Scripture Text John 5:19-30
Introduction:
Tonight we will examine a great doctrine and how it was presented by Jesus and how it impacts our understanding of God and our relationship to Him. The Doctrine is Christology, the nature of Jesus Christ.
Context: Jesus had healed a man who had been immobile for 38 years, but He had done so on the Sabbath Day. Jewish leaders were outraged so Jesus spoke to their grievance- butHe did not speak as they expected. Instead of apologizing, He took a much more drastic step- He said “My father is still working, and I am working also.”The Jews were all the more enraged because they recognized Jesus was making a claim of special relationship with Deity that they understood and opposed completely.
I. The Mysterious Claim Of Christ. (vss.19-22).
Jesus is saying everything He does is to obey and follow the will of the Father. He claims no rights or power outside that of God the Father. What the Father does is fully directing what the Son does. There is an important point that must be made here.
Other scripture references used: Phil 2:6-9, Luke 1:36, Lk. 4;1, Acts 10:38. Thus, in the flesh, Jesus obeys the Father and receives from the Father instruction, again, spiritual instruction to fleshly form, this allows Jesus to be “FULLY GOD and FULLY MAN. All that Jesus is claiming in these verses relate to that unique relationship between the Spiritual Father and the Spirit and the human Son of Man who was also Son of God. How does this truth impact all people on earth? It means that religion does not open the door to God. It means that living moral lives does not open the God. It means any person or any religion who refuses to honor the Son is, in fact, failing to honor the Father!
II. The Privileges Of The Son. (vss. 24-30).
These verses are laying out the naturals results of what we just read. There are 5 privileges.
- Vs. 24, The only message Jesus offers is the message God sends.To hear Him is to hear the commands of the Father and to believe the message is to receive eternal life with God.
- Vs. 25, The judgement promised in the Old Testament prophets has begun in that day. Jesus is not on earth to condemn, or punish people, but they are judged and condemned to justice if they reject Jesus. The judgement is to choose to live in darkness (sin and misery and enslavement) rather than in truth and light and freedom.
- Vs. 26-27, Jesus can judge with complete knowledge and fairness because He has both the power of God and the experience of being human.
- Vs. 26-29, Jesus is not saying salvation is based on works, for all human works are inadequate. Thus, Jesus is referring to the fact that “He is our righteousness,” what we do is good or bad by the fact it is done or not done under the cleaning blood of Christ. Thus, we are fully saved by His grace or fully lost because of our trying to live by our own righteousness and not His.
- Vs. 30, Jesus reiterates, Jesus always sets forth truth and the results of sin, because He seeks only the perfect will of the Father.
Conclusion: When Jesus seemingly broke the Sabbath, He was, in fact keeping the Law of God rather than the traditions of those who tried to use the Law to manipulate others. God does call His people to rest on the Sabbath, but the works of God such as compassion, mercy, and grace, never cease because they are forms of God’s , not creating new things, but maintaining the world as it was intended to be maintained. We must obey God, not as men tell us, but as God intends, as expressed in His word in the life of Jesus Christ.