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Sermon

Jesus Declares His Divine Sonship, Part 1

Speaker
David Capoccia
Scripture
John 5:17-24

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In this sermon, Pastor Dave Capoccia begins examining John 5:17-29 in which Jesus declares his divine sonship. John presents Jesus’ declaration of divine sonship so that you will not remain condemned in mere religious tradition but might find resurrection life in Jesus. In part 1, Pastor Dave covers John 5:17-24 and the first two of three points in Jesus’ declaration:

1. Jesus’ Divine Sonship Justifies His Sabbath Work (vv. 17-18)
2. The Father and Son Are Intimately United (vv. 19-24)

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

The deity of Jesus Christ is one of the most marvelous claims of biblical Christianity — that a first-century Galilean Jewish man named Jesus is the one true God. This passage in John 5:17-24 presents Jesus’ own declaration of his divine Sonship, made in the context of controversy over Sabbath healing. We are reminded that Jesus did not merely allow others to call him God; he explicitly and repeatedly claimed equality with the Father. The intimate unity between Father and Son means that to miss Jesus is to miss God entirely, and to honor the Son is the only way to honor the Father.

Key Lessons:

  1. Jesus justified his Sabbath work by claiming divine Sonship — because God the Father works continually, the Son must also work alongside him, even on the Sabbath.
  2. The Father and Son are so intimately united that they share the same works, the same desires, and the same honor — they do everything together out of deep mutual love.
  3. All judgment has been given to the Son so that all people will honor Jesus with the same honor due to God the Father — there is no way to honor God apart from honoring Christ.
  4. Believing in Jesus’ word and in the Father who sent him grants eternal life now, not merely in the future — the believer has already passed from death into life.

Application: We are called to examine whether we truly honor Jesus as the Father honors him — not merely with church attendance or lip service, but with whole-life obedience, repentance from sin, and dependence on Christ alone for righteousness. Religious tradition without Christ leaves us condemned; only believing and heeding Jesus’ word brings us from death to life.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why does Jesus choose to declare his divine Sonship in response to Sabbath controversy rather than simply defending his actions on practical grounds?
  2. What does it look like practically to honor the Son “even as” we honor the Father — and where might we fall short of this in daily life?
  3. How does the promise of having “passed out of death into life” (verse 24) change the way we live right now, not just our hope for the future?

Scripture Focus: John 5:17-24 — Jesus declares his equality with God through divine Sonship, reveals the intimate unity of Father and Son in all their works, and promises eternal life to all who hear his word and believe the Father who sent him.

Outline

Introduction

Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father, it is beautiful and wonderful to be able to call you Father, and that is only because of your Son Jesus. As we come to this profound passage today, I pray, God, that you would show us the glory of the Son. Move us, God, to honor the Son as he ought to be honored—not merely with our lips, but with our whole lives, from the heart.

Help me to be able to explain this passage, God. The Spirit, please do a mighty work now in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Most Marvelous Claim of Christianity

What is the most marvelous claim of biblical Christianity? What is it that we Christians preach that seems most incredible, even unbelievable, to the world? Is it that God created the universe in six solar days and rested on the seventh?

Is it that one man’s death on a Roman execution device saved sinners from God’s holy wrath? Is it that a certain man died but then rose from the dead three days later and appeared to his disciples? These are all marvelous claims, to be sure, and the world, by and large, has problems believing each of these.

But surely one of the most marvelous claims in true Christianity—perhaps the most marvelous—is this: that a first-century, 33-year-old Galilean Jewish man named Jesus is the one true God. At various times in human history, people have claimed to be divine, especially kings and conquerors.

“A first-century, 33-year-old Galilean Jewish man named Jesus is the one true God.”

But an uneducated builder and carpenter from the middle of nowhere, Nazareth—a man whose public ministry lasted only a little over three years and ended with his being killed by his own people—this one is our creator. There are no other gods besides him. He is the one who determines every person’s eternal destiny, either to everlasting life or everlasting punishment.

Who would believe something so incredible? Yet this is the unified testimony of Jesus’ earliest followers—not just his original apostles, but even the 500-plus men and women who claim to have seen and spent time with the risen Jesus.

Many of these same first witnesses suffered persecution and death, both from the monotheistic Jews and from the polytheistic Romans. They suffered these things specifically for insisting that Jesus is God, even the only Savior and judge.

As incredible as it might seem that the lowborn Jewish man Jesus is God, how do we otherwise explain the multitude of confident witnesses testifying of Jesus’ divinity? These witnesses died proclaiming this truth, and their witness is preserved for us today in the writings of the New Testament.

“Many of these first witnesses suffered persecution and death for insisting that Jesus is God.”

Did Jesus Ever Claim to Be God?

