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Pastor Mike will be speaking on the Startling Claim Ever Made. He will be in John 5:17-24
The Father is always working, the Father is always upholding, the Father is always sustaining, the Father is always accomplishing His good purpose in this world. What you need to understand is that the Father and the Son work in perfect harmony and unity.
This is Pastor Mike Sanders and you are listening to Hope Worth Having radio program today and we are thankful that you joined us and tuned us in and we hope today’s message will be a blessing and encouragement to you in your faith.
Today we’re going to be in the Gospel of John chapter 5 verse 17 through 24 and we’re learning about the most startling claim that was ever made. You know many things that have been said and many things that were claimed but when Jesus claimed that He was equal with God, that He was God, that was the one statement that irritated and upset the religious elite like no other statement and we’re going to investigate that claim today and understand what Christ meant about it and what it means to our life as we consider the amazing truth that Jesus is God.
So let’s get our Bibles and let’s turn to the Gospel of John chapter 5 and verse 17 through 24 and let’s learn together. I want you to take your Bible this morning and let’s get into John chapter 5. We have been studying the Gospel of John and we want to pick up in verse 17 through 24 this morning as we continue our study.
I want to talk to you about the most startling claim that has ever been made, the most startling claim that has ever been made. While you’re turning to that passage of Scripture, I want to tell you about a story in the 19th century that there was a man named Charles Bradlaw.
He was a prominent atheist. He challenged a Christian man to debate the validity of the claims of Christianity. The Christian that he challenged to debate was a man named Hugh Price Hughes. He was an active soul winner who worked among the poor in the slums of London, England.
Hughes told Bradlaw that he would agree to debate on one condition. Hughes said, I propose to you that we each bring some concrete evidences of the validity of our beliefs in the form of men and women who have been redeemed from the lives of sin and shame by the influence of our teaching.
Hughes went on to say, I will bring a hundred such men and women, and I challenge you to do the same. Hughes then said that if Bradlaugh couldn’t bring a hundred, that he would be okay if he could find just 20 people that had been changed and their life enriched by atheism, he finally whittled the number down to just one.
If you could just find one person whose life was transformed by atheism, then that would be sufficient. All he had to do was find one. One person whose life was improved by atheism, and Hughes would bring a hundred people whose lives had been improved and transformed by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Bradlaugh, the famous atheist withdrew from the debate. Reminding each and every one of us that the evidence for Christianity and the evidence for Christ is overwhelming. It is not only overwhelming in the sense that you and I are testimonies and trophies of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in our own life.
It is overwhelming in that Jesus Christ has proven through his own life that he lived when he walked on this earth as a sinless savior, that when he walked on this earth, he conquered demons, devils, diseases, and yes, even death.
And Jesus Christ has all authority over mankind, over all in this world. Jesus Christ could not be held in that grave and he is alive today and lives forever more. Can God’s people say amen? Amen. But I want you to know that Jesus, when he walked on this earth, made the most startling claim ever made.
Jesus claimed to be equal with God the Father. Jesus claimed to be God himself. Several years ago, I sat across the table in my famous restaurant that I love so dearly, a cracker barrel. I sat across the table with a Muslim and I witnessed to him and I shared with him the plan of salvation.
And he said to me, Pastor Mike, I like Jesus. He is a good man. I said, no, Jesus is not just a good teacher and a good man. He is God. He is God Himself. He said, no, no, no, Pastor Mike. He is a prophet.
He teaches good things that we should do. I said, no, a good teacher does not proclaim to be God. And we ended that discussion with me challenging him to read the Gospel of John and specifically to read in John chapter 5 and John chapter 6 where Jesus over and over makes the most startling claim ever made and that is that He is God.
Would you pick up with me in verse 17 of our text this morning? And I want you to note what the Bible says. Would you underscore that in your Bible? Would you highlight that? Would you bring attention to that?
Because that is a critical statement to what we’re getting ready to learn this morning. Look at verse 19. The son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the father do. For what thing soever he doeth, these also doeth the son likewise.
For the father loveth the son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the father raises up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the son quickeneth whom he will.
For the father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the son, that all men should honor the son even as they honor the father. He that honoreth not the son, honoreth not the father, which hath sent him.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me. hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.” Jesus claimed to be equal with God.
If you remember that the last time we were in the Gospel of John, that in beginning in verse 1 through 16, that Jesus performed an amazing miracle. And when he performed this miracle, it was on the Sabbath.
If you’re a student of the Bible, you know that the Sabbath is not Sunday, but for the Jews it is Saturday. And when he performed this great miracle, and this man who could not walk, and in verse 12 we see he said, what man is it that which said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk, and he that was healed was not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself a multitude being in that place, meaning that Jesus kind of got away from the crowd.
This man was able to stand up and walk because Jesus had commanded him to stand up and walk, and the Jews were upset about this. Look at verse 16, and therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day.
Jesus performed this great miracle on the Sabbath day in the minds of the Jews. You can’t do anything on the Sabbath. You’re not allowed to do anything on the Sabbath. It is a day of rest. It is a day of worship, and therefore you are not allowed to do anything.
