Jesus Christ: Compassionate And Controversial (pt-2) - [John 5:1-30]

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

1 view

0 comments

00:01
Why don't we open to the word of prayer? Dear God our
00:07
Heavenly Father. We thank you for this morning We thank you for this beautiful day.
00:12
You've given us to come together and to worship you to learn from you and to fellowship with the
00:19
Saints Lord even as we open your word we pray that your spirit would illuminate
00:25
To our hearts and our minds that we would learn about you and that we would be transformed by the power of your word
00:34
We ask all this in Jesus name. Amen once again, the new members class is in Pastor Mike's office
00:42
Pastor Steve is teaching and Today we are going to do part two of last week's
00:49
Sunday school So this is what happens when you don't finish your Sunday school on time you get to teach again
00:57
Today's lesson is called the Jesus Christ compassionate and Controversial we saw this from John chapter 5 last week and We our text for this week is going to be from John 5 1 through 30 and last week
01:14
We covered verses 1 through 15 We'll do a quick review of that just so we have the initial passage in our mind
01:22
Before we go into the teaching that comes in verses 16 through 30 If you remember those of you who are here last week,
01:30
I asked you a question as we opened up I said If you think of Jesus Christ What is it that comes to your mind?
01:40
and many of you gave Savior Redeemer some of the work that Jesus has done in our lives that comes to mind when we think of Jesus and As I was trying to tell you there are two aspects about who
01:54
Jesus is Jesus was fully and completely a man just like you and me and he was also fully and completely
02:02
God and last week we saw this Incident that happened in the life of Jesus where he powerfully heals and he has this compassion on one who has been an invalid for 38 years and he heals and restores this man to full health and We saw in in one sense the the true humanity of Jesus that identifies completely with our needs and and seeks to help those who are in need and Today we are going to look at Jesus revealing himself as God and in fact
02:36
This is one of the most powerful passages that I can think of in the in the Gospels that talks about who
02:43
Jesus is And as we as we are learning from today's text I want to I'll try to take you back to the first century
02:51
Judaism in terms of what the people thought about God and how Jesus comes on the scene and totally explodes their mind in terms of who he is and who
03:02
God is and So that I hope will be an edifying time for all of us But before we do that Let I'd like us to read verses 1 through 15 and take a few application points that we didn't do last week so that we have
03:14
This event firmly in our minds before we go into the teaching I'd like someone to read the verses 1 through 15
03:22
Of brother Bruce Oh Thank You Bruce So hopefully it's a refreshment of what the event was that happened where Jesus healed.
05:20
If you look at the first three verses you see there was a place where there was a lot of sick people, a lot of suffering going on.
05:26
Jesus comes, finds this one man who has been sick for a very very long time, 38 years, invalid, unable to help himself living on the arms that are given and until verse 8 you see the actual healing.
05:46
Verse 9 you see Jesus actually with one word heals this man completely and fully, a man who was unable to walk for 38 years, gets up, takes up his bed which is like a straw mat and then he is able to walk.
05:59
And then we see the confrontation. Right after this man starts walking the people, the
06:05
Jewish authorities, the leaders question this man for carrying his bed on the
06:10
Sabbath. They almost missed the whole point of the healing and instead zoom in on a particular law that they thought was broken.
06:17
Again we saw that this was not an Old Testament law. This was one of the laws that they had added on to the tradition in order to keep the
06:26
Old Testament laws. And this man who is healed still doesn't have a good understanding of who this person is who has healed him.
06:34
So when they ask him, who asked you to carry this bed? He is like, I don't know.
06:40
And then Jesus we see confronts him again and talks about it is one thing to be healed of your physical need but there is something even more important and that is you need to deal with your sin.
06:51
And this man goes right back to the authorities and says, well this is the guy who told me to carry my bed.
06:57
You have a problem, deal with Jesus. And so that brings us into verse 16 and that sets the context in which
07:05
Jesus is now going to teach about who he is, who is Jesus Christ. So again before we get into verse 16, there are a few applications that I think
07:16
I would like us to quickly get out of verses 1 -15 and then we will get into verse 16. Last week we saw the compassion that Jesus Christ had on people who were in suffering.
07:28
We noticed that he didn't just go and heal everybody in that Bedesta. He could have if he wanted to but he chose specifically to focus his attention on one person.
07:38
But he was a man of compassion who identified with our sorrows and suffering. And we looked at our call as believers.