How do we explain that? Well, people do come up with different explanations. All of them are inadequate, but there are explanations as to why people say the historical person Jesus—and it’s hard to deny that he’s historical; there’s all sorts of evidence of that—but there are plenty of explanations that people provide for why the historical person Jesus is not actually God, despite what his disciples said.

One of the explanations you sometimes hear is that Jesus never claimed to be God. Jesus himself never claimed to be God. It was all just a massive and tragic misunderstanding of his overzealous followers. Jesus was a good teacher, healer, and religious reformer, but he never claimed to be God.

After all, if Jesus really were God, then why didn’t Jesus ever come out and say it plainly? “Hey, everyone, I’m God. You need to believe in and worship me alone to be saved.” The skeptics say we just don’t see that in the Christian Bible, do we? It’s all just a massive misunderstanding.

But the truth is that Jesus did declare himself to be God in the Bible, both implicitly and explicitly. Those who argue that Jesus never plainly claimed to be God simply haven’t paid close enough attention to what the Bible says, because this actually happens repeatedly. Jesus does this repeatedly.

“Jesus did declare himself to be God in the Bible, both implicitly and explicitly.”

Why Jesus Reveals His Deity Carefully

Nevertheless, it is true that Jesus presents his divinity to his disciples, to us in the Bible, in a way that we might not expect. Most likely, this is because if Jesus declared his deity to us in the way that we think he should, we would end up believing heresy.

We might end up believing that Jesus is one of three gods—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—or that there is just one God, but he has three different masks or modes. He is sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, sometimes the Holy Spirit. Or we might believe that Jesus is God, but he’s not really or fully man. Perhaps he just had the appearance of a man, the appearance of flesh and blood, but he was just divine spirit.

All these did eventually develop as heresies in Christian history, and they’re still around today in different forms. Therefore, when Jesus does declare his deity in the Bible to those he determined should receive that revelation, Jesus is careful to protect and even fundamentally explain the marvelous nature of the Trinity—that Jesus is God, but that the Father and the Holy Spirit are also God.

“Each of them is all of God. They are distinct from one another, yet they are in each other.”

Each of them is all of God. They’re not part of God; they are all of God. Each one of them is all of God. They are distinct from one another, yet they are in each other. It’s a mysterious unity of three in one.

In our next section of the Gospel of John, Jesus will unmistakably declare his divinity to the Jewish people. In so doing, our writer John will not only show us once again our need to believe in Jesus, but also just how holy and awesome is this Son of God in whom we have come to believe. That’s what we want to see together this morning.

If you would please take your Bibles and turn to John 5. My sermon title is “Jesus Declares His Divine Sonship, Part One.”

Scripture Reading: John 5:14-29

Using the few Bibles we have—we were in this passage earlier; that’s on page 1063—I’m just going to focus on verses 17 to 24 today. A little bit of an adjustment of what’s written in the bulletin. But for context, let’s read from verses 14 to 29.

John 5:14-29. Follow along with me as I read: “Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘Behold, you have become well. Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well.

For this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But he answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I myself am working.’ For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because he not only was breaking the Sabbath but also was calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Therefore, Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself is doing.

And the Father will show him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father.

He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

For just as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself. And he gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come forth—those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.’”

Context: The Sabbath Healing Controversy

You may have noticed from our longer scripture reading earlier in the service that John 5:1-47 is a complete section of interconnected narrative and teaching. The section begins with Jesus’ third miraculous sign—the healing of a sick man by the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem on the Sabbath.

But the miracle itself is not the section’s main point. Rather, the main point is how the miracle serves as an opportunity to reveal something about Jesus and to reveal something about the Jews. We discussed this idea of revelation last time when we examined John 5:1-16.

Instead of celebrating God’s merciful healing of this man who was sick and immobile for 38 years, what did the Jews do? The Jewish religious leaders got angry with Jesus for violating the man-made religious tradition about what was proper and what was not proper on the Sabbath.

This is based on something God commanded, but it had gone far beyond what God had required. The religious leaders did not pay attention to the fact that Jesus could have only healed the sick man by the power and approval of God, since Jesus is God’s Christ. The Jews simply held fast to their self-righteous tradition and persecuted Jesus as a Sabbath breaker.

But even exposing the ridiculous hard-heartedness of the Jews and their vain trust in their own religious tradition is not Jesus’ ultimate goal in this episode. Jesus heals on the Sabbath so that he can dramatically clarify that he is God, God’s Son, and thus totally justified to work on the Sabbath.

“Jesus incredibly heals on the Sabbath so that he can dramatically clarify that he is God.”

