Who Is Jesus?

Well, greetings to all of you who are watching or listening today.

We're still in the midst of this strange time with COVID-19.

It hasn't touched upon this particular community of Davidson yet,

but all of us continue to be affected in some way.

But I hope and I pray that you have been finding peace and joy in the Lord in the midst of all this.

It's in times like these and through our troubles that I'm reminded of those words of David,

which he said about God,

He is my rock.

He is my refuge.

I will not be shaken.

And if we have the Lord, we can say the same as long as we are putting our trust in Him.

Well, today as we look into God's Word,

my hope and prayer is that we would see something of Jesus

that would lift our eyes off of maybe some of our circumstances

and the things going on around us

and remind us of what is most important.

So, it's with that intention that we open the Word today.

If you have your Bible with you, please open it up to John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

Last Sunday, we saw Jesus at the pool in Jerusalem.

And we watched as he healed a man who was lying there,

who had been unable to walk for the past 38 years.

He said to him,

Pick up your mat and walk.

And an amazing miracle happened.

He did.

He got up.

He picked up his mat and he walked.

But unfortunately, he was pulled over by the religious leaders.

They questioned him as to why he was carrying his mat on the Sabbath.

That was considered work.

He kind of deflected the blame a little bit to Jesus.

The man who healed me.

He told me to pick up my mat, to be carrying it on the Sabbath.

He didn't know who Jesus was at the time.

But later, after he bumped into Jesus at the temple,

he reported back to the religious leaders

that it was Jesus who had told him to pick up his mat

and Jesus who had healed him.

So, John has already set the scene in what we looked at last week

for a bit of a clash between Jesus and the Jewish leaders.

So, let's pick up the story in verse 16 of John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath,

the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.

In his defense, Jesus said to them,

My father is always at his work to this very day,

and I too am working.

For this reason, they tried all the more to kill him.

Not only was he breaking the Sabbath,

but he was even calling God his own father,

making himself equal with God.

So, we see the tension beginning to rise

between Jesus and the Jewish leaders.

And all of this is sparked by this healing of the man at the pool

and telling him to carry his mat on the Sabbath.

John says,

Because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath,

the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.

Notice that he says,

These things.

Plural.

It wasn't just this one minor infraction.

There was a number of things that Jesus was doing on the Sabbath.

And to really get the full picture,

we kind of have to look at some of the other gospel records.

They tell us of some of the times where Jesus has already had run-ins

with the Pharisees, the religious leaders,

back in Galilee,

and over this particular issue of keeping the Sabbath.

You may remember some of those encounters.

You may remember the time when Jesus and his disciples

were in a sense pulled over by the religious leaders

because they were,

Jesus' disciples were picking grain out of the field

while they were walking along on the Sabbath.

They considered that work.

So, there was that run-in.

Then there was the time when Jesus was at the synagogue with,

and there was a man who had a shriveled hand there.

And the Pharisees, the religious leaders,

they were just hovering like vultures,

waiting to see,

is Jesus going to do the work of healing this man on the Sabbath day?

If he does, we'll nail him to the wall for it.

There was that encounter.

And already back then,

the gospel writers, the other ones,

tell us that the Pharisees were plotting to kill Jesus.

And so, probably these things are in the backdrop

as we come to our passage today.

And then, this healing of the man at the pool in Jerusalem

just kind of adds to the kindling

and sparks the flame,

which causes the fire that this head-on collision

is going to bring about.

So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath,

these kinds of things,

and repeatedly,

the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.

Now, that word persecute,

that's a strong word.

They began to go after him

with intensity,

with intentionality.

And what was their goal?

I mean, certainly they harassed him.

They said all kinds of things to him.

They tried to humiliate him in public,

in front of other people.

But their goal was to kill Jesus.

And John tells us this in verse 18.

After he said what's in verse 17,

for this reason,

for saying this,

they tried all the more to kill him.

So, they were already trying to kill Jesus

before he said what's in verse 17.

And now that he said that,

they're trying all the more.

So, persecute is the right word.

