Jesus and the Father

INTRO

The Identity of Jesus (18-24)

The Claim John 5:16–18 For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

So here we are after Jesus performed a healing at the pool Bethesda. Let’s note that the response that Jesus receives doesn’t come from the Pharisees as we might expect, but is a response of “the Jews”. Same deal as last week - the religious leaders may be part of the conversation, but the people in general are taking issue with what happened. Four things to see in these verses that launch us into the rest of the chapter: The Jews began to persecute Jesus because He was working on the Sabbath. Jesus responds by saying that because His Father is still working, then He is also working. The Jews were now seeking opportunity to kill Him for breaking the Sabbath, but most significant, The Jews were seeking to kill Him because He was making Himself equal with God.

So before we even get to the other witnesses to who Jesus is here in the text, this is a witness that we can’t ignore: the Jews, who fervently believed in God, professed that Jesus was making himself equal with God. This isn’t the only place we see this witness. I won’t spoil too much of it, but let’s look at a couple quick verses in John 10.

John 10:30–33 “I and the Father are one.” The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”

So there are two instances here where the Jews are condemning Jesus to death not because of what he has done, but because of a claim He is making, and a claim that the Jews are confirming - Jesus is fully and truly God, one with the Father. Though the Jews do not confirm His claim, they confirm that He is making the claim, and this is an important matter to discuss because it is both foundational to our faith and a contrary view is foundational to other faiths.

It is a habit often to focus in on the words of Jesus when we come to Scripture and elevate them to highest importance. It is good instruction on how to live up to an impossible standard that we will never achieve on their own, but the study of and obedience to such instruction is still important. And there are times where people, most often those that don’t believe in the authority of Scripture, will take the words of Jesus and justify ways of living based on what Jesus “didn’t” say. The problem with such an argument is that it misses what I would argue is the most important thing that Jesus ever did say, and He said it right here in John 10:30 - I and the Father are one. If Jesus and the Father are indeed one, and if Jesus is fully God, which are two foundational and required articles of our faith, then we understand rightly that the recorded words of Jesus in the New Testament are not the only words of Jesus, rather it is the whole of Scripture. This is not a diminishing of the recorded words of Jesus, but an elevation of the whole of Scripture. If the argument, common as I said among many unbelievers, is going to be “well, Jesus never said [insert the blank]”, then it is immediately defeated by what Jesus did say, and what Jesus did say results in an understanding that Jesus said it all.

We will take care of a couple claims in other faiths in the next handful of verses. But for this moment, our established foundation is this: as Christians, we must believe that Jesus is truly God. If we don’t believe that, then our faith falls apart. Since Jesus is truly God, then all that God has ever said is the words of Jesus.

So let’s now look at Jesus’ response to the Jews who were seeking to kill Him.

John 5:19–24 Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

Let’s break these verses down nice and easy: The Son can only do what He sees the Father doing The Son does what the Father does The Father shows Himself to the Son There are greater works that will be shown for the sake of the people The Father and Son can both give life The Father and Son both execute judgment The Son is worthy of honor the same as the Father and to not honor the Son is to not honor the Father Then He brings all of these statements together in verse 24: if you hear the word of Jesus, and by hearing His Word you believe in the one who sent Him, the One with which He is equal, then you have eternal life given by both the Father and the Son and you do not come into the judgment issued by both the Father and the Son.

Particularly in Islam and among Jehovah’s Witnesses, verses like this become a problem. Do not be confused, both of these religions have an understanding of what is the content of Scripture. I am choosing my words carefully. They understand the content at face value, but they don’t understand what the content means.

The Islamic view of Jesus is that He is a prophet, much like they view Muhammed as a prophet. They look at this passage, and others like it, and they say, “see, even Jesus Himself said that He is not God”, and if we simply take the words at our understanding of language, then we would be quick to agree. But when we read Scripture, we consider the audience that Jesus is speaking to. Prophecies spoke about the Son of Man and the Son of God coming. The Jews referred to God as their Father, much in the sense that Jesus referred to God as His Father. The difference being that Jesus made Himself equal to the Father. So the Father/Son language that Jesus is using is not saying that He is not God, but is verifying to the Jews that have a complaint against Him that He IS God. Therefore, the Islamic argument using this text to say that Jesus says Himself that He is not God, therefore making Him only a prophet, is false because this very passage and the others like it are Jesus informing the people that the Son is one with the Father in the sense that they are both God.

The Jehovah’s Witness view takes the language here, and elsewhere, even more literally. They view Jesus as the literal begotten Son of God and not a member of the trinity. Well, here’s the problem - Jesus says multiple times that He is in fact God. Like we pointed to in John 10, Jesus says the words “I and the Father are one.” If it was only a father/son relationship, this would be weird language. My father and I are related, and I am his begotten, but we are not one. We are distinct and different people, living different lives with different skills and serving in different functions. Any claim I make to be “one” with my father in the same sense that Jesus makes it would be laughable at best.

So both Islam and Jehovah’s Witness, among others as well, take the words of Jesus and rather than seek to understand them they create their own understanding, ignoring some other words of Jesus in the process.

The identity of Jesus is clear and foundational and He attests to this Himself. Jesus is Himself God, and the Son of God, and equal with the Father, and able to do all that the Father can do not because the Father gives Him the power or authority to do it, but in being one with the Father He has the power and authority within Himself. Now onto the authority of Jesus.

