Hey, I'm glad that all of the kids are in the
service today. It's like one big family for those
that showed up. But yeah, we love to have the
kids in together. And one of the reasons I love
it is there's so much energy in the room when
the kids show up, right? And sometimes that results
in a lot of noise, and that's okay. We're okay
with noise. So if you have kids, you're used
to it. If you don't have kids, you'll be okay.
You got this. We're going to push through today
all together. So as Jared shared, our vision
for children is Christ -like kids that look to
Jesus. So before we go any farther, that's actually
a good thing for all of us. All of us looking
to Jesus, not just for the kids, but that is
the vision. Let's pray and ask God to really
just press into our lives this morning as we
open God's word. Lord, we come before you as
a bunch of people that are broken and a mess,
if we're really honest, and we need you. Lord,
I'm reminded that in the Beatitudes it starts
off with those who are poor in spirit. That's
where we start. And so, Lord, we want to just
lay before you the fact, acknowledging the fact
that we are all a bunch of dark -hearted, black
-hearted, jacked -up sinners in need of grace.
And so we just come before you and say, help
us. Help us, Holy Spirit, to see. Lord, we want
to look to you today and fix our eyes on you.
Will you help us do that as we open your word?
Amen. So this morning, the title of this message,
which I sometimes don't do titles, but I'm going
to do one this morning. We're just going to be
in John. We just plow right through a book of
the Bible, which is what we're doing. But it
really, if I was going to give a title to this
message, it would be simply, Look to Jesus. That's
a theme, that's a message that we all need. No
matter where you're at, no matter what's going
on in your life, you and I need to look to Jesus.
That's where it all starts. So let me tell you,
I want to share with you a little bit of my story,
which I haven't done a lot, but just how I came
to know Jesus. So I'll take you back to six years,
I was six years old. I was the cutest little
six -year -old I ever saw. No, I was kidding.
I was six years old. I grew up in the village
of Ruby. Started in Cantwell. My parents were
missionaries out there. But back then, believe
it or not, we had no electricity, no running
water. We lived off -grid before off -grid was
cool. But once in a while, we had a generator.
Once in a while, they'd fire that up and they'd
show a movie. And the town would come to the
movie because there was no TV. And I remember
that one night, they had this movie, and I don't
remember all of the details of the movie, but
it scared the, I don't know, dangerous saying
this, but it literally, it's how I referred to
this movie in my life, is it literally scared
the hell right out of me as a kid. I saw my spot,
that if things didn't change, I was going to
be in hell someday. And for little six -year
-olds, I knew one thing, that I needed help,
I needed a Savior, and I needed to look to Jesus.
That's all I knew, my little fragile mind, but
I was scared. Like, I don't know if that's the
best way of going about trying to get somebody
to meet Jesus, but it's my story. And in that
bedroom, that night, as I talked to, I remember
it was my mom or dad, it didn't really matter
at this point, but I laid in my bed, and I asked
Jesus to be my Savior. That's six years old.
So that's the first little moment that I remember.
But I'll tell you straight up, it was real. It
was real for me. I didn't understand all the
details, but there was something that changed
as a little six -year -old boy. Fast forward
to I'm 10 years old and my baptism. Now, I remember
because it was three weeks after. I can't really
see it. It's kind of old school picture. But
I was 10 years old, and that was three weeks
after the ice had gone out on the Yukon River
in front of Cochrane Hills Bible Camp, which
we got to spend two months or whatever it was,
a month and a half every summer. And I knew in
this, I didn't know a lot, but I knew that being
obedient in baptism meant that my eyes needed
to be fixed on Jesus as my Savior and my Lord.