The Jewish leaders were persecuting him.

They wanted to do anything that they could

to get to him

and to see him killed.

Now, of course,

they were also religious leaders.

And so, they didn't just go and hire hit men

and all that kind of stuff.

They were going to start by using the tools

that they had available to them.

Mainly, at this point,

it's the legal challenge.

Breaking the Sabbath law.

So, they were going after Jesus.

And in my Bible,

my translation,

it says,

they began to persecute him.

And that word's not actually in the original.

That's,

it's an interpretive decision that they've made.

Literally,

it's the Jewish leaders were persecuting him.

Probably more of a sense of

continuously over an unspecified period of time.

They were going after him.

Verse 17,

In his defense,

Jesus said to them,

My father is always at his work to this very day,

and I too am working.

So, some of the language here is thought to have a bit of a legal sense to it.

In his defense,

my translation says,

I don't think Jesus was actually on trial

in a formal sense,

but certainly in an informal sense,

he was.

I mean,

the religious leaders had come around,

and they were bringing an accusation against Jesus.

And it's not written out for us here,

but you can just hear it.

You can imagine the kind of thing that they're saying to Jesus.

Who gave you the authority to be working,

to be doing these kinds of things like you're doing on the Sabbath?

And Jesus' response is not what we would expect him to say.

At least it's not what I expect him to say.

I would expect Jesus to say something like,

Well, with all due respect,

I have not been breaking the Sabbath law.

I'm not guilty,

because the stuff that I'm doing is not regular work.

And the way that work has been defined by the elders over the years in tradition

goes way beyond what God originally intended

when he first gave the law or the command to keep the Sabbath day holy.

That's what I would have said.

And I think that that is probably true.

We can kind of piece that together from other places as well.

But it's not what Jesus says.

Maybe he did say it.

Maybe that isn't recorded here.

This is just the part we get, though.

This is the thing that stood out the most from what Jesus said.

You've been working on the Sabbath.

Who gave you the authority to be doing this?

What are you doing?

Breaking the law.

Jesus says,

My Father is always at his work to this very day.

And I, too, am working.

Now, if Jesus wasn't at trial and we were his lawyers,

this is the moment where we go,

Oh, boy.

I imagine Peter just thinking to himself,

I mean, we don't know what he's thought.

This is speculation.

But, oh, man, Jesus, like,

this is not going to help our case.

I mean, Jesus doesn't deny that he has been working on the Sabbath.

I am working, he says.

So this is not the response that we're expecting.

What does Jesus mean when he says this?

My Father is always at his work to this very day.

And I, too, am working.

Well, it seems as though Jesus is admitting to the fact that he's been working on the Sabbath.

And at the same time, it seems as though he's offering a reason for why he's not guilty of breaking the Sabbath law.

But it's maybe not the reason that we were expecting.

For sure, it's not the reason the religious leaders were expecting.

So what does Jesus mean when he says this?

My Father is always at his work to this very day.

And I, too, am working.

I think to kind of get at that,

it probably is helpful for us to first answer the question,

did Jesus actually break the Sabbath law?

And I would say the answer to that is no.

We can remember those words of Jesus,

which he said in the Sermon on the Mount,

Matthew 5, verse 17.

Matthew 5:17

He said,

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them,

but to fulfill them.

In verse 19 of that same passage,

Therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands of the law

and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

So Jesus already has this mentality,

this attitude,

and has been teaching that we are to obey the law.

Absolutely you are.

The law was given by God.

If we think back to how the law was given to Moses,

specifically when it comes to this commandment pertaining to the Sabbath,

that was one of the Ten Commandments.

And God himself etched those words onto the stone tablet with his finger

and gave them to Moses.

So Jesus is saying,

Don't think that I've come to say that we just ignore that.

Absolutely you are to obey the commands that God has given.

And it's a big no-no to teach someone else to just set those commands aside.

So was Jesus telling this man to disregard the Sabbath

and do what was unlawful on the Sabbath when he told him to pick up his mat?

My answer is no.

