to know that that is truth. It's
not just a song that we sing that sounds good to our ears
and entertains our musical desires, but Lord, it's the fullness of
the Gospel. That You've put our sins on Jesus
Christ. That You've taken the burden
of holiness and He has fulfilled it. And the punishment for wickedness,
He has taken it. And so, Lord, from your mercy
and by your will, you have given us grace in Christ that we might
be his righteousness and your righteousness. Father, let us
see the fullness of who you are by seeing the fullness of who
Christ is and what Christ does. And we pray this in the name
of Christ, our eternal King. Amen. Let's turn to John, chapter
five, and I'm going to take these songs over here because I'm going
to refer back to them in a minute. I don't know about you, but I missed
last week. It was bad not being in the Word
together with you guys. I was really excited about getting
into this particular text, and all of a sudden it just doesn't
happen because the Lord froze it up. We were supposed to stay
home. I know some people say, well,
let's just trust the Lord and slide on in. Do not put the Lord
your God to the test. So we'll go with that tonight. I want you to think about John
one as we look at John five and specifically, I want you to understand
that as John opens his letter, he comes to this understanding
that. We have seen the glory of God. In the word incarnate, who is
Jesus Christ? This preamble or this this prologue
of John's gospel sets the tone for the harmony throughout. And
so that from now on, as we look, we begin to see the fullness
of who Christ is. And I've not done a very good
job of sticking that anchor into every text that we've done. It's
there and it's been preached. But I wanted to always be sure
from this point forward, especially now that the Pharisees are on
the scene and the divisiveness now of Rome and Jews and Jesus
and His followers are starting to really boil into this pot
of horror and this pot of tragedy, which we know is divinely orchestrated
by the Father. I want to always anchor the reality
that Jesus Christ is the fullness of God revealed and that without
Christ, we cannot know God. I want you to understand, too,
that the context in which the Jews hear Jesus, as they heard
him say, as we talked two weeks ago, that my father is working
unto him now and now I am working, that what made them so irate
is that they forever have longed to see the fullness of the Father.
Now Jesus is telling them that the Father is the one who works
on the Sabbath. making himself equal with God,
verse 18 of chapter 5. And so let's look now using verse
18 down to the end of verse 24. We probably won't get through
verses 25 through 29 tonight, but verses 18 in review. This is 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. Now, this is why in the sense
that verse 18, verse 17, Jesus answered them. My father's working
until now, I am working. And so just from that statement,
all the fullness of their understanding of the Sabbath, which was legalistically
to be followed in the sense of that, that if anyone violated
the Sabbath for any reason, they were violating the nature and
the holiness of God. Jesus, therefore, commanding
this man who once was dead is now alive, who was lame, who
now walks. to take up his mat and walk was
a violation of the Sabbath. And if you remember, the Jews
didn't care that this paralytic of 38 years, of nearly four decades,
walked into their presence to worship. They cared more about
the fact that he had rolled up his mat and had walked into there
and violated the law of the Sabbath. And even when he reiterated,
the man who healed me, commanded me, get up and walk, and though
I did, he saw, this man saw the authority of Jesus Christ as
the God man. They did not care. So then when
Jesus answers them, especially after he tells this man to sin
no more, they wanted to kill him. Now, notice that what we
don't see here, a lot of people like to say, well, you know,
they just thought that that's not what Jesus meant. Jesus didn't
mean to make himself equal with God. Well, then John very clearly
shows us through Jesus words in verse 19 through 24 that Jesus
very much meant that. And not only did he mean that
not in a specific statement to say, yes, I meant that, but he
then explains it theologically that he was indeed saying that.
So let's look. Verse 19, so Jesus said to them,
why did he say that to them? Because in their spirit, they
wanted to kill him because he made himself equal with God.
So then 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,
the son does likewise. For the father loves the son
and shows him all that he himself is doing. And the greater works
than these will he show him so that you may marvel. For verse
21, as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so
also the son gives life to whom he will. 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 truly honor the father who sent him. 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 he has passed from death to life. And let's stop there.
