Equal With God
The Life Of Christ • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
The theme this year, here on Sunday mornings, has been “The Life of Christ.”
The hope being that we can examine our Lord and Savior’s life, here on earth, and learn to grow closer to him and follow his lead in our life.
Today we are going to be studying why the Jews sought to kill Jesus.
It all begins with Jesus’ healing a fellow Jew at the pool of Bethsaida.
The healing pool of Bethsaida.
This pool was believed that if you went into it when it was stirred up you could possibly become healed.
Jesus comes across a man who had been trying to get into this pool for 38 years.
Jesus, knowing this man’s situation, asked the man if he wanted to be healed.
The man responded with yes, but he had not been able to make it into the pool, when stirred, before others got in.
Jesus tells the man “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.
The Jews asked the man why he had “taken up his bed” as their “tradition” said this was sinful.
He responded a man, eventually found to be Jesus, told him to take up his bed and walk away, healing him.
Jesus’ response to the Jews who did not like him healing people on the Sabbath, was, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17).
This brings us to our text for our lesson today, John 5:18.
John 5:18 (ESV)
18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Our Lord and Savior then goes on to explain why he is worthy of being “Equal with God” i.e., God himself in John 5:19-47.
With that in mind let’s examine our lesson for today.
Jesus was worthy of being “equal with God” because he was…
Working With The Father
Working With The Father
Challenging God.
Challenging God.
One of the reasons the Jews had an issue with Jesus implying he was “equal with God” is that this appeared to them as Jesus “challenging God” as “God.”
In other words, if you claim to be god you are challenging the real God for that position.
However, in John 5:19-29 Jesus points out that He isn’t challenging God the Father but working with him.
So, what are some of the examples Jesus gives that he was…
Laboring With The Father.
Laboring With The Father.
Jesus was working with the Father and thus equal with the Father because both “were united in give life.”
In John 5:21 we read…
21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.
Jesus would, in just a few verses later, state…
24 Truly, truly, 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 to life.
Jesus was working hard, just like the God the Father and Spirit, to bring life back to the people who had corrupted their spiritual life with sin.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus was working with the Father and thus equal with the Father because both “were united in raising the dead.”
In John 5:20 we read…
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.
There is no doubt that Jesus is referring to him doing such miracles as “raising the dead” while on earth.
However, as you and I know Jesus wasn’t just united with God in raising “a handful” of people on this earth, like Lazarus, but all the faithful when he comes back in the clouds for the final judgment.
28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
Summary
Summary
Jesus understood that he and his credentials were “on trial.”
It wasn’t going to be enough to simply say, “my father is God.”
God himself, has always required “witness” to prove claims whether it be from his prophets or as we will see, his only begotten Son.
13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.”
Thus, Jesus sets forth “witnesses” to his claims of working with God and being God’s son.
So, what are these…
Witnesses To Jesus’ Claim
Witnesses To Jesus’ Claim
John The Baptizer.
John The Baptizer.
Jesus’ claims did not rest on human testimony, however, Jesus’ first response involves him who “prepared his way.”
John was called as a witness because he was God’s special messenger.
1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
27 This is he of whom it is written, “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’
Also, John’s testimony concerning the Messiah had really never been refuted.
Jesus stated in John 5:33…
33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
Jesus is referring to a delegation that had been sent from Jerusalem to question John (John 1:19-28). John responded to the questions by pointing to Jesus.
26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”
The very next day we read John saying in John 1:29, 34…
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
Jesus, then stated of this event…
35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
The key phrase here is “for a while.”
R.C. Foster wrote, “They had rejoiced in John’s light for a time—until the light had been turned on their sins!” 1
If they had accepted John’s testimony, they would have known Jesus is the Christ.
The second witness Jesus provided was “greater than John” because it was…
His Miracles.
His Miracles.
We read in John 5:36…
36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.
There is no doubt these “works” are dealing with Jesus’ ability to perform miracles because they “bore witness that God sent Jesus.”
Remember, miracles were for the soul purpose of demonstrating that someone was teaching God’s word and that what they were teach was true.
20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.
Jesus was performing miracles so prove he was teaching God’s truth, i.e., God’s word.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Jesus had performed many miracles up to this point (John 2:23).
It was these many miracles or signs that led Nicodemus to state…
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
Jesus’ critics could not deny he had done miracles but they denied this witness that Jesus was telling the truth and thus him being equal with God.
Jesus lastly, demonstrated how the “scriptures” were a witness of him.
The Word Of God Itself.
The Word Of God Itself.
Jesus again said in John 5:39…
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
Hundreds of passages in the Old Testament pointed to Jesus as the Christ (Psalm 2, Isaiah 53).
Jesus would even declare in Luke 24:44…
44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
The Jewish leadership was devoted to the scriptures.
Rabbinic writings state…
“He who has gained for himself words of the Law has gained for himself life in the world to come.” 2
The Jewish leadership counted every word and letter; they put every “jot” and tittle” under their microscope (Matthew 5:18).
However, they had missed the actual purpose of the scriptures, which were designed to point people to Christ.
24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
Because the scriptures themselves were a witness to Jesus, he would declare boldly…
45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
With all that evidence pointing to Jesus being the Messiah why did so many reject these witnesses?
They rejected Jesus because their heart was all wrong.
40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
They rejected Jesus because they sought glory from man rather than God.
44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
Summary
Summary
As the apostle Paul would declare in 2 Corinthians 13:1…
1 This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
Jesus went beyond “two witnesses” and brought forth “three witnesses.”
It should have been without dispute that he was the Messiah and because of such was working with the Father to bring salvation “spiritual life” back to humanity once again.
Conclusion
Conclusion
C.S. Lewis once wrote of Jesus’ words here in John 5…
“You must make a choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.” 3
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Endnotes
Endnotes
R. C. Foster, Studies in the Life of Christ (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1971), 451.
Aboth 2:8; quoted in Frank Pack, The Gospel According to John, Part 1 (Austin, Tex.: Sweet Publishing Co., 1975, 95.
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan Co., 1952), 55-56.