Main Idea and Sermon Outline

Really, verses 17 to 47 is Jesus’ profound revelation of his Divine Sonship. Verses 17 to 29—or in verses 17 to 29, Jesus declares and fundamentally explains his Sonship, his Divine Sonship. And then in verses 30 to 47, Jesus presents the evidence that proves his divine Sonship.

Now, we’re going to start looking at verses 17 to 29 today. And here’s the main idea for those verses: John presents Jesus’ declaration of divine Sonship so that you will not remain condemned in mere religious tradition but might find Resurrection Life in Jesus.

Say that again: John presents Jesus’ declaration of divine Sonship so that you will not remain condemned in mere religious tradition but might find Resurrection Life in Jesus.

“You will not remain condemned in mere religious tradition but might find Resurrection Life in Jesus.”

Now, Jesus’ declaration of divine Sonship in these verses consists of three points. We have an introductory one in verses 17 to 18, and then two more main points in verses 19 to 24 and then verses 25 to 29. We can only look at the first two points today, but that’s what we will do.

Jesus’ Divine Sonship Justifies His Sabbath Work

Starting with the introductory point in verses 17 to 18: What’s Jesus’ first point in declaring his Divine Sonship? Well, number one: Jesus’ divine Sonship justifies his Sabbath work.

Look at verse 17 again: “But he answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I myself am working.’” This is definitely one of those “oh no, he didn’t” moments in the Bible. With Jesus facing a new, determined hostility from the Jewish leaders for his healing on the Sabbath, we might have expected Jesus to back off and to lay low for a while, letting his enemies cool down.

“Jesus answers their persistent persecution with a declaration very likely to upset them further.”

But instead, what do we read? Jesus answers their persistent persecution with a declaration very likely to upset them further. Notice the first phrase: “My Father.” It’s the second time we’ve seen Jesus use this phrase in this gospel.

The first time was back in John 2:16, when Jesus was cleansing the temple, and he said, “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” Obviously, Jesus is referring to God with this phrase. But this would have been a shocking set of words to use with the Jews.

“My Father” — A Shocking Claim

We saw this previously, but you remember: no pious Jew ever referred to God as “my Father.” Jews might speak of God as Israel’s Father, and maybe they might address him in prayer as “our Father,” but that’s pushing it. No Jew would ever call God “my Father.” That was way too familiar and probably blasphemous.

Why blasphemous? Because the phrase “my Father” suggests that you and God are fundamentally the same on the inside and therefore equal. We have phrases in our language that emphasize the sameness of parent and child. When a child looks like his father, talks like his father, acts like his father, what do we say?

“Like father, like son,” or “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” The reason we have phrases like this is because there is an expectation—frequently validated by experience—of fundamental sameness that is passed down from father to son.

A son is going to be just like his father because they are the same in essence. They’re the same on the inside.

“A son is going to be just like his father because they are the same in essence.”

The Jews believed in this idea even more than we do, due to the fact that sons usually took up the same profession as their fathers and they received whatever belonged to their fathers as an inheritance—a fundamental sameness between father and son. So then, by using the phrase “my Father,” was this man Jesus really claiming fundamental sameness with the only true God?

God Works Even on the Sabbath

Now, notice the rest of the sentence starting with “my Father” that Jesus uses. He says, “My Father is working until now.” This statement is less shocking. All Jews at that time acknowledged that God, in one way or another, was always working.

Though Genesis says that God rested from his works after the six days of creation and he rested on the seventh day, the Jews understood that the continued existence and maintenance of the world requires God to keep working even on the Sabbath. If God stopped working or took a Sabbath day off, the world would have fallen apart ages ago.

“If God stopped working or took a Sabbath day off, the world would have fallen apart ages ago.”

So to the Jews, they knew God evidently cared deeply about the Sabbath, but they reasoned there must be something exceptional about God that allows him to always work even on the Sabbath for the universe’s benefit. God is special; he can work even on the Sabbath. Jews get that.

“And I Myself Am Working”

But then here comes the really shocking part—the second part of Jesus’ statement at the end of verse 17: “And I myself am working.” Are you putting two and two together in what Jesus is asserting?

Because God is Jesus’ Father, meaning there’s a fundamental internal sameness to them, and because God works even on the Sabbath as a special exception for the universe’s sake, then it follows that Jesus, as God’s Son, is allowed to and indeed must do what his Father does.

He must work on the Sabbath as a special exception for the universe’s sake. Now, certainly, the Jews can see Jesus working on the Sabbath, right? That part is plain to them. That’s upsetting to them.

But how can Jesus do that? How can Jesus even do miracles by the power of God on the Sabbath?

Well, the only explanation is, as Jesus says, Jesus—yes, even Jesus himself; he’s emphatic about that—is the Son of God and must always work right alongside his Heavenly Father, even on the Sabbath.

