Who is This God?

Okay, well, good morning, everyone. It's lovely to see you. Lovely to see some new faces as well this morning.

You're so welcome with us. My name's Graham. I'm the pastor of the church here.

And let me just invite you to turn back to those verses in John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

If you need to scroll on your phone to find them, then please do that.

If you need to use the contents page of the Bibles in front of you, then please do that as well

to get God's words open in front of us.

So there's a man who used to be the school chaplain down at Worcester College in Oxford called Tom Wright.

And his pupils used to come up to him and they'd say, Mr. Wright, listen, I don't believe in God.

And slightly provocatively yet lovingly, he'd reply and he'd say, well, okay.

Why don't you describe to me this God that you don't believe in?

Which I think is a cracking question, isn't it, in response to that?

Put the ball back in your court kind of question.

Let me ask you, how would you answer that question this morning?

Who is this God?

Now, it was Julie Andrews, wasn't it, who sang that song about the beginning being a very good place to start.

You know that song?

And it's true, isn't it?

As you open page one of the Bible, what kind of God are we instinctively expecting?

Well, we're expecting a God who creates and purely because of that demands something in return.

In other words, we're expecting a God who deals with his creatures, not relationally, but contractually.

In other words, if we perform well for him and in his eyes, he will reward us and he will affirm us.

But if we do bad, he is a creator who will punish us and dismiss us.

It's tit for tat.

It's I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine.

As we find ourselves caught up in a spiritual and moral survival of the fittest competition.

As we come to the opening page of the Bible, that is the God that I think as human beings we are instinctively expecting.

And you see, that's often the version of God that pupils used to describe to Tom Wright when he used to ask them to describe the God that they didn't believe in.

And when he heard that response, his response back to the people was, do you know what?

I don't believe in that God either.

You see, the God of the Bible is delightfully different to and doggedly defiant of all of our man-made shallow assumptions about who he is.

This God who created the world.

And if you think about it, he didn't have to create the world.

It's not like he gets anything from it.

He needs it.

No, no, no.

This God is totally self-sufficient.

But this God speaks and creation happens.

This God who created the world, who gave beauty to it, who gave diversity to it.

If you think about it, God could have just made us all as human beings to survive on one food source.

Is it not amazing that God has such a variety of foods in his world for us to eat?

Not because God had to, but because it brought God delight to.

This is the God of the Bible.

Now, you might be asking yourself, why does that matter?

Let me put it to you that who you understand God to be or not to be profoundly trickles down the streams of your life and it affects everything else.

Right?

Maybe think of it like this.

I don't know if this is helpful, but we'll go for it.

Okay.

I had a fellow parent tell me recently about a school that used to have a really bad reputation.

Right?

You know how it goes.

Poor exam results.

Pupils feeling unsupported.

Teachers coming at their job with low morale.

That kind of thing.

Okay.

It used to have a really bad reputation.

But they said they've just appointed a new head teacher and everything has changed.

They've turned it around.

I mean, have you heard things like that before?

Yeah?

Yeah?

The person at the top, who they are like, it massively filters down to the rest of the organization.

Right?

As they set the pace, as they implement the standards, as their character impacts everything else, as they create the culture, that influence massively impacts everyone else.

So it really matters who we understand is in the hot seat.

Who's right at the heart of Christianity.

Really matters who is right there.

Who God is and understanding him rightly affects everything else.

Let me just say a little apologetic angle here.

It's why the triune God of the Bible and Allah of Islam, we love our Muslim friends, very different cultures.

And it all starts from who you understand God to be.

I read a cracking book on that recently by a guy called Andy Bannister, who is a Christian guy.

He did his PhD in Islamic studies.

If you want to check it out, come and speak to me afterwards.

It's just in my room.

Massively matters who you understand God to be.

It affects how you understand yourself.

It affects how you understand others.

And most importantly, I think, it helps you understand the shape and the goal of the Christian life when you understand who this God is.

And it's almost as if in John chapter 5, we're invited in to come and see the person who's in the chair in the school head office of the Christian faith.

John 5 · chapter mention

That's the invitation that's made to us this morning in this text.

Now, last week in John chapter 5, we saw Jesus in heated discussion with the religious leaders.

