John 5:10-47 | Proven Authority
Notes
Transcript
We are continuing in our series in the book of John today.
Today we are going to move through the entirety of John 5, covering a lot of ground, but it all connects and shows us one powerful message
Jesus has just finished healing the paralytic man and he is now going to face criticism for it.
The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”
He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’ ”
Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place.
The healed man stands up, and picks up his mat that he was sitting on.
He begins to leave and the Jews, the religious, stop him and tell him it was not lawful for him to carry his bed on the Sabbath
They would have been referencing Old Testament laws that told a person to keep the Sabbath the holy, set apart
No Work
No regular labor, business, or production
That included you, your family, servants, even animals
🚫 No Kindling Fire
Specifically mentioned in Exodus 35:3 “You shall kindle no fire throughout your dwellings on the Sabbath day.””
Meant no cooking/industrial-type work tied to labor
🚫 No Gathering (like manna or sticks)
Example: man gathering sticks got judged (Numbers 15:32–36)
Showed deliberate disobedience, not just accidental activity
🚫 No Buying or Selling
Nehemiah 13 — rebukes people for doing business on Sabbath
We see very clear instructions for the Israelites to keep the Sabbath Holy, and they are told in what manner to do so
So what the Jews had done, the Pharisees and Sadducees specifically have taken laws like these and added to them over time
They did this to have a certain level of control over the people
And the Sabbath laws were greatly expanded to the point where they could judge someone for even carrying something around
Now they see this as a great opportunity to challenge Jesus
Because Jesus had just seemingly “worked” on the Sabbath, and now the man is carrying something on the Sabbath”
But Jesus says something about the Sabbath in Mark that is particularly interesting.
And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
Jesus continually challenged this expansion of the law throughout his ministry, and in reference to the Sabbath he reminds them, the Sabbath was created for man to rest.
God wanted man to take a day of rest like he did during the time of creation
And the Jewish leaders had turned it into a law to gain control over man
It is also important to remember in application for us today that we are not held to the Sabbath
Sunday is not the Sabbath
Church is not the Sabbath
the Sabbath actually would have Saturday and it had nothing to do with church
Is it a wise practice to take a day of rest absolutely, but it is not a command
There is nothing Biblically wrong with working on a Sunday
There is nothing wrong with working hard on a Sunday
What is wrong is continually forsaking the assembly of God, however the Bible doesn’t say you can’t go work a shift at your job after Church on Sunday, because we are not held to the law like the Jews were
But even this law did not forbid a healed man from carrying his bed
This was adding to the law to gain power, and they were using this as an opportunity to critique Jesus
But here is what I want you to notice, Jesus had authority in his message
For Jesus, on the Sabbath, in this culture, to go heal and then command this man to pack us his bed and walk, was authoritative
But not even as much as what he told the man to do next
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”
Jesus sees the man later in the temple, and tells him sin no more
Sounds similar to what he said to the adulterous woman in John 8
He told her go and sin no more
This seems like an odd way to share the gospel
Imagine if we went up to people and just told them to stop sinning
But we have to understand the position of timing Jesus is in in this moment
His death on the cross had not come yet
So the full work of the gospel in salvation had not yet been accomplished in it’s entirety
So much of the focus of Jesus’s ministry in sharing the gospel was on the nature of sin
Much of Jesus’s message was the positioning of the individuals sin
So this paralytic man has just been confronted with this truth, same focus as last week, this isn’t about the healing, its about the heart.
Jesus doesn’t ask the man if there is another miracle he wants him to do, he points out he is healed and them immediately shifts to his spiritual health, and he says you are sinner and you must repent and turn from your sin
This is authority
Jesus is showing that he is not just a healer, he is not just a miracle worker, he has authority
The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.
But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”
Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
Jesus doesn’t back down from what has just happened even though he is being challenged, instead he uses it as an opportunity to show even more authority
Jesus’s life is being threatened, and he says this words in front of the Jewish leaders
John 5:17 “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.””
