John 5:19-29 - ”Come Alive!” - Abundant Life (Gospel of John)

The Old Testament reading is taken from

Ezekiel 37:es

1-10.

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he

brought me out in the spirit of the Lord

and set me down in the middle of the

valley. It was full of bones. And he led

me around among them. And behold, there

were very many on the surface of the

valley. And behold, they were very dry.

And he said to me, "Son of man, can

these bones live?" And I answered, "Oh

Lord God, you know."

Then he said to me, "Prophesy over these

bones and say to them, "Oh dry bones,

hear the word of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord God to these bones,

"Behold, I will cause breath to enter

you, and you shall live, and I will lay

senus upon you, and will cause flesh to

come upon you, and cover you with skin,

and put breath in you, and you shall

live, and you shall know that I am the

Lord."

So I prophesied as I was commanded, and

as I prophesied, there was a sound, and

behold, a rattling, and the bones came

together, bone to its bone. And I

looked, and behold, there were senu on

them, and flesh had come upon them, and

skin had covered them, but there was no

breath in them.

Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the

breath. Prophesy, son of man, and say to

the breath, thus says the Lord God, come

from the four winds, O breath, and

breathe on these slain that they may

live."

So I prophesied as he commanded me, and

the breath came into them, and they

lived and stood on their feet, an

exceedingly great army.

The New Testament reading is John 5 19-

29.

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.

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.

For as the Father raises the dead and

gives them life, so also the Son gives

life to whom he will.

For the Father judges no one, but has

given all judgment to the Son, 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.

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.

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.

For as the Father has life in himself,

so he has granted the Son also to have

life in himself,

and he has given him authority to

execute judgment,

because he is the Son of Man.

Do not marvel at this, for an hour is

coming when all who are in the tombs

will hear his voice and come out.

those who have done good to the

resurrection of life and those who have

done evil to the resurrection of

judgment. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

>> Thank you.

>> So, how many of you have seen this

symbol? Raise your hand.

Okay, it says coexist, in case you're

wondering. It's hard to tell. This is a

modern version of it. Um, many years

ago, this didn't exist. In 2000, it was

actually created, and we've seen so much

of it, we think it's always been there.

It was created by a Polish artist, and

he had drew uh had I get, do you say

draw that? Drew that? I don't know. Drew

drew that. Okay. And, uh, he had done

it. Um, and it probably would have

disappeared into history except an event

happened in 2001. Would you remember

what that might have been?

911

and all of a sudden it's sold all over

the place. The purpose of this, of

course, is to use all the symbols of all

the different religious expressions.

Everything from Wiccan to Christianity

to boy, I don't even know how how some

of those are those are some anyways very

uh Islam, Judaism. And the idea is we'll

put coexist. In other words, live

together in peace. That's kind of the

idea. It's that it's nice. You can put

it in your bumper and sticker and it

doesn't really matter because you're

still going to be who you are when you

cut someone off in traffic. So, um

but all seriously aside, um it really

didn't actually take 911 serious at all.

You see, the irony of it all is it sold

because of 9/11 because 911 got sold as

a religious war.

It wasn't at all. It was one group of

Islamic fundamentalists versus the

American Empire.

How do I know? They didn't fly the

planes into the First Presbyterian

Church in New York. They didn't fly into

the big synagogues or the even uh what

other buildings that we represent. They

hit the World Trade Center. They hit the

Pentagon. They hit the markers of

empire.

In fact, before this came out, before

9/11, I was involved

in a sharing group with all the

different religions. Actually, as far as

I knew, at least grow living in

Vancouver at the time, there was no one

fighting other people of other religions

that I was aware of

because we live in a time

where the empire has made it so that you

can worship anything,

right? That is the way it's been. The

the empire actually it pretty much ran

like this. It coexist. The emperor and

the empire which we call America. They

let anyone worship anything as long as

one thing was acknowledged. What was

that?

The empire.

Once you attack the empire, what did we

see after that?

That's when they get angry. They don't

really care how you exist.

Well, it's interesting.

When Jesus was walking the world, it was

exact same thing,

exact same political world as this. And

you know what he was able to do? Get a

bunch of people wanting to kill him

because he took on the wrong thing.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much

for your grace and mercy. We thank you

for your love.

We pray you open our eyes and our ears

and you show us who you are through your

son. In Jesus' name, amen.