And it was being obedient to that. At 12 years
old, in that same bedroom that I had prayed and
asked Jesus to be my Savior, I can distinctly
remember talking to Jesus. Still gets me. I felt
clearly in my heart that God was... Jesus was
speaking to me. And I can't, I can't, I don't
remember if it was how it happened or what, but
I can remember these words. Caleb, I have a plan
for your life. It's powerful. I have a plan for
your life. Keep looking to me. In that little
bedroom. So parents, by the way, God speaks to
your kids. It's pretty powerful. Didn't me, I
vividly remember, I could tell you what, where
I was standing in the room when that happened.
At 15, almost 16 years old, I was sitting on
the bank of, in a boat, on the bank of the Yukon
River, right at the spot that I was baptized.
Right there, it's not up there anymore, but in
that water, I was sitting in the boat, and I
was having a conversation with God. By the way,
kids, you can talk to God, do you know that?
He wants you to talk to him. And so I was talking
to God, like I was having a conversation. Maybe
it sounds weird, but I felt like Jesus made it
very clear to me in that moment that he wanted
a personal relationship with me. Not just a transactional
thing that I had done, that yes, God, you're
way out there, but that he was coming toward
me and wanted that relation to be personal. And
so that summer, when I was 15, almost 16, in
that boat, God broke in to my heart. And I knew
that he wasn't asking me just to look to him,
that he was looking at me. Pretty cool. I believe
our text today is calling us to look to Jesus.
That's what it's about. It's calling us no matter
where you're at, no matter what part of life
you can be six years old, kids, or you could
be 60 years old. God may be calling you and saying,
he's telling you today, look to me. Look at me.
Look to Jesus. So we're going to see in these
verses, and they're kind of hard verses to unpack,
but we're going to do our best. But they're going
to see three things, three chunks in this, three
things about what what it means to look to Jesus,
what looking to Jesus tells us. Okay, first one
is this. We look to Jesus to see the Father.
We look to Jesus to see the Father. And number
two is we look to Jesus to find real life. Real
life. Not this thing we call existence we live
in right now, but real, purposeful, meaningful
life. And then the third is we look to Jesus
to see our future. Probably the one we don't
talk about a lot that's in this text, though.
So last week is the first part of chapter 5.
We saw that Jesus revealed himself. If you remember
that sermon or that section in the first 18 verses,
is that Jesus reveals himself. He's in this conversation
with the religious leaders, and he reveals himself
as Lord. He gives himself authority. He demonstrates
his power and authority through healing a lame
man, but also he says, this is my role. I'm in
charge. He's making himself, in those verses,
equal to God. He said, I am God. I'm part of
the Trinity. I'm part of, but when you look at
me, this is what you're seeing. Now, that's a
pretty strong statement. Remember what John,
the beginning of John chapter, you can flip there
if you want to. John chapter 1, verses 1 through
4 says this. In the beginning was the Word. That's
Jesus, right? That's what he's talking about.
This is John kind of introducing this book to
us. And he says, in the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God. Key word, circle that
one if you don't have it. With God, and the Word
was God. He was with God in the beginning, and
all things were created through him. And apart
from him, not one thing was created that has
been created. In him, that's Jesus, was life.
And that life is the light of man. Okay, those
are really important words that John wants us
to see right out of the chute in the Gospel of
John. And then chapter 5. what we're in right
now, Jesus is making the same exact claim that
he did in, that John talks about in chapter 1.
These are pretty massive claims. C .S. Lewis,
you probably have heard this, but C .S. Lewis
says that these claims, the claims of Jesus,
what he says about himself, like what he did,
what he declared about himself, can only mean
one of three things. Number one is that he's
a lunatic. These claims are so big and so massive
that he's, if this is not true, he's a lunatic.
And the lunatic literally means a mentally ill
person, an extremely foolish and absurd person.
That's what it means. So that was number one.
Or he's a liar. Probably a little bit of both.
He's a liar. He's a person who tells lies. That's
what it means. He's a person who tells lies.
He's lying about who he is. In this case, he
says, he's lying to us that he's God because
he's very clear about it. Like, I'm God. Or,
he is Lord, number three. And really kind of
what we face in this is, which one do we believe?
