But Wait, There’s More | John 5:16-30

Opening Remarks: Turn to John 5 and stand with me. Before we get into this, I want you to remember the purpose of John’s Gospel. John 20:31 ”But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John wrote these words to convince readers that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. He was presenting evidence so people could believe and have eternal life.

So if John’s purpose is to present Jesus as the Son of God, this may be the most important passage in the whole book. No passage is as lengthy and detailed regarding the relationship between Jesus and God the Father. You have about 30 verses in this section beginning in vs. 17 through the end of the chapter in which Jesus is making the case for His deity.

So as I prepared the last couple of days, I made the executive decision to cover half this week and half next week. I believe there’s a natural break around vs. 30 which will help us digest this section a little more easily. There’s so much high and lofty stuff. Now, don’t forget, Jesus has just healed a paralyzed man on the Sabbath Day, which has left the religious establishment upset. Consider that as we READ Vs. 16-30.

One phrase I don’t want you to miss in all this is found in vs. 20, “Greater works than these.” Jesus was saying, “If you think what you just saw is amazing, just wait.”

The title of today’s message is this: But Wait, There’s More.

PRAY

Introduction: I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to be honest with your answer. We’re all friends here and confession is good for the soul. Are you ready?

How many of you have actually bought something after watching a late night infomercial?

Snuggie? Flowbee?

If you’ve ever fallen for the As Seen On TV trap, you’re not alone. Now, if you regularly find yourself calling that 800 number, we may need talk about your addiction to cheap novelties.

The famous line those informercials use is, “But wait, there’s more!” Buy now and get a second Snuggie half price. Call in the next 20 minutes and you get the third for free. All this for only 14 easy payments of $19.95!” And just when you think it’s over, “But wait, there’s more!”

They use that line as a way to convince you to buy a product that unnecessary or overpriced. They have to resort to a gimmick to sell a product most people don’t really need.

“But wait, there’s more” isn’t actually true with infomercials, but it perfectly sums up what you get in Jesus. There’s no end to what He offers. He’s limitless in every way, which means we’ll never experience all that He can do, all that He is, all that He offers.

Here’s the issue: If there’s a limitation with what we get to experience in Christ, it’s not on His part. The limitation is on our end.

Jesus Christ is trying to get the Jews to understand this in John 5. He has just demonstrated His unlimited power, but His works are resisted by the religious elite.

The Pharisees wanted to kill Him because He healed on the Sabbath Day.

Last week we saw how Jesus healed a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years lying by the Pool of Bethesda.

Jesus simply said to the man, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”

And the man did. It was a miracle nearly 4 decades in the making.

And you would think everyone would be excited about it. That Jesus had all this power yet had incredible compassion on a man who was hopeless, but not so fast. There was a problem: It was the Sabbath Day.

The Problem of the Sabbath Day

The Sabbath was important to God (one of 10 Commandments). It pictured the day of rest God took after Creation. It was meant to be a day of rest for us while we focus on the Lord.

The Jews had been rebuked often through the years for ignoring the Sabbath Day. Prophets often called them out for neglecting it. Through the centuries, the Jews often ignored the Sabbath to engage in commerce and make money, just doing business as usual. They were treating the Sabbath Day no differently than any other day. God judged them seriously for it at times.

The time of Christ wasn’t like that. The religious elites, the Pharisees, were very much in control of things. They had added about 1,500 extra rules regarding the Sabbath. It became a burden. Now remember, the purpose of the Sabbath was to rest from labor. The people were not to carry on with business as usual. And the Pharisees were extreme about it.

So extreme that they accused this paralyzed man of breaking the law of the Sabbath by carrying his bed after he was healed. But was him carrying his bed business as usual? Not at all. But the spirit of the Pharisees was “no grace at all.” They elevated their rules about the Sabbath above God Himself. They were upset by a man carrying his bed. That’s not business as usual. That’s a special work of God’s power. In fact, the Lord of the Sabbath is the One who told Him to do it.

Jesus had not violated any law by telling this man to rise up and take up his bed. But rather than be happy that the man was healed, they’re furious that it happened on the Sabbath Day. So they come after Jesus in Vs. 16.

And to add fuel to their fire, when they confront Him, Jesus says in Vs. 17, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”

Which essentially means, “My Father works on the Sabbath Day.”

God the Father doesn’t stop working on the Sabbath. Can you imagine if God took one day off every week and didn’t keep the universe moving or the earth spinning on its axis? If He forgot about the sun one day? If God took 2 seconds off, the whole universe would fall apart and we’d all be dead. So it’s not as if God does no work on the Sabbath. Be glad He continues to work every day and cares for people no matter what day it is. As Creator of the Sabbath, God has every right to extend grace to a needy man who hasn’t walked in 38 years.

But the Pharisees get mad that Jesus works on the Sabbath. So mad they wanted blood. And when He said, “My Father,” that was the same as Him saying, “I am God.” He was clearly claiming to deity. And the Pharisees lose their minds. Vs. 18

They wanted to kill Jesus because there is only one God, and they didn’t want to believe some guy from Nazareth was Him. But even still, there was something they weren’t understanding, and I like the way I heard Pastor Sam Davison say it:

Christ’s claim to deity was one of unity, not rivalry.

