John Part 13
Notes
Transcript
We stopped last week on John 5:18
18 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.
This is huge.
When Jesus claimed to be able to work on the Sabbath
And that God was His Father,
The Jews wanted to kill him.
It is important to note that they didn’t want to kill him
Simply because he was breaking a commandment
About working on the Sabbath
But, is was of him saying that the reason he can work on the Sabbath
Is because his father is working on the Sabbath
Now, the Father/Son language in the New Testament can be confusing to us in America
However, it was not confusing to the Jews.
From our perspective
We could interpret this to mean that Jesus was claiming to be God Junior.
If my son, Asher, Says, Jacob is my Father.
No one here would think that Asher was claiming to be me.
However, when Jesus justified his ability to work on the Sabbath
By claiming that if my Father is working,
Then I can work…
Jesus wasn’t simply saying that God was his Father
All the Jews would claim that God was their Father
This wasn’t strange
It was the fact that Jesus was using that claim
To justify working on the Sabbath
In other words… He was claiming to actually be God
Because only God can work on the Sabbath from the Jews perspective
And we can see by their response that is what they thought Jesus meant
Because it says, “not only was he breaking the Sabbath”…
Meaning, it was more than that…
It was because he justified breaking the Sabbath by calling God his Father…
And look how they took that statement…
Making himself equal with God.
Now, this word equal does not mean that Jesus was claiming to be another god of equal status.
It does not mean that Jesus was elevating himself to the level of God the Father
It literally means that Jesus was claiming to be the same as God the Father.
Not another coequal person, but the same person.
Here are some examples of this word in use by John and other NT authors.
16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal.
So, the length and the width are “the same”, they are “equal”.
It is basically saying the city is a perfect square.
The sides are all the exact same length.
So whatever size one wall is, the other 3 walls are equal - or exactly the same.
So, whatever God is, Jesus is equal… or exactly the same as God.
And John wrote Revelation
So, this is how he uses that word, equal.
17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”
Same Gift here, is the same greek word used in Jn 5.18.
Peter is telling the Jews that the Gentiles got the Holy Spirit
The same way he did in Acts 10.
Meaning. They spoke in other tongues
Just like we spoke in other tongues.
They have the exact same gift.
Whatever gift they got
We got the exact same gift.
Just like Jesus is the exact same God
because he was claiming to be equal with God the Father.
18 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, the point is, wherever we see this word “equal” in the NT
Which is sometimes translated as “the same”
It means that whatever things are being compared
they are exactly the same.
So, Jesus is exactly the same as God the Father according to this verse…
No equal it abilities, or status, or any nonmaterial attributes
but equal as in he is the same person.
If God is “A” then Jesus is “A”, they are “the same” or “equal”.
Trinitarians would have you think that God is “A” and Jesus is “B”
and both A and B are both letters in the alphabet
so they are the same in that they are both letters
but they are different letters
But the Jews accused him of being THE same
Not of the same kind
but THE same.
Now, from Here Jesus begins explaining WHY he is the same as the Father.
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.
If the Father does something, the Son does it too.
He says, the Son cannot do any task on his own…
but that it is really the Father doing the task.
So, anything Jesus does…
anything at all
It is really the Father doing it.
If Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath
It is the Father healing the man.
That’s why Jesus can work on the Sabbath
Because, he says, it is the Father doing the work
and the Father can work on the Sabbath all he wants
So, let this sink in… Jesus is saying…
If you see me do anything
You are seeing the Father in action.
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.
Now, just because God was manifested in the flesh as Jesus
That doesn’t mean God couldn’t do things outside of that manifestation
So, for example,
While Jesus was healing the man by the pool earlier in this chapter
That means the Father was healing the man by the pool
But at the same time the Father could be doing something else
somewhere else, like answering someone’s prayer in Asia.
Because God is omnipresent.
Jesus says, those other things that the Father is doing
I can see those things too
Which is why Jesus could say in the last chapter
Go home, your son will live
and from a distance
the son was healed… how?
Because Jesus can see what the Father is doing it other places
21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.
Again, whatever the Son is doing,
It is the Father doing it through Jesus.
22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,
Now, this is where it gets interesting
Jesus goes a step further
and claims to be the Judge of all men.
