is going to do greater
things than these. Greater works than these will he
show him so that you may marvel. I love it.
There's no competition here between the Father and the Son.
There's no division between them.
There's just unity and love, and Jesus is saying God wants you to
marvel at how marvelous I am, right?
He wants me to be glorified. He's lifting me up.
Jesus and the Father's unity are rooted in a relationship of
love, verse 21 says. For as the Father raises the
dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom
he will. So interesting.
Jesus and the Father are one in giving life to the dead, right?
They do that work. The word Jesus uses here for
life is actually different than we see later on in the text.
In verses 24 and 26 here when he talks about the Father giving
them life. That word can refer to either
spiritual life or physical life. OK, spiritual life being what we
would call salvation, right? Where God makes somebody who has
has, you know, they're dead because of their sin.
They come alive through faith in Jesus, but also resurrection.
And this is this is they're both true.
Jesus and the Father give salvation and they give
resurrection, right? Jesus gives spiritual life to
the spiritually dead. And he unpacks this a little bit
more in the second-half of this text.
So if you jump forward with me to verse 25, he says truly,
truly. I say to you, an hour is coming
and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son
of God and those who here will live, right?
So it's coming in the future. There is a future tense to our
salvation, but it's here now, right?
This salvation has dawned in Christ.
The dead are going to hear and they're going to be raised.
You understand the Bible teaches that apart from God's saving,
reviving work, we are dead in sin.
We are dead in sin. We are spiritually dead, not
we're struggling, not we're spiritually suffering, not just
we have some spiritual deficiencies and we need a
little remodel. It is we are dead in our sin and
in our trespasses. We are flatlined spiritually
unless God moves and acts. We cannot come to God.
We cannot believe in God. It's all of our spiritual
condition. Because of sin, we have been
separated from God who is life. We need Jesus to speak life, to
revive our dead souls, to make our spirit come alive, right?
Just like he does with Lazarus. We'll see in John Chapter 11,
Lazarus come out. Jesus speaks that to your soul,
right? And if you're a Christian,
you've heard that call. Jesus spoke and you came alive.
Jesus says that's what I'm doing, that's what the Father is
doing, and that's what I'm doing is doing it through me.
We saw this in John chapter 4 with the woman at the well.
She heard His words, He offered her this water that really
satisfies her spiritual thirst. She believed and she received
that water of life. She was born again, she was
saved. Verse 26 This is for as the
Father has life in himself, so He has granted the Son also to
have life in himself. Jesus says I can do this work of
salvation because my Father has granted to me to have the power
of life in myself. None of us inherently has the
power of life in our self. Scientists have been trying to
make life from scratch for a while now.
No progress, it's not working. We do not have that power
inherently in us, but God does. Jesus does and it's interesting
here in verse 26, the word that he uses for life is different
than back in verse 21. We're in 21.
It can mean spiritual life or resurrection life, physical
life. Here the the, the Greek word is
the word Zoe, which I've actually met a couple Zoe's here
in the last couple weeks. I almost named my daughter Zoe.
Actually. It's a beautiful word.
It means the absolute fullness of life which belongs to God.
Life, real life, genuine life, active and vigorous.
That's the kind of life that Jesus came to bring to those who
would trust in him. This is one of the reasons why
we named Vita Springs Church Vita Springs Church Vita, the
Spanish word for life. We believe that when people get
connected to Jesus, this rich, abundant, overflowing, vibrant,
genuine, active, vigorous life begins to flow into your life,
and it begins to transform you, first on the inside, and then it
flows outside into your body, into your relationships, into
the world around us. It's a life that only Jesus has,
that only Jesus can give. Everybody's looking for life.
Right, college students, you're here and you know, you're
thinking about your future and you come and there's all these
temptations, right? There's all these people and all
these temptations and opportunities.
And everyone's saying you can have life.
This is going to give you life. But let me tell you, you will
not find true life in the bars or in bed with someone else.
Jesus will give you true life. John chapter one verse 4 in him
was life. It's the same word.
Zoe in Jesus was life and the life was the light of men.
So Jesus gives spiritual life to the spiritually dead.
When you trust in him, you come alive.
You begin to experience the life of God flowing through your
veins. He also gives resurrection life
to the physically dead, right? He brings the dead, the
physically dead, back alive again.
Look at verses 28 and 29 where he unpacks this more.
He says do not marvel at this for an hour's 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 judgement.
So he says the hour's coming, right?
It's going to happen where those who are in the tombs, he's
talking about people who have physically died and they have
been buried in the tombs. He said they're going to hear
his voice, right? They're going to hear my voice,
the voice of the Son of Man. And they're going to come out,
right? They're going to be resurrected.
