27
John 5:24-30 PASSING FROM DEATH TO LIFE
Introduction:
Jesus
healed a man on the sabbath day and told him to
take up his bed and walk. As a result, the Jewish leaders
accused Jesus of breaking the law of the
sabbath. They
thought He broke the sabbath by healing on
the sabbath day
and also by telling the man to take up his
bed and walk on
the sabbath day.
The
Scriptures say that Jesus kept every jot and tittle
of the law. Therefore, we know that He did not break any
of
God's laws, not even the law of the
sabbath. He broke man's
interpretation of the law, but He did not
break God's law.
In
our text last Sunday, Jesus defended His actions by
answering their accusations. He did not try to persuade
them that He did not break the law of the
sabbath even
though He hadn't. Rather He defended Himself by declaring
that He is the Son of God. He pointed out that God the
Father in heaven works on the sabbath
day. He said also He
works on the sabbath day doing the works
which the Father
has assigned Him to do.
In
our text do day Jesus continues to answer their
accusations and continues that same line
of defense,
declaring that He is God's Son doing God's
work. I want to
focus your attention on the change from
death unto life that
Jesus speaks about in verse 24.
I.
Passing from spiritual death to spiritual life
V.
24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth
my word, and believeth on him that sent
me, hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into
condemnation; but is passed
from death unto life." The word "verily" means
"truly."
Thus Jesus affirms that what He is about
to say is the
absolute truth. "Truly, truly I say unto
you..." Then He
states that one who hears His word and
believes on God as
the sender of Him has everlasting life,
shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death
unto life.
In this verse Jesus is talking about passing from
spiritual death to spiritual life. He is not talking about
physical death. Physical death is the spirit being
separated from the physical body. The body without the
spirit is dead. When the spirit departs form the body, the
body is dead. That is physical death.
The lost sinner is not in harmony with God. He is
alienated from God. Spiritual death is the individual in a
state of spiritual separation from
God. One can be
physically alive and yet spiritually
dead. As long as his
own spirit dwells within his body he is
physically alive,
but because his spirit is alienated from
God and separated
from God he is spiritually dead. He is dead while he lives.
He is physically alive but he is
spiritually dead.
That
condition changes when one places his faith in
Jesus Christ as his Savior. Jesus said that when one
believes in God the Father as the sender
of Him he passes
from death unto life. Let me put this same true another
way.
When one trusts in Jesus as His God sent Savior, he
passes from death unto life.
This
is not a change that takes place in the physical
makeup.
He was already alive physically.
The physical body
is alive and active as it already had
been. This verse
speaks of a spiritual change that takes
place on the inside.
This change is a result of the new
birth. The inward spirit
is born again. He is no longer alienated from God and is no
longer separated from God. It is now in perfect harmony
with God.
It is born again by the Holy Spirit of God and
now has the Holy Spirit dwelling
within. Prior to this
change his spirit was totally depraved and
totally
rebellious against the will of God. After this change it is
now totally righteous and totally yielded
to the will of
God.
The
body in which this new spirit dwells has not
changed.
It is still depraved and sinful, but the spirit
within has passed from death unto life and
there is a
complete change on the inside.
The
new change that has taken place within is a
permanent change. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
heareth my word, and believeth on him that
sent me, hath
everlasting life.." The new life is everlasting. It is
permanent.
Sis.
her hair, but it is not permanent at
all. Within a few
weeks she has to get another
permanent. But when the Holy
Spirit produces the new birth within a man
it is permanent.
Another
result of this change that takes place within
when one is born again is that this
individual is no longer
condemned before God. (V. 24), "...and shall not come into
condemnation; but is passed from death
unto life." The
fleshly body in which he lives will
continue to sin, but the
inward re-born spirit will never sin
again. Therefore, this
man will never be condemned again. Jesus said he "...shall
not come into condemnation." He has already passed from
that sinful state in which he was
separated from God. That
inward spirit has a new relationship with
God that will
never end.
So it is the inward spirit that Jesus is talking
about in the next verse.
II.
The arrival of a time when men would hear the Son of
God
V. 25, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The
hour is
coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of
the Son of God: and they that hear shall
live."
If Jesus had left out the words "and
now is" we would think
that He was talking about the physical
resurrection of the
dead.
The verse would read, "Verily, verily, I say unto
you, The hour is coming when the dead
shall hear the voice
of the Son of God: and they that hear
shall live." Actually
that statement is true concerning the physical
resurrection.
But
in this verse Jesus did not leave out those word
"and now is." In this verse Jesus told those Jews that the
hour had already arrived when the dead
would hear the voice
of the Son of God and that those who would
hear would live.
He could not have been talking about the
physical
resurrection here because that time had
not arrived. But
the time had come when those who were
spiritually dead would
hear the voice of the Son of God. He was right here on
earth and they could hear his voice at
that very moment.
Those
Jewish leaders and all the great crowd of people
who had gathered there were listening to
the voice of the
very Son of God. Jesus is the Son of God.
They
all had an opportunity to be born again.
They all
had an opportunity to pass from spiritual
death to spiritual
life.
They all had an opportunity to be saved.
But
there was one thing they would have to do if they
would pass from death unto life. They had to do more than
just hear the voice of Jesus with their
physical ears. One
would have to hear His voice
receptively. One would have to
believe that God the Father in heaven is
the sender of
Jesus.
One would have to accept Him as the Savior and trust
in Him for salvation. It was now up to each individual
person as to whether or not he would pass
from death unto
life.
