30 verses. But before we read, let's pray and ask the Lord's blessing on His word. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for how it speaks to us of Your grace and mercy towards us in Jesus Christ. We pray Lord that as we read and consider Your word together, that our eyes would be lifted up to behold eternal truths, to behold the realities of this world that You have made and how You have placed Jesus Christ over all things. Help us to hear and believe. Help us to be shaped and changed. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. John chapter 5, reading the first 30 verses. After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he'd already been there a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. And while I am going, another steps down before me." Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your bed and walk." And at once the man was healed. And he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath, and it's not lawful for you to take up your bed." But he answered them, "The man who healed me, that man said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.'" They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?" Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you are well. Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you." The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." 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. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing. And greater works than these will He show Him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 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 granted the Son also to have life in Himself. And He's 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. There's a song by a band I like called The Brilliance, and the song is called, "Who Is Jesus?" And it's got this refrain, "Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus?" And it starts by saying, "Is He a man?" Then as the song proceeds, the verse changes, and the question is, "Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus? Is He the Christ?" And then towards the end, the song changes even more. And the verse says, "Is He... Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus? The face of God?" And that is the question I want to consider with you today, the question of who is Jesus? It's a question the Pharisees, or sorry, the Jews asked of this man who was healed in verse 12, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?" They get the answer, "This is Jesus," but the question still remains, who is this Jesus? And this question is a question that is debated. The Jehovah's Witnesses, as they read the Scriptures, they say that Jesus never claimed to be God. He never claimed to be the face of God, as the song says. Here's a quote from their website: "Jesus' opposers accused Him of making Himself equal to God." They're referring to John 5 here. They say, "However, Jesus never claimed to be on the same level as Almighty God." I want to consider that together with you. Out of this passage, out of John 5, who did... who was Jesus? Not just who did his disciples think that He was. You can find out what they thought about Him by reading the epistles, the rest of the New Testament. And you'll find Paul saying things like He's the image of the invisible God, the very image of God on display for us. But who did Jesus say that He was? is the question I want to consider from John 5. And I want to put to you that Jesus absolutely claimed to be God. And this passage is a great one to show us that. I want to show it to you in a few different ways. First of all, I want you to consider how Jesus says that He does the same work as God. The same work as God. Look at verse 17 of our passage. The Jews are upset because Jesus was healing people on the Sabbath. So Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." Christ's answer to this accusation by the Jews that He is working on the Sabbath and so breaking the Sabbath is to say, "Well, God works on the Sabbath, and I've got the same work as Him." I've got the same job description as God. You see, the Jews were well aware of the fact that God had to of necessity continue working on the Sabbath. There's actually a Jewish writer around the same time that Jesus was walking the earth, his name was Philo. He writes this about the Sabbath. He says, "God never ceases from making something or other, but as it is the property of fire to burn and of snow to chill, so also it is the property of God to be creating. He Himself never ceases from creating." And he's speaking in that passage specifically about the Sabbath, and he's saying God keeps working. God upholds all of creation by the word of His power. He keeps creating and providentially providing for His creatures even on the Sabbath. So when Jesus says to the Jews, "My Father is working until now and I am working," He is speaking to this understanding. It's contemporary to Him, that the Jews understood this. He's saying that He plays by the same rules as God. Just as God the Father must necessarily continue His providential work on the Sabbath, holding all of creation together, so Jesus must continue His work on the Sabbath, in this case, bringing healing to this to this lame man. And the Jews, we can see from our passage, understood