And now that I see this, I probably will not even get verse 24 in
to our time tonight. Jesus is equal with God in statement
and in proclamation and in claim, and the Pharisees now are very,
very, very, very upset, as they should be, that one man might
stand before them in humanity and say, you see the father working
until now, now I, the son, am working. Not only is it just
understandably that they would be very upset at the fact that
he would say that God was his father, but in that he and his
work is that which the father had already been doing. When
the word of God clearly says that six days God created the
heavens and the earth and on the seventh he rested. And so
that he commands us then through Moses to what? It's to honor
the Sabbath and keep it holy for the seventh day is the Lord
your God. So six days you shall labor and
do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath. unto the
Lord your God. That's the command of Scripture.
And the Pharisees took it very seriously. We know that it wasn't
out of zeal of affection for holy things, but out of their
zeal for obeying and keeping people into obedience. We also
know that because of the pressure of Rome and their losing the
ability to try capital crimes, their losing the ability to even
use portions of the temple, they then now see That this man is
stepping into an area where he is going to be pulling Jews out
of obedience to their laws. And Jesus says these things to
them, the double verities, the our main, our main, truly, truly,
amen, amen, it is, it is, it is so, it is so. These give very
much a serious tone to the nature of what Jesus is now saying.
Jesus comes and saying not just, hey, I say to you, I'm saying
to you, but he says it is true, it is true. He very much plants
the reality that what he is saying, he testifies as absolutely true
before God, thus making it very clear he is either saying he
is what he's about to say or he is crazy. And Jesus says, I say to you,
the son, he's already said that the father is working to now
and now I am working. He's already said that he is
the father of him. Jesus is the son of the father.
And now the Pharisees are saying that the son can do nothing.
They're hearing him say that the son can do nothing out of
his own accord. The son can do nothing by himself.
See, here's what you need to understand about what Jesus is
now doing. This Christology, this understanding of Christ,
this sovereign, divine exposition, this exegetical, just absolute
marvelous text. That Jesus is now coming to say,
listen, I know you want to kill me because you think that I'm
misrepresenting the father. See that? And so he's going to
charge them to hear the reality that I'm not just misrepresenting.
I'm not just saying he's my father. Now, look at what Jesus is doing.
What an idiot. What a fool. What a blasphemer.
Now, Jesus is going to go straight to the heart and say, not only
am I doing that, which the father has been doing, but I'm going
to take away any doubt that you may have in your mind that I
am not diminishing the father, but exemplifying him. So I can do nothing by myself.
The son does nothing by himself. He does nothing. What does he
mean there? It means that the son, as we
know from the father, has all authority. He has all right.
He has all the divine nature of deity. The fullness of deity
was pleased as well within him. But. Jesus, the son, submits
to only one and he does all that the one calls him to do. And
so nothing that the son does is out of the will of the father,
so that all that the son does is the plan and the purpose and
the command of the father so that Jesus Christ, he doesn't
say I don't. He doesn't say I don't want to
do. He says I can do nothing. It's very important, church,
to see that Jesus isn't coming up here saying that the possibility
of him doing something else is there. He's saying there is no
possibility. There is no way that anything
else can be done except that which the father has sent me
to do his done. So now I can do nothing of my own accord. I can do nothing by myself. And the way that is constructed,
friends, it helps us to see that it should be read like this.
If we were to paraphrase the doctrine here, let's do it this
way. Jesus, the son from the father,
cannot disobey the father. You see the heaviness of that?
Not just I don't, I claim not to, I cannot disobey the father.
I can only do that which the Father has sent me to do. I do
nothing by myself. I can't even choose not to obey
the Father because it is fully in my essence to obey because
I am from the Father and he is holy. Therefore, I am holy. And so he obeys the son. And then look at verse 19b, the
second part of this text. Then he says, but the son can
do nothing of his own accord, but Only what he sees the father
doing now, he takes it even further back to what he said now in verse
17. My father is working until now
and now I am working. Now he's going, not only can
I not disobey and I always obey, but now I only obey that which
I already see the father doing. So, in other words, that which
I am obeying from the father is just doing that which the
father is doing. So he is bringing God into his
own, according to the Pharisees, disobedience to the very law
of God. In some sense, bringing God down.