John 5 · chapter mention

If you just scan your eyes over the first bit of the first 18 verses of chapter 5, you'll get a little bit of context.

Because what Jesus is saying here, it's not just a blog post.

It's not just his thoughts.

Actually, it's in conversation with creatures.

The religious leaders are livid that he's had the audacity not just to heal a man on the Sabbath.

Remember, there's Saturday, this holy day.

But he's also had the audacity to tell this man to pick up his mat and walk on the day of no work.

And because he's done that, verse 18, and here's the clincher, he's made himself equal with God.

So this isn't a case of crossed wires.

This is not a case of misinterpretation.

Jesus is unapologetic in his claim as he steps into the world.

And the guy's got some explaining to do.

Okay?

This all happens in the context of Jesus on the defense.

As he explains himself, who he is.

And the Sabbath, the healing, is almost the, is it the dig to the spike?

You get that analogy?

He's teeing himself up to help the world understand who he is.

That's the context.

And I find how Jesus answers that question fascinating.

He doesn't firstly appeal, and see this, to might.

Because he could have done, couldn't he?

He could have called down thousands of angels and flexed his divine muscles and said, see?

Nor does he primarily appeal to right.

Okay?

We live in a world of rights.

That's how we would have gone about defending ourselves.

But do you see how Jesus does this?

He helps people see his true identity.

And he unveils it in the context of explaining a relationship.

Now that tells you something hugely significant about who the God of the Bible is.

And it tells you something wonderfully profound about what it is to know him.

Now Jesus has used that little title, Father, before in this gospel.

He's used it in a count, I think, three or four times.

But he's used it as a title, never with an explanation.

But here for the first time in John's gospel, we're invited almost as it were to take a glimpse of the glorious relationship that exists between the Father and the Son.

And all I want to do here in the time that we have left is just pick out four words that Jesus uses to help us get our heads around how that relationship works.

And know that as we take these in together, we are rowing out into some unfathomably deep, mysterious yet breathtaking waters.

I'll tell you my mindset as I started this week.

It was a bit like when I went with my daughter to Grace Mount Swimming Pool a few weeks back.

You know what she loved to do?

Favorite game.

She's got four sinkies.

You up with a sinkie?

Do you know what that is?

Yeah?

And the game was I would throw them in, they would sink to the bottom, and she would go down and she would come back up and she would hold it aloft like the World Cup trophy.

Got my sinkie.

Okay?

Goggles on, deep breath, up she came.

That's how I kind of came at this passage this week.

But by the end of the week, I realized that we are friends, we are paddling in the mid-Pacific.

Okay?

11,022 meters down, that bad boy is at its deepest.

And you're not going to get a sinkie when it falls in there.

It's often said that the gospel is shallow enough for a babe to come and drink from without fear of drowning.

But it's also true it's deep enough to swim in without ever touching the bottom.

And this is the God of the Christian faith.

You ready for a deep dive?

You're getting a deep dive.

Here's the first word.

You just get it straight in the text, verse 19.

It's the word seeing.

See, at verse 19, Jesus says, truly, truly, which is his way of saying, mark my words.

Underscore this.

Understand.

Jesus says, I only do and act according to what I see the Father doing.

So there is no disconnect between God the Father and God the Son.

And I tell you what, this was a real game changer for me in my Christian life.

Because I remember hearing when I was younger that the Old Testament kind of contained this big, bad, scary God.

Whereas the New Testament presented you with Jesus.

And let's be honest, he's a much friendlier version of divinity.

Okay, it left me thinking that God was somehow like that crazy uncle that you'd see at Christmas time,

who loves a rant and is prone to an odd, non-PC comment.

And Jesus comes along as the trendier uncle, almost apologetically covering for him.

And if that's your understanding of how the Old Testament and New Testament comes together,

if that's your understanding of how the Father and the Son work like it was mine,

then can I just say we are in for a wonderful surprise.

Because there is an exact continuity between the character of both.

And it's more than Jesus is just like the apple hasn't fallen far from the fatherly tree.

It's more like than he's just like, oh, he's so like his dad.

The Father is exactly like Jesus.

The New Testament makes a big thing of that.

He is the exact imprint.

He is the perfect stamp of God the Father.

Which means that if you're here today and you want to understand who God is,

what is he like?

The transcendent God.

What is he like?