“Jesus is the Son of God and must always work right alongside his Heavenly Father, even on the Sabbath.”

Jesus Chose to Declare His Deity

Note that Jesus did not have to go here as a defense for his actions on the Sabbath. Jesus could have pointed out how the Jews’ definition of work went way beyond what God actually said in the Bible and therefore wasn’t valid—that’s just a religious tradition they added on. Jesus could also have pointed out how doing good or meeting basic physical needs on the Sabbath is always right, even when work is involved.

Jesus does make defenses like these in other places in the Gospels, but that’s not what he chooses to do here. Rather, Jesus says to the Jews essentially: he takes what just took place—there’s healing on the Sabbath—and he uses it as an opportunity to declare to the Jews, “I work on the Sabbath because I am the Son of God.”

“Jesus uses the healing as an opportunity to declare to the Jews, ‘I work on the Sabbath because I am the Son of God.’”

The Jews Seek to Kill Jesus

How are the Jewish religious leaders going to react to that? With humble contrition? With repentance and faith? Verse 18: “For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because he not only was breaking the Sabbath but also was calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

What is Jesus’ defense for his actions on the Sabbath? It only further infuriates the Jews. Notice here: going to verse 18, they already have been seeking to kill him for breaking their Sabbath tradition. But now they are seeking continually to kill him even more—for blasphemy, for claiming for himself equality with God.

The Jews get Jesus’ message. They correctly understand the implications of what Jesus is asserting: “My Father” plus “I work on the Sabbath like God” equals “I am equal to God.” But the Jewish leaders are not willing to consider whether such an assertion could be true, not even in the context of multiple Sabbath-day healings from Jesus.

“Now they are seeking to kill him even more — for blasphemy, for claiming equality with God.”

No, the Jews are already assured that their tradition is correct. It cannot be contradicted. They are righteous; Jesus is not, because he violated the tradition. And therefore, Jesus is certainly not God. Actually, he must be executed before his poisonous teaching leeches out further to Israel.

Jesus Speaks Boldly Despite Opposition

In light of this reaction, did Jesus make his declaration in verse 17 naively? Did he not know that the religious leaders would hate him and try to kill him for defending his Sabbath actions by claiming equality with God? No, Jesus wasn’t naive.

As we’ve seen multiple times in this gospel, Jesus knows all things, and he knows the Jews will ultimately reject and kill him. Their wicked intent is already evident here. But Jesus came to fulfill his Father’s will totally, so he will say what needs to be said.

He will do what needs to be done, and he will suffer what needs to be suffered. Jesus knows that his Father will vindicate him in the end, so he speaks here obediently, boldly, and truthfully.

Jesus is not done speaking. Verse 17 is just an introductory declaration. Jesus gives an expanded reply to the Jews in verses 19-24, clarifying that Jesus is not making himself equal with God, but instead revealing the wondrous nature of the equality he has always enjoyed with God.

“Jesus will say what needs to be said, do what needs to be done, and suffer what needs to be suffered.”

The Father and Son Are Intimately United

Here’s Jesus’ second point in his declaration of divine Sonship: Number two: The Father and Son are intimately united. The Father and Son are intimately united.

Look at John 5:19: “Therefore, Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.’”

Notice the verb phrase “was saying.” This is the response that Jesus gave multiple times to the Jews. It was a regular thing. Now, notice the opening words of Jesus’ dialogue: “Truly, truly, I say to you.” We’ve seen this before. This is one of Jesus’ favorite ways of opening when he’s about to declare something amazing, something that people will not be inclined to believe, but which is nevertheless absolutely, positively true.

John 5:19: “Truly, truly, I say to you — something that people will not be inclined to believe, but which is absolutely true.”

He’s emphasizing: you can believe what I’m about to tell you, even if it sounds amazing. What does Jesus tell? What does Jesus declare? That as God’s Son, Jesus cannot do anything by himself unless he sees the Father doing it.

Why? Notice the word “for” near the second half of the verse. It has the sense of “because.” For Jesus, the Son only does whatever the Father does in the same way the Father does it. Now, what exactly does this mean?

The Father’s Love and Shared Work

Well, let’s add the beginning of verse 20, because that piece will help clarify. Verse 20a: “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself is doing.” Notice we get another “for,” another reason supplied—this time for what Jesus just said.

Why is the Son always and only doing whatever the Father does in the same way as the Father? Because the Father loves the Son and shows the Son everything that the Father himself is doing. Notice the word translated “love.” It’s not the Greek word we might expect. It’s not “agape.” It’s the Greek word “philo.”

Another word for love. We see it in our city named Philadelphia—a city of Brotherly Love. By not using “agape” and using “philo” instead, does this indicate that the Father’s love has some kind of shortcoming, that this is some less than divine, pure love? By no means.

