John 5:19-29 - Caleb Richardson

Hey, I'm glad that all of the kids are in the

service today. It's like one big family for those

that showed up. But yeah, we love to have the

kids in together. And one of the reasons I love

it is there's so much energy in the room when

the kids show up, right? And sometimes that results

in a lot of noise, and that's okay. We're okay

with noise. So if you have kids, you're used

to it. If you don't have kids, you'll be okay.

You got this. We're going to push through today

all together. So as Jared shared, our vision

for children is Christ -like kids that look to

Jesus. So before we go any farther, that's actually

a good thing for all of us. All of us looking

to Jesus, not just for the kids, but that is

the vision. Let's pray and ask God to really

just press into our lives this morning as we

open God's word. Lord, we come before you as

a bunch of people that are broken and a mess,

if we're really honest, and we need you. Lord,

I'm reminded that in the Beatitudes it starts

off with those who are poor in spirit. That's

where we start. And so, Lord, we want to just

lay before you the fact, acknowledging the fact

that we are all a bunch of dark -hearted, black

-hearted, jacked -up sinners in need of grace.

And so we just come before you and say, help

us. Help us, Holy Spirit, to see. Lord, we want

to look to you today and fix our eyes on you.

Will you help us do that as we open your word?

Amen. So this morning, the title of this message,

which I sometimes don't do titles, but I'm going

to do one this morning. We're just going to be

in John. We just plow right through a book of

the Bible, which is what we're doing. But it

really, if I was going to give a title to this

message, it would be simply, Look to Jesus. That's

a theme, that's a message that we all need. No

matter where you're at, no matter what's going

on in your life, you and I need to look to Jesus.

That's where it all starts. So let me tell you,

I want to share with you a little bit of my story,

which I haven't done a lot, but just how I came

to know Jesus. So I'll take you back to six years,

I was six years old. I was the cutest little

six -year -old I ever saw. No, I was kidding.

I was six years old. I grew up in the village

of Ruby. Started in Cantwell. My parents were

missionaries out there. But back then, believe

it or not, we had no electricity, no running

water. We lived off -grid before off -grid was

cool. But once in a while, we had a generator.

Once in a while, they'd fire that up and they'd

show a movie. And the town would come to the

movie because there was no TV. And I remember

that one night, they had this movie, and I don't

remember all of the details of the movie, but

it scared the, I don't know, dangerous saying

this, but it literally, it's how I referred to

this movie in my life, is it literally scared

the hell right out of me as a kid. I saw my spot,

that if things didn't change, I was going to

be in hell someday. And for little six -year

-olds, I knew one thing, that I needed help,

I needed a Savior, and I needed to look to Jesus.

That's all I knew, my little fragile mind, but

I was scared. Like, I don't know if that's the

best way of going about trying to get somebody

to meet Jesus, but it's my story. And in that

bedroom, that night, as I talked to, I remember

it was my mom or dad, it didn't really matter

at this point, but I laid in my bed, and I asked

Jesus to be my Savior. That's six years old.

So that's the first little moment that I remember.

But I'll tell you straight up, it was real. It

was real for me. I didn't understand all the

details, but there was something that changed

as a little six -year -old boy. Fast forward

to I'm 10 years old and my baptism. Now, I remember

because it was three weeks after. I can't really

see it. It's kind of old school picture. But

I was 10 years old, and that was three weeks

after the ice had gone out on the Yukon River

in front of Cochrane Hills Bible Camp, which

we got to spend two months or whatever it was,

a month and a half every summer. And I knew in

this, I didn't know a lot, but I knew that being

obedient in baptism meant that my eyes needed

to be fixed on Jesus as my Savior and my Lord.

