In the sermon titled 'The Voice of the Son of God,' Jason Dohm explores John 5:24-30, emphasizing Jesus as the ultimate life giver and judge. Dohm explains that Jesus' declarations, prefaced with 'Amen, amen,' highlight the vital importance of His words. The sermon underscores the necessity of both hearing and believing in Jesus' message for eternal life, illustrating that spiritual resurrection precedes physical resurrection. Jesus, possessing life in Himself, has the authority to impart eternal life and execute judgment, a role affirmed by His designation as the 'Son of Man' from Daniel 7. The sermon emphasizes that faith is the foundation for good works, aligning with the scriptural assertion that without faith, it is impossible to please God.

The text for today is John 5 verses 24 through 30. For context, we're going to start reading in verse 16. Let's follow along. For this reason, the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, My father has been working until now, and I have been working.

Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. 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 that 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 is 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 and 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." Lord, we pray that you'll pour yourself out on Mr. Dome as he comes to give us a message, Lord, that you'll speak through him, you'll open up our hearts to receive your word, to hear these things, to be blessed by them, God. I pray that you'll bless his time, in Jesus' name. The title of the sermon this morning is The Voice of the Son of God.

It's a theme that runs throughout the text, the speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He is exalted as the one who can call things into being which aren't in the sense that He can declare a dead man to be alive, declare a dead woman to be alive. And when he does, then that man or that woman is alive because he said so. And he can call you forth from the grave. So if you don't get anything else from the passage, just know that this is a precious exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the voice who gives life to the dead.

This is really an exalted view of the Lord Jesus. This week's text is a portion of a continuous discourse, meaning we're only going to look at a slice of it today. We looked at a slice of it last week, and We took a week in between time, now we're going to look at another slice of it, and then we'll have another week, and then we'll come back and look at the end portion of it. But it wasn't so when it was originally given. Jesus gave it all at once, but we're slow on the uptake, and we need additional time to slow down and look at various parts of it.

But don't think of it in pieces. Think of it as one unified discourse. In fact, so much of what's in today's text will explain what Jesus was saying last week in last week's text. In last week's text in verse 20, Jesus said that his hearers would see greater works than these. Well, what are the works than these?

Well, the immediate context is that a man who has been crippled for 38 years is told to rise up and to take his mat and go his way. So, Jesus is telling his hearers, you've not seen anything yet. You're going to see so many greater things than a man lame for 38 years taking up his mat and walking home at my command. And I perfectly agree with what Michael said last week. The verses that follow Jesus saying you're going to see greater works than these actually explain what these greater works are.

Number one, in verse 21, the immediate verse following, he says that the Son will give life to whom He will. That's a greater work still. It's an amazing thing to be able to say to a cripple, rise up and walk, but it's more amazing still to be able to give eternal, spiritual life to whoever you want to give it to. It is a greater work still. Secondly, in the verse that follows that, in verse 22, he says that to the Son of God, all judgment has been committed.

So as amazing as the healings of the New Testament are, it's a more amazing thing still that Jesus will stand at the end of time to judge the living and the dead, to separate the sheep from the goats, to call some good and faithful servants, and to take them to heaven to be with him forever, and to cast out others where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth for all eternity. That is a greater work. So what we're going to find this week is that our text follows the exact same structure that we have the life giving Son of God set before us and that we have the judgment of the Son of God, the Son of man, set before us this week. As we come to our text, let's go to the text in prayer. Oh God, let these be Holy moments.

Please, please, please don't let these be ordinary moments where we miss what is said or even that we hear what is said. And it is an intellectual exercise to us let these be holy spiritual moments where your word comes alive to us and Christ is exalted in our eyes and we go away with an expanded view of the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Oh, let it be so. Press this text on our hearts so that that becomes true in our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

I'll be splitting the text into three parts this morning. The first section is verse 24 and 25, so please follow along as I reread John chapter 5 verses 24 and 25. Again this is right in the middle of one discourse from Jesus. Jesus says, 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 has 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." In these two verses, Jesus speaks of the voice that raises the spiritually dead.

So if you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks, the blank is spiritually. The voice that raises the spiritually dead. It's His voice. It is Jesus who calls out and brings the spiritually dead to life. Now let me begin by commenting on something that is structural, meaning something in the language of the text here.

