SS02-18-07. STUDY THEME: CHRISTIANITY IS CHRIST.

”LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON.” JOHN 5:17-23, 36-42, 46-47.”

JOHN 5: 17-18, 19-23, 36-38, 39-42, 46-47.

PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO JOHN 5.

The background of today’s lesson is most interesting. We are told in John 5:1 that after our Lord’s ministry in Galilee there was a feast of the Jews. We do not know exactly what feast. It was probably the feast of the Passover, and the Lord Jesus, in accordance with the law, went down to Jerusalem to participate in the feast.

As He moved in and out among the people He passed the Pool of Bethesda, which is near the sheep gate.

We read in John 5: 2, “Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.”Bethesda was a “house of mercy,” where God was extending loving kindness to an afflicted people.

Here was the pool of Bethesda, and round it John 5: 3 says, “there lay a multitude of impotent people, blind, halt and withered.”

This motley, helpless throng, were lying in the courts of Bethesda. What were they waiting for? They were waiting for the moving of the water.

Now I know there is a question among scholars as to the genuineness of vs. 4, which tells of an angel troubling the water. In most ancient manuscripts this vs. 4 is not found at all, and yet as you read the story, there seems to be reference to this, so that one would think that it belongs to the original text.

But some editors believe, it was inserted in the margin by some copyist long years ago, in order that we might understand why these people were gathered at the pool, and then some later scribes incorporated it into the text. At any rate it explains why the people were gathered there.

There was a spring, and at times it was perfectly quite, and intermittently it bubbled up. Some of us have seen springs like that.

The people understood that an angel went down into this spring at a certain season and troubled the water; so whosoever stepped in at that time was made whole of whatever disease he had. Here was the best the law could do. The law had help for the one who needed it the least. The strong could get into the water first.

Some of the people had lain there for not only weeks and months, but for years, and John 5:5 says one man was there who had bee afflicted for thirty-eight years. He was paralyzed. He was a picture of a poor helpless sinner. That is true of every one of us in our natural state.

Consider this poor helpless man at the pool. He did not seek the Savior. He did not ask Jesus to heal him. This man did not even know Christ, but Jesus came seeking him.

When someone asked a little boy, “My son, have you found Jesus?” He looking up said, “Why sir, I didn’t know He was lost; but I was, and He found me.”

“The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.” So He came to find this poor helpless man, who did not know anything about Him, not even His name.

See what it says in vs. 6. “When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in this case, He said to him, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Yes, he had been afflicted eight years longer than Christ Himself had been on earth.

In vs. 7 the impotent man answered Him saying, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. There is only one thing I lack. If I could only get a man to help me.”

Jesus said to him, “Rise up, take thy bed, and walk. Immediately the man was made whole.” I would like to have seen him leap to his feet for the first time. He probably would say, “Dear me, I can hardly believe it.”

Then at Jesus command he immediately put that load of bedding under his arm, just a pallet, and off he went rejoicing in his new-found strength.

Now a sinister note comes in. “The same day was the Sabbath.” Nothing wrong with it, but there were critics sitting there. In vs. 10 the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath! It’s illegal for you to pick up your bedroll and walk.”

In vs. 11 he replied, “The man who made me well told me, Pick up your bedroll and walk.” In vs.12 the Jews asked, “Who is this man.” The man who was cured did not know because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd.

In vs. 14 Jesus found the man in the temple complex and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.”

In vs. 15 the man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.

1. Please read John 5: 17-18.

Some people picture God as mean and angry, a divine despot looking for any opportunity to do harm to human beings. These same people then might depict Jesus as humble, gentle, and a friend to sinners. In effect they drive a wedge between God the Father and Jesus.

Under the direction of the Holy Spirit, John recorded events and dialogue that teach us the Father and the Son---although distinctive persons of the Godhead---are of identical character, purpose, and power. In this sense, we must not separate the Father from the Son.

In vs. 17 Jesus responded to the Jews’ accusation of violating the Sabbath. Technically, Jesus had broken Sabbath traditions in two ways. First, by healing a man during the period of time between 6:P.M. on Friday and 6:P.M. on Saturday. Jesus had “worked” on the Sabbath.

Second, Jesus ignored Sabbath rules by commanding the healed man to get up and carry his pallet---an action also considered to be “work” in Jewish tradition.