07:45
What are we to do when we meet suffering and need in our midst?
07:51
And we looked at some passages about the mandate to Christians. Actually this is a good question.
07:58
So we saw Jesus go down here. He saw a man who was an invalid and he healed him. What do you think Christians should do?
08:07
I see a lot of smiles. I know what you are thinking. Somebody be bold enough to answer me.
08:13
Yes. Offer help. Excellent.
08:33
So you see somebody who is in need and you are able to help them in practical ways. Do that. Anyone else?
08:41
Yes. Excellent point.
09:01
I mean when you look at especially the Gospel of Mark, you see the servanthood of Christ. Although he was the king, he came out and served and he gave his life as ransom.
09:10
And we are called to live in a similar way of servanthood, serving one another.
09:17
Anything else? Yes. Prayer. Excellent.
09:37
So you mentioned practical ways of helping. You also mentioned prayer because ultimately we cannot serve or solve all the world's problems, but we know that God can.
09:48
And one of the best ways that we can help another person is through prayer. But we also need to serve through practical ways.
09:55
I was actually going for a more controversial response. I haven't gotten that yet. I'll get it out of your mouth soon.
10:01
But to finish this thought, we covered 1
10:07
John 3, 16 and 17 where it talks about how we ought to be moved with compassion for one another, especially within the local body.
10:18
It's easy to think of the world at large and suffering at large and just kind of say, okay, I just feel sad for them when
10:25
I hear in the news and I maybe say a prayer here and then I forget about them versus meeting the people in our midst who are in need, who are in suffering and doing something about it.
10:37
And the verse there we saw was, if you say that you have the love of God, which is when you are a believer and you now have received
10:46
God's love and you have a love for him, that love is evidenced in the love that you have for one another.
10:52
And so if you see your brother in need and then you close your heart or close your stomach, you just don't have that compassion for the one in your midst who is suffering, then there is no evidence of God's love in your lives.
11:06
So the way we demonstrate our love for God is through the love that we have for one another in our midst.
11:12
This is again a review from what we saw last week. There's a few other things I want to quickly look at before we go into 16.
11:18
And the first one is, let me actually push the controversial issue here. So how many of you have heard of this phrase, what would
11:30
Jesus do? Okay. So how do you think you would apply that verse if you saw the same thing here?
11:40
No, not that verse, that phrase. Yeah. Jesus did a few things that we cannot do.
11:56
And I think that's basically what I want to kind of live in our minds. One of the things is, you know, this, Jesus actually just said, get up, walk.
12:03
And the man got up and walked. Jesus looked at the man and said, you know, stop sinning. He knew what he was doing and he told him not to do that anymore.
12:10
And he told him of the consequences of judgment that was going to happen to him. And there are certain things that Jesus alone can do that we cannot do.
12:17
And, but then there are other things that Jesus did as an example for us that we ought to do. And I think that's what we were trying to learn from here.
12:25
And especially when you go through the gospels and you look at the life of Christ, it's always good to look at what did
12:30
Jesus do that we ought to emulate. But there are certain things that we just can't because we are not
12:36
Jesus in the sense of deity, but we have a model that we can follow. Then there's one more thing here that happens with this man who was healed.
12:47
When he was confronted by the Jewish authorities, he was, you know, first shifting the blame.
12:53
And then when he got into trouble with Jesus, he goes back and tells on Jesus to the Jewish authorities. And there's one thing that we as believers must do, which is to take on responsibility for what happens in our lives because of Christ.
13:06
Because when, if you, especially if you look at John chapter nine, I mentioned, when you look at John five, you want to contrast it with John nine,
13:13
John nine, you have the blind man who was healed. And he's asked about who Jesus is. And he is unashamed about Jesus Christ.
13:20
He says, Jesus is the prophet. You know, no man can do these things unless he was sent from God.
13:27
And he's willing to be kicked out of the synagogue for his faith in Christ. And we find that ultimately he comes and worships
13:33
Jesus. In this passage, we really don't know where this man was when this incident completes.
13:39
But when you stand up for Christ, you will actually face consequences that may not be pleasant.
13:47
But we have to be willing to take the responsibility. And you will see the opposition that Jesus starts facing even at the end of this passage because of what he did for God.
13:59
One last thing again is, and this is again another controversial issue that I want to kind of settle before we get into the text.
14:06
What are the similarities and differences that we have between the Jewish authorities that we see here and church leadership today?