The only difference between the American

Empire and the Roman Empire is the

Romans were a little bit more brutal.

But in the Western, I don't say just the

American, Canada, Western Empires have

always welcomed different forms of

worship. Yes, there's been times where

there's been conflict and people left

their land to go to another. But

generally, as long as you worshiped and

you didn't take on anybody, any of the

authorities, you were fine to do what

you wanted. You could worship a a cow.

You could worship whatever you wanted.

Just like that, Rome

took off because they did one thing,

right? They would take over a land and

you know what they would do? They would

come in and they would say, "We just

want your money.

You can worship Apollos. You can worship

uh Gaya. You can be part of the mystery

religions as long as ultimately we get

our tribute." And that was their

success. Unlike other empires that would

come in and destroy the religious world

of other empires,

they would actually let them stay. And

that's why they had all these nation

states. That's why they had so many

gods. And that was working just fine

until they came to a nation

who was a little bit what God calls

stiff necked.

You see, they believed, the Jews, that

there was only one God and there was no

way you could worship multiple gods. So

what they did, the Romans were smart.

They said, "Okay, listen. We're going to

create a king that's a vassel to us and

you can keep your temple but be under no

illusion that the king's in charge. And

who was that king in Jesus' day? Herod.

Right? And the temple court kept going.

But the Jews in the land

hated the Romans. You see, the Jews in

the land, much like Al Qaeda that flew

those planes into the buildings, they

believed they were the chosen ones. This

is in the first century. They believe

they were the people of God. They

believe they must have sinned or God

would never have let these dirty Romans

run over them. They were promised again

and again in the Old Testament

deliverance that they would have a

nation to themselves. A king like David

would come. A prophet like Moses would

deliver them.

And they waited and they waited. And

Jesus arrives and is born in this world

of waiting.

and they're getting frustrated.

They had one revolt that worked, the

Makabian revolt. They got rid of the

Greeks for about 10 years, but then the

next empire came and it was worse. So,

they had this whole story that the

revolution could work, but there was one

way it could work. Just like the

Mcabans,

we had to obey the law.

You see, the reason God's mad at us is

we've sinned. Have you ever anyone else

ever felt like that when bad things are

happen? Well, they had a whole theology

that their nation was fallen

because they had sinned. They hadn't

obeyed the rules, the Torah, the law.

And they had one thing that they went

around and said. And the Pharisees were

the sons, the grandsons of the Mcabes.

They were revolutionaries

just like Osama bin Laden. That's what

they were like. And they thought that if

we obeyed Torah, here was their rule for

seven days,

God would forgive us and he would send

down their militant deliverer and we

would be the rulers.

It's not dissimilar to some of the

theology that made those guys fly planes

into buildings. What you believe

matters.

Now Jesus is coming into this world and

the law is everything to them. Not

because they're worried about your

individual salvation, but because the

nation is at stake.

Well, what were those rules that they

took so serious?

The food laws. You better not be having

a little pork chop sandwich or you're

out.

Sabbathkeeping,

right? That's a massive one. You better

not be carrying your bed around the

room. and who on Sunday

circumcision,

but there's one above all else.

Do not worship any god but God alone.

And if they could get those down for

just seven days, the deliverer would

come.

So Jesus comes into this world. Jesus

has shown us by now that he is God. He

has walked in and and he's the divine

bridegroom when he ran into the woman at

the well. He he's the he's the he's the

one who who uh pours out the spirit on

humanity. He's the word himself of God.

This is what John's telling us. And then

in our last section today, we have to

remind ourselves he goes in and heals

the man by beta. And the man does not

acknowledge him at all, but rather after

Jesus' warnings after the healing, cuz

it happened on the Sabbath, not to sin

anymore. He turned on Jesus, didn't he?

He went and ratted Jesus out. And John

gives us a commentary after that that

that problem was Jesus said to them,

"Whatever the father's working, I'm

working." And thus it made himself equal

to God. And he did it on the Sabbath,

the one day. And you have to understand

when they were watching this happen,

they saw him as a Benedict Arnold to to

all of Jerusalem. So it tells us just

before this that guess what? We're going

to kill Jesus.

So what does Jesus do then? Next, this

is our text today. What does Jesus do

next? Does he go, "Okay, hold on. Slow

down. Don't get upset. You know, I like

my life." Does he do that?