Verse 24 and verse 25 begin with the same phrase. What is that? Most assuredly I say to you. What's rendered most assuredly here in English, there's nothing wrong with the translation, it's perfectly good, but If you were to see the transliteration of the Hebrew, what you would see is, Amen, amen, I say to you. That's the beginning of both verse 24 and 25.

Amen, amen, I say to you, and then he declares something. So we totally don't get that in the translation but if you were to see a transliteration of the Hebrew that's what you would see. The double amen at the beginning of the pronouncement. Now we're used to Amen at the end. We pray and at the end we punctuate it with Amen.

And at the end it means, so be it, or may it be so. You're adding your affirmation and sort of certifying what you've just said as being true or asking God to make what you've prayed to be so. But when it's at the beginning, the double amen emphasizes the importance of what's about to be said. It would be as if he said, Pay attention to this. I'm getting ready to say something of vital critical importance.

Both 24 and 25 begin with the double amen before the pronouncement. So what is so important? It's this. The person who hears Jesus' word and believes in the Father who sent the Son has everlasting life, will not come into judgment but has passed from death to life. So there's a condition that's given and then there are three Results of what happens when the condition has been met.

So let's look at all of that in greater detail. What is the condition? Hearing and believing is the condition. Hearing along with believing is the condition. They must be together or the condition is not met.

Many people hear the word of Jesus but they don't believe. Many times the sound wave hits the ear drum. Sound waves go in. And a person hears the words, but they don't believe. And so the condition is not met.

Now remember we keep encountering this word believe and I'm gonna say again what I've said many times and what I'm gonna say again many more times before the end of the gospel of John There are two things wrapped up in this word believe. One is assent to the truth, embracing the truth. Yes, that's true. But the other part of believing is trust in the speaker. In trusting yourself to the one who has declared the truth.

So not only do I embrace the truth, I embrace the truth giver. I entrust myself, I hand myself over to the truth giver. So this is a person who hears the Word of Jesus and embraces that Word as true, but embraces Jesus as the truth-teller, and just throws themselves onto the truth-teller Jesus. That's what's wrapped up in this. The condition is met when someone hears the word of Jesus and they embrace that as truth and they throw themselves on Jesus as the truth teller.

Then the condition is met. There's a phrase that's used over and over again in the Gospels. Throughout the Gospels, pick a Gospel and you'll find this phrase. What is it? He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Right? Doesn't Jesus say that a lot in the Gospel? He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Why does he say that? Because a lot of people don't have ears to hear.

Yes, the sound wave will hit the eardrum. The words will come out of the mouth. Truth from God will come out and will enter the hearing, enter the consciousness of the hearer, but they don't really have ears to hear. They have no way to embrace the truth and throw themselves on the truth teller and trust themselves to the truth teller. Because the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him Nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

I've just quoted 1 Corinthians 2.14. That's what Paul says. The natural man has rejection to the truths of the Spirit of God built into himself and his nature because we have a rebellious nature. We don't have ears to hear. And so we can't even receive them because they're spiritually discerned and we are spiritually dead.

And so we're spiritually deaf. But the nature of the spiritual deafness is like the nature of someone from a political persuasion who can't even hear the things that are said by somebody who's at the other end. Yes, the sound wave comes into the ear and hits the eardrum and they can comprehend that words are being spoken, but they have no way to assign any value to what is being said. This is the nature of the deadness and the deafness of the unbelieving heart. This is us in our true nature.

Meaning, we are born that way. This is standard feature in a race that is in rebellion against God, loving self and serving self. We should be loving God and serving God. That's why we can't hear. Because hearing Jesus means we have to walk away from that self love and that self serving.

And we don't want to. It means that we have to relinquish our pride and we won't hear of it. We won't hear of it. Now, what are the three results? So that is the condition.

Hearing with belief. Hearing and believing. Now what are the results for the person who hears and believes first? There are three first this person has everlasting life Has not will have, but has in her hand, in his hand, possesses everlasting life. Everlasting life is the present possession of every true believer.

Eternal life, everlasting life has started. They are in the midst of the beginning of everlasting life. Just getting going. This is the first result for the person who hears the word of Jesus and believes the one who sent Him. By the way, believing the sender of Jesus, I believe, is intended to point us back to the voice of God who made these promises that Jesus is fulfilling.