Because he knew that the way that the elders and the rabbis had defined work

went way beyond what the Sabbath law was intended to involve

as it was originally given by God.

Now at this point we might wonder,

well, maybe, I mean, as it comes to the Sabbath law,

isn't Jesus above the Sabbath law?

I mean, is he expected to keep it anyway?

Or can he do as he pleases on the Sabbath because of who he is?

This is a trickier question.

We do hear from the other Gospels,

Jesus say that the Son of Man, referring to himself,

is Lord of the Sabbath.

And even the way he talks here,

my Father is always at his work to this very day,

and I too am working.

We could get this sense that Jesus is above the law,

that this law doesn't pertain to him.

But I think it's so important that we remember

that Jesus is truly God,

and at the same time,

he is truly man,

truly a human being.

And that comes with implications.

And probably the place that we see this most clearly

and how it relates is in Galatians chapter 4,

Galatians 4:4

verses 4 and 5,

where Paul says this.

He says,

But when the fullness of the time came,

God sent forth his Son,

born of a woman,

born under the law,

so that he might redeem those who were under the law.

So what Paul is telling us there

is that Jesus was born of a woman.

He was sent by God into this world

and born as a physical,

flesh and blood human being.

Not only that,

but he was born under the law.

As a man,

as a human being,

he was under the authority

of God's law,

which he had given

a long time ago

through Moses.

And so,

yes,

he had to submit

to the law of God

as a man.

That was required.

In fact,

the plan of salvation

depends upon it.

Look at what Paul says

in Galatians chapter 4.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

He was born,

sent forth his Son,

born of a woman,

born under the law,

so that he might redeem

those who were under the law.

So he needed to keep the law

perfectly

in order to be

that spotless lamb

who would take the place,

who could be a substitute

and take the curse of the law

upon himself

so that we might be redeemed

and set free

from the penalty

of the law,

which we deserve

because of our sins.

The third thing

to consider here

is that

Jesus knew better

than anyone else

what it meant

to keep the Sabbath

holy.

Jesus has already

had a number of run-ins

with the religious

leaders

over this issue,

which we've talked

about already.

There was the man

with the shriveled hand

in Mark chapter 3.

Mark 3 · chapter mention

Look at what Jesus

said to the Pharisees

there as they were

ready to pounce on him

for working on the Sabbath

by healing this man.

He said,

which is lawful

on the Sabbath?

To do good

or to do evil?

To save life

or to kill?

On another occasion

with a different man,

a different Sabbath,

it happened again.

They were there,

the Pharisees,

the experts

in the law,

and Jesus asked them.

This is Luke 14,

Luke 14:3

verse 3.

Is it lawful

to heal

on the Sabbath

or not?

Of course,

they didn't want

to say anything

because they knew

that Jesus

would embarrass them

if they did

because he knew

what was lawful

even better

than they did.

verse 5

of that same account.

Jesus answers

the question

with a question.

He says,

if one of you

has a child

or an ox

that falls

into a well

on the Sabbath day,

will you not

immediately

pull it out?

The implied

answer

in both

of these cases

is the same.

Jesus knew

what keeping

the Sabbath

holy meant,

what kind

of work

was permitted

and what kind

was forbidden.

His point

was essentially

this.

It is lawful

to do good

on the Sabbath.

It is lawful

to save

a life

on the Sabbath.

It is lawful

to do the work

of healing

on the Sabbath.

In fact,

it might be

that he's even

saying something

a little more

than that.

To leave

this man

here with

his hand

like this

when I

have the

power

to heal

him,

to set

him free,

would be

evil.

It's either

good or evil.

Which one

is lawful?

The good.

Jesus knows

better than

anyone else

what is lawful

on the Sabbath,

what it means

to keep

that day

holy,

what God

intended.

And so

when we bring

all of these

things together,

I think the

clear answer

is that

Jesus did

not break

the Sabbath

law.

He may have

broken the

laws that

were imposed

by men

and added

later on

to kind of

spell out

or fill

out what

constituted

breaking the

Sabbath law,

but he did

not break

the law

which God

had given.