No,

you know, the only thing that surprises

me, people say, "Well, why did they have

to kill Jesus?"

Because every word he said,

the surprising thing about Jesus is he

lasted three years.

Now, I want you to listen to this text

in light of the fact that I just told

you that the Jews have said that the

things you cannot do is heal on the

Sabbath, make yourself like God,

and all those other ones. Those are the

big ones. And what does Jesus start?

He's responding to their critique. And

he says, "So Jesus said to them, and

when you hear truly truly, it's like pay

attention.

That's what that means. It means like

Jesus is saying, you can maybe let go of

some of my things, but you better listen

to this.

I say to you, the son, Jesus, can do

nothing of his own accord, but only what

he sees his father doing. For whatever

the father does, that the son does

likewise. Now remember, they were going

to kill him because he was making

himself equal to God. He's just said, I

am doing everything God does.

You see what's he saying?

If you did the exact same thing as God,

that makes you

right.

For the father loves the son and shows

him all

that he himself is doing. And greater

works than these will he show, so that

you may marvel. This is an interesting

word, marvel. All through the Old

Testament prophets, God would do things,

but always as a condemnation of the

nations to make them marvel.

This is not a compliment.

I'm doing this stuff to shock you out of

this.

And then he says, "For as the Father

raises the dead and gives them life, so

also the Son gives life to whom he

will." Now these guys must have been so

angry now because they knew their Old

Testament. These guys had memorized. Do

you know the Pharisees knew every text?

They had memorized it since they were

children. And they know

that there's only one being that gives

life. That is Yahweh,

the Lord.

How do they know? Deuteronomy.

Just halfway down. I kill and this is I

is the only and I make alive.

He just said just as the father makes

alive the son makes alive. So what is

Jesus saying?

I am God. Do you see it?

That's the second time he said it, isn't

it? Oh, but he doesn't stop there.

Jesus goes, "For the Father judges no

one, but has given all judgment to the

Son." Guess what? Who gives all judgment

in the Old Testament?

You can start saying it. You're not

wrong. This is a good Sunday school

time.

God is the God who does all judgment.

Let's take a look at Genesis.

Far be it from you shall not the judge

of all the earth do what is just. There

was one only one true judge in the Old

Testament. You see that? And Jesus says,

"Guess what, folks? I'm the judge."

Three, he's announced himself as God. He

continues,

and this is the most serious one, 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. Do you know what this word honor

means in their world?

Worship.

So let me just say it this way. That all

may worship the son just as they worship

the father. Whoever does not worship the

son does not worship the father who sent

him. Now what does the bible say about

who's allowed to be worshiped?

You can say it.

You going to have Pentecostals out of

here yet,

God.

For you shall love the Lord your God and

worship him only. What does the first

commandment? You shall have no other

gods besides me.

I'm trying to tell you guys Jesus wasn't

trying to save his life here.

This is number four and the most

important. He has ripped aart

Sabbathkeeping. He's ripped apart their

views on God. And now he's ripped apart

their number one command

by saying the son deserves to be

worshiped. And if you don't worship the

son, you don't worship the father. I can

imagine the gasps. I can imagine, you

know, the poor disciples going, "Hey,

keep it down, Jesus. That we're we need

these votes."

Truly, truly, he says it again, I say

unto you, the hour is coming and is now

here when the dead will hear the voice

of the son of God and will hear and

live. These these words are right out of

Ezekiel 37, which you read very well

today, that famous story where there are

dry bones, remember? And Yahweh says,

"Prophesy." And the word of Yahweh comes

down upon them. And what happens to

those bones? They come alive.

He's talking about the resurrection.

He's pointing to that. And now who has

he placed himself? The hour is coming is

out here when the dead will hear the

voice of who?

Not God the father. Who?

What does that make Jesus?

You guys got to get this. Come on. I

want to see flags by the end.

For as the Father has life in himself,

Jesus says, "So he has granted the Son

also to have life in himself, not just

to give life, but to have life in

himself." There's only one being in the

Old Testament who has life in himself.

Everything else is a created being.

Why do we know this? Go back to Genesis

Genesis 2:7

2:7.

And he breathes on the man and his life

comes in him and he becomes alive.

But hold on a sec.

The sun can do that now. Making the sun.