And by his claim, they see him as one who is blaspheming because
they know that if God were to send one, he would not break
the laws of the Sabbath. But, oh, are they so wrong? And
we'll look at that. The father and the son have a
relationship and the son does only what the father is doing. So the son follows the father. And when we see the son's work,
this is what this is what Jesus is saying, that Jesus is revealing
the works of the father. So we see what the father's doing.
You can't see what the father's doing, but you can see what the
father's doing by seeing what the son is doing. So if you want
to see the father, you can see him by seeing the son before.
If you've seen the son, you've seen the father. Am I making
that up? No, Jesus says it just a few chapters later. So the
son reveals the works of the father. The father is the igniter. The father is the sender. The
father is the one who gives command. He grants the son. authority
and the son obeys by performing the father's will. There are
some doctrines that people like to twist to say the father and
the son are equal. The son is the father and the
father of the son. The spirit is the father and the father
of the spirit. That's a messed up mess. And it's called oneness
Pentecostalism. If you really oneness theology,
there's a lot of different ways that it's planted itself in America
and across the world. But friends, the father is God
and the son is God and the spirit is God. But the son and the spirit
are not the same. They are one God, but they distinctly
have different roles and not just roles, but distinctly have
different persons and they are different persons in the context
that they coexist as one God and trying persons. The father. the Son and the Spirit of God.
But in this context, now, Jesus is saying that the Son has done
only that which the Father has willed. And so I perfectly reveal
the Father. Westcott says it this way. Perfect
sonship involves perfect identity. He says that That this identity
is not just an identity of the being, and I'm paraphrasing here,
but it's an identity of the will and an action. So, in other words,
Jesus perfectly reveals the Father in identity and action and will
and now in authority. Because the Son then obeys by
performing the Father's will. Thus, Jesus, the Son, has all
authority. And so therefore, Jesus, if you
want to put it in a way to really look at it, Jesus is the Father's
hands and face and eyes and mouth and feet. And so as God sees
himself perfectly, God is spirit. We saw that in John 4. As God
sees himself perfectly, Jesus is that. Jesus cannot do anything except
what his father sends him to do, which is what the father
is doing. So Jesus is not just an obedient
man. He's not just an obedient person. But he's a certain divine man
full of God. So he must do what the father
does because he is of the father. And if he is of the father, then
the nature of the fullness of God is in him and of him. And so, therefore, he has to
do that which the father is willing. So, therefore, that everything
that the son does is the will of God. Everything the son says
is the word of God. Are you confused? It's just it's
confusing because it's marvelous. It's too much. We cannot take
this and lay it out. And I've tried, folks, I have
tried on whiteboards and chalkboards and schematics and pictures.
I have tried to make sense of it. You can't make sense of it. You just see it and you go, oh.
And that's what Jesus says he did it for, and that's what he's
about to show us that happens here. The Son reveals the Father. Look at verse 20. I lost my verse. For the Father
loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself
is doing. And so that we see Jesus saying,
I see what the Father does and I do what the Father does. And
the reason that I see what the Father does is because the Father
loves me so much that He shows me what He does. Now, just pop
in a minute to Pauline doctrine and understand as Paul, who was
a Pharisee, when he says the mystery that was hidden. So what
Jesus is talking about. I'm not just I'm not just teaching
you guys about who God is. I'm revealing, I'm revealing
the fact that what I know about who God is, is not because of
something I've learned. It's because of the love the
father has for me. In other words, the father has
loved me greater than any other has ever been loved. You see
that? Because Moses didn't have the
answers. Adam didn't have the answers.
Abraham didn't have the answers. David didn't have the answers.
Samuel didn't have the answers. Solomon didn't have the answers.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, none of the prophets had the answers.
Malachi didn't have the answers. And even the disciples didn't
have the answers yet. Jesus says, I have the answer.
Because the Father loves me, and because He loves me, I know
all that the Father knows, and I share all that the Father shared,
and I know what the Father's doing, and therefore I do likewise.
