This is the second teaching/sermon in a series on the Final Judgment of Jesus. Divine wrath and judgment in general and the Final Judgment in particular are points of misunderstanding … I am afraid. On the one hand God is viewed as a crotchety old man awoken by his 3 year old grand kid. On the other hand God is viewed as the divine Santa Clause, jolly & doling out divine goodies at your will.

The Judgment of Jesus suffers from similar misfortune. Jesus is pure love, caring his sweet lambs on his shoulders, and always looking to kiss boo-boos. On the other hand Jesus is viewed as the despot, who we must please, lest we are driven to hell yesterday.

The Final Judgment of Jesus, which is actually the Judgment of Jesus, suffered misunderstanding in his own day. If he was to be God’s ultimate redemption, then he must have come bringing THE WRATH. However, this was not the case, as we saw in the previous sermon. He came not to bring ultimate condemnation and wrath. Rather he came bringing salvation from ultimate condemnation and wrath. While this may seem out of step of the angry God of the Old Testament, we will actually see this is in perfect alignment with the expectation of the Old Testament.  Let’s begin in John 5.

John 5:1-17:

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids–blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”

But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’”

They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”

Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place (ESV). 

Before going further in John 5, we must gather an understanding of this story; for this story the word-picture of Jesus’s remarks to the Jewish leadership in the latter part of this chapter.

We have a man that has been physically sick for 38 years. It is not certain the exact nature of his illness, but we must wonder who helped this man get around for mundane functions, such as sleeping, eating, and “going to the bathroom.” For this man, these functions must not have existed merely in the realm of the mundane. At any rate this man was severely limited.

When Jesus asks him if he wants to be healed, that is not such a stupid question. Rather it illustrates the seriousness of his total condition. His invalid state had spread to his heart. He was an invalid in his heart. At what point in Jesus’s encounter with him does he take responsibility for his own condition? He is always blaming other people and placing initiative with other people.

If I were in the same condition, I would most likely be the same way.

Nonetheless, he was pathetic. Even after his outer body is healed, his heart remains an invalid’s heart. In the end of the story he tattles on Jesus. Considering the whole of John’s Gospel, this could have been to prevent him from being “cast out” of his people.

Let’s pick up in  John 5:19:

So Jesus said to them, “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, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works then these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 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 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. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

“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. For as 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. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:19-29; ESV).

The previous story is a word picture of this teaching of Jesus. Jesus heals an invalid, who was completely dependent on others for help. Emotionally, he remains dependent on others to blame for his problems. Yet, Jesus is featured in this chapter as an invalid in the sense of being totally dependent upon the Father. However, Jesus produces the life of God in others with his dependent status. The invalid is just … just there … sucking the life out of you. What did he do with the new life Jesus gave him? He uses his new mobility to seek out the Jewish leadership and tattle on Jesus.

Don’t miss the point John wants you to capture: the Jewish leadership, which claimed total dependence on the Father for their existence was rejecting the ultimate redemption he was sending them in Jesus. They were threatening excommunication to any who believed in Jesus. Not only were they rejecting the life God was sending them, they were sucking the life out of others.

Jesus claims in this passage to be the Son of Man. Yet this Son of Man did not appear bringing wrath and condemnation. He appeared bringing life and life eternal … salvation from wrath and condemnation. The question John want s to ask us is:

What are we doing with the life Jesus has given to us?

  • Are we producing his life in other people?
  • Are we merely existing in the state in which he found us?
  • Are we sucking his life out of other people?

Jesus is not at all at odds with the Old Testament expectation of God’s ultimate redemption. Consider the following passages of Scripture: Isaiah 55, Isaiah 56, & Isaiah 65:

Isaiah 55 is an offer of love and mercy and transformation from the God of the Old Testament to his people … all of his people … even the ones who are rejecting him.

Isaiah 56 is an offer of powerful, transforming grace to people in severely undesirable straits and to willing Gentiles. This chapter is a severe rebuke to his spiritual leaders who abuse their anointed positions.

Isaiah 65 is a vision of the world living under God’s ultimate redemption.

Jesus’s offer of eternal life, life that begins in the here-and-now for all who believe on him, fits in well with the Old Testament’s expectation. God wants to save his people and people who don’t belong to him and people who are “undesirable” far more than he wants to condemn them to the fire of his wrath. Consider the following very familiar words of Jesus:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God”  (John 3:16-21; ESV).

The question is:

What are we doing with the life Jesus has given to us?

  • Are we producing his life in other people?
  • Are we merely existing in the state in which he found us?
  • Are we sucking his life out of other people?