Life is stronger than death

[0:00] Father, please pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, lead us and guide us into all truth. And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated.

[0:13] I heard what he said, and what he said to me was that if I knew who he really was, I would fall down on my knees or on my face right then, and I would worship him.

[0:28] And that's what he said to me. And when I heard him say that, I said I wouldn't do that. And I'm not talking about Jesus. I'm talking about the guy who was sitting in a chair in my living room.

[0:41] And the guy in the chair in my living room, it was July. We'd had a good period of about, we'd had like three or four or five or a week, or it would have been quite a while of plus 30 weather.

[0:54] He was wearing long jeans. He had a T-shirt on with a plaid jacket over him. Our house was un-air conditioned. And he had been dressed like that without changing his clothes for four or five days.

[1:05] He hadn't had a shower. You could smell him from several feet away, more than several feet away. And he, with all of the seriousness, the mentally ill can be spectacularly serious, just like a Supreme Court judge reading their judgment.

[1:20] And with all of the seriousness that only a mentally ill man can have, he said to me that if I knew who he was, I would fall down and worship him. To which I said something to the effect of, I'm not going to worship you and you need a shower and a change of clothes or something like that.

[1:36] At the time, I was part of a group that had a ministry to those who were mentally ill. Now, I say all of that because I don't know how well you followed what was going on in the gospel text, which I just read a couple of minutes ago.

[1:49] But in there, it's very clear that Jesus claims to be God. Jesus claims to be God. And here's the thing. If you could put up the first point, that would be spectacular.

[2:03] This is coming from John, who wrote one of the four ancient biographies of Jesus. John is an eyewitness to the different things.

[2:13] He's an earwitness and an eyewitness. He writes this early biography when there are many, many people around who could contradict it. There's no contradictions of it. He's recording something which Jesus actually said.

[2:25] And if Jesus actually said that people, the dead can hear his voice, the dead can hear his voice and rise, that he will judge every single human being who's ever lived, that whatever God the Father does, he can do as well.

[2:41] If Jesus said that with complete and utter seriousness, and if he is not God, then he is either a con man or seriously mentally ill.

[2:52] If he's a con man, his con backfired on him because he died in his mid-30s in a terrible, horrible death.

[3:05] If he's mentally ill, it's still tragic the way he died. But the main thing about it is the one thing you can't say about somebody who would say that, just like nobody would say about my friend Bob, sitting there unwashed for four or five days, smelling from feet, many feet away, that I should fall down and worship him.

[3:26] A man like that just needs help, doesn't he? In fact, one of the times in my life when I was very afraid was a little bit after this, and he was still in our house, and he had a big knife, and he was helping in the kitchen, cutting up an onion.

[3:43] He started to get into a real, he got angry about something, and he was a big guy, like, you know, for me. He's like 6'3", 6'4", and he was sort of waving this knife around angry, and I was worried, actually, as to what he was going to do.

[4:00] And shortly after that, of course, he had to be put into the Royal Ottawa Hospital because his psychoses just got too bad. The point of it all is, why should, I mean, if Jesus says these things, and the historical evidence is that he does, if he says this and he's not God, he's either a con man or seriously mentally ill.

[4:23] The point is, we should have nothing to do with him. Nothing to do with him whatsoever, if he is not God. And in fact, Islam is wrong on this because they say that Jesus is the second greatest prophet.

[4:38] The average Canadian who says that Jesus is a good guy, they have a problem with the church, but they love Jesus, they can't possibly be correct. They're well-meaning. The Baha'i who see Jesus as a prophet, they are well-meaning, but they cannot possibly be correct if Jesus says the things that he says.

[4:57] If he is not God, he's either a con man or seriously mentally ill. And we should flee from him. Now, some of you might say, George, I'm more than a little bit confused now by what you've said.

[5:12] Yeah, I get all that that you just said. I get it. But, you know, George, when I was listening to you read that text, what sort of struck me is it wasn't Jesus, right?