14:15
First similarities. Can you think of some similarities that you can find between the Jewish authorities and church leadership?
14:29
And that is who? No, no, no.
14:34
I'll just use our church. I want us to think of, yeah. Thank you.
14:43
Because I want to think of, in an ideal church leadership, what are things that are similar? Because I think most often we try to contrast and find what is wrong.
14:51
And you'll see that there are certain things where there are similarities too. Yes. That's a good example.
15:14
I hadn't thought of that. Yes, brother. Position of authority. And I think that's primary when you look at this.
15:20
Here is an establishment. These were leaders who were responsible for ensuring that things got done right.
15:27
And that is similar with the church leadership too. They have a responsibility that they are to carry out and ensure that things are done correctly.
15:37
Any other similarities you can think of? Yes. Motives. So yeah, that's a good point too.
15:51
Because here they had a basis on which they were doing certain things. And we'll find out that that was flawed.
15:57
But at least what they were trying to do was to preserve God's law and his precepts among the people of God.
16:03
Yes. Very good point. So these men, especially the
16:08
Pharisees, were very learned in the scriptures and they knew what they taught. And again, we'll see that it was not just the scriptures that they relied on.
16:17
Okay. Now let's talk about some differences. What are the differences between these Jewish authorities and right church leadership today?
16:27
What is a fundamental difference exactly?
16:46
And I think that goes back to what Daniel was saying. They were legalists. They were trying to follow a strict set of rules.
16:53
And if you go one step further back, the basis of all of that was their authority that they derived from was the tradition of the elders and the law.
17:04
And sadly they placed such a high value on the tradition that they had forgotten to see the work of God happening right there in their midst.
17:13
And that's a very fundamental difference. And if you look at the church today, the church authorities, church leadership should rely only on one thing and which is
17:23
God's word and how it is revealed to us. When we add anything more to the word of God as the basis of authority, we are taking away from the work of God that happens in our midst and that tends down to legalism, which is why we have to be very, very careful not to teach anything, even if it is well intentioned, that adds to or takes away from the scriptures.
17:48
And I could be here for on and on. Is there any other questions on this before we move on? Because I need to get to my text.
17:55
Yes. That was a schoolmaster to point us to Christ.
18:41
And that's a good point because, you know, right now in our church, we have the full revelation. We have the
18:46
New Testament, which they didn't have. We have the work of Christ finished and we have the spirit of God in our hearts to illumine
18:53
God's word to every single believer. And in the sense that they missed the old covenant was they forgot what the scriptures were pointing to.
19:03
In fact, in verses 30 to 47, that is what Jesus emphasizes. This Old Testament was pointing to Jesus, but you missed the whole point because you are so caught up in the legalistic view of the scripture rather than what the scriptures were pointing to, which is the coming of first coming of Christ and then the second coming also.
19:22
Okay. So with that, let's get down into our text this morning. We're going to look 16 to 30 and let's begin with verse 16.
19:31
I'll try to understand what Jesus says. So in verse 15, we've realized that the man goes back to the authorities and tells that it was
19:41
Jesus who healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the
19:49
Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father is working until now and I am working.
19:57
Now, this is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because not only was he breaking the
20:05
Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.
20:13
Verse 16, we read, they were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things.
20:18
What are these things that it's referring to? The healing?
20:25
Yes. Breaking the Sabbath, because here he was doing something that their law was forbidding him to do.
20:34
And so they were persecuting him and we find that they were actually seeking to kill him, not just giving him some trouble.
20:42
Now, if you look back at verse 17, what does Jesus say? He says, my father is working until now and I am working.
20:49
Now, is there something odd in that statement? I mean, does it seem to indicate that Jesus is saying,
20:57
I'm God, my father is working until now and I am working.
21:08
Okay. God works on the Sabbath. That is a good point. We'll cover that in a minute.
21:13
Yes. Yes. That in one sense, but here we are trying to push the limits of how the
21:22
Jews thought that Jesus is making himself equal with God. And there are two aspects here, which
21:28
I think, you know, it's in first reading, we can easily pass by. The first thing is he calls God, my father.
21:34
And to us, it seems like, you know, we are so used to praying every single prayer we say with my father, our father, or, and so it seems like, well,
21:43
Jesus is not really making any bold statement here. But if you look at the Jewish thought of what the father was, they would, the
21:51
Jewish people at that time would call God the father in a qualified sense. They can say, you know, in a more collective way, our father as a father who provides and cares for all our needs in a collective sense, or they would say, you know, my father in heaven, you know, as opposed to my father, my physical father here on earth.
