Jesus has ALL Authority.

If you have your bibles or a copy of God’s word please open up with me to John chapter 5. As you turn there I want to briefly talk about last weeks message. Last weeks message, Jesus showed us that he is Lord over body and days, and towards the end of the message we saw that he in fact is Lord over all. He was equating himself with God. And that got the Jews really fired up, because they thought he was blaspheming God. As we looked at the other gospels we saw this anger that the Jewish leaders had for Jesus because of this statements and claims. But this week he is going to add to what he has previously said in verse 17 and 18 and as I reminder I want to read them to you again. John 5:17-18

John 5:17–18 ESV

17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” 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.

I titled this message this morning Jesus has ALL Authority.

Before we read the text this morning I want you to join me in prayer and then we will dive into God’s word.

Pray.

Now before we read the text the Main point I want you to get this morning is this. Jesus is God and has all Authority.

The Gospel according to John says this in John 5:19-30 ..

John 5:19–30 ESV

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. 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. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 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.

Verse 19-23 unpack this idea that I want you to write down as our first point and its this.

Jesus has the same authority as the Father because he is of the same essence of the Father.

The Jews had many issues with Jesus, but his authority was up there. They over and over again questioned his teachings and his authority. This text is no different.

Let me quickly unpack that first point Jesus has the same authority as the Father because he is of the same essence of the Father.

Jesus and the father are both God, not different gods, the same God. The are the same in nature and essence, but they are different in personhood.

Jesus the Son is not the Father and the Father is not Jesus the Son.

But in this text we see that the authority the father has does not go against the authority the son has. Rather we see the mission of the father and the mission of the son are the same. Jesus does not contradict anything the father has done or will do. This is important when we see Jesus speaking of himself doing the fathers work.

The text here helps us understand that very idea. First it says 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.

He is telling the Jews that he is not going outside of the fathers will telling him that he has authority over what he is doing. In fact he only does what he sees the father doing.

Jesus didn’t come to earth leaving the Father to just do whatever he wanted to do. This is so important for us to understand because it goes beyond the text we are talking about today. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are always in perfect fellowship with one another. They never contradict each other. They are always on the same page.

This also means that the works done by Jesus are just as great as the father. He can only do what God can do, because he is God himself. The great works we see Jesus do in the gospels are evidence that he himself is God.

Another thing we see in this text is that the father shows the son his love and vice versa. God shows us love sure, but not the kind of love he shows the son. We first see this kind of love in John 3:35

John 3:35 ESV

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

God the father gives Jesus all things. as the Son loves the father and obeys him We see love for the father displayed. We see this displayed at many points in the gospels one of them is John 14:31 which says.

John 14:31 ESV

but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

The father loves the son because he reveals the father to the world. Jesus life and ministry is an expression of the Fathers love for his people. Up until that point God had been with the people of Isreal, doing incredible things, protecting them but had not walked them ,had not lived among them in this way. He had revealed himself at various times and various places but not like the incarnation.

He had not taught them face to face. But when Jesus came in the flesh this was different. And Jesus perfectly revealed the Father to the world. And the Father loved him for it.

To top this off, Jesus himself will be showed greater things such assuming authority just like God and raising those who are dead to life.

He will do things to cause people to marvel. Listen to what one man said about this. This does not mean that Jesus derives some sort of cheap thrill at people’s astonishment, and therefore shapes his mission to generate more of it, like a second-class illusionist who lives for the next round of applause.

Jesus is here dealing with opponents. Because they are opponents they do not rest their faith in him. How then shall he communicate to them more of the Father’s gracious self-disclosure in the Son? His progressively revelatory ‘works’, including his ‘signs’, teaching and divine authority as life-giver and judge, are designed in part to make his opponents marvel. That may be their first step toward faith.

When you think about that and see what we see time and time again in these gospels is Jesus shows them incredible works and people believe in him. Not just the works but in him. Some come for the works as we will continue to see, but some stay because of him, and come to the place where they place there faith in him. Showing that he is God and is who he says he is.

Another thing we see making Jesus equal with God and having the same authority is that he can raise the dead.

The Jews knew well that only God himself could raise the dead. Only he can give life. God may have used prophets as as instrument like the time Elijah stretched out on a the dead but it was God doing the work. If you see in your bible it says the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. These may seem different at first glance but the reality is it means that the Father and Son have the ability to give life. Therefore proving that he has the same authority as God the Father. Jesus is proving to the Jews over and over again that he has authority to do the miraculous.

But he is not done telling them all the father has given him. Verse 22-23 lets read again. John 5:22-23

John 5:22–23 ESV

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.

Jesus had been methodical in what he has said thus far to the Jews, but now he is making a statement so powerful that the Jews would have to come to a decision on what they would do with it. What they would think about and ask themselves the question who is this Jesus? As we learned last week he is Lord, but as we see in the text this morning Jesus has all authority. Not some, not just a little, but all. All authority is his.

But in the Jews mind Jesus was not a man who was Lord not a man who did what God did, not a man who was loved by the father, not a man who could raise the dead back to life, and surly not a man who judges me.

In there minds they thought this man can’t judge me I am judging him. He can’t tell me my eternal destiny.

In there mind only God was the one who could judge them, but what they missed as I have already said before during our study God was right in front of them. Jesus said to them over and over again who he was, yet they rejected him.

Notice the language of the text though. Not only does Jesus have the authority to judge, he has the same honor God the father has. The Jews preached over and over again how they were following God honoring him, doing everything that God had asked them to do but if they did not honor Christ than they were not honoring the father.

There is only one way to eternal life life and that road goes through one man, the God man Christ Jesus. Want to honor God then follow me. Because rejecting me is is the same thing as rejecting the father, If you want to come to God you have to come through me. I have that kind of authority because I do what the Father asks of me, and he loves me, and I can raise one from the dead as we will see later in this book, but most importantly I am the one who can give eternal life.