So the love of the Father for the Son is the motivation for
the Father showing Him all that He Himself is doing. And then
the second part of that says that He'll show Him even greater
works than these. so that you will marvel, Jesus says. So I've
seen what the Father is showing me. I see what the Father is
doing. So the love of the Father is
seen. How? How is the love of the Father
seen? The love of the Father is seen in all that the Son does.
You want to see how God loves? You see how Jesus lives. There
you go. You want a little bit better
example of that for God to love the world, that he gave his only
begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. And in verse three, chapter three,
verse I think it's verse thirty five. The father loves the son
and has given all things into his hand. So the love of God,
the father for Jesus Christ, God, the son is immeasurable
and amazing, and it's only understood in the way that God has revealed
it, which is the life of Jesus Christ, the son from incarnation
to the cross and beyond as the priest. Jesus reveals the love
of God fully and absolutely. And there is no other way in
which God reveals his love, except through the obedient life of
Jesus Christ, the Son. Namely and precisely, then the
willful and passive obedience of Jesus on the cross of Calvary,
which gives life to all who believe, as we'll see. And it's just overwhelming
for me. The Son reveals the Father in
love through obedience. This is sure because of the love
of the Father for the Son and vice versa. See this, Jesus,
the Son of God, stands with man, does he not? In the flesh, he
stands with man. He says, Here I am, a man, fully
man. Jesus uses the title Son of Man
more than any title in his entire ministry. Because he wants to
reckon himself as man. He wants the world to see that
he stands as a human being born of a woman who was born and born
of a virgin. That he does not take the seed
of Adam, but he is the second Adam. But he stands with man. But Jesus stands with man only
inasmuch as far as he is like man, for we see that Paul tells
us that Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. We
understand that Paul teaches to the Philippians that though
he was equal with God, he did not take equality with God, something
to be grasped, but made himself a nothing, a slave, obedient
unto death, even death on the cross. And therefore, because
of his obedience, God exalted him above all things. That at
the name of Jesus, every tongue confessant, every knee will bow.
Jesus is Lord. So Jesus stands with man, but
in standing with man, he does not stand against the Father.
He does not stand against the Father and do his own thing.
Man did his own thing. Adam did his own thing. Eve did
his own thing. You do your own thing and I do
my own thing. And because of that, we are forever
and eternally condemned because we are sinners from conception,
a wicked nature, an unholy, undivine, selfish, sinful, prideful, arrogant,
wasteful existence. And Jesus does not have that
nature. And so he stands with man as far as man stands in the
context of his person. But he does not stand against
God. He stands with God. Fully and
completely. The father. Is obeyed. Jesus, the God man, stands in
obedience to God, the father, and then he stands with God,
the father. so that his authority is above
all. All that Jesus does is all that the Father wills. So Jesus
always, as I've already said, does the will of the Father perfectly. God is holy in all that Jesus
does because God's will is perfectly revealed in Jesus. Look at the
second part of verse 20 again. Let's reread it because I've
already ranted to the point that I've forgotten what it said.
And greater works than these will he show him, so that you
may marvel. What greater works? Well, think
about what Jesus has done just that day. He's healed a man on
the Sabbath. He's commanded him to take up
his bed. He's forgiven him of his sins. Greater works than these. What is it that Jesus is saying?
Jesus is saying, I'm going to continue to show you things that
the Lord God, the Father, is going to do that will greatly
reveal Him in a mightier way. Jesus has already done some stuff
that they do not agree with. And now He's saying that these
things that I have done are great and are of the Father. I want
to remind you of that and I will do greater things than these.
What greater things? And why? So that you may be amazed. Now, it's very easy for a Christian
or for someone to hear that, even a Christian and think, OK,
Jesus was sort of looking for some accolade, though it's against
the nature of what we know about who Jesus is, because he doesn't
ever want glory, except that when the father restores it to
him, he wants to glorify the father. So we know that he's
doing what the father wills so that the father would be glorified.
But what does it mean that you will marvel at greater works?