If he would trust in Jesus to be his Savior, he would
pass from death unto life. Otherwise he would remain
spiritually dead.
III. God's Son having self-existant life
as does God the
Father
V. 26, "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath
he given to the Son to have life in
himself." God the
Father, of course, does not need to pass
from death unto
life.
He has life within Himself. His
power to exist as a
sinless being has always been within
Himself. Nobody
created God. He has always existed and He will always
exist.
Even
so, Jesus, the Son of God, has self-existing life
within Himself. His life did not begin when He was born in
the human flesh. He is the Eternal Word of God. He has
always had self-existing life within
Himself. Even after He
would enter into human flesh and indwell a
human body, He
would still have within Himself that same
self-existing
power.
God the Son is Eternal just as God the Father is
eternal.
The flesh in which His Spirit dwells was not
eternal.
His body was produced within the womb of Mary, His
mother.
But His indwelling Spirit is self-existing and,
therefore, eternal.
Thus
He has the power to impart life to others.
As He
temporal life to man in creation, so He
gives eternal life
to those who trust Him as Savior.
IV.
Authority to execute judgment
V. 27, "And hath given him authority to execute
judgment also, because he is the Son of
man." Back in verse
22 Jesus had already told them that God
the Father has
committed all judgment into His
hands. He repeats that
statement here with one additional
thought. He refers to
Himself here as "the Son of
man." Earlier He spoke of
Himself "the Son of God."
But
here He speaks of Himself as "The Son of man." He
places stress on the fact that He has been
born into human
flesh.
He is God. He is Eternal Deity
God. He is the very
Son of God who is equal with God the
Father. Yet He is also
a man, a human being.
This
makes Jesus the ideal person to be a fair and
equitable Judge. As God, He will judge in all fairness and
righteousness. As man, He will understand the weakness of
human flesh. He will understand the pressures that Satan
can put upon a human being. He can understand --- not
merely because He has all knowledge and
all wisdom ---, but
He can understand because He has
experienced every human
weakness except sin. He has experienced the pressure of
every kind of temptation that Satan can
bring to bear on a
human being. He will be one judge who will be absolutely
fair and equitable in every respect.
V.
Passing from physical death to physical life
Then
He speaks again of men passing from death unto
life, but from an altogether different
point of view. This
time He speaks of men coming forth from
the grave. V.
28-29, "Marvel not at this: for the
hour is coming, in the
which all that are in the graves shall
hear his voice, And
shall come forth; they that have done
good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have
done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation."
Jesus
speaks of two different resurrections.
He calls
one "The resurrection of
life." This resurrection takes
place just shortly before the Millenniel
Reign. It is a
better life than that which Jesus gave in
the creation of
man.
That life was temporary. Man
could die. He was told
that if he sinned he would die. This life is everlasting.
Revelation 21:4 says, "...there shall
be no more death."
The
second resurrection will not take place until after
the millenniel reign is over and in this
verse is called
"The resurrection of
damnation." This means that those
are
the ones who will be cast into the Lake of
Fire and
Brimstone.
They will suffer there forever and ever along
with the Beast and False Prophet.
VI.
The Son of God in complete submission to God the Father
In
all of His works Jesus will do everything incomplete
submission to the will of God the
Father. Just as He had
healed the man on the sabbath day in
keeping with the
Father's will, even so it will be in
keeping with the
Father's will for Him to save all who
believe on Him for
salvation.
Then when time for the two resurrections come,
He will raise the dead to life again in
absolute submission
to the Father's will. When men stand before Him in
judgment, He will judge in absolute
submission to the
Father's will. V. 30, "I can of mine own self do
nothing:
as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is
just; because I seek
not mine own will, but the will of the
Father which hath
sent me." The union between God the Father and God the
Son
is in absolute harmony. There is no way that God the Son
would be willing to do anything contrary
to the Father's
will.
Everything that He does --- everything that HE will
ever do, will be in complete subjection to
the Father's
will.
Listen,
when Jesus was born into this world in human
flesh, it was in keeping with the Father's
will. When He
went to the cross of Calvary and was
crucified for us it was
in keeping with the Father's will. When Jesus arose from
the grave and, Himself, passed from
physical death to
physical life, it was in keeping with the
Father's will.
When Jesus instructed that the offer of
salvation be
preached to all men, it was in keeping
with the Father's
will.
Even now, today, it is in keeping with the Father's
will that the gospel be preached to you
and that you be
informed that you can be saved by
repenting of your sin and
trusting Jesus Christ to save you and keep
you out of hell.
It is in keeping with the Father's will
for every unsaved
person here to call upon Jesus Christ and
be saved this
morning.
Conclusion:
But
the final decision rests with you. God
could force
your to call on Jesus and ask Him for
mercy and grace and
salvation, but God is not going to do
that. God wants you,
of your own free choice to turn to Jesus
and trust in Him
for salvation.
Listen,
if you will trust in Jesus right here right now
this morning, Jesus will save your
soul. He will save you
that you right now. You will pass from spiritual death unto
spiritual life and you will never come
into condemnation.
Again, when you come forth from the grave,
it will be in the
resurrection of life and not the
resurrection to damnation.
Jesus will not save you just because I am the
preacher.
Jesus will not save you just because this is a
Baptist church. Neither will Jesus save you just because
you are you. Jesus will save you only if you repent of
your
sin and trust in Him to be your Savior.
Will
you come and trust Jesus today? Will you
who are
already saved come and unite with this
church and give your
life in service to Him?