Pastor Bill introduces us today to three theological difficulties.
The Hypostatic Union
The Wonder of Proper Worship.
The Judgement of Christ.

Pastor Bill answers to whom Jesus listens and how that brings us great peace.

Good morning. As we continue in our study of the Gospel of john, we have made it to our second study in chapter five and this week, I’m going to uh introduce you really to three great mysteries and then we’ll spend the next few weeks unraveling those mysteries. Hopefully that we might see more of who God is and what his mission is and then but what that means for us and then what that means as far as our mission as individuals and corporately as a church goes, we are going to look at at three verses really Verse # 21, where jesus says as the father raises the dead and gives life to them. So also the son gives life to whom he will. And then verse # 26. Uh for as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son to have life in himself. And then jesus talking about judgment, he will say, as I hear, I judge and my judgment is true. My judgment is just verse number 30. And we’re going to look this morning focusing primarily on that last phrase as I hear I judge. But the question is, who to whom is he listening for? Whom is he listening as I hear I judge. But but who is he hearing? Verse # 21 says, as the father raises the dead and gives life to them. So also the son gives life to whom he will. You see the gospel is not arbitrary. Salvation is not arbitrary, it is not to the swiftest, it is not to the most healthy. It is not to those who are in privileged positions. It is not to those who can hire helpers. It is not to those who exhaust themselves even in religious duty. The Gospel is for those who can simply believe that he has the right and has the power and has the desire To take us from one domain to another. From the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light, From the Kingdom of men to the Kingdom of God, From this cursed world to the glories of the heavenly places, You see, the Gospel is not just John 316 for God, so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. It is also john chapter five verse number 26. For as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son to have life in himself. There we are introduced, introduced it to one of the greatest mysteries in the bible. The hyper static union And what I mean by that is that Jesus is 100% God And yet he is 100% mad. He is fully God and fully man. He is fully independent, but he is also fully dependent upon the father. That great mystery. While hard to understand, brings us great beauty and great power and great piece as we reach and we try to understand it as paul says, as we reach for that prize. You see, the gospel is is granted to us. We do not earn it. We cannot obtain it by any means other than by the grace of God and our belief in his identity in his mission and in his desire. Now, last week, we looked at proper worship, making sure of our worship that the focus of our worship is correct and and the focus in our worship is correct, that we are worshiping the father and that we are worshiping him in spirit, and in truth that we are worshiping the Tryon God in the way that he reveals himself and in the means that he reveals for us to worship him. And so john chapter five not only introduces us to the great mystery of the hyper static union, it it is, it is a warning that simultaneously teaches us the proper mode and method of worship, that great mystery of properly worshiping God. And then number three, we’ll see you in verse number 30 jesus says, I do nothing of my own accord, as I hear, I judge and my judgment is just That 3rd Great Mystery. The judgment of jesus christ, how he judges the means by which he judges the authority by which he judges and what he judges us too, or from you see in a very real way. Chapter five is a picture of much of the church today, the church has lost its sense of worship or I should say, is losing its sense of worship. So many of us in our worship and and and so many it is calculated this way have become man centered in our worship and where God focused occasionally you see we get it exactly backwards. Our focus is to be upon God and as we learn more about him and and that knowledge empowers us, we become more like him and that takes care of the man focus part of of of the error that that the church is falling into. You see, we’ve lost our sense of worship in a very real way. Some of us look at this book as a as a self help book and it’s not that in any way it is a revelation of who God is, what God expects from man and then who man is that no one can reach those expectations for We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and then and then focusing again on God that he has come in the form of his son, to do what we could not do, and then to take what we could not bear. And then to give us what we do not deserve. He lives the life that we could not live one pleasing to God and then he takes the wrath, do our sin. The wages of sin is death. He takes the judgment of God against himself and then the pleasure of a life properly lived. That that that that is, that is that is do the father that life that blessing is then granted, given to us by his grace. Now with all of that in mind those three mysteries. And then the warning about worship and a desire to worship him properly. Let us look at verse 16 of John Chapter five. And this is why the jews were persecuting jesus because he was doing these things on the sabbath. Remember he had healed a paralyzed man on the Sabbath day who had not walked in 38 years and had no one to help him. And the jews rather than celebrating that great victory were persecuting jesus because he was breaking their rules, particularly their rules about the sabbath. But Jesus verse number 17 answered them. My father is working until now and I am working. 