And it was being obedient to that. At 12 years

old, in that same bedroom that I had prayed and

asked Jesus to be my Savior, I can distinctly

remember talking to Jesus. Still gets me. I felt

clearly in my heart that God was... Jesus was

speaking to me. And I can't, I can't, I don't

remember if it was how it happened or what, but

I can remember these words. Caleb, I have a plan

for your life. It's powerful. I have a plan for

your life. Keep looking to me. In that little

bedroom. So parents, by the way, God speaks to

your kids. It's pretty powerful. Didn't me, I

vividly remember, I could tell you what, where

I was standing in the room when that happened.

At 15, almost 16 years old, I was sitting on

the bank of, in a boat, on the bank of the Yukon

River, right at the spot that I was baptized.

Right there, it's not up there anymore, but in

that water, I was sitting in the boat, and I

was having a conversation with God. By the way,

kids, you can talk to God, do you know that?

He wants you to talk to him. And so I was talking

to God, like I was having a conversation. Maybe

it sounds weird, but I felt like Jesus made it

very clear to me in that moment that he wanted

a personal relationship with me. Not just a transactional

thing that I had done, that yes, God, you're

way out there, but that he was coming toward

me and wanted that relation to be personal. And

so that summer, when I was 15, almost 16, in

that boat, God broke in to my heart. And I knew

that he wasn't asking me just to look to him,

that he was looking at me. Pretty cool. I believe

our text today is calling us to look to Jesus.

That's what it's about. It's calling us no matter

where you're at, no matter what part of life

you can be six years old, kids, or you could

be 60 years old. God may be calling you and saying,

he's telling you today, look to me. Look at me.

Look to Jesus. So we're going to see in these

verses, and they're kind of hard verses to unpack,

but we're going to do our best. But they're going

to see three things, three chunks in this, three

things about what what it means to look to Jesus,

what looking to Jesus tells us. Okay, first one

is this. We look to Jesus to see the Father.

We look to Jesus to see the Father. And number

two is we look to Jesus to find real life. Real

life. Not this thing we call existence we live

in right now, but real, purposeful, meaningful

life. And then the third is we look to Jesus

to see our future. Probably the one we don't

talk about a lot that's in this text, though.

So last week is the first part of chapter 5.

We saw that Jesus revealed himself. If you remember

that sermon or that section in the first 18 verses,

is that Jesus reveals himself. He's in this conversation

with the religious leaders, and he reveals himself

as Lord. He gives himself authority. He demonstrates

his power and authority through healing a lame

man, but also he says, this is my role. I'm in

charge. He's making himself, in those verses,

equal to God. He said, I am God. I'm part of

the Trinity. I'm part of, but when you look at

me, this is what you're seeing. Now, that's a

pretty strong statement. Remember what John,

the beginning of John chapter, you can flip there

if you want to. John chapter 1, verses 1 through

John 1:1–4

4 says this. In the beginning was the Word. That's

Jesus, right? That's what he's talking about.

This is John kind of introducing this book to

us. And he says, in the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God. Key word, circle that

one if you don't have it. With God, and the Word

was God. He was with God in the beginning, and

all things were created through him. And apart

from him, not one thing was created that has

been created. In him, that's Jesus, was life.

And that life is the light of man. Okay, those

are really important words that John wants us

to see right out of the chute in the Gospel of

John. And then chapter 5. what we're in right

now, Jesus is making the same exact claim that

he did in, that John talks about in chapter 1.

These are pretty massive claims. C .S. Lewis,

you probably have heard this, but C .S. Lewis

says that these claims, the claims of Jesus,

what he says about himself, like what he did,

what he declared about himself, can only mean

one of three things. Number one is that he's

a lunatic. These claims are so big and so massive

that he's, if this is not true, he's a lunatic.

And the lunatic literally means a mentally ill

person, an extremely foolish and absurd person.

That's what it means. So that was number one.

Or he's a liar. Probably a little bit of both.

He's a liar. He's a person who tells lies. That's

what it means. He's a person who tells lies.

He's lying about who he is. In this case, he

says, he's lying to us that he's God because

he's very clear about it. Like, I'm God. Or,

he is Lord, number three. And really kind of

what we face in this is, which one do we believe?