[5:24] George, it wasn't Jesus who said he's claiming to be equal to God. That's why the Jewish leaders were upset with him. He didn't claim that. But when, George, isn't it the case that when he answers, does it sort of sound like when he answers that maybe he isn't God, that he's not equal with God?

[5:42] He doesn't say he's equal with God, does he, George? And doesn't it sort of say that he only has these things because God the Father gives it to him? So, George, are you maybe not reading it accurately?

[5:54] Are you sort of reading it out of context? Like maybe the Jehovah Witnesses have something on it, that he's just, he's a man who is sort of like what Islam describes him at, and God has given him these special powers, but he's just a man.

[6:10] Well, that's a very, very good question. And in fact, if there happened to be a Jehovah Witness here today, they might actually say, George, you've completely misunderstood the text. He doesn't claim to be equal to God at all.

[6:21] So let's look. So if you have your Bibles, it's John chapter 5. John chapter 5. And as I said, the story before is the healing of the man.

[6:32] John chapter 5. In verse 17, to explain why Jesus told him to carry, told, you know, why he did what he did, healed on the Sabbath, told the guy to carry his mat on the Sabbath, Jesus says, my father is working until now, and I am working.

[6:46] And the Jewish religious leaders, they understand the grammar and the context. And in verse 18, this is what John says. This was why the Jews, and in the text, it could really be more accurately translated as Jewish leaders.

[7:03] This was why the Jewish leaders were seeking all the more to kill Jesus, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.

[7:14] And those of you, my preaching Bible actually happens to be a red letter Bible. It has the words of Jesus in red. And if you have a Bible like that, you'll see that all of the, what follows is red.

[7:27] So it's, and if you look at verse 19, it begins with so. And in other words, Jesus understands that that's what's going on.

[7:38] He understands what's going on in the minds and the hearts and the affections of the religious leaders. And he probably understands as well the doubts of his own disciples, because making himself equal with God is just not right.

[7:52] And, I mean, they've seen him, I don't want to be impolite, but they've seen him pee and poo. And he claims to be equal with God.

[8:04] That's a pretty big jump, just to be honest. And they've seen him eat, they've seen him hungry, they've seen him tired, they've seen him thirsty. It's a pretty big claim.

[8:15] So Jesus knows what's going on in their thoughts, and that's why it says so. So Jesus now makes a statement about it. And this, the truly, truly, I love the old King James Version, verily, verily.

[8:31] Some of your things say, I solemnly declare. It could also be translated as, amen, amen, and it's a verbal and literary technique to draw attention to the solemn truthfulness of something.

[8:45] And if I was to start saying, amen, amen, all of you who've been drifting off, would wake up, right? Whoa, amen, amen. What, what, is it over?

[8:57] And, and it's, so it's a literary technique, it's a verbal technique, it's a technique to aid, aid memory. And, and so how does he answer? He goes like this, truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing.

[9:17] For whatever the father does, that the son does likewise. Now, you can see right off the bat, it, it does sound, I mean, it, it's a bit confusing, isn't it? It, it doesn't really sound like equal, if he can't do anything of his own accord, and if he can only do what the father is doing.

[9:35] Then verse 20, for the father loves the son and shows him all that he, that he himself is doing, and greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

[9:47] For as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the son gives life to whom he will, the father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the, the, the son, and we'll just sort of pause there.

[10:03] You can see sort of a bit of the problem, right? So first of all, Jesus doesn't begin by saying, yes, I'm equal to God. In fact, if you go on, a Jehovah witness, if they tell you that Jesus doesn't seem to be equal with God, they're correct.

[10:16] They haven't misread the Bible. It's not that they have a weird Bible translation. He actually doesn't say he's equal with God. He doesn't, he could just say, yep, you know, that's me, but he doesn't.

[10:30] And the language is a bit confusing. He only has certain things because the father gives it to him. It doesn't sound like it's equal. So actually, if you could put up the next point, that would be very helpful.

