John 5:1-47 - The Authority of the Son

And they were unwilling to change their understanding about these things because they willfully ignored the truth of Jesus’ authority to correct their understanding.

We can also be like that, can’t we.

It can be so hard to change our thinking when it is so ingrained in our lives and in our culture.

Sometimes our understanding of Scripture is wrong, and we need to humbly change our thinking when Jesus reveals the truth.

Jesus has clearly argued for his authority as the Son of God here in our passage so that we can remember his authority and submit to him when he corrects our understanding.

The first 18 verses of John 5 are the account of Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath which is the backdrop of Jesus’ argument for his authority in the rest of the chapter, verses 19-47.

We are going to briefly walk through the narrative, then we will spend the rest of our time unpacking how Jesus argues for his authority.

Let’s read verses 1-18 and see how Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath, and how the religious leaders respond.

John 5:1–7 ESV

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 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.”

John 5:8–13 ESV

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. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.

John 5:14–18 ESV

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 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, this is the backdrop, Jesus…

Healing on the Sabbath (1-18)

In verses 1-4 John narrows in on the Setting for this story: in Jerusalem, near the Sheep Gate, at the Pool of Bethesda.

Jesus comes back to Jerusalem for another Jewish festival, probably the Passover again.

He comes to a pool near the Sheep Gate that was called Bethesda which means house of mercy.

This pool was in a really big area, big enough to have 5 roofed colonnades.

And this area was packed with people who wanted to be healed.

Because there was a common belief that an angel would come and stir the waters of the pool every so often, and the first person to step into the water after it was stirred up would be healed.

So, these people are desperately waiting around for a last-ditch effort to be healed.

Then in verses 5-9 Jesus interacts with one man in particular.

Among the multitudes of blind, lame, and paralyzed people at the pool, Jesus singles out one man who had been an invalid for 38 years.

Jesus knows this guy has been there a long time, and he has compassion on him and asks a question that might seem kind of obvious.

“Do you want to be healed?”

Come on Jesus… of course he wants to be healed… why do you think he is there in the first place?

But Jesus’ question is more than just asking the obvious.

His question shows his compassion for this man.

Nobody else would give this guy the time of day.

He was lost in the crowd.

But Jesus wants him to know that he sees him, and he cares about him.

And this is a genuine offer of healing.

Jesus’ question is general enough that we don’t think about the force of it.

It’s as if Jesus is saying…

“This whole pool healing thing isn’t quite working out for you, is it? Would you like to actually be healed instead of just laying around wanting to be healed?”

So, the man explains that he’s physically unable to get himself into the pool first to be healed, and he doesn’t have anyone to help him either.

He’s helpless and alone.

So, Jesus tells him to get up, take up his bed, and walk.

This is the third specific miracle that John has recorded.

And all three have been done instantaneously through Jesus commanding something and the people he commands obeying.

But this miracle was unique from the other two because this one was done on the Sabbath.

And work was not supposed to be done on the Sabbath according to the Law of Moses.

So, Jesus has apparently broken the Sabbath to heal this guy, and then tells him to break the Sabbath too by picking up his bed and carrying it away.

So, there’s a conflict in verses 10-13 as the Jews, the religious leaders, see this man breaking the Sabbath by carrying his bed around.

They confront him about carrying a burden on the Sabbath.

That specific Sabbath rule was established from Jeremiah 17:21–22 “Thus says the Lord: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.”

Well, this man doesn’t want to get in trouble with the religious leaders, so he says that the guy who healed him told him to carry his bed around.

“It’s not my fault… I was told to do this…”

So, the religious leaders ask him, “Who told you to break this Sabbath rule?”

Now, don’t miss this…

The man told them he had been healed, and the one who healed him told him to cary his bed away.

A miraculous healing had just taken place, and rather than praising God for this man’s healing…

They focus on the rules being broken and ignore the miracle.

They don’t ask, “who healed you?”

They ask, “who told you to break the Sabbath?”