But, there is only one Judge of all men…
God the Father…
25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
Abraham calls God “The Judge of all the earth”
And this is concerning the judgment of Sodom
So, God the Father is the only Judge…
6 The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah
7 but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.
22 For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us.
Here, we see that YHWH is our judge, lawgiver, king, and savior
But… Jesus is all of things according to the NT
So, either Jesus replaced God the Father
Or Jesus is God the Father
and based on John 5…
Jesus is claiming to BE God the Father
Not a replacement of God
but “equal” or “the same” as God.
God didn’t delegate Judgement to the Son
like one person giving authority to another person.
The Father is doing the Judgement THROUGH the Son
That’s why Jesus leads into this text by saying
Whatever you see me do, it is the Father doing it.
And one of those things is to Judge all men.
Jesus then proceeds to disclose the plan for judgement day.
22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,
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.
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.
25 “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.
26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice
29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
30 “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.
Ok, so, Jesus is claiming to the the Judge of All
but we know that the Judge of all is God the Father.
So, Jesus is really claiming to BE God the Father
And it is the Father who is Judging us through the Son.
because, again, Jesus says, I can do nothing on my own.
It is the Father doing it through him.
It is not like Jesus is a puppet and the Father has the strings
It is that Jesus is God the Father in human form.
Now, recall I said that John’s main goal was to provide witnesses
That Jesus was the Messiah.
Here, at the end of chapter 5
Jesus gives several witnesses of himself.
Let’s read
31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.
So, Jesus is being accused of breaking the Sabbath
And Jesus is also being accused of claiming to be God
and the Jews are ready to kill him
Now, according to their law
You need to have 2 or 3 witnesses to kill someone
Right now, they only have the one man who was healed by the pool
and they need another if they want to kill Jesus
But before they can provide it
Jesus provides his reason for working on the Sabbath
Which is… that he is God
Now, this gets him in more hot water
and they have multiple Jews who heard him make this claim
So, they sought to kill him even more
And this is when Jesus starts bringing his own witnesses to back up his claim
that He is God.
I hope that’s clear so far…
So, he starts by saying… if I’m the only witness to the fact that I’m God
then my testimony is not true
So, then he proceeds to give them more than 2 or 3 witnesses to this claim.
Now, before we continue
I want to address 2 claims made by many people
Some use John 8.14 to say that Jesus contradicted himself…
14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.
So, here Jesus says that if I bear witness about myself, then my testimony is true… but in chapter 5 Jesus said…
31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.
Ok, let me straighten this out for you
Jesus is making two different arguments in these two chapters.
In Chapter 5, his argument is I have many witnesses
In Chapter 8, his argument is… i don’t need many witnesses because I’m not a liar…
Anyone that tries to pit chapter 5 against chapter 8
Is either intentionally deceiving you
or they are not capable of following the logic Jesus uses.
He is not contradicting himself.
So, again, in chapter 5, Jesus is saying without witnesses a testimony is not true, and here are my 5 witnesses.
In chapter 8, Jesus is saying, you need witnesses because you all are liars like your father the devil, but I don’t need any witnesses because I can’t lie… however… I’ll give you witnesses despite not needing them
Because then jesus says in Chapter 8…
18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.”
So, after saying I don’t really need a witness because I’m not a liar…
Jesus then says… I’ll give you one witness - my father.
He is my witness.
Now, as we will see in Chapter 5,
Jesus could have easily given them several more witnesses
But he only needed 1 to make a point.
Now, here’s the other thing many people will do.
I told you there were two things
The 1st is to try to make Jesus out to be contradicting himself.
The second is to try and prove Jesus is not God the Father in flesh.
Trinitarians will do this by using part of chapter 5 and part of Chapter 8.
Both out of context.
First they will read this…
31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.
Then they will read this…
18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.”
Then they will say… See… Jesus says he need another witness
And then in chapter 8, he says the Father is the other witness
If Jesus and the Father are the same person
Then Jesus doesn’t have two witnesses
He only has one witness… himself.
Now, this argument fails to read each of these verses in their proper context.
The verse in chapter 5 is followed by Jesus providing 4 witnesses
Which we are about to get back to reading.
The verse in chapter 8 is preceded by Jesus saying...
I don’t even need 1 witness because I can’t lie.
So, the Trinitarian mixes these two verses together
and they think they have proof that Jesus and the Father are two different persons.