22:10
And there is a qualification, a distance between the individual and God in terms of the intimate relationship of fatherhood.
22:18
So you can have God as a broader sense of father who, who provides and cares for, or as, you know, a father who is still distant from you.
22:26
He's not someone who is very intimate. To call my father is unheard of in, in first century
22:33
Judaism. And when they hear Jesus say, my father, is, you know, already their hands are standing up.
22:39
It's like, hey, that kind of language is not appropriate for a man to use. You don't call
22:44
God my father. And so right there it starts, you know, their brain starts working.
22:55
That is true. They would, you know, it's
23:04
Elohim. And actually, can somebody correct, give me the right phrase that they used instead of, yes,
23:12
Charlie. They wouldn't use the name of God. And so they would use an alternate. Adonai, Lord.
23:20
Yes. I think that was one. And this Yahweh.
23:25
And what would they use instead? Jehovah? Oh, yes. That's right.
23:37
W, YW, YHWH. Thank you. But again, you know, they had such a reverence for the name of God and that, you know, familiarity with God was blasphemy.
23:49
And that's the first one with my father. But then the second thing that Jesus says here is very interesting. He says, my father is working until now and I am working.
23:57
And, you know, although the phrase doesn't totally bring that out to us here, what Jesus is saying, and especially if you think of the context,
24:05
Jesus has just broken the Sabbath and he's saying, my father is working until now.
24:10
And again, you know, if you think of the Sabbath in the Genesis one and two, God created the first six days of the week and he rested the seventh.
24:19
And the Jewish people fully understood that meant that he was not creating anymore. All his work of creation was done on the first six days, but it was by God's sustaining power and his work that life existed.
24:31
So God continues to work. And if God just said, you know, I made this world, I'm just going to close my eyes and turn back.
24:39
You know, this whole world would collapse. And the people knew that it is only because of God's power that sustains that we have life and we are able to live.
24:47
And it's God's work that keeps things going on. And Jesus is not saying, you know, you think
24:52
I broke the Sabbath, my father is working until now and I am working and he is making a connection that the people get right away.
25:02
I mean, although for us, it may be a little hard to follow the intimacy of the relationship with the father and the same kind of work that the father is doing, the son is also doing.
25:12
And when he says that in verse 18, the Jews had no trouble understanding.
25:19
Yes, Daniel. No, actually it's not.
25:35
I actually went and checked that to see if this was another I am statement. The I am working is just the working word that is just drawn out.
25:44
So it says and I am working is one word. But again, the main essence here is his relationship with God and his work.
25:54
Now, and what we have here in verse 18, calling
25:59
God his own father and making himself equal with God. And that's a summary statement of what we are going to see from verses 19 through 30.
26:06
And we are going to explain what that means. So, you know, if in modern 21st century, many of us, you know, if you go and talk to your friends, you know,
26:16
Jesus is just a guy who did good things and, you know, lived historically 2000 years ago. But, you know,
26:22
God, that's kind of dubious. And what else is he going to do? Is he going to come back again?
26:28
Most people are skeptical of that. And this is a passage that talks powerfully about what
26:33
Jesus has done and what he is going to do and how he is, in fact,
26:39
God. So just as it was applicable to the first century Jews who had a view of God that was still not complete.
26:45
So also for the world today, who Jesus Christ is, this passage talks powerfully, too.
26:51
So let's look at verses 19 and 20. In verse 19. Therefore, Jesus answered and was saying to them, truly, truly,
27:03
I say to you, the son can do nothing of 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.
27:19
And the father will show him greater works than these so that you will marvel.
27:25
In fact, verse 19, the way it opens up, Jesus answered and was saying to them, that's a truly rabbinic fashion, like how the rabbis would go and speak.
27:34
So you ask a rabbi a question, he would sit down and explain his with authority, what he understood of that subject.
27:42
Jesus, the language uses very, very legal in that sense. He is actually explaining to them with full authority who he is and what he is doing.
27:51
And now let's talk about the word he uses here. And if you look at this, maybe after the
27:58
Sunday school, you can go back and study this. You'll see how Jesus addresses himself. Here he uses himself the son.
28:06
And in the rest of the passage, you'll see the son of man. You'll see the son of God. And in the rest of the scripture, you'll see son of David.