The Pharisees assumed that Jesus was competing with God and there’s only one God. So Jesus explains that He was not in opposition to the Father. He was in cooperation with the Father. Co-equals working together in different roles and responsibilities, but for the same purpose.

Illustration: Marriage relationship involves two people equal in importance but different in roles. It’s a relationship of unity, not rivalry. That’s how God the Father and God the Son work together.

Vs. 19 - Jesus explains that He is not independent of the Father. His actions aren’t self-initiated. He was sent by and directed by the Father. He’s so in tune with the Father that He imitates the Father’s actions.

Illustration: I love it when sons follow in their father’s footsteps. I remember as a kid walking behind my dad in the snow and jumping from footstep to footstep. I love that my son values what I like or things I do and wants to be like me.

Jesus says His relationship with the Father is like that. He say, “We are working in harmony, not in opposition. Whatever you don’t like that I’m doing, I’m literally just doing what the Father tells me.”

Vs. 20a - Jesus says, “Our relationship is established on love. We are unified.”

Jesus’ entire ministry was a promotion of His Father. Never a rivalry, only unity.

When He drove the money changers out of the Temple, what did He say? This is my Father’s House. He said in John 10, “I and my Father are one.” Everything He did was with His Father in mind.

Vs. 20b - “So you’re upset that I’ve healed on the Sabbath Day? You want to kill me for violating your man-made laws, do you? You’re throwing a tantrum that I’m not submitting to your rules, huh? Just wait, guys, because you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Jesus is saying, “But wait, there’s more. You’re so riled up, but if you think what I did today was impressive, hold on to your hats, because there’s much more coming.”

Jesus was going to spend His ministry doing works to convince unbelievers that He was the Messiah. The works, the signs, played a big part in Him proving who He was. So He wasn’t done working.

His primary reason for coming was to reveal Himself as the Savior, so that people would believe in Him and have eternal life.

If you get nothing else from this passage, know that Jesus is the Son of God. He is God the Son. If you miss that, you miss Heaven. Eternal life can only be had by one who recognizes who Jesus Christ really is.

That was the goal of John’s Gospel, and we find that’s the purpose of God and Jesus as well - to reveal Christ as the Son of God so that people would place their faith in Him.

So Jesus says, “Greater works are coming to further prove that I’m the Son of God.”

What works was He talking about.

Christ uses resurrection power as the greatest proof of His authority.

Vs. 21 - Quickeneth means to make alive. And Jesus say, “You’re stirred up about me telling a man to rise on the Sabbath, but one day, I will speak and raise all the dead.” That’s a Greater Work.

Vs. 25 - “The day will come when the dead will rise simply by hearing the voice of the Father.”

Vs. 28-29 - There are two resurrections in the future. Those that believed in Christ will be raised to life and spend eternity with God in Heaven. Those that did not believe will be raised for judgment, then cast into a lake of fire to be separated from God for eternity. The resurrection of the just and the unjust.

We could spend weeks talking about these two resurrections. We actually just saw this same truth in Daniel 12 last week. And you might say, “That sounds far-fetched.” But if Christ had power to raise one paralyzed man, that proves He has power over the things of earth. The same power He used to raise the crippled man will one day be used to raise billions of others. God has unlimited power over death.

Just chapters later in John 11, Jesus will prove His power over death when He raises Lazarus from the dead. He even says the power for those resurrections is there already in Vs. 25. “And now is.”

The power to raise the dead to life was right in front of them. They might have said, “Where?” Well, think about one chapter before when Jesus talked to a woman at a well. He gave her eternal life when she believed in Him. She heard His voice when He said, “I that speak unto thee am He.”

She was dead in her trespasses and sins, but when she heard His voice and believed, she was given eternal life. And that happened over and over during Christ’s ministry. He would speak a word to a sinner who would believe and respond by faith and be given eternal life. Raising a soul dead in trespasses and sins is every bit as incredible as raising a body back to life.

Friend, the Father’s power to raise the dead “now is.” It’s already here.

And this room is full of people who are living proof. Not that end time resurrection, not yet. But a “now is” resurrection.

A resurrection many have experienced. People who heard the voice of Jesus. Not audibly, but through His Word and the HS. And those of us who’ve believed responded to that voice by faith and were raised from dead in sin to eternal life in Christ.

And you can be too. His power to raise the dead at the resurrection can raise you from the penalty of your sins right now.

It happened to me as a 9 year old. I heard His message through a sermon at Jr. Camp and responded by believing. And He quickened me, He made me alive. And I’ve been raised ever since. Eternal life is mine. And it can be yours too.

Vs. 24 - Jesus wants to do that for you. You can have eternal life now.

If you think turning water into wine is impressive, just wait till He gives you eternal life.

If you marvel at a crippled man being raised to walk, just wait until you experience being raised from being dead in sin to life in Jesus.

