John 2021

Okay. We're gonna have our reading now. And we're carrying on in John's gospel, chapter 5, and starting at verse 16 through to verse 30. If you're using the bibles on the tables, that's 10 68.

So because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense, Jesus said to them, my father is always at work to this very day and I too am working. For this reason, they tried all the more to kill him. Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father. Making himself equal with God.

Jesus gave them this answer. Very truly, I tell you. The son can do nothing by himself. He can only do 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.

Yes and he will show him even greater works than these so that you will be amazed. 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. Moreover, the father judges no 1, but has entrusted all judgment to the son that all may honor the son just as they honor the father. Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Very truly, I tell you whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

And will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Very truly, I tell you, 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 also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the son of man. 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 what is good, will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. 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.

Roy. Thank you, Chris. Good evening from me. My name is Rory. Rory Canad.

I'm 1 of the elders here. And we're As as you can see, we're continuing on with our series in John. And I don't know if as you read that, you were kind of thinking, what the dickens is going on, because that's exactly what I thought when I first read this. And I At times, you you come to a passage in in the word of God and you think, I I I am too small, too small and too weak to understand anything. Because I think in this passage, at least, we're we're brought to our capacity in what we can know about the son of god.

So It's been it's been something that it's been hard to grapple with, and and we need God's help to understand this passage. So, let's pray as we begin, and then we'll we'll we'll get stuck in. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your words. And we know that we are finite and sinful people, and so sometimes it is hard for us to understand what you're saying to us.

Sometimes it's hard for us to grapple with your word. And and on top of that, we have all sorts of distractions going on outside and and there are things around us that occupy our minds. So we just pray now farther that you will clear our minds, that you will fix them on you that you'll help us to listen to your words and help us to understand it so that we may have a greater picture of who the lord Jesus crisis, so that we may have a bit greater picture of who the father is, and what that means as a result. And so we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. So we're gonna continue on from last week where Ben was going through this this amazing healing in verse 1 to 15.

I mean, I probably should have asked Tilly to to read that, so sorry about that. But you you got this incredible healing of a layman at a place called Bethesda. And and after he's healed this man, we come into verse 6 seen, and and you'll see straight away that because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. So the the the healing of this lame man was done on the Sabbath, and for the the religious leaders at the time, that was a big taboo for them. And so they persecute Jesus.

They go after Jesus because of what he's done. Now, with that in mind, Jesus, when he gets this persecution coming his way, he could, I suppose, get into a big argument about the Sabbath. He could be like, well, actually, gentlemen. You have misunderstood the Sabbath. You've got the Sabbath all wrong.

You've made the Sabbath about yourselves, and actually it's not about that. You You you've made all these little laws, and that's wrong. But if you see in this passage, Jesus doesn't do that. In fact, He doesn't say much or anything about the Sabbath, does he? In fact, what he does, he uses this argument, this this this persecution as a kind of springboard as a as a connection to what he wants to talk about.

He's not gonna get into the argument. He instead is gonna make an astonishing claim. An astonishing claim. Now, there are some incredible statements that people have made over the years, I I decided to search them up here's 1, see if you can guess who said this. I'm the most successful person ever to run for the presidency, by far, Nobody's ever been more successful than me.

I'm the most successful person ever to run. Ross, I don't know how you say his name is Perot, isn't settle like me. Romney, I have a Gucci store that's worth more than Romney. Anyone any ideas? I mean, it's quite a hard 1.

Trump. Trump. Yeah. I mean, whatever you think of Donald Trump. So this is just a side point.

We must thank God that he's given us a wealth of illustrations in this man. It's a huge claim to make, and quite interesting because he, you know, has he only said 1 term. But this this happens all over the place. Right? Sports people, the most famous 1, Mohammed Ali, I'm the greatest.

Yeah? It's fact is that he said I'm the greatest, then he would go out and try and prove it by knocking out whoever he could knock out. But if you look with me at verse 17 to 18, let's just read that. In his defense, Jesus said to them, My father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working. For this reason, they tried all the more to kill him, not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.

See his claim? There is not in fact, there is no bigger claim than this. It doesn't get greater than this claim. And he is saying that the father and him are equal. That's it's actually the first time I think.

He calls God My Father. And what he is saying is that just as the father always works, the the father doesn't stop working. God doesn't stop working, not even on the Sabbath. Right? He's always working.

And so Jesus is saying just as the father's always working, then I 2, the son, I'm always working. So the father works in caring and restoring and healing people. And because he is into that work, the son Jesus is saying, I am into healing and caring and restoring people like the lame man who's been carrying his mask. And so he's putting himself on a level with God. You see that word equal?