Jesus declared that God the Father obviously was still working even though it was the Sabbath (since God alone is the source of healing.) For that reason Jesus was working also.

Theologians often use the term providence to refer to the Heavenly Father’s continuous, benevolent, and wise superintendence of His creation. God’s providential work goes on all the time—24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Referring to God as My Father, Jesus insisted He was doing no more than God the Father did. The implication of Jesus’ reference to His Father couldn’t have been sharper: Jesus has a unique relationship to God the Father, and because of that relation Jesus has the authority (not to mention the compassion) to make the sick people well even on sacred days.

2. PLEASE READ JOHN 5: 19-23.

Beginning in John 5: 19, Jesus responded to the Jews’ plot against Him with a discourse in defense of His relation to the Heavenly Father. Jesus opened the discourse with the expression He commonly used to emphasize the importance of what He was about to say. I assure you, was Jesus’ way of calling hearers to believe His message and act on their belief.

His message was that people who honor the Father accept His Son and that, conversely, people who try to get rid of the Son are rejecting the Heavenly Father.

In John’s Gospel the word translated Son, is applied only to Jesus. John used this particular term to emphasize the one nature---that of divinity---shared by Son and Father. John used a different word to refer to believers as children of God.

Jesus did not deny that He was God’s Son in a unique way. To the contrary, He affirmed it. Using the formula Verily, verily, I say unto you shows the importance of what He said. Jesus claimed that the things He did were done, not on His own, but because He had seen the Father do them. “Although the Jews had focused their hostility on the equality aspect of Jesus’ relation to the Father, Jesus countered their anger by highlighting His dependency on the Father.

The Son is not able to do anything other than what He sees the Father doing and in the same way. Able means, “to have power” and typically refers to a person’s abilities and resources. However, in this context Jesus was not saying He was a weak and powerless individual. Rather, Jesus declared He was not empowered to act independently of God the Father. In the same way means “likewise, in like manner, equally.” The present tense verbs in this verse indicate Jesus was referring to His regular and ongoing activities.

His actions always were the Father’s actions. The Father and the Son cannot be separated in their works.

Vs. 20 explains why the Son’s work and the Father’s work are the same. The Father loves the Son and shows him everything He is doing. To speak of the Father’s love, Jesus used the Greek word phileo, which connotes treating someone as a close family member.

There is an equality between the Father and the Son in their relationship as well as in their works.

The Jews confessed that God had done great things for them in times past. In the days to come, the Father would show the Son even greater works that would amaze the Jews.

One of these greater works had to do with God’s raising the dead. Jesus declared in vs. 21 that the Father raises the dead and gives them life. The Son also gives life to anyone He wants to. Jesus made a sick man well in vs. 8-9. Later Jesus would restore life to an official’s son at Capernaum, and to His friend Lazarus at Bethany. Jesus did not heal every sick person in first-century Judea and Galilee. Neither did He restore to life everyone who died while He was living in the world. But the works Jesus accomplished left no doubt that He was doing the Father’s works.

We must keep in mind, Jesus was all God but not all of God. He came as the eternal Word or Son in order to reveal God the Father. Some Bible students see the imagery in vs. 19 as reflecting the role of an apprentice, but a better analogy is that of a Jewish son to his father.

When the N.T. refers to Jesus as God’s Son, the point is not that God created or gave life to His Son; rather, the point it that a Jewish son was like his father.

Often he looked like his father. Generally the son followed the vocation of his father and shared the values of his father. This was the background when Jesus said, “in John 14: 19, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Put this with His words in John 10:30, “I and My Father are one.” These two statements focus on the equality and dependency of Jesus. Jesus did not come to do something on His own: He came to reveal the Father.

What is God like? Christians believe that God is like Jesus His Son. Look at the Son and you will see the Father. How does God feel about Sin? Look at Jesus and you will know. How dos God feel about suffering, sinners, the Scriptures, or any other subject? Look at Jesus. How did He deal with them? This is how God acts.

Therefore, when Jesus saw a man who had been sick for 38 years, He stopped and helped him. He did this because that was what God would do. In John 5: 20 the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He is doing. God would show even greater works, which would make people marvel.

Vs. 21-22 list some areas in which God would do greater works through entrusting areas of divine work to His Son. God is the great Life-giver and Judge. Jesus the Son would be active in both areas. God raiseth up the dead and give them life. The Son has power to do the same. God has authority to judge people, but He gave the authority to Jesus. Vs. 24-29 spell this out.