But what

surprises me

most is that

Jesus says

absolutely

none of that

in this

moment.

Why are you

working on

the Sabbath?

He doesn't

say any of

that.

Maybe he

did and

it's just

not recorded

and this

is the

one thing

that was

recorded.

It's

possible.

After all,

this thing

does stand

out.

Why are

you working

on the

Sabbath?

Who gave

you the

authority to

be doing

this?

Jesus'

answer is

this.

My

father is

always at

his work

to this

very day

and I

too

am working.

what an

answer to

give.

What does

it mean?

First of

all, we

notice that

Jesus does

not deny

that he's

been working.

Yes, I

am working,

he says.

I have

been healing

people.

I have

been teaching.

I have

been casting

out demons

on the

Sabbath.

I have

been working.

So has

God, my

father.

He's not

guilty of

working on

the Sabbath

and he

works on

the Sabbath

as implied,

stated,

and neither

am I

guilty for

working on

the Sabbath.

like, what

kind of an

answer is

this?

This is

surprising.

Literally, my

father is

working until

now or

right up to

this moment,

we might

say.

And so am

I.

It's the

Sabbath day.

This is the

day that he

has done

this healing

and he

says,

my father,

God, my

father, he's

working today.

So am

I.

You have

to know

that this

really got

the religious

leaders worked

up and we're

going to see

that in a

moment.

But what

does Jesus

mean by

this?

Well, there's

some religious

background that

we should

probably understand

here.

I guess the

rabbis of

Jesus' day had

been having

this whole

discussion,

theological

discussion.

Does God

keep the

Sabbath?

It's kind

of a

ridiculous

discussion in

one sense.

Is he

guilty of

breaking the

Sabbath?

Well, some

would say

he carries

things on

the Sabbath

because he's

carrying the

universe.

He's sustaining

the world.

He's working.

He's accomplishing

his sovereign

purposes.

He doesn't

take a day

off from

that stuff.

If he did,

the universe

would be in

trouble.

He works on

the Sabbath,

they said.

And so,

how can he

not be guilty

for that?

For breaking

his own

law?

The way that

they were

reasoning it

out was they

were saying

things, and

this is kind

of ridiculous,

but saying

things like,

well, maybe

he's not

guilty of

carrying

something from

one place

to another

because he's

everywhere at

once.

And so,

if he's

everywhere,

then he

can't really

carry something

from one

place to

another.

He's already

there.

So, he

kind of gets

off the

hook that

way.

You can

kind of

see the

legalistic,

ridiculous

mentality of

their

reasoning.

But the

rabbis were

right about

two things.

First, they

were right

that God

doesn't take a

day off from

his work.

I mean, he

took a day

off from

the work of

creating the

universe.

On the

seventh day,

he rested.

But since

then, God

continues to

work every

day, sustaining

the universe,

holding everything

together,

sovereignly

directing it

according to

his plan and

purposes.

That's something

he does every

day, constantly.

They were

also right that

God is not

guilty for

working, even

on the

Sabbath day,

for doing

that kind

of work.

But the

reason he's

not guilty

is because

the law

doesn't apply

to him.

As Jesus

said in

another

gospel, the

Sabbath was

made for

man.

That law,

that requirement

does not

apply to

God.

And Jesus,

I think,

is leveraging

that truth.

He's bringing

that truth to

bear on this

conversation.

My father,

God, is

always at

his work.

He's always

working.

And he's

not guilty

for it.

But then the

rest of his

argument is,

neither am I.

I too am

working.

And implied,

I'm not

guilty either.

Well, how

does that

work?

There's an

implied statement

in there.

And there's

various

interpretations of

this, but this

is my

understanding of

it.

They're bringing

their accusation,

you've been

working on the

Sabbath, Jesus

is giving his

defense.

He's saying,

God is not

guilty of

working on the

Sabbath.

Sabbath.

I'm not

guilty of

working on

the Sabbath,

and I have

been working

on the

Sabbath.

And I

think the

implied statement

is because

the work I

am doing

is his

work.