If you thought life was good before Jesus, just wait, there’s more.

The resurrection is the first Greater Work Christ mentions. The other is one we won’t spend as much time on, but it also drives the point home.

Vs. 22 and Vs. 27 - One day, after the resurrection, Jesus Christ will judge mankind.

Believers and unbelievers will stand before Christ and be judged. That’s the Greater Work he’s talking about. As the Son of man, He knows men like no one. He’s all God, but He was all man. He wrapped Himself in flesh and fully understands both God’s perspective and ours.

The only way He wasn’t like us is in the area of sin. Never once had a bad thought or spoke an unkind word. He never lusted. He never got angry. He never made a selfish choice.

Which means He has every right to judge us because He knows all about us but has never broken God’s law Himself.

He’s a perfect Judge. And one day you will stand before Him and He will judge you. It’s a Greater Work.

And understand, Him mentioning the resurrection and judgment was not to flex His deity muscles, but because He wants what’s best for all of us. He wants us to have eternal life. He wants us to be ready for the our judgment. He wants you to experience being raised in salvation so you can be raised unto life in Heaven some day. And He wants you to be prepared for the Judgment so you can be rewarded instead of being ashamed.

These are the greater works that He wants us to know about and be ready for. But remember the problem from the beginning: If there’s a limitation with what we get to experience in Christ, it’s not on His part. The limitation is on our end.

The reason the Pharisees didn’t get to the “More” that Christ offered was because they refused to submit to Jesus Christ as their authority. And the reason you or I won’t get to enjoy His greater works - “the More” is because we refuse to submit to Jesus Christ as our authority.

Like the Pharisees, our pride and stubbornness often causes to miss what God wants to do for us. The More.

If you refuse to submit to the authority of Christ, you miss “the More” that He has to offer you.

Don’t Miss The More

Salvation Is “More” - Rather than submit to His plan, many people think they can do it apart from Him.

Vs. 22-23 - So many people claim to believe in God but they don’t believe in Jesus. Listen, Jesus is the Son of God and is God the Son. You can’t get to the Father without going through Jesus. John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

There are lot of people out there who have embraced spirituality without Christianity. But you can’t gain Heaven apart from Christ. No access to God but through Jesus Christ.

And so many people, in pride and stubbornness, will refuse to submit to God’s plan and they’ll miss the more. The greater works. Don’t miss the more.

Christian Life Can Be “More” - Rather than submit to His help, we try to live life in our own strength.

We live day after day without depending on Him for help. And we miss the more.

Jesus Christ said in John 10:10 “ am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

When you live your Christian life without dependence on Christ, you miss the abundance. You’re barely scraping by in your own strength, yet He has a whole limitless storehouse of help that you never get to experience. Too many people live out of scarcity rather than abundance.

Strive to live out of the overflow of a walk with God. Day after day we leave God out of our lives and the whole time He holds a bag that says, “More.” A bag that has a constantly renewed endless supply of grace, and help, and strength. It could pour out forever and never run dry. But we live day after day thinking we’re enough. Don’t miss the more.

Accepting The Unexpected - We often miss what God is doing when things don’t go the way we wanted.

The Pharisees were mad that Jesus ignored their ways. They didn’t like that He did things differently than they thought He should. No matter that His ways were better.

Jesus talked about “marveling” twice in this passage. As He claimed to be God, they were marveling. Not in a good way, in a proud way. There are two reactions to the works of Christ:

We can be amazed that He does anything for us

OR

We can be bothered that He doesn’t do things our way.

I know many Christians who miss the lessons of life because God has the nerves to work in ways they didn’t expect. They marvel that God wouldn’t submit to their plans. We all do it.

But if you respond to Christ’s work in your life in a proud or stubborn way, you’ll miss the more He has planned for you.

Accept The Unexpected. God’s ways are better than ours. His ways are higher. His thoughts are superior.

Don’t miss the more just because God does something different than you wanted.

There’s more in store. Believe that and accept what He’s doing.

If He’s God, than whatever He’s doing is better anyway.

Illustration: Carnaval Friday, missed out on the meat because of a sprinkler mishap. They gave us the option to come back Saturday, so we did. But we were kind of disappointed. Still, we went back last night and it was worth the wait. The thing about Carnaval is they keep bringing meat to your table. It’s like there’s a magical endless supply of meat in the kitchen. If you’re hungry, just wait, there’s more.

But Carnaval can’t touch the More God offers.

You may have to wait, but it’s worth it.

It may be hard to submit, but the more is worth it.

You may think your life is better on your own, but it can’t touch the more Jesus offers.

When you submit to God’s way, you get a never ending supply of more. Trust that His greater works are better than the results of your work.

Conclusion

You can’t trust an infomercial, but you can believe this when it comes to God, “Just wait, there’s more.”

If you respond with humility and submission, He gives you the more.

If you respond with pride and stubbornness, you’re going to miss it all.

It’s a matter of authority.

Whose authority are you submitting to? Yours or His?

With yours, you miss the more. With His, you get all of it and more. And more. And more.