The Greatness of Christ: Part 1

I want to speak to you this morning about the greatness of Jesus Christ and you know as well as I do. We are about to embark on a journey together in this particular section in the Gospel of John chapter 5.

It's as if we are at the shoreline looking at the vastness of a great, great deep ocean. Yet, I like to think of it like this, our ship is ready for the journey, but the question arises, is our ship seaworthy of such vastness?

Is our ship seaworthy? I like to think also what the Apostle Paul says, who is sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient? That's a question that the answer to be none of us really are, if we are sincerely honest.

But yet, the Lord Himself has given us His Word. He has given His revealed Word, revealed in Scripture and as Brother Keith read this morning from Psalm 19, the Word of God is sufficient, isn't it? It's sufficient for all things.

It applies to us and His Word is sufficient and most important, He has blessed us and given us His Holy Spirit. If you are a believer in Christ today, by faith to travel this appointed way in which the Lord has given us.

So we do come this appointed way and where the Lord leads us, He guides us, He equips us. And He gives us His Word, He gives us His promises and as Paul says, it's yes and amen to all His promises. So in saying that, I'd like for us to bow first of all in His presence and seek His face as we ask of His help within this hour of worship as we do come before Him and to hear His Word.

Because we all need Him, don't we? We need the Spirit of God to help us and to show us Christ as we give and bless the Lord. In this hour of worship, that's what blessing is. It comes from God, it goes through us and it comes back to God as we bless Him.

So it's God that's all in all and Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is the mediator, the great high priest. He has brought God to us, He's God come to us, right? Emmanuel, God with us. So it's all in Christ, in Christ alone, but the Spirit of God must reveal this.

And how does He reveal it? Through His Word. But at the same time, even the Word of God must have the Spirit of God apply and give it that power to illuminate us, to give us the light and the heat and to help us in every way to see Jesus Christ and to glorify Him.

So let's bow in His presence and let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we first of all, our great desire is to know more of You. And in worship, Lord, we come because You have commanded it. And Lord, it is our duty to obey it with delight.

Thank You for this day that is set apart. We call it the Lord's Day, Lord, and it comes right from Scripture. Or should I say, You call it. It's Your day. It's Your day, Lord. And we say, hallowed be Thy name, hallowed be Thy name.

We do come before You, Lord. And we come before You, Lord, in reverence, before Your throne of grace, with awe. And we come, Lord, as Your Word has said, boldly, with confidence. Not confidence in the flesh, because the arm of flesh will fail us, oh God.

But we come with confidence in Your Spirit. In Your Spirit that will give us and teach us Your ways. And lead us and guide us with Your own eye. Lord, Your Spirit that always glorifies Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And as it's been said this morning, Lord, it's our desire to see Jesus. So Lord, as we come before Your throne, we come, as the Scripture says, to obtain mercy. Lord, to find grace to help us in time of need.

And we are needy. Lord, I would pray that You would enlarge our hearts today. That we may run the way of Your commandments. To obey Your Word. Just not to be hearers, but to be doers of Your Word. And we ask this for Your honor and glory.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Amen.

Well, there's a lot here. As we come to this portion, this section, from verse 16, all the way to the end of the chapter, to verse 47. And what I'd like to do today is just do a primary overview and touch just a little bit about the quality that the Lord Jesus Christ has with the Father.

That in of itself is deep waters. And that does not even, that's actually the intro, in a sense, of everything else that follows and all that we will be seeing. There's some works in which are lawful to do on the Sabbath.

There are some works that are lawful to do on the Sabbath. It is the fourth commandment. And in that fourth commandment, it is a transitional commandment in worship. As God has ordained that. What I mean by that is that the first three commands is God words of the Ten Commandments.

Then you have the fourth commandment is to keep that day holy. And there's a reason for it because it's in, before the Jews, the Ten Commandments was given to God's people. God was teaching them, this is a commandment of worship.