Remember I've been saying if we were just to reduce Old and New Testaments down to a couple of phrases that categorize them, We would say that the Old Testament is promises made. Sin comes into the world, but God makes promises to redeem. Many, many promises in the law, in the prophets, promises that we're not going to stay unredeemed. That he's going to send a Redeemer. So then the New Testament would be what?

Promises kept. Promises fulfilled. Boxes checked one after another in and through the life and teaching and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Old Testament promises made, New Testament promises kept. Jesus is pointing.

You hear the word of Jesus and you believe the one who sent him, who made all those promises, and now Jesus is here checking every box, fulfilling every promise. A person who hears and believes has everlasting life. Secondly, this hearing, believing person shall not come into judgment. Why not? Why no judgment for the person who hears Jesus' word and believes the one who sent him, the Father who sent him.

Now Think about the cross. What's happening at the cross? What's happening is the great exchange. Jesus Christ being a substitute, substitutionary atonement. Atonement is bringing two warring parties together and reconciling them.

That's what's happening at the cross It is Jesus Christ willingly taking the place of sinners and and the anger of God against their sin, and the penalty for their sin, being fully satisfied by the Lord Jesus Christ. This is all happening at the cross. For the believer, The judgment of my sin is behind. Two thousand years behind. The judgment, the dealing, the reckoning for my sin is two thousand years behind.

Because I have heard the word of Jesus, and I have believed the Father who sent Him. The reckoning for my sins is 2, 000 years behind. It is not a fearful future event, this judgment. It's already been done before I was ever born my sins were reckoned with on Calvary. It's not a fearful event out through the windshield looking forward.

It is in the rear view mirror, way in the rear view mirror, the reckoning for my sins. So I'm not coming into judgment, because I have heard and believed. By the way, there will be a judgment where we will stand before God and our works will be judged for reward. All of the good works that we've done by faith will be rewarded at that time. So there are places where you'll find that we all will stand before the judgment seat of God.

Our text today isn't contradicting. It's talking about different things. This is talking about the heaven or hell judgment. And for those who have believed, their sins have been dealt with. So first, the first result, the first result, is that this person has everlasting life.

The second result is that this person has everlasting life. The second result is that this person shall not come into judgment. The third result is that this hearing and believing person has passed from death into life. Again, this is present possession. Has passed.

This is now a past event in the life of the hearing believer. They used to be dead, but God made them alive and now they are alive and now they will forever be alive. They have passed, in time passed, from death to life. Listen to Ephesians chapter 2. It's like Paul is preaching a sermon on this one verse.

Ephesians chapter 2 beginning in verse 1, Paul says, And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now I'm skipping down to verse 4, Ephesians 2 verse 4, but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." It's all the same language. What kind of language?

Resurrection language! You were dead, but you're not dead. You've been raised from the dead and given life through Christ. God did that. Because of His great love with which He loved us.

God did that. It is present tense. All present tense language here. Paul talking about writing to these just barely former pagan gentiles. Just barely.

They were just barely born again. Paul is writing to them and he says, you're alive, you used to be dead, but you're not dead anymore. You've been raised to life. That has happened. That is a past event.

You're now alive and you'll never be anything other than alive spiritually. We're all going to die physically. Christians are never going to die spiritually. This is what Revelation calls the second death. Christians will never taste of the second death.

We'll taste of the first death. All these bodies, they have a timer on them. Time's going to be up one day for all of us. These bodies, we should probably thank God for this, these bodies will be left behind. We'll get a new body one day, but there will never be a spiritual death for believers.

We've been raised from the dead. Listen to what Ryle says. J.C. Ryle says, it is not a far distant thing which he is to have at last if he only does his duty and is good. It is his own entitled the moment he believes.

I hope you grab a hold of that today and it makes you happy and it encourages your heart. This is not a distant future thing that if you behave yourself you get. If you really have heard the word of Jesus and you're a true believer, you have the title to it today. Everlasting life is in progress and will never end because it's everlasting life. That was the third thing.

This person has passed from death into life, just as Paul says and expands on in Ephesians chapter 2. Now, verse 25. Let me read it again. Verse 25. Most assuredly, this is the second most assuredly, the amen, amen.

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. Jesus is announcing that something has been coming for a long time. It has been anticipated, looked forward to for a long time. Now is. The hour is coming and now is.