exactly what Jesus was saying. John records in verse 18, "This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God." Notice how the Jews understood what Jesus was saying. They said, "Ah, He's making Himself equal with God." And it's important to understand the Greek word there. It means Jesus is making Himself equal with God. Means exactly what you're saying. Right? Literally equal. The same as. By saying that God is His Father and that He is about the same work that God is about, Jesus is declaring that He and His Father are equal. They in this instance, by pointing out that they have unity of work. They have the same job description. And now the Jews are getting worked up about this, and so you would think, Jesus, if you're not really God, if you're just a great man sent by God, here is the perfect opportunity to explain yourself. But He and He does, He does explain Himself, but He does it by doubling down. Look at verse 19 and 20. He says, "The Son can do nothing of His own accord but only what He sees the Father doing. The Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing. And greater works than these will He show Him." Jesus is claiming again the same thing, I have the same job description as God. And on the surface, it might seem like He's saying, "Oh look, I'm just I have sort of derived job description. I just do what the Father tells me to do." But notice He's saying He does all that the Father does. The Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He is doing. Everything. Creation, healing, sustaining people, the whole package. Giving life, He's going to go on and say, judging people. Every aspect of divine activity and work is claimed by Jesus as something that He's engaged in. Can any man claim that? We might say we seek to do what the Father tells us to do, but none of us could claim that we do all that the Father does. None of us. And so Jesus is claiming unity of work. Me and my Father, we're doing the same job, the same package of work, and it's divine work. Now, a side note, this has quite remarkable ramifications when it comes to how we should think about God the Father. The work of the Father and the work of the Son are one. What we see in Jesus is what the Father is doing. This is why Jesus could say to Philip in John 14:9 and 10, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority." And listen to this, "But the Father who dwells in me does His works." See that? When you see Jesus healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead, feeding the hungry, communicating the truth of God to His people, calming the sea, you are seeing the works of Jesus, the Son of God, certainly, but you are also seeing the works of the Father. And this is important for us because sometimes you might think of God the Father sending the Son to do His dirty work on His behalf, sending His Son to do the parts of the job of saving humanity that He didn't want to get involved in. You know, the Father gives His Son, "Son, I want you to suffer and die, but I'm going to stay over here and I'll keep my hands clean." No. That is not how our God works. Because our God is one. One God in three persons, which means that they have one will, one work. When you see Jesus beaten and bruised, hung on a cross, facing the punishment that you and I deserve because of our sin, you are seeing in one sense the work of the Father. You're seeing the heart of God. You are seeing the Father working to forgive our sins. It was the Father's plan, it was the Father who gave His Son, it was the Father who sent the Son. The payment for our sin by the incarnate Son of God was from the Father's heart, mind, and will. He was actively engaged in it. Yes, the Son died, not the Father, but the point is it's the one God's work. You're seeing the heart of God on display. So these accusations that Christianity sometimes gets of a malicious Father sacrificing His Son to achieve some end is not true. And it gives us a slightly different slant to the words that we read in Isaiah 53:10, where it says, "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him," or as the ESV puts it, "It was the will of the Lord to crush Him." The idea is not that God got joy out of it, but that this was the purpose of God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it was His purpose to bruise the Son so that we might be saved. His will. Now the Jews must have been standing there looking at this uneducated preacher. You've got to get this in your mind. They're looking at a man, flesh and blood, someone who looks the same as everyone else, claiming to have the same job description as God the Father. How would you feel if you're standing there and watching a man say that? But Jesus does not relent. He keeps the pressure on. He goes on to claim not just that does He share the same job description of God and the same will of God, the same work of God, but He also shares the same power and authority as the Father. Look at verse 21. For as the Father... for as the Father has life... sorry, verse 21. "For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son." Life and death and judgment, this is absolute authority. We looked at this last week in connection with verses 28 and 29, where Jesus speaks of the general resurrection and the day of judgment. We won't go over all of that