He is like the God up close in the person of Jesus.

So that means when we see the heart and work of God the Son,

we're seeing the heart and the work of God the Father.

And that's what these religious leaders need to see.

Perhaps they're coming at this with a cold, shallow, moralistic and legalistic view of who the Lord is.

And Jesus is upsetting everything.

But there is a wonderful continuity.

Jesus says, I've seen the Father.

But lest we think Jesus is just a delivery boy for God,

here's the second word, verse 20, and it's the word loving.

So it's not just that the Father approves of the Son.

It's not just that the Son is on friendly terms with the Father.

The Father loves the Son.

Do you see that in the text?

Just getting a little glimpse of this relationship here.

The Father loves the Son.

And so the question,

what was God doing before he created the world?

Told you we're going deep here, right?

Before anything was,

what was this God doing?

The answer is that the Father

was delighting in the Son

in the joy of the Holy Spirit.

And that delight was absolutely reciprocated.

Love is not something that God does.

Love is something that he is.

And that's why we can say

that God is love.

Because what was he doing before the world was created?

He was a community of love.

A wonderful union of three persons,

of Father, of Son, and of Holy Spirit.

Our good God is not one.

He is one in three.

He is triune.

And that's what the works that Jesus is doing

are telling us.

Every single healing and miracle

is declaring to us

that the Father loves the Son.

He's not just a big fan, right?

He's not just a groupie.

The Father loves the Son.

And here's a thought for you.

And maybe for some of us

here in our Christian lives,

our friends, our hearts get so distracted

by so many silly things.

Here's a thought that maybe has drifted

from some of our minds.

What is it to be a Christian?

It's to be somebody

who simply by God's grace

that he has transformed our hearts,

not because we're good,

but simply because he is good.

And that we have come to feel the same way

about Jesus the Son

as the Father does.

Yeah?

We were the first time going up in church

and hearing an older man

talking about how he loved Jesus.

What?

I can sit here as somebody

who's almost 38 and say,

I love Jesus.

Come to feel the same way

about God the Son

to honor him

as God the Father does.

Is that another thought for you this morning?

That's what it is to be a Christian, isn't it?

Love the Son.

And here's the reason why

that's even possible

because of this third word

and it's the word giving.

Yeah?

Loving, seeing,

loving, giving.

Now I remember

sitting in St. James' Park

down in London

one hot summer's day

with a good friend of mine.

And he turns to me

and he says,

deadpan,

he says,

do you know what?

If I didn't worship Jesus,

I think I'd worship this.

Do you know what the this was?

It's his son.

Right?

I didn't worship Jesus,

I think I'd worship the sun.

Deadpan.

And the thing is,

I kind of got what he was meeting.

You ever thought about

where the sun is?

Right?

This thing that's

fascinated human beings

ever since time began,

this enormous,

big ball of fire

that sits in the sky,

this giant centerpiece

of our solar system

that pulls everything

into its orbit,

the first source

of every living thing.

I kind of get

why people down the years

have worshipped the sun.

Right?

But here's a little thought for you

and it's Andrew Wilson,

I'm indebted to this guy

for helping me understand this

over the last month.

And this is a wonderful book

if you're looking for something

just a little bit different

for devotions

or to read before bed.

Okay?

He just takes the things

of the world and nature

and helps us see

God's character

through them.

Okay?

He says this,

other than human beings,

it's hard to think

of anything in creation

that highlights

as many of God's

characteristics

as the sun.

Right?

Stick with me.

Think about it.

Why can the sun

give light and heat?

Because it is light and heat.

It doesn't need anything

to sustain it.

It gives but never depletes.

Its action

reflects its identity.

Have you ever thought

about the fact that

so much of what God created

was created to give us

insights into who he is?

Why can God give life

because he is life?

Do you see it?

And by life there,

Jesus is speaking

about physical life.

Okay?

The kind that Lazarus

is going to experience

later in chapter 11.

The kind of life

that only our creator

can give us.

Right?

I was listening to

Nicky Campbell

in Five Live

on Thursday morning.

If you listen to

Nicky Campbell,

he was asking his listeners

to phone in

to discuss the recent studies

that were showing

that people are dying younger.

Did you see that

this week in the news?

People dying younger?

He said,

what do you think?