There is something that has been eagerly anticipated for centuries and millennia which now is. And what is that? It is that the preaching of Christ by Christ for the salvation of sinners. This is what has been waited for, eagerly anticipated for centuries and millennia. The preaching of Christ by Christ for the salvation of sinners and here it is the voice of God calling the dead forth into life.

Well what about us? We haven't heard the voice of the Son of God. It's well enough for Jesus to say to people who are physically present with Him, the time now is. Christ is being preached by Christ for the salvation of sinners. Well, where does that leave us?

Consider Ephesians 4 verses 20 and 21. Ephesians chapter 4 verses 20 and 21. This is what Paul writes to these just, barely former pagan Gentiles. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus." So Paul writing to the Ephesians, saying, you have heard Christ and you've been taught by Christ. What are the odds that a single person who had this letter read to them in the Ephesian Church had ever been physically present to hear Christ's teaching?

Infinitesimally small. Almost zero chance that anyone who was in the Ephesian church at the time when Paul wrote this letter to them was physically present to hear the Lord Jesus Christ preach and yet Paul says, You have heard Him and have been taught by Him. Listen to what Jesus says in John chapter 10 verse 27. Famous, famous text about the good shepherd. John chapter 10 verse 27.

My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. This is not for just people who were physically present to hear Jesus preach. Today, And until he comes again, his sheep will hear his voice as really and truly as if they had been physically present to hear his preaching. His sheep hear his voice. His sheep follow Him.

By His Spirit, by the Holy Spirit, as we hear preaching and the Holy Spirit works on our hearts, we hear Him, we are taught by Him. So much of these two verses, 24 and 25, are captured in an Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 18. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Here's another thing we stumble across in the gospels while you turn to Deuteronomy 18.

Another thing we encounter often in all of the gospels is a contemplation of the identity of Jesus always ends up with a list of who different groups of people say that he is. And the list almost inevitably includes the prophet. Some say he's Elijah, some say he's the John the Baptist some say he is the prophet that comes right out of Deuteronomy 18 Beginning in 15. I'll read Deuteronomy 18 15 through 19 When I when I looked it up my Bible this morning I I have a brackets around the whole thing in my Bible that I've written and I just made a note, wow! Not from this morning, I have no idea when I made that note, but this is a wow text to me.

Because it just speaks to who Jesus is to his people. Deuteronomy 18 verses 15 through 19. Moses is saying this to the people of God. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear.

According to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord, nor let me see this great fire any more, lest I die." Now just think back to what is being referenced here. Mount Sinai is being referenced here where the people were terrified at the thundering and the lightnings and the voice of God there and they begged Moses to intercede with them to tell God no, no more. We can't take this speak to Moses and let Moses speak. And what God is actually going to say here in the next verse, let's see it. And the Lord, I'm in Deuteronomy 18 verse 17 now, and the Lord said to me what they have spoken is good.

So God didn't rebuke them for saying this is too fearful, speak to Moses and let him intercede for us. God actually said that's wise of them. What they've just said is good. Verse 18. I will Raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put my words in his mouth.

And he shall speak to them all that I command him, and it shall be that whoever will not hear my words, which he speaks in my name, I will require it of him." Does this not describe Jesus Christ and who he is for his people? God has put his words into the mouth of Jesus. He has raised up a prophet like Moses, a prophet that is actually sympathetic to us in that he has human flesh like Moses. The reason they wanted Moses to speak to them on behalf of God and not to hear God because it's too terrifying to be faced with God. So God sent his son in the form of human flesh so that we would have an intercessor to speak the truths of God to us.

The great dividing line is right here. Look at the very end of this in verse 19. And it shall be that whoever will not hear my words, which he speaks in my name, I will require it of him. This is the great dividing line. Jesus has spoken, will you hear him and believe, or will you refuse to hear Him and reject the things that He has said.

This will mean either heaven or hell for you. The great gospel dividing line is right here in Deuteronomy chapter 18. Will you or will you not hear the Son of God who speaks the words of God? Back to our text. In the next section, verses now, John chapter 5 verses 26 and 27.

Follow along as I read these again. John 5, 26 and 27. 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. In these two verses we have The reason that it is the voice of the Son of God who calls the dead to life. Why is that?

We get it in these two verses. He is the source of life and judgment. So why the voice of Jesus? Why is it Jesus who speaks in the dead come to life? Because He's the source of life and judgment.