Because you can't go through life knowing about

Jesus and not... fall into one of these three

things. You can act like it, but if you don't

take number three as he is Lord, that means he

is master or ruler over all things, having power

and authority, because that's what he claims

about himself. You're either then saying, well,

he's probably a lunatic or a liar, or you just

act like you don't care. That's what C .S. Lewis

goes after us. And he says, and I think he's

right. See, the Jewish religious authorities

totally got these claims about Jesus. They totally

understood what he was saying about who he was.

That he has authority. And that's why they wanted

to kill him. Because they did not believe he

was Lord. But these claims are so massive that

how dare you make those claims that you are a

heretic. And the only way to deal with that was

to kill you. That's where they fit. And so you

can kind of see the tension. So, man, Jesus is

all like, you don't think of Jesus as this gentle

little flowing blonde hair person. This is a

warrior type because what he does here is he

made these claims like he's. He's drawn a line

in the sand with these religious leaders, knowing

full well that these are the ones that are going

to kill him. And he just kind of lays it out

there. So look at verse 19. Jesus is about to

take it, that first claim we saw in verses, in

the first chunk of 18 verses, and now he's going

to take it to a whole other level. And the claim

Jesus is going to make about himself is that

he's going to claim that he and the Father are

going the same direction. Okay, so look what

he says. Look at verse 19. Jesus replied, truly

I tell you. Now I don't know, some of these,

we may have a slight version, variation, but

look at your Bibles. Truly I tell you. Truly,

truly, that means like, get it, big explanation

point. He's like yelling at them, is kind of

that approach. Truly I tell you, the son is not

able to do anything on his own, but only what

he sees the father doing. For whatever the father

does, the son does likewise, does these things,

likewise does these things. For the father loves

the son and shows him everything he is doing

and he will show him greater works than those

so that you will be amazed. Okay, what's he saying?

Jesus in these verses claims total equality with

God by claiming total dependence on God. The

claim is that we see two hearts beating as one,

God the Father and God the Son beating as one.

They don't do anything in opposition. That's

what he's saying. Verse 20, that's what we see

in the first part, but in verse 20, we see the

motivation of those two hearts that are beating

together. And that is, for the Father loves the

Son and shows him everything he is doing. The

father loves the son and shows him everything

he's doing. There's a relationship between God

the father and God the son. And this is, the

more you understand about who God is and what

he's done, the more you understand how big Jesus

is, it changes every aspect of your life. And

so one of the commentators says this, preaching

the word commentator says this, the word translated

love in there, the father loves the son. The

word translated love here is not the expected

word agape, which is normally used to describe

the love of the Godhead. Rather, it is the term

for friendship love. Phileo. For our human level,

we understand this is a personal love between

friends who delight in sharing everything. Jesus

is a... separate person and he has has power

to act on his own but by true by by virtue of

the love and identity within the godhead he does

not does no action that the father does not also

do okay what do i mean by that two hearts beating

is one so what jesus is doing is what the father

is all about so what does this mean for us That's

kind of a heady theological thing going on there.

What does it mean to us? It means we look to

Jesus to see the Father. We look to Jesus to

understand who the God is. Jesus is the visible

image of the invisible God. That's why he came,

verses 1 and chapter 1, in the beginning was

the Word, and the Word was with God, and the

Word was God. And then it goes on to say he came

and set up his tenth among us. God of the universe

came to you. And as you look to Jesus, you see

the motivation of the Father. You see what's

going on. He's a visible image of the invisible

God. He's a perfect window into God's heart.

You want to know how God's heart beats? You look

at Jesus. Now, let's look at the second point.