You know what Jesus is saying here, in response to healing on the Sabbath
“I am God, and I can do what I want”
He puts himself on the same level of God and he says “fine, you want to call it work, (which it’s not) but if you want to call that, God still works on the Sabbath, and I am too
So they threaten to kill him because it is very clear that Jesus is claiming to be God here
and Jesus doesn’t back down, in his authority he responds....
Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.
Jesus lays this out very clearly
He is the son
He is equal with the father
The father’s will is his will
He loves the father and the father loves him
Jesus just gave a Christology 101 lesson intro here, and then comes the authority
For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.
Jesus, in a round about way once again says, “I can do what I want, because I have authority”
And I think it would do us good to stop viewing Jesus as the pacifistic, weak, pushover that we normally see him as
This is the man who walks into a crowd heals and man and then stand in the temple proclaiming to be God to the Jewish elite
This is the man who walks into the temple and flips tables and throws out those defiling it
This is the man calls out sin openly, publicly, and with authority
Jesus was not weak, and we shouldn’t be either
Jesus was as much of a man as you can get
And we have to stop seeing Jesus as the weak effeminate push over that culture paints him as
And more importantly we need to stop living our lives like we are serving this type of Jesus
I think it would do us good to start viewing Jesus more like he was
When we are fighting temptation, and choosing whether to sin or not, it would do us good to picture ourselves as sinning before the masculine, bold, powerful, authoritative Jesus that still lives instead of the weak effeminate Jesus that culture portrays
When we see Jesus as an easy going hippie figure that just wants to spread love to everyone, it makes it a whole lot easier to sin against him
But if we visualize this Jesus that we see in Scripture, and we see the commands in his words, GO AND SIN NO MORE, being told to us, that authority should move us in a more powerful way to fight temptation and sin
But Jesus isn’t done yet...
For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
We cannot physically grasp how serious this is
Picture it like this...
EX: Imagine if Baron trump, Donald Trumps son, when into the oval office tomorrow, called a press conference, when on tv, and he said that all power of the presidency is given to him, and he is now equal in power to the president.
And not just that, but he also should be honored, just like his father is
So now when he walks into a room they play the presidential song and they all stand and introduce him, and he is now recognized worldwide as having the same level of power, honor and status, as his father
How do you think the country would respond to that?
Probably not very well right
What would they say, logically, and probably rightfully so? WELL WHAT DOES TRUMP HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS?
And Jesus understood that they would need some backup to his claims of authority
You see this is the interesting thing about authority, it must be recognized to be effective to the individual
If Baron Trump says I have the authority of the president, he may actually have it, but it doesn’t mean anything if nobody recognizes it
“If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true.
Now Jesus had the authority, same as the father, but to help them believe in his claim he gave them witnesses
What was the witnesses of his authority?
Well he starts with John the Baptist
He is taking a highly respected, influential figure, and showing that he acknowledges who Jesus is
“If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved. He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.
He says to the people there, that they recognized the witness of John the Baptist, and John the Baptist gave the witness that Jesus as the son of God
But that wasn’t it...
But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.
Jesus says if you don’t believe John, I have another witness that is even greater, and that is the works, the miracles, the will of the father
Jesus did many miraculous works, and he did them with the goal to prove his message
I mention this a lot but it is important for us to never forget that we are not called to believe on blind faith.
God gives us proof
And this was the same argument Jesus was making
He says “this isn’t just me making a claim about myself”, he says that John the Baptist recognized who he was, he says “I have done miraculous works, all with the goal of proving the will of the father”
And whenever we doubt the validity of the message of Christ, go to this section of scripture, let Jesus make the case himself
Jesus didn’t call people to blindly believe in him, he gave them proof after proof after proof, evidence after evidence
BUT HE STILL ISN’T DONE.
For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
Now this one sort of leads into the next
He says that he is not just the son of God, but he was sent by God
He reminds them that they have never heard God’s voice or seen his form (which is true, God had not spoken to the people of Israel for hundreds of years at this point)
And leads into his next point that the father has testified of him
The father himself has said that this is his son, and has proven all that Jesus has said directly
But there is an issue, they don’t truly know his word, so they don’t know where to see the testimony of God
You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
And this is where all this leads, what does the authority of Christ truly mean, and what is the real proof?