And what is interesting is that the Jews rightly understood what Jesus was claiming when he said in verse 17, my father worketh hitherto and I work. What he’s saying is that my father in heaven, God.
the Father is working and continues to work, and I am working, and I continue to work. Why would the Jews see this as a statement of Jesus claiming deity? Because the Jews understood, as already has been taught, that the Sabbath was not for God, but the Sabbath was for man, and that the Father was always working.
We know in the book of Hebrews that the Bible teaches us that God Himself is sustaining and upholding the very world, that God Himself is the one who is always working, and therefore the Sabbath does not apply to the Father, but it only applies to man.
When Jesus says that He refers to God as His Father, and the only time that we see in the Gospels. that Jesus referring to the father as our father is when he teaches the disciples how to pray. But every other reference of the father is my father.
And so Jesus is declaring his sonship with God the father. He is declaring his equality with God the father. And when the Jews heard him say this, verse 18, says the Jews sought more to kill him. Because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his father making himself equal with God.
Rather than diving in to an explanation of why it was allowed in the Old Testament to do acts of mercy and necessity on the Sabbath, Jesus decided to explain that the reason that he was able to heal this man is because he was equal with God the father.
Jesus could have easily said, don’t you know what the Old Testament teaches? That when someone is in need and there is an essential situation or problem that requires necessity of someone doing intervention and working and doing something to help the situation that God has given an allowance on the Sabbath for us to be able to help and show kindness and acts of mercy.
But that’s not how Jesus responded. He took it to a whole new level and said, I am God. I am equal with the father. So this morning, I want us to learn a little bit about who Jesus is as he begins to explain through these past.
messages, how He is equal with God. The first thing I want you to note is that Jesus is equal with God in person. We come back, and I want you to see that in verse 18, making Himself equal with God. Not only did the Jews understand that, of course Jesus understood that, but the Gospel writer, John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, He understood that.
We know that the Bible teaches. We know that the Bible teaches in Mark chapter 2, verse 27, that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, excuse me. And so here is a situation that the Jews are trying to push their traditions, their regulations, their legalism, upon people and upon Jesus.
because rather than having full knowledge of the Word of God, they continue to add on to the Word of God. We know the Pharisees added over 600 traditions of man rules on top of the Bible and required the people that if they were to be saved, if they were to be spiritual, they must go by these rules.
That’s why I am a firm believer. I draw the line where the Bible draws a line and I don’t draw the line where the Bible doesn’t draw the line. Now you may disagree with that but I’m going to tell you that the two dangers in your life and the two dangers in every church and the two dangers in every spiritual movement of God is that the people either become liberal or legalistic.
There is a striking pattern of this throughout the history of Christianity. What I am calling God’s people to do is to not be a liberal and not to be a legalist but to be balanced in your faith and to follow the Word of God and to follow the life of Jesus Christ and to live as He has lived and to be led of the Spirit of God.
Now as I already stated, God is not required to rest on the Sabbath. I mean the Bible teaches us that God created the world in six days but on the seventh day He did what? He rested. Do you think the infinite almighty God was in need of rest?
Do you think He came to the seventh day and said, you know, I’m a little tired today. I think I’m going to take a break. Absolutely not. Isaiah 40 verse 28 says, has thou not known, has thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not?
Neither is weary. There is no searching of His understanding. Friends, The reason God rested on the Sabbath was for your benefit and my benefit, because he knew our limitations. He knew that we needed rest.
He knew that we would need to refocus, and we need to worship him, and we need to meditate upon him, and that we would need to rest mentally and emotionally and physically so that we could be rejuvenated that as we launched in to the week that we could faithfully serve our Lord and Savior in all the endeavors and all the responsibilities and all the roles that we have in life.
And so the Sabbath was designed for man, not for God. And the Sabbath is a divine example from the Father for man to rest. But Jesus is saying that he does not need to rest. and that the work of the Father never stops from Sunday through Saturday.
Even on the Sabbath, the work of God must continue on. And Jesus is saying to them that He is equal with the Father. He is God Himself. This is nothing new in the Gospel of John. Back up a little bit to John chapter one.
John chapter one, I need you to follow with me. Either take your Bible or your device and get there. John chapter one, hang in there with me. I’m laying the groundwork and the foundation of your theology, which impacts your behavior and how you live your life.
And that is that Jesus is equal with the Father in person. In John chapter one, in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. We already taught you that before time began, the Father, the Son and the Spirit were present at the creation of the world and time.
You know as a student of the Bible that the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Spirit that they are equal. They are equal in their attributes. They are equal in their essence and they are equal in their purpose.
Let me help you understand that again. They are equal in their attributes. When we say that God is holy, what we mean is the Father is holy, the Son is holy and the Spirit of God is holy. When we say God is love, we are saying that the Father is love, the Son is love and the Spirit is love.
