Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Dial In - John 5:18-30 (Ep. 13)

Episode Date: April 15, 2020

Dial In is a devotional series with the intention of helping followers of Christ understand God’s word and love Him more. Jonny seeks to communicate the profound depth of scripture in a digestible and condensed format each weekday. The goal of the podcast is that our “minds would be renewed” as we behold who God is in His word. In this series, Jonny is walking sequentially through the Gospel of John.In this episode, Jonny covers John 5:18-30, a theologically rich passage that presents the deity of Jesus. Jesus is unambiguous about His equality with God and His right to judge the world. Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. The passage of scripture we're going to be looking at today takes us into deep theological waters, but those deep truths are at the very core of our Christian faith, and so they're important to understand. Today we're in John chapter 5 verses 18 through 30. These are the words of God. Let's view them as such in Dial In. John chapter 5 verses 18 through 30. 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 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. I said to them, So also the Son gives life to whom He will. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 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. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has also granted the Son to have life in himself.

And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. 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. Okay, so I've said before that all of Jesus's miracles are pointing towards something. That's why they're called signs. And we saw last time when Jesus healed a man who hasn't walked in 38 years, he then urges the man to live in holiness.

But we also see in verse 9 that this healing was performed on the Sabbath. So we know that the story is drawing our attention to more than the healing itself. It draws our attention to the most important question in human history. Who is Jesus? And some may say that he is merely a kind or generous man. Others may claim that he was a great teacher, a wise prophet, or a healer. But in this passage, we are going to see how Jesus defines himself. Now in John chapter 5 verses 17 through 47, we essentially receive one long self-testimony by Jesus about who he is. Let's start back in verse 16. We see that the Jews are mad because Jesus healed on the Sabbath. And they go up to him and ask him, where do you get

this authority to heal on the Sabbath? And in verse 17, it says, Jesus answered them. My father is working until now, and I myself am working. Now, this is truly a remarkable reply that requires more attention than I will give it here. But what we'll see over and over throughout the scripture, and especially the gospels, is that there are a lot of times Jesus responds to people and it'll say, Jesus answered them, or then Jesus said. But here in this passage, the form of the verb when it says Jesus answered them is especially rare. And it is only found in the context of courtroom trials where a defense is being made. So in this passage, Jesus is giving his legal defense of what, you may ask, his deity, his

equality with the Father. Jesus answers in verse 17, and he gives his defense. He says, my Father has been working until now, and I have been working. He's saying, my Father and I, we work together. At this point, Jesus has already proven that he is Lord over the demons, over disease, over the temple, over creation. And now we will see that he is Lord over the Sabbath. And here in this passage in John chapter five, we will receive the greatest, most clear declaration of his deity that Jesus provides anywhere in the gospel.

Jesus is saying in verse 17, my father and I have created all things together. We did this in perfect harmony. We set forth the pattern for the Sabbath for you, not because my father and I were tired. Haven't you read Isaiah 40? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary.

And Jesus is saying, my father and I do not cease to be God on Saturdays. We are constantly operating. And the Jews hear this and they are irate. This is an unambiguous claim to deity. So we read in verse 18, therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only violated the Sabbath, but said he was God. And Jesus continues in verse 19, truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing on his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing. For whatever the father does, the son does likewise. Jesus is saying, whatever my father does, I do. Then the Jews concluded rightly and said, you talk like you're equal with God.

You're making it sound like for God to act is for you to act as if you and God are the same. And Jesus responds and says, exactly. We are together. He doesn't operate on his own. I don't operate on my own. We work in harmony. We are in sync. It is the father who sent the son into the world. The son will acquire redemption and then the spirit will apply that redemption. We are distinguished yet identical. The Godhead works together. Now, there was never a question in the Jews' mind that Jesus claimed to be God. Look at verse 18.

It says, He calls God his Father, making himself equal with God. There was never a middle ground about the identity of Jesus. The Pharisees claim that he was possessed by demons, that he was insane, that he was a maniac. And in Matthew 12, 24, we see that they say that he performs signs by the powers of hell. They hate Jesus because he was so unambiguous about his identity. He was God or the devil, but nothing in between. C.S. Lewis crafts this in a memorable way in his book, Mere Christianity. He says, a man who is merely a man

and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level with the man who says that he is a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

And Jesus truly never left that open to the Jews. He was crystal clear about his identity. And in verse 23, Jesus drops a bomb. He says, Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Jesus tells a group of people who were all about honoring God, you aren't honoring God at all unless you are honoring me. This is true of every single religion. The relationship with God is based on the relationship,

worship, and honor of Jesus Christ. Do they worship him as God? Do they revere him as God? Do they fear him as the judge of all the earth? Do they serve him as the creator of the universe? You cannot honor the Father without honoring the Son. And whoever does not believe the Son and honor the Son and worship the Son will be judged. But the question is, by who? Who will judge? I think culturally we think that God the Father is the judge and the Son is the one who is kind and gracious and merciful and loving. But let's look at verse 26 and verse 27.

It says, For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. Jesus is the judge. Jesus declares, If you don't honor me, you don't honor the father. And if you don't honor me and don't honor the father, you are now talking to and standing before

the one whom you will face in judgment. Jesus is the judge. This reminds me of Acts 17 31 where it says, God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. The judge of the world will be a man who was raised from the dead, none other than Jesus Christ. Revelation 5 alludes to the same idea and tells us that God intends that the world will be judged by a slain lamb, a crucified man. Jesus is God and he is judge, but he is also the savior of the world. Do you believe in him? Have you submitted your life to him as Lord? I pray that you have. Stay dialed in.