Sermon: John 5:19-30: The Way to the Father is Through the Son, for Father and Son are United as One

Reading of God’s Word

John 5:19–30 (ESV)¹⁹ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son 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. ²⁰ 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. ²¹ For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. ²² The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. ²⁴ 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. ²⁵ “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. ²⁸ Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. ³⁰ “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.

Introduction

There are three major world religions which find their origin in Palestine: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.  All three insist that there is but one God. This is the thing that the three share in common – the insistence that God is one!

One of the things that sets Christianity apart from the other two is our answer to the question, who is Jesus? The Muslims regard him as a prophet; the Jews consider him a false prophet, a false Messiah; Christians confess that he is nothing less than the Son of God.  The question, who is Jesus?, or what is the relation of Jesus to the one true God? is a question that divides.

Listen to the words of the Nicene Creed, penned in A.D. 325. It is a wonderful summery of the Christian understanding of who Christ is.

“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end…”

This is a good confession concerning Christ! This is a true confession! The expectation is not that we would fully comprehend these things – how the nature of God and man could be united in one person – but that we would confess them as true because God has revealed these things to us through his Word.

What we have here in John 5:19-30 is a very careful explanation from Jesus himself concerning the relationship between he and the Father. Read the rest of Sermon: John 5:19-30: The Way to the Father is Through the Son, for Father and Son are United as One »