Watch this coin. Oh, no, that's not what he's
talking about. Jesus isn't doing illusions and magic tricks. He's
not trying to get a crowd to go, well, I can't believe the
power. But what is God going to do with
the sun? Look at what's going to happen
and we won't get there yet. For as the father raises the
dead. and gives them life. So the son gives life to whom
he wills. So not only are you going to
see the manifestation of the power of God in me and through
me, you are going to see the power of God ultimately, because
they knew these Jews knew that God's ultimate end to all things
with that is that he would take all who slept in slumber of death
and he would raise them to life in the last day. And now Jesus
is not just saying you're going to see some cool power and you're
going to see some great things. You're going to see the greatest
of all things, because I am going to show you that the Father has
promised you I will be the one who does it. And not only will I do it, but
look at what he says next. The Father judges no one. Why
do you think he says that? Because I really believe these
men have passed judgment on Jesus. Why? Because they wanted to kill
him. They had already determined he was a blasphemer, he was a
liar, at best an idiot. But now the teaching that he
stands under is so authoritative, they cannot come out from it.
So they are silent. They cannot argue against the
fullness of Christ's teaching because it is the fullness of
the Father's mouth. And now the Father's not going
to judge you because you're judging me, I'm going to judge you. So
the very nature of that day of resurrection, then the judgment
for disappointed under man wants to die, then the judgment, then
when the father brings you back, I'm going to do it. And when
the father says he will be a judge, I will be the judge. I want you
to understand that the gospel is here. This is not prophetic
in judgment, this is prophetic in election, it's prophetic in
salvation, it's prophetic. I will show you greater works
than these that you may marvel. In obedience to God, the Father's
is revealed. His will is revealed. Jesus then
will do greater things. In other words, he will take
all the authority of God and give eternal life to sinners,
not just raising life from the dead, not just what he meant
with himself on the cross, or as we see in chapter 11 of John,
raising Lazarus from the dead. But he will give life to dead
men. He will bring salvation to wickedness. And those who are raised to life,
he will then be the final judge of them all. Jesus shows through his power
and authority. That God, the father, is being
revealed and it's not just being revealed to those who follow
him, but also to his enemies. But they do not see because they
hate the light. Look at verse 21. Want you to marvel? Let me ask
you something. What is the beginning of marveling?
As a Christian, do unbelievers marvel at God? They mock Him. They mock God. Unbelievers see
the works of God and hear the truth of God and see the glory
of God, and they mock it. or they materialize it. Give
me this water. Who gave him something to eat?
Give me this bread always. How is it you can raise this
temple in three days when it took nearly 50 years to bring
it to fruition? They don't marvel. They think
he's mad. Believers marvel. And so here,
I think what we need to understand here is Jesus is saying, I'm
going to show you things that you may go, oh, and see them. You may see me and thus see the
Father for real with your eyes, with real eyes, not blind eyes,
with real eyes. And you may see and hear and
believe. Here's the gospel. This is God's
grace and effectuality coming from Jesus, the Son, who says,
I'm going to do greater things than these so that you, my enemies,
will marvel. You can marvel through seeing
the glory of God in me. That's what Jesus is saying.
Because they saw Lazarus come out and they covered their faces
because they smelled the rot of his flesh. And they did not
marvel, they mocked him. More, well, just as the father
raises the dead, Jesus wants you to see. I want you to marvel. What did he tell Nicodemus? Do
not marvel that I say you must be born again. Are you not the
teacher of all Israel, yet you do not understand these things?
Do not be perplexed. Do not wonder. But now he said,
I'm doing these things that you may marvel. I believe marveling,
the foundation of marveling, the first step of marvel is seeing,
which is faith. So you can believe. Why? For
just as to these spores, for just as the father raises the
dead and gives them life, even so the son gives life to whom
he is pleased to give. Wow. You will marvel and you
will be made alive. You will be raised to life. You
will be made clean from wickedness. You will be made alive from dead.
You will be made holy from depravity. You will be the righteousness
of God because you are dead in your sins. You will be made alive.