again, but the level of authority and power that Jesus is claiming here is stunning. Raising all of the dead, judging them, and passing out the eternal destiny of each and every human being who's ever lived. What mere man would dare take upon himself this level of power and authority? Which of you can judge the hearts and deeds of men with righteousness? Who can do that? Only God. Only God has the required knowledge and wisdom and justice and righteousness to call all men out from the dead and judge them with equity. And this first-century Jew stood before his fellow Israelites and claimed that authority and that power. But Christ's authority to give life is not limited to the day of judgment. He says that He has authority even now to impart life in a slightly different way. Look at verse 25 and 26, where Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is 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 granted the Son also to have life in Himself." It is possible that the power and authority that Jesus has, I guess, you could argue that it's a delegated authority and power without a sharing of status. Right, maybe God gives Jesus all the wisdom He needs to make these judgments, but that doesn't mean Jesus has the same status of God. Think of a herald of a king. A herald goes out on behalf of a king and he declares the king's words, that carry authority and power. But the herald is not the king, is he? But here, Jesus is not just claiming to have delegated authority, He's claiming to have the power of life in Himself. He's claiming to be able to exert his own will to give life. Do you see that? In verse 21, it was at the end there, "So also the Son gives life to whom He will." The Son gets to choose. And in verse 25, the hour is coming... oh, sorry, not verse 22. Verse 25, "The 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 granted the Son also to have life in Himself." This passage is deep in mystery. The Triune nature of God is being expressed in some way in these verses. Because the Father has granted the Son to have life in Himself. The Son has the power of life in Himself and it's granted to Him by His Father to have that life in Himself. Think of it like this, God the Father is the fountain of life. This life flows out of Him, if you like, through the Son, by the power of the Spirit, into the world. The Triune God has life in Himself, and it flows in that order. Father to Son through Spirit. In our passage, we see Jesus, this Son who has life in Himself as He's received from His Father, incarnate, standing in the world, declaring Himself to be the one who has life and who can give life to whom He will. Now when Jesus is speaking in verse 25 here of this life that He can give to whom He will, this is a life that He says He's giving right now. He says, "An hour is coming and is now here," when he gives this life. So this life is not the resurrection life that he speaks of in verse 28 and 29. This life is a different type of life. In verse 25, Jesus is saying that He has power and authority to give a spiritual life. He has authority to regenerate the dead souls of men. He's able to take those who have no interest in God, who are sold over to their sin, and awaken them to new life. Jesus is saying that He has the power in Himself to do this to whomever He will. To look upon the dullest of hearts, the most stubborn of atheistic minds, and to revive them. Jesus can and has been and will continue to exercise this power in the heart of every sinner who comes to repent and believe in Him. People only become Christians because this man who stood upon the earth 2,000 years ago decides that they will have life. Can you see the Jews as they listen to this man claiming to have this level of authority? I give life to whomever I will. It's just incredible to think of someone claiming this. But just in case we aren't getting the point, Jesus doesn't just double down, he triples down on His claim of equality with the Father. Look at verse 23. He says, He has this authority, He has this power where he's going to give life and judgment. Why? Verse 23, "that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father." Remember, the Jews think that Jesus is claiming equality with God. He's claimed to have the same job description as God, the same power and authority over life and judgment as God, and now he goes on to say he deserves the same honor as God. Again, notice the words that Jesus uses here, "that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father." That's a big deal. The same level of honor. It's quite possible to honor two people by varying degrees without doing violence to the honor that God demands. We're told elsewhere in the Bible that we're meant to honor the emperor, or honor the king. In 1 Peter 2:17. Which is exactly the same word for honor as used here. It's the same idea. You're meant to honor people. But you're not meant to honor people with the same honor that you give God. They have a lesser honor and God has a greater honor. But Jesus here gives us no wriggle room. He leaves nothing to the imagination. He says, "I deserve the same level of honor. You should honor me in the same way that you honor God." "I deserve the honor that God deserves." That's his claim. And we see actually Jesus live this out in other ways. Later