If Jesus needs another witness, and the Father is the other witness
Then, they say, the Father must be another person.
Another witness = another person.
It makes sense on the surface
But what was Jesus needing a witness for in chapter 5?
He was needing a witness to back up his claim that he was the Father.
So, conflating these two verse from chapter 5 and chapter 8 to prove that Jesus and the Father are not the same person
is completely missing the point that Jesus is providing witnesses for that very reason — to prove that he and the Father ARE the same.
Paraphrase
Paraphrase
Let me paraphrase both chapters
So you can see what Jesus is saying is not really a contradiction
and it certainly can’t be cherry picked to prove that Jesus is not
YHWH, God the Father, the only true God, manifested in the flesh.
Chapter 5
I can work on the Sabbath because my Father is working
In fact, anything I do is really the Father doing it
which is why I’m going to judge the whole world
but it isn’t really me doing judging
It is my Father judging through me
Now, if I’m making this claim without a witness
You probably won’t believe me
but here are my 4 witnesses that I am equal with the Father…
Chapter 8
Then in chapter 8, Jesus says he is the light of the world
and salvation comes through himself
and the Jews are like, what?
Where’s your witnesses?
And Jesus says, I don’t need any witness because I only tell the truth
But you need witnesses because your father is the devil
a liar and the father of lies
but my father bears witness of me
and they said, who is your father?
And Jesus says…
if you knew me, you would know my father.
He goes on to say, Before Abraham was, I AM
and they picked up stones to stone him
Ok, so back to chapter 5
and the 4 witnesses
32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.
Witness number 1:
Witness number 1:
33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
remember, in chapter 1, they got a testimony from John
And, Jesus says, he told the truth
And what did John say?
I’m the one crying…
Prepare the way for who?
YHWH.
33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.
35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
Witness number 2
Witness number 2
36 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.
So, John was the 1st witness called
The second was the works that Jesus did.
His miracles were proof that he was the Messiah.
Witness 3
Witness 3
37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen,
So, God the Father is the 3rd Witness
but they haven’t heard him
or seen him, so how can he be a witness?
Well, Jesus goes on to say how…
38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
So, the Father witnessed about Jesus through the Scriptures
And in this context, that means through the Old Testament
The New Testament had not been written yet
And the only Bible the jews knew us was the OT.
Jesus say… look through them
They testify about me.
Now, the 4th witness is Moses, but before Jesus reveals Moses
He talks about himself some more
and notice what all Jesus claims here
It is more than just a claim to be LIKE God
But he is claiming to BE God.
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
41 I do not receive glory from people.
42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
43 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.
44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
Wow… Did you catch all that?
You are looking for eternal life in the OT
And, Jesus says… you should have come to me to get that life.
Basically saying, I’m the only way to Heaven.
Then Jesus says in vs 40,
I do not recieve glory from people
and in contrast, he says in vs 44 that the Jews do look for glory from other Jews.
Then Jesus says, I have come in my father’s name.
So, what name did Jesus come in?
Jesus
Which means… the Father’s name is Jesus.
He says, I came in my Father’s name
and you don’t receive ME
But you’ll receive other’s who come in their own name.
Then verse 44 caps it off
and pins them down
He says, look, you get glory from each other
and you come in your own names
but I came in my Father’s name
and if you had come to me
You would have had eternal life
and you would have gotten the glory that only comes from…
… God
Wait, the glory that comes from Jesus
Is the glory that only comes from GOD?
The 4th Witness
The 4th Witness
45 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.
46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.
47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Moses is the last witness called
But Jesus says
If you won’t believe his writings
How will you believe my words
What’s he saying?
He’s saying… the writings of Moses
Are his own words
Jesus is the same God
that inspired Moses to write the first 5 books of the Bible.
If you are wondering how that interpretation lines up with the other Apostles…
Look at what Peter said…
21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
So, the OT prophecies were written by men who heard from GOD the Father
through God the Father’s Holy Spirit directing them what to write.
That’s what Peter claims here
But watch this…
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,
11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.
wait, the Spirit of who was indicating?
The Spirit of Christ
So, who wrote the OT?
God the Father
The Holy Spirit
or the Spirit of Christ?
The answer is yes.
Because Jesus is God
and that is the claim he made clear in John chapter 5
and it will only get clearer as we study on in the book of John.