[10:40] It's sort of a big point. And we're going to park here just for a few minutes. But the unceasing love of the father for the son and of the son for the father means that thinking in terms of equality will only confuse me.

[11:01] See, Jesus is a great teacher and he teaches to our hearts. And he knows how our hearts will be easily confused.

[11:11] You know, look, look at verse 20. For the father loves the son and shows him all that he himself is doing. The unceasing love of the father for the son and of the son for the father means that thinking in terms of equality will confuse me, will only confuse me.

[11:33] So what on earth do I mean by that? Well, here's the, it's not a point, sort of a point, but not written down. Equality is medicine, not food. Equality is medicine, not food.

[11:49] Now, this isn't putting down equality. I'm not putting down equality. We need equality, don't we? I mean, there's many times we need medicine. You know, I used to be very prone to strep throat.

[12:01] Before they had antibiotics, I could have died from strep throat. And I needed the antibiotics to get better and to not die. Medicine's a very, very good thing.

[12:12] And there's a very, very big problem of inequality. I mean, in Canada, whatever, a hundred years ago, women wouldn't have had the vote. They needed to become fully equal in the law.

[12:26] Our neighbors to the south of us had slavery up until they had to fight a very, very bloody civil war. over that and many other issues. But that was a very key part of it.

[12:38] And those who were of African American descent, they needed to be free. They needed equality. It's still an ongoing issue in our society. A couple of years ago, I was talking to a doctor, and there had been a bit of thing in the news about some freestanding medical clinic, because you're not allowed to have private medical care, by and large, in Canada.

[13:01] And the arguments were going that you couldn't go to private because there'd be two-tiered medical, that our country would be divided between those who could get better medicine and those who had to go to the socialized medicine.

[13:13] And I mentioned that to my doctor, and he said, there already is two-tiered medicine in Canada. He said, why is it that when a player on the Ottawa Senators needs an MRI, they don't have to wait for a long time like an average Canadian?

[13:26] Do you ever think about that? And he said, you think anybody in the cabinet, at the time it was a conservative government, he said, you think anybody in the cabinet has to wait as long as one of your kids to get a medical treatment?

[13:38] He said, there's already two. Anyway, that's a bit of an aside. Now I've lost you all. The rest of you are just going to be thinking about that, and I've done a bad thing in my sermon.

[13:48] I apologize. So back to the topic. It's not about Medicare. But here's the thing. We need equality. We need medicine at different times, and equality is exactly what we need.

[14:00] People need to be treated equally. And in fact, I would just say that one of the problems we're going to face, and we already see it going on in our culture right now with some of the social trends and the things which are going on, is that we're losing our sense of equality before the law, and we need to be careful about it.

[14:16] But it is, in fact, only the biblical narrative, only the biblical narrative and the biblical worldview grounds equality, because only the biblical narrative, only the biblical narrative, says that every human being that is conceived in the womb is made fully in the image of God and is worthy of equality with all other human beings.

[14:40] Only the biblical narrative, not evolution, not Hindu mythology, not Buddhism mythology, not indigenous mythology, not ancient mythology. Only the biblical narrative grounds equality.

[14:54] And as the biblical worldview is lost in a culture, we will lose equality in a culture as well. Well, so the Bible, I'm not saying, when I say that thinking in terms of equality will only confuse us, I'm not denigrating equality.

[15:07] Equality is very important medicine, and we should never lose it. But deep down, deep down, every human being wants something more than equality. I mean, we want equality, but once we've got equality, we want something more than equality.

[15:25] What do you mean? We want love and intimacy. We want community. We want love and intimacy and community, which is grounded in equality, but is something way more.

[15:38] You see, in the best marriages and in the best friendships, there are rhythms. And there are rhythms of sacrifice and trust, of asking and giving, of command and of being.

[15:54] If I come home someday, and Louise said, I've been to Costco, and there's a whole pile of milk, can you take it downstairs to the fridge? And I said to her, how dare you boss me around?