They're going to come back alive again.
And he says those who've done good to the resurrection of
life, those who've done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
So when those who've done good to the resurrection of life,
that doesn't mean that if you've been a good person, then you
will be resurrected. This is not works based
salvation, but you have been made righteous by faith in
Christ. You have been made good by faith
in Christ, His Holiness given to you, imputed to you.
And now that righteousness is evidenced by a good life, a life
of honoring God, a life of serving God, of serving other
people. He says to those who've done
good, they're going to go to the resurrection of life.
And to those who've done evil, right, those who are unrighteous
because of their unbelief, which by the way, do you know that
that is the mother of all sins, unbelief.
We usually think of things like murder or, you know, things like
that, that that's the worst sin you can possibly commit.
But not believing that Jesus is the Messiah is the utmost of
sin. Denying him that is the utmost
of sin says for them, they go to the resurrection of judgement.
Now this is this is one of those cold hard truths that we don't
like to face, but we have to face.
You will die. You will die, you and I, We'll
end up in a tomb. We're mortals.
We got to face it. That day is coming.
When you're young, you don't think about that very often,
right? You feel like you're invincible.
When you start to get older, you start to think about that more.
And I get an Amen from my older and wiser crowd, right?
It starts to, it's like it comes into focus.
You start to see it on the horizon.
You start to think about it. You start to contend with your
own mortality. And it can be unnerving.
It can be a scary thing, especially when you start having
friends who are passing away, who they're your age, you know,
you knew them, you went to high school with them.
You what they and now they're gone.
Like it's, it's a sobering thing.
We're all going to die. We're all going to end up in a
tomb. But you know what the Bible
teaches That we will all be resurrected again as well.
That this life and physical death is not the end.
And the Bible teaches, the Bible does not teach annihilationism.
Annihilationism is when you die, you just cease to exist.
And a lot of people just want to believe that because that can be
comforting. If you don't know what's out
there and you're not sure about heaven or hell, well, let's just
say that you just kind of you're gone.
You know, it's like you turn the screen off, it's just gone.
There's no image, there's nothing left.
The Bible does not teach that. The Bible teaches that you will
spend eternity somewhere. Jesus is offering to those who
trust in him resurrection that leads to life, not separation
from God in hell for eternity, but in the presence of God in
life forever and ever. The resurrection is actually
carried out through Jesus. First Thessalonians chapter 4.
Let me just read this passage that talks to us a bit about the
resurrection. Paul is unpacking this for the
Thessalonians. He says, but we do not want you
to be uninformed. This is not on the screen, by
the way. We do not want you to be
uninformed. Brothers, about those who are
asleep, he's not just talking about they took a nap.
He's talking about those who have died that you may not
grieve as others do who have no hope for.
Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, Even so, through
Jesus God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
For this we declare to you by word from the Lord, that we who
are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, when
Jesus returns again, will not proceed those who have fallen
asleep. For the Lord Himself will
descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an
Archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.
And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together
with Him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so we will always be with the Lord.
Those who've trusted Jesus will be resurrected, and we will
always be with the Lord, forever and ever alive in him and
through him and with him. Those who are not in Christ will
also be alive, but they will be alive apart from the Lord in
outer darkness and agony. That's what the Bible calls
hell. You best be right with Jesus
because it matters for eternity. Jesus resurrects God through
Jesus resurrects as the Father saves, I save.
That's what he's saying as the Father gives life to the dead,
so also I will give life to the dead.
The Father and I are one. He goes on in verse 22.
He says for the Father judges no one but has given all judgement
to the Son, right? So we see this unity and
judgement between the Father and the Son in the Old Testament.
It's very clear that God is the judge, right?
God is the judge. In Judges 1127, the Lord is
called simply the capital J Judge.
In Genesis 1825, Abraham is talking to God.
He says, shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just
right? God is the judge.
Jesus is saying God the judge has given that authority for
judgement to me, right? He's given me that authority.
You know what the power of attorney is?
God has given Jesus the power of attorney.
The power of attorney is the authority to act for another
person, right? So if somebody gives you the
power of authority of attorney when you sign the papers, it's
like they were signing the papers, right?
The authority has been given to you.
That's what Jesus has in judgement.
The Father has given all authority to him.
He is the Son of man. He refers to himself.
He's the the Son of man in verse 27.
He says and he has given him authority, verse 27, to execute
judgement because He is the Son of man.
This is Jesus's favorite title for himself, the Son of Man.
It comes from Daniel 7. The religious leaders would have
been very, very familiar with this prophecy.
So when Jesus calls himself the Son of Man, their mind goes to
Daniel Chapter 7, verses 13 and 14.