The the word equal is the word that we that we use for things like isometric and isosceles, you know, the same the same size, the same dimensions. And the religious establishment get this. They understand what he's saying. And they hate it. They're furious.

And you can see what they're like. They say they tried all the more to kill him. In other words, in any the the feeling behind that word is in any way whatsoever that we can do, get him out the way. Get rid of him. Kill him.

Because he's claiming to be the son of god, ma'am. Some of you, I mean, I guess the majority of us, have come here and we say, son of God, yeah, we know that. We we have the apostles creed, I believe in the believe in Jesus Christ, the son of God, beautiful, and we just sort of grown numb to these truth. But get the picture here. Get the picture.

Here is a man. He doesn't even have a home. He's a carpenter's son. It's a bit shady in how he came to be. And he just said, I'm god.

And for the Jewish leaders, this is nothing but blasphemy. Of the highest order. And for them, they probably don't think that he's actually saying he's in 1 and the same god. They're actually thinking he's they're probably thinking that he's saying, I'm a God on a level. I'm a competitor God.

I I'm a God and God are God. But Jesus goes on to explain his claim. And Jesus is explaining that claim is going to tell us what that means. And so, what he does, I think, as he goes through, he he kind of gives us different times, or or different angles of what this looks like. So what does it mean for Jesus to be the son of gods?

Well, here's the first thing. Eternity. The divine love between father and son, give honor. I couldn't think a very pithy or witty things to say today said, I'm sorry. But eternity, the divine love between father and son give honor.

You'll see that in verse 19, he begins by saying very truly I tell you. He says that 3 times. It's a great little quote. Drew should have made a thing. It's v t I y.

We could say it for sure. VTIY. Very truly, I tell you. VTIY. He says it 3 times throughout here.

He say, look, I'm gonna clarify what I need You're gonna get what I mean by being by being 1 with the father. And so he begins in verse 19. He says, the son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees his father doing because whatever the father does, the son also does. See, it's not that Jesus is saying I'm a competitor God.

It's not saying that Jesus is saying there's 2 gods He's not saying that. He's not independent of the God of the Bible. No. He's dependent. He's co existent, and he's just dependent on the father, he he only does what he sees the father doing.

This should this should remind us of what we saw in chapter 1 and verse 1 to 4 where it said. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning through him. All things were made without him, nothing was made has been made in him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. See, Jesus is not independent.

He's not another god. He he sees what his father's doing, and he does what his father does. See, sons copy their fathers. Right? Unless they're, like, really rebellious, so they do the opposite of their father.

But Son's copied their fathers. In fact, before, I I was testing my microphone, and Sophie said, you don't need that because you're a loud mouthed git. That was paraphrased. I'm sorry. She didn't come and get sorry, slander.

Now if you know my dad, He's a loud mouthed man. I wouldn't call him a gift. It's very disrespectful. He's loud. I'm loud.

Yes? We we copy. We mimic fathers, father and son mimic each other. In fact, Stephen, my brother Stephen's got a a neighbor And his neighbor is, like, really handy, and he's always making things and building things. And then you look at his son, and his son's going around.

Like, when he was, like, 3, he was just carrying around reals and stuff. Yeah? Father, their sons mimic their father. Now I think the sense of this probably gets lost on us a little bit. Because before like the industrial revolution, in the ancient world, it was usually the case that the son would follow the footsteps of the father.

The son would do the job of the father. So if the father was a farmer, the son would be a farmer if the The the father was a a plumber. The son would be a plumber. If the father was a carpenter, the son would be a carpenter. In fact, actually, I would say this I remember when I was in Sunday school, and we we were someone was doing a talk, and someone asked what we all wanted to be.

And they asked me, and I said, I want to be pastor, because my dad's a pastor. What a holy child, though, but I am. I must have wanted something. I don't know what it was. Sons copy their father.

They they look at their father, and they do what their father does. And And then he develops that image in verse 20, you'll you'll notice, for the father loves the son and shows him all he does. Yes. And he will show him even greater works than these that you will be amazed. So why does The fathers show the sum what it does, because at the very heart of it all is love.

See, if if the father doesn't show his son what to do, that's pretty unloving. Right? You know, who's a farmer says, I'm not gonna show the son what to do, and then I'll die, and he'll get the business, and he doesn't have a clue what he's doing. That wasn't very loving, was it? But because the father loves the son, the father shows him what to do.

Now, it's a little bit of skewed image because the sun always knows everything, but that that's this kind of feeling we're getting. And so there has been this love between the father and the son, and that love is at the heart of everything. It is the heart of the cosmos. Is the heart of the universe. And so in that love, it's that love that drives them to work with 1 another.