28:12
It is, there are several titles that are used of Jesus Christ as the son of some, and we will look at what son of man and son of God mean.
28:20
But here he just uses the son and he uses it again and again and again. And his emphasis here is the unique relationship that Jesus has with God, the father.
28:30
Here you have God, the son who is in a relationship that is utterly and totally unique with God, the father, and the people will soon catch up on it and they'll have trouble trying to understand what that means.
28:46
And if you look at verse 19 again, he says the son can do nothing of himself. And in fact, if you go all the way to verse 30, he says,
28:55
I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me. He, Jesus is emphasizing throughout this passage, the utter and full, complete dependence that he has on God, the father.
29:08
Now, can you think of a reason why Jesus would do that? You know, Jesus here is
29:13
God, the son. The Jewish people had no concept of God, the son. And why would Jesus emphasize his relationship with God, the father, instead of saying, well,
29:23
I can do anything I want. Why is Jesus really pressing the issue of his relationship with God, the father?
29:33
Yes. Excellent point.
29:53
Actually, I want us to keep that. Yes, Charlie. That's a good point.
30:49
You know, here he, Jesus doesn't say I'm the Lord of the Sabbath that you see in other passages, but the implication is very real, especially when he talks about the intimacy he has with the father and that every single thing that he's doing is an outflow of obedience to God, the father.
31:05
And I also want us to keep this work of Christ in mind, especially as the father ordained and as the son does things.
31:12
But let's kind of go back to first century Judaism to kind of understand why Jesus says this.
31:18
The Shema, what does the Shema say? Hear, O Israel, the Lord is one.
31:26
And the people of Judaism, they were unique in this period of history because they were the only ones who believed there was one
31:33
God. You know, you cannot have two gods. You cannot have multiplicity of gods. There is one
31:39
God. And here Jesus comes and talks about the father. And when
31:44
Jesus talks about the father, they're thinking of the one God. They have no idea or concept of the trinity within the
31:53
Godhead. They have no understanding of who the Messiah is in the full -blown sense.
32:00
They know a Messiah is coming, but they are still thinking in human terms. They have Old Testament prophecies talking about this
32:06
Messiah being outside the category of human, but they still haven't gotten all that figured out yet.
32:14
So they have a monotheistic understanding of God, which is correct. But the mystery of the Godhead, which has
32:19
God the son as part of it, is still unknown to them. So Jesus now tells them, you know
32:25
God, God the father. And now you have to understand the relationship that I uniquely have with this one
32:33
God whom you're worshiping. And the implication that you draw out will be that I'm not just equal.
32:38
And in fact, if you look at verse 18, when they think that he was equal with God, they were not saying, well, you're claiming to be
32:45
God. You know, they were saying that you were claiming certain attributes that are, you know, crossing the line that men are supposed to not have.
32:54
It is not still registering to them that, you know, Jesus is God in the sense of God the father, because they knew who
33:00
God the father was. You know, they know Isaiah 6. They know, you know, from Exodus, you know, what does it mean to look at the face of God?
33:07
You cannot. And here they are looking at a physical man. And Jesus is now saying, well, I am teaching you who
33:13
I am, and you will learn that there is more to this one God than you ever knew before.
33:21
And so he begins by talking about his unique relationship with God the father. And so he says,
33:27
I can do nothing on, um, of the son. The son can do nothing of himself unless he sees the father doing.
33:35
And here again, the, uh, the work that he talks about, and I'll kind of quickly go through this so we can finish our lessons versus for today.
33:44
But he says that what the father does, the son also does. And it is not just an imitation that, you know, the prophets did, you know, the prophets were told to do something and they would just go ahead and do it.
33:54
But here there is a sharing in the work of God. It's almost like, you know, if you go back to John 6, uh, 28, the people ask, you know, what do we do, you know, to do the works of God?
34:04
And Jesus tells them, well, you ought to, and that is how you know, can please
34:10
God. But it is God who has to do the work in you. And that is the kind of work that Jesus is doing. He is doing the work of God in their lives.
34:17
Now, uh, if you want to think of an analogy, in fact, one of the commentators seems to think that this passage could have happened in, uh, um, in, in probably back in where Jesus was working as a carpenter, you know, so there could have been a break between verses 15 and 16 and not necessarily happening in Jerusalem.