Oh, bless your hearts.

Sweating here you guys.

and he has given him authority to

execute judgment because he is and this

is an interesting way of saying the

particular article here

is not there. So, it doesn't say the son

of man. It just says because he is. And

if you have your uh Bible handy, please

scratch out 'the'.

No, you're not going to hell.

It's not supposed to be there cuz in the

original Greek it loses the article.

Okay? And what you end up with is

because he is son of man. So, it's a

title. Do you see? Now the reason he has

this judgment and he calls himself and

he makes it sure that he says because he

is son of man because only one place in

the old testament is somebody called not

the son of man but son of man and it's

in Daniel

and it's in that section where he comes

up to the ancient of days and he becomes

king and lord and savior of all things.

Well, who is king and lord and savior of

all things?

I'm going to have a stroke if you guys

don't do this.

I saw in the night visions, and behold,

with the cloud of heaven there came one

like son of man. Get rid of the ah, you

can scratch that out, too. And he came

to the ancient of days and was presented

before him.

And to him was given dominion and glory

and a kingdom, and all peoples, nations,

languages should serve him. His dominion

is an everlasting dominion which shall

not pass away and his kingdom one that

shall not be destroyed.

Whose kingdom is that?

Oh, thank you, Lord.

Do not marvel at this. Remember what I

said about marvel?

>> It's a judgment

that they couldn't believe this. Do not

marvel for this. For an hour is coming

when all who were in the tombs will hear

his voice and come out. Those who have

done good to resurrection life. Now

whose voice? When they will Sorry, hold

on. Do not marvel at this. When the hour

is coming, when all who are in the tombs

will hear whose voice? He's only been

talking about the son. Do you notice

that?

We will hear the son's voice. Don't lose

that. Because who's the one that can

resurrect?

who and those who have gone to done good

to resurrection of life and those who

have done evil to the resurrection of

judgment. He is making himself the God

that ends the book of Daniel. Word for

word, Daniel says, "And many of those

who sleep in the dust of the earth shall

awake, some to everlasting life and some

to shame and everlasting contempt." He

just quotes it. Now, for some of you,

you're saying, "Hold on. is salvation by

works here. I'll get to that. But the

main point you need to take out of this

is Jesus is unequivocally

putting himself mysteriously as the one

true God.

Hear me.

And by putting himself as the one true

God, he deserves to be killed.

Okay? If you wonder, I always have

people asking me, "Oh, well, if there

was no uh um uh Judas, do you think

Jesus might have died?"

There was going to be a Judas.

He went against their whole power

structure because he made a claim that

you can't make.

I am God.

And they could only have one God. And

Rome could only have one God. They're

gods.

Now, let me say this to you again

because right now I just read

last night.

How many people who call themselves

Christian in North America believe that

Jesus was God? Do you want to give me

You want to guess percentages? This is

This is like school. Put up your hand

and I'll point to you. What is it? What

do you How many

is God?

>> He is. But what how many people in the

church in North America believe that

right now?

>> Go for it. %

>> how much

>> I hope%

>> 40% of people that attend churches right

now believe Jesus is God that go to

church

the rest see him as a nice teacher a

good prophet 40%

the most assured thing in here by the

way how can he be a nice teacher

somebody is walking around and

proclaiming that only the fa son

deserves the honor and if you don't

honor the son you don't honor the father

how is that a good teacher

listen to to Don Carson he who does not

honor the son does not honor the father

who sent him in a theistic universe such

a statement belongs to one who is

himself to be addressed as god or to

stark insanity

He either was or he was insane. The one

who utters such things is to be

dismissed with pity or scorn or

worshiped as Lord.

CS Lewis famously said that if he isn't

the son of God then he's a madman or

worse.

Jesus and the Bible does not allow you

for any other assumption that that

you're dealing with in Jesus. You're

dealing with God.

And being that you're dealing with God,

you're dealing with the judge.

Often we like Jesus. This Mr. Rogers

Jesus, you know, we read him. That's a

nice story. He went up and he patted the

little children. You go, "Come on to me.

Have you read Jesus

whipping him out of that temple? Huh?

Yeah. You go tell. I love that one part

where the disciples are like, "Jesus,

you've been really harsh. You've been

going over the top and you might be

offending the Pharisees." And he looks

right at the Pharisees in the middle of

the critique and goes, "Oh, really? Go

tell those sons of Satan."

