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August 6, 2023
John 5:19-29
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So, where does healing a superstitious, ungrateful invalid get you? This passage is a result of what Christ graciously did for a man who had not been well for 38 years. The act, although conducted on the Sabbath day, put Jesus as public enemy #1 in the eyes of the religious leaders.
When I read this passage, I am reminded of a show that Heidi and I are into. It is a lawyer series and centers around a 1st year junior law associate who works for a very successful and ruthless senior partner at a large law firm in New York. The associate’s job is to find loopholes, details and ways to win cases that at times they really should not be winning. You see, the associate and his boss find dirt on people and use it to manipulate them into settling out of court because if they go to court, the judge may side with the other side. So, find the dirt on the other guy, and win the case. What I am learning from this show is that there is always an out. There is always a way to dabble in right and use wrong to get what you want. There is always hidden dirt or facts that allows the main characters to win.
Unfortunately for us, we live our entire lives this way. Even when we are 100% wrong, we look for the dirt on the other guy and use it to escape accountability. But spiritually speaking the truth is there is no appeals, no little facts that can save us, or some other authority that can sway the judge. The reason why is that the associate, the lawyer, and the judge are all the same person and there is no higher court. We see this established in Jesus’s response starting in this section of John. Today we will see the authority granted to the Son by the Father for eternal judgment. Let’s go to the Word of God and see why this is true.
1. Jesus is equal to the Father.
Jesus did not deflect or subjugate to the Pharisees when pressed about healing the man on the Sabbath. In response, He added gas to the fire and opened the door for the fight that lead Him to the cross. He said:
Vs 17: “My Father is working until now, and I am working”.
This claim served as the introduction to the passages we just read and is important to understand for the rest of the chapter. When Jesus says this, it is the introduction to vs 19-29. It is the bed rock to the truth claims that we will uncover. But, when Jesus says “My Father is working” He is directly referring to the creative act of creation and the sustaining that He is doing now.
Gen 1:1 “In the beginning, God created…” The word “created” is bara in Hebrew and implies sustained action. God did not simply create the universe and then step out and say my work here is done boys, good luck. This is called deism. The deist view (God started it and then removed Himself) has a major problem. There is an unimaginable amount of evidence that proves that God’s hand is consistently maintaining each molecule and each person and each planet in place.
When Jesus uses these words in vs 17, He was saying that just as God works on the Sabbath to keep the world still working, Jesus was authorized to work on the Sabbath as well. He was claiming creative and salvific authority over man's rules, which was viewed as a direct attack on their authority. The attacks then and now are still coming. The attacks on His authority and identity have never stopped. The Pharisees and religious leaders did not recognize His position just like people don’t today.
An example of this would be how the Muslims will say that “Jesus was a genuine prophet, a wise teacher and a worthy example of human goodness but was just a man”. I could go on and compare where Jesus lands with the Catholic, Morman, JW, and others, but to be clear, Jesus does not afford us the right or authority to change who He is. Jesus does not give us the space to view Him other than how is presented in the Word of God. If we do not accept Him as He presents Himself, then it comes at great cost to us. If we say we believe in God, then we must believe in the Son. The two go hand in hand.
Vs 23 “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”
There it is. The two are connected in honor. We say there is a God. We say there is a moral standard, we say that God is the creator and author of the world but many will jump ship when they hear that the Son has the same level of authority. Why is that? It is because we have been taught from a very young age the wrong idea of who Jesus is. We misunderstand the word “son” and we attribute jesus in our mind with a “be nice at all costs, and never talk about sin” type of Jesus.
What we don’t know of God (reveal in His Word) we will fill with what we thinkHe is. Or worse, what we think He should be. To know Him correctly is found ONLY in His Word of God. We are masters of idolatry as we create our own versions of who He is.
How does Jesus present Himself than to the pharasees?
Vs 19 “So Jesus said to them, “truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing…”
The words truly truly is called the double amen amen meaning “it is true, it is true”. His words there is also a legal term for “testify” much like testifying under oath in a legal proceeding or deposition. There is no stronger way to say, this is so true. He does not reject their accusation that He was claiming to be the son of God. Rather He goes on to affirm it. This is the God who spoke the world into existence and He is saying, “listen, listen”. Your eats should be bleeding when you hear Him speak this.