It drives them to be united in everything that they do. It's the love between father and son. It's the love that drives a son to do the words of the father, the son says, I love my father. I mean, if you look at sons, right? They absolutely adore their dads, and that's why they always lie about them.

Yeah? Or or had that in their play. Well, my dad, you know, is, you know, the quickest man in the world, and he could beat your dad up any day. The only thing is when Jesus says it, it's true. Yeah?

And and he's so enamored with the father, and the father is so enamored with the son, And because the son loves the father, he does the works of the father, and then he says, what? You will see greater works of Arthur gonna give him greater works, and you'll be amazed at that. And so because he loves the father, He will go on and go on and do the works of the father, and it drives him. And so it drives him to the cross. It's not it's not the love for us, primarily.

We always think it's about us, don't we? We're loving the center of the universe. It's not it's all about me. No. The reason that he goes to the cross or or the primary reason is because he loves the father.

How do we know? Well, we go into the garden of gethsemane and in the agony that he is in. He doesn't say, oh, for the love of all the people he says, not my world, but yours be done. I love your father. I love your father.

I'm willing to do your work because we are united in our love. So there is love at the heart of it all. There is love in the works of God. But what are the works of God? Well, he goes on to explain.

Look at verse 21. 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. You see that? Now, this is a prerogative of God. This is a rite of God.

God is in the business of raising the dead. You'll see that all throughout the old testament. In fact, if you go to the story if you remember, we we looked at King's a few months back. But when Neiman goes to the king, the king says to try and get healed of his leprosy, the king says, am I god? Can I kill and bring back to life?

And so Neiman has to go to the man of God, Elijah, who's god's agent to give life. It's god's right to give life to the dead. And so because God the father is in the business of raising the dead, the God the son is also in the business of raising the dead. God, the son, is in the business of raising the dead to whom he is pleased to give it. So just think about what we've just seen and in verse 1 to 15.

Did the the man, the lame man in the pool go, Jesus, can you come and or please come and he'll be no? Jesus just just goes, and he's pleased to heal a man despite his lack of belief. And if you look throughout the gospels time and time again, Christ is giving life to dead. He gives both physical life, but he also gives spiritual life. So God is in the business of life giving God the father and God the son.

But not just that, if we look at verse 22, moreover, the father judges no 1 but has entrusted all judgment to the son. See, God is also a just god. God is a god who judges in the Old Testament. In fact, in Psalm chapter 50 in verse 6, it says, and the heavens declare his righteousness for God himself is judge. And so just as God is a just god who judges rightly, the son is also just, and also judges rightly.

We've already seen this judgment in an action in this book, haven't we? When he goes into the temple courts and he drives them out, that's a good judgment. But here we see actually the father gives the job to the son to judge. So if we go back to the image of the the the father is the carpenter maybe maybe to the son. The father sometimes grows the son into knowing what jobs to do, and then he gives him the responsibility of doing an individual job.

Right? So we had we had they were like a father and son-in-law come and do our bathroom. And I came into the house, and the father was gone, and the son was doing the job. I think his job was to do the grouting, poor lad. Yeah.

So he's grouting all the tiles. He had his job. And so I think that's the sort of image we're getting here. God has given the responsibility over to the son to do the judgment. So the judgment of God, the father, is done through the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're gonna see a little bit more of that as we go on.

But do you see Do you see who Jesus is claiming to be here? He's claiming to be the eternal Son of God, the 1 that has always been with God and has always been God. And this is just an amazing insight into who God is and the very nature of the God's heads, that and that for eternity, they've been working together in love and in unity, and throughout the old testament, they've been doing these works of of raising the dead to life, and they've been doing these works of of good and fair and just judgment. And it's just like Like, can you get a picture of who Jesus is saying? This is this is what part of my problem was.

Look at me, I'm a little weak, finite being. I just want you to see Just peel back the veil and see how glorious Christ is. He's the son. The eternal, loved, darling, precious son of god, the father. And they've been working together forever, never divided, always united, And so what should the result of that be as we consider Christ, as we consider the eternal son of God and the eternal father?

We'll look at verse 23. That all may honor the son just as they honor the father. Whoever does not honor the son, does not honor the father who sent him. So what should the result be, honor? Honor, revere, assign the greatest value to this 1.

Say this is the most precious 1. See, if you wanna honor the father, If you wanna say, you wanna please God the father, then you must honor his son. You can't worship the father without worshiping the sun. It's interesting if you flick forward to John 8. You you might wanna have a look at it in verse 42.