34:37
So Jesus is doing his carpentry work. And, uh, you know, in a physical sense, you know,
34:42
Joseph probably taught him all the stuff of carpentry that Jesus learned. And so, you know, the analogy of a father and a son, you know, you see something and you do something, but here
34:51
Jesus is talking about a different work. He's talking about, um, the work of God that he is doing.
34:58
And that is what he has seen the father, uh, show him. And that is what he is actually doing in their midst.
35:04
And they will have to reckon with the nature of Christ. He also goes on to talk about, um, greater work.
35:12
And he says he will, the father will show him greater works than these so that you will marvel.
35:18
So, uh, you, you want to think of what greater works. We've, we've seen that Jesus just did healing on the
35:24
Sabbath. And what is the greater work that he's going to do? There are two things that we're going to see in this passage. Yes, that is true.
35:33
And ultimately we will, he will talk about that. But here in this passage, he's going to talk about two things. One is, uh, he has life.
35:41
He can give life and he is the judge. And those two functions that God alone has, the son has authority to do.
35:51
And when they recognize that Jesus has this greater work that he is going to do, they will not have a choice in terms of understanding who the son is.
36:00
So he, he tells them there are greater works that are going to, he is going to do.
36:06
And he says there that you will marvel. And, uh, in fact, uh, this is basically the point where Jesus is opening up their minds to say, you know, until now you had no idea about the mystery of inner
36:20
Trinitarian Godhead. And you are now going to see Jesus exhibit who he is as God.
36:27
And when you see that you are going to marvel and that will be for your salvation or for your condemnation if you reject the son.
36:36
So let's read verses 21 to 23. And he says what these greater works are.
36:42
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 will honor the son, even as they honor the father, he who does not honor the son, does not honor the father who sent him.
37:03
Uh, in fact, there are four, uh, aspects of this greater works that are mentioned in this verse.
37:09
If the first one is in verse 21, it says four, as the father raises the dead and gives them life.
37:15
So also the son gives life to whom he will was 22. Actually, I'm, I'm skipping, um, uh, two things here.
37:28
If you go back to verse 19, it says for whatever the father does, the son does likewise was 24.
37:34
The father loves the son and shows him all things that he's doing. And then the next two things you see in verse 21 and 22, which is raises the desert and gives them life.
37:42
And the judgment is given to the sun. Those are four aspects of what the, of the works that the sun does, which the father used to do.
37:50
Now think of, uh, God, the father raising the dead in the old Testament. What passages can you think of?
38:00
You probably think of LA. Yes. Elijah and Elisha raising the sun. Um, God gives them,
38:07
God allows him to give life in that particular instant. And, um, it was known throughout that it is only
38:15
God who has the authority to give life. Uh, in Deuteronomy 30 to 39, we see that God alone has the power to give life and no one else.
38:24
And so the, the Jews fully understood that life was a prerogative that came from God. I mean, even now, even in, in a secular society, people know that we do not have the power to give life.
38:35
We can probably extend life. We can maybe resuscitate it for a little while, but, um, we cannot create life by fiat.
38:43
It is only the work of God that can make that happen. And Jesus now says the son has life in himself and not just that the son can give life to whomever he chooses.
38:54
On the one hand, he talks about the utter dependence that he has on God, the father, but then he talks about the life that is within the son.
39:01
And that is a prerogative of the son to give to others. And we'll talk about what this life means.
39:07
There is a life in the sense of physical life, but there is a spiritual life that Jesus is also talking about here. And the second one is judgment.
39:14
Now we know that, um, throughout the old Testament, God is talked about as the righteous judge who judges the world.
39:21
Uh, but they also knew that the Messiah who was going to come had an aspect of judgment that he was going to execute.
39:27
Uh, the Kings, the judges, they had a, a lower level of judgment on the people of God that they were responsible for.
39:34
And in Isaiah 11, you look at how the Messiah would judge in equity, uh, just as God does.
39:42
And so they knew that there was an aspect of judgment that was going to come. But Jesus here is talking about the ultimate judgment, uh, at the, at the end of, at the resurrection.
39:52
And, uh, so he will talk about that a little bit more in verses 25 and following. Now, again, in the end of verse 23, he says, uh, whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him again, he's pushing this, uh, uh, unity that the father and the son have, you know, no matter what else a man under God might have done, whether it was a
40:13
King or a judge or a prophet, he would not receive the honor that was due God to think of receiving the glory of God for a human being was blasphemy.