“…the Son can do nothing of His own accord but only what He sees the Father doing. For what ever the Father does that the Son does likewise.”
We need to be very careful on how we read this. When I read it, I think of my boys watching me put a dirtbike back together and then I instruct them on how I want them to do it. When they watch me do it and see the importance of it, they do it themselves. In the case of certain items, they are actually better suited to do the task then I am. In the end, if someone were to come to me and ask, how did you do that, I would direct them to my sons. They have authority from me to accomplish the task. I know that all analogies break down, but can you see this? God and the Son are one in mission while each have their own function and individuality.
God the Father from eternity past sent Jesus to carry out the will of the Father. Jesus is executing the plan and has the authority of the Father to execute the plan. Thus, He has all authority to execute His role and function in the plan. Jesus was claiming that authority, position and knowledge.
Vs 20: “For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing.”
The preposition “For ''marries verse 19 to 20 and is critical because it is the result of this great love from the Father that Jesus is about the plan of salvation. Jesus is NOT about His own special interests. Rather, He is about doing the will of the Father. It is that action and intent that unites the Father and the Son together and the Father SHOWS the Son all that the Father is doing. This claim would have rocked the Pharisees and it should rock us too! It should humble us more than it does. Who can make this claim?
Getting back to my lawyer show, when someone makes a claim that is outrageous, they better be able to back it up. Where is the proof? In today’s slang, do you have the receipts for that claim. How in the world could Jesus make such a bold claim unless He was 1. Pshyco/insane 2. A Lier 3. Or exactly who He says He was. Nothing in the text or in history would point to #1 or #2. Rather, everything points to the FACT that He was exactly who He says He was. The reason He can make such claims can be found in the first part of vs 20:
“For the Father loves the Son…”
Love is the key that unlocks the door to this verse. Listen to this quote by Robert Jamieson:
“As love has no concealments, so it results from the perfect fellowship and mutual endearment of the Father and the Son (see on Jn 1:1; Jn 1:18), whose interests are one, even as their nature, that the Father communicates to the Son all His counsels…”
God hides nothing back from the Son out of selfish gain or in an attempt to maintain authority. He Loves the Son and because of such Love, the two are one in mind and one in effort. They, the Father, Son and HS work together to accomplish the tasks that their positions require. I do not want to spend a ton of time on the Trinity here. We will stick to what the text is teaching us as expository teaching. We are talking about equality today.
But, God has His function, the Son has His function and the Spirit has His function. The Father sends the Son into the world for our redemption. The Son acquires our redemption and the HS who applies that redemption to us. WE DO NOT HAVE 3 GODs. We have one God in three persons and the three persons have their own function.
This perfect fellowship is what Jesus is referring to here. The Father sent Jesus into the world to secure salvation for His people, “whom He wishes.”
That role is found in vs 21-22
“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 has given all judgment to the Son…”
How can I give life if I myself am not the source of life.
In my science class I encountered the Urey-Miller experiment where these two men who attempted to create life from scratch to prove that it could happen according to Darwin’s theory. It was an amazing experiment. They were setting out to create life from scratch as evolution would claim. The problem was this. They started with ammonia and other compounds that had already contained amino acids. Meaning, they cheated. No matter how good or smart we are, life belongs in the hand of God only. Even if we get to the point where we can create a person from a tube, life belongs and is sustained ONLY in one place. God is the ONLY means of life.
Deut 32:39
39 “ ‘See now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no God beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. [1]
Taking life and creating life is in the hand of God. Salvation from the death caused by sin is the hand of the Son. The Son is the one who gives life to whom He will. He is the final deciding factor on that decision.
John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
Now, that makes our understanding of who He really is pretty important. If we have a low view of who He is or if we do not know who He is at all, what is at stake? Well, if He is who He claims, and He says that HE has the power to save, I want Him to know me and I want to know Him!
2. RECEIVE THE OFFER OF LIFE FROM THE SON
There needs to be a since of urgency here. A proper understanding of what Jesus claims could be the difference between knowing Jesus and being separate from Him for eternity. This is why I preach and teach the Biblical Jesus. What Jesus is saying in John 5 was crazy talk to the religious leaders just like it is crazy talk for people today. But, in this passage, Jesus helps us put it together to better understand the importance of why He came to earth in the first place.
