Note: First we have listed the full passage for today's sermon - John 5:19-44 (NIV). Below it you'll find the slide content.

John 5:19-20 (paraphrase) - So Jesus explained himself at length. “I’m telling you this straight. The Son can’t independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does. The Father loves the Son and includes him in everything he is doing.”

John 5:20-23 - “But you haven’t seen the half of it yet…”

John 5:24 - “It’s urgent that you listen carefully to this: Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father… This person has taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living.”

John 5:25-27 - “It’s urgent that you get this right: The time has arrived — I mean right now! — when dead men and women will hear the voice of the Son of God and, hearing, will come alive…”

John 5:30-33 - “I can’t do a solitary thing on my own: I listen, then I decide. You can trust my decision because I’m not out to get my own way but only to carry out orders.”

John 5:34-38 - “I’m speaking to you this way so that you will be saved… The Father who sent me, confirmed me.”

John 5:39-40 - “These Scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you…”

John 5:41-44 - “I know that love, especially God’s love, is not on your working agenda… How do you expect to get anywhere with God…?”

The Warning
· John 5:37-38 - “The Father who sent me, confirmed me. And you missed it. You never heard his voice, you never saw his appearance. There is nothing left in your memory of his Message because you do not take his Messenger seriously.”
· John 5:44 - “How do you expect to get anywhere with God when you spend all your time jockeying for position with each other, ranking your rivals and ignoring God?”

The Greatest News
· John 5:24a - “It’s urgent that you listen carefully to this: Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge, has at this very moment the real, lasting life and is no longer condemned to be an outsider.”
· John 5:24b - "This person… (WHO BELIEVES what I am saying right now and ALIGNS HIMSELF with the Father) …has taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living.”

God’s Love, Our “Working Agenda”
· Philippians 3:7 (paraphrase) - “The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash — along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ.”
· Philippians 3:8 (paraphrase) - “Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him.”