You see, Jesus is God.

And that's the point.

And he is or he isn't.

Christianity is not one of those things

you come to just to enjoy a little. You

either believe this or truth or don't

believe anything at all. And if he is

God, that means he's judged. And

everyone then becomes judged based

around him.

You ever think of that?

Here's what I'm going to tell you. There

is judgment. And it is not did I get the

right religion.

There is judgment and it's centered

around what am I doing with this guy

called Jesus.

Lesie Nubigan.

In accepting or rejecting Jesus, men are

accepting or rejecting God. Full stop.

That puts a wrinkle in our little

coexist.

See, Jesus doesn't go on that. He rules

everything

and he is judge. And that's a problem,

isn't it? Because did you just read what

he said about the resurrection? What did

he just say? Do you remember? Let Do you

want me to go back? I'll go back.

Do not marvel at this. For an hour is

coming when all who are in the tombs

will come and hear his voice and come

out. those who have done good to

resurrection of life and those who have

done evil to the resurrection of

judgment.

Well, he's the judge. Does that not

empirically

sound

like we better do enough good works?

We better try hard enough if we want to

be saved. Does it not sound like that?

Sounds like that on the Doesn't it?

And you're probably sitting there ready

to burn me alive as you good reformers.

It's about grace, faith.

But the truth is God is just

and God cares what we do.

And he will resurrect those who do good

and he will not resurrect for life those

who do bad.

So, let me ask you, at the end of John's

gospel,

how many of those guys did good? Those

followers,

can you name one who stuck with it and

hopped on the cross with them?

Did they like cheering him on with

pompoms?

Where were they?

They denied him. They betrayed him. They

ran away.

See, here's the problem with that

formula

about if you've done good to

resurrection and life is John's gospel

gives us no hint that anyone

can be.

But this is what they believed. In fact,

do you remember a guy named Saul? He

would later become Paul.

Saul was a Pharisee.

Saul believed exactly this. By doing

those good things, by obeying the law,

one day he'd be part of the resurrection

because he was good.

And then the bad people, mostly Gentiles

and bad Jews, would go to wherever that

means.

And he's walking down that road on

Damascus.

And who does he run into?

That's right. See, you can get these

answers, guys.

Jesus resurrected.

Hold on a sec. The good to resurrection

and life.

And there's only one that showed up

resurrected.

What does that tell us? What did that

tell Paul?

Nobody

but Jesus is good enough to be

resurrected to life.

And that changed his whole theology.

See, Paul believed it and it is true.

But he realized none of us deserve it.

None of those disciples around Jesus,

none of those Pharisees, none of those

people of their time. And as Paul

realizes, there's nothing in humanity

that's good enough

for us to be resurrected because we're

good enough.

And Paul sat there and wrestled with

this 12 years. He theologically wrestled

with this. And then at some point the

epiphany hit.

Jesus is the only good one.

And thank God

he's the sacrificial God.

See, here's what I'm going to tell you

guys. The absolute truth is only the

good will be resurrected and only the

evil will not be.

But what did Jesus do for us?

In Romans, it says that exact same

thing, the good to eternal life, the

evil to eternal damnation. And then he

goes on and says the exact same thing I

said. No one is good, not even one.

Right?

Well, then Jesus hopped on that cross.

And what did he do for us?

He paid our sin.

He made us good

because he made us him.

Listen to these words.

For all have sinned and fall short of

the glory of God and are justified by

his grace as a

grace

through it the redemption that is Jesus

Christ

whom God put forward as a propit

propitiation by his blood to be received

by faith. That's where we get the

theology grace through faith. Do you

hear that?

This was to show God's righteousness

because in divine forbearance, he had

passed over former sins.

It was to show his righteousness at the

present time so that he might be just

and the justifier of the one who has

faith in Jesus. Do you want to know why

you can have confidence you're going to

be part of the resurrection? Cuz he was

good,

not cuz you're good.

And he paid the price. Amen. We should

get some 19th century people in here

now. Come on now.

I mean, this is just awesome theology,

you guys.

And anyone who is in Christ is

resurrected. I challenge you to go home

to your Bibles

and you find out how many times Paul

says, "We are in Christ." So, we're in

Christ. So

if you have any illusion that you can

stand before the Lord and get

resurrected because of your merit, good

luck.