And it is transitional from God word to man word. And if you notice, beginning with the fifth commandment, it begins by extending horizontally. Everything in God's word is by perfect order. So it's very important for us to understand a little bit what is going on here in the text about the Sabbath day.

The religious Jews, as you well know, we've been looking at, has found fault with the Lord Jesus Christ as He healed this man that was afflicted for 38 years on the Sabbath day. They accused Him of breaking the fourth commandment.

And, of course, we know that Jesus upheld the commandment perfectly. He fulfilled the law perfectly. Jesus has replied to them as if He is saying and paraphrase, though my Father rested on the Sabbath day from His work of creation, He has never rested for a moment from taking care of His world and to supplying the needs of His creatures.

God continually works, and it's works of mercy. But these Pharisees and these religious Jewish leaders looked at this and added to the law traditions. And they literally broke the law. They were the ones that were breaking the law of God.

So, Jesus doesn't break the fourth commandment. We know that. But they didn't know it because they're blinded in their darkness. And when He healed the sick man, and He heals the sick, many more examples throughout the gospel is that any more than God the Father breaks it when He causes the sun to rise and the grass to grow on the Sabbath.

Jesus is not throwing out the fourth commandment by no means. Because why? He is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the Lord of the Sabbath. What He's doing is He's showing and demonstrated us that there are works of necessity and there's works of mercy that are permitted.

And these are good works. And to say that Jesus healed this man that was lame for 38 years and many, many other healings and miracles that He did on the Sabbath day, it was all because of the goodness and kindness and the mercy of God.

But these religious people didn't look at it like that. As we embark on this section also, Jesus teaches about His deity and His greatness. His deity and His greatness. This is huge. He makes the most startling claim ever made.

As John MacArthur puts it, I like that. It's the most startling claim ever made. And He claims that He is one with God the Father in action, in knowledge, in heart, in will. The Father and the Son are one.

Jesus even said this many, many times throughout the gospel. What I see the Father commands and what I see the Father do, I do. He's one with the Father. One with God. Two persons but one God. And as we know, there's the Holy Spirit as well.

Three persons and three in one. One in unity. Never divided, never separated. All working together. They worked together in creation. They worked together in redemption. Never set apart. So, how could He make such an astounding claim?

How can He make such a claim that He is equal with God? Well, first of all, they answered that question because He proclaimed that He possessed equality with God and then He proceeded to give full proof.

That full proof which verified His claim in every way. Beloved, the great truths like these are beyond our power to even explain fully. And as I come to this text, all I can think of is I would think of Thomas bowing before Him as Jesus showed Him His scars and He fell down at His feet.

My Lord and my God. Just to worship. This is the attitude of worship when we must come before His Word and to even tremble at His Word. But the attitude is worship because of how great Christ is. These are beyond our power to explain.

And my words, I'm going to probably stumble all over myself. But please forgive me. It is so high. It is so great. The depth is so deep. And deep calls into the deep. And all we do is plunge into the greatness of God and seeing in His Word and say, Lord, change me as we come to worship in who He is and His greatness and His glory and His majesty.

Well, you see, we believe that and we rest upon that. Jesus claims as well that He can give life. He gives life, doesn't He? We'll be seeing that in this section. Life is precisely the thing that puny little man with all his cleverness can neither create or restore when taken away.

You know, you have people trying to play God today trying to create life, to clone life. As you well know, playing God. But no one can do such a thing but God. But as Scripture clarifies it, life and death is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I assure you of that by the authority of God's Word. He is Lord over all because He is Lord of all. Dead bodies, dead souls are under His dominion. Think of that. No one can go to a graveyard and pull people out of the dead, out of the grave, can they?

But Jesus can by the power of His Word. And when He comes back one day, He's going to do that. And that's actually in this chapter because He has the power to do that. Because in verse 29 in chapter...

Let me back up, verse 28. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all... All... Think of that. All, every dead, all those who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.