So this makes you have to stop and think for a second for those who claim to know God and not know Jesus for them there is not eternal life only judgement. Not all paths to God promise the same results. Only through Jesus can you find eternal life. Second thing I want you to write down this morning is this..

Jesus authority means he can grant eternal life.

So he says another truly truly statement here. Emphasizing the point that nothing he is saying is a lie. Which includes that he and he alone salvation rests in.

He is telling the Jews if you believe me, believe in me, believe in the one who sent me, you can have eternal life. Remember what I said to you just now the father that you claim to love gives me the authority to give you eternal life. Believe in me and have life. He is offering up the solution to there problems himself and they wont come to him. Listen to what he says.

If you believe in me you will not be judged, but will pass from death to life. Listen to the words of Romans 8:1

Romans 8:1 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

If you are in me, believe in me you are not condemned! Because what happens if you believe in me is you come into the kingdom God. Removed from your darkness. As Colossians 1:13 says..

Colossians 1:13 ESV

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

Don’t believe me Let me say it another way. John 5:25

John 5:25 ESV

“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.

Jesus calls dead people to life. The bible says in multiple places that without Christ we are dead in our sins. One Example is Ephesians 2:1-3

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Our deadness prevents us from responding the voice of God, but Jesus said there is a time coming and its now where the dead will here his voice and those who hear it will live. He is talking about those not just hearing, but actually responding to the Lord in faith. Which that in itself is an act of God. Colossians 2:13 explains how this works out for us. It says.

Colossians 2:13 ESV

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

God takes what is dead and makes them alive through Jesus Christ. Amazing gospel truth that he makes dead people live.

Jesus as we learned all the way back in John 1:4 is life , and in him was the light of men. Jesus has the authority to grant eternal life.

Another example of this authority is found in verse 27 and in this verse Dan 7:13 is mentioned. Because Jesus is the son of Man, and the son of man has authority to Judge all men. Let me read Daniel 7:13 just to remind you of what it says.

Daniel 7:13 ESV

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.

Why would Jesus say this? One scholar I believe rightly tells us, he says this. Jesus is the apocalyptic Son of Man who receives from the Ancient of Days the prerogatives of Deity, a kingdom that entails total dominion. At the same time he belongs to humanity and has walked where humans walk. It is the combination of these features that make him uniquely qualified to judge. Third, judgment in the Fourth Gospel is often linked with revelation. Judgment descends because men love darkness rather than light. Now ‘the Son of Man’ has already been used in revelatory contexts in this Gospel . The entailment of rejected revelation is judgment. Throughout this section of scripture. Jesus’ revelatory role has been emphasized, primarily under the title ‘the Son [of God]’. But he who is the Son is also the Son of Man. His authority to judge becomes all the more understandable if it is based not only on his apocalyptic identity and his oneness with the human race, but also on the revelation he has so graciously imparted and which has so often been ignored and rejected.. For these reasons God ‘has given him authority to judge’. One could almost say this authority is but an entailment of his revelatory and life-giving functions in the midst of a dark and dying world.

That statement for me means… Jesus is God, and he is man. A man as scripture says know what its like to live the life of a man. A man who can judge rightly and fairly because of who he is and what he has done. So his authority is is right and true and perfect. Which includes who can have eternal life.

But Jesus does not want them to marvel of this like they marveled over his works. Because there is a time when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice. So Jesus is calling people to eternal life now, as we have already seen, but will one day will call all people to a judgement. A judgement that we talked about last week. And the text says it clearly If you do good you will experience the resurrection of life.

Now Jesus is not talking about good works here, doing good is to believing in the son of Man, believing that he came from God, that he is God, and that he to can raise you from the dead, and give you eternal life.

BUT if you do evil, and reject Jesus you will not have eternal life. Verse 30 is just a summary of what he has already said throughout chapter 5. John 5:30

John 5:30 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.

Jesus has All authority as the title makes clear. And as the main point said, Jesus is God and has all Authority. The argument that I am making to you is the same argument is that Jesus made to the Jews. Do you believe today that Jesus has all authority. The evidence is there. Remember Jesus has the same authority as the Father because he is of the same essence of the Father.

If Jesus is God than it changes everything. The words that he said to the Jews are the same for us. Which means that he is the judge. We can’t base our lives around standards that we create for ourselves or go by someone else's standards such as the government or another religion claiming that it is the way. Jesus way is the only way.

Which means only in him we can have eternal life.

Last week I stressed the point that Jesus is Lord over all. This week I want you to understand that Jesus has authority over all which includes your eternal destiny.

Now this means today that you have to walk away knowing that he can give eternal life, but do you have it for yourself? Having eternal life means repenting of your sin and putting your faith in Jesus. Its that simple. If you believe him you have life.

Now for the believer today. I want you to understand something, as a church we believe that this book, (hold up your bible is our authority.) This is how we know about Jesus, this is how we find out how he wants us to live, and we at Agape are about him, and this is what tells us what we learned today and probably already knew. That Jesus has all authority.

Let us be a people who are unlike the Jews who Jesus is talking to and respond when he tells us to. Make his authority our path of living.

If you are not a believer today the greatest response you can make is putting your faith and trust in Jesus. Do that today like I just said its as simple as repenting of your sin and trusting in Christ. It will be the best decision you ever made in your life.

Each week we have a time of response. The first thing we respond to is you have not placed your faith and Jesus and hope to do so come forward and talk with me or someone else at this church about that desision.

If you are a believer and have not been baptized I would love to baptize you, if you want to join this church let us know we are a church that is moving forward with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Finally if you need prayer or something else respond however the Lord leads.

Let us be a church who responds to the word of God.