The Authority Of The Son

The Son’s Authority in John 5

Once again, if you will turn with me, please, to the 5th chapter of the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John, Chapter 5. We will continue looking at this tremendous text, the relationship of the Father and the Son explained to us by the Son himself.

And, of course, let us ask the Lord to bless our time together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, once again, as we open your Word, we desire your Spirit to be with us. We have but these few moments together with your Word as a people of God, and we would ask that you would bless us with your presence at this time, that you would help us to hear and to understand, that you would conform us ever closer to the image of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen. This morning, we began looking at this text, and we laid the background to the encounter that takes place. It is interesting to note how often it is, especially in the life of Jesus, but certainly in the rest of the New Testament, even in the Old Testament, how often is it that we recognize that conflict brings out certain elements of God's truth like nothing else.

I have often said that one of the most beautiful passages of Scripture that I know of is the trial of the false gods in Isaiah chapters 40 -48. Some of the most tremendous revelation about God's nature, His sovereignty over time, the fact that He is the creator of all things.

Conflict, Idolatry, and God’s Sovereignty in Isaiah

So much of the foundation of what we believe about His uniqueness as God. Where does it come from? It comes from the conflict that arose from idolatry taking place amongst the Israelites. And God's demonstration of the foolishness of idolatry.

And so much of Jesus' teaching was couched within the context of the conflict that He had with those who opposed His ministry. Here in John chapter 5, we already saw this morning, the healing of the man who had been sick for 38 years.

And we saw that this man certainly was not deserving of any gracious act from God. He was not better than any of the other people. There were many people by that pool of Bethesda. And yet Jesus healed one of them.

He didn't heal all of them. What a stir that would have made in the city of Jerusalem if all these people all of a sudden on the Sabbath day began spreading out across the city carrying their palace. But He didn't do that.

He did with one. And that was a man who showed no thankfulness and a man who was willing to report to the authorities who it was who had healed him so as to save his own skin. And so we know that as the Jews then began to approach Jesus on this issue, we saw in verse 17 that He said, but He answered them, My Father is working until now and I Myself am working.

We look very briefly at how the Jews understood God's activities on the Sabbath day and how He upheld the world and the various ways they had come to conclude that while God did continue to work on the Sabbath, He was not in fact violating the Sabbath law.

Jesus’ Response to the Charge of Sabbath Breaking

And so with that as our background, I want us to look at verses 18 through 24 in the few minutes that we have together this evening. For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him because He not only was breaking the Sabbath but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

Therefore, Jesus answered and was saying to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of or from Himself unless it is something He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing. And the Father will show Him greater works than these so that you will marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.

For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son. So that all should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

Truly, truly, I say to you, He who hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Now, in just these few verses, once again, we need to emphasize, we need to have a central core of understanding of what it is that Jesus is communicating in this text.

I mentioned this morning that some people look at verse 18 and they say, well, you see, the Jews were wrong. Jesus wasn't breaking the Sabbath. And Jesus was not calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

How would you respond to that? Well, the only way to respond to it, it's not by, you know, some people sometimes are looking for the magic bullet. I get this all the time. When someone finds out that you've taught Greek or you've taught Hebrew, they always come up to me and they say, you know, there's this one text.

Can I ask you about this one text? Well, sure. And they'll go to a text and they'll read it and they'll go, now what does that say in the Greek? And I don't know if they expect an even brighter light than these to come down upon my head and all of a sudden, well, and this revelation comes or something like that.

I really don't know what folks are expecting. But I frequently disappoint them greatly because I sort of lower my voice. I look at them and I go, well, in the Greek, it says exactly what it says in the English.

And they're very disappointed by that because they want some kind of Gnostic revelation or insight that's going to somehow allow them to maybe get around the text or see something that no one's ever seen before.

But the reality is, yes, Greek helps a lot. There's no question about that. But generally, we have pretty good English translations that we can deal with. And sometimes people are looking for the magic bullet.

Is it what in verse 18 could refute that nasty Jehovah's Witness that ruined my day yesterday morning and raised these issues to me? Well, sometimes there's nothing in the text by itself that is a magic bullet.

The truth of God is revealed across all the pages of Scripture. And sometimes there are verses that if you just take the verse by itself, you can interpret it this way, you can interpret it that way, you can interpret it that way.

If you just had the verse. Don't get in the mindset that for every single verse, there's got to be the killer response. But sometimes there is. Sometimes there is something. I remember years ago having a lengthy conversation with a pretty well-known Mormon.