We look. to Jesus to find real life. Look at

verse 21. And just as the father raised the dead

and gave them life, so the son also gives life

to whom he wants. The father, in fact, judges

no one but has given all judgment to the son

so that all people may honor the son. just as

they honor the father anyone who does not honor

the son does not honor the father who sent him

truly i tell you anyone who hears my words and

believes him who sent me has eternal life and

will not come under judgment but will pass from

death to life truly i tell you an hour is coming

and and now is now here when the dead will hear

the voice of the Son of God and those who hear

will live. Jesus moves from his relationship

with the Father to his responsibility. Why is

he here? What's he doing? He explains it in two

parts. One is this. He gives life. That's the

first thing he tackles. He gives life in this,

and then he executes judgment. Stop pinching

the baby, by the way. It's important to understand

that In Jewish theology, both of these belong

exclusively to God. So to make the claim that

you give life and you bring judgment, that means

you're saying, I truly am God. The only person

who would do that has to be God. So Jesus right

there says, look at me. Look at me, radiant,

because I'm the one who gives life, and I'm the

one who brings judgment. Look at this first one.

He gives life. Look at verse 21. Just open your

Bible. I don't know if they're up on the screen,

but look at verse 21. It says, and just as the

father raises the dead and gives them life, so

the son also gives life to whom he wants. And

then verse 25, he says this, truly I tell 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. When Jesus is talking about

the dead in these verses, because he's going

to do it different in a couple more verses. But

in these verses, he's talking about those who

are spiritually dead. The spiritual dead are

those who walk through life and they are numb

to Jesus. Numb to Jesus. They don't care. Broken

and separated from God and really don't want

nothing to do with God. They are living for themselves

and that's all that really matters. That's what

he's talking about. Those are spiritually dead

people in this. That's the term. You and I may

have been there before. Maybe you're there right

now and you're like, I don't know why I'm here.

But at some point, life had to come to you. Belief

had to step in or you're not yet a follower of

Jesus. And we live in a world where there are

lots of spiritually dead people. Ephesians 2

Ephesians 2:1

verse 1 says, you are, and you were dead in your

trespasses and sin, meaning your sin, where you

were, had you in a spiritually dead state. To

be, to the spiritually dead, Jesus says, he is

the authority to give life. That's what he's

saying here. He has the authority to give life.

Verse 25, those who hear will live. This is what

happened to me at age six in my living room,

my bedroom. I didn't understand much, but I knew

Jesus was calling me to himself. And in that

moment, God broke in and life happened. This

is... We're going to look at verse 24, and this

is really key. Look at verse 24 with me. Truly

I tell you, anyone who hears my words and believes

him who sent me has eternal life and will not

come under judgment but pass from death to life.

I didn't have the answers when I was six. I didn't

understand hardly anything, but I believed. A

new birth in Jesus happened. My question this

morning, I don't care how old you are. I don't

care if you've been to church your whole life

or come and go every so often. Have you, but

has this happened for you? Has Jesus broke in?

Romans 10, 9 and 10 says this. If you confess

with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe

in your heart, that God raised him from the dead,

you will be saved. One believes with his heart,

resulting in righteousness, and one confesses

with his mouth, resulting in salvation. Guys,

it's simple. It's hard. But what we're confessing

with our mouth, that what Jesus did on the cross,

was for me. He hung there on the cross, took

all of your sin, all of my sin, own it. My sin

upon himself, that... little black -hearted,

dark -hearted sinner that I am. He said, Caleb,

I got all of that. And I'm paying the penalty

for that. And I'm dying in the place. And then

he died. And he conquered Satan and sin. And

he went into the grave. But he didn't stay there.

He resurrected. That's why in baptism we have

a show going into the water, identifying in the

death. That Jesus died, that he took my sin.

And when we come up out of that water, it's a

picture of the resurrection of Christ. Because

of the resurrection, I have life in Christ. If

I say, Jesus, I want you. Jesus, I want that.

And so confessing with your mouth is literally

saying, Jesus, I want you to be Lord of my life.

I know that you're my savior. And now I know

that you're my Lord. I don't even have to have

all the theology figured out. I have to have

all the answers. So Jesus says he is the source

of eternal life, but he's also the one who will

execute judgment. We don't like to talk about

this side. He's the one who's going to say, bring

judgment on those who do not believe. The third

point in this. Three parts of these verses is

this, that we look to Jesus to see our future.

