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This sermon was preached on Sunday 17/06/2001 Am, by Kevin Matthews.
In our previous consideration of John chapter 5, we looked at one of two proofs of Jesus’ divinity that were introduced and then expanded upon by Jesus, that the actual giver or source of spiritual life is Jesus Himself. It is He who calls the spiritually dead, those who are ‘dead in trespasses and sins,’ into the actual possession of spiritual life. This is a God thing and not a man thing. Without His calling them forth unto spiritual life, no sinner would ever believe in the Lord Jesus Christ unto the salvation of themselves from sin, for ‘But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor 2:14).’ So for a sinner to live spiritually, he must first hear the Saviour of sinners calling, ‘sinner, come forth and live.’ The fact that Jesus is the One who does this is proof that He is indeed God, for it is a God thing.
Today we move onto the second area that Jesus had previously raised to prove His divinity, a second truth that would amaze and stun His Jewish assailers, ‘For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son (5:22).’ Having introduced this subject previously, Jesus now returns to it, further developing it.
Not only has the Father ‘granted the Son to have life in Himself,’ but He has also ‘And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man (5:27).’
I will not again go into all the details about how Jesus is God and how this passage is not denying that. Neither will we go over the truth of functional subordination within the Trinity in any great depth, for we have dealt with that a couple of times now also. If you would like to go over that, then please borrow the tapes of the last 2 or 3 messages on John (Or, if you are viewing this on the web, then please review the last couple of sermon outlines).
Yet this is exactly what the verse currently under consideration is referring to when it says that the Father ‘And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man (5:27).’ It is not that Jesus is some lesser being than the Father, or that He is a lesser God, for we have already seen from the Scriptures that Jesus is God as the Father is God - united in Divinity, distinct in Personality, timeless in His function and role within the Trinity. This is all part of being who God is.
It was the Son’s role to come and to die as Man for sinners. It was not the Father’s role and it was not the Spirit’s role, but it was the Son’s role. And it is also the Son’s role within the Godhead to exercise judgement for God. This is a distinctive office of Christ, to be the Judge of the world. Yet it is a task of the united Godhead, for Jesus says ‘I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me (5:30).’
Jesus does the judging, it is His role to play - yet it is the role of the whole Trinity, for such is the Unity that is God, and such is the functional subordination that defines the Son to the Father, for He only does what the Father expresses to Him to do.
The passage before us explains that Jesus was given this role to play ‘because He is the Son of Man (5:27).’ But what does this really mean? Is it because Jesus is able to understand humanity accurately because He is the God-man? Is it because the Father recognizes that Jesus can sympathise with man and be more understanding of man and his difficult circumstances, and therefore be more lenient toward him?
Yes Jesus is Man, and though certainly the fact that Jesus understood fully what man has to go through in a fallen world would help Him to see man’s angle on things, this is not what the passage is referring to when it speaks of why He has the role of Judge. Jesus being Man does not give man a softer Judge or a more flexible Judge. If anything, it gives man a Judge who understands fully the realisation that man can in fact obey God perfectly and that without sin, though not now in His own strength. Jesus is the righteous Judge who will judge according to the righteousness of God, and not some relaxed standard born of a compromising flexibility.
What the passage is actually referring to is an Old Testament passage that the Jewish leaders who were before Jesus would have recognized, and that is Daniel 7:13,14. ‘I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.’
What was Jesus doing by calling Himself the Son of Man? He was claiming for Himself this prophecy of Daniel. He was calling attention to who it was that stood before the Jews. ‘I am the Messiah, I will have this dominion over all the earth - do you not yet recognize Me? You seek to judge Me, but it will in fact be I who will judge you.’
Can you imagine the reaction that came to these Jewish leaders when they realised what Jesus was claiming for Himself? The Jews who were contending with Jesus over His claim to Divinity were clearly shocked at such a statement, for Jesus says to them, ‘Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (5:28,29).’ ‘ Yes it is I who am the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, I am the Messiah, and I will judge - yes, even you.’ The indignation that this would have brought to the Jews before Him, can you imagine it?