“Agapao” and “philo” can be used to refer to the same idea of true love and affection, and John actually uses the two words more or less synonymously in this gospel. We can even just compare a verse we’ve already seen: John 3:35, which does use the word “agape”—the other Greek word for love.

“The Father loves the Son and shows the Son everything that the Father himself is doing.”

John 3:35: “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.” Same idea here. The Father loves the Son. So what then are verses 19 and 20 saying? What’s with all this language of the Son seeing what the Father does and the Father showing to his Son all that the Father does out of love?

Father and Son Do Everything Together

What is this all about? I think the answer is less complicated than it appears at first glance. What Jesus is saying, by the metaphor of sight, is that God the Father and God the Son, because they have such a tight bond of love, they do everything together. Father and Son do everything together.

Like the ideal son helping his perfect father in a carpentry shop: so are Jesus and God the Father. He says to his son, “This is what I’m doing. This is what we’re going to make.” And the son says, “Yes, Father,” and he accomplishes whatever work the Father gives him as part of that same project.

The son does the same work the Father does in the same manner that the Father does it. They are involved in the same thing, and the son knows the ways of his father intimately and is determined to please his father in everything. The son is always looking to his father’s lead. He will never just start cutting or building something as may strike the son’s own fancy.

“God the Father and God the Son, because they have such a tight bond of love, do everything together.”

The son is completely obedient, completely dependent on his father. Unless he sees the Father doing something, the son cannot and will not do anything. But the Father never leaves the son abandoned, never leaves the son alone while the Father goes and works elsewhere.

No, their relationship is so deep that the Father delights to show his son everything and to bring his son into every work. That’s what Jesus is saying. But what does this have to do with Jesus healing on the Sabbath, to the anger of the Jews?

Well, Jesus is explaining that as God’s Son, Jesus is not somehow abusing his position or indulging in a selfish desire for miraculous works on the Sabbath. No, God’s Son would never do that. The only reason that the Son works on the Sabbath is because the work the Son is doing is the very work that the Father is doing.

Because Father and Son know and love each other so much, they must always be working together, even on the Sabbath. Yet these Sabbath healings are not the only works in which the Father and Son will jointly participate.

Greater Works Are Coming

Look at the rest of verse 20: “Now, and the Father will show him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.” What is Jesus saying here? Well, that God has works much mightier, much more momentous, for their Father and Son to do together than these little healings.

Therefore, the Son will do these greater works alongside his Father in the future. And notice the purpose statement attached to this declaration of greater coming works: Jesus says, “So that you will marvel.” You Jews, Jesus says, you are even disturbed at my healing on the Sabbath. Is that so?

“God has works much mightier for Father and Son to do together than these little healings.”

Well, wait till you see what else the Father has in store for me to do alongside him. What greater works could Jesus possibly mean? Well, he clarifies with another “for” statement in verse 21.

The Power to Give Life

Look there: “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he wishes.” Is there any power greater than the power to give life and raise the dead?

Plenty of people throughout history have reveled in the power of taking life—whether they are dictators, soldiers, or murderers. Indeed, we all naturally fear what has the power to kill us, for that is a great power.

But what man, what creature, what force of nature has the power to give life to what is already dead? Mankind has long sought this greater power, but in vain. This is a power that belongs to God alone.

“What creature has the power to give life to what is already dead? This power belongs to God alone.”

Only God can give life again. In verse 21, Jesus declares that he also, as God’s Son, makes people alive from the dead—whomever Jesus wishes.

Wait, whomever Jesus wishes? Is Jesus going to apply this life-raising power selfishly, arbitrarily, independently? Never.

For Father and Son are so united that the Father’s wishes are the Son’s wishes. The Son’s desire is to bring to life whomever the Father also desires to bring to life. They are intimately united, even in their desires.

All Judgment Given to the Son

Now, we’ve got another “for” statement coming up in verse 22—a statement which not only gives us the flip side of what Jesus just said, but a statement that also clarifies that the joint work of Father and Son doesn’t mean that the Father and Son have the exact same roles in whatever work they do.

Because look at verse 22: “For not even the Father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son.” This verse gives us the logical corollary to what Jesus just declared about having life-giving power. If Jesus has the same power to give life as God the Father does, then Jesus also has the ability to judge and thereby withhold life.

Surprisingly, according to Jesus in this verse, the fundamental role of judge is a role that the Father has given wholly to the Son. Though the Father is showing his Son this work too—they are still doing it together—the specific execution of judgment is a great work that belongs to Jesus and not the Father.

“The specific execution of judgment is a great work that belongs to Jesus and not the Father.”