40:22
And God is jealous. He never shares his glory with another. And here Jesus is saying, you, you know, you need to honor
40:29
God, but you have to honor the son. In fact, if you don't honor the son, you will not be honoring the
40:35
God who sent him. And when he says God here, he's talking about God, the father. And that is the sense in which the term
40:41
God is used in the rest of this passage. And, um, now in verse 24, truly, truly,
40:48
I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
40:56
In fact, there are three times that Jesus says, truly, truly, or amen. Amen. These are very solemn words. These are words of life, and you need to believe these in order to have a life.
41:06
And he says, whoever hears my word and believes him. And he's actually using these two interchangeably.
41:12
It's not believes in him who sent me. It's not believing that there is a God, the father, but believes what
41:19
God, the father has done or what the father has said. And the father has sent the son.
41:25
And when you believe God, the father, you will hear the son. And he's using those two interchangeably.
41:31
We'll see that again in verse 25. And he says, the one who believes in God and the one who hears the words of Jesus does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
41:43
And he's going to use these two aspects of eternal life. One is you have to deal with judgment. When we die, we have to face a righteous judge.
41:50
And we have to talk about life after death or true spiritual life in Christ.
41:57
And he's going to talk about how you can have eternal life in verses 25 to 29. So let's read that truly, truly,
42:05
I say to 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 for as the father has life in himself.
42:15
So he has granted the son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man.
42:26
Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out.
42:32
Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
42:41
Jesus says an hour is coming and is now here. It should, it should bring you back memories of john chapter four.
42:47
When john Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman, he goes and tells her, um, you, she asked him, you know, where should we worship?
42:54
And he says, you know, the art is coming when the true worshipers will worship God in spirit and in truth. And that time has come because Jesus has come to institute the way for everyone to worship
43:05
God in the spirit. And that is exactly the language that is used here is the dead will hear the voice of the son of God.
43:13
And those who hear will live. What is he talking about here? What dead is he referring to?
43:20
That's exactly right. He's talking about a spiritual death and a spiritual life that people can have through Christ.
43:26
He is talking about right now, the moment that he is speaking with the Jewish people, he is saying, you know, it is the time has come.
43:33
The Messiah that you were anticipating for all these centuries is right here in your midst and he is able to give you life.
43:42
And, um, and that is what he's talking about. When he's talking about the dead, he's talking about those who are spiritually dead, who will receive life through the son of God himself.
43:53
And this is the first time you read the son of God in the gospel of john. In fact,
43:58
Jesus uses the term son of God only three times to ascribe it to himself. We see it here once in john chapter 10 once and then john 11 for the third time.
44:08
And he talks about the uniqueness of this title as Jesus being the son of God.
44:14
And I have a lot to say about this, but I think we need to move on.
44:25
If any of you want more, just email me. I'll send you some material. This is just fascinating to see how
44:31
Jesus just provides so much in such a simple and concise term about who he is.
44:39
And the beauty of it is the people at that time understood what he said. And that's why they were really vexed with him, because they know what he's saying, but they just cannot believe what he is saying.
44:50
And anyway, to move further, you know, Jesus now talks about the life that he has in himself just as the father had.
44:58
And there is a language that is used here. And I think for us as Christians, 2000 years now, as someone just said, we have the rest of the
45:07
New Testament to interpret who Christ is. It is good to understand the relationship between God, the
45:12
Father and the Son. But the scriptures revealed to us, you know, most of us, when we became believers, we probably were given the
45:20
Orthodox theology that there is God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit. We know Jesus Christ was both man and God.
45:26
And here are the texts that talk about that relationship. Was God the
45:32
Son any less than God the Father in the sense of being God? No.
45:37
But there is a definite aspect in which God the Son is subordinate in function to God the
45:43
Father. And I think that's what Peggy, you were mentioning about. God had a plan and he ordained it and the
45:49
Son was obedient to the Father in carrying out God's will. And that was the plan of salvation that God had wrought out.
45:56
In fact, if you go to Ephesians 1, 3 to 14, you look at the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. What is their role in the life of believers when it comes to salvation with the
46:05
Father electing, the Son carrying out the work and the Spirit sealing?
46:11
And their functions are different, but that doesn't make them any less than God in the full sense.
46:19
And then he says that the Son also has judgment because he is the Son of Man. And that's almost like,
46:25
OK, this you guys will get it. I don't have to work very hard at it. He says, the Son of Man. And what do you think they think of when
46:31
Jesus says he is the Son of Man? Yes. Louder. Daniel 7.