We look to Jesus to see our future. Jesus is

claiming authority over what is to come. That's

what's going on here. Look at verse 26. For just

as the Father has life in himself, so also he

has granted to the Son to have life in himself.

And he has granted him the right to pass judgment

because he is the son of man, meaning he's God.

Do not be amazed at this because the time is

coming when all who are in the graves will hear

his voice and come out. So now, before we go

any farther, this is a shift in debt. Now he's

talking about those who are passed on, who are

physically dead. Do not be amazed at this because

at a time is coming when all who are in the graves

will hear his voice and come out. Those who have

done good things to the resurrection of life

and those who have done wicked things to the

resurrection of condemnation. Okay. What Jesus

is saying is there will come a day. where he

will make all things right again. He's going

to fix it. We know this is how the creation,

we have fall, brokenness, redemption. Jesus says,

come. He says, I am life. You look to me. And

then there's a day of restoration. And he's pointing

forward to that. There's going to come a day,

and he's going to make everything right. And

this broken, jacked -up world will be done. Your

struggles will be over. Your addictions will

be done. The stuff going on swirling around your

head, cleaned up. You will be made new. Your

broken body will be restored. He's making all

things new. He's talking about the future where

those who are in Christ, those who have put their

faith in Jesus, will be made new. Verses 28 and

29 focuses on the future day when Jesus returns

to take believers into heaven and to cast unbelievers

into hell. Straight up. Jesus will be the judge

on judgment day. It's so crazy. Jesus is our

Savior, but he's also the one that says, look,

I've offered myself fully to you. I've done everything

for you, but you're rebelling. And so there's

going to come a day where the Savior becomes

the judge. Boom. And it's over. For those who

are in Christ, that means those who've received

Christ will be resurrected to new life. Eternal

life with Him. What we're doing right now is

just a short blimp on the screen of eternity.

It's short. But those who reject Christ, eternal

condemnation, hell. In eternal separation. And

Jesus just says this. He says I claim the authority.

And that's who I am. I'm going to be your savior.

I am your lord. And I'm going to demonstrate.

How much authority and lord I am. Whether you

receive me. Or you reject me. Both are true.

He claims. To have perfect alignment with the

father. Two hearts beating as one. He claims.

That he has the power to give life. And he has

the authority to judge. And he claims. These

claims are massive. And verse 23. Look at this.

Verse 23 tells us. Helps us understand our response

to those three claims. Look what he says. Verse

23. So to all people. So that all people may

honor the son. Just as they honor the father.

So you've got to stop. Before we go any farther,

you think about this verse. He's talking to religious

leaders. He's like, and they honored the Father.

Everything was in claims to that, right? And

Jesus comes and says, so that all people may

honor the Son just as they honor the Father.

Like, you've got to bring Jesus up in your level

of understanding. What he did? is full of all

of God's authority rests on Jesus in this situation.

Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor

the Father who sent him. Our focus needs to be

on Jesus. The one who expresses the action of

the Father. The one who gives us life. And the

one who is our judge. I don't, you know, like,

we need Jesus. We need to look to Jesus with

all of our life, and that's what it means to

honor him. It means to get your eyes off of yourself

every day to go, God, I need you, Jesus. I look

to you. I just, don't be apathetic with Jesus.

Don't be apathetic with Jesus. Don't be lazy.

With your faith. Do you know him? Give him all

of you. That's honor. And those who honor him,

God says, it's different. Psalm 34, verse 5,

Psalms 34:5

our verse. Those who look to the Lord are radiant.

Their faces shall never be ashamed. Where does

shame come from? Sin. It comes from sin. And

so our eyes, our gaze is on, is to be on Jesus

in every nook, corner, aspect of our life. And

I would say, for me as a six -year -old in that

bedroom, not even understanding anything that

went on, hardly, it simply was look to Jesus

and believe. And for those of you, maybe that's

where you're at right now. It may not be six.