Their devotion to their rules blinds them to the glory of God in their midst.

Jesus will have some scathing things to say about this in the coming verses, but this is the disastrous state these religious leaders are in.

And it’s this very same state that we ought to recognize and take care to avoid.

So, they ask the guy who it was that told him to break the Sabbath, but he doesn’t know because Jesus just healed him and left.

But then in verses 14-18 the conflict escalates as the religious leaders persecute and seek to kill Jesus.

The man ends up at the Temple, probably to worship after being healed after 38 years of being an invalid, and Jesus finds him there.

And Jesus focuses on the man where the religious leaders focused on their rules.

He says, “Look, you are healed!”

Then he warns him to not sin anymore so that nothing worse than 38 years of being an invalid would happen to him.

I mean, what could be worse than 38 years of being helpless and alone?

How about eternity in hell?

That’s the worst thing that could ever happen.

And that’s exactly what awaits everyone who doesn’t put their faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.

Well, astonishingly, after Jesus reveals himself, the guy goes and throws him under the bus.

He goes straight to the religious leaders and tells them that it was Jesus who healed him on the Sabbath.

And they begin to persecute Jesus, defaming him and threatening him, because he was… a Sabbath breaker.

Jesus answers their persecution by saying, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

He explains very simply that the work he is doing is legitimate work to do on the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was based on the creation in which God rested from all his creative work on the seventh day, but God does not cease from his sustaining work of upholding the universe and sovereignly governing all of his creation.

Jesus asserts this fact as the basis for his work on the Sabbath.

He also explains his authority and right to do what he is doing on the Sabbath by appealing to God as, “My Father,” not THE Father, or OUR Father, but MY Father.

And this is what the religious leaders pick up on because they understand that Jesus is calling God his own personal Father, making himself equal with God.

And God was very clear in Scripture, specifically in Deuteronomy 13:1-5, that false prophets were to be put to death.

So, they sought to kill Jesus, and Jesus leaves Jerusalem to avoid being killed before his appointed time.

But before Jesus leaves, he has some important things to say as an explanation or argument for his authority to correct their understanding of Scripture regarding the Sabbath and the nature of the Christ.

The religious leaders have a problem with Jesus because they are so blinded by their devotion to their religious rules that they can’t see the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who has the authority to correct their understanding of Scripture.

And Jesus explains his authority in the form of a persuasive argument.

With this backdrop of persecution from the religious leaders because they thought Jesus was a Sabbath breaking false prophet…

We move on to see the…

Argument for Jesus’ Authority (19-47)

This argument has three parts.

Jesus explains the general authority of the Son of God, the Christ, in verses 19-29…

Then he applies that same authority to himself specifically in verses 30-40 by appealing to four different testimonies…

And finally he shows the religious leaders the results of their rejection of his authority in verses 41-47.

Let’s read about the general authority of the Son in verses 19-29.

John 5:19–23 ESV

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.

John 5:24–29 ESV

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. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Here, Jesus speaks of the…

General Authority of the Son (19-29)

Jesus explains this general authority using the repeated phrase, “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

He says this three times to identify three truths that cannot be rejected.

This is the strongest possible affirmation that what follows is the truth.

In verses 19-23 Jesus asserts the first truth.

1. The Son’s authority is the same as the Father because he is fully God.

In verse 19 the Son does what the Father does.

If the Father is working on the Sabbath, then so is the Son.

They both work to give life to all things by upholding the universe and judging by sovereignly ruling over all of creation every day of the week!

In verse 20 the Father shows the Son the glory of redemption.

The Father loves the Son so much that he shows him his glorious plan of redemption that will make everyone marvel at the length of God’s love.

In verse 21 both the Father and the Son give spiritual life.

The plan of redemption results in spiritual life granted by both the Father and the Son.

In verse 22 the Father has given the honor of judgment to the Son.

The Father has given the Son the authority to give spiritual life to whoever he wants…

And the judgment against those who do not have spiritual life is also given entirely to the Son.