Jesus is the One who raises sinners from death in sin to life in Him. He also raised several people from the dead during His earthly ministry. The most notable example in John’s Gospel was Lazarus in John Chapter 11. Jesus will cause dead believers to live again, and He will serve as Judge.

In Jewish theology, God was the ultimate Judge. Jesus asserted in John 5:22

The Father had given all judgment to the Son. The Father declared that judgment would depend on what people did with His Son. The Son was he focal point concerning a person’s relationship to God.

To reject the Son incurred condemnation of both the Father and the Son. To accept the Son brought one into their acceptance. Both Father and Son share the same standard of judgment.

One reason for the Father’s giving judgment to the Son was that all people would honor the Son just as they honored the Father. Jesus warned that anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father.

Since the Father sent the Son, to reject the Son is to reject the Father’s will and purposes. One cannot honor God the Father apart from honoring Jesus the Son.

Jesus discourse on the Son’s relation to the Father confronted false beliefs in His day. The Jews---particularly the Jewish religious leaders---claimed to honor God. Yet they were rejecting Jesus, God’s Son.

This kind of false thinking takes several forms in our day. For example, some people say they believe in God, yet they rank Jesus as a lesser Being who tried to show people the way to God.

Others deny outright Jesus’ deity, while still others deny Jesus’ humanity. When people claim to believe in God but see no need to believe in Jesus as His One and Only Son, they have in effect tried to separate the Father and the Son.

Vs. 23 call for honor for both God the Father and God the Son. To honor a person means to show respect for the person. When the word is used for God and His Son, it includes showing reverence and giving glory.

Jesus’ critics claimed that they honored God. Yet they rejected His Son. Vs. 23 emphasizes that honoring the Father must include honoring the Son. “Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” To put it another way, the one who dishonors Jesus also dishonors God.

3. PLEASE READ JOHN 5: 36-38.

Vs. 30 sums up Jesus case for Himself. Vs. 31-37 present several witnesses, for Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God. Jesus assumed the role of a defense attorney. Since He also is the One being judged and condemned by unbelievers, He called several witnesses to support His own testimony.

In Jewish legal proceedings, according to Deut. 19: 15, the testimony of two or three witnesses was required to confirm the veracity of a crucial fact in a case. By compiling more than the required number of witnesses to prove Jesus’ relation to the Father, in John 20:31 John the Gospel writer urged His readers to believe on Jesus and be saved.

The witnesses were the Father, John the Baptist, Jesus’ own works, the Scriptures, and Moses. In Jewish law, at least two witnesses were required to make a case; Jesus named five. There is also an element of accusation in these witnesses, for the critics of Jesus basically rejected the witnesses’ testimonies.

John was the forerunner of Jesus. He proclaimed to the crowds Jesus was “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John also told two of his disciples the same thing in vs. 35-36. The witness of these two led to others following Jesus in vs. 40-51.

But Jesus said He had greater witnesses than that of John. He referred to the works which the Father had given Him to finish or complete.

Why did Jesus perform these miraculous works? Jesus indicated the Father gave Him the works and sent Him to accomplish them. Thus these works testify about Jesus. They reveal the Father has sent Him.

Jesus declared that the Father who sent Him and gave Him the works to do also testified about Him. Jesus likely was referring to the three times in His ministry when the Father’s voice from heaven affirmed Jesus: at His baptism; at His transfiguration; and after His triumphal entry. However, the people in general had not heard His voice or seen His form. The father bore witness concerning Jesus in ways other than through their physical hearing or seeing.

. Jesus was speaking of the mighty acts He did. The miracles of Jesus are impressive witnesses. Of course, many of His enemies refused to believe these miracles. Those miracles that were undeniable they dismissed as works of the Devil.

John 1-11 presents seven of His miraculous signs. The seventh sign was raising Lazarus from the dead. This was particularly impressive since Lazarus had been dead for four days. In connection with that miracle, Jesus in John 11:25-26 made one of His most powerful claim: “I am the resurrection, and the life, he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.”

The enemies of Jesus could not deny this miracle because too many people saw Lazarus come out of the tomb. Thus they decided that it was necessary to kill Jesus.

Many unbelievers today deny the miracles of Jesus based on their presupposition that Bible miracles didn’t happen because miracles are impossible. For example, they deny the supreme miracle of the resurrection without even considering the objective facts that support it.

