Good morning. If you have your Bibles please open up to the Gospel of John Chapter 5.16. If you haven’t been here in a while or haven’t been here at all we have been going through the Gospel of John for the past 3 months so we should be through the book about this time next year.
The book of John highlights the ministry and miracles of Jesus. Last week you may recall we discussed the miracle of Jesus’ healing at the pool of Bethesda.
Once again the pool of Bethesda was the place where people would go because they believed that they could receive some healing from that pool when the waters were stirred. We saw that there were a lot of people at the pool but for some reason Jesus zeroed in on a man who had been lame for 38 years. He went up to him and asked him: “Do you want to get well?” But instead of simply replying “yes” the man went into a series of excuses such as: “I have no one to help me when the water is stirred” or “someone gets in front of me when I attempt to make my way to the pool.”
But rather than listening to the excuses Jesus decided to perform a miracle, to pour out his grace on him right then. He said: “Get up, pick up your mat and walk!.” And so the man did just that. He got up, picked up his mat and walked. Unfortunately he walked right into a group of the Jewish elite who were not quite as excited about his new ability to walk. And they were quite annoyed that he was carrying his mat. It was the Sabbath and he was not allowed to carry his mat.
They asked him who was it that told him to carry his mat. He said that he really didn’t know who told him, that the man who healed him had slipped out of the crowd. And shortly after we see Jesus coming up to the man in the temple and he makes an interesting comment to him. He says: “See you have been healed now stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” We really don’t know how to process that or what happened to the man but we do know in the verses that follow that the man told the Jews that it was Jesus who healed him. And from that point on we see the Jews shifting their attention from the man who carried his mat on the Sabbath but the one who would dare violate the Sabbath by the healing. And that is where we pick up the story today.
Reading from John 5.16-30.
There is a lot of heavy duty scripture here and to be honest I thought about skipping past most of it. But if you have one of those red letter Bibles you see that the bulk of the scripture in today’s reading are direct quotes from Jesus, so I felt I could not simply ignore a big chunk of Jesus’ words. So I am going to attempt to go through this entire section today (although quickly), because I think it is one of the most important “speeches” of Jesus in the NT. I think it was this conversation with the Jews that ultimately led to the Jews wanting to crucify Him on the cross. That the words were so offensive to the Jews that from that point on they wanted to kill him. And you ask yourself why would anyone want to kill Jesus? We find it outline in the first few scriptures:
So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5.16-18)
So in this opening passage we see that there are two charges against Jesus, the breaking of the Sabbath and the making of Himself equal with God. Let’s talk first about the breaking of the Sabbath.
The word Sabbath means “to cease” literally “to cease work”. The honoring of the Sabbath comes from the 4th Commandment, but really is grounded in the book of Genesis whereby God created the world in six days and on the seventh day he rested (i.e, ceased from work). Consequently the view is that man too should only work six days and on the seventh day he too should rest from his labor.
The command was created for the benefit of the people. So that they would not become workaholics, that they would take some rest from their labor to worship God and to enjoy his creation. But as we know the Jews tended to distort the law for the purposes of control. So much so that even something as simple as stooping down and picking up a raggedy mat would be seen as a violation of the Sabbath law. They had so twisted the law that it was even unlawful to perform a compassionate act on the Sabbath, consequently when Jesus healed on the Sabbath that too was seen as a violation of the Sabbath law.
So that is the first problem the Jews had with Jesus and Jesus’ reply is basically: “My Father is working, so I am going to work too.” And by Jesus saying this he is basically putting himself on an equal status with God and that was pure blasphemy, a pure insult to God. Consequently from that point on the Jews were out to kill Jesus. But Jesus was not fearful of them. In fact he goes on with words that basically imply that he wants them to on to understand exactly what he is saying. He says:
“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. (John 5:19–20)
Now I highlighted the phrase “I tell you the truth” because when he says I tell you the truth he means I am going to tell you the way it is. In other words you better listen up. Now keep in mind that when he says “I can do nothing by himself” he is not saying it in the sense that his hands are tied or that he is somewhat like a robot. But what he is saying is that his Will and the Will of the Father are so much in line with each other that in some sense it is impossible for each to work independently. Their plans, their affections, desires, are so aligned that there is a unity of purpose and essence that prevents Jesus from doing anything outside the Will of the Father. So that is what he is talking about when he says that he can do nothing by Himself. You may even recall that back in John Chapter 4 when the Disciples were encouraging Jesus to get something to eat, and Jesus reply was: “My food is to do the Will of the One who sent me and to finish his work.” In other words He is saying that I get my food from operating within the Will of the Father.