If you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks, it's life and judgment. The reason. He is the source of life and judgment. Verse 26 begins with the word for. So this is the flow of thought.

Because Jesus has life in Himself, and has been entrusted with judgment, it is his voice that calls the spiritually dead to life. Are you following me? This is the logic, this is the flow of thought that Jesus is giving us. Because I have life in myself, And because judgment is mine, it belongs to me. It's my voice that calls the dead to life.

That's the flow of thought here. Now, these verses have the same structure and actually explain verses 21 through 23. So let's jump back up to where we were last week and remind ourselves of what Jesus said earlier in this continuous discourse. Verses 21 through 23, just a few verses higher here. Jesus had said, for as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, Even so the Son gives life to him 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. The Father has life in Himself. You don't have life in yourself. You're drawing life from God.

You didn't give it to yourself. You didn't decide to be born and be alive. That was from outside of yourself. You're borrowing it. And You don't sustain it.

You don't wake up any day of your life able to sustain life in yourself. Man doesn't even really understand exactly how that works. We know about blood pumping and brain function and things like that. We don't know what's behind all that. You're alive and then you're not alive.

That's really the best we can say. We're drawing life from someone else. God's not like that. God doesn't draw life from anyone else. He is self-existing.

He is that He is. Not drawing life from some source that might dry up one day or might be withheld one day, that's not possible for God. He's in a completely different category for us in this way. And He has granted that to the Son. Jesus is just like his Father in that way.

Jesus is not going to have life withheld from him someday. It is within himself. He has life in himself. Just like the Father has life in Himself. Now, think back to John chapter 1.

In John chapter 1, John the Gospel writer, having had the benefit of all of Jesus' teaching from the start to the finish, and now understanding all of those things that he didn't really get all along. But in hindsight, looking back on the collective teaching, the whole of Jesus' teaching, now he understands things that all along he really didn't understand or at least not in their fullness, but as a Gospel writer now he understands them in their fullness. And in John chapter 1 he's building the foundation so that as he recounts Jesus' teaching we will have already had the foundation to rightly understand the things that Jesus is teaching. That's what John chapter 1 is. It's the building of a foundation that he can then build his gospel on top of.

Central important truths that will allow us to rightly understand the things that it's teaching. Now, John chapter 1 verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, Jesus is the Word, and the Word was with God, separate, distinct, and the Word was God. Separate, but not separate, distinct, but one with God. We have the beginnings of forming a doctrine of the Trinity here. In the beginning, something was already there.

God was already there. God the Father was already there. God the Son was already there. And then chapter 1 verse 3 says that all things were created through Jesus. There was nothing that was created that wasn't created through and by Jesus.

And then in verse 4 it says in him in Jesus was life and the life was the light of men so Don't think of what Jesus is teaching here that the Father granted Jesus to have life in Himself as a change in the Trinity. Think of it as a description of the eternal state of the Trinity. Yes, God the Father granted Jesus to have life in himself to be self-existent as God, just like God the Father, no different from God the Father. It was granted by the father to the son, but there was never a time when he wasn't granting it. In other words, this doesn't signal a shift in the Trinity.

He used to not have life in himself, but now I'm granting it to you son. Now you have life in yourself. No, Jesus as God was always self-existent and it was always granted by his Father. Is that difficult to understand? I don't have any help for you.

It's difficult for me to understand too. We are talking about the inner workings of God. If you fully understand the Trinity, you're too smart to be here. But it is not a change in the Trinity that is being signaled. It is a description of the eternal state of the Trinity.

Both God the Father and God the Son having life in themselves. It always having been granted to the Son. Now why does this matter that Jesus has life in Himself? Because it means that Jesus has the ability to impart life to me. He doesn't go anywhere to ask anyone for life to give to be.

He doesn't need the permission of anyone. He has it in himself. Just as the father can impart life, the son can impart life. Again, don't think that there are two separate lists. The Father wants to give life to these people and the Son wants to give life to these people.

No, no, no. That's not what's being communicated. There is complete unity of desire about who are going to be saved and who life is going to be given to. It matters that Jesus has life in Himself. That He's not drawing life from another source because it means that He can impart eternal life to me.

He needs to go to no one for it. He needs to ask no one for it. It is His to give. That is why it is His voice that calls my dead spirit from the grave. Because the one calling me has the power to give it to me.