And he came up with an odd interpretation of John chapter 4 that Jesus was baptizing his disciples but not anybody else. And I took him to the text, and I said, the problem is the case of this particular word, it's in the nominative, it's not in the accusative.

Yours would require it to be in the accusative, and it's not, and so it's impossible. And at first he argued, and then obviously some other Mormon that actually knew Greek sort of, he's right. And then he said, well, okay, you're right.

So sometimes there is something in the text that will refute an erroneous interpretation of the text. But very often in a text like this, what you need to do is you need to look at the entirety of what is said.

The truth is found in the entire witness, not just in one sentence, frequently one or two sentences. And so how do we answer that understanding of verse 18? Well, I think there is absolutely no possible way that that can be, that that particular understanding can be correct of verse 18 in light of what Jesus says in verses 19 and following.

Because notice this is, therefore Jesus answered. And so Jesus is answering what the Jews were stating. And if what the Jews were stating was completely wrong, you would think the first words out of Jesus' mouth would be what he said elsewhere.

You err. You don't understand. You are in error. But no, that's not what Jesus says. And he never even begins to hint that he is not the Son in the very special way that caused them so much problem in the first place.

What really offended them, aside from the fact that he did this on the Sabbath, was that he called God his own Father. Jesus does not even begin to apologize for this, but he does explain what that means.

He does explain what that means. The key element of Jesus' response, and this is what you need to understand so that you can walk through this text with someone. Jesus is walking this beautiful, balanced line.

You see, if the Jews were allowed to take Jesus' statement in one way, they could understand him presenting himself as a God. Now, we are not di-theists or bi-theists. We do not believe that there are two gods.

We do not believe that the Son is a separate god from the Father. We do not believe that he can go about doing his own thing, and he has one will, and that's a divine will, and then the Father has another divine will, and sometimes that runs into each other, and Jesus is off doing his own thing, and the Father is off doing his own thing.

That would be a belief in multiple gods. That would be a form of polytheism, whether it's two or three or ten or whatever else it might be. We don't believe that there's more than one God. And notice the first words of Jesus.

Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing af healtu, af healtu, of or from, out of himself. The Son is not an independent god. The Son is not an independent divine person in the sense of off doing his own thing separate from not in unity with the Father.

Now, people will look at that and they'll go, oh, I don't like what that says. I mean, if Jesus is really God, he can do anything he wants. Really? Can God lie? Can the Father lie? Can the Father cease to exist?

I mean, there's all sorts of silly statements that we can make about God to falsify that idea. But notice the balance. The Son can do nothing of himself, but what can he do? What does the Son do? Unless it is something he sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

I love the balance of what is being presented here. On the one hand, the danger of multiple gods and a division the god had, and one god fighting with another god, and so on and so forth. But on the other hand, could you ever say of a mere creature, or even in a dissolved creature, or anything on that side of the Creator-created divide?

When we talk about that, there's only one thing on the Creator's side. He is the Creator of all things. Then there is a huge chasm, and then you have everything that is created that's dependent upon Him.

And there's this huge chasm. Well, which side is Jesus on? Could you put someone who says these words, whatever I see the Father doing, I do it just like He does. What was the context? Remember verse 17?

The Father is working until now, and I am working. Well, what are you doing, Jesus? Creation, giving life, judging mankind. Are these things that can be attributed to a mere creature? Can you imagine Moses saying, well, I just do everything I see God doing, and I do it the same way He does.

Can you imagine that? Can you imagine Isaiah or Abraham or David? It doesn't matter what servant of the Old Testament you want to bring forward. None of them are ever going to be able to make these statements.

So, the Son does not act independently of the Father. The Son does nothing of Himself independently in separation from the Father. But what He does do is when He sees the Father doing something, whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

So, He does not back off the use of the word Son in that very special way. He expands upon what it is the Father's doing, the Son is doing it in like manner, and that was in the context of God upholding the entirety of the universe.

And so, He has guarded against the idea that would lead us to view Jesus off doing His thing and the Father doing His thing and the Spirit doing something else and there's a division and disunity in the Godhead.

He's protected against that. At the same time, He has insisted upon who this Son is. The Son is able to do whatever it is He sees the Father doing. No mere creature makes that kind of statement. For the Father loves the Son.

The Father Loves the Son and Gives Life

Now, could I just for a moment, and I know if you've been around here for a long time, you haven't been hit up with this, but sometimes our folks will listen to sermons from other places and that's fine, that's great, there's some great preachers out there.