Now, this declaration would have been another incredible shock to Jesus’ Jewish listeners, for one clear truth in the Old Testament is that God is Judge. God is a righteous judge who will call all people to account.

I’ll give you three verses that illustrate this. Genesis 18:25: Abraham asks God, “Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?” Ecclesiastes 3:17: Solomon says, “God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man.” Jeremiah 11:20 refers to God as “Yahweh of hosts, who judges righteously.”

But Jesus is now saying that the way God the Father will accomplish his judgment is by the Son. Jesus is God’s appointed judge of all people and all beings in the universe. Being judge of all is an exalted role. Such a judgment is indeed a mighty work.

Honor the Son as You Honor the Father

Why does the Father give such a great role to the Son? The answer is in the first part of verse 23: so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. The declaration from Jesus just gets more and more amazing.

God made quite clear in the Old Testament that he is a jealous God. He is zealous for his own glory. He will not share the honor due him with anyone else—not a man, not an angel, not a so-called god.

Yeah, Jesus says here that the Father gave Jesus, the Son, the role of Judge so that all will honor the Son in the same way that the Father is and ought to be honored.

“The Father gave the Son the role of Judge so that all will honor the Son as the Father is honored.”

And don’t misunderstand this. God is not looking for Jesus, the Son, to be honored like some ambassador who only deserves honor because of the greatness of the ruler who sends that ambassador. No, note the specific language: the Father’s intent is that Jesus be honored even as the Father is honored.

The kind of honor given to one must be the same kind of honor given to the other. How can this be? Why is this? Because the Father loves the Son, and because they are so intimately united.

The Father has such deep affection for the Son, and vice versa. They are so intimately united that the Father could not stand for any other arrangement.

All judgment will be given to the Son so that all will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. In fact, the bond between Father and Son is so intense that Jesus gives a warning at the end of verse 23.

To Miss Jesus Is to Miss God

Look at the second part now: “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.” Here’s a sobering declaration to every Jew and to every religious person: he who says he loves God, seeks God, but does not love or seek Jesus Christ—you do not honor God at all.

“He who says he loves God but does not love or seek Jesus Christ — you do not honor God at all.”

If you do not honor his Son with the very same honor, you cannot make a mistake about this. Because the Father has sent his beloved Son into the world and revealed the intimate relationship that Father and Son have with one another, there is now no way—there is no way—to honor God or find salvation in God apart from Jesus Christ.

God Is Trinity

God the Father loves his Son, and he demands that you honor the Son with the same honor that you would otherwise give to God the Father. How could this be? How could a zealously monotheistic God—the one who revealed himself again and again as jealous in the Old Testament—tolerate such an arrangement?

It is because God is Trinity. This is the only explanation. God is one God in three persons, each of whom is the fullness of deity, but each of whom is distinct from one another. Jesus is the one God. The Father is the one God. That is why the Father loves the Son so much, and that is why he is determined that the Son be honored just as he is.

“God is one God in three persons, each of whom is the fullness of deity. This is the only explanation.”

They are one. Now, is this a divine mystery beyond our full comprehension? It is. But that does not mean we cannot comprehend this mystery adequately. We cannot have exhaustive understanding. But we can have sufficient understanding based on what Jesus has just declared here.

We learn then, along with Jesus’ opponents, that to miss Jesus is to miss God, and it is to fall under judgment. If you do not honor the Son, you do not honor the Father. But there is a positive application—a positive application of the truth that the Father and Son are so intimately united.

Passing from Death to Life

And this is what we see in John 5:24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life.”

John 5:24: “He who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and has passed out of death into life.”

Notice Jesus’ special beginning phrase here again. He’s emphasizing that what he’s about to say is incredible, but it’s true and it’s necessary for us to believe. What’s the incredible truth?

Jesus promises something to a person who fulfills the two-part condition. What’s the two-part condition? What Jesus first says: “He who hears my word.” That is, the one who listens to my word with the intent to heed it.

This is not just people who have the sound waves go into their ears and it doesn’t really matter what they do with it.

Believing the Father and the Son

No, this is the one who listens to heed, or we could simply say, one who truly believes Jesus’ word and acts upon it. “He who hears my word,” and then second, “and believes him who sent me.” Now, who sent Jesus? God the Father. Jesus has testified of that repeatedly.

But here’s something odd: up to this point in John’s gospel, we’ve heard a lot about believing in Jesus, but hardly anything about believing in the Father. Why now this switch? Why does Jesus say you must believe him who sent me?

The answer is that here again we see the intimate unity of the Father and Son on display. To believe in Jesus’ word, as Jesus has already told us in this gospel, is to believe the Father’s word, because it is one. Jesus only speaks the Father’s word.

“To believe in Jesus’ word is to believe the Father’s word, because it is one.”