The Authority of Jesus (25-32)

John 5:25–29 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”

Three things in these verses: Authority has been given Authority will be exercised Those under authority will be compelled to respond

Jesus says that as the Father has life in Himself, so does Jesus. They do not rely on anything outside of themselves to have life. As humans, we need food, water and oxygen to survive - these are sources of life that we rely on to sustain the life that has been given to us from outside of ourselves. God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) has the fullness of life within Himself, in every person, to sustain Himself without receiving life from anything or anyone else and without relying on life-giving things to sustain the life He has. Because Jesus has life in Himself, He also has the power and authority to call others to life, though those He calls to life to not have life in themselves, but have life because of Christ. What Jesus is saying is that, because He is doing the work because the Father is doing the work, and because He is one with the Father, He holds the same authority to give life because He has life, and He holds the same authority to execute judgment. The authority is His.

Next, the authority will be exercised. “For an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tomb will hear His voice and will come forth…to a resurrection of life…or to a resurrection of judgment.” There is coming a time where Jesus will bring to life all those who are dead across the history of time, exercising His authority to give life, and He will judge rightly between the righteous and the unrighteous to raise them to a resurrection of life, or a resurrection of judgment. Both His authority to give life and to execute judgment will be exercised on this day. And look at what it says about those who He calls to… They will hear His voice and they will come forth. There’s no kicking and screaming your way out. There’s no asking for just 5 more minutes. You WILL hear His voice and you WILL come forth, and you will receive life or you will receive judgment.

John 5:30–32 “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. “There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true.”

These last couple verses may add a bit of confusion back into the mix. After all that we’ve discussed already, now Jesus is, at face value, almost saying that He’s helpless. But, of course, that’s not what he’s saying. What Jesus is saying is not that He can’t do anything on His own or that anything He says requires someone else to do His work or to give testimony of Him. It is to say that Jesus works all things in conjunction with the whole triune Godhead. The of Jesus is not that which is initiated by the Father and given to the Son, but rather the whole of God in His own council initiates all that every member of the Godhead does. Jesus is not doing His own individual ministry at the command of the Father, but is doing the ministry of God according to the purposes of God and Jesus is Himself God. Everything He does is as God does because Jesus is God. But in a conversation where He is trying to convince the Jewish people of who He is, he needs to point out this equality with the Father as a member of the Godhead. Jesus could testify to them all day long of who He is, and much like was happening here, He did offer such testimony. But His testimony wasn’t convincing to many of them and to testify of only Himself, that is of only the Son, would make His testimony untrue because He is not only the Son, but is God and as God is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The testimony that the people needed to know, and the testimony that they would believe, would be the testimony of the Father. By testifying His equality with the Father as He has, He has also offered the Father’s testimony of Himself to the people. But there are other witnesses as well.

The Witnesses for Jesus (33-43)

We will briefly go through each of these witnesses and then we will start to land the plane and talk about us today.

John the Baptist (33-35) John 5:33–35 “You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. “But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. “He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.”

John the Baptist was the forerunner sent ahead of Jesus. He went forth as a human witness of the Messiah and for awhile the people rejoiced “while in his light.” John testified that which was true, and the truth of which He testified was Jesus.

The Works of Christ (36) John 5:36 “But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”

John’s testimony was only getting the ball rolling, but wasn’t going to be enough. Jesus’ testimony is greater than John’s because it doesn’t just come with the true proclamation of the Word, but Jesus also being the Word made flesh was able to perform works amongst the people that would testify that He was sent by the Father.

The Father (37-38) John 5:37–38 “And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. “You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.”

Now Jesus starts to get a little more serious with the Jews that were after Him. The Father, the one they claim to follow, has already testified about Him. When Jesus was baptized, a voice came down from the heavens declaring who Jesus was, though they did not hear it. They haven’t heard his voice or seen His form, yet they spent their lives studying His Word. But Jesus says that if they had studied it rightly, then they would believe Jesus. And that brings us to the final witness.

The Word (39-43) John 5:39–47 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. “I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. “But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

Pretty self explanatory here - if they knew the Word, they would believe in Jesus and find eternal life in Him. They rejected Jesus because of His claim of equality with the Father, yet probably would’ve accepted Jesus easily if He never made any such claim.

Jesus wasn’t going to bring new judgment against them - the writings of Moses, writings they committed their lives to, were already accusing them. If they understood what Moses wrote, if they truly believed it, then they would believe in Jesus because Moses wrote about Him. But because they don’t truly believe what Moses wrote, then they won’t be able to believe Jesus.

One Final Witness

Those were all the witnesses leading up to and during Jesus’ time, but there is a new witness today - us.

Acts 1:8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

We’ve well established that we must believe that Jesus is not only the Son of God, but that He is Himself God and is an equal member with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the triune Godhead. Everything we believe hinges on this. If Jesus is not God, then all of Scripture falls apart. But Scripture does not fall apart, because Jesus is God. So the most important thing we can take from this text is a reinforced belief in and understanding of the identity and authority of Jesus Christ, God Himself.

But we have a charge to carry with us - we are the witnesses today. We need to dive into the Word, study and understand it, and take it to those that need to hear it. The world needs to know who Jesus is and we need to proclaim Him to them. That is the mission that Jesus tasked us with.