[16:05] We're equal. Well, that would not go over very well. Nor should it. I shouldn't get away with that, should I? Like if afterwards, you know, I came and complained to people and said, Louise is a little bit upset with me for saying that to her.

[16:21] Not single one of you would side with me, which is right. You shouldn't. I would have been being a jerk. Well, but she commanded me.

[16:34] She asked me. But it's the very nature of all intimacy and all love, of all affection, that there is a request and a sacrifice, a giving and a denying.

[16:47] It's, in a sense, the air that love and intimacy breathes. It's its food. And that's what we desire more than equality.

[17:01] Medicine comes in when that reciprocity and that affection and that intimacy and that trust is broken. But we want to move beyond equality to that which is more.

[17:14] And so it is, we see in this text, that what confuses us in this text is actually the diagramming, the picturing of how intimacy and the unity and the trust actually works.

[17:32] One more example. A couple of years ago, one of my sons was playing indoor soccer and he's just in a house league. And occasionally, his team would play another team and they were, I mean, they're not pros because they're kids, but they're in competitive soccer all year round, probably with special coaching.

[17:52] And it was always, especially in the early days when they're just around 10 or 11 or whatever and they're playing other 10 or 11 year olds, it's actually quite, it was astounding to watch because, and this is partly what makes sports so wonderful to watch.

[18:06] But with these, so, you know, my son and his friends, they would sort of get the ball and then you could tell, okay, you get the ball, okay, what are we going to do with the ball? And so people would start to move to be passed to or to dribble.

[18:18] But that's not how the other trained team worked. It seemed as if the second one of them got the ball, the other four people were moving and rather than them moving to where they could have the ball passed, some of them were moving to where the ball would be three passes later.

[18:37] It was just, it was beautiful to watch. Just all of a sudden, they didn't all sort of converge around the ball or just move near it. Some of them were going there, some of them were going way over there and it would go like this, like this, like this, like this, and in.

[18:52] And, you know, you watch a football play and it's just, it's astounding if you think about it. These 22 guys, 11 on one team and they, and the ball is snapped and they're all moving all over the different places and the next thing the ball goes and it looks and it's just spectacular.

[19:08] When you watch the snowbirds fly, they seem to be moving as if they're one and one person obviously must be some type of initiator but what you don't see is the initiation and the command.

[19:21] You don't see sort of one person doing something and others all trying to catch up. It's as if there's such a trained unity that even though there's one whom they're obviously going to be taking their lead for, you can't actually even tell it when you watch it because it seems as if they move as one.

[19:36] What you're actually seeing diagrammed here is love and intimacy. This unceasing love of the father for the son and the unceasing love of the son for the father so that there is in sense but one will.

[19:54] You see, why is equality a problem for us? What is it we usually connect with equality? If I'm equal, I can do what I want.

[20:06] Isn't that what equal means to us? The sign of equality is independence. The freedom to choose to make our own decisions. Well, as I said, that's an important medicine.

[20:18] You have slavery. There's still slavery throughout the world. You want to give them equality. You want to have it so that they can make their own choices. But what do you want in marriage? Marriage ain't going to work if every day the two of them are saying, we're equal.

[20:33] You can't tell me to do that. That wouldn't even make past the first date, would it? Wouldn't make it past the first date. Wouldn't work in friendship. Doesn't work in husbands and kids.

[20:47] I mean, parents and kids. It just doesn't work. But for us, the sign of equality is independence, being able to do what we want. And that's why Jesus, who is such a good teacher, who knows that equality is medicine and not food, who knows that even in Genesis chapter 3, what they wanted, what human beings wanted when they fell, was to be equal with God.

[21:12] And the sign of being equal with God was being able to do whatever they wanted, even if it meant that God told them not to do it, even if it meant eating of the knowledge, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That equality for us is so deeply connected to independence that if he had said, yeah, we're equal, we would have all been confused.