Vs 20: “For the Father Loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing. And greater works than these will He show Him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will.”
The Father gives life at the physical birth. The Son gives the second life. How many times have I taught and preached this principle? Since starting our church on January 1 of this year, every sermon has had a clear Gospel message. We are dead men and women walking in our sin. We may have the breath of life in our chests, but apart from the saving work of Christ in our lives, those breaths are numbered. Through the work of Christ Jesus on the cross of calvary, where He spilled His innocent blood for the rebellion of a sinner like me and you we are made new. Not everyone gets this gift, it is for those who are IN CHRIST.
Turn to 1 John 5:10-12. I want all of us to see this. It is one thing to hear the Son speak about this, but how does God feel and think of His Son?
10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. 11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. [2]
Believe in the Son and have life. No where did Christ ask us to believe something about HIM. He asked us to believe IN Him and that preposition is the key. I can not make that any more clear but I want you to know I am building to something. In our passage, Jesus is leading up to a VERY contentious claim.
From verse 19-30, there is a recurring word that is hard for us to swallow. Especially in our culture today. We hate this word because with it means we have to admit that there is authority in our lives even if we do not want to admit it. That one word is “judgment”.
Vs 22 “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son…”
From vs 22-30, the word “judgment” and or “judge” is used 7 times.
Judgment: krisis- means a divine decision/judge
Dictionary: 1. A decision or opinion given after judging a formal decision given by a court 2. The final judging of mankind by God
Going back to my lawyer's analogy. The attorney and main characters would do everything they could to negotiate, blackmail, and bribe the other party before it ever made it to the judge. They would even try it with the judges but they all knew that when it made it to the judge, their job just got harder. The issue is that we approach our our spiritual walk the same way. We think that we have the luxury of bribing the other side, negotiating to get off the hook or even throw ourselves at the mercy of the judge.
This works for both the believer and non believers alike. All of us must understand who the lawyer is for the believer. The Bible calls it something different:
1 John 2:1 2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous[3].
All of us must also understand who the judge is: “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.”
Yikes! That is not usually how we have been taught is it? Usually preachers and teachers put God on that bench. But the Bible is clear that it is most definitely Christ Jesus.
There is one more position that we are missing in this analogy and it looks different from the believer and the non. To the believer:
Hebrews 12:5-9
“5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline[4]
But, for the non-believer, the words are different:
Revelation 20:11-12
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened[5]13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. [6]
Do we see the similar language used by Jesus in John 5 and then again Revelation 20. (Lawson’s analogy of pulling the thread/tapestry) What our Lord is saying is that He is the advocate for the believer, redemption for their penalty. For the non believer/reprobate His position is that of judge.
Heb 10:31: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
This is the reason we believers can have 100% confidence that what Romans 8:1 says “there is therefore now no condemnation for those IN CHRIST JESUS”.
But to the ones who have yet to put their lives into the palm of the Christ, you will end up walking into that judgment to a hostile lawyer, and hostile judge. For the non believer, they will hear, “depart from me, I never knew you”.
Because of who He is, He is the ONLY authorized judge. A judge who is truly man and truly God. Remember, this was one of the reasons he used “son of man” to describe Himself. He had to be the judge and the one paying the bill of sin. Imagine that! God demanded a perfect payment for sin. He provided that perfect payment of sin in the form of His Son. That Son is the one who judges against His standard. This is the perfect plan! It’s 100% fail safe! The judge is the one who makes the payment? What criminal wouldn’t like that? Believer, look at this! We should be elated! We should be blown away every morning when our feet hit the floor.
Analogy: Pat and Heidi teaching kindergarten: we are NOT Jesus in that story.
Conclusion:
As we look at this passage we can be excited that Jesus is who He says He is. The fact that He is equal to and united with God most high must challenge us to the claims that He made. If He is equal to and united with God in thought, word and dead. We MUST pay attention to what He claims about Himself. He is about providing life to the dead and judgment to the lost. He is about calling the sinners to Himself. Now, take Him up on His calling.
What you and I do with what I said has eternal effects. I am not trying to manipulate. I am not asking, I am telling you. Receive the Son and be saved.