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, making himself equal to God. So verse number 19, Jesus said to them truly, truly, I say to you, the son of man 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 father 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 has passed from death to life truly truly, I say to you the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear we’ll leave for as the father has life in himself. So he has granted the son also to have life in himself and has given him the authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment, 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 you see christ is the reveal. Er christ is the reveal er in whom we encounter God, in whom we encounter God speaking and acting. Be careful how you worship because God is listening verse number 30 I can do nothing on my own. But as I hear I judge before we get into this, I want to give us a quick reminder of the purpose of this third book. In chapter two verse number four, jesus speaking to his mother says a woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come and now here he is saying, the hour has come, when the dead will hear his voice and life will be raised, he hasn’t come. He did not come to take care of temporal temporary earthly problems. He has come to give life to the dead that they might live and never die. Chapter 2: verse # 25. He needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. Therefore he can be the perfect judge because he does not need the testimony. He has knowledge given to him by God himself. In chapter three verse number three, jesus answered him speaking of Nicodemus truly truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Therefore, he is the only one able to reveal God or to judge men properly. For he alone has seen the father. He alone knows the father, he alone knows man. He alone knows the desire of the father. You see men have missed it so messed it up so much that on the day of worship on the sabbath, you can’t do anything good and when jesus does good, they long to kill him. That’s how messed up man has made things. Because we cannot see we use our own fallen reprobate minds. And Jesus has come to clear all of that up and not only to clear it up, but to take us from the wrong path and to set us on the right path. one that is pleasing to God in verse number 36 of that same third chapter, whoever believes in the son has eternal life, whoever does not obey the son shall not see life but the wrath of God remains on him. Chapter 4: verse # 23. The hour is coming and is now here when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit. And in truth for the father is seeking such people to worship him. This is the desire of God. This is the heart of God. And this is the mission of christ, to seek and to save the lost that that we might have the spirit of man removed from us, that dead spirit and the spirit of life put in us that we may no longer function by the opinion and the error of men, but by the very truth of God, Jesus later on in that chapter after talking with the woman at the well, speaks to his disciples in verse number 34 and says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me to accomplish his work. That is to find worshippers, to train worshippers to redeem that men and women to be worshipers of God. He says in this chapter that we will look more next week, In verse # 39, you search the scriptures because in them, you think you have eternal life and these are they that bear witness about me. You are looking for eternal life in there some formula or or some work or some rules, but what you do not understand is I am eternal life and I am standing right in front of you. In verse number 41, he goes on to say, I do not receive glory from people, he is the giver of glory so that that we might turn around and praise and worship the father. You see the bible is a book of self disclosure, the divine autobiography. In the bible, the subject and the object are identical. For in it, God is speaking about God, he makes himself known progressively in the rich variety of his, of his being the creator of the universe and of human beings in his own image, they being the climax of his creation and as the living god who sustains and and initiates everything he’s made and as a gracious God, he is slow to anger, quick to forgive, but he is also a righteous judge who punishes idolatry and injustice among his own people as well as the pagan nations. And then we move into the new testament and he reveals himself as the father of our Lord and savior, jesus christ who sent him into the world to take our nature upon himself to be born and grow to live and teach to work and suffer to die and rise to occupy the throne of the universe and to send the Holy Spirit to us next. As the God of the new covenant community, the church, he sends his people into the world as witnesses and servants of the power and the pleasure. Uh and the purpose of God, the father God the son and in the power of the Holy Spirit. And finally the narrator reveals the object. The bible self disclosure is of God who one day will send jesus christ in power and glory to save and to judge and terrain and will create a new universe and who in the end will be everything to everyone. Now today, I want us to look at verse number 30. I can’t 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 as I hear, I judge, what does that mean? The question we began this whole sermon with, to whom is he listening? I believe this is vague on purpose. This is one of those times where where where where where the vagary gives, gives expansion to the words that are written here. one option is he is