Jesus is equal with the Father

Introduction

I. The miracle

A. All the sick people

B. Jesus picks out one man

Particular grace

The response of the man revealed his hopelessness, yet Christ brought hope to him- App- Christ still brings hope to the hopeless today.

God’s grace is like that, it is undeserved and unexplainable. Why did he save you and not someone else?

C. Heals the man.

The power of Christ- Every miracle that Christ did pointed to the fact, that he gives life. He saves.

II. The meaning

What’s the ultimate meaning of the sign?

We find a clue to this answer at the end of v.9.

The miracle is described to us and the reader is probably happy reading it. The at the end of v.9 alarm bells start to ring. To the Jewish reader the words at the end of v.9 would have caused great discomfort.

And that day was the Sabbath.

In the Jewish mind Christ just broke the Sabbath.

This is what we see when we keep reading.

The Jews caught the man carrying his bed on the Sabbath. This was a stonable offense. They say to him. It is not lawful for you to carry your bed on the Sabbath.

The man explains…

Jesus finds him says sin no more; Christ called people to repentance- this is not cheap grace.

The man went to the leaders and told them it was Christ.

This caused them to persecute Jesus.

Then in verse 17 we have the reply that Jesus gave to his persecutors and this is the key that opens up the meaning of the sign and the point of the whole narrative.

Jesus said in v.17…

This miracle was performed in the exact way that it was in order to show that Jesus had equality with the Father.

This is further enforced by the discourse that follows.

v.19-23

The Son does what the Father does- He gives life, he judges sin, he receives the same honour as the Father.

This miracle that was performed on the Sabbath was done so inorder to show the equality that Jesus has with the Father. He is equal with the Father. This points us to the doctrine on the Trinity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God in three persons. The Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God. One God, One in essence, three in person.