But one of the most common things that you will hear, I turn on the radio, it's just constant. One of the most common things you will hear is there's different kinds of love in the Bible. Well, that's sort of true.

I mean, you have the word eros and that's physical love. But what you'll always hear is you have phileo and agapo, philos and agape. And agape love, that's unconditional love. And philos, well that's just sort of brotherly love because we all know about Philadelphia, right?

The city of brotherly love. I'm not sure that that's really an appropriate name for that city anymore, but anyways. And you hear this all the time. Anyone ever heard that? Am I the only one who's ever heard that?

You've heard that? Okay, yeah, it's very common. And interestingly enough, back in John chapter 3, Jesus had said the Father loves the Son. He used agapo. But here in John 5 .20, the Father philei. Phileo.

Loves the Son. Oh, so there's a brotherly love too? No. The point is, both terms mean love. And while their semantic domains might differ somewhat from one another, and that means you could have a lesser form of love, just because the word is used doesn't mean there's a distinction.

It's one of the most common errors that people make who don't normally read the language, but have just had a little bit of training. Oh, that's a different... No, it depends on the context. This isn't some lesser love that's being shown here.

Could the Father have a lesser love for the Son? No. The Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing. Now wait a minute. If He just said, whatever I see the Father doing, I do likewise, and now He says the Father shows me everything He's doing, what does that mean the Son can do?

Isn't this the same thing as we get at the end of the Gospel? All authority has been given me in heaven and earth? And so the Father loves the Son, shows Him all things that He Himself is doing, and the Father will show Him greater works than these so that you will indeed be amazed.

You will marvel. And I think that's somewhat of a preview of the discussion we're not going to get to tonight, but the discussion of the fact that someday the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, that He will be the one who draws us forth into that resurrection day and all the things that are associated with that.

So, verse 21, for just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. Now again, put yourself... I was going to say in the shoes, but let's really get into the time period here.

Put yourself in the sandals of the Jews. Hear these words for the first time as they would have been spoken to you. Does it sound to you like Jesus is actually backing off of His claim? Or that He's actually expanding on His claim?

In fact, it sounds like He's making you even more angry than you were before. Because now He's saying, the Father raises the dead and gives them life. Of course, the Jews believe that the only source of life is Jehovah God.

He's the Creator of all things, and He's the only one that can give life. That's why raising the dead... I mean, the widow's son and Nain and Lazarus... This has to demonstrate the power of God to actually give life.

But Jesus says, for just as... Notice the constant comparisons. In the same way. Just as. Whatever the Father's doing, the Son's doing. In the same way. And so just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son...

He's already identified Himself as the Son in a special way that these Jews are not. So the Son also gives life. And it might have made it a little bit more palatable if Jesus had said, to whom the Father commands.

That would have been a little bit easier. It would have made Jesus sort of the conduit of the Father accomplishing something. But actually He says, and the Son gives life, literally makes alive whomever He will.

Now that absolutely closes the door on any possible consideration that the one saying these words is somehow eschewing divine authority. Oh no, no, no. You've misunderstood me. I haven't been making myself equal with the Father.

But I do everything that the Father does in the same way. And He shows me everything He's doing. And I can give life to whom I will. That's not how you calm folks down after a false accusation. This is actually how you explain the unity that you have.

So you're not setting yourself up as some separate deity. You're not in any way detracting from the worship of the Father. But at the same time, you are asserting, I have been sent by the Father, and I, as we're going to see in John 10, I and the Father, we are one.

One in the accomplishment of everything that the Father desires to accomplish. The Son gives life to whom He wishes. May I hesitate or pause for just a moment to note the echo of the sovereignty of God.

An echo of the fact that we have this interplay in the Gospel of John. The next chapter, Jesus is going to talk about all the Father gives me will come to me. But then we also have in the New Testament evidence of the fact that it's the Son who reveals the Father.

And the Son chooses to whom He's going to reveal to reveal the Father. So there is a mutual revelation of the Father and the Son. Just as in the resurrection of Jesus. In some places, it's the Father who raises Jesus.

And Jesus says He takes His own life back. And the Spirit's involved. You have this beautiful interplay. And you only see this when you look at all of what Scripture says. You only see it when you take the time and to really seek to master the entire testimony of Scripture.

You see this beautiful interplay between different authors using different emphases, and yet it all comes together in this incredible testimony. The Son gives life to whom He wishes. Aren't you glad? He wished to give you life.