Marvel at that. God alone, the Jews thought,
God alone raises the dead. Who is this man to proclaim himself
able and not just able, but then given the authority by God to
do that, which is God's work. Jesus already said it's God's
work I'm doing. Jesus is meaning to the dead
in sin, you will be raised to life and also through my resurrection,
you will be raised to life. Moreover, verse 22, The Father
judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment
to the Son. Has given all judgment to the
Son. Jesus is one with the Father,
this is a repeat, in will and action, and now Jesus is at one
with the Father in glory and authority. So if there were any
questions of this delirium, meaning anything other than what they
thought it meant from the beginning, now Jesus has really proven them
correct in their assumptions. This man, Jesus, claims to be
equal in all authority to the Father, yet he submits and obeys
him. Now we see something. Jesus,
from now, from this point, he has said that the father does
this and I do what the father does. The father said this and
I say what the father says. And then what I do is what the
fathers do. Now, all of a sudden, Jesus divides
those roles. Not just to say that the father
judges, I judge as the father gives life, I give life. He says
the father has. And I'll say this, but it's not
what I mean to say. I just don't have the words right
now. The father is relinquishing that authority to me. Now, what you need to understand
is that God doesn't relinquish authority, so therefore, Jesus,
the son is God. That. that the Father would do
is now mine to do alone. The Father sends and I judge. The Father sends me and I raise
the life. What does it mean? It means that
all will be raised to life. Not salvificly, but all will
be raised to life. First, salvificly. Then, generally,
for the Scripture teaches that all will be raised to life. Some
unto what? Righteousness and some unto judgment. Jesus not only judges the righteous,
but he judges the wicked and he sees the righteous whom he
has made alive and they are innocent. They are the righteousness of
God. They are free. They are justified just as if
they'd never sinned. They stand perfect and holy and
blameless and spotless. And Jesus says, I have found
them worthy of you, Father. Not because of their deeds, but
because of my deeds. And for the wicked, for the unbelievers,
for those who refuse, for those who love the darkness rather
than the light because their works are evil, He says to them,
depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. And then Jesus, as
we see in John's Apocalypse, casts them into hell Himself. Why would God, the Father, give
the resurrection and the judgment of the world to the Son? that all may honor the Son just
as they honor the Father. Now take it for a second and
ask yourself this question. What does it mean to honor the
Father? In all that you do, whether word
or deed, whatever you eat or drink, there's a compound paraphrase
of two places, do it all for the glory of God, for the glory
of Jesus Christ. Jesus says, let your light so
shine before men that they see your good deeds and what? Glorify
your Father who is in heaven. Honoring Christ means this for the Pharisees. This is what
they heard Him say. The beauty and the magnificence
of the Creator, your Father God, all that He's purposed, all that
He's desired, all that He is, His majesty, His worth, His holiness,
All that his worthiness is ascribed to him in glory and in worship
and in affection and in wealth and in power. All that is due
to him is due to me. Now, let's back up for a minute and
let's continue to think like the Pharisees when Jesus says
these words. For the father loves the son
and shows him all that he himself is doing in greater works than
these will he show him. Then back up some more. My father's
working until now and I am working. So all of a sudden, with this
phrase about honoring the son, that all may honor the son. As they honor the father. Jesus is not. He is not an agent of God. He is God. He's not just an ambassador
from heaven. He is the God of heaven. And
he's not just the one who picked up the work now on earth and
began to do the work that God had began. He is the one who
said, let there be light. And there was light and it was
good. And he is the one who now has
said, let light shine out of darkness. Second Corinthians
four. Has shown in our hearts. To give
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, so God has
done that, how has he done it in the face of Jesus Christ? Jesus is equal in all ways to
the Father in the very essence of all honor and glory that is
due. The God of creation is due to
me, is what Jesus is saying. But in the latter part of that,
verse 23, and I'll stop here. Whoever does not. There's a negative. Whoever does not honor what? The son. Just as they honor the father. We ought to see that. That they
may honor the son just as they honor the father. Whoever does
not honor the son. does not honor the father. So
you cannot take your worship and go over the son of God. You
cannot bow to Jehovah and Yahweh and say, oh, Lord, we love you.