Only Christ has that kind of power. It's the kind of power with the Word of God that created the entire universe. You know, doesn't this stagger our imagination? It does. So as we come and embark on this, we need to be in an attitude of worship of who God is and His greatness and His glory and His majesty.

Revelation. The book of Revelation is a book of worship. I love, that's the favorite part personally to me about Revelation. It's just not the prophecies in which the prophecies... A lot of them I don't understand, but I ask God as I study it, Lord, help me understand a lot of it.

But more than that, I would rather be just lost in worship as we come in the book of Revelation and just not get caught up in the winds and the whys and the hows, but into who and Jesus and who He is.

And John the Apostle in Revelation 1 verse 17 and verse 18 said this, as this man was one that leaned on the breast of Jesus when Jesus was here in His earthly ministry, the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos, and by the way, he's in the Spirit on the Lord's Day when he makes this claim.

And he testifies. He says, and when I saw Him, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, now he's glorified. When he saw Him on the Lord's Day, he had a vision and he sees the Lord and he says, I fell at His feet as dead.

That's the Apostle John. I'm thinking, what's going to happen to us when we see Him? If the Apostle John, the holy Apostle that loved Him with a deep love and obeyed Him, and He was the only Apostle, by the way, that was not martyred.

They tried to kill Him. According to the traditions back then of the record, when He was at old age, they tried to kill Him by dumping Him in hot boiling oil. But it didn't kill Him. But he says here, I saw Christ and I fell at His feet as dead, like paralyzed.

But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me in a word of comfort, even though He was trembling, and He knew that this was His beloved Apostle whom Jesus loved. And then He says, do not be afraid. Isn't that wonderful?

Do not be afraid. I am the first and I am the last. I am He who lives and was dead. And behold, I'm alive forevermore.

Amen. Amen.

And I have, Jesus says, and I have the keys of Hades and of death. So what is He saying? In Him is life. In Him is life. John, we've already traveled this appointed way, but let me backtrack a little bit.

John 1, 1 through 5. In the beginning was the Word, the Logos, and the Word was God. I'm sorry, the Word was God, with God, and the Word was God. And all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

In Him was life. That word life is in the Greek, zoe, the life of God. He is that very life. Jesus says, I am the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. The life was the light of men. And then it says, and the light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

A better translation I'd like to say is probably closer to the Greek, and the darkness did not overpower it. The darkness did not overpower it. So here in chapter 5, Christ claims that He has all authority.

The authority has been given to Him by God the Father to be the judge of the entire world. You know, that's given also in Acts 17. Great, great evangelistic verse, I believe, that we could give people today that He is the one that will be judging the entire world.

But in Acts 17 on Mars Hill, after Paul gave that great sermon there, what is he saying? He says, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness. Jesus Christ will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He has ordained.

That's Christ. He has given assurance. Listen to that. He's given assurance of this to all by the resurrection, by raising Him from the dead. You could guarantee it because Jesus Christ is raised from the dead.

He's resurrected. That means there is a judgment. Now, if Jesus did not raise from the dead, our faith would be in vain, our preaching would be in vain. Everything that we believe would be vanity. There would be no worth to go on.

But Jesus is risen from the dead, and that means He is going to judge millions, probably I would say billions of souls that's ever lived on this entire earth, every single soul. And like He said, it's going to be to the resurrection of life and to those who have done evil or to the resurrection of condemnation.

That's a great statement. So Christ has this authority, and we're going to be looking at that in the near future. Verse 26 and 27 says this, For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.

He has given Him authority to execute judgment also because He is the Son of Man. This is Jesus' own words of that. John 17, 2, Jesus is praying to the Father, and He says this, As you have given, He's praying to the Father, As you have given Him authority over all flesh, think of that, all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him.

There's election. The Father has chosen before the foundation of the world to those that will come to Him. And Jesus basically said,. And to those who come to Him, He will no wise cast out. But before He said that, what did He say?