For not even the Father judges anyone, verse 22, but He has given all judgment to the Son. Well, stop the presses again. I mean, will not the judge of all the earth do right? Who's the judge of all the earth?

Yahweh? The Father? Does not judge anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son? The Son who Jesus has already identified. My Father? Here is the Son of God in a way that no one else is the Son of God?

In an absolutely unique fashion? It just amazes me. I hear it all the time because of what I do, but I hear my Muslim friends all the time. Oh, God has sons by the sons. David was called the Son of God and all sorts of people called the Son of God.

And I just want to scream, and sometimes since I'm out in the middle of the desert alone, I can. It's okay. The rattlesnake sort of bothers them, but no big deal. The frustration factor gets really, really high because anyone who looks at the New Testament text with even the slightest bit of fairness will see that the Sonship that is claimed by Jesus is absolutely unique.

It's completely unlike that of David or anyone else. And so all judgment has been given to the Son. It is an absolutely basic belief of the Jewish people that their God will be the just judge of all of mankind.

And now this one standing before them is saying, actually the Father has committed that to me. Again, what mere creature, what mere human being can make this statement? But why would God do that? Look at verse 23.

So that in order that will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Isn't that interesting? We call a judge. What do we call a judge? Your Honor. Your Honor. Why? Because in the best of all worlds, the judge is a righteous judge.

He's a judge that knows the law and honors the law and will apply the law impartially. And hence is to be honored. And of course we know that if God is going to judge and judge justly, then He needs to be honored as God.

But Jesus says that this judgment has been given to the Son in order that for the purpose of bringing about a situation where all will honor the Son just as, kathos, they honor the Father. Again, what amazing words.

They could not be put on the lips of anyone else. Certainly you could say that Moses needed to be honored by the people of Israel. Because he was the one through whom the law was given to them. And he was to be honored for that.

But Moses could never have said this. You're not to honor Moses in the same way you honor Yahweh. But the Son says, in order that all may honor the Son just as they honored the Father. The one not honoring the Son is not honoring the Father who sent Him.

That was a shot right across the bow of the Jewish people. Because they were the ones who were honoring Jehovah. They were the ones that were proclaiming His name. See how holy we are. And we are zealous for the worship and honor of Yahweh.

And Jesus says, if you won't honor the Son, you're not honoring the Father. You may claim to be. And this same apostle is going to write in 1 John, if you don't confess the Son, you don't have the Father either.

There's a lot of people who want to put Jesus down in a lower place. They want to put Jesus down into the realm of the merely human. They deny what He says here. But still want to say, oh, but I honor God.

And Scripture says, no you don't. And this has a lot to do with, let's face it, so many people today want to say, well, for Christians, Christianity is okay. But for Jews, Judaism is still okay. Really?

If Jesus was who He claimed to be, how can that be? How can you reject the Messiah? How can you refuse to honor the Son, but still say you're honoring the Father? You have to say that the revelation has come in Jesus Christ is a lie.

It is untrue. And that's the great sin today. When it comes to religion, you can't really say anything's true because you can't say anything's really false either. It's just all a matter of opinion from your point of view.

So Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, since all judgment's been given to Him, since He gives life to whom He will, since all are to honor Him even as they honor the Father, He who hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life.

This is one of the great gospel summary verses in all of Scripture. But it's based in a context. The authority of the proclamation. He who hears my word. Well, there are places in the gospel of John, Jesus says He delivers the word of the Father.

And that you can believe what God reveals. But now, He who hears my word. And what does it mean to hear? We've said so many times before. The gospel of John. Great study to look up the word hear. Why do you not hear my words, Jesus would say in John chapter 8?

Because you don't belong to God. There are so many who can hear over and over again, but they don't hear. I've been listening recently to a number of debates. A very good friend of mine, a good brother in the Lord, we have disagreements, but of all my Arminian friends, he is the most honorable.

He never misrepresents where we're coming from. He's a great brother in the Lord. We have differences, but I love him. Michael Brown, he does debates with Jewish rabbis all the time. There's one particular Jewish rabbi he's debated a number of different times.

And I can tell he really likes this guy. But this guy drives me crazy. Because he has no ears to hear. You can explain something clearly, repetitively, and it's just in one ear and out the other. And I know Michael continues to pray for him and he hopes that situation is going to change, but my, there is this biblical concept of hearing.

And you have to be enabled to hear. It comes from the sovereign work of God. He who hears my word and believes Him who sent me. Again, there could be places in the Gospel of John where the belief is in Jesus.