Now I realize that some of us have a hard time processing this idea because we are all taught from a very early age that we need to speak or own mind or be or own person. But when you think about it the main reason we have a problem with this, is because we really don’t trust people. We don’t trust that their motives are pure. We know that this thing we call sin steps in and gets in the way of trusting people. We know that sometimes people don’t always act in a trusting way, that are trying to deceive or control or that they may have hidden agendas. But when it is working good i.e., when a relationship is operating in an environment of love and trust it can be a good thing. Many people start out with good intentions when they enter in a relationship.
Has anyone ever used a “Unity Candle” in their wedding? The idea behind the Unity candle is that two would become one. It represents a unity of wills and desires. The combined focus is now on God and His Will and that should be reflected in a family and home that is united towards the same end. So the two individual purposes are now aligned into one purpose.
As a side note sometimes blowing out the individual candles is a part of the ceremony. Personally I don’t like that because even though the purposes are united the individual should not be extinguished. I think marriages get in trouble when one spouse attempts to take away the identity of the other. God created each of us in His image but He also gives us our own unique personality and spiritual gifts in order that we can contribute to God’s Kingdom building plans using our own spiritual gifts and personalities.
So returning to the idea of trust, in the relationship of Jesus and the Father there was no concern. The Son totally loves and trusts the Father, the Father totally loves and trust the Son, there is not infidelity or deceit in the relationship. Consequently the Father is willing to show the Son everything He is doing. In some sense to pull back the curtain and reveal his divine plan of restoring His Kingdom back on earth. All of God’s Kingdom building activities, all his healing activities, all his redeeming activities, all his merciful and restorative activities that would restore the fallen creation and provide the opportunity for His children to come back home.
God is ushering in his Kingdom and he lets Jesus have access to all of it. We look around and see what is happening in the world today and we look at what happens in our individual lives, and we find ourselves consequently asking God “what’s up with that?” Jesus never had to ask the Father “what’s up with that?” because he had full access to God’s Kingdom activities. In fact there is a scripture that I mentioned when we first opened John’s Gospel that speaks of the closeness of the Father and the Son. John 1.18 says: “No one has ever seen God, but God [Jesus] the One and Only who is at the Father’s side has made Him known.” Everything we see Jesus doing explains God and His purposes to us.
So when we see Jesus healing, when we see him casting out demons, when we see him ministering to the Samaritan woman at the well, what we are seeing is God at work through Christ. So you may ask “why didn’t Jesus heal everybody?” Because Jesus wasn’t about healing everybody (at least right then), he was about showing God’s redemptive activity in the world. And he basically goes on to say: “if you think that is amazing I am going to even greater things than these.” John continues to write:
"Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it." (John 5:20b–21)
And this really upsets up the Jews because they always believed that God was the only one who could give life. The giving of life was the sole prerogative of the God of creation; the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. He had the right to give life and take it away. Now Jesus is saying that God has granted that ability to Him. The ability to give and take life is now given to the Son. And He trusts him so much that he says I am going to give him the authority to give it to whoever he pleases. He does this because he trusts the Son to make good judgments about things. John goes on to say:
Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. (John 5:22–23)
We hear the word judge or judgment and immediately something negative comes to mind. i.e., someone being critical or judgmental about another. But really it is not inherently a negative term but carries the idea of the ability to give a “right opinion” about something or someone. The ability to see the situation and make a good determination. That is why we hire judges. That is their job; to hear a case and make a right opinion about a case.