on in John's gospel, in John 9, when Jesus heals a blind man, and Jesus reveals Himself to him, John records that this blind man says, "Lord, I believe," and then he worshiped Him. Every other place in the Scriptures where you find someone tempted to worship something that's not God, like an angel, what does the angel say? Hey, hey, don't worship me. I'm not God. Jesus accepts this man's worship. And then in John 20, when Thomas recognizes the reality of who Jesus is, he says to Jesus, "My Lord and my God!" And Jesus does not correct him. Because there's nothing to correct. And this is what it looks like for Jesus to receive the honor He deserves. It looks like worship. It looks like adoration, praise, service. Whatever you would do for your Creator, you should do for Jesus. Because that's who He is. That's who He's claiming to be. He is the Word who created all things, who has come down and taken on flesh. And that's what John wants us to understand, not just that John thinks this, John's made that clear in his prologue to the gospel, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God," and He came and tabernacled among us, He took on flesh. But he wants you to realize that Jesus claimed the same thing. This is I think one of the most glorious aspects of Christianity. That we have a God who created all things, who is holy, holy, holy, separate from us, free from sin, deserving of all honor and glory, and we all know that kings who have great honor and glory sometimes like to sit off in their palaces and not mingle with the riff-raff. But we have a God who comes down. Who comes down and doesn't just spend some time with us, He takes on our very nature, clothes Himself in humanity, lives among us, and suffers and dies on our behalf. Surely this Jesus deserves our praise. Surely He deserves our honor and our worship. Now, Jesus throws two more claims into this discussion which I think heighten our picture of who He really is even further. He calls Himself in verse 25 the Son of God, and then in verse 27 He calls Himself the Son of Man. Now, this is not the first time in John's gospel that we've seen these terms used in reference to Jesus. Nathaniel, back in John chapter 1, he's sitting under a fig tree and he meets Jesus later on and Jesus says, "I saw you while you were sitting under the fig tree." And Nathaniel says to Jesus, in verse 49, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God, You are the king of Israel." And then Jesus in that same account responds to him by referring to himself as the Son of Man in verse 51 of chapter one. Jesus then refers to himself as the Son of Man again in John chapter 3 and then shortly after that as the Son of God as well. When Jesus uses these titles, He's speaking of two Old Testament ideas that are interrelated. The Son of God is a phrase that is used to describe Israel, in Exodus chapter 4, and the king of Israel as a stand-in for Israel, as a representative of Israel. You see this in 2 Samuel 7, verse 12 and 14, when God is speaking to David and he says, "I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I shall establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son." You see, the son of God, the king of Israel. But not just any king, a promised king who would have a kingdom established forever. And David then writes Psalm 2 to pick up on this idea, and he writes it of his descendant who would inherit this everlasting kingdom. We read Psalm 2 this morning, and in it we see God's anointed king placed on the throne not just of Israel, but the throne of the world. He's reigning on high. He's been given a rod of iron to discipline his enemies so that all will come and serve him. This king in Psalm 2 is called God's son. God says, "You are my son. Today I have begotten you." Jesus is claiming identity with this son, this king in the Jewish mind from the Old Testament scriptures. And it makes sense, right? We're seeing the same sorts of ideas: power, authority, honor being deserved. That's all the things that David spoke of in Psalm 2. Someone who would rule and reign and would judge the nations and would receive from the nations service and honor as they kiss the son. The Son of Man is a different phrase, but it's actually used for a very similar idea. In Daniel 7, Daniel talks about a son of man who comes from heaven and receives dominion, glory, and a kingdom. Where all nations, peoples, and languages will serve him, and he receives a kingdom and a reign that will last forever. You hear the kingdom language again, it's the same idea. And Jesus is connecting these two passages and he's saying that the son of man who comes from Daniel 7 and the son of God, the king of Israel, who's going to reign over all the earth, they are me. And so we have before us the promised Messiah that the Jews were waiting for, but the twist is that this Messiah is enfleshed deity. God Himself taken on flesh to become the human king over all creation. Come to fulfill what God had designed for Adam to have dominion over the earth. Come to be David's greatest son who will sit on the throne and rule the nations. Come as the Son of Man on the clouds of heaven to receive a kingdom that will not pass away. Now, this is not necessarily a welcome picture. The king of Psalm 2 has a rod of iron in his hand, and the kings of