Because you can't go through life knowing about
Jesus and not... fall into one of these three
things. You can act like it, but if you don't
take number three as he is Lord, that means he
is master or ruler over all things, having power
and authority, because that's what he claims
about himself. You're either then saying, well,
he's probably a lunatic or a liar, or you just
act like you don't care. That's what C .S. Lewis
goes after us. And he says, and I think he's
right. See, the Jewish religious authorities
totally got these claims about Jesus. They totally
understood what he was saying about who he was.
That he has authority. And that's why they wanted
to kill him. Because they did not believe he
was Lord. But these claims are so massive that
how dare you make those claims that you are a
heretic. And the only way to deal with that was
to kill you. That's where they fit. And so you
can kind of see the tension. So, man, Jesus is
all like, you don't think of Jesus as this gentle
little flowing blonde hair person. This is a
warrior type because what he does here is he
made these claims like he's. He's drawn a line
in the sand with these religious leaders, knowing
full well that these are the ones that are going
to kill him. And he just kind of lays it out
there. So look at verse 19. Jesus is about to
take it, that first claim we saw in verses, in
the first chunk of 18 verses, and now he's going
to take it to a whole other level. And the claim
Jesus is going to make about himself is that
he's going to claim that he and the Father are
going the same direction. Okay, so look what
he says. Look at verse 19. Jesus replied, truly
I tell you. Now I don't know, some of these,
we may have a slight version, variation, but
look at your Bibles. Truly I tell you. Truly,
truly, that means like, get it, big explanation
point. He's like yelling at them, is kind of
that approach. Truly I tell you, the son is not
able to do anything on his own, but only what
he sees the father doing. For whatever the father
does, the son does likewise, does these things,
likewise does these things. For the father loves
the son and shows him everything he is doing
and he will show him greater works than those
so that you will be amazed. Okay, what's he saying?
Jesus in these verses claims total equality with
God by claiming total dependence on God. The
claim is that we see two hearts beating as one,
God the Father and God the Son beating as one.
They don't do anything in opposition. That's
what he's saying. Verse 20, that's what we see
in the first part, but in verse 20, we see the
motivation of those two hearts that are beating
together. And that is, for the Father loves the
Son and shows him everything he is doing. The
father loves the son and shows him everything
he's doing. There's a relationship between God
the father and God the son. And this is, the
more you understand about who God is and what
he's done, the more you understand how big Jesus
is, it changes every aspect of your life. And
so one of the commentators says this, preaching
the word commentator says this, the word translated
love in there, the father loves the son. The
word translated love here is not the expected
word agape, which is normally used to describe
the love of the Godhead. Rather, it is the term
for friendship love. Phileo. For our human level,
we understand this is a personal love between
friends who delight in sharing everything. Jesus
is a... separate person and he has has power
to act on his own but by true by by virtue of
the love and identity within the godhead he does
not does no action that the father does not also
do okay what do i mean by that two hearts beating
is one so what jesus is doing is what the father
is all about so what does this mean for us That's
kind of a heady theological thing going on there.
What does it mean to us? It means we look to
Jesus to see the Father. We look to Jesus to
understand who the God is. Jesus is the visible
image of the invisible God. That's why he came,
verses 1 and chapter 1, in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. And then it goes on to say he came
and set up his tenth among us. God of the universe
came to you. And as you look to Jesus, you see
the motivation of the Father. You see what's
going on. He's a visible image of the invisible
God. He's a perfect window into God's heart.
You want to know how God's heart beats? You look
at Jesus. Now, let's look at the second point.