So when the Jews heard Jesus say that the Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son they are thinking that no one but God can make right judgments; no one but God and the men that he has ordained to be judges over the nation of Israel. We can look in the Old Testament and see where God selected men to have the authority to interpret His laws and make determinations about particular situations. So they would walk around with the scrolls and make decisions based on their interpretation of those laws. That was their job.
And basically Jesus is stepping in and challenging their ability to make right judgments. That they had distorted the law so much so that a man that had just been miraculously healed would still be found guilty of picking up a mat on the Sabbath. And that they would even condemn the man who had performed the healing. That they had completely lost sight of the original intent of the law.
So from this point on Jesus is letting them know that he is able to judge better than they, and so consequently they need to pay honor to him. Honor is another one of those words that we have diluted the meaning. Honor during Greek culture had the idea of possession. You would honor a person based upon what they possessed. Their material possessions, their intellectual, their status, etc. So Jesus is saying that He has been granted all these privileges not from men but from God and consequently he deserves honor.
About this time the Jews are getting really annoyed with this guy. If Jesus was married I suspect his wife may be giving him a kick like my wife Debbie often does when we are in a board meeting and I don’t know when to be quiet. She would likely be telling Jesus that by his words he was digging himself a hole with the Jews that he may not be able to get out of. In some sense he was ensuring that he would be nailed to a cross. He is digging his own grave. But did he stop talking? No he continues on by saying:
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)
At this point what Jesus is doing is drawing a line in the sand for the Jews. It is time to decide whether you are really hearing me and believing in the gospel of the One who sent me. The One who loved the world so much that He sent his Only Son for the world.
He was forcing them to a point of decision. Do you want to be on the side of the Father i.e., the One who you claim to be serving all these years? Or do you want stay on the side of legalism and disobedience. It is your choice. If you make the right choice you will cross over from death to life. And he keeps going on. He basically goes onto say that this crossing over from death to life is not something that happens way down the road it is something that happens right now. Jesus goes on to say:
I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come 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, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. (John 5:25–27)
In theology there is this idea that when Jesus came into the world, and specifically when he was baptized and began his formal ministry that he was ushering in the Kingdom of God. But some suggest that there are two aspects of this Kingdom. There is a portion that began with Jesus (the now part) but there is a part of the Kingdom that won’t be fully revealed until Christ’s Second Coming (the not yet part). In this text I believe Jesus is referencing the now part.
He is suggesting that there are people who are spiritually dead because of harden hearts but will “hear” the voice of the Son of God and live (right now) and respond. Jesus is addressing the need for people to be given new life. In other words here I believe He is speaking of regeneration. He is letting the Jews know that if you do hear His voice now and respond appropriately that their spirits will come alive. That they would become born again right now. He may even have suggested to them that if they don’t understand what He is talking about, maybe they should go speak with their friend and colleague Nicodemus who received the full explanation about the need to be born again back in John 3.
And he goes on to say for the Father has life in Himself yet he has granted the Son to have life in Himself. And here He is not referring to the ability to give life He is talking about “being life.” What he is talking about is what we heard in a previous scripture John 1.4 when John said “in Him was life, and that life is the light of men.” Or later in John 14.6 when Jesus says: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is saying that He like the Father is the very source of life itself. In fact He is saying to the Jews that their very life or the life they so desire with God is contained in Him.
And then he says that He has been given the authority to judge because He is the Son of Man. It is interesting in this scripture that Jesus is referring to himself both as “Son of God” and “Son of Man.” He is emphasizing his dual nature i.e., fully God and fully man. The God-man so to speak. He is saying that as “Son of God” he has been given the divine authority to quicken the dead spirits of people, to give them new life. But as “Son of Man” He has been given the authority to judge man. To be able to sit up on the throne and make right judgments about man because he lived as a man. What better person to judge a man than the Man who lived a sinless life as a man? A man who knew man’s trials and temptations; and knew what was in a man. He knew man’s heart. He alone as the perfect man had the right to sit at the throne and judge man.
And Jesus is still not finished with them. He goes onto say:
“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. (John 5:28–29)
Jesus is now talking about future time (i.e., the not yet time). Now this is a hard passage because Jesus is saying that everyone who hears the voice will come out of their graves. The people who have done good (in other words those who have responded favorably to my message) will rise to live. And those who have done evil (i.e., hardened their hearts against him) will rise to be condemned.
