CrossView Community Church

John 5:19–29

Most of us spend our childhood making fun of our dad. Then we get older and realize we are him—same stance in front of the TV, same weird toe-wiggle on the couch, just with more hair.

For some of us, becoming our father would be a gift. For others, it is the thing we are running from. Either way, Scripture does not leave us guessing what a Father is like. In John 5, Jesus pulls back the curtain on His relationship with the Father—and in doing so He answers the tired claim that “Jesus never said He was God.” He said it here. Clearly.

“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.” (John 5:19)

1. Jesus has authority given by the Father

Authority is only as strong as the one who grants it.

In Virginia I can sign a marriage license because the Commonwealth has vested that authority in me. If I walked out of my backyard and decided I “felt qualified,” the courthouse would laugh the paperwork off the counter. At a wedding we say, “By the authority vested in me…” The line only matters because of who vested it.

Same thing with older siblings. “Clean your room” from a sister is easy to ignore. “Mom and Dad said clean your room” is a different sentence.

So when Jesus rewrites how people understood God, Scripture, and obedience, the question underneath everything is: Who sent Him? If the Father is small, Jesus is optional. If the Father is Yahweh—the God who speaks worlds into being, judges the earth, keeps covenant with Abraham, stays with a worthless generation in Judges, brings walls down at Jericho, uses a broken king named David, spares a people through Esther, stands in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and still sends His Son after exile and half-built temples—then Jesus’ words are not inspirational quotes. They are the voice of God.

That is one of the great pitfalls of American Christianity: we claim a heavenly Father and know almost nothing of Him. Ignore the Old Testament and you inherit a thin God. Read it, and you see why Jesus can say, “I do nothing except what I see My Father doing.” He has watched this Father work for thousands of years—mercy and justice together. That is why Jesus will not become unfaithful. God is not unfaithful.

Men: your children will not become what you tell them. They will become what they see. Your words will never be enough.

2. Jesus has authority to give life

The Father raises the dead and gives life. He has given that same authority to the Son (John 5:21). You cannot honor the Father and sideline the Son.

“Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.” (John 5:23)

Plenty of people like a highlight reel of Jesus. Love your neighbor. Don’t commit adultery. Be decent. The Sermon on the Mount sounds manageable until you actually read it. Then you discover it is not a self-help ladder. It is an impossible standard that ends with this: you don’t need better behavior first. You need a new heart.

The Father has life in Himself. Jesus is the go-between.

“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.” (John 5:24)

If you hear His voice in this text, the invitation is not to add Jesus to a life already run by the passions of the flesh. It is to walk from death to life—to stop calling Him only a friend and submit to Him as Lord.

3. Jesus has authority to judge

The Father has given the Son authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man (John 5:27)—Daniel 7’s title for the Messiah-King who will rule creation. An hour is coming when the tombs hear His voice. Some rise to life. Some rise to judgment (John 5:28–29).

Turn on the heresy radar. That verse is not “be a nice person, tithe a little, and you’re in.” Jesus already defined the people who have life in verse 24: those who hear and believe. Faith without fruit is dead. Belief shows up like a tree you thought was finished. Ours looked dead until spring. Then leaves. Then pears. Then a flock of Canadian geese who also believed it was a pear tree. You know what the root is by what grows.

Jesus tells them not to marvel at the title. Marvel at what the Father is showing the Son—“greater works than these… so that you may marvel” (John 5:20). Greater works are coming in John’s Gospel: a boy’s lunch feeding thousands, Lazarus walking out of a grave, the blind seeing. The greatest work is still ahead of that scene: the cross and the resurrection. The path God paved from creation is finished in the Son, so that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That is what should consume you until you cannot help telling the neighbor, the coworker, your kids—or going two hours down the road, or across the world, or out from Crossview to plant something new. God draws straight lines with crooked sticks. Satan has tried rivalry, false teaching, and exhaustion. He cannot stop this.

What will you do with His authority?

It is a good thing that Jesus calls us friends. Scripture says it. It is a thinner thing to leave Him there—an almighty sky-fairy we sing to while we keep the throne.

He is a King. Kings are bowed to.

Jesus does not merely want to be your friend. He is willing to be your Lord and your Savior. And if He is not Lord, He is not Savior.

Today, hear His word. Believe the One who sent Him. Pass from death to life.