Dr MJ du Plessis Reformed Church Bellville Date: 8 October 2006 (evening)

Sing before the service: Psalm 65:3

Our help is in the Name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Psalm of praise 18:1
Prayer
Psalm 42:1

Scripture reading: John 5
Scripture text: John 5:24

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. (John 5:24 NIV)

Our journey towards eternal life goes through faith in, and worshipping of, Jesus Christ the Lord.

Hand in hand with faith is also our duty to live the love we received from the Lord Jesus Christ in the way He has shown it to us.
We face many stumble blocks and sorrow on this journey, because the devil tries in any possible way to make us doubt – or even not believe.

In this sermon we focus on the following:

1. The personal relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ
2. The significance of this relationship for us

1. The personal relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ

Jesus has just healed the sick man at Bethesda. Somebody who was facing death has been healed – he was given back his strength.

This greatly annoyed the church leaders because the man was carrying his bed on the Sabbath after Jesus had told him to pick up his bed and walk.

For this reason the Jews began to persecute Jesus and sought to kill Him.
They wished to do to the Messiah just the opposite of what He had revealed to the sick man through a miracle:
- He gave life, while they wanted to kill Him.

Against this background the Lord Jesus then said the following:

Whoever hates Jesus, can never be saved.
Whoever does not honour Jesus as God cannot worship the Lord.

This is quite disturbing – for these people and for us. They really believed that they honoured the Lord by showing contempt for Jesus and seeking to kill Him because He was performing miracles in the Name of the Father.

We must take special care if we want to serve the Lord correctly and sincerely.

These people had forgotten that through many centuries the Lord had been promising a Messiah.
They had also forgotten that the prophecies about his coming to earth also included the Lord’s prophecy that the Messiah would perform the kind of miracle they had just witnessed:
- The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and
- the lame shall walk again – according to the prophecy of Isaiah.

Now the Messiah is in their midst, but they want to kill Him because they do not know the will of the Lord and what He had revealed.

The Lord does not simply condemn people whose faith is weak.

Hence the Lord Jesus immediately tells them about his grace and teaches them about the relationship between the Father and the Son.
He indicates the person relationship between the Father and the Son:
- The Son can do nothing by Himself.
- He can do only what he sees his Father is doing.
- Hence the Son is a Follower of the Father.
- God the Father remains the Initiator of all works.

These words clearly imply that the Father also showed the Son how to heal the sick man at Bethesda.

Hence the works of the Son come from the counsel and planning of God the Father.
Apart from the fact that Jesus clearly said that He and the Father are one (making himself equal with God v. 18) it is now obvious that Jesus and the Father are one in essence.
Therefore Jesus must be honoured and worshipped as God, and the faithful must be jubilant about his works and praise and honour Him for his works.

It didn’t only happen when Jesus was born, or when He healed the sick man at Bethesda. It has always been like this.

In the Gospel according to John we read in the first chapter that through Jesus Christ all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.
But we also read about it in a passage from the Proverbs (8:29-31 en 35-36):

. . . when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind. (Proverbs 8:29-31 NIV)

For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord. But whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death. (Proverbs 8:35-36 NIV)

This is written in the language of the Old Testament – a description very different from what we find in the New Testament but both contain the same truth:

Jesus is God who created together with the Father, and together they save those who believe.
Even the warning that those who do not honour Him will go to hell is exactly what Jesus taught the Jews who were standing there.

In John 5:20 Jesus taught them that the Father loves the Son.

This is not insignificant, because this love has enormous consequences.
In John 3:35 we read that the Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.
The Son controls the creation and rules over it, because the Father placed it all in his hands.
The people who were quarrelling with the Lord Jesus had to realise that the Lord Jesus also ruled over them.

The people had to realise that Jesus and the Father are not two Beings.

They are one in essence; hence the One does everything the other One does.
Therefore, if anybody does not honour the Son, he/she does not honour the Father at all.
Then the words of Proverbs 8:36 become true: then you only have eternal death.

But whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death. (Proverbs 8:36 NIV)

2. The significance of this relationship for us

What are the consequences of the fact that the Father loves the Son so much that He placed everything in the hands of the Son? Does it bear any significance to the people on earth?

The answer is: Yes. This is exactly what the Lord Jesus now starts telling the bystanders.
The fact that the Son rules over everything in terms of the love of the Father, means that the Father can make the Son do much greater things than healing a sick man at Bethesda.
Eventually these greater things the Son is going to do will leave the people totally perplexed.
- He is going to grant eternal life to those who believe in Him and honour Him as God.
- At the same time He will bring eternal death upon those who do not worship Him as God.

One of the greater things that the Son will still do is to be the Judge when all people will be judged on Judgment Day.

The Jews – representative of enemies of the Lord – were shocked by his words, because they knew very well that this was a very negative message from the Lord.
On that day they were annoyed by the miraculous healing the Saviour had performed – but on Judgment Day they will be perplexed when faced by the same miraculous power who will send them to hell because they scorned the Saviour and couldn’t stand Him showing mercy to others.

The Pharisees knew that the Lord would eventually raise the dead from their graves.

But now Jesus adds something that they didn’t know. All people will not rise from the dead to live with the Lord eternally.
Although the Father will raise everyone from the dead, the Son will raise only some of them to eternal life.
Jesus emphasise the fact that those to whom He gives eternal life are totally dependent on his will:

The Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. (John 5:21 NIV)

To be raised from the dead mentioned here is all-embracing.

It not only refers to be raised from the dead on Judgment Day.
It also refers to be spiritually raised during this life – when we go through the process of rebirth and daily repentance.
What Jesus mentions here includes spiritual, physical and eternal resurrection.

Final Judgment that will be at the same time as eternal resurrection has twofold implications.

Wonderful consequences for those who honoured Jesus as God and believed in Him.
Very bad consequences for those who did not honour the Son as God and did not worship Him.

Just after the Lord Jesus Christ declared that the Father had entrusted all judgment to Him, the Lord Jesus explained what yardstick would be applied on Judgment Day:

He will see whether the Son has been honoured like the Father has been honoured.
He also tells them in advance that those who have not honoured the Son also have not honoured the Father.

It is important to the Lord Jesus that people should honour both Him and the Father as God. This is what the Lord speaks about in this passage. Listen to the amazing grace the Lord tells us about:

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. (John 5:24 NIV)

The faithful are not horrified when they listen to what is said about Judgment Day, because they know they will not be condemned.

For them it will be the moment when grace is fulfilled.
For them final judgment doesn’t mean that they will be charged guilty in God’s courtroom.
For the faithful this day will be crossing over into eternal life. Jesus says they will not be condemned!

Why do we have it so easy? Because we place the honour of God first in our lives.

Those who have honoured the Son as God, and who worshipped God the Father are fully redeemed through the Saviour’s death on the cross.
But those who could not honour God the Son and God the Father will be in very deep trouble.

The Jews, who were listening to what the Lord was saying, were very much upset.

Jesus Christ threatened them and all those who are like them with the final judgment.
We can only approach the Father through the blood of the Son.

Because our faith is often so weak, the Lord helps us again and again.

Hence the same Jesus Christ, who healed the sick man of Bethesda, brought us together today to bless us and to teach us from his Word.
He reminds us that the greater things about which He told the Jews, have already happened, and that they also involve us.

He already died on the cross en rose from the dead. He bore the punishment of God for our sins when He died on the cross.

This is a much greater deed than healing one sick man.
He conquered death and rose from the dead. Christ's resurrection is to us a sure pledge of our glorious resurrection.

Now He prepares us for his final great work:

His Second Coming accompanied by Final Judgment.
He specially prepares us for where we will fit in.
Hence open your spiritual ears and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit who tells you of the grace of Jesus Christ:

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. (John 5:24 NIV)

It is all but for the grace of God.

Amen.

Closing prayer
Closing hymn: Psalm 46:3

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen.

Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
Date: 8 October 2006 (evening)