Let me read it for you. It will also be on the screen.
He says, I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the
clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of man, and he came
to the Ancient of Days, That's the Lord, and was presented
before him, and to Him was given dominion and glory, and a
Kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should
serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away in His Kingdom, one that
shall not be destroyed. The Ancient of Days gives
authority to the Son of Man. In Acts chapter 17 verse 31, the
apostle Paul says God has fixed a day on which He will judge the
world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.
Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10, Paul says we must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
This should have a very sobering effect on us, right?
A day is coming where you will stand before Jesus, who is the
great judge. He will make a judgement based
upon you. And you can either say to him
when he says, are you righteous enough for me to allow into my
heaven, right? You can say either no, I'm not,
I've tried to do it on my own, or you can say, no, I'm not, but
I've trusted you for your righteousness.
My sins have been forgiven because of your sacrifice on the
cross in my place. And he'll said, he'll say, come
on in, right. The judgement will be unto life
for you. So why has the Father done this?
Why has the Father done this, right?
Why has he? Why is he showing Jesus what
he's doing? Why is why is he empowering
Jesus to give life to the dead, right?
Why is he giving Jesus the authority to judge the givers?
23 He says that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the
Father, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the
Father. Just because I want my son to be
honored. Honor is recognition and
worship, right? If you honor someone, you are
recognizing them, and then you are in some way, in some sense
worshiping them. Urban Meyers is being put into
the College Football Hall of Fame.
I don't know if you knew that. And so in December, they're
going to, they're going to honor him, right?
Great coach. And so they're going to
recognize him. And there's going to be a bunch
of fanfare. And I'm sure there's going to be
a speech. And there's going to be some
kind of something that they put. And they're going to put a
little shrine in Athens so that when people come, they can
essentially worship Urban Meyer's, right?
Isn't the amazing? Isn't the amazing coach right?
He's going to be honored. It's recognition and worship.
Why has the Father done this? Because he wants to be.
He wants Jesus to be honored. He wants Jesus to be worshipped,
to be recognized and worshipped as God.
They do the same work, they have the same power, they have the
same authority. Why?
Because Jesus is God. We see the building blocks of
the doctrine of the Trinity happening here.
We haven't gotten to the Holy Spirit yet.
We just have the Father and the Son.
But the doctrine of the Trinity says that God exists in three
persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each fully God.
Yet he is 1. And here we are seeing Jesus and
the Father are one. This is something we cannot
fully understand. You can try to come up with any
analogy. You know, the Trinity is kind of
like an egg, and there's a shell and there's a white and there's
a yolk and, you know, but it's one egg.
It's kind of water and steam. And there's all these things we
try to do to understand the Trinity, but ultimately it's
beyond our comprehension that Jesus and the Father are 1/3
persons, one God. So you know what you do when you
come to stuff like that in the Bible that you can't understand,
You marvel and you worship, right?
There's a lot of stuff like that in the Bible where it's like the
mystery belongs to the Lord and I'm my, I can't comprehend that.
And so I'm just going to accept that and I'm going to marvel and
I'm going to worship him. He goes on in verse 23,
second-half of verse 23. And remember, he's talking to a
bunch of religious leaders now who are trying to honor God.
He says whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the
Father who sent him. Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent him in that day.
To those people, that comment right there would go off like a
bomb. They were trying to honor God
the Father, but they are rejecting the Son.
And Jesus says you can't do that.
You can't do that. If you don't honor me, you can't
honor God. If you don't recognize me and
worship me, then you are not recognizing and worshipping the
one true God. You are blind.
This is hard teaching. It was hard teaching for them.
It's hard teaching for us because you know what we say as
a Christian, you believe that, right?
You believe that that Jesus is God.
But what we are saying when we say that is that Christianity is
exclusive. It's exclusive.
It is the way to God through Jesus.
And when you say that, what you're also saying is all other
religions are false. They won't get you to God.
The Hari Krishnas can't get you to God.
The Buddhists can't get you to God.
Allah is not God. The God of the Jehovah's
Witnesses is not the true God. The God of the Mormons is not
the true God. All of the other folk religions
were saying those are not gods, those are demons.
The Bible says those are demons. There's an exclusivity to
Christianity. Other religions claim to worship
God, but if that God is not the Jesus of the Bible, then it's a
false God. That's hard for us to accept,
isn't it? We live in a culture of
tolerance and acceptance and inclusivity, and everybody wants
to just, you know, you do you, you just whatever makes you feel
better, just believe it and just believe it sincerely, right?
Maybe you've heard something like that, but sincerity won't
help you. Sincerity does not lead to
truth. Many are sincere about their
belief, but they are sincerely wrong.
