John 5:16-24
Notes
Transcript
And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
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.
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. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.
For the Father judges no one, but has given 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.
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.
What are we seeing here in the opening verses?
Persecution...
And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
“these things”
John 5:1-15 Recap the story of the invalid. A man that couldn’t put himself into a pool of bubbling water that was thought to bring healing.
Jesus heals on the Sabbath and the religious elite miss the heart of the miracle and focus on their tradition of honoring the sabbath.
Who did this!?
How dare He!
This now walking man, who hadn’t walked for 38 years runs back into Jesus at the temple and identifies Jesus to Jewish religious leaders.
This is the man!
And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
Where does this come from? This Sabbath talk and what you can and cannot do?
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
God rested?
Does God get tired?
Does God get stressed and in “oh man things are out of control and I can’t take this anymore?”
No, so what is going on here?
Enjoyment, enjoyment in what is good. Not just good but very good.
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
God is not tired, beat, or exhausted. But is resting in good, sitting back from creating, and instead enjoying His creation! Enjoying what is good, perfect, and therefore holy.
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
It is a different type of rest, a Holy, perfect rest, that God shows us here.
Not one of being tired but one of enjoyment.
In some depth we see that in how God made us.
Jimmy and it working...
It’s neat to sit back and watch things work as designed.
A backyard that is worked, or a Garden that is maintained. To sit back, and rest in enjoyment, over our labor is good.
With one key difference...
Our rest and enjoyment can sometimes not be in what is good and holy.
We sometimes elevate rest and enjoyment to a place that we forget what that rest is about.
Exodus 20:8-11
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
God’s rest is different than our rest.
It’s not that this is the only day that God can enjoy His creation, but it is a day He sat aside to in human terms to stop thinking, stop building, stop creating, but a day (in human terms) to reflect, in enjoyment over what is good & holy.
Our rest is commanded because we unlike God, forget about what is good, what is righteous, what is holy.
Reread verses above and breakdown...
Remember the sabbath, don’t forget to rest in enjoyment what is good, that being God!
Keep it holy, rest in Him alone, don’t stress, don’t think about, enjoy Him perfectly in trust and faith
Remember I give days, I create, I manage time, I give and I take away, I author life and in me you always have it. Rest and enjoy.
Show your faith in me to others. Everyone rest, how faithful in God are we being if we rest but we tell others to keep going so we can make sure we meet whatever deadline.
We have faith in all things!
God stopped, rested, and enjoyed. We do the same. We stop, we rest, we enjoy Him.
When do we do this? Once a week, we stop, we rest in enjoyment with Him.
How? How do we rest in the Lord?
And here enters this passage again.
And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
What did Jesus do?
Was it good or bad?
Does that matter?
Yes! What are all the commandments meant to bring?
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
What are the commandments meant to bring? Love, love for God, and love for others.
Is there ever a time not to love God, no!
What about our neighbor? Only if it gets in the way of the first love. Remember we don’t put the created over the creator.
This is the heart.
Matthew 12:9-14
He went on from there and entered their synagogue. And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him.
He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
What is the Sabbath for?
And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
To stop, gather our week, remember, reflect, rest, and enjoy in God and His goodness!
I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Our normal day to day works that can bring pain, stress, business. Work in itself is not bad but God commands us to stop and rest in Him, enjoy Him.
Does this mean I can’t take out the garbage on my day of rest because it’s technically work?
No, were missing the point!
Stop taste and see the Lord is good. He’s got us, trust, have faith.
Can I camp? Can I invite people over for a barbeque?
Is it going to church, for some at times yes, but so much more.
Does it have to be on Sundays?
No! I try to rest on Saturdays
Again it’s the heart of the Sabbath. To draw closer, to reflect on His love!
Can work be done on the sabbath? Of course, but check our heart. Remember the sheep.
We all technically work everyday, from breathing, to pooping, to getting a glass of water.
Those aren’t what were talking about.
It’s the day to day things that can pull us away from God.
Listen to Jesus.
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Does God technically stop working?
Hebrews 3a He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
If He stops upholding what happens?
Again, the sabbath is good and right and right and good for man in the context of what we’ve been studying today.
It is good to rest and enjoy.
Unfortunately the Jews began missing this, not all but it sure looks like most at the time of Christ.
Focusing on rules and tradition over the heart of the message.
A lame man walks, a withered hand healed, and they’re mad about it.
Complaining to God about the very good they’re supposed to be spreading.
for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
The pride and authority of man over another is most horrible.
And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
As our King is.
even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
we are to be. Glory to God not us!
His second persecution and serious one at that.
This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
This was loud and clear!
No mixing of words here!
“My Father” is used here as a form of identity.
It’s who you are. It’s a type of I am statement.
I am Anthony Martinez, I am of my Father Steve Martinez. I am from him, and he is from his Father, my Grandpa Joe Martinez, and he is from his father, Joe Martinez, my great grandpa, and so on...all the way back to Adam. We are human, this is who we are. Created, made alive, but fallen and broken.
It is a identity statement through and through.
My Father and I, God and I, we are the same, including being Holy, Perfect, Divine, never created, always has been, the Alpha and the Omega...God!
Creator, sustainer over all that has been made.
And to prove this point Jesus doubles down and shows his oneness with God, by showing is authority over creation and life.
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. 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.
For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given 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. 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.
This is not mere man talk and with human identity, this is clearly a devine statement.
Creator, sustainer, one with God, one in power, one in identity, one in authority.
Now if Jesus isn’t who He says He is, are they correct in wanting to kill Him?
Absolutely, this is blasphemy! Deceitful, untruthful, and deeply unloving. To claim false salvation in oneself over THE creator, causing people to follow is flat out blasphemy!
So this is where the line in the sand is drawn so to speak.
One of 3 things have to be believed about Jesus.
1. Jesus is the devil. (explain)
2. Jesus is a lunatic and out of his mind. (explain)
3. Jesus is who He says he is.
What He can’t be?
1. Just a good person and teacher but not God. How good is he if he’s a liar? How good is he if he’s leading millions of people to hell?
2. A good prophet but not God. I revert back to the above statement.
Do we get this? He’s either God or He’s not!
We either look around and see creation and see design or we don’t. Which we all do.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
We than either choose to deny truth or believe it.
Than we ask, has anyone claimed to be God or even know God?
Yes, plenty.
But than we use what we’ve been given by using our brain and reason.
And we start seeing things, a lot has come and a lot has gone.
A lot faiths or religions are out there. Some big some not so big.
But only one has stood the test of time and truth.
Test of time, never changing, holds fast. And truth, man cannot fix himself, we’ve tried and all we do is make it worse.
Only one teaches it’s not what you can do but what has already been done.
And it bears His Messiahship, it’s called Christianity.
Only one savior, that came and dwelt with his creation. Lived with His creation perfectly, but treated as though He didn’t. Treated as a man cursed by God and died like a man cursed by God.
All for the very creation God created and rested with. The very creation that ended up turning the very good into the not so good.
But even in that, light prevailed, and we’ve seen this light like we never before.
God’s radiance is shown through his mercy, grace, & forgiveness to bring true life to all those that take him at his word.
as Jesus says...
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.
Hears his word, believes
What, where, when, and why?