It's the Father who draws them, and they come to Christ. So all power, all authority, is given to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the King and He is the Judge of all mankind. Before Him, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

So it says in Philippians, let me read it, chapter 2, verse 7 to 11, because this is talking about, this whole text that we're coming to is talking about the greatness of Jesus Christ. And the Apostle Paul knew this.

He says,.

But made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond slave. That right there in itself shows His condescension. He comes downward into the depth and the darkness. Just Him being born is enough that God Himself would become flesh.

He became in the form of a bond slave and coming in the likeness of man, being found in the appearance as a man. And then it says this,. And He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

I was talking about perfect obedience, folks. You know, we desire to obey God and we are to obey God and following Him and taking up our own cross, denying ourselves all the way to the end. And that is our love to Him is our obedience to His commandments.

But Jesus shows His great love, His obedient, perfect love to the Father as He obeys the Father and does the will of the Father all the way to the death of the cross. He lowers, He comes to the lowest of the low, He humbles Himself as a bond slave, Christ, God, all the way to the point of death on a criminal's cross for your sin, for my sin, for a man's depravity.

Become sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Isn't that great? And it stops there and then it's like there's that is the lowest point of Christ's humiliation that He humbles Himself to that point and then it says, therefore God also has highly exalted Him.

He's highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

That is going to be a reality and will happen because He is risen from the dead. The greatness of Jesus Christ. So I said all that here so it's with that kind of attitude, with that kind of awe, with that kind of wonder, that kind of amazement as we approach this text that we worship the Lord Jesus Christ in verses 16 to 47 as we travel this appointed way.

Well let's pick up at looking at the Lord's claims in verse 16. Verse 16 says this, the text says, for this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus sought to kill Him. The Jews persecuted Jesus sought to kill Him because He had done these things on the Sabbath.

He healed on the Sabbath. Remarkably the healing of the lame man seemed to make no difference to those religious Jews and those who persecuted Jesus. The verb tense of the word persecuted here means that the Jews, it's in repeated form.

It means they continued to persecute Him. They were hostile toward Him constantly. So all that they could see in their darkened minded blinded eyes is that their religious rule was broken. Their tradition has been broken.

He has broken their rule but thinking that it was the law of God. They added to the law of God and it became of no effect because of their tradition. You know why? Because they went beyond the command of Holy Scripture.

They added to it. You know, can you imagine the perfect Holy God when He says a command and He says a word like at the Ten Commandments especially the Ten Commandments and it was at that time graven in stone and when He gave it to Moses and here are these religious people down through the years and they perverted it and they add to His word to the words of Almighty God.

Well, as they added to the God's law it made it of no effect. The absolute devotion to these traditions of man surrounding the Sabbath cannot be underestimated. For example, Deuteronomy 23 verse 12 to 14 read it in your devotional time but I'll paraphrase it.

It basically tells Israel to practice good sanitation when the armies are camped and ancient rabbis applied the same principle to the city of Jerusalem when they regarded regarded as the camp of the Lord.

It even went to the point when this was combined with the Sabbath travel restrictions it resulted in a prohibition against going to the bathroom on the Sabbath day. How ridiculous! Man's little traditions and God set the law there for the good of man.

To keep.

Because of the worship of God. It's the Lord's day because it's. About what?

The Lord.

It's about God. It's about. That's what the Lord's day is about. We know Jesus did not break God's law since there was no prohibition of doing good on the Sabbath day and that's exactly what Jesus did.

He did nothing but good.

It was acts of mercy. Healing a man that was crippled for 38 years and even after that the man goes to the Jews and tells them who did this and he takes up his mattress and then he actually sides up with the Jewish people these religious Pharisees in the temple.

It's sad, isn't it? Deception. Well, however, Jesus disregarded the oral law of the Jews that had been developed and the traditions of men so most likely I would say it like this when we see Jesus healing on the Sabbath.