Without loving the son. You cannot worship and give offering
to God without first and foremost, and I would argue absolutely
giving the same worship and offering to the sun. That's why it's so
important, and I'm not I'm not talking about semantically. When
I say God, Jesus is at the core in the face of that. But when
the world says God. I think they use it in a general
sense. The God of heaven is specifically
revealed to all who believe as in, through, from, for Jesus
Christ. Explicitly. I thank God, I love
God, I worship God, I serve God, I appreciate God, I honor God,
I glorify God, I give to God, I walk for God, I live for God,
I sing for God, I play for God, I shoot for God, I golf for God,
I swim for God, I jam for God. So what? Do you jam for Jesus
and to his honor and to his glory? Do you live for the Son of God
who gave himself for you? Do you honor him? with your heart
and with your life and with your soul? Or are you just honoring
with your lips as our souls could be whitewashed tombs? Friends, the Jews hated this.
Not only could they not sit there in their own spirit and hate
this man in a righteous way, but they had to hate this man
in a God-hating way. Because he said, if you cannot
honor the Father, if you don't honor me equally, And the frustrating thing for
me, as one who is so smart, he laughs with frustration at these
Pharisees. There's irony there, sarcasm
and everything else in between. Why would they get mad at him
for saying that? Because he's saying you need
to honor me because the fathers sent me to give you life. Is that maniacal? Is that frustrating? Why is it frustrating for someone
who is dead to be said, I'm going to raise you to life? Why is
it frustrating for someone who knows they're a sinner and who
strives to keep the Sabbath and the laws of God to see a man
who fully goes, I am going to make judgment on you. And if
you're alive, you're free. If you're not, you're dead. And
the judgment that I have remains on you. Jesus has already said
this to Nicodemus. Do you think he's come back and
told them? You betcha. It's not the first time they've
seen this. They just haven't heard it from his own mouth. Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father. who sent Him. And then we close. I just want to read this and
I'll say it. Look what it does. Truly, truly, I say to you, let
it again. Whoever hears my word and believes
Him who sent me has eternal life. If you believe the Father sent
me and you can hear my words, Romans 10, 17 comes to mind.
You have eternal life. And he who hears and believes
does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to
life. Paul in Romans 8, Therefore, now there is no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. Do you see that that's what Jesus
was saying? Jesus? has said that to dishonor
him is to dishonor God in like manner. And the crazy thing is, is that
from Moses and Abraham and all these saints of old and all the
prophets have pointed to the day where Emmanuel would stand
before them and say, I'm here. This isn't foreign to them. This isn't. This isn't just this
crazy, oh, my gosh, we've never heard this mess before. They
were looking toward this. Before Abraham was, I am, Jesus
will say in some chapters soon, and they will say, how is it
that you knew Abraham and you are yet 50? Because before Abraham was, I
am. And when we get there, you'll
see that Jesus, not only in that statement, predates Abraham,
but he calls himself the preexisting one. He calls himself God straight
up. And now every one of the prophets
of old who these men have learned and longed for As we see in Matthew, whom the
whole city was praying for, and now John the Baptist has come
and he's gone. And now Jesus, the bridegroom,
is getting the bride. They've all looked to him, Abraham
longed for my day and he rejoiced in it. How dare you? Talk about our
Father, Abraham, the Jew. And Jesus says, if your father
was Abraham, you wouldn't be seeking to kill me. If your father was Abraham, you
would be doing the work of Abraham, which is the work of God, who
is my Father, whose work I do. And then Jesus says to them,
You do the works of your Father, the devil." They looked on Jesus with disdain
and disgust because they could not see the Son of God. They
listened to Him with frustration and ego because they could not
discern the words. They listened and saw His actions
and they could not fathom He was the Lord of the Sabbath. They watched Him love and heal
and pardon. And they hated Him because He
took their power from them. It'd be something very similar
as as a way of comparison of all the pastors of the world
who have a lot of following and got some good preaching. They
got great understanding and all the volumes of their commentaries.
And all of a sudden, Jesus comes on the earth and he starts to
speak from the word of God. And then all of their commentaries
are a little bit wrong. James Tipton's got that wrong
in Isaiah 53. And I've been looking at that
commentary for 20 years and my gosh, man, they throw these in
the fire. Not that they're bad, they're
just incomplete. All of a sudden you see Jesus and you go, oh,
wow, that's what I've been missing. That's what they should have
seen. But they saw it and they went, he's making my stuff obsolete.