Similarly, to believe in the Father means also to believe in Jesus, for you cannot do one without the other—not truly—since the Son was sent by the Father and is the perfect revelation of the Father. Thus, we could paraphrase the beginning of verse 24 in this way: “He who believes in the Father and Son by believing and obeying Jesus’ word.”

Eternal Life — Present Reality

What is promised to such a one? If that’s the condition, what’s the result? Jesus says that person has eternal life. Notice present tense: has eternal life, not “will have eternal life.” He has and he gets to enjoy now the very everlasting life of God that’s coming in his kingdom age.

And if you have eternal life, what necessarily also is true—the flip side? You have forever escaped from God’s judgment. Notice the next phrase from Jesus: “This one does not come into judgment.” He never has his sins counted against him, and thus never enters the blast zone of God’s righteous fury against sin. He’s already free, escaped.

“He has eternal life — present tense — not ‘will have eternal life.’ He has it now.”

From the Country of Death to the Country of Life

What fundamental reality is true for this believer instead? He has passed out of death into life. Already, he has passed out of death into life.

There’s much in the news these days about people trying to cross the southern border into America. I have no desire here to comment on proper border policy, but I do want to ask you this: Why do so many people seek to cross—legally or illegally—into this country? Is it not for the sake of life?

People are coming from places of poverty, misery, and sometimes literal death, and they believe that in America they can find life. Well, in a much greater way, every believer in Jesus was formerly residing in a country of death.

All of us, before we come to Jesus, were formerly residing in a country of death. Death was not merely the final verdict waiting for us in the end. Death was already hanging over us and terrorizing our persons.

Death, by the poison of sin, was our continual experience. Death was the environment in which we lived. But by believing in Jesus’ word, by believing in the Father who sent Jesus, what happens to us?

What happens to any person who does so? A person leaves the country of death. He passes over an otherwise unpassable border from the country of death to the country of life.

There’s no being apprehended and deported from the country of life in Jesus. Once you cross that border, you are forever safe, and you are an inheritor of the eternal life that belongs to that country.

“A person leaves the country of death and passes over an otherwise unpassable border to the country of life.”

An Invitation to Religious People

King, brethren, these words spoken by Jesus in verse 24 are not just interesting observations about God’s salvation. They are an implicit invitation to pass over from death to life by believing in Jesus. Amazingly, Jesus first spoke these words to the Jews who were plotting to kill him, giving them, even in their stubborn wickedness, an opportunity to repent and believe and find life.

Some of them did. Later, many of them did not. They remained in the country of death, and now they are under God’s terrible judgment. Our author John recorded these words for his original audience of Hellenistic Jews, Gentile God-fearers, so that they might not miss Jesus, just be content with their little religion, their religious traditions, and miss Jesus and thereby miss the God they say they love and serve.

He didn’t want that for them. Don’t miss the implication of verse 24 for religious people without Christ. Which realm are religious people without Christ currently in? Are they in the realm of death or are they in the realm of life? They’re in the realm of death.

Judgment hangs over even the religious. They already stand condemned for not believing in God’s Son, for not honoring the Son as they should honor the Father. These religious people may be doing well according to their self-righteous rules, but such do not impress God in the slightest, nor do they impress Christ, to whom all judgment has been given.

“Judgment hangs over even the religious. They already stand condemned for not believing in God’s Son.”

John’s intent for his original audience is surely that they would not remain condemned in mere religious tradition but might find Resurrection life—eternal life—in Jesus. And God’s Spirit has the same merciful intent for all of you listening today.

Application: Do You Honor the Son?

What do you think about the man Jesus? Was he just a good example, a holy religious teacher? Is he something more than a man but not quite equal to God—just an exalted angel or something? Do you believe, in fact, that Jesus is the Son of God and the only Savior from sin?

You do well. But what does that mean for your life? Is Jesus just an afterthought for you—a convenient ticket out of eternal death, but that’s all? Is Jesus the one you go to for comfort and help during times of crisis, but otherwise you don’t really pay attention to him?

Do you see Jesus the way the Father sees Jesus—as the supremely beloved Son, as the explainer of God, as the Fountain of Living Water for all of God’s people? Not just to be drunk from once and then you forget about him, but you drink from him continually.

As we’ve seen, Jesus declares that those who do not honor the Son do not honor the Father and thus stand condemned. Do you honor God’s Son? Do you honor God’s Son with more than church attendance, singing songs on Sunday?

Have you actually repented of your sins for Jesus’ sake, out of a desire to honor the Son? Have you turned from everything that dishonors Jesus, dishonors God? Have you given that up? Have you given up all your efforts to earn your own righteousness? Because if you don’t, you haven’t honored the Son.