‘But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men (Philip 2:7),’ but the time will come in which it will be clearly manifest to all that I am the Judge. Then, ‘That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philip 2:10,11).’
You may mock now sinner, but the day is coming when you will face your Judge and it will be Jesus. It matters little as to whether you acknowledge Him now, or whether you do recognize Him now, ‘for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (5:28,29a).’
It won’t be just those who call Jesus their Saviour that will front up to Jesus on the last day, but it will be every sinner who has ever walked the earth. If the Lord does not come before you die then know this, that you will indeed meet Him face to face, for it is to Him that you must go for final judgment. Remember, ‘And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment (Heb 9:27).’ Death is not the end for you my friend, you still have to face the King of Kings and then suffer the sentence that He places upon you.
Do you realise with whom you have to do sinner? Yes sinner, the one you now reject and mock is the very one who will decide your eternal situation. Has that dawned on you yet? Do you recognize the danger that you are now in? Does this scare you? Does this bring a shiver to your spine? Oh sinner, if you know not the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, do not think that you will not meet Him as Judge! It has already been determined that upon the final consummation of this age, that Jesus has been given ‘authority to execute judgment’ upon your life. Sinner, Jesus will decide your fate!
Every facet of your life will be scrutinized. All your thoughts will be exposed to the God who knows all things and searches the hearts and minds of all men. The God whose eyes are in every place will assess every action. Every word that you speak will be evaluated by the God who knows every word before it passes from your lips - sinner, why will you not flee to the Lord Jesus Christ now?
Will a drowning man hold back from the lifeboat because he is not sure that it will save him? No, he flees to it. There is no time for thinking about whether you be one of the elect, whether you have the ability to believe, whether you still have time to experience some sort of heavenly flash to your conscience - ‘now is the day of salvation!’ There is the Lord Jesus Christ on yonder tree, bleeding in the place of sinners that you might go free. Oh sinner, go to the Refuge, go to the lifeboat of your soul, for you are drowning in a sea of sin and wrath and you will perish if you don’t get in it!
How many times have you rejected the call to believe in Christ for salvation from sin? How many times have you chosen to embrace a life of continued rebellion against God over the Lord Jesus Christ? How many times have you held back from trusting the Lord Jesus Christ? How many times have you ridiculed and laughed the Name of Jesus to scorn? Sinner, all this will come back to haunt you at the last day - ‘be sure your sins will find you out (Num 32:23).’ ‘But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned (Mt 12:36,37).’
Do you think that you will somehow escape the judgment of God? Do you think that your mere presence among the people of God is a way of escaping God’s wrath? Do you think you will be hidden from judgment by being mixed in with the godly now? Don’t you yet understand that He will divide the sheep from the goats, the godly from the ungodly? Do you think that there is some place that you can go from which God will be unable to call you back? ‘If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there (Ps 139:8).’ There is nowhere to run from the face of the Almighty. You will one-day face Him in judgment, it is certain - this is one interview that you will not fail to attend.
‘Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth (5:28,29a).’
This final Day of Judgment is sure, and every single person who has ever walked the earth will be called to it, ‘For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad (2 Cor 5:10).’ Whether you be someone who has been involved in another religion, whether you be an atheist, or whether you be religious, one day you will face your Judge. It matters not who you are, for that day is drawing closer and closer.
Whether you die in a car accident, from disease, from a shark while one day at the beach, burnt in a fire, or however you might die - you will still be raised to life to face your Judge. All whom the worms have devoured 3000 years ago, and all that the fires of cremation devour today, these all will stand before the Judge. There is no escape for you my friend, for you will face Jesus.
Physical death is not the end, there is a life to come, and just what exactly this future life will hold for you is decided by the verdict handed down from the Court of Heaven, from He who sits upon the great white throne. Once decided, there is no court of appeal - it is final. Your only opportunity to escape the wrath to come is to go the Saviour of sinners while it is still today. Then when you face your Maker, it will be without fear.