Jesus is on purposely doing this. He's deliberately healing on the Sabbath day. He picks that day for a reason. He on purpose practiced such healing on the Sabbath and doing these miracles because to provoke a confrontation with these religious hypocrites and to deal with the hypocrisy in their lives that blinded them to the true worship of God.

You know, I like to think of it Brother Ben has been preaching a series on holy violence. This is holy violence in its perfect and best form. It's holy aggression.

It's righteousness.

Do you notice in the gospel that Jesus is never on the defense? Nobody. Nobody could set him back and prove him wrong. He was always on the offense. Always. Notice when he's always constantly asking them questions based upon the scriptures and the law of God and the prophets.

It always sets them back because they're so steeped in their damnable religion. You know, Jesus is this is holy aggression, folks. This is holy violence. Jesus was always on the offense. Always. Especially against these self-righteous Jews that accused him of breaking the Sabbath.

Now, as we as I say that, look with me.

To verse 17.

I don't want to read it all the way to the end. Verse 47. By the way, this reveals the ultimate reason that Jesus confronted the Jewish religious the hypocrites, the hypocrisy. And this gives us our Lord the opportunity to declare what he was.

I'm not going to use this.

As an outline, but MacArthur outlines it like this, and let me just give it to you. I think it's great. MacArthur says this section is Christ's own personal statement of his deity. His own personal statement of his deity.

As such, it is one of the greatest Christological discourses in scripture. Herein, Jesus makes five claims to equality with God. Listen to this very carefully. Number one, he is equal with God in his person.

In verse 17 and 18. That's all we're going to go to today. But he is equal with God in his person in verse 17 and 18. Second, he is equal with God in his works, in his person and in his works, in verse 19 and 20.

Third, he is equal with God in his power and his sovereignty in verse 21. And fourth, he is equal with God in his judgment in verse 22. And fifth, he is equal with God in his honor in verse 23. That's MacArthur's outline and I love it.

It's really good because it compacts everything together, but oh how deep this is. This is Jesus's own personal testimony of himself. He is equal with God in his person. He's equal with God in his works.

He's equal with God in his power. He's equal with God in his sovereignty. He's equal with God in his judgment. He's equal with God in his honor. Christ, the perfect son of God. The perfect son of man.

Now, verse 17 and 18 gives us the background and I can tell you this, as far as we're going to go today because there's so much here. But this will be a good introduction to everything else that's going to be following God willing.

Verse 17 and 18 gives us the background. It gives us the background. Jesus claimed equality with God. He claims equality with God and believe me, this is the reason why the Jews wanted to kill him. Not only did he break the Sabbath, according to.

Their rules,.

Jesus claims his equality with God the Father. Verse 17 says, but Jesus answered them, talking about the religious Jews so he's speaking all this everything from this point from verse 17 to the end of the chapter, verse 41.

I'm sorry, verse 47 is speaking to these religious Jews these hypocrites. And what does Jesus say in verse 17? Great statement. Jesus answered them verse 17. He answered them, my Father has been working until now and I have been working.

Notice he uses the word.

Working.

You see that? On the Sabbath it's works of mercy. It's works of necessity. It's works because it's on the Sabbath and they're thinking he has broken the Sabbath. He's.

Working. The man that.

He healed got up and oh he broke the law by taking his mattress and he walked so many steps. But the Lord says here the Father's working and I'm working. One with God the Father. That's equality. He's one with them in equality.

He's equal with God the Father. Jesus did not try to explain that he had not truly worked on the Sabbath. Instead what does he do? He boldly.

Explained.

To them these religious Jews that his Father worked on the Sabbath. This was just to them.

That.

They're in such a religious mold. They had.

No idea who God.

Is.

And what he's like.

And therefore Jesus being the Son of God he also worked on the Sabbath. He healed on the Sabbath. I love what the Psalm says. He that keeps Israel shall never slumber or sleep. He never sleeps. He's always working.

