How To Be The Witnesses God Wants Us To Be Series

How to Be the Witnesses God Wants Us to Be

The Gospel of John

John 5:30-35

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - September 14, 2016

(Revised August 2, 2019)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to John 5. Before we read our Scripture, remember that that this chapter begins with one of the Lord's amazing healing miracles. It happened in Jerusalem by the pool called Bethesda. Jesus instantly healed a man who had not been able to walk for 38 years!

*Jesus performed this healing on the Sabbath Day, and that was not a crime against God's Law. But it was a crime punishable by death under the man-made laws of the Jewish scribes and Pharisees.

*As soon as Jesus began to respond to their charge, He committed another crime punishable by death. This new charge against the Lord was blasphemy, because when Jesus called God "My Father," He made Himself equal with God.

*We see these charges in vs. 15-18, where the Bible says:

15. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

16. For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.

17. But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.''

18. Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

*Then in vs. 19-23, Jesus pleaded guilty to the charge of making Himself equal to God and rightly so, because Jesus IS the one and only eternal Son of God.

*Next in vs. 24-30, we saw three of the great spiritual miracles Jesus works in the life of every Christian.

[1] FIRST, JESUS GIVES US THE MIRACLE OF REGENERATION.

*That's the new spiritual birth we receive when we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It's the new birth that gives us God's everlasting life. And it comes by hearing and believing in God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

*So in vs. 24-26, Jesus said:

24. "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

25. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.

26. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself."

[2] JESUS GIVES US THE MIRACLE OF REGENERATION. HE ALSO GIVES US THE MIRACLE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

*True righteousness before God is a miracle from God! We must see this miracle in vs. 28-30, where Jesus said:

28. "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice

29. and come forth those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

30. I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me."

*If we take verse 29 out of context, it seems as if good works can get you to Heaven, but that is surely not the case. Christians: We are righteous in God's eyes, but it never comes from our own goodness. God considers us to be righteous, because our sins are covered by the blood of the Lamb of God who died on the cross for us.

*Paul made it this truth very clear in Romans 4:1-8, where he wrote these words:

1. What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?

2. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something of which to boast, but not before God.

3. For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.''

4. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.

5. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,

6. just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

7. "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;

8. blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.''

*Christians: God considers us to be good, because our sins are covered by the Lord's sacrificial blood. That’s imputed righteousness. Jesus’ goodness is put in our account, and we are saved by His grace! God also considers us to be righteous, because our lives have been changed. This is what we sometimes call imparted righteousness. God has given a new nature to us, and He is still working in us to desire and do His good pleasure.