I remember when I was in kindergarten, I had a meeting
with my teacher out in the hallway, and I was 4 when I
started kindergarten. I was like, early for my age and
I didn't know nothing. You don't know nothing when
you're 4. I didn't even know what my name
was. I thought my name was Anthony
Renvestal Walter. OK, My legal name is Anthony
Walter Renvestal. I'm named after both my
grandpas. And so I remember sitting out in
the hallway talking to my teacher and she, she asked me to
write my name. And so I'm trying to write my
name and I write Anthony Renvestal Walter.
She says that's not your name. I said that's my name, said no,
your name is Anthony Walter. I said no, like it's my name.
You don't know who me. Like my name is Anthony
Renvestal Walter. And she was just kind of like,
OK, I was very sincere in my belief, and I was sincerely
wrong. You know, sincerity does not
equal truth. It doesn't make your worship
right just because you feel very deeply about it.
We're called to worship God in truth, right?
We learned about that. We're in John four.
We worship God in spirit and in truth.
You have to worship the right God, and you have to do that in
the right way. And the Bible teaches
unequivocally that Jesus is the way.
Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the life.
He's God. He and the Father are one.
If you don't honor him, you're not honoring God.
Now, if we keep going with this, if Jesus is God, and as
Christians were saying we believe that Jesus is God, then
you understand we must worship and obey him as Lord and God, as
supreme authority in all of the universe, right?
We bow down to Him, we put ourselves low, we go underneath
him and his rule, His reign, his authority.
There are a lot of people that love the idea of Jesus Savior
but will not follow him as Lord, Right?
I want Jesus's forgiveness. That sounds pretty good.
He's saying I don't have to feel guilt.
OK, I'll take that. His comfort.
He gives you the Holy Spirit. I can be comforted in my sorrow.
I'll take that. He gives peace, He gives
freedom, He gives hope. He gives the hope of heaven.
He turns. I want all that.
That sounds great to me. He says come to me, all who are
weary and I will give you rest. Yeah, that sounds great.
I would love that Jesus, but I don't want to follow him as
Lord. Right.
All this stuff about deny yourself, take up your cross and
follow me. That's for the fanatics.
That's too intense. Like pluck out your eye if it
causes you to sin, cut off your hand if it causes you to sin.
That's radical. That's extreme.
Present your bodies as a living sacrifice.
Whoa, you know, this is like, you know, the have you seen the
Burger King commercials? I really don't like Burger King
commercials, but they they stick in my mind.
Many people want Burger King Christianity.
It's have it your way. You know why you rule?
That's what it is. It's having your way because you
rule. What do you want your
Christianity to be? You pick.
You choose. Like I want a Whopper with extra
Pickles and no ketchup and some fries and a Coke 0 on the side.
You rule. You get to pick what you want.
Pick and choose. I want forgiveness.
I want joy. I want hope, and I want to do
whatever I want to do with my body.
I want to do whatever I want to do with my time.
I want to do whatever I want to do with my money.
I want to be my own God. I want to come to church.
I want to experience God's love and his kindness, and I want to
yell at my kids and have sex with my boyfriend and do
whatever I want to do with my money.
You can't do that. You can't have it your way
because you're not God. If you just get it your way, you
know who's God? You're God.
You want to know a secret? You're not God.
I'm not God. You see why these guys are so
incensed at Jesus? Do you see why they put him on a
cross? Jesus says in John 14.
He says if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father
will love him and we will come to him and make our home with
him. If you love me, you'll follow my
word. Jesus is saying you can't pick
and choose. If you worship Jesus as God,
then you must obey him as Lord. We say I'm all in, I'm all
yours. You call the shots, you are
authority. I want you to take a moment to
think about yourself and your own life, your thoughts, your
attitudes, your behaviors. Where have you let yourself off
the hook in regards to obeying Jesus's commands?
Where have you let yourself off the hook?
You're so good at justifying why that doesn't really apply to me,
and my hope is that you can feel a bit of fire in your bones to
resist that, because that is dishonouring to Jesus.
We don't get to choose what we want.
He calls the shots. Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent him.
So what do we do? What do we do with all this
knowledge and understanding that Jesus and the Father are one?
Jesus is God. Jesus drives it all home.
In verse 24 he says, truly, truly, there that is again,
listen up. I say to you, whoever hears my
word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life, Zoe.
He does not come into judgment, but he has passed from death to
life. So listen up.
He says truly, truly, anyone who hears right, He hears my word.
You have to listen to His word. And now you realize you can hear
something without really hearing something.
You can hear someone without hearing someone.