He says, “I’m the one who does everything for you.” If you try to add to that, or if you say, “That’s nice, Jesus, I can do it on my own,” you have not honored the Son. You must trust in his perfect life, his perfect death, his perfect Resurrection as the only thing—as the only one—to make you right with God.

“You must trust in his perfect life, his perfect death, his perfect Resurrection as the only one to make you right with God.”

Have you done this? Have you indeed repented and believed in Jesus? If you have, do you now—can you now—testify that Jesus’ own heart beats with yours, and you could say, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me”? That’s what we previously saw in John 4:16, right? That’s Jesus’ heart, and it becomes the heart of all his true disciples.

Is that your heart? Do you get such satisfaction out of knowing Jesus, knowing him more, becoming more like him, doing what he called you to do? He has sent you. If you belong to him, he sent you to make him known in the world, to serve his people, to obey his word.

Do you delight to do that? You’re not perfect. No Christian is. But you are continually pursuing him because you love him.

Remember, it is not those who merely hear Christ’s word with their ears who have eternal life, nor is it those who merely affirm with their mouths Christ’s word who are saved. It is those who heed Christ’s word, who prove themselves doers of his will. Those may have confidence of eternal life—not just in the end, but now.

Where are you today with the Lord Jesus Christ? If you’ve fallen short at all of what we’ve seen here in God’s word, then repent and believe. If you will do that, then immediately you can come to enjoy by faith this magnificent Savior.

There is no one like him in all the universe. He is the Lord. He is the Christ. He is the Son of God.

The Magnificent Grace of Trinitarian Fellowship

And if you believe in him, he is yours now and forever. Consider how incredible this is. Jesus has allowed us to peer into the Trinitarian relationship with his declaration so far in these verses. It is a love relationship that is deeper than anyone that we can know.

And yet, by faith, Jesus says, “And now you can be part of it. You become attached to me by faith. I am in you, and you are in me. But I am in God.” And this is the intimate love relationship we have. Now you are in God, and you get to experience this love and intimacy—the very love and intimacy of God with God.

We dusty sinners can be part of that. That is the magnificent grace of God. That is the astounding revelation that Jesus has brought, recorded for us in this word: that life of knowing and walking with and enjoying intimate relationship with God—it belongs to all believers.

“Now you are in God, and you get to experience this love and intimacy — the very love of God with God.”

Was that yours by faith? It can be. Jesus has much more to declare about his own Divine Sonship next time. We’ll look more at the amazing honors that the Father has stored up for his Son in the future.

And then after that, we’ll look at the clear testimonies, the clear evidence that Jesus really is God’s Son. There is no excuse. This is no ambiguous reality. No, it is quite clear, and the only reason we would not see it is because we do not want to. We’ll talk about that more in the coming weeks.

Closing Prayer

Let’s close in prayer. Lord God, there is so much about you that is beyond our comprehension. Your greatness is indeed like an ocean, and we just grab buckets full from the revelation that you’ve given us. And yet, even this bucketful is so wondrous.

How magnificent is the Son! How magnificent is Jesus Christ! In one sense, just an ordinary man—nothing special about him. And yet, in another sense, the most extraordinary man, the most extraordinary being that we could come to meet: the God-man, the beloved Son of the Father, the one in Trinitarian union and infinite love relationship.

You have revealed the Son to us. How could we neglect such a great salvation? Then how could we look at the Son and all that you declare about him in the word and say, “That’s nice, but I’ve got something else”? Forgive us. Forgive us for where we have not honored the Son—certainly in our fundamental sinful living and unbelief in our previous way.

But even, Lord, after coming to believe in you and believe in your Son, how we have drifted away from honoring the Son. We become more concerned about our own honor. We become judges ourselves, and we say, “You’ve not treated me well; therefore, I will judge and punish you,” instead of remembering and believing that all judgment belongs to the Son and that he’s the one worthy of honor, not us.

Lord, forgive us. We are turning from that. We are turning from being so mesmerized by that which is ultimately not great—the little toys and things of this world—instead of the eternal God. Lord, we come back to what is eternal life: that is knowing you.

We want to know you. We want to make you known. We want to be obedient to you. We want to heed your word. And we trust, by the power of your Spirit, you will cause us to do this. You will empower us to follow after your Son.

That is what we pray for, Lord. But we pray for it by faith, with the expectation that you will fulfill your word. Lord, we know that we are forgiven in Jesus. We claim that. But, Lord, we also know that we are empowered in Jesus to know and follow after him. So we claim that as well.

Let the people of this church, let everyone who’s heard this message today, truly believe and then walk a life that demonstrates that belief—that knows and experiences the eternal life and wants to make it known. Lord, do this for your own glory. Do this for the glory of the Son. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s stand together as we sing our last song.

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