sunday sermon snippet 02 August 2026
“I am telling you the solemn truth, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life. I am telling you the solemn truth, 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.”
~ Jesus, John 5:24-25, CSB
This week’s posting of the Sunday Sermon Snippet comes from this past Sunday’s sermon on John 5:19-47. In this portion of the sermon, we focused our attention on the solemn truth from Jesus that ought to leave us gobsmacked; namely, that resurrection life is ours through faith in the Messiah.
I’ve included a portion of the sermon below…
…and if you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
OK, look at v 24. This is what the witnesses are all about — proving this cataclysmic news from Jesus, this declaration of solemn truth, that if, if, anyone hears his word, and believes in the Father who sent him, we have — right now, immediately, in our possession — eternal life! We will not come under judgment! We have — right now, immediately upon belief in Jesus, it is true of us already — we have passed from death, to life!
N.T. Wright: “The miracle of resurrection is taking place inside us, so that, when we finally die physically, that event will be irrelevant to the new life we already have.”
Are you hearing Jesus, brothers and sisters?! Are you hearing this solemn truth, my friends!? Can you handle this truth? God is doing something in the present for those of us who believe in Jesus. He is giving us a resurrection—for isn’t that what it means to pass from death, to life?—we are given a kind of resurrection life in the present that makes our future death irrelevant to the new life we already have in Jesus! And this present resurrection is “so that one may participate, forever, in God’s own life.” (Marianne Thompson)
Hard to believe that from her? Maybe. But listen to Jesus back her up: “I’m telling you the solemn truth, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the [spiritually] dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear (the word means listen and obey) will live.”
Again, are you hearing this!? The Apostle Peter gets even more explicit, saying that we have promises from Jesus “so that through them you may share in the divine nature.” (!!!) (2Pet1:4)
My goodness. What do you say to that? I mean, how do you find an adequate adjective to describe the wondrousness of that? The expectation-shattering reality of that? Maybe supercalifragilisticexpialodocious?
And let’s just admit: this is hard to get one’s head around, participating in God’s own life right now, sharing in the divine nature right now, resurrection life in our lives right now. Which is why I think we are meant to really think on this, to really soak in it. I mean, how much may change in our lives if we truly lived in the truth of this? Brothers and sisters, Christians are immortal beings granted, right now, in this life, before death, to live in God’s own life. It seems that if we were saturated with this solemn truth as we contemplate today, and tomorrow, there is a sense in which we would be freed from being overly anchored in this age.
Chains of anxiety, stress, worry,
of disappointments,
of unrealized dreams and unfulfilled expectations,
should,
have the possibility,
of falling from our wrists and ankles for the shackles they are, popped open in light of these truths.
Paul says it beautifully, writing to the believers in Corinth of what he’s learned, soaking in this, allowing this new life to transform him and change his perspective:
“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.”
Ah…so this present resurrection life and reality is something that has implications that stretch into forever—a beautiful-beyond-imagining place and an age that we will step into because of what Jesus has spoken to us and done in us. Which is exactly what Jesus addresses next….
If you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