the earth are warned not to keep raging against him. And they're told to kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. You can hear the power and authority that Jesus has to judge the nations from John 5 being described and emphasized in terrifying language in Psalm 2. We spoke about that last week like I mentioned, but there is also a line in Psalm 2 that I think is the emphasis of what John 5 is getting at, what Jesus is getting at in John 5, that points us to Christ's first task. Before He comes to judge the world, before His wrath is unveiled and unleashed, first He will be a place of refuge. The Psalm ends, "Blessed are all who take refuge in Him." Which tells you something. It tells you there's refuge to be found in Him. And in Daniel 7:18, we see something similar when Daniel tells us that this son of man who's going to come and have the nations serve him, he has saints who shall receive the kingdom alongside him and shall possess the kingdom forever and ever. How will they do this? Because this king, the Son of Man, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, has power over life and judgment and gives eternal life to His people. To those He chooses, to those who call upon His name, who come to Him for refuge. And that's what Jesus tells us about right in the center of this discourse that he has in John chapter 5. And you know this is the emphasis by the way because of the structure of Jesus' words. It's a chiastic structure. In verse 19, Jesus talks about how He can do nothing of His own accord. And then in verse 30, He talks about how He can do nothing of His own accord. And then, there's two other mirroring ideas in verse 20 through to 23. Jesus talks about how He does the works of God and has power over life and death. And then on the other side, verse 26 through to 29, He speaks about how he has life in Himself and has authority to judge the living and the dead. And right in the middle, which is the emphasis of a chiastic structure, He says, "Whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life." And he speaks about how those who hear the voice of the Son of God will hear and live. This is what Jesus wants you to recognize about Him today. Yes, He is the incarnate God with power. Yes, He is the judge of all things who will come to judge the world in equity, but today He is a place of refuge. Today He's a place where those who come and believe in Him will have eternal life and will not pass into judgment. This is a welcome story in our world of chaos and wickedness. God has come down. In Jesus Christ, He took on flesh to bear our pain and bring about a way for us to be free from the sin and curse that doesn't just plague us out there in the world. You can look out in the world and you can see the wars and the rumors of wars and you can say this is a horrible place, I wish someone would come and fix it up. But it doesn't just plague us out there, it plagues us in here as well. Each one of us wakes up, and we know there are things inside of us that are full of chaos and wickedness too. We want the world to be judged. We want the corrupt and the criminal to receive justice, but we know in our heart that we are also guilty before a holy God, and so the person of Jesus is all that we need. The one who has come to rule and reign with justice, but has also made a way for us to not come into judgment, but to pass from death to life. And the wonderful thing about verse 24 is the tense. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. That's present tense. What he's saying is that all those who come to Him and find refuge in the Son, all those who hear His word and believe, at that time, Jesus breathes new life into their soul. I want you to be confronted by this man, Jesus Christ. He walked this earth some 2,000 years ago. He talked with people, he ate with people, he got dust on his feet and felt joy and sorrow and love and pain. And this man said He was God. He did things that only God can do, commanded lame people to stand up and walk just with His word. And then made sure you understood that He is God incarnate, He is the Christ, the great King of all things who has been sent into this world to first bring about forgiveness of sins and then to bring about judgment. This man does not allow you to pass over him quickly. There's a Presbyterian minister called John Duncan who wrote in 1879, "Christ either deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or He was Himself deluded and self-deceived, or He was divine. There is no escaping this trilemma," he says. C.S. Lewis framed it up slightly differently, said, "He's either a lunatic, a liar, or He is Lord." And the challenge for you and I today is that Jesus does not allow you to think in any other categories. Read the gospels for yourself and ask yourself, is this man a liar? Is this man crazy? Or is this man who he says he was? The Lord God taken on human flesh, living with us, suffering for us, and rising to rule over all. And hear His word, that he who believes in him does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life. Come to Him, honor Him, worship Him, trust in Him, kiss the Son, give your life to Him. This is our God, veiled in flesh the Godhead see. Hail the incarnate deity. Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel. Let's pray.