[21:33] And instead, what we see here is it's almost like a creed. And I was sharing when I was speaking in Parliament Hill Christian Fellowship on Parliament Hill on Friday, I was sharing, you know, if you think about it, if you just think about it for a second, when Jesus was around, they had no Facebook, no iPhones.

[21:55] It was such a different world. And Jesus and these guys, they would have walked from place to place to place and they weren't all checking their Instagram updates, they weren't listening to podcasts, they were just walking.

[22:08] And Jesus must have spent that time going over and over and over simple truths with them, simple things that he said over and over and over. And there would have been a culture that remembered that far better because they weren't filled with the noise that we're filled with.

[22:24] But listen to this text if you understand it in terms of that everything it says about the Father is true of the Son. But it's describing it in terms of intimacy.

[22:34] Go back and we'll read verse 19. 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, the Son does likewise.

[22:48] And our Jehovah Witness friend says, you know, that shows they're not equal. One moment. God makes the sun rise. Jesus just said he does that.

[23:00] God holds the galaxies. Jesus just said he does that. I mean, that's an unbelievable claim.

[23:15] I shouldn't say unbelievable. It is believable. I hope you do believe it. It's an astounding claim. But it's mingled there with this sense of intimacy.

[23:27] The Father, in some ways, is the initiator and the Son is going to do everything that the Father does and it's going to look like the snowbirds fly. It's going to look like an unbelievably spectacular football team or soccer team.

[23:39] It's going to look like a couple where, in a sense, when the couple is really in a good groove and they're really in love and one can sort of tell almost instantly from the other what they're thinking or what they're wanting and they seem to act as one as if there's some type of a unity and that's what's being described here.

[23:57] Verse 20, For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. One moment here. It's saying that the Father is completely and utterly transparent and visible to the Son.

[24:15] and the Son, Jesus is saying that him actually seeing God in his heart and in his plans and in his actions and in his affections does not explode him and unmake him.

[24:32] That he can handle that. And isn't that what happens in, I mean, that's one of the things, will marriage survive the husband discovering what the wife is really like and the wife discovering what the husband is really like.

[24:47] When they see each other when they're grumpy and when they're successful and when they first wake up in the morning it's not a pretty sight in my case if you're looking at me when you just wake up in the morning.

[24:58] You have to look at me. And that's what Jesus is saying. Verse 21, For the Father raises the dead and gives them life. So also the Son gives life to whom he will.

[25:11] This doesn't mean he's willful or just sort of picky. It means that it's just by his will that life is given to the dead. It's in his power to will it.

[25:22] 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.

[25:37] Why? Because whatever is true of the Father is true of the Son. Jesus, God, the Son made flesh is fully God. Fully and completely God in this intimacy of reciprocity and giving.

[25:55] Verse 24, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

[26:16] Present tense. He does not come into judgment and here the word judgment means that you're not going to be judged and found guilty but has passed from death to life.

[26:33] 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. This is a wonderful text.

[26:45] It works on three different levels. It's, of course, on one hand going to be speaking of what's going to happen. I think it's in six more chapters when Jesus, after Lazarus, has been dead for four days, Jesus speaks to Lazarus.

[26:59] Dead four days and Lazarus comes back to life. Not only does he come back to his body but the body that the soul that comes back to the body is not the body.

[27:10] I mean, that body's been decomposing for four days. It's a spectacular act of healing and recreation so that whatever it was that led Lazarus to die has been healed.

[27:21] All of the decomposition is completely and utterly reversed. It's almost, in a sense, like a new body for the soul to come back to and Lazarus hears and is made alive and as we know when the story comes out.

[27:33] But it's not only talking at this level. The Greek is very, very subtle. It's also talking about the fact that every single human being apart from Christ is dead. In fact, the way we tend on one hand, I mean, we tend to think of conversion on one hand as some type of a process and on one level becoming more like, I mean, not on one level, on every level becoming more like Jesus in my day-to-day life is a process.