That's why it's His voice. Because He has life in Himself, so He has to give to me. If I hear and believe. And not only has the Father granted Jesus to have life in Himself, the Father has also given Jesus authority to execute judgment. God the Father has said, son, you have all the authority you'll ever need to judge the living and the dead, all of humanity for all time.

Why does that matter? Because it means that Jesus has the ability to say definitively that my sins have been dealt with to the satisfaction of the Judge. Jesus can say that because He is the Judge. He can say, your sins have been dealt with because I'm the judge. This is why Jesus can call the spiritually dead forth from their spiritual graves.

Because he has life in himself and because he's been given the authority to judge. Now here with Jesus being given the authority as judge, a shift is happening. It's somewhat subtle, but if you read the passage several times, here's what you see. Son of God, Son of God, Son of God, Father Son, Father Son, Father Son, Son of Man. It is the Son of Man who has been given the authority to judge.

Son of man is the favorite self-designation of Jesus. In other words, when Jesus is giving himself a name more times than any other name, He's giving himself the name son of man and this is deeply meaningful to the Jews because this is a hyperlink It takes them straight to Daniel Chapter 7 in other words when when any Jew of any knowledge of the Old Testament would hear Jesus call himself the Son of Man, it was not subtle in any way. They were immediately thinking of the Son of Man in Daniel chapter 7. So turn there. Turn there.

Daniel chapter 7. Turn there. Daniel chapter 7. Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 and 14. Daniel is recounting a vision, a glorious vision in Daniel chapter 17 verses 13 and 14 I was watching in the night visions and behold one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, he came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

Then 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, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed." Looking back through the lenses of the New Testament, we know that this is God the Father and God the Son. God the Father being the Ancient of Days, God the Son being brought before Him. But He's not called God the Son here, He's called the Son of Man. And He's given an everlasting, undefeatable, unending Kingdom.

All authority is given to him so that he is the king of kings he rules over all kings he is the lord of lords he rules over all lords he's the judge he has the authority for all things The word judge is not used here, but he's given all authority in this text. Jesus, every time he calls himself the son of man, which is his favorite self-designation in all of the gospels, Every time he calls himself the son of man, he's laying claim to Daniel chapter 7. I'm the one to be brought before the ancient of days and given a kingdom above all kingdoms, an eternal kingdom, an undefeatable kingdom. All authority. He's laying claim to that.

He's saying, I am the son of man from Daniel chapter 7. Now back to John 5 and our last section. The last section that we'll be looking at today in John chapter 5 is verses 28-30. Follow along as I read. Jesus says, 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." Here In these verses we have the voice that will empty all graves. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's graves. The voice that will empty all graves.

This is very interesting to me. There's a pattern that has developed when Jesus speaks in the Gospel of John so far. The pattern is this. He starts with a physical thing and he uses a physical thing to help us understand the spiritual thing. Here are two examples.

He says to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, you must be born again. He uses this physical thing that happens, human birth, as a way to teach the spiritual reality of a spiritual birth and being born again. So he goes from the physical to the spiritual. He uses the physical to give us a frame of reference from which we have a hope to understand this spiritual reality. John chapter 4, the woman at the well, I give you living water.

He's not talking about physical water. He's using a physical reality to give this woman a frame of reference to understand a spiritual truth that he's teaching about. Again, he goes from the physical to the spiritual. But now, he actually goes from the spiritual to the physical. He cannot have been talking about physical resurrection before this point because he talks about it as a past reality in the life of the hearer and the believer.

You were raised. You were dead in sins and transgressions, but now you've been spiritually raised, that has to be what it means, or those verses that precede this mean nothing. So he started talking about the spiritual reality of spiritual resurrection, but now here at the end he talks about the physical. Why does he reverse the pattern? Because spiritual resurrection precedes physical resurrection.

In other words, no one in all of history will be physically raised before they are spiritually raised. If you are to be spiritually resurrected, it will only and always happen before your physical death. Once you've died physically, the opportunity to repent is gone forever. So he begins with the one that precedes the other, spiritual resurrection preceding physical resurrection. Your spiritual resurrection can happen today.

Unless your body dies, your physical resurrection can't happen today. My spiritual resurrection as a believer happened more than three decades ago. Who knows how far future my physical resurrection, my bodily resurrection will be. Jesus teaches here that all graves will be empty graves. Every grave an empty grave.