Maybe you are six. Look to Jesus. You don't have

to have all the answers. Believe in Jesus today.

Confess with your mouth, Lord, I am broken, I

am a sinner, and I need a Savior, Jesus. Will

you be my Savior? And will you be my Lord? Will

you be the one in charge of my life? Jesus, I

need you today. And all of us, no matter if that's

you or not, maybe you've already done that, you've

walked the road, but we got a little apathetic

with Jesus. Maybe it's time for you just to say,

I need to look. to Jesus with all of my life.

I need to be reminded of that every day. And

that's why we're doing here. That's what we're

doing here today. As Jared, when I were talking

about the vision for children's ministry, he

came up with this idea to take that vision and

put it out on a little bracelet so that as kids,

we can look at it. So kids, I want you to look

at this bracelet. This bracelet right here says,

right there. It says, look to Jesus. Look to

Jesus. And as we were, so he ordered a whole

bunch of these and they, because there's some

sale going, they sent him like 500 in all different

sizes. And so as we were going, I was working

through the sermon today, I was like, this week,

I was like, man, this is my theme too. This is

what I need. So why is it just for the kids?

Now kids, you get one today. On that back table,

there's going to be a whole bunch of these, and

you get one and put it on your wrist, and one

that fits your size. So if you put this one on,

it's going to fall off, right? It's too big for

you. There's one that fits you. It's just the

right size. It's like that big. And it says it.

But why is it the kids will have all the fun?

So it's going to be one for you too. And guys,

this is just a bracelet. All this is is to remind

you, hey, whatever you're dealing with today,

Whatever struggle you're walking through, whatever

joy that you have, whatever challenges in front

of you, whatever is going on in your life, what

do you do? You look to Jesus. Get your eyes off

yourself, and you look to Jesus. So, kids, I

don't know about you, but I'm going to wear one.

I hope your parents do. Anybody else that wants

to wear it? This is not just a kid thing. But

parents, let me just tell you this. What a great

way to have conversation with your kids. Wear

those together. Talk about it together. What's

it mean today to look to Jesus? Matt, you and

I, you wear one. We have this conversation. What's

it look like in your life today to look to Jesus?

That's what we need. We need to together push

one another to say, what does it look like to

look to Jesus? There's a song that as I was working

through these verses that couldn't stop. We're

not singing it today, but I do want to read the

chorus to you. It's an old hymn. And I just was

constantly running around. Why don't you put

it up on the screen? You got there? Turn your

eyes upon Jesus. It says this, turn your eyes

upon Jesus. Why? Every day. I think it's the

start of the song should say, every day, turn

your eyes upon Jesus. Look full into his wonderful

face. And the things of this earth will grow

strangely dim. What does that mean, the things

of this earth? It means all of your challenges,

all of your struggles, everything you're dealing

with. You're tired. And so you do things. You

struggle. You've got a fight going on in your

marriage. You've got challenges with your children.

Children, you're struggling with mom and dad.

You want to do it. There's tension. Our lives

are full of this. What do we do? We look to Jesus.

And the things of this earth, as our eyes are

on him, will grow strangely dim in the light

of his glory and grace. Let's pray together,

okay? Lord, I need you so bad to know how to

navigate this broken world. And I know that I

don't, in my own humanness, don't have the answers.

to know how to do it. Some days I feel like I

got it together. Other days it's just falling

apart. And so I know that I need you. And so

will you help us, Lord, as a church, as people,

to get our eyes off of ourselves and to look

at our Savior, to look at the one who has full

authority and knows the future, who loves us

deeply. Help us to set our gaze there. Help us

to... pursue you like through reading your word

and to having a conversation like i had in that

boat that day or in my bedroom when i had a conversation

with you and you met me there lord help us to

be people who look to you in all things in your

name we pray amen