listening to men and women listening for confession and belief not in his signs, but faith in the person of jesus christ that he is God and and and and has been granted by God the likeness of man to fulfill the mission of pleasing God. And as a man, living as God intended men to live. And then secondly, as the lamb an unstained perfect sacrifice. He was listening for men and women who get that, who here that who understand their need of that and confess him as redeemer as savior as Lord. They accept the adoption from God and become his sons and he and he our father, that we might be obedient sons, continuing the family work. So one option is he’s listening for men and women to make their true confession. There’s a second option here, You remember in Chapter four and what we just read just a moment ago, God is seeking worshippers who will worship him in spirit and truth. This cannot happen until until life is provided by the spirit as it gives understanding to the scriptures that we might know God, that that we might know the error of men and we might know the redemptive plan of God and in our humility, we know that we are sinners and in absolute dependence. We fall upon him to give us understanding of the way of the truth and of life. God is seeking worshipers to worship him in spirit and truth. And this cannot happen until the spirit gives us understanding of the scriptures that reveal God. And so Jesus is listening for God to say she is mine, he is mine, she is mine, he is mine, he is mine, she is mine. Give them life and give it to them abundantly. You see as we look at this mystery of judgment, man is the object of God’s love and God’s wrath concurrently. The God who condemns mankind for his arrogant disobedience and his shortsightedness has already planned on how to justify us. Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Three verses from From romans summarize this, which will look a lot more at an Eastern. The Gospel is the power of God under salvation. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodly nous and wickedness of men, paul in romans, one is talking about the fearful process of moral and societal deterioration which works in willful centers, who God gives up to their own willfulness and its eventual result the falling of his wrath. God’s wrath is seen in the corruption of man. They do not want to live with God. They do not want to live with God’s understanding, they do not want to live under his wisdom. Therefore they are corrupted and because of the corruption, they are cursed. Well his remedy is seen in the gospel. Therefore there are two revelations of God since his wrath is seen from heaven. As he steps back and steps back and steps back from men Verse 24 of Romans one, He gave them up verse 26, he gave them up verse 28, he gave them over. It’s a picture of him stepping back. The 2nd revelation of God is revealed from heaven as he steps forward and he says the body you have prepared for me, I go in the volume of the book, it is written of me to do your will. You see his wrath is pictured as him stepping back and now jesus stepped up, steps up and says I will go And then in Luke chapter nine we see that he said steadfastly sets his face to go to Jerusalem and he steps forward and he walks and then in the garden of Gethsemane, he says the time has come, the men are here let us go face God stepping forward and stepping forward and stepping forward. Think of the peace in these verses The father makes testimony of his love for us to the sun, as I hear I judge the father is saying, I love them, Mhm And as jesus, here’s the love of the Father, He judges and gives his life for us. And then as we believe the sun turns around and gives testimony to the father. Mhm About us. Your father is my gift of love to you. He once was blind, but now he sees he once was filthy and and and and and and clothed in unrighteous nous and then holiness and rebellion, but now he wears my righteousness receiving you see, we’re doubly sure there, Jesus is listening for the love of the Father for us. I am longing for my people to be redeemed. So Jesus goes to the cross after hearing the father, the father make testimony of his love for us. And then Jesus dies in our place has raised the third day and here’s us confess his name and then Jesus turns around and speaks to the father in testimony for us that double listening, that double hearing, that’s our hope and that’s great piece. And then what is our testimony to ourselves? How do we know that we are recipients of this life and this blessing and this adoption, what is the surest sign of our salvation, true and proper worship? Now there’s no need for us to wait. You’ll see in this chapter and later on, as Jesus is talking about the hours coming and is now here and and then he finishes all the hours on the day of Pentecost, the disciples had to wait for Pentecost. The holy Spirit came at Pentecost and has never left the church. We don’t have to wait. God is right here. The spirit is right here to give us that understanding, to hear our humble plea and to and to come in in in in in in in absolute fullness to to bestow the love of the Father upon us, the adoption of the Father upon us, the righteousness of christ upon us and life, his life and life eternal becoming ours. And our responsibility is to humble ourselves before his sovereign authority and determine and to determine not to quit the Holy Spirit, but to allow him his freedom in our lives. Biblical teaching, in loving fellowship, in living worship and in ongoing and outgoing revelation of the goodness of God. As I hear, I judge the Father is longing for worshippers, he is listening. What will he here? Our hearts, our minds and our lips say this morning and into the ending of our lives. Father, I thank you, I praise you