As a side note, someone brought me in a copy of the newspaper that said that this coming Saturday, May 21st, is Judgment Day. This bothered me to read this. Not because I am afraid but because I will be on vacation and it would be nice to get my full vacation in before judgment day. This is a full page ad in USA Today, and the man who purchased the ad is absolutely certain that May 21st is the day that the rapture will happen. All kidding aside I am not afraid of this but it does make me think, that we should all live as if judgment day is today or this week. Not in a sense of fear but in anticipation of it. Really it is to live in acknowledgment that God is at work around us and is in the process of restoring His Kingdom.
Now I don’t believe that we can or should even try to nail down the exact date, but you can’t but help but be spooked a bit by what is happening in the world especially as it relates to the weather. I talked to our local weatherman Dennis Bowman about his perspective on things. And he said that in the weather man circles the word that has been used to describe these bizarre weather patterns is “epic”. That they are seeing weather patterns that have never been seen or recorded. So even if the end times is not May 21st the end is coming. And I am not an “end times” sort of preacher but it definitely gets me thinking about things.
Anyway, Jesus says He is going to be the One who is going to make those the life and death judgments and then he concludes by summing up the same way that he started this speech. He says:
By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me. (John 5:30)
He started this passage by saying “I can do nothing”, and ends this part of his talk with the Jews on a similar note. That once again, he does nothing on his own. That he only makes judgments on what he hears from the Father, and because he seeks to please the Father we can be confident that His judgments will be in alignment with His judgment of things.
It comes back to the idea of the melding of the Wills between Father and Son. And it helps us to know that no matter what we think about the end times and judgment day that whatever happens the judgments made will be just; that every person will be judged fairly.
That is the end of the section and I will stop there for now. But hopefully you will understand why the Jews would be so upset at Jesus. He was upsetting their entire world view. The way they looked at things the way they performed their religion, their religious institutions, they way they applied the law etc. and in the way they viewed God and their relationship with Him.
So they were mad. So mad that they wanted to kill him.
And when you think about it, it is pretty much the same way today. People may not want to kill Jesus but they pretty much would probably prefer that he be put away. That people would refrain from talking about Him. That he would stay in his place i.e., in the church. In fact, if you don’t believe me simply bring up the name Jesus in your work or social environment and see how quickly the people scatter or the conversation is changed. People don’t want to hear or talk about Jesus. In fact some people would be perfectly content if the name “Jesus” was never mentioned again anywhere.
But what is interesting about this whole passage is that the same words that caused the Jews to want to kill Jesus, the same words that would cause people to want to ignore or destroy Christianity, are the same words that cause devoted Christians today to want to HONOR and praise Jesus.
Isn’t that amazing? The very words that caused the Jews to want to kill Jesus are the same words that inspire Christians to want to come in on Sunday morning and lift our hands and praise Jesus. Words that cause us to get into our quiet times and read his words and meditate on them, so that we may know Him. It is the same words that cause us to buy Christian music and to tune into the Christian radio in our cars, the same words that cause us to purchase the Christian books and to gather in small groups for study about Him.
And you may think, how do you make such a jump from wanting to kill him to wanting to praise him. Well Jesus makes it clear. Those who hear my words and believed in the One who sent Him have crossed that great divide from death to life.
So nothing has really changed. If you want to cross over you have to decide whether you are going to hear his words and believe. And not necessarily hear audibly but to hear with your heart. To know within your heart that Jesus did have a special relationship with the Father, that they have a unity of essence, purpose, and Will. That they both are about restoring God’s Kingdom on earth. That the Father has shown everything to the Son and has entrusted him to make right judgments about people and situations.
And when you do believe those things within the depths of your heart you no longer want to keep Jesus hidden away but want to bring him out and praise him. In other words you want to go from dishonoring the Son to honoring Him. And when you honor the Son you Honor the Father and you immediately move from death to life, and onto life eternal.
Let us pray.
