John 5:19-29

Mistaken Identity Clarified

"You know, one of the funniest things about Superman is how he’s probably the world’s worst undercover hero. Here’s this guy—he can fly, he’s bulletproof, he has x-ray vision, and yet somehow no one can figure out that Clark Kent, the nerdy guy in glasses, is actually Superman. I mean, really? Glasses and a different haircut are all it takes to fool the world? It’s almost like Superman's biggest power isn’t super strength or laser vision—it’s a pair of glasses that make him completely unrecognizable!

Imagine this: Clark Kent is at work in the Daily Planet, sipping coffee and typing away at his desk, while everyone around him is busy talking about the latest Superman sighting. 'Did you hear? Superman just saved a plane from crashing!' Meanwhile, Clark is right there, nodding along like, 'Yeah, Superman...what a guy!' And no one makes the connection.

But here’s the thing—we laugh because it seems so obvious to us. The cape, the muscles, the heroics! How can they not see it? It’s staring them in the face! But to them, Clark Kent is just another ordinary guy.

Last week, we saw Jesus revealing himself as Lord over the Sabbath. As he healed a man at the pool, the pharisees were angered at him for doing something that only God could do on a day that was ment for rest. In Jesus’s response to the pharisees, he tries to help them understand who he truly is. They understood who he was proclaiming himself to be, but they did not believe.

In our passage today we will hear Jesus explain his own authority. He is going to clarify to the Jews who he is, and how he has the authority to do what he does. He is going to clarify this mistaken identity that the jewish people had concerning Jesus.

For us, what we are going to see, is the self revelation of Who Jesus is.

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Jesus is the true God

It is seen through his relationship with the father.

The same will

John 5:19 “So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”

The same love

John 5:20 “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.”

The same power to give life

John 5:21 “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.”

The son is the one who gives life.

Look at the passage before:

John 5:5–9 “One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.”

The same power of Judgement

John 5:22 “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,”

Jesus deserve honor and belief

John 5:23 “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.”

Isaiah 48:11 “For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”

John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

Any religious system that does not honor Jesus as God is a lie and from satan.

Because Jesus is God

He will raise the dead and gives life (25-26)

He Judges (27-29)

If Jesus is who he says he is: If he is the one that has the same will as the father, the same love as the father, and the same power as the father. Then he is God. If he is God, do you honor him as such.

The Message of John a. Sabbath Controversies (5:16–30)

In C. S. Lewis’ often cited words,

In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any character in history.… You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.

Is he your Lord? I am not asking if you have asked him in your heart… I am asking have you fallen on your face in submission to the God of the universe that has the power of death to raise you up from the dead. Do you truely believe in the one that has called you from the mat of death and has given you new life to walk in him.

Have you heard the call of the God of the universe to stop sinning at the feet of the savior? He is worthy of this. That we lay aside temporal pleasures because he is better than anything that we can our could have in our sin.