We look. to Jesus to find real life. Look at
verse 21. And just as the father raised the dead
and gave them life, so the son also gives life
to whom he wants. The father, in fact, judges
no one but has given all judgment to the son
so that all people may honor the son. just as
they honor the father anyone who does not honor
the son does not honor the father who sent him
truly i tell you anyone who hears my words and
believes him who sent me has eternal life and
will not come under judgment but will pass from
death to life truly i tell you an hour is coming
and and now is now here when the dead will hear
the voice of the Son of God and those who hear
will live. Jesus moves from his relationship
with the Father to his responsibility. Why is
he here? What's he doing? He explains it in two
parts. One is this. He gives life. That's the
first thing he tackles. He gives life in this,
and then he executes judgment. Stop pinching
the baby, by the way. It's important to understand
that In Jewish theology, both of these belong
exclusively to God. So to make the claim that
you give life and you bring judgment, that means
you're saying, I truly am God. The only person
who would do that has to be God. So Jesus right
there says, look at me. Look at me, radiant,
because I'm the one who gives life, and I'm the
one who brings judgment. Look at this first one.
He gives life. Look at verse 21. Just open your
Bible. I don't know if they're up on the screen,
but look at verse 21. It says, and just as the
father raises the dead and gives them life, so
the son also gives life to whom he wants. And
then verse 25, he says this, truly I tell 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. When Jesus is talking about
the dead in these verses, because he's going
to do it different in a couple more verses. But
in these verses, he's talking about those who
are spiritually dead. The spiritual dead are
those who walk through life and they are numb
to Jesus. Numb to Jesus. They don't care. Broken
and separated from God and really don't want
nothing to do with God. They are living for themselves
and that's all that really matters. That's what
he's talking about. Those are spiritually dead
people in this. That's the term. You and I may
have been there before. Maybe you're there right
now and you're like, I don't know why I'm here.
But at some point, life had to come to you. Belief
had to step in or you're not yet a follower of
Jesus. And we live in a world where there are
lots of spiritually dead people. Ephesians 2
verse 1 says, you are, and you were dead in your
trespasses and sin, meaning your sin, where you
were, had you in a spiritually dead state. To
be, to the spiritually dead, Jesus says, he is
the authority to give life. That's what he's
saying here. He has the authority to give life.
Verse 25, those who hear will live. This is what
happened to me at age six in my living room,
my bedroom. I didn't understand much, but I knew
Jesus was calling me to himself. And in that
moment, God broke in and life happened. This
is... We're going to look at verse 24, and this
is really key. Look at verse 24 with me. Truly
I tell you, anyone who hears my words and believes
him who sent me has eternal life and will not
come under judgment but pass from death to life.
I didn't have the answers when I was six. I didn't
understand hardly anything, but I believed. A
new birth in Jesus happened. My question this
morning, I don't care how old you are. I don't
care if you've been to church your whole life
or come and go every so often. Have you, but
has this happened for you? Has Jesus broke in?
Romans 10, 9 and 10 says this. If you confess
with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe
in your heart, that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved. One believes with his heart,
resulting in righteousness, and one confesses
with his mouth, resulting in salvation. Guys,
it's simple. It's hard. But what we're confessing
with our mouth, that what Jesus did on the cross,
was for me. He hung there on the cross, took
all of your sin, all of my sin, own it. My sin
upon himself, that... little black -hearted,
dark -hearted sinner that I am. He said, Caleb,
I got all of that. And I'm paying the penalty
for that. And I'm dying in the place. And then
he died. And he conquered Satan and sin. And
he went into the grave. But he didn't stay there.
He resurrected. That's why in baptism we have
a show going into the water, identifying in the
death. That Jesus died, that he took my sin.
And when we come up out of that water, it's a
picture of the resurrection of Christ. Because
of the resurrection, I have life in Christ. If
I say, Jesus, I want you. Jesus, I want that.
And so confessing with your mouth is literally
saying, Jesus, I want you to be Lord of my life.
I know that you're my savior. And now I know
that you're my Lord. I don't even have to have
all the theology figured out. I have to have
all the answers. So Jesus says he is the source
of eternal life, but he's also the one who will
execute judgment. We don't like to talk about
this side. He's the one who's going to say, bring
judgment on those who do not believe. The third
point in this. Three parts of these verses is
this, that we look to Jesus to see our future.