And it's a wonderful

question to ask

and we're interested

in the answers to that

and I know many of you

are medically

not just minded

but you work in the field

and it's a wonderful

question to ask

and we care about it

because we love people.

Okay?

But I'm sitting

listening to Nicky Campbell

in the car

asking this question

but I'm thinking

there's a deeper question.

Not just why

do people die young

but why do people

die at all?

Okay?

You see,

you start seeing the world

through a biblical lens.

Welcome to a world

where every death

is unnatural.

This is not the way

God designed it to be

because sin has entered

the human condition

and ruined God's

good creation.

We are now like

flowers

who die

and I don't want to

spoil your mother's day

but who die

the minute that we

were cut off

from the life

source of the stem

and are slowly

wilting and dying.

There is physical death

in our world

because there was first

spiritual death.

In other words,

we rejected

our creator

and our sin

has led to

death in the world.

There is physical death,

there is spiritual death

and to nick a line

from a song

we often sing

with the kids,

when it comes

to spiritual life

and us giving

ourselves it,

friends,

a rock has a better

chance of swimming

and a potato

has a better chance

of dancing

than we do

of making ourselves

spiritually alive.

It's why when you

speak to your

non-Christian friends

and family

and we love

our non-Christian

friends and family

it's primarily

a spiritual reason

why so often

they just don't

get you.

It's why as we

deny ourselves

and as we take up

our cross

and follow Jesus

the world thinks

that we are weird

as it contemplates

a God-shaped

world view

with views

and decisions

that come out

of that

it's why they

think they are

so outdated

and borderline

offensive.