Not one grave with a body left in it. Paul gives commentary on this in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 16. Listen to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 16. Paul is teaching the Thessalonians about just what Jesus is talking about here. Paul says, for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first." Paul is teaching what Jesus is teaching.

Jesus is coming back and when he does, he will return with a shout with the voice of an archangel, whatever that is. It's loud. And the dead in Christ will rise first. They won't be the only ones rising though. Every grave will be an empty grave.

In John chapter 11, I can't wait to get to John chapter 11, but I don't want to skip over the other, so we'll go in sequence. But John chapter 11 is so wonderful because it's what? Lazarus! This dead man, three days. His relatives are afraid of what he's going to smell like.

He's in there decaying. John chapter 11 verse 43 Jesus cries out with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth! He comes out, Jesus has to tell them, let him loose from his grave clothes. He comes out, he's all wrapped up in his grave clothes. This is just the trailer to the movie.

What's a trailer? A trailer is just a little snippet you can get online before the movie comes out. What's your appetite for the movie? It's a sneak peek. John chapter 11 is the sneak peek of when Jesus will return with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and the dead in Christ will rise, and every grave will be emptied.

Now we hit a difficulty. In verse 29, Jesus says that those who have done good will be raised to life. Those who have done evil will be raised to condemnation. Is that problematic to you? Can you see how that might be difficult for us under the new covenant and believing in salvation by grace alone through faith alone.

But now, Jesus is teaching on the great day when he returns from heaven, he descends with a shout and the dead rise, every tomb emptied, every grave emptied, that those who have done good will be raised to life, be raised to heaven. Those who have done evil will be raised to condemnation, will be raised to hell. How is that not works based righteousness? It's just like Matthew chapter 25. If you want to be further disturbed by this teaching that could threaten the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone.

You go to Matthew 25, you have the parable of the sheep and the goats. Not one word about believing in the parable of the sheep and the goats. The sheep have done good and the goats have done evil. The sheep have ministered to the Lord's people, and visited them in prison, and fed them when they were hungry. And the goats neglected to do so.

Nothing about believing in Jesus. And One are welcomed into the kingdom, the other are cast into the lake of fire. How is this not works based righteousness? I'm glad we're encountering it, because we need to get this fixed so clearly in our minds. It's so clear and simple, and the interpretive key is a half a verse in Hebrews 11.

It's the first part of Hebrews 11 verse 6. Just listen. Hebrews 11, you know, it's the great faith chapter, a long list of people who had faith, and their faith was accounted to them as righteousness. And in Hebrews 11, verse 6, it begins this way, without faith it is impossible to please God. Without faith, without this hearing with believing, it is impossible to please God.

To say that another way, faith is the starting point of everything done well. Of every good work, faith started it. If you didn't have faith, you didn't do a good work. Listen to Paul in Ephesians 2 verse 10. Now we've already been in Ephesians 2 and you know it as the most clear and explicit place in the New Testament that teaches salvation by grace alone through faith alone.

That's Ephesians verse 9. By grace you have been saved and that not of yourself and so on and so forth. Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in the most explicit terms. And then in verse 10, the very next verse, we find this, for we are His workmanship, we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That's Paul saying the same thing.

You're saved by grace through faith and that is the starting point for good works. You must be created in Christ Jesus. You have to have life in Christ Jesus. And then, you're His workmanship and He's created you for good works. Not before you believed, never before you believed.

But after you were saved by grace through faith. Here's what J.C. Ryle says, Nothing but true faith will bear the fruit of good works. That's just a summary of what all this is teaching. Nothing but true faith will bear the fruit of good works.

There has never been a single act of outward conformity to the law of God in the life of an unbeliever that was actual obedience to God, that was actually pleasing to God. Let me say that again. I want you to embrace this as wholly true and wholly consistent with what the New Testament teaches. There has never been a single act, not one time in all of human history, of outward conformity to the law of God doing something that you and I would look upon and say that is in agreement. What they're doing is in agreement with the law of God.

In the life of an unbeliever that was actual obedience to God, That was actually pleasing to God. How can I say that? Because without faith it is impossible to please God. Without faith you cannot please Him. Not even outward conformity to his law with a heart that's completely pointed in the opposite direction, that is not obedience.

