When God Comes Near
Over the last several weeks I have been preaching through the book of John, and I shared with you that Jesus is nothing but direct. He is like a person who waves the proverbial red flag in front of the bull. Certainly today he is that, as we look at the passage in Chapter 5 as we continue in that chapter and in some ways, today’s sermon is Part 1. Because there is so much in it all of the way to the end of the chapter, I divided it in half and today we are going to talk about who Jesus says he is. Next time we will talk about the evidence he gives for being who he is. But the point is that Jesus was starting to be persecuted by the Jewish leaders because he not only did stuff on the Sabbath but he claimed in some way or another, they felt, to be equal with God. So they started to persecute him and instead of saying “Oh no, you got it all wrong,” Jesus said “Yeah, you’re right. You’re right.” And he goes further and makes incredible claims about himself, amazing claims.
So C. S. Lewis once said that “either Jesus is who he said he was or he is a man who is mentally deficient on the order of a poached egg (that’s his words) or he was a liar.” But if he isn’t the last two, he is the first one, because he makes some amazing claims about himself and he will continue to do it. This is the first long discourse Jesus makes. We don’t get that in the other gospels. I think John as he wrote his gospel had the other three in front of him and he was adding to some things, filling in the gaps. And one was a discourse he had with the Jewish leaders. (John 5:16-30)
From John Chapter 5, listen carefully to God’s word.
So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
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. 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. 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. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 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.
“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. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come 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 has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”
Would you pray with me?
Deep words Lord as we read your word. They are hard to grasp and understand and yet in some ways they are very simple and proclaim the gospel so very clearly. Lord, be with us now as we seek to understand your word and apply it to our lives. Help us to find something today through your Spirit that would help to draw us closer to you and change us and make us stronger servants of the One who is our God and our Lord. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, there is so much in these passages I have made the habit of doing what I call “side observations.” I have just a couple today and then we will get into the passage itself. The first one is that Jesus in this passage gives us a shining example of obedience. Notice what he says, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” Now we have all heard of WWJD and there is nothing wrong with that. “What Would Jesus Do.” But Jesus doesn’t really say that. He doesn’t say do what I do or do what I say, he says, “Follow me. I do what the Father tells me to do.” In fact, he says it several times and his whole purpose is to do what the Father tells him, to please the Father, to please God. That should be our purpose, as well. We seek what the Father does through the word, through the Holy Spirit and we do it. That is what we are after. Jesus gives us that example.
What does that mean? Well, I think it is a good way to think of it in terms of what we will look at later in terms of judgment. Here is what I mean by that. Steve Brown is one of my favorite preachers and pastors, and he said, “When I was a kid I was the best lawn mower there ever was because, when my mother would leave for work everyday, not everyday but when I needed to do something, she would tell me what to do, but particularly ‘Steve, mow the lawn.’ She didn’t mean just mow the lawn but do it exceptionally well.” He said, “We had this huge bank and it was really hard to mow, but she would come home and she would ask me, ‘Did you mow the lawn? And, did you do it like I wanted you to do it?’ She didn’t ask me if I was happy that day. She didn’t ask me if I had a good time.”
Well in a similar way, we will all stand before God and God is not going to ask us if we were happy. Now I have nothing against happiness. With John Piper in our own town, he really places a huge emphasis on being happy and I think he is right about a lot of what he says; but God is going to want to know if we do what he asks us to do. It is not simply about having a good time, though we spend a huge amount of resources in doing that. There is nothing wrong with having a good time but God is not going to ask us if we had a good time. He is going to ask “did you do what I asked you to do? Did you obey me?” Jesus again and again and again emphasizes the idea of obedience, of obedience.
But to go along with that, sustained obedience, second point, comes only in the context of love, only in the context of love. He says, “The Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.” The point is this: though we are called to obedience and we should obey and we should try to obey, that, in and of ourselves, we do not have the power to obey. We need the Lord’s power, but we also need to remember how much he loves us. I remember a teacher talking about taking trips and how easy it is, particularly as a male, to sin when you go on trips. You know these hotel rooms have every kind of movie you would like watch and different activities you could do. He said, “You know what kept me faithful was the fact that my wife loved me and I knew it and how hurt she would be, how hurt she would be if I fell.” Sustained obedience can not happen unless we remember the cross. We stand in the shadow of the cross. Remember how much God loves us and forgives us, as well.
Jesus, as I said, makes it very clear who he is. It is very uncomfortable for those who are listening. Now again, when John uses the word Jews, he is not talking about simply Jewish people, he is talking about the Jewish leaders who live in Judea. John was a Jew himself and we want to be careful because sometimes the gospel of John has been accused of being anti-Semitic and it is not true. So when we read this that is what he is talking about. So these Jewish leaders are listening to what Jesus says and they don’t like it. They don’t like it. Even though he has done a miracle and no one denies that, they just don’t like what he says. Part of it is because they think he is blaspheming. They think he is going against everything they believe, but I think there is more to it than that. There is more to it than that.