My wife reminds me of this often because she'll say something to
me and I will have heard and comprehended in my brain what
she said. I can even repeat it back to
her. And sometimes I do because
she'll say, did you hear me? And I'll say, yes, you said, da,
da, da, da, da. And then she will say rightly.
But you did not hear me right. You heard me with your ears.
You did not hear me with your heart.
So the Bible calls us not just to hear with our ears, but to
hear with our hearts, right? Have you heard the words of
Jesus? Has his word penetrated into
your heart? Has it affected you?
Has it been planted inside of you?
You know, sometimes when I'm encouraging people, I'll give a
word of encouragement and I will.
I can tell they deflected it. You know, I said something kind,
something true, and they just deflected it.
It's like that didn't go in. I can tell by your expression
that didn't go in, but likewise there are times when I'll
encourage someone and I'll that hit the mark that sank in, that
went in. That's how God's word must
affect us. It's got to go into US, affect
us, be planted in US. Jesus is calling us to hear.
So I would just ask you, have you heard?
Have you heard his words? Have you really heard Jesus's
gospel that he came for the lost, for the weary, for the sin
sick, that he died on a cross for your sins, that he says, if
you believe in me, if you put your trust in me, I'll make you
whole, I'll make you alive. If you heard him right, we're
called to hear and then he says and believes him who sent me,
right. So when you hear, you have to
believe. This is more than just
intellectually accepting information, right?
Believing in the Bible is that leads to salvation is closer to
our word. Trust.
OK, It's closer to trust than just believing in formation.
You believe it to the degree that you act upon it.
Any skydivers out there? Have you been skydiving?
Just a small handful of crazies among us.
Would you jump out of that plane if you did not believe that that
parachute was going to open anyone?
Absolutely not. That is saving faith.
That's what saving faith is like right there.
It's like, I believe this to the degree that I'm willing to jump
out of an airplane trusting that I will be caught in the merciful
hands of Jesus. He says you got to hear, you got
to believe, and you have to receive this eternal life, this
Zoe life, this gift of grace, full, abundant, genuine, real,
vigorous, overflowing, never ending life that is yours in
Christ. The death, the judgment that you
and I deserve because of our sin, absorbed in Jesus on that
cross, the life of Jesus gifted to you, the Vita of God gifted
to you and me through faith. Have you believed, have you
heard, have you received that life?
Have you taken hold of that life which is truly life?
And I'm just going to add another one for fun.
This isn't in the Bible here, but it is biblical.
And I would add, have you shared this truth with someone else?
Man, if you believe this to be true, and I hope you do as a
Christian that you believe this, who do you know?
Who doesn't know, right? Think about it for a second.
You know God, You know the way to eternal life with God.
Who have you shared it with? I think we need more people in
the seats next to us who have not yet heard, who are just
hearing, maybe for the first or second time.
We have this wonderful gift that we get to share with people
around us. We're called to hear, to
believe, to receive, and then also to share with others.
Just like Jesus came to seek and save the lost, He sends us out
to seek the lost, to bring the lost in that they might be saved
through faith in Jesus, who is God.
Verse 30, I can do nothing on my own.
As I hear, I judge, and my judgement is just because I seek
not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
He said I healed that man because that's what my father
was doing. I heard him.
I did it, and I was just in doing it.
I was right in doing it. I'm not some rogue prophet doing
whatever I want to do. I'm doing the will of God who
sent me because the Father and I are one.
I'm God in the flesh. We're going to worship that God
now together through song. So if you would please stand
with me, I encourage you to honor Him today with your
voices. That means saying that means
sing loud, means sing with your heart, sing with energy, sing
with faith, sing with joy. Because He's good, because he's
with us, because Jesus went to the cross for our sins, and so
we are forgiven and free in Him. We're going to worship together
with a few songs and then we'll have a time of prayer at the end
of our service for any who would like to come forward and receive
prayer from a member of our prayer team.
But first let me pray for all of us and for our time of worship,
and then we'll sing together. Jesus, we worship you.
You are so, so clear that you and the Father are one.
You are God. And so we worship you, we honor
you as God. We submit to you.
We, we, we obey you Jesus, help us when we fail to obey you,
when our pride takes over, when our just the old sinful man
that's still alive in US, the old sinful woman that rises up
and we disobey you. Forgive us for that.
We want to honor you with our whole life.
And so Jesus, I pray that this morning, these songs that we
sing to you would be a blessing to you.
They're to you, they're for you. They're about you.
And so we offer them to you as as a gift, just a sign of our
love and our gratitude. Be glorified.
We love you, Lord Jesus, and we pray all these things in your
good and powerful mighty name. Amen.