We look to Jesus to see our future. Jesus is
claiming authority over what is to come. That's
what's going on here. Look at verse 26. For just
as the Father has life in himself, so also he
has granted to the Son to have life in himself.
And he has granted him the right to pass judgment
because he is the son of man, meaning he's God.
Do not be amazed at this because the time is
coming when all who are in the graves will hear
his voice and come out. So now, before we go
any farther, this is a shift in debt. Now he's
talking about those who are passed on, who are
physically dead. Do not be amazed at this because
at a time is coming when all who are in the graves
will hear his voice and come out. Those who have
done good things to the resurrection of life
and those who have done wicked things to the
resurrection of condemnation. Okay. What Jesus
is saying is there will come a day. where he
will make all things right again. He's going
to fix it. We know this is how the creation,
we have fall, brokenness, redemption. Jesus says,
come. He says, I am life. You look to me. And
then there's a day of restoration. And he's pointing
forward to that. There's going to come a day,
and he's going to make everything right. And
this broken, jacked -up world will be done. Your
struggles will be over. Your addictions will
be done. The stuff going on swirling around your
head, cleaned up. You will be made new. Your
broken body will be restored. He's making all
things new. He's talking about the future where
those who are in Christ, those who have put their
faith in Jesus, will be made new. Verses 28 and
29 focuses on the future day when Jesus returns
to take believers into heaven and to cast unbelievers
into hell. Straight up. Jesus will be the judge
on judgment day. It's so crazy. Jesus is our
Savior, but he's also the one that says, look,
I've offered myself fully to you. I've done everything
for you, but you're rebelling. And so there's
going to come a day where the Savior becomes
the judge. Boom. And it's over. For those who
are in Christ, that means those who've received
Christ will be resurrected to new life. Eternal
life with Him. What we're doing right now is
just a short blimp on the screen of eternity.
It's short. But those who reject Christ, eternal
condemnation, hell. In eternal separation. And
Jesus just says this. He says I claim the authority.
And that's who I am. I'm going to be your savior.
I am your lord. And I'm going to demonstrate.
How much authority and lord I am. Whether you
receive me. Or you reject me. Both are true.
He claims. To have perfect alignment with the
father. Two hearts beating as one. He claims.
That he has the power to give life. And he has
the authority to judge. And he claims. These
claims are massive. And verse 23. Look at this.
Verse 23 tells us. Helps us understand our response
to those three claims. Look what he says. Verse
23. So to all people. So that all people may
honor the son. Just as they honor the father.
So you've got to stop. Before we go any farther,
you think about this verse. He's talking to religious
leaders. He's like, and they honored the Father.
Everything was in claims to that, right? And
Jesus comes and says, so that all people may
honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
Like, you've got to bring Jesus up in your level
of understanding. What he did? is full of all
of God's authority rests on Jesus in this situation.
Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor
the Father who sent him. Our focus needs to be
on Jesus. The one who expresses the action of
the Father. The one who gives us life. And the
one who is our judge. I don't, you know, like,
we need Jesus. We need to look to Jesus with
all of our life, and that's what it means to
honor him. It means to get your eyes off of yourself
every day to go, God, I need you, Jesus. I look
to you. I just, don't be apathetic with Jesus.
Don't be apathetic with Jesus. Don't be lazy.
With your faith. Do you know him? Give him all
of you. That's honor. And those who honor him,
God says, it's different. Psalm 34, verse 5,
our verse. Those who look to the Lord are radiant.
Their faces shall never be ashamed. Where does
shame come from? Sin. It comes from sin. And
so our eyes, our gaze is on, is to be on Jesus
in every nook, corner, aspect of our life. And
I would say, for me as a six -year -old in that
bedroom, not even understanding anything that
went on, hardly, it simply was look to Jesus
and believe. And for those of you, maybe that's
where you're at right now. It may not be six.