In verse 23 the Father and the Son share honor in judgment.

The same honor that is due to the Father as the sovereign ruler of everything to do what he wants with his creation…

that same honor is given to the Son who is also sovereign over everything.

The Son’s authority and honor to give life and to judge is the very same as God the Father’s authority and comes from the Father because the Son is also God.

After this explanation of the authority of the Son based on his deity, Jesus asserts a second truth.

2. Believing his word, results in eternal life and avoids judgment.

The word that he is referring to is everything he had just said.

The truth about the deity of the Son and what the Father and Son are doing to reconcile the world.

Believing God is what Abraham did and it was counted to him as righteousness in Genesis 15:6…

And believing God with these truths as well results in eternal life and avoids judgment.

And finally, in verses 25-29, Jesus re-asserts that the Son has authority to give life and execute judgment, but this time it’s because of his humanity.

3. The Son has authority to give life and to judge because he is also fully human.

In verses 25 Jesus says that even now the Son is giving spiritual life to those who hear his voice and believe.

And in verses 26 and 27 he says that the Father has granted the Son the authority both to give life and to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.

The Son is the perfect judge for the same reason that he is our perfect high priest, the perfect mediator between God and man, and the perfect sacrifice to take the punishment for the sins of the world.

The Son is perfect for all of these roles because he is both God and man.

He is the perfect judge because he is human, and he knows what it’s like to be assaulted with temptation.

But he is also God which means that he is perfectly sinless, and his judgment is perfectly just and right.

Jesus says in verses 28 and 29 that in the future, every single person will be called by the Son to either eternal life or to judgment.

He says that those who have done good will be resurrected to eternal life…

But Jesus has already explained how to obtain eternal life, and it’s not by doing good.

So, the good that he refers to here must refer to what he said earlier in verse 24, that all who hear his word and believe the Father who sent him will have eternal life.

All who have done good are those who have believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God sent from the Father.

And all those who have done evil are the rest of mankind who do not believe in Jesus and who are bound up in sin receiving the just penalty for their sin.

So, Jesus makes these three assertions of the truth about the Son.

1. The authority of the Son is the same as the Father because he is fully God.

2. Believing in the Son results in eternal life.

3. And The Son has authority to give life and to judge because he is also fully human.

Now Jesus is going to shift his argument and apply what he had just said to himself appealing to four different witnesses to back his claim that he is the Christ, the Son of God in verses 30-40.

John 5:30–35 ESV

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

John 5:36–40 ESV

But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

This is the general authority of the Son…

Specifically Applied to Jesus (30-40)

Jesus argues for his Authority as the Son of God by appealing to four different witnesses:

1) Jesus himself,

2) John the Baptist,

3) God the Father, and

4) Scripture.

First up is…

The Testimony of Jesus Himself (30-31)

When Jesus says, “I can do nothing on my own,” he is saying the exact same thing he said in verse 19 about the Son in general.

But now, he takes that relationship between the Father and the Son, and he applies it to himself.

He’s claiming very explicitly that he is the Son of God.

And then he says that his judgment is just because he seeks to do the will of the Father who sent him.

He shows that the just judgment of the Son, which he explained back in verse 27…

that just judgment is his because he is unbiased.

He’s not seeking his own will or his own comfort in his judgment… he’s seeking the will of the Father.

But if Jesus’ testimony, his claim to be the Son of God, had no other witnesses or evidence, then it would be a lie.

This is because the identity that Jesus is claiming, that he is the Christ, the Son of God…

That identity was prophesied in Scripture by the Father.

And even the forerunner was prophesied in Scripture.

And that forerunner also bears witness to the identity of the Christ, the Son of God.

So, Jesus’ claim to be the Son must be accompanied by these other very specific witnesses, or else that claim is a lie.

And Jesus goes on to give those exact other witnesses.

The second witness he appeals to is…

The Testimony of John the Baptist (32-35)

Jesus says that he knows that John’s witness is true, even if some may doubt whether to believe the crazy guy with bug breath and camel hair clothes dunking Jews in the Jordan river as if they were Gentiles in need of repentance.