I will never forget many years ago when I did one of my first bible studies with some people. I did it on a Wednesday night at this particular church and I had about fifteen people show up. You know I had been trained on doing small groups and so I asked small group type questions. One of the questions I asked was “share a time when God became real to you.” Whoa! I didn’t realize just what a personal question that was. You know what, of the fifteen, thirteen didn’t show up the next week. I was young and I didn’t understand but I began to understand. I think there was more to it that just getting too personal. I think that sometimes when God gets too close we become very uncomfortable because God makes demands of us. Because God shows up who we are and we don’t like it too much.
I think that was going on here. But Jesus says, Guess what? You’re right. You’re mad and you’re right. I am who you think I am.” He goes on and he outlines several things along the way. He says, “First, I am precisely like God. I tell you the truth the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son does also.” He says, he knows and does exactly the work of God, “for the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.” He says, “I have the authority to grant eternal life.” If you are a Jew in this time and listening to Jesus say this, a Jew who knew the scriptures knew that only God gives life, physical life, spiritual life, soul life. Only God had that prerogative. Jesus claims that prerogative. He says, “..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.” What a claim! What a claim! Not only that, he has the authority for ultimate judgment of mankind. He is going to stand in the judgment. That again was an Old Testament concept that God was going to judge everyone at the end of time. Jesus says, “I’m it. I have been given that authority. The Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son.” He is claiming to be God. Here is a human being claiming to be God in front of all these people. And then in the end it is either massive egotism or it is true. Or as C. S. Lewis said, “We are dealing with a poached egg here.” Jesus will do the same honor as God the Father. “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.” I am surprised they didn’t try to kill him now. And they did pretty quickly after this. God gives life because he comes himself. God has come. Jesus says “it is true. I have come and I am here and you do not recognize me.”
The second thing we notice in this passage is that when God comes, he does bring life. He does bring life. This is a very interesting passage, very deep, lots of stuff going on here. He 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.” He’s crossed over from death to life. Now, notice something, for you bible scholars, that this is a present tense verb. It is something that has happened or is happening at that moment. In other words, you really need to realize this that eternal life begins right now, not later. That is why Jesus says you must be born again – that idea of being born again is a now time. So in other words, going to heaven is not just about “pie in the sky … bye and bye” or when we go to heaven someday we will have eternal life, we have eternal life now. Jesus gives life right now. I think that is important.
You know, all you really have to do is walk around and look at people in their lives. Did you ever sit in the airport and watch people go by, and see what kind of lives they lead, hear them talk. What do you notice? I notice a lot of emptiness out there. A lot of people are trying to fill up something. A lot of people who deep down inside do not know what is going on with them. I was reading some quotes by some different kinds of people and some celebrities who said this:
The famous writer of The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells, said on his 65th birthday, “I am 65 years old and I am lonely and I have never found peace.”
A college sophomore once said that he “had a gnawing, gaping hole in his gut and he thought with the study of philosophy he would be able to fill that hole, but he couldn’t.”
A college senior said, “I’m 23 years old and I have lived through enough experiences to be old and I am fed up with life.”
One of Britain’s top social leaders said, “I have everything to live for and I have no desire to live.”
Someone recently left a suicide note and said, “I’m taking my life because I am worthless and I am tired of looking for something to fill up 24 hours a day.”
Someone interviewed Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones in the magazine, Rolling Stone, and he was asked, “What are you?” And he replied, “I am a stripper.” They said, “What about your life?” And he said it was meaningless. Here is a man who has more money that you could shake a stick at and more fame and yet his life is meaningless.
It is really true, there is a gaping hole in human beings and there is a reason why. You know it all goes back to the beginning. When human beings first fell away from God, they died. You know, we all have three parts of us. We have a spirit, which I call it the connection with God and other people do, as well. It is that connection with God. I bought a computer for my daughter a couple days ago. She is getting ready to go back to school. I was trying to set it up. You know, one of the things you have to do is to set up the wireless connection. Everything I could do, didn’t want to do it. If you are familiar with computers, some of you aren’t, but there is a little blue thing at the bottom when you are connected wirelessly on the internet, and when the blue light comes on you go, “All right! We’re on.” I couldn’t get it to come on. I tried and I tried and I tried, and finally I said “O.K. I am going to turn it off and turn it back on again.” Voila! It was on!
That blue light is the Spirit of God in human beings and when Adam and Eve fell, it died – no longer a direct connection with God. Our soul began to die. Our soul in biblical knowledge is our ability to reason. It is our moral choices. It is who we are, our personality, and it was corrupted, kind of like a computer, again. Have you ever tried to logon to a program and it says “it will not boot up because of corrupted files?” Some of you do not have computers and you do not know what that means. You go, “Oh no.” Well our files became corrupted, and then eventually our bodies received the curse of death. But when Jesus saves us, he begins to save us in reverse order. He gives us the Holy Spirit, so that blue light comes on again. He begins to work in our lives so that our soul begins to be rebuilt. That is a life long process. And eventually, the body will be renewed. That is salvation in the biblical scheme of things. It starts now. And it is completed when we get to heaven. But right now, you have a connection with God because of Jesus Christ. You have life. You have life and it makes a huge difference.