These Jews would have known scripture very well, they would have studied the word of God in depth, and they thought because of it they had eternal life, but Jesus drops all of that, and in a moment says an immensely controversial statement
He says THESE (THE SCRIPTURES) ARE THEY WHICH TESTIFY OF ME
AND IT IS THROUGH HIM THAT THEY MAY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE
Notice again the authority
There is no second option
There is no other way
There is no other authority
JESUS SAYS THERE IS ONE WAY TO ETERNAL LIFE, AND THOSE YOU FOLLOW, AND MY WORKS, AND THE FATHER AND HIS WORD ITSELF ALL TESTIFY THE SAME THING THAT I AM THE WAY TO ETERNAL LIFE
But then we see him express what he already said directly
He doesn’t just have authority in his claims, but also in judgement
“I do not receive honor from men. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.
What a claim, he is speaking to the leaders of the religious system and he tells them directly, the love of God is not in you
I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?
Now here are two verses that you probably have missed and maybe never thought of
The point is this
Jesus says that they hill recieve others just based on their own claim and authoirty, and they will except them | but Jesus comes in the name of the father and they reject him
Jesus was talking about something that had happened but rather something that would happen
- After Jesus, over 50 different men would come and claim that they were the Messiah
They saw the ministry of Jesus, tried to copy it in some ways, and the people follow them, over and over again
And Jesus says I COME IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND HE TESTIFIES OF ME, BUT OTHERS COME ONLY IN THEIR OWN AUTHORITY CLAIMING TO THE BE THE CHRIST AND YOU WILL GLADLY FOLLOW THEM
And you ask, why?
Well let me ask you why?
- Why do you consistently believe the lies of Satan, and the influence of the world, and the teaching and direction of sinners, working from their own authority and we in turn actively reject the teachings of Christ?
IT’S NO DIFFERENT
WE WILL RUN TO THE INFLUENCE OTHERS WITH NO AUTHORITY OTHER THAN THEIR OWN, YET WE RUN FROM THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST
WHY - BECAUSE WE KNOW IT’S REAL
THE JEWS WERE SCARED OF THE INFLUENCE OF JESUS, THEY KNEW HE HAD POWER, THEY KNEW HE WAS SPECIAL AND THEY WERE SCARED OF THE LIGHT NOW SHINING AGAINST THIER SIN, SO THEY RUN TOWARD THOSE WITH NO AUTHORITY INSTEAD
AND IF THAT IS YOU TODAY CAN I TELL YOU SOMETHING
YOU MAY NOT RECOGNIZE THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST IN YOUR LIFE, YOU MAY NOT LIKE IT, YOU MAY TRY TO AVOID IT, BUT THAT DOESN’T CHANGE WHO HE IS
THE JEWS TRIED OVER AND OVER AGAIN TO GET RID OF CHRIST, AND THAT AUTHORITY NEVER CHANGED
RUNNING FROM THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST JUST DELAYS THE INEVITABLE
ALL WILL BOW
ALL WILL RECOGNIZE HIS AUTHORITY ONE DAY
AND YOU CAN DO IT NOW AND BOW IN HONOR OR YOU CAN DO IT ONE DAY IN REGRET
He reminds them who their true accuser is, it’s not God, it’s the law, that’s is what they have made for themselves
Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. 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?”
Jesus says you want to view Moses like your God, the law as your God, that’s fine, BUT EVEN THE LAW ITSELF AND MOSES HIMSELF WROTE OF ME
THAT’S AUTHORITY
Jesus was no pushover, he brought the truth boldly before the Jews, and today he brings the truth boldly before you
Whatever it is you are placing in authority over your life today can I ask, WHERE IS IT’S WITNESS?
What gives it it’s authority?
Is it a title?
Is it a number of followers?
Is it an emotion?
Whatever it is, it doesn’t have the witness of the Father, the scriptures, the respected leaders, and the backing of miracles.
There is only one authority to put yourself under, and that is the authority of the God