Jesus says, I KNOW his testimony is true,

And many of these same religious leaders went out to see if John was the Christ back in chapter 1.

But this is not Jesus’ primary witness.

The testimony for Jesus’ identity as the Christ does not hang on the word of one fallible man.

But Jesus appeals to John’s testimony because of his authority as the prophesied forerunner of the Christ, and because the religious leaders had already heard John’s testimony.

They had at least heard of his testimony that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

And Jesus appeals to it because even the true testimony of one man crying out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord can be used to save even these prideful religious leaders.

And the testimony of one man crying out from this pulpit to believe in Jesus to be saved from sin and death can be used to save any of you who will listen and believe.

John was a sensational evangelist, and the religious leaders rejoiced for a little while in his glory…

until they discovered that he was preaching against their religious system.

But the next witness that Jesus appeals to is a much greater witness.

Jesus’ third witness is…

The Testimony of God the Father (36-38)

Jesus says that the works the Father has given him to accomplish, the very works that he is doing in their midst, are a much greater witness than John’s witness.

These works that Jesus has been doing, specifically the work of healing this man who had been an invalid for 38 years…

These works are a confirmation that Jesus has been sent by the Father.

Back in John 3, Nicodemus said that they agreed that no one could do the things that Jesus was doing unless God was with him.

They just didn’t quite take it far enough.

No one could do the things Jesus was doing unless he was God the Son, sent by the Father.

Then Jesus says that the Father has himself borne witness about Jesus as the Son of God.

Jesus is referring to his baptism which the author, John, did not record in his gospel account.

But he alluded to it when he recorded John the Baptist’s testimony in John 1:32-34.

In the other Gospels, after Jesus was baptized, the Father’s voice came from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

This is the Father’s direct testimony to Jesus’ identity and authority as the Son of God.

But then Jesus says, “His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you because you don’t believe the one whom he has sent.”

The Father audibly testified that Jesus is his beloved Son, but the religious leaders willfully ignore that testimony and refuse to believe that Jesus is God’s Son.

John had written earlier in John 1:18 that no one has ever seen God, but the only God who is at the Father’s side has made him known.

They refused to believe that Jesus was God’s Son, and in that rejection, they had closed their ears to hear the Father.

And they had closed their eyes to see the Father because Jesus, God’s Son makes him known.

If you want to hear the Father, listen to Jesus.

If you want to see the Father, look to Jesus.

He has made him known.

If you refuse to accept Jesus as God’s Son, then the Father will remain unseen and unheard.

And Jesus also said that they do not have God’s Word abiding in them because his Word also testifies that Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus’ fourth and final witness is…

The Testimony of Scripture (39-40)

This final witness is Jesus’ main argument.

Each of the witnesses has grown in weight and consequence from the previous witness.

Jesus’ own witness alone stands or falls on whether the other witnesses agree with his.

John the Baptist’s witness is from a fallible man and might just be the raving of a wilderness lunatic.

The Father’s witness is much greater, but it depends on properly interpreting Jesus’ works and accepting the account of the Father’s witness at Jesus’ baptism.

But the Scripture’s witness is something that the religious leaders cannot ignore without demolishing their religion.

Jesus says, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me!”

The religious leaders were experts in Scriptural knowledge.

They knew their Bible inside and out!

And Jesus says that the Scriptures that they know so well speak of him.

All of Scripture points to Jesus.

If they can’t see that then they are truly blind.

If we can’t see that, then we, too, are truly blind.

And yet…

The Scriptures speak of the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Christ as the source of eternal life…

And yet they refused to come to Jesus, the Christ for eternal life.

Scripture alone does not offer eternal life.

Scripture speaks of the Christ, who gives eternal life.

They refused to come to Jesus because they rejected him as the Christ.

But more than that, they refused to come to him because they thought they could earn their own eternal life through their Law-keeping.