But what's going to happen on that day

is you will stand before the Lord

because he Jesus God paid for your sins

and you are now if you were baptized

you've got to believe this because we

say it in the baptism

in Christ.

So when we stand on that day, we will be

the good because his goodness will shine

through us despite our darkness.

Isn't that incredible? That's what we

call good news.

But the fact that he paid all of that

for all of humanity, I think he has the

right to say, "Yeah, I'm the center.

Worship me, not anything else." What do

you guys think?

I'll tell you what, the great prophet

Muhammad did not rise from the grave.

Buddha did not rise from the ga grave.

The Wiccans, none of them rose for the

grave. They didn't pay for your sins.

They didn't do any of that stuff.

Sure, coexist. Hang out with them. Go

have a beer. I don't care. But the point

being, this is not

equals.

Jesus either was this or he wasn't. But

don't

lower him to religion.

He was the living God who prayed for our

sins. And one day you and I get to stand

for eternity before him because of what

he did for us.

So if you honor the son, you honor the

father. Do you see? If you don't honor

the son, you don't honor the father

because he is it. He's the way. He's the

one.

And amazingly, it said Jesus didn't come

into this world to condemn it, but to

save it.

Amen.

>> So, what does that do with people who

don't believe?

I'm not going to answer that today.

What I am going to say because it's good

news is those who believe and I'm

believe that most of you are sitting

here are going to have an eternal life

with Christ

because what he did because he was God

and he wasn't afraid to show it.

You know how much easier it would been

for Jesus to go through that time in

that life and just not say half this

stuff?

He said this cuz he wants us to know it.

But the best part now, this is the best

part.

He's done all this. We believe in him.

And then what does he do? He's also what

he said, the God who gives life.

He didn't just leave us there as a

forgiven people. He's there to give us

the life in himself to us. That's what

Pentecost is all about. That's what the

Holy Spirit is. It isn't just that he

justified us on the cross. It's not just

that he stood in our place. He's also

pouring himself on you so you can begin

to live the life that you deserve to

live. The live life that you were called

to live truly human.

That's one part that I say our reformed

tradition probably could have

overemphasized

which we didn't

is that Jesus Christ is here right now

and he is alive in you. He wants to

bring life in you.

He wants you to become little Christs.

He calls you new creations. You're

thinking, Emry, you should have seen me

last night with my wife. I was no new

creation. Been there.

He forgives. And he wants to keep

pouring it out.

This is the thing I want you to walk out

of here. Jesus is God. Please.

He died. And that's why I get to be part

of the resurrection because I'm in him.

and then I can walk out of here and

bless others because he's in me and he

wants to bring new life.

The church was not meant to just believe

and die.

The church was meant to believe and

witness so others may come in.

The gospel

is about living in the light of Jesus

resurrection.

living in the light of Jesus'

resurrection power every day. It's about

who we trust in every moment with our

life and our eternity.

We have something incredible.

We have the true God who gave us life.

We have the true God who brings just

judgment.

We have the true God who resurrects.

And we have the true God who had mercy

on us so we can live.

And not only that, we get to now live in

him.

The truth is if you do go out into this

world

and you say that Jesus is Lord, I

promise you, you will be persecuted some

way. might just be cancelled by a friend

because we have within us a deep, deep

idolatry that really wants us to be

Lords.

So, I'm warning you, the early church

all died because they refused to say

that Jesus wasn't God. If they would

have just said that, they would all

lived. They all died because their

powers that be can't have another king.

But I promise you too that if you go out

of this place and you live it and

believe it that Jesus is Lord and he is

your king and your one hope,

life will come through you. People will

sense that life and you will make a

difference in others lives. And then on

that day,

and it's coming,

where we see him face to face,

he will say, "Well done, my good and

faithful servant."

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you

sent your son amongst us.

We praise Jesus. We do because he's

worthy of praise. We thank you that you

through your son

will come and judge justly

and set things to rights.

We thank you that you

have given life to us and will give us

life on that day.

We thank you that you have paid our debt

so that we can be the good because we're

in Jesus

that we can be part of that

resurrection.

We thank you

because you never give up for on us

forgiving us every day.

And we thank you Lord.

We thank you because ultimately

you will set everything to rights

and we will see you face to face.

Amen.

Now here we do communion and