Jesus also cited the testimony of the Father. The One who had sent Jesus bore witness to Jesus in many ways. The Father testified through the works, and at times He spoke for Jesus. This was true at His baptism, when the Father said, “You are My beloved Son. I take delight in you.”

But Jesus was probably thinking primarily of the way God sought to speak His message through Jesus His Son. They had not seen God, although people of faith saw the Father in the life and works of the Son.

Jesus made a serious countercharge against those who accused Him of blasphemy. He said they did not see or hear because they had closed their spiritual eyes and ears to what the Son of God did and said. They refused to believe in Jesus as God’s Son.

Jesus contended that those who refuse to believe in Him do not have God’s word living in them. The Jews’ rejection of Jesus blinded their eyes to any evidence that point to Jesus as God’s Son, and shut their ears from hearing any favorable testimony.

By contrast, Simon Peter----a Jew---had been open to learning who Jesus was, and the Father revealed to him that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

Jesus was one with the Father because He did the work of His Father. Jesus did the works His Father wanted Him to do and sent Him to accomplish.

Some people today might say they would believe in Jesus if only they heard God speak to them audibly from heaven. Such people need to ponder what the verses of his section reveal. Many Jews in Jesus’ day refused to believe on Jesus even though the Father testified about Jesus through many people and in various ways. Too many of the Jews found excuses not to accept what they heard. God still witnesses about His Son to people today through the Holy Spirit.

4. PLEASE READ JOHN 5: 39-42.

Then there is a fifth witness. Vs. 39 says, “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of Me.” Certainly the Spirit of God again and again commands us to search this blessed Word. Jesus was talking to these religious leaders in Israel. They read and studied their Bibles, and He said to them, “Ye search the Scriptures, believing that in them ye have eternal life.”

That is, you take it for granted that you are going to have life by becoming familiar with and obeying the Scriptures, but unless you trust the One of whom the Scripture speaks, you will not have eternal life.

In 2 Timothy 3, when speaking to Timothy, a man who had been brought up on the Word of God, the apostle said, “From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

Notice that it is not simply familiarity with the Bible that will give you eternal life. It is becoming acquainted with the blessed Son, who is the theme of the story.

So Jesus says, “You have the Bible. Go back into the O.T., and as you read the O.T. you will find that there they are speaking of Me.” He was the theme of the entire O.T. All through the O.T. we have Jesus preached in type and in prophecy. The Scriptures tell of Jesus and Christ authenticates the Scriptures. Prophecy after prophecy was fulfilled in Him. Have you trusted the Savior of whom the prophets wrote? It is pitiful thing to pretend to honor the Bible while rejecting the Christ of the Bible.

His words imply that all men may come to Him if they will. “Whosoever will may come.” If you are lost at last, it will be because you would not come: “Ye would not come to Me that ye might have life.”

Now the Savior says, “I receive not honor from men.” He did not want their patronage, but He desired men to accept the salvation that he had come to provide. “But I know you (and He could say that as no other), that ye have not the love of God in you.” He was here to do the will of the Father and yet they would not have Him. Unless you put God first, you will never be able to believe.

“Well,” you say, “then He is going to accuse us?” Oh, no, “Think not that I will accuse you to the Father.” “There is one who accuseth you, even Moses.” Moses accuses all who reject his testimony, and he predicts dire judgment. Jesus adds, “Had you believed Moses, you would have believed Me.”

So we have five witnesses, and all agree in this, that Jesus is the Son of God, which should come into the world. Have you received Him?

5. PLEASE READ JOHN 5: 46-47.

These verses were addressed to people who claimed to reverence the Scriptures but rejected the One of whom the Scriptures speak. They took pride in claiming to be followers of Moses. Jesus said that Moses condemned them because they rejected the One of whom Moses wrote---had you believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of Me.

So we have five witnesses. There is his own testimony, there is the testimony of John the Baptist, there are the miracles He performed, there is the witness of His Father’s voice, and there is the Word of God, the Bible: and all agree in this, that Jesus is the Son of God, which should come into the world. Have you received Him?

NEXT SUNDAY WE ASK, “CAN YOU PROVE TO ME THAT JESUS IS GOD’S SON?” JOHN 6: 1-71. A.V. DAUGHERTY <altav@swbell.net>