Here it's in Him who sent me. How can John switch back and forth between my word, the word of the Father, or believes in Him? It's not because he's confusing the Father and the Son. It's not like what the one in Pentecostal says, because there's all one person.

No, it's because of the unity that is theirs. Jesus does what He sees the Father doing. Perfect unity between the two. So, he who hears my word and believes Him who sent me has, present tense, right now, eternal life.

It is the present tense possession of every believer in Jesus Christ. You have eternal life. That is the Gospel. And it's all bound up in faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, there's nothing here about works and accomplishments and everything else that people want to add if you hear His word and He has to enable you to do so and believe Him who sent me, you have eternal life.

And you will not come into judgment, but you have already passed out of death into life. That is the state of the one who believes in Jesus Christ. Possession of eternal life and you will not come into judgment in regards to that.

This is not a contradiction of Paul's teaching of the judgment of believers and their works and things like that, because that's not in reference to whether you're going to be entering into heaven. That's not a reference as to whether you're in Christ.

This is the judgment regarding life. He who believes Him who sent me has, possesses eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. There has already been a transference.

Paul makes reference to the same thing using the same terminology, as I recall off the top of my head, in Colossians about being translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We have passed out of death into life.

And so obviously the life that we are to have as believers and to recognize is ours is substantially different than that of the world around us. So why, my fellow believers, do we often so much look like the world and act like the world and respond like the world?

We shouldn't. We don't have that kind of life. How very certain should be our relationship with Christ. How very different we should be from the world in our priorities, in our activities, in our thinking, in our speech.

You possess eternal life. That which the world has constantly been looking for, you already possess. All the ramifications, if I just started listing them, would take us the rest of the evening. But just to consider the tremendous benefits that are ours.

You have already passed out of death. How therefore can it have any fear for you? How can it have any power over you? You've passed out of death. Out of the realm of the power of death. You've passed into the realm of life.

That is the state of the believer in Jesus Christ. But it is only the state of the believer in Jesus Christ. For once again, we know that that pressure is put upon us to compromise at this very point.

To compromise the world and to allow for the idea that there's other ways totally undermines Jesus' teaching. When you say, oh, but you know, I know some great Buddhists. I know some great Muslims. Well, so do I.

But I'm not sure what you mean by great. I know some nice people. I know some moral people. I know some people that are nicer than me. But when you begin to enter into that way of thinking, you need to understand that He who was the Son, the Incarnate Son, spoke of hearing My word and believing in Me.

I am the One who has been sent into the world to give life to the world. I give life to those whom I will. And that is why the Lord in His sovereignty saves Muslims and saves Buddhists and He saves atheists and He saves people from every walk of life, from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.

There will be those who surround the throne and sing praises to the Lamb. But to say there's some other way is to say that the Father put the Son to grief, struck Him, laid sins upon Him, but there was another way.

It could have been done differently. The Christian simply cannot begin to conceive of such a compromise. And yet, that is what we are asked to do over and over again. So, I hope you understand that what we have in John 5 is the Son explaining to us the unity that is His with the Father.

He does not repudiate His own words. He does not back off. He does not say, oh, I'm sorry I offended you. Jesus didn't operate on the idea that offense was the worst thing that could happen to anyone.

Oh, I'm so offended. Yes, the Jews were offended because they were not in submission to God's truth. But in His explanation, He does not compromise. He expands and explains and reveals to us something beautiful.

The Father and the Son, perfect unity between them. And that perfect unity then becomes the foundation upon which we can have absolute confidence in the promises of Jesus Christ. He who hears my word and believes Him who sent me.

If there was any conflict between the two, we would have no confidence in salvation. But we have the confidence that the Eternal Father and His beloved Son whom He loves are united together in the fulfillment of His promise that anyone who will believe in Him will have eternal life.

What a tremendous promise is ours. What a tremendous message is ours as well. Let's pray together. Indeed, our Heavenly Father, we thank You that there is perfect unity in the Godhead. We thank You for sending the Son.

We thank You for the provision that You've made for us of eternal life through faith in His word and His message. Lord, we ask that You would help us to understand, to remember, to grasp this great revelation that our Lord and Savior has provided to us.

And that in grasping it, we would not simply hold it to ourselves, but we would see how it relates to everything else. And it would make us bold in our witness to others. Truly help us this evening to rejoice in the fact that we have eternal life.

In Jesus Christ our Lord. It's in His name that we pray. Amen.