They ultimately refused to believe these witnesses and concluded that Jesus was a heretic, a false prophet, who needed to be put to death.

Jesus has given his argument for his authority, and now the conclusion of his argument is more of an indictment of the religious leaders rejecting his authority in verses 41-47.

John 5:41–47 ESV

I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 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 do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

We saw the general authority of the Son specifically applied to Jesus as the Son, and now we see the…

Results of Rejecting His Authority (41-47)

Jesus compares himself with the religious leaders, specifically regarding where they receive their glory.

In verse 41 Jesus says that he does not receive glory from people, he receives glory from his Father.

But down in verse 44 he says that the religious leaders receive glory from each other as they show off their Bible knowledge and closely follow their religious rules…

When they should be humbly coming to Jesus to be saved from sin and death and to receive the much greater glory of being adopted into God’s family.

Jesus says that he knows they do not have the love of God within them.

Remember back in John 2:25 John said that Jesus knows what is in man.

Jesus knows that they don’t believe, he knows that they don’t receive him as the Christ.

And he prophesies their further unbelief by saying that others will come in their own name, and they will receive them.

After Jesus died and rose again and ascended to heaven, many people falsely claimed the be the Christ.

And a lot of the Jews accepted those false Christs after rejecting Jesus who really is the Christ.

The religious leaders’ situation prevents them from true belief because it blinds them to the greater glory that comes from the only God, the glory of being adopted into God’s family by believing in Jesus.

But Jesus doesn’t accuse them…

Jesus’ judgment of these religious leaders is not his own accusation of their unbelief.

Ironically, the one on whom they hope for eternal life, Moses, is the very one who accuses them of unbelief unto judgment.

They think that simply following the Law of Moses will save them from God’s judgment, but the Law was never meant to save.

The Law of Moses, the Scriptures, all point to the Christ as the one who saves…

and Jesus has proven that he is the Christ who saves.

They were so blinded by following their religious rules that they missed the most crucial point of the Law.

No one can perfectly obey the Law, we need a perfect substitute to do it for us!

That’s what the Christ is, that’s what Jesus has done for us!

He’s our righteousness, he’s our salvation, not the Law!

The Law points us to Christ!

But if you don’t believe Moses, if you ignore the clear statements of Scripture about the Christ, how can you believe Jesus’ claim that he is the Christ.

You see they thought the Christ was God’s way of liberating us from our physical enemies.

They didn’t understand that the Christ was God’s way of liberating us from tour spiritual enemies… sin and death.

They thought that they could liberate themselves from sin and death on their own by following God’s Law.

So, they refused to accept Jesus as the Christ to their own condemnation.

Conclusion

I believe John intended for us to identify with the religious leaders here as a warning to avoid their unbelief.

Don’t be like the religious leaders.

They were looking for eternal life in their good works, their obedience, and their knowledge of Scripture.

Your salvation is not in your good works, or your obedience, or your daily Bible reading.

It’s not in how much you give to charity or to the church.

And it’s certainly not in how much you know about God and the Bible.

Those things are all wonderful as an outpouring of your salvation, but they do not save you.

Your salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ according to Scripture and to God’s glory alone.

Jesus is your salvation, because he paid the price for your sins and reconciled you to the Father by dying on the cross and rising again on the third day.

Too many people in the church think they are saved because they read their Bible and go to church.

Take a good look at your heart.

Are you relying on yourself for eternal life?

Do you find your assurance of salvation in how much you read and know the Bible or how much you attend church?

If this is you, then I beg you to abandon your pride and humbly come to Jesus for eternal life.

On the flip-side, perhaps you doubt your salvation because you don’t feel compelled to read your Bible as often as others.

Or maybe you find yourself so busy trying to make ends meet or managing a house full of kids who steal all your attention so that you barely have enough time to eat or sleep let alone read God’s Word.

Maybe you spent so much time wasting your life and not pursuing Jesus in Scripture and prayer that you doubt whether he has saved you at all.