Well let's talk about this. Here's a wonderful comment by commentator Clark.

He said this.

Quote, Though he rested from creating he never ceased from preserving and governing that which he had formed. In this respect he could keep no Sabbaths. That's interesting. Listen to what he says here.

For nothing for nothing to continue to exist or answer the end purpose proposed I'm sorry by the divine wisdom and the goodness without the continual energy of God. End quote. I think that's a great quote because think of it.

God in his power because he's all powerful and all in his attributes he's ever present and he's omniscient. He's all wise.

It's consistent.

And I like to think of it too you know after God created the worlds and did his works and creation in Genesis 1.

And 2 there that.

And I got this from A .W. Tozer when he was doing a series on the attributes of God that that was not hard for God.

He created it with ease.

To us it thinks wow we sit back but he's God. You notice the one text there after he created the worlds and then it says and he made the stars also it's like wow he just spoke them into existence with ease and then scripture says he knows each star by name in his omniscience and Tozer said this that all that God did in his creation and by the power of his word and his energy he releases that energy but it's like he is energy, he is life, he is power and he does not lose that.

We lose energy because we have limitations. God has no limitations. God has no bounds. He is divine. He is without bounds. It's like when it says all powerful omniscient, all wise omnipotent that means all and he gives that energy away but he does not lose it.

It's incredible. We really.

Don't know the greatness of God but you start reading this wonderful book and scriptures especially the book of Job and you dive into the old testament and you see God's greatness and goodness.

And his power.

It's.

Staggering and Jesus.

Christ is the word. I love Isaiah 40. Turn with me to Isaiah 40. Let's look at this. God does not need a day of rest because he never.

Worries.

Isaiah 40. Don't you love this chapter? I wish I had time to read the whole thing but I'm not going to read the whole chapter. Read it in your devotional time but let me just read you just a few verses of scripture and you're talking about coming to a place of worship of who God is.

Look at verse, beginning at verse 21. Questions, questions. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? The prophet says. Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain. He spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing.

He makes the judges.

Of the earth useless.

Who's in charge here? Look at verse 24. Scarcely shall they be planted. Scarcely shall they be sown. Scarcely shall their stalk take root in the earth. And when he will also blow up on them and they will wither and the whirlwind will take them away like a stubble.

Now listen very closely. To whom then will you liken me? Or to whom shall I be equal?

Says.

The Holy One.

Lift.

Up your eyes on high and see who has created these things. Who brings out their hosts by number. He calls them all by name and by the greatness of his might and the strength of his power not one is missing.

Now here's a word to Jacob. Listen to this. He speaks to them. Why do you say O Jacob and speak O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord and my just claim is passed over by my God. These are great questions.

It's soul searching too. Heart searching. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary.

His.

Understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might he increases strength.

Even.

The youth shall faint and be weary. And the young men shall utterly fall. But don't you love this great verse here? But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. There's a question about it.

By the way if you look at that word wait it's equivalent to the word commune. You can say it like this. To those who commune with the Lord or wait on the Lord, those who have fellowship with the Lord shall renew their strength.

That's where your strength is from folks. It's the joy of the Lord is your strength. It's his strength. God says I am your strength. David said that. He says he is my strength, my song. He's become that.

He shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. You ever seen an eagle fly over the mountaintops and all they do is they spread their wings and they soar with the wind. There's no trying.

There's no.

Hardness.

To them. They just basically spread the wings and the wind takes them. And such is God for us that become weary. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. It's a great promise those who wait on the Lord.

So the first thing Jesus tells these religious Jews is that he's equal with God the Father. Back to John 5, Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. We know that in John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

He is another way to put it, only begotten. Someone asked me one time he said, what does that word begotten mean? That basically means this is God's one unique Son. He is unique. There's no.

One like him. No one.

First thing Jesus tells them, he's equal with God. He is the only begotten Son of God. He's begotten. He's.