That has never been obedience. Not one day of human history has it been obedience to do something that outwardly complies with the law of God when your heart is turned away from God, never obedience. That has never pleased God. I wanted to see what the new tally was, so I googled this morning how much has Bill Gates given away, because he's a great example of this. In 2017, just 2017, he gave away $4.6 billion.

Last year alone, Bill Gates gave away a billion dollars, but by the terms of definition of scripture, it was not a good work. His giving away of $4.6 billion will not stand the test of the judgment because it was not done in faith. It did not please God. It is impossible that God was pleased by the giving away of that 4.6 billion dollars. Does that mean that some or a lot of that won't be used to alleviate human suffering?

And that we should be happy about that? Yeah, I bet a lot of it will be used to alleviate human suffering. We should be glad about that. That doesn't mean that God considers it good. It was not offered in faith.

It was impossible to please Him without faith. And so, it should not surprise us to find these things given side by side. Salvation is by faith. How many times have we seen it already in the book of John? How many times have we seen it already in this one unified discourse?

Jesus has said, you hear and you believe, you have eternal life, and now in the same breath. It might be literally in the same breath. He says, those who have done good raise the life, those who have done evil raise the condemnation. And the great author of the New Testament sees no contradiction. That being God.

God wrote the New Testament. He had some other people who he did it through. Finally verse 30 repeats something that he has already said in verse 19. So I actually want to start by going back to verse 19 and then we'll read verse 30. John chapter 5 verse 19, 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.

Now look at verse 30, the last verse of our text. 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." As Michael said last week, I'm phrasing it a little differently, but I'm saying exactly the same thing. In both of these verses, in verse 19 and verse 30, this is a declaration of perfect unbreakable unity, not inability. This doesn't speak to Jesus not being able to do things as if he didn't possess the almighty-ness of God. No, it's not that at all.

It is the perfect, meaning perfect overlap. There are no edges that stick out when you look at Jesus' will and his Father's will. Everything that pleases the Father pleases the Son to an equal degree. Everything that displeases the Father displeases the Son to a perfect degree. There's no space that doesn't overlap.

They perfectly overlap. They are one and the same. Perfect, unbreakable unity, not inability. Here's what John Chrysostom said. John Chrysostom was from the mid-300s.

So he's one of the church fathers. Church fathers being sort of the earliest teachers of the Christian faith. John Chrysostom says this, Jesus declares nothing else than it is impossible for him to desire anything save what the Father desireeth. I'll read it again. Just think about this, because I think John Chrysostom has it exactly right.

What is Jesus saying here when he says I can do nothing of myself? Jesus declares nothing else, this is all he is saying, than that it is impossible for him to desire anything save what the Father desires. It's impossible for Jesus to desire anything except exactly what the Father desires. Again, not two lists. I would like to do this list of things.

I would like to do lists. And some of these things line up. No, no, no. It's one list. Not two lists, but one Perfectly overlapping list.

Everything that the Father desires, the Son desires in like manner, in like degree. I have one application, just one. That I will subdivide in seven parts. No, I'm just kidding. Worship Jesus the life giver and judge.

Jesus is setting himself forth as the life giver and the judge. Remember how last week's text ended with Jesus setting himself forward as the life giver and judge, just like in our text, but in verse 23 we get the purpose for that, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. All of this, Jesus being given the place of life giver and judge, is so that he will be given the place of exaltation. That Jesus is the voice that calls forth the dead, spiritually and physically, from their graves. It is for the purpose of His exaltation the Father would have it so.

So worship Him. Believer, you do that by standing in awe of Jesus and keeping it at the top of mind that He is the source of your life. He has it in Himself so He can give it to you. And that he is the judge who has dealt with your sins so that eternal life is your present possession. Is he not worthy of all of your worship?

Of course he is. Unbeliever, You worship Jesus as a life giver and judge by giving up your rebellion today and going to Him for life. And relief from the just judgment you deserve. Go to Him for life. It is how you worship Jesus.

You go to Him for what you cannot do for yourself, for life, for relief from this judgment. Thank you, O Lord, for your exalted view of the Lord Jesus Christ that is given to us through this teaching. Oh, let us love Him in our hearts. Let us love Him. Let Him be lifted up, magnified, exalted as the life giver and judge in our hearts we pray.

Amen.