sunday sermon snippet 26 July 2026
For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things. (John 5:19b)
This week’s posting of the Sunday Sermon Snippet comes from this past Sunday’s sermon on John 5:19-23, entitled, “Are We Amazed?”
The title springs from John’s story, and Jesus’ words, in this portion of Scripture. For contained within are ample reasons for why we should be filled with wonder, awe, and amazement at Jesus as we listen to Jesus.
I’ve included a portion of the sermon below…
…and if you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
Jesus is the LIFE giver
“Haven’t you ever seen a loving Father working side by side with his Son, teaching him, showing him the way to do something — mow a lawn, turn a wrench, make a birdhouse, grill a burger. The joy on the Father’s face, the smile on the son’s? Well, my Father loves me, it’s why he shows me everything he’s doing, why he invites me into the work he is doing, as his Son. And so I’m equal with the Father, but also subordinate — I don’t do anything he wouldn’t want me to do.”
“And you seem to be all in a tizzy about me healing a man, and doing it on the Sabbath. But my Father is always working— Who do you expect to hold up the functioning of the universe were he to stop working?— he’s doing things like a healing miracle, Sabbath or not. And you think that’s something? I will show you greater works than these, because my Father has greater work for me to do. You see, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wants.”
Oh friends! How startling is that last statement?! How thrilling is this!?
Jesus is making clear that he is the life-giver. And why is this important? Because the biggest problem that billions of people across this globe — believing in false gods and false religions, misunderstanding God and Jesus — have is death. It has entered into the world, and it is inescapable. It has affected every single living thing at a cellular and molecular level. Everything and everyone dies. One-hundred percent mortality rate. In Adam, all die: we enter this world spiritually dead. We enter this world and the clock on our physical existence immediately starts ticking down from whatever amount of time God has determined we will have in this age. We all know this instinctively, and it terrifies us if we give ourselves a moment’s chance in the quiet places to contemplate it.
Are you aware of the new trend among the hyper-wealthy around the world? A small group of entrepreneurs, celebrity scientists, social-media influencers, and actors over the last few years have spent a combined $13.5 billion to launch a few hundred start-ups to achieve, well, in the words of one of them, “I want to make aging (and thus, death) optional.” They are trying to figure out how to turn back cellular break-down. They believe they can make it possible to live forever. Pretty bold, yes?
And here’s the thing — that’s actually a big problem, if they actually achieved that, because it’s not actually solving the real problem. Do you remember what happened back in the Garden of Eden when man sinned, and because of that sin of pride, of wanting to be God, death entered into the world? God exiled man from the garden so that he would no longer have access to the tree of life. And that was a mercy, brothers and sisters, because God did not want us locked into living forever and being sinners at the same time.
I mean who wants the life we are all currently living—in a fallen world—to go on forever? I mean…really? Eternal lust, eternal malice, eternal greed, gossip, gluttony, sexual immorality, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, jealousy, anger, selfish ambition, drunkenness, lawlessness, murder, lying, pride, ingratitude, corruption, oppression, war, conflict, deception. Really? Do we really want that forever? Do we really want “aging to be optional” so we can live like this forever? Of course not. And God knew that would be a curse with no deliverance, and so he exiled them from access to the tree that would give them physical, eternal life. And he did that, so that he could actually then begin the mission to give them life. Spiritual life. And this is a work that the OT Scriptures taught again and again in relationship to God. That he was a life-giver.
Deut 32:39 See now that I alone am he;
there is no God but me.
I bring death and I give life;
I wound and I heal.
Jer 2:13 For my people have committed a double evil:
They have abandoned me,
the fountain of living water,
and dug cisterns for themselves—
cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.
Ezekiel 37:3-6 Then he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I replied, “Yahweh GOD, only you know.”
4 He said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of Yahweh! 5 This is what the Yahweh GOD says to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will live. 6 I will put tendons on you, make flesh grow on you, and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you so that you come to life. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.”
So again—and I love this!—Jesus doubles-down. They accuse him of saying he is equal with God. And so Jesus boldly declares, “Yup. Just like my Father, the Son also gives life to whom he wants.” (v21)
And you know what? I’ve seen something I’ve never seen before, reading this sentence from Jesus. I’ve seen before that he speaks to his authority as the Son to give life to whom he chooses. But look closer. He gives life “to whom he wants.” The word for ‘want’ there is θέλει. It means to will, wish, or desire. And it also means to enjoy or receive pleasure in something.
And the NIV beautifully draws that out: “…the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.”
Hear this, friend! We do not have life in ourselves (v26, we’ll talk more about that next week). We don’t create life, didn’t bring ourselves into this world. This life is a gift, and even more-so, eternal, condemnation-free life! And there is absolutely nothing we can do in our own power for that. And there is no amount of money we can gather to buy it. And here Jesus makes clear that it is not some duty-bound burden and oppressive submission and grinding obedience that he displays as the Son to his Father: “OK, if I have to, if I have to pick who’s on our team, I guess I will…” Anyone been there, the last one picked for the roster? Riding the end of the bench? Because there’s some rule that everyone has to have a chance to play and be on the team? That is not what’s happening here.
Jesus chooses, and it is a joy for him.
Jesus picks, and he loves it.
He takes pleasure in it.
He is pleased to do this, to give life to those whom he chooses. He looks at you, and says, “Oh, heck yeah! I’ve been waiting for this. Come on! Join the family, welcome into life, into the joy of your Master and Maker, right now! Experience life, right now.”
If you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
