Today’s passage springs from a dialogue focused on breaking the Sabbath, and moves to a monologue about the person of Jesus and His being the Son of God and Son of Man.
1) Unity with the Father: The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing.
· Jesus does the work God does, even to the manner in which He does that work: perfectly. Jesus is so identified with the Father that He does God’s works.
· The Father loves Jesus, and shows Him all things. Have you seen marvels? You marvel, but you do not believe. You see amazing things, but that does not bring you to Jesus!
· The Father raises the dead (you are dead in trespasses and sins) and gives them life! So does the Son, to whom He wishes. Examine yourself to see if God has granted you to have life from Him. What if you look into your soul and do not find eternal life!?
· The Father gave judgment to Jesus, to honor the Son. Here is an acid test, do you love Jesus? How would you prove it? v.23b. Please call in faith to Jesus as your Lord.
2) The plan of salvation: Hearing and believing, together, result in eternal life. Not hearing, or not believing, excludes eternal life. Here is the central teaching of the Christian faith.
· The believer does not come into judgment! Jesus takes your sin and has already suffered judgment for it. Christians not condemned for sin. Judged for rewards, but not sins.
· The believer has passed out of death into life. A completed fact, presently received, continued in the future.
· Here is the call to faith in Jesus as Savior. The question is “What will you do with Jesus?”
3) The Resurrection: the hour of resurrection is coming and now is. The voice of the Son of God will call us forth. We may think of the resurrection as a future event, but the first fruit (Jesus) has already been raised!
· The people hearing will live. Are you hearing, or just listening? There is a difference between hearing and listening, the difference is in your response.
· Jesus executes judgment with authority. Basis of judgment is works = life of good deeds; evil deeds = condemnation for their evil. Your salvation is proven by the works you produce, by the fruit you bear as a Christian.
4) How do we know these things? We know these things because Jesus said so.
· The Father, John the Baptist, Jesus’ works, and the Scriptures each witness to Jesus. This is not worship of the Bible: Bibliolatry.
· If you believed Moses, you would believe Jesus because Moses wrote of Jesus. If you will not obey the Law of Moses (The Ten Commandments), how will you ever obey Jesus and His commands (The Sermon on the Mount)?