It's really interesting that the the religious leaders are saying, look, we God's our father, and Jeez, like, no, he's not. And in verse 42 says, if God were your father, what would you do? You would love me for I have come here from God's I have not come on my own, God sent me. Can't love the father without loving the son. You can't honor the father without honoring the son.

You can't worship the father without worshiping the son. So that is the eternal son of god But that then spills into the present, and this is my second point, the present. Here, the sun Believe the father and live. Here the son, believe the father and live in the present. Look with me at verse 24 to 27.

Very truly, I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed over from death to life. Very truly I tell you, 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 also to have life in himself, and he has given authority to judge because he is the son of man. So we've seen that for eternity in in the Godhead, in the trinity, the father and the son have loved each other forever and ever and ever, if that's even a thing in eternity, I'm not sure. And that they've been working together in love and in unity, and then we've seen throughout the old testament that they've been about this business of raising dead people to life and through and judging people.

But now as Jesus speaks, he's saying, this is relevant right now, as as he speaks, and not only is it relevant to when Jesus is speaking, it means it's relevant towards right here. And as you can see that he says that in verse 25, he says a time is coming and has now come. You'll notice in verse 24 and 26, he's still got the father at work and the son at work. They've been as we said, they've been eternally been people that are life givers. In other words, they've not needed anyone.

They don't need us, by the way. The father and the son don't need me and you. They're not thinking, oh, well, I hope they listen really well tonight, because otherwise, I'm gonna feel a little bit down. They're they're they're constantly enjoying love and and fellowship with 1 another, so they don't need us. But But they do, in their love, it overspills into 1 creation, but it also spills into redemption and life giving, and you'll see in verse In verse 24, it says, whoever hears my word and believes him, whoever hears the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, the word of salvation, the word of of life and believes the father who has sent the son, then there is life from death.

This is incredible. This is the incredible act of the incarnation. This is in chapter 1 verse 18 where the word became flesh. So, yes, they eternally exist, but Christ condescends and comes down and takes on flesh. To do the works of the Father, to be the person that bridges life and death, and so by trusting in him and his word, and by trusting in what he says he came to do, I e, that he came to die on a cross and to rise again to give us life.

To give us resurrection life, we can trust in him and cross over from the deep depths of death, which we deserve, and we can go to life. An eternal life at that, because God is eternal life giver, we get eternal life. So if we listen to Christ's words, the word of the the father that he has, and we believe in the 1 who Christ who God sent, The Lord Jesus, there is life. I was thinking about how to illustrate this, and it's not perfect as usual. But I was I I I I cut my mind to Jason Born, of course, where that's where you always go.

And there's a the born automaton, there's an amazing scene where there's a man meeting with him, and at the train at Waterloo, the train station of all places. And I think Chesington's mentioned, and it's 1 of the most wonderful things for Ches and ever. We got mentioned in a world in a world movie. But the man is in danger of being killed. What does he need to do to stay alive?

What does he need to do to stay away from death? He needs to listen to the voice of Jason Born. When he listens to the voice of Jason born, he's safe. Unfortunately, he doesn't always listen, and he dies. Sorry if you've seen they haven't seen the film, but come on.

It was out years ago. So we must listen. We must hear the voice of the son. We must listen to the voice of of Jesus, the life giver who in chapter 11 and verse 25 to 26 says, I am the resurrection and the life. The 1 who believes in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

Do you believe this? There's the voice of resurrection life. There is the 1 who speaks, who will go to a cross and die, but will defeat death in his resurrection power, who will put down his life just to to pick it back up again. And so Christ can call out to the dead. He can say, come out, and those who listen, and those who hear will come out.

That's what happens in John 11. A dead man comes out. That's what happens in the old testament. The father's always been about it. You turn to ezekiel 37, 1 like the son of man goes out to a valley of dry bones and says live.

What a crazy thing to do? Yet, there's flesh and there's life breathed into them, and they come to life. They're a spiritual life. And everlasting life in the lord Jesus Christ. However, There is a warning here in verse 26 sorry, in verse 27.

And he has given him authority to judge because he is the son of man. We get that judgment again. The son of man, so he's not just the son of guards, but he's also the son of man, and the son of man imagery is taken from Daniel 7, 13 to 14. Where Daniel sees 1 like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancients of days and was led into his presence.

He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power all nations and peoples of every language worshipped him, His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is 1 that will never be destroyed. Here, It's fulfillment of that. The son of man. Not just the king, but the judge. And he's able to judge, not just because he's the eternal son of God, but he's able to judge because he is son of man.

He's He came and he became flesh. He lived the human experience. He suffered temptation in every way. And so, because he's done all that, he's able to judge. And he's able to come and say, what did you do with me?