Maybe you are six. Look to Jesus. You don't have
to have all the answers. Believe in Jesus today.
Confess with your mouth, Lord, I am broken, I
am a sinner, and I need a Savior, Jesus. Will
you be my Savior? And will you be my Lord? Will
you be the one in charge of my life? Jesus, I
need you today. And all of us, no matter if that's
you or not, maybe you've already done that, you've
walked the road, but we got a little apathetic
with Jesus. Maybe it's time for you just to say,
I need to look. to Jesus with all of my life.
I need to be reminded of that every day. And
that's why we're doing here. That's what we're
doing here today. As Jared, when I were talking
about the vision for children's ministry, he
came up with this idea to take that vision and
put it out on a little bracelet so that as kids,
we can look at it. So kids, I want you to look
at this bracelet. This bracelet right here says,
right there. It says, look to Jesus. Look to
Jesus. And as we were, so he ordered a whole
bunch of these and they, because there's some
sale going, they sent him like 500 in all different
sizes. And so as we were going, I was working
through the sermon today, I was like, this week,
I was like, man, this is my theme too. This is
what I need. So why is it just for the kids?
Now kids, you get one today. On that back table,
there's going to be a whole bunch of these, and
you get one and put it on your wrist, and one
that fits your size. So if you put this one on,
it's going to fall off, right? It's too big for
you. There's one that fits you. It's just the
right size. It's like that big. And it says it.
But why is it the kids will have all the fun?
So it's going to be one for you too. And guys,
this is just a bracelet. All this is is to remind
you, hey, whatever you're dealing with today,
Whatever struggle you're walking through, whatever
joy that you have, whatever challenges in front
of you, whatever is going on in your life, what
do you do? You look to Jesus. Get your eyes off
yourself, and you look to Jesus. So, kids, I
don't know about you, but I'm going to wear one.
I hope your parents do. Anybody else that wants
to wear it? This is not just a kid thing. But
parents, let me just tell you this. What a great
way to have conversation with your kids. Wear
those together. Talk about it together. What's
it mean today to look to Jesus? Matt, you and
I, you wear one. We have this conversation. What's
it look like in your life today to look to Jesus?
That's what we need. We need to together push
one another to say, what does it look like to
look to Jesus? There's a song that as I was working
through these verses that couldn't stop. We're
not singing it today, but I do want to read the
chorus to you. It's an old hymn. And I just was
constantly running around. Why don't you put
it up on the screen? You got there? Turn your
eyes upon Jesus. It says this, turn your eyes
upon Jesus. Why? Every day. I think it's the
start of the song should say, every day, turn
your eyes upon Jesus. Look full into his wonderful
face. And the things of this earth will grow
strangely dim. What does that mean, the things
of this earth? It means all of your challenges,
all of your struggles, everything you're dealing
with. You're tired. And so you do things. You
struggle. You've got a fight going on in your
marriage. You've got challenges with your children.
Children, you're struggling with mom and dad.
You want to do it. There's tension. Our lives
are full of this. What do we do? We look to Jesus.
And the things of this earth, as our eyes are
on him, will grow strangely dim in the light
of his glory and grace. Let's pray together,
okay? Lord, I need you so bad to know how to
navigate this broken world. And I know that I
don't, in my own humanness, don't have the answers.
to know how to do it. Some days I feel like I
got it together. Other days it's just falling
apart. And so I know that I need you. And so
will you help us, Lord, as a church, as people,
to get our eyes off of ourselves and to look
at our Savior, to look at the one who has full
authority and knows the future, who loves us
deeply. Help us to set our gaze there. Help us
to... pursue you like through reading your word
and to having a conversation like i had in that
boat that day or in my bedroom when i had a conversation
with you and you met me there lord help us to
be people who look to you in all things in your
name we pray amen