Many years from now, or maybe in just a few, the command of Christ will sound to every person who has ever lived to come and appear before Him. The trumpet will sound and the end will be ushered in. Even those who are dead and in the grave will hear and go to the Court of Heaven. There is no ability to resist the call of Christ, it has been predetermined that you will appear before Him and so you will. You may have refused to heed His voice in this life, but then you will have no choice, for you must go to face your Maker.
What will be the verdict handed down to you? Do you expect it to be inconsistent with how you lived? If so, you would be wrong. How many times have people said, ‘Oh, such and such is in heaven now.’ But is that so? If that person has died wretched, then he will be wretched in eternity. How you die is how you will rise. If you are wicked, you will be wicked still; if you are good, then you will be good still.
If you have not been a Christian in this life, then you will not be a Christian in the next. Some know that they haven’t been a Christian in this life, yet they don’t consider that they have been a sinner either, so they should make it through to heaven they think. But that would be a fatal error to make, a soul-damning error in fact. If you are not a Christian in this life, then you will be regarded as justly evil in the next, for you have not served the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, being, etc.
Do you understand that sinner? The simple fact that you have never submitted to Christ is enough to condemn you, for it is rebellion against God. If you break God’s Law in one part, then you are guilty of the lot. Sinner, you are in real trouble, and this not to speak of the multitude of lies, self-centred attitudes and practices, hatreds, falsehoods, stealing, jealousies, and so on that you have committed.
Would you receive the verdict that reads, ‘well done, good and faithful servant... enter into the joy of your Lord,’ then you must flee to the Lord Jesus Christ for that life now. If you don’t have spiritual life now in this world, you will never have it.
But ‘those who have done good,’ these will be given a verdict that allows them to enter into ‘the resurrection of life (5:29).’
This does not mean that you have to work your way into heaven sinner, for this is not the mark of those who have done good. The mark of those who have done good is that because they have been granted life in the Lord Jesus Christ, as those who have believed in Him for salvation, they bear the fruit of that life in this life, in the here and the now.
The passage does not say that the good enter into the resurrection of life because they have merited salvation, but because they have been good. Being good is a distinguishing mark of a sinner who has passed from death to life, from the place of producing the fruit of evil, to the place of producing the fruit of the Spirit within. He has gone from the place of offering up his members as slaves to sin, to offering them up as slaves of righteousness.
How is a person to be granted the assessment of good by the court of Heaven? What are you to do? ‘Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent (6:28,29).’
‘But that’s what you always say!’ Yes it is, because it is the only thing you can do in order to have this life, in order to live in a manner that will be good. When a sinner begins to live ‘good’, it is evidence that he has become a Christian and begun to live in the Spirit. That person will hear the verdict of enter into ‘the resurrection of life’ at the last day.
This dear friends in the Lord Jesus Christ is so much more than existence, for even the damned have existence. It is life; it is life in all that life is as a perfect sinless child of God. It is an existence that is devoted to living, devoted to living as unto the Lord in all holiness, goodness and truth. It is living without sin, without temptations, without affliction, without persecution, and so on. There we will really live.
Whatever it means to live, whatever it means to have life that will be our lot in eternity. Ours is an endless time of seeing our Lord face to face, of continually basking in His glory, of ceaseless praise and worship, of forever fellowshipping with Him and with our now departed Christian friends and heroes of the faith.
Ours will be the life of eternal happiness and bliss, of never again having torment and tears, of no sadness and sorrow. Ours will be life!
But ‘they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (5:29).’ The wicked will also exist, but their’s will not be an existence characterised by living, but an existence characterised as eternal punishment and condemnation, and that forever.
Sinner, will you not now flee from this horrific future, and even now come unto Christ for life? Believers have already begun to live this resurrected life, and you too can join us in living eternal life, not only in the future, but also today. Why will you perish, why will you die the death of the wicked? ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved (Acts 16:31).’
You have no need to perish in your sins, for Christ is ready to receive you even today - will you believe and escape the certain wrath that is to come? Then go to Jesus. Don’t ask us to pray for you, though we will, but go to Jesus in faith - that is what He requires, not requests for prayer. Believe today sinner; don’t hold back thinking you need to understand your guilty condition completely. You need to believe, so believe - Amen.
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