When we are describing the attributes or the characteristics of the Godhead, the Father, Son and Spirit, we are saying that they are equal in person. They are equal in their attributes. whatever is true of the Father is true of the Son, and whatever is true of the Spirit is true of the Son, and vice versa, and all the way through the Trinity.
When we say that they are not only equal in their attributes, but they are equal in their essence, we are saying this, that if the Father knows all, the Son knows all, and the Spirit knows all. If we are saying that the Father is omnipresent, meaning He is everywhere at the same time, then we are saying the Son is everywhere at the same time, and the Spirit is everywhere at the same time.
If we say that the Father is all -powerful, we are saying that the Son is all -powerful, and the Spirit is all -powerful, do you get it? When we say that they are equal in attributes, and essence, and purpose.
When we say that they are equal in purpose, that the Bible teaches us God is not willing, that any should perish, but that all. should come to repentance. Not only does the Father desire and purpose the salvation of men, but the Son does and the Spirit does.
When we say that they are in purpose to glorify God and to achieve the outcome and the working of God in your life in bringing you to understand who Christ is and your growth, and then finally the culmination of your salvation and being glorified before, it is true for the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, they all work together in unity and purpose.
That is so important for you and your foundation. And so when you understand Christ, you understand that He is equal with God the Father in person. Look at verse 18 of John chapter one. No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
Meaning the only one that has seen the Father is the Son, the Son who was sent by the Father. He has declared Him. When you see the Son, you see the Father. People say, I saw Jesus, or I saw God. No, listen to me, friends.
The revelation of Christ and the Father is in the Word of God. And you don’t need any extra experience. You don’t need any extra emotional experience in your life. You don’t need to see Him on the back of a, and God forbid, I’m sorry to say this, but people say this.
I’m sorry, you do not have to see Him on the back of a grilled cheese sandwich, and you don’t have to see Him on a billboard, and you don’t have to see Him in some picture where the light reflects. He is already revealed in the Word of God, and the Spirit of God has revealed the Son.
He has revealed the Father. and the life of Christ has revealed this father, and therefore it’s all that you need, and quit looking for something extra. Look at chapter three, verse 16. I’m trying to help you see the equality of the father, the son, and the spirit.
And this sonship in chapter three, verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Write this down.
His sonship, referring to Christ’s sonship, preceded his being sent by the father. Long before Christ came to this earth and was incarnated into this world, he was already equal with the father. He was already a part of the triune Godhead.
He was already a part of the triune Godhead. equal in the holy trinity It’s not that Jesus came and all of a sudden he lived this outstanding life and therefore he rose to the level of Equality with the father.
He was already equal with the father from the very outset in all of eternity And so when we read that God sent his only begotten son We are reading that he is his one and only son we are reading that there is a a quality that the father has sent the son who is equal with him to come to this earth and to bring Salvation to you and to me.
I’m in chapter 4 now of John chapter 4 I’m in verse 25 and Verse 26 Remember when Jesus was interacting with the woman at the well the longest conversation recorded in scriptures That Jesus had with anyone Verse 25 the woman saith unto him.
I know that Messiah cometh Which is called Christ when he has come he will tell us all things What is Jesus response to her Jesus saith unto her I that speak unto thee am he He is the coming Messiah Jesus did not skirt around the issues my friends Jesus did not claim to be a great Professor or prophet he did not claim to be some great rabbi or teacher But rather he claimed all the time that he was God The Bible says in Philippians 2 6 who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God Why is this important to you because the liberals would tell you this that it was the disciples It was the apostles that came up with this idea that Jesus was God They are the ones that elevated him to such a high level where they worshiped him and this religion Christianity is based upon a narrative that was characterized by a delusional group of apostles who were misguided in their life But that’s not true They understood What the Jews understood why do you think the Jews were so angry if Jesus was just another rabbi there were Thousands of them if he was just another teacher There were thousands of them running around even claiming to be the Messiah even claiming to teach good things But Jesus said this like no other teacher said I am God And I am equal with God.
And knowing the theology of the Old Testament, since he wrote the theology of the Old Testament, he explained it in such a way that there was no ambiguity about the truth that he was equal with the Father.
The second thing I want you to learn this morning is that Jesus is equal with God in works. Look at verse 19. We already hinted at this, but I want you to see this. I want you to put your seat belts on and I want you to understand this.
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself. But that he seeth the Father do, for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
I told you already, we learned in verse 17, the Father is always working, the Father is always upholding, the Father is always sustaining, the Father is always accomplishing his good purpose in this world.
What you need to understand is that the Father and the Son work in perfect harmony and unity. Well, Jesus is equal with God in person. It’s a lot to digest, it’s a lot to think about, but we must remember that Jesus was sent from the Father and that the Bible teaches us that he was equal with God.
To think that he is 100% God and 100% man is hard for our brain to wrap around, but it’s true. And there are many things in this world that we don’t always understand, but we believe. And it’s not that we don’t want to.
you to understand, but it’s that we must remember we come with faith and then God opens the truth to us to help us understand it in a deeper and more meaningful way. So make sure that you are really learning and you’re growing.
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This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.