It's primarily

a spiritual reason

why they look

at Christians

and think

that they are

actually the ones

who have moved

from life to death

and I know

some of you

are feeling that

right now

the pressure

that's coming

from a world

to say

that you need

to conform

you need to

move from death

to life

whereas Jesus

says

and we always

need to allow

him to form

our world

to form our

view

he says

that for all

those who hear

and respond

to his voice

it's the other

way around

and it's why

we should never

underestimate

the fact that

you and I

are Christians

and if that's

you here today

however unspectacularly

you think

your life is

however weak

you think

your faith is

be encouraged

that you might

not have a story

that Netflix

will phone you up

and make a documentary

about

you might have

the most boring

story in the world

but make no mistake

if your faith

is in Christ

that you have

passed

because of his grace

from death

to life

and that life

is a gift

from Jesus

it's like a

balloon that

you blow up

for your birthday

party

right

you ever done

that recently

little girl's

birthday

beginning of March

blowing up

these balloons

right

just picture it

right

just blowing up

a balloon

and that's what

the Bible's talking

about it

when it says

God has given

us spiritual life

balloon's dead

right

balloon is dead

and along comes

Jesus

and blows

the breath

of life

into us

and we become

spiritually alive

just like the balloon

because he is

the Lord of life

and light

that's who he is

now why can he

do this

because Jesus

didn't just enter

our world of

death and darkness

he became

the penalty

that we deserve

for our

rejection of God

as he hung

on the cross

why can he

raise the dead

why can he

give life

because he

bore our

penalty

on the cross

for our sin

in our place

and he rose

and the resurrection

life that he

enjoys

he imparts it

to his people

so if you're here

today and the fact

that you're a Christian

doesn't get your

heart singing

doesn't make you

think it's a big

deal

this text would

tell you to

think again

that you have

passed

from death

to life

not because of

the strength

of your faith

not because of

your affections

for him

not because of

our hearts

are so often

weary

we have passed

from death

to life

because God

the son

breathed

spiritual life

into us

and we moved

over

all the praise

goes to him

and do you see

how

in the text

it tells us

that God

the son

didn't just

feel indifferent

about that

and it

pleases him

to give

life

it's his

good pleasure

to give

eternal life

to his

people

he's the

giving

God

and lastly

just really

quickly

fourthly

he's the

judging

God

because the

father has

given

do you see

verse 27

all

judgment

all

authority

to the

son

Jesus

calls himself

here the

son of man

what he's

doing there

is he's

just taking

a divine

title

that the

Jews would

have understood

from Daniel

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7

where Daniel's

talking about

the son of man

who's going

to come

Daniel's

speaking there

about the

divine

warrior king

who God

would appoint

and who

would come

to bring

in

victory

and rule

for his

people

and caught

up in this

idea of the

son of man

is this idea

of God

in him

defeating

decisively

evil

and Jesus

is saying

to this

generation

he's saying

to our

generation

God the

father

has given

me that

role

he's given

me that

role

this God

is blindingly

holy

this God

cannot

tolerate

evil

friends

do not

mistake

his

patience

with his

approval

though this

God will

one day

in the

person of

Jesus

come back

and he

will make

all things

new

the father

and the son

are committed

to each

other's

honour

and so the

question is

friends

will we

honour the

son

will we

honour

Jesus

and on

that day

the son

will rouse

every human

being who's

ever existed

and all

will be

judged on

how they've

responded

to him

seeing

loving

giving

judging

so friends

tell me about

this God

you don't

believe in

here he is

this morning

is this him

is this the

God you've

got in your

mind

what do

we do

with this

well really

the response

we need

to make

comes in

the word

that appears

four times

from verse

25

and it's

the word

hear

right

will you

hear him

will you

find life

in his

words

and his

work

you know

just as we

close and

leave you with

this thought

when we think

about application

I had coffee

with a good

friend of mine

the other

week

and I look

at his

phone

and I

noticed that

his phone

is in

black and

white

what he's

done is

he's

I don't

even know

you can

do this

on phones

he's

turned the

tint of

his phone

right down

some of you

might do

that I

don't know

I said

why are

you doing

that

and he

just said

that because

when it's

full colour

it just

demands my

attention

all the

time

all the

time

texts are

going

notifications

are going

and he

just says

I keep

looking at

it all

the time

right

you know

it's true

with your

phones

don't you

it's always

demanding

your attention

remember when I

used to work

in law

we used to

have

blackberries

right

remember those

days

good days

just remember

the red

flash on

the eye

right

the guys

the people

I worked

with used

to call it

the red

eye of

Mordor

right

it was just

calling you

in

come and

answer me

it's why

they call

them

isn't it

they joke

about blackberries

being crackberries

wasn't it

because we get

addicted to our

phones

they're shouting

for our

attention all

the time

I think that's

why there is

something in the

fact that our

generation is

information heavy

but wisdom light

because our phones

and here's the

point are forming

us

they're forming

us all the

time

and it's scary

isn't it when you

get that notification

on your phone

that says how

long you've been

on it

last week

and the

question is

we are

we are in a

world that is

fighting to

form us

and we've got to

take that seriously

haven't we

the things that

are going in

the things that

are shaping us

the big

biblical principle

is

that we become

what we behold

as we think

about where we

spend our

hours the

things that our

eyes take in

the things that

our minds

comprehend we

are becoming

what we behold

and the invitation

of this passage

is to make that

thing the one

who gives life

are we gazing

at Christ

are we

delighting

are we feeding

our souls

in him

are we

allowing the

words of the

good shepherd

to draw

alongside us

and quench

our souls

are we

gazing at

him

and the

life that

he offers

and becoming

more like

him

see this is the

promise he makes

and we end with

this

very truly I

tell you

whoever hears

my words

and believes

him who sent

me

has eternal

life

and will

not be

judged

but is

crossed over

from death

to life

let's pray

that's a

wonderful and

gracious father

thank you for

your word

thank you that

you are a

God who has

revealed yourself

lord we would

be

have no idea

we would be

in the dark

if you

hadn't done

that

father thank

you that

you've revealed

yourself in

creation

father thank

you that

you've revealed

yourself in

your words

and thank

you for that

special revelation

that comes as

we look at

Jesus in

action

and so father

I pray for

us here this

morning lord

that our

understanding our

view of who

you are

it would be

shaped and

you would

shape it and

hone it so

that true

truth is the

thing that

guides our

understanding

about who

you are

father pray

for those of

us here this

morning who

have drifted

maybe in their

affections whose

hearts are

weary

that lord that

you the God

who delights to

give life

father that by

your spirit you

would draw

alongside us

this morning

and father

build us up

and strengthen

us as your

people father

for those maybe

that here this

morning who

don't know you

father may today

be the day where

they come to

trust in Jesus

the son father

we thank you

for our time

this morning and

we pray all of

these things in

Jesus is worthy

and precious name

amen