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November 9, 2003
Second Sunday of End Time-Last Judgment
John 5:19-24
Pastor Joel Zank

Honor The Son!

(John 5:19-24) Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

In Christ Jesus who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, dear fellow redeemed,

Have you ever seen a movie that begins at the end of the story? For a brief second you get to see how everything turns out. But, then, the screen suddenly blurs as you're transported back in time where you're left to watch and learn how and why things turn out as they do.

The Bible does that same sort of thing. In Philippians 2, the Apostle Paul gives us a brief look at the end of time when he says, "Therefore God exalted [Christ] to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11). If you look very carefully, you will see yourself in Paul's picture. You are right there in the company of all humanity. Every person who had ever lived is bowing with you before the judgment throne of God; and as if speaking in one voice, that chorus of billions upon billions of people is shouting, "Jesus Christ is Lord." But here's what you need to know, even though everyone is saying the same thing, some of those people are shouting in victory, happily confessing what they've always believed, while all the others are crying out in defeat, forced to finally admit what they had always denied.

My friend, when that last day comes, in which group will you be found? There's no need to wonder. God our Father wants all of us living with the certainty that we will be among the victors, happily confessing Christ to be our hero. So through his Word today God brings us back in time, back from the future to the here and now and through the powerful voice of his gospel he says to all present, "Honor the Son!" And how can we do this? How can we honor Jesus? First, trust he is God our only Savior; and second, believe he is God our only Judge.

Our text begins with what sounds like an admission of weakness on the part of Jesus when he says, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing..." (John 5:19). Jesus is at Jerusalem's temple where he has just healed a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. You might think that such a miracle would have led people to praise and admire Jesus, but just the opposite is true. Since Jesus performed this wonder of healing on the Jewish day of rest, certain of the Jews accused him of breaking the Sabbath law. In response Jesus told them that his work is the work of his Father in heaven. In other words, Jesus was claiming to be God. Charging him with sin was the same as charging God with sin. This makes the Jews so angry that they want to kill Jesus right then and there.

That's when Jesus speaks the opening words of our text. Far from an admission of weakness on his part, Jesus is boldly confirming the truth of his claim that he is God's Son and therefore God's equal. In fact he and the Father are so close that neither of these two will do anything on his own. They are perfectly united in their love for each other and in their love for the sinners they have chosen to save. Keeping this in mind, listen to Jesus' words again, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it" (John 5:19-20).

God the Father sent Jesus to this earth to amaze people with God's grace. Because Jesus and the Father are one in their love, they are also one in their mission. Jesus knew everything the Father had in mind for him to do on earth. Jesus took up that mission-not ignorantly, not grudgingly, but whole-heartedly. He came to do spectacular things for our sinful human race. And so at times his grace shows itself in miracles of healing like the one here in our text. But such miracles are just the tip of that huge iceberg we call grace. For ultimately grace came to this earth in the person of Jesus to raise us sinners from spiritual death to a new life and relationship with our Holy God. Isn't grace amazing!

But even as I say that, realize that amazement can be a rather strange thing. You can be happily amazed about something, but it's also true that amazement can leave you feeling confused, disturbed, and even angry. When that happens we tend to refer to those feelings as shock. But aren't amazement and shock just two different sides of the same coin?

Many of the people Jesus came to help were shocked by the great things he did for them. They were shocked when he pointed out the sins that damned them. They were even more shocked when he went to the cross to take those sins away. They didn't believe they needed a sin-bearing Savior. Their unbelief and shock dishonored Jesus and the Father who sent him.

We often dishonor Jesus in the very same way. It happened just the other day when we spoke that hurtful word-that quick verbal jab meant to put a coworker or family member in his or her place. After landing the blow, we never thought about it again-never apologized, never repented. And even now with this reminder, our first instinct is to brush it off again as something inconsequential, something everyone does, something that person had coming. Do you do that a lot? Are you in the habit of ignoring, excusing, and sometimes even defending your sins? I'm afraid I do that too. I say afraid, because I wonder where this leaves us with Jesus? His Word defines every sin as damning; even the ones that you and I tend to dismiss as insignificant. But more than his Word we have his sacrifice. He laid down his life in hell to pay for each and every sin. But what happens when we, with our words and actions dishonor that sacrifice? What happens when in sinful pride we let the sins of our life pile up like a wall between us and our spouse, or our children or our parents, or the people we work with or live by? Don't be shocked my friends, but God says if we insist on excusing or defending our sin, then he must insist that we pay for it forever in hell.

God tells us this today, not because it gives him any pleasure, but because he wants us to see how foolish, how sinful we've been. He wants us to see the death we've brought to our lives so that we might give up our excuses, stop defending our sin, and instead at God's gracious invitation, honor Jesus the Son, by trusting that he is who he claims to be-God our only Savior. Trust Jesus, dear Christians. Bring your sins to him and trust that he has a better way of dealing with them than you do. Trust that where your excuses and defenses fail Jesus' sacrifice has succeeded! At best your excuses for why you think and say and do such horrible things can only bring momentary relief. The guilt should and always does come back in no time at all. But Jesus speaks a word that removes the guilt forever. He gives lasting, eternal relief! Because Jesus speaks forgiveness-not the kind that simply means, "It doesn't matter. No one was hurt. Let's just forget it." No Jesus says, "I forgive you as the God-man who carried your damning sin into hell with me, even your sin of dishonoring me. I forgive you as the one who suffered for your sins until there was no sin left to die for and then I rose to prove it! I, your God, forgive you and I want you to know it pleases me to do it!" This is the amazing love Jesus has for you, dear friend. Trust it and so honor the Son as your only Savior.

Honor him also by believing that he is God our only Judge. For Jesus himself says, "The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him" (John 5:22-23). At first it might amaze or even shock us that God gave his Son not only the job of saving the world, but also the task of judging it. Isn't there a conflict of interest here? Not at all! Who better to judge the world than its Savior? His great love for all people was demonstrated on Calvary during his first mission to this world so we know that when he comes again his judgment will not be unjust or prejudiced in any way. Jesus isn't out to get anyone. The verdict he renders for each soul will be fair for it will be based on only one thing, the sinner's relationship to Christ. If a person lived apart from Christ, failing to acknowledge Jesus to be God and Savior, that person will be condemned. It won't matter how religious or how nice that person seemed to be. His unbelief will damn him. There will be no exceptions to the rule. Jesus says in John 14:6 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

On the other hand, Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24). Jesus is talking about you. You have eternal life right now because right now through the faith God has worked in you with his Word you have a right relationship with him that is never going to end. By the grace of God you've crossed over from being dead in sin to being alive in Christ forevermore.

Isn't this a great thing to know! When this world ends, the people you've sinned against won't judge you. Your own conscience won't even be your judge. No, St. John says in his first epistle: "This...is...how we set our hearts at rest in [God's] presence20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything" (1 John 3:19-20). We honor the Son by believing he is God our only Judge who knows everything he's done to save us. He knows and sees the faith he's given us so when we stand before the judgment throne at his Second Coming there will be only one thing for him to say, "Not guilty!" That's the end of our earthly story. We already know how everything turns out. So we have no need to be slaves to fear, or to the foolish thinking that we have to earn our own place in heaven. We're free to spend our days honoring the Son. We're free to bring our sins to him in repentance, joyfully acknowledging his forgiveness. We're free to share his gospel with our family and friends, with the whole world knowing that it alone has the power to change lives eternally. And best of all, we're free to keep our eyes on the heavens knowing that very soon God our only Savior and Judge will appear and when he does it will be our greatest joy and pleasure to thank and honor the Son perfectly forever and ever. Amen.