Tony Campolo tells a story. Tony Campolo is a famous Christian writer and speaker but he is also a professor. He was teaching a class at the University of Pennsylvania, and he picked on one of his graduate students on the first day. He looked at him and said, “When did you become alive?” The kid kind of went “Well, I was born 22 years ago.” He said, “No. No. That is not what I am talking about. You are only talking about when the blood started pumping in your heart. I am talking about life.” He told the story about when he was a child how he went up on the Empire State Building and looked over and saw the incredible view and he said “I felt life and I have never forgotten that.” And the young man said, “If you are defining it that way Prof, I’ve only been alive one or two minutes.”
There is more to life than just living. God is the source of life. That is what Jesus is telling us. “God has life in himself and I give life.” I give life.
You know, there is a lot of wondering today about whether there is life on other planets. I suspect there is but for a different reason than we often hear about it. You know, people are asking “Did life evolve on other planets?” Well I would like to say that basically life is on other planets if God put it there. Since God has created this huge universe, I suspect he has put it some other places. I look forward to meeting those beings, whatever they are, someday. But, the whole point is that where God is, where God chooses there to be life, there is life. On this planet, obviously, we are touched. We are touched. There is life on the highest mountain and in the deepest sea. All kinds of life, because God is life! The further away we get from God the further away we get from life. The closer we get to God, the nearer we get to God, we get life. And Jesus says, “I am the one. If you put your trust in me, I will give you life.” And it starts now, and it is completed later. It is completed later. Death is a big speed bump, but it is only a speed bump.
Jesus also comes, and with him he will bring judgment, with him he will bring judgment. You know, I have often been told when creating sermons you shouldn’t end on a negative note. Well this sounds like a bummer, doesn’t it? …Hold on a minute. …Give me a minute. But there is a seriousness about it. I really believe that for a lot of people when they are judged, and that is what it says, “Everyone is raised for judgment, good, bad, indifferent.” Everyone. Everyone is raised for judgment. You know how when you find something you weren’t expecting and you go, “Oh,oh!” It is going to be the ultimate “oh,oh!” moment for a lot of people, because everybody is going to be judged and for the Christian it is really an announcement of your destination, for many it is condemnation. That is what Jesus says. I didn’t say that. Jesus said it. We may not agree with this. We may not. That is what modern theologians often do. They go, “Jesus didn’t say what he said he said.” But he really did, and it is going to be difficult.
The question is how do we escape that condemnation judgment? If you read this passage carefully, again if you are a bible scholar, you will notice that Jesus calls himself: one, “the Son of God” and then, “the Son of Man.” Both are titles out of the Old Testament; but when Jesus calls himself the Son of God in this passage, and throughout the bible, he refers to God as giving life because God is the Giver of life. When he calls himself the Son of Man he refers to himself as the judge, and you will see that in several places in the New Testament. In the context of judgment, Jesus says, “I am the Son of Man.”
You know, I find that strangely hopeful, because the very one who judges us is also the one who became one of us and experienced all that we experience. The very one who judges us is also the one who dies for us.
I read a story by Chuck Colson who was talking about a time when they went to the Indiana State Penitentiary. Chuck Colson runs a prison fellowship ministry. They went and had this meeting and they all gathered together to leave and he found that one was missing and he was a little ticked off. He ran and found the guy and said “Don’t you know that we need to leave when they tell us to leave. This is a privilege to be here.” And the guy who was sitting there happened to be a circuit judge who was sitting with a prisoner and he said to Chuck Colson, “This is brother Andrew. I sentenced him to the electric chair, and we had to spend some time forgiving each other.”
Jesus is the judge who not only sentences us, he dies for us. This is the gospel, my friend, the gospel as presented in this passage that Jesus came to earth, human and God, and that he is the one who gives us eternal life that begins right now. He is the one that judges us but he is also the one who died for us and there is hope in that. A lot of people say “Give me justice.” Well in this life there are a lot of places where we ought to cry out for justice, but not personally. I personally do not want justice. I want forgiveness.
So when God comes he brings judgment and, yet, for the Christian that is hope. Yes, we will stand before God. He will ask us how we used our gifts and what we did with our lives; but it is not a judgment of condemnation for us, because of what he did for us. I was going to talk a lot about change in the Church today and I decided I am not going in that direction, but it is really hard for people to change and for churches to change. Churches often are twenty years behind where we need to be. But there is something that should never change, and that is our message. Yes we tell it differently. This gospel that we have heard today should be preached as it is, maybe in a different context. You know, the time that Jesus lived is very much like ours, morally, culturally, very much like ours, very little difference, except for the technology, of course. But this message is what we need to know and the message that we need to tell those around us. It is very simple. There is a way for you to have life, and his name is Jesus. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Let us pray.
Lord God, thank you for Jesus, our Savior. I thank you for this church. I thank you for its ministries and we know that we need to do better, but we celebrate what we already have. I do thank you for Donna and her life and all the children she has touched. I thank you for others who have worked in this church and who are working. We pray for our vision Lord that we may be able to implement it and become the church you want us to be. We ask you Lord for your help that we may obey, that we may do and that we may become what you want us to be. In the meantime Lord, we thank you for the salvation that we have and the hope that we have that is unshakable because of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We pray all these things in his name. Amen.