I like my authority. I like my glory. I like my commentary
sets being bombed. I like people tweeting about
me and Facebooking about me. I like people buying my audio
CDs and coming to my conferences and listening to how I have to
say about Jesus when Jesus is here saying about himself. I
believe that's what the pride of the Pharisees was. And because
of that, they loved darkness. They loved glory that came from
men rather than the glory that came from God. Who is Jesus Christ? John 1. And only from the glory
that comes from the father do we receive grace upon grace.
There is no other place for glory. What is glorious? A man-made
kingdom that burns and falls and swells with pride and dysentery? Or is it a glorious resurrection
with a full pardon? to be the body of the head who
is Jesus, to stand in absolute radiance and portray the fullness
of God the Father for all of eternity while we turn and worship
the one who is Christ, our head. 1 John 2. Don't love the world. So why couldn't they see it? Just like Jesus told the disciples
after the parable of the sower. To you has been granted to see,
but to them it has not been granted to see. So I teach in parables
so they cannot see. So they cannot hear. Why? Fair doesn't question perfect.
But I'll tell you this, Jesus will use it in just about six
chapters, this very text. And I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then
I said, here I am. Here am I. Send me, Isaiah. And he said, go and say this
to the people. Keep on hearing. But do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people
dull, and their ears heavy, and their eyes blind, lest they see
with their eyes, and lest they hear with their ears, and understand
with their hearts, and turn and be healed. Then I said, How long,
O Lord? And he said, Until cities lie
waste without an inhabitant. And houses without people. And
the land is a desolate waste. And the Lord removes people far
away. And forsaken places are many
in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain, it
will be burned again like the terebinth or an oak whose stump
remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump. Isaiah
is told by God, that there are some, because of the hardness
of their heart and the wickedness of their affection for their
own glory and of the darkness, they will not be allowed to see
the gospel. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Paul
says it the same way. He says, and if our gospel is
veiled, it is only veiled to those who are perishing, for
the God of this world is blind to the eyes of unbelievers to
keep them from seeing the light of God in Christ. And so we can blame the Pharisees
all we want. And they are culpable for their
unbelief. But at the same time, we can also blame the man who
is paralyzed for 38 years. Who could not see and had excused
himself from even being healed when Jesus stood there and asked,
do you want to be healed? But we can't give the man credit
for seeing. Because Christ commanded him
to see. and gave them eyes to see. And Christ has not granted
them the right to see. Has He granted you the right
to see? Do you see Christ? Do you hear His words? Do you
have eternal life? Is your heart bound to the word
of God, holding fast to the confession of hope. When you see the works
of Christ, the greater works than these, what's greater than
a miracle of resurrection of Lazarus? What's greater than
the blind seeing it? The greater work is that Jesus
has given you eternal life that you could not affect at all. That's the greater work. and
that He has perfectly made worship absolutely functional for the
church. We can look at God in the face
finally. Our Gospel's not veiled to the
church. And friends, even if it is veiled,
God is shining in the darkness. Jesus' words are shining in the
darkness. They shine in us and through
us And then we proclaim them out of our mouths. And that which
we proclaim, we solidify with our lives. And when we fail,
we have an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is our propitiation. And we repent. And we forgive. And we worship. I pray the Word
of God has blessed your soul as it has blessed mine. And I
pray that all that you are, is fully alive in all that He is.
Let's pray. Lord, I thank You so much. There
is no way possible that this text could mean so much if we
just read it with human eyes. And I thank You for bringing
it to life for me tonight and for us as we partner together
in this reading and exposition. And I thank You, Father, for
the grace that is given to us by Your love for us and by Your
the pardon of sin through Jesus the righteous. And Lord, I pray
that we would forever look to glorify You with our lives as
the Son glorifies You, that we are His body, that we work together
to make Your name great. Thank You that Jesus is not just
a man trying his best, but He is the living God walking among
us. Father, You sent Him so that
we would live to glorify Your grace. And it's in His name we
pray. Amen. Amen.