46:37
And here Daniel has a vision of the end time where Jesus is coming back to judge, or the
46:43
Messiah is coming back to judge. And they knew that this was a function that was given and he is called the
46:49
Son of Man in Daniel 7, 13. And he is going to come and judge. And so Jesus is, this is the man in Daniel 7 that for 700 years you've been looking for, and that is happening right now.
47:00
And so they know what he means when he says he is the Son of Man. Of course, there is an identification with us as humans that is also involved here.
47:09
And that is why the people didn't understand it, that how can man be God and till Jesus came here to live on earth.
47:22
OK, the last verse we have here is verse 30. I can do nothing of my own as I hear
47:27
I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
47:34
Once again, he goes on to emphasize his unique relationship with God the Father. You know, you all know God as the
47:40
Father, and I am working the work of the Father, and I have a unique relationship with him.
47:46
And it is his will that I am here to execute. In fact, when we think of the judge, you may want to go back and read
47:53
Isaiah 11, 1 -5. It talks about how this judge will judge in equity.
47:59
And for us, and especially for them at that time, the kind of judgment that men can deliver is fallible.
48:07
But here is the infallible judgment of God that is going to come down on the end. I actually skipped one thing that I want to point out, which is in verse 28 and 29, he is talking about a different kind of life.
48:22
In fact, in the early part of verses 25, he was talking about the spiritual life that he gives to people who are spiritually dead.
48:29
And then in 28 and 29, he is talking about the final judgment. He is talking about all of us who are dead will rise to face their creator, which is
48:40
Jesus. And there will be two resurrections at that time. One will be a resurrection of those who did not believe, and they will face condemnation.
48:48
And those who believed in Jesus will rise to receive life for eternity. And he is talking about that aspect of it as well in verses 28 and 29.
48:58
So in closing, I want to just expose this text to you this morning to just recognize the richness of who
49:06
Jesus Christ is. You know, so many things we just take for granted, but when you just look at some of these passages, especially the
49:11
Gospel of John, it talks about how Jesus is unique. And it should just raise the way in which we think of him, the way we worship him, and the way we meditate on his finished work that we often think of, because very often we forget the beauty of Jesus when it comes to being the eternal
49:33
God coming down and living on earth for us. So in this passage, we saw the healing that Jesus did.
49:39
We saw the compassion that he had. We see how he almost deliberately does that in the Sabbath and then sets that up for teaching.
49:46
He teaches who God the Father is, his unique relationship with him. And then he goes on to talk about the work of the
49:52
Father that he is carrying and whether it is healing or in giving life or in judgment.
49:58
And so when we go out from here, the one thing I would like us to keep in mind, last week we saw how we must live a life of compassion.
50:06
But one thing that I would like all of us to go out from here this morning is remember who
50:11
Jesus Christ is. In the flesh, he came here, he revealed God the Father, he revealed himself as a unique son, and he came to talk about the life and judgment that he is to give.
50:24
And yet he is, in the functional sense, this very God of very God, as one of the creeds says.
50:29
He is, in the full sense, God. So when we think of God as the eternal spirit, as we think of the infinite one as the omnipotent and the omniscient one, so also is
50:39
Jesus. And that thought of who
50:44
Jesus is should captivate us and enable us to not just worship him in our everyday walk of life, but be able to speak well of him no matter where we are.
50:58
And with that I'd like to close because we are out of time. But is there any questions before we finish up?
51:06
Yeah, once again, if you'd like to learn more, I have some material I can probably send it to you. But I would just encourage you to fix your eyes on Jesus, our author and our perfecter, who is able to give us life when we are born again through justification, who is able to give us life abundant while we are here on earth to live life to its fullest and to give life eternal that we will pass from judgment into heaven.
51:34
Let us pray. Dear God, our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your wonderful gift of Jesus Christ.
51:43
Who, being very God, did not have to, but came here on earth as a man to die in our place, to take our sin and to present us as acceptable before you.
51:57
Such love we cannot understand, but we can only thank you for what you have done. Help us,
52:03
O Father, to fix our eyes on Jesus, that our hearts may be enthralled with the beauty of your son and that we may live a life that is captivated by his beauty.
52:16
We also pray for the rest of the service today. We pray for your word to go forth with power.
52:22
May we experience your presence in a real way this morning as we fellowship with you and with the saints, and may we go out from here as changed people.