[28:00] But what Jesus is saying here is that we are all spiritually dead and we need to hear his voice and when we hear his voice and obey and believe that God, in fact, is the father of Jesus, that all of this is the father's, it is the power of God for salvation for all who believe.

[28:18] It comes from God. It is his provision. It is his accomplishment and that when I hear that and receive it, I move from death to life. It is a difference not in degree but in kind.

[28:32] It is the difference between a cut rose and a rose bush planted, protected, well-watered, well-nourished in the ground. Completely different.

[28:43] Difference in kind, not a difference of degree. Verse 25, verse 26, for 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.

[29:05] Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who hear, who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out and those that have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment and here in the text within the overarching context you can see that what brings them out is God's sovereign act in the person of Jesus and so have done good.

[29:28] Goodness isn't the cause of the resurrection to life, it is the sign that they have given their life to Jesus because good works is to flow from saving faith.

[29:39] It is not the cause of resurrection to life or resurrection to judgment, it is the sign of conversion. Now, the only reason we should believe Jesus is if he rose from the dead.

[30:05] Right? This all, Jesus making these claims the only possible reason any human being could have to believe Jesus is that not only does he rise from the dead but that his resurrection from the dead comes within a certain type of context otherwise it is just weird.

[30:25] You know, it would be like a horror movie or something like that where the person shoots somebody in the head and you see the blood splatter story you know, out the back and then you know, a day later they come up and they start chasing you and it's just a horror movie it's just weird it's just creepy it's just crazy and it makes no empirical sense whatsoever.

[30:44] Right? So it's not just that Jesus comes back to life he has to come back to life within a certain context and the context is that of course is that he's made prophecies the context is as we're going to see next week is that he's saying that the entire Tanakh the entire Old Testament is pointing to what's about to happen and the other thing is that it it fits in with our deepest longings and our fears so what do I mean by this?

[31:07] If you could put up the next point that would be very helpful all of the best science proves that death wins and life loses did you know that? We have at least one physicist here you can ask him the first law of thermodynamics wins the Big Bang Theory shows that shows that at some point in time all of the planets all of matter will move so far away that all life will come to an end and cease all of it everywhere doesn't matter if we jump from planet to planet doesn't matter if we are like in the movie altered carbon and somehow or another figure out how to digitalize who we are and keep putting ourselves in different bodies doesn't matter if any of those things happen at some point in time first law of thermodynamics wins the Big Bang wins all life ends all the best science proves it can you put up the next slide but here's the problem human beings have a deep longing for life to be stronger than death and for love to be stronger than death don't we?

[32:18] doesn't every human being feel that there's something just wrong about death? doesn't every human being even when we hear that there's part of us that rebels and says but surely that cannot be so surely life must be stronger than death in fact surely love must be stronger than death and surely don't we sort of have a deep sense that love and life are deeply connected that they're intertwined that life without love wouldn't be life and love without life well what does that even mean that somehow love should be stronger than death life should be and is in some way even though yes the best science proves that that intuition is completely and utterly wrong but shouldn't it be the case doesn't our heart cry out that that should be the case only the biblical narrative explains this only the biblical narrative explains this Buddhism doesn't explain it Islam doesn't explain it and atheism definitely doesn't explain it it's only this biblical teaching that before anything existed the father has loved the son from all eternity the son has loved the father from all eternity only the biblical narrative that

[33:29] God makes all things good and makes human beings in the image of God so that we have a natural desire as image bearers of God to be connected to God and only the doctrine of the fall of how we've turned our back in God and sin has come into the world and death through sin and so death comes but still we have this sense this longing that we should be connected to our creator and it is in the context of such a story and in the context of such intuitions and such longings and yearnings that Jesus comes next point please John tells the true story of the death of death in the death of Jesus John tells the true story of the death of death in the death of Jesus look back to what it says here in verse 26 for as the father has life in himself so he has granted the son also to have life in himself this is a very very important thing because here's here's how it works there's two different ways to think of death with you and me one way to think of it is it in sense as I'm walking through life death is following behind me and I try to jog and I try to eat bread and food that has like lots of grains and sprouted and my wife you know make sure I eat vegetables and stuff like that against my natural desires and so