I hope you find this encouraging, that your salvation does not depend on how often or how much you read your Bible, pray, and fellowship with true believers in the past or even right now.

It depends on your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

But do not discount the importance of reading the Bible.

Jesus said that the Scriptures speak of him.

So, eternal life comes from Jesus, and we get to Jesus through the Scriptures!

Reading the Bible, memorizing Bible verses, meditating on the truths of the Bible, talking with other believers about the Bible…

This is how we most tangibly interact with Jesus.

The Holy Spirit uses the words of Scripture to show us Jesus.

And as we behold him in these pages we are changed into his likeness one step at a time, loving each other, forgiving each other, helping each other, and retelling the glories of the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone because it’s so amazing!

If you have not yet put your faith in Jesus to be saved from sin and death, then now is the perfect time to do that.

You don’t know when you will hear the voice of Jesus and be resurrected to eternal life in heaven or to eternal condemnation in hell.

You’ve heard the very Word of God assuring you that there are only two options.

Option #1: if you believe his word that Jesus is the Christ who has died for your sins and rose from the dead to secure your eternal life, then submit to him as ruler of your life and rest in his salvation purchased on the cross.

Option #2: if you have heard God’s word but you discount it and refuse to believe it, then there awaits judgment for you that ends in eternal condemnation and agony in hell because you will receive God’s just punishment for your sin.

I pray that you would believe and have life in Jesus’ name.

Pray

Father, thank you for showing us the glory of your Son in your Word.

I pray that we would rest in him for our salvation and not in our own effort.

Help us to admonish and encourage each other with these truths so that we can give you all the glory for our salvation and the good you do through us.

I pray that if there are any here who still need your salvation, that you would work on their hearts and open their eyes to see and believe the truth of your love.

That you sent your Son, Jesus, to die and rise again so that we could be forgiven and adopted into your family.

Lord, that is such an amazing gift.

Help us to never take it for granted.

It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Communion

As we move to our communion celebration and the men pass out the elements, I want to briefly look at one of the differences between the old covenant and the new covenant.

If you are visiting with us and you are a baptized believer in good standing with your home church, then you are welcome to join us.

Just hold on to the bread and the cup and we will take it together after we all have the elements.

Well, as we saw in John 5, the religious leaders, and really most of that Jewish culture at the time…

They were looking to the old covenant Law for their salvation instead of letting that Law point them to salvation in Christ like it was intended to do.

God had told them that obedience equals life and disobedience equals death.

Now the difference between the old and new covenants is NOT how people are saved.

Perfect righteousness is required to avoid God’s wrath against sin.

And God promised to send his servant, the Christ to be our righteousness and take our punishment on himself in Isaiah 53:11 “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”

Salvation has always been through a righteous substitute who takes our sin and gives us his righteousness.

People in all eras are saved by grace through faith in Christ according to Scripture and to God’s glory alone.

The difference I want to look at is the circumstances surrounding that one timeless method God uses to save people.

Before the old covenant, Abraham believed God about his lineage which would lead to the Christ who would bless all the nations by taking away the sins of the world, and his faith was counted to him as righteousness.

In the old covenant, the Law was meant to point people forward to believe in Christ, the coming Messiah, for their salvation, for their righteousness.

And now, in the new covenant we look back believing in Jesus, the Christ, God’s Son who took our sin and gave us his righteousness so that we can be saved from sin and death.

The religious leaders put their faith in the wrong thing.

They put their faith in their own rule keeping.

But this bread and this cup are a reminder to us that our faith is in the right thing, our faith is in Jesus Christ, both God and Man in one, who has the authority and power to give life through his body given for us and his blood shed for us on the cross.

Pray

Father, thank you for giving us life through your Son’s death and resurrection.

You have blessed us so much.

And I pray that you would bring the truth of your love to our minds every moment of every day.

Bless us now as we remember your love in sending your Son to die in our place and rise again so that we can live with you forever.

It’s in his name we pray, Amen.

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