The god man is the judge of the world. And so here's the question. Have you heard have you heard have you heard his voice Have you heard it? Have you believed him? Have you heard that he's the resurrection and the life?

And have you believed that? Even now. Maybe you haven't, but now, look now. Why not now? Jesus holds his hands out.

And he says, I am the resurrection and alive. Come to me. Come to me now in the present. Because thirdly, the future's coming, and the future, will you rise to live or to be condemned? Look with me at verse 28 to 30.

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 what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what evil will rise to be condemned. 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. So Jesus begins this this next part by saying, don't be amazed.

Said, you're gonna be amazed before, and now he's saying, don't be amazed. But I think with that, don't be amazed, he's saying, don't don't like say this can't happen. Don't be like so Like, this is so amazing that it's untrue. Like, the Jewish leaders are just dismissive. They're like, this is so shocking that we can't believe it.

But this this 1, this carpenter boy, this 1 who's homeless, how could he be this very son of gods? How can he claim to be 1 with God in existence? And Jesus says, don't be amazed. Don't try and get all the ways that this can be a problem, but listen to me now because there is a time coming. There is a day coming.

There is a day of resurrection. There is a day of judgment where not just lazarus is rising from the tomb, not just lazarus is rising from the grave, but all. Will ride from the grave. All will stand before the throne of God. And at that moment, the sun will judge whether you are deserving of life, or whether you're deserving of condemnation.

And the great news is that in verse 30, his judgment will be good, and just and fair. We get a glimpse of this, this in Revelation, 20 verse 11 to 15. You might wanna turn it up. Revelation chapter 20 verse 11 to 15 says the following. Last book of the bible, probably the last page.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it The Earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of Life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them and each person was judged according to what they had done.

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire, the lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. There's a great day coming when we'll all be judged. All of us, we're all gonna be judged And the question is, in this passage, is are you 1 who has done good or are you 1 that has done evil? What does it mean to be evil?

Well, I think to be evil, it's to dishonor the son. It's to not hear his word. It's not to believe in him, it's to reject the son of gods. And the rejection of the son of God has deep consequences because if you're rejecting Christ right now as the son, as the 1 who can give you life, who can spare you from condemnation, and you reject him, then condemnation will be yours, because you've you've rejected the very 1 who can give life, so therefore, death is yours. But if you have done good, which means you honor the sun.

You go, wow. He is the most The 1 that I must cherish more than all others, If you're the 1 that that listens to his word above all other words, and and that you listen to the word of of salvation and of resurrection life, and you believe that here's the 1 who can save you from your your sins, and you accept him, then you will have life. There's great news that by the way. We think about our world right now. There are people quite clearly rejecting the son of god, and they are doing wicked, wicked things.

The great news is that they're not gonna get away with it. God is a just god, the son will bring them to justice. Putin is not gonna get away with what he's done. Lookashenko is not gonna get away with what he's done. Praise the Lord.

Those people that are rejecting the son and maybe persecute you, or persecute the believers, will not get away with it. Tom was talking about that this morning. Praise God that justice will be done. But praise God for those who honor the son, the people that you may know that have faithfully lived for the lord Jesus Christ. People like, my granny, Sally can add.

What a legend? She will rise on the day of resurrection, and she will have life. Hallelujah. So where are you? Where are you with this?

Maybe you're here and you've never recognized or never come to accept the Lord Jesus as the life giver, accept the Lord Jesus as the eternal son of gods. Well, do you know And if that is the case, you're rejecting the life giver, and your place is 1 of death, and your place is 1 of judgment, and your place is 1 of condemnation. And so can I urge you if that is you? Come to Christ. Come to him, hear him, believe him, honor him.

And as you do that, you will cross over from the from death to life as you trust in the life giver. Please do that now. And Christian, brothers and sisters, consider afresh. Look at Christ. Look at the glorious, eternal, precious son of god and honor him, kiss the son, honor him Listen to his voice.

Believe him. And then proclaim his name. Let's pray. Finally, we thank you and praise you that you have given us your words. We thank you for the the revelation that we have here of the lord Jesus Christ, the eternal son of god.

We thank you for the glimpse that we get of of who you are, 1 god, and and 3 persons, the father, attorney loving the on the son are tenderly loving the father and doing the works of salvation in unity. We thank you that has spilled out into redemption and a possible life for us, and we pray father that we will just get it even if it's just a small picture, father, let us see something of of who Christ is, the Son, so that we may live for him, so that we may honor him above all things. So that when we're tempted to sin, we'll just see just how beautiful and glorious and precious you are so that we may go out, and we may live, and that we may proclaim him. Above all others. We pray this in Jesus 9, our man.