[35:08] I'm walking along and death is following along behind me but the one thing we know is death will eventually catch me another way that we think of it is that we're going through our life and death is standing there in front of us and in some point in time we meet death and what happens death always wins but what it's saying here about Jesus when it says here that he has life in himself it means that death wasn't following Jesus and death wasn't facing Jesus in a sense it's saying that death knew that Jesus was there and salivates over him but cannot touch him and so it is that it's very very powerful that the way the Bible describes the death of Jesus is the final words of Jesus upon the cross are it is finished which means it is accomplished I have done and accomplished what I with the father's heart had to have accomplished and then he gives up his spirit he enters death death doesn't catch him he enters death and what the Bible describes is that it is the true story of the death of death in the death of Jesus if you could put up the next point and all it is is verse 24 I tell you that the solemn truth the one who obeys my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned but is passed over from death to life it's the present tense because Jesus knows that his victory is coming and he shares it he's speaking from beyond the grave to you and me right now that when we put our faith and trust in Jesus that

[37:03] Jesus who is has life in himself that when he dies he dies having accomplished all that he had to do so that you and I that the condemnation that I deserved is on him the accusations that come against me come on him the shame that troubles me comes on him the life I could not live he gives to me his conquering of death he gives to me the life that will is needed for me to once again live and see my father face to face and walk with him in the garden in the cool of the day he gives to me he accomplishes it all he wins it all he offers it to me and one of the things which is so powerful and precious about this text is that we might say well how is it that even if Jesus died on the cross maybe he dies on the cross for me but he doesn't have the authority to give me life but he does have the authority to give me life because it says it might be well maybe he dies upon the cross but the one who stands in judgment of us is different than Jesus but it says Jesus is the one who stands in judgment upon us and he is the one who died for us and maybe maybe it's the case that that you know that God is doing all of these other things he doesn't know that

[38:16] Jesus is dying on the cross but Jesus knows everything that God is doing he knows everything in his heart he knows everything that's going on and the same one who knows everything that's going on is the same one who dies for us and is the one who promises us that when we put our faith and trust in him that we have that we've passed from death to life that we are no longer cut flowers that we are his if you could put up the final point I cannot honor Jesus too much I mean what Jesus is saying here science tells us that death wins but we see we have this intuition that death cannot possibly be the final word the highest word the deepest word the oldest word the eternal word the everlasting word something within all of us says that cannot possibly be the case and the only way that we can understand that that not is in fact the entire case is because of Jesus where we see the death of death and the death of Jesus and it means that all of our truest and deepest yearnings find their rest in him and and this discussion of the intimacy of God and the fact that he is the creator and the sustainer and and the source of life and that that the fact that life and love in fact are at one and at unity and at peace and goodness and power and beauty and all of the our minds can rest in these our affection can rest in Jesus our fears find their rest in Jesus because of who he is and what he's done and the wonderful thing about

[39:58] Jesus is that no one who comes to him will ever be denied no one who comes to him in the words of verse 24 will ever be thought to be too unworthy no one who comes to him is too little or too unimportant to be passed over because he says that he comes to do it for us he loves the important poobahs in the eyes of the world and he loves the least and there is no one so broken no one so far from God that these words of verse 24 that if you believe and obey that you receive and trust that you will pass from death to life please stand bow our heads in prayer father we thank you for

[40:59] Jesus we ask that you help us to honor him more and more and father we ask that you help us to turn to him that we could come to him with our fears that we will know that we can come to him father with our learn our yearnings and our longings father that we might come to him for life and father we thank you for him we thank you that he died the death that we could not die without coming into judgment that he did that for us he did for us out of love for us father make us disciples of Jesus who are gripped by the gospel learning to live for his glory father draw us to yourself we ask this in the name of Jesus your son and our savior amen