The works

that I am

doing, they

are his

works.

works.

And so

the Sabbath

law doesn't

apply to

his work

as it

applies to

just ordinary

works of

men.

That's my

take on it,

my understanding

of it.

You see this

clearly with the

miracles that

Jesus did.

Only God can

heal a person

in the ways

that Jesus

has been

doing.

So yes,

in a very

real sense,

the works

that he

is doing

are the

very works

of God.

An analogy

that might

help us to

kind of

think of

this could

be that

of a

son who's

apprenticing

under his

father.

You can

imagine a

father owning

a bit of a

carpentry

business,

taking orders

for, you

know,

crafting fine

furniture at

the workshop

or something

like that.

And in a

very real

sense, if

the son

is his

son is

his apprentice,

when his

son is

working on

the table,

he is

doing his

father's

work.

It's

for his

father's

business.

It's what

his father

is up

to.

It's his

father's

company.

And the

father could

look at the

customers and

say,

yep, I'm

working on

that table

right now.

And even

in that

moment, it's

true, even

though it

might be

the son

that's

the one

who's

actually in

the shop

doing a

part of

that work.

That'd be

maybe one

way to

think of

it.

Another way

that might

be helpful

is to

think of

it in

terms of

the

prophets.

We know

that the

prophets

were specially

chosen by

God to

speak the

words of

God to

people.

Now, they

didn't just

speak on

God's

behalf,

whatever came

into their

heads to

say.

No, they

actually, God

actually put

his own

words in

their mouths

such that

when they

opened their

mouths and

spoke, it

was God who

was speaking

through them.

And I

think Jesus

is implying

here with

this, that

it's the

same when it

comes to

his works.

when he

does his

works, when

he does

those miracles,

when he

drives out

demons, it

is actually

God who

is at

work in

that moment

doing his

works through

him.

And I

think it,

not in the

same sense as

we might say

that any of

us are doing

God's works,

but in a

very special

sense, in

an exclusive

sense, in

a sense that

it's only

had by

Jesus, by

the prophets,

by the

apostles, as

we'll see.

So this is

what Jesus

says in

his defense.

And the

religious leaders,

the Jewish

leaders, they

go wild when

they hear this.

Verse 18,

for this

reason, because

he said this,

they tried all

the more to

kill him.

Not only was

he breaking

the Sabbath,

but he was

even calling

God his

own father,

making himself

equal with

God.

So this

just

caused them

to go,

well, in

his words,

all the more

they tried

to kill him.

They just

wanted to

get this

guy.

Why?

Not only

because he

said this,

it says,

not only

that, but

he was

breaking the

Sabbath, at

least in

their view,

or their

Sabbath laws,

he was

breaking.

But that

wasn't the

big thing.

The big

thing was

that he

was even

calling God

his own

father.

You can

imagine what's

going on in

their minds,

like, how

dare he?

I mean,

they're probably

thinking back

to Numbers

15, where

the man

was, the

Lord told

Moses to

stone him

to death

for picking

up sticks,

for gathering

sticks,

deliberately just

going out,

defying the

Sabbath law,

doing work on

the Sabbath

day.

They're thinking,

Jesus is just

like that guy.

He deserves

to die.

He's, he's,

he's blaspheming.

He's putting

himself on the

same level as

God, calling

God his own

father.

I mean, they,

they're not

stupid.

They picked up

that Jesus

wasn't just

saying that,

that God

was kind

of his father

in the general

sense, that

he's the

father of

Israel, or

the, that

were his, all

his children.

No, he was

saying God is

his own

father.

Like, you're

James, son

of Zebedee,

I'm Jesus,

son of

God himself.

That's like

saying you're

divine, putting

yourself on the

same level as

him.

How dare you?

They wanted to

kill him.

And the

tension continues

to rise.

In, in the

weeks ahead, we're

going to see how

Jesus, he's

going to go on

and say a

whole bunch

more here.

And this

next section

is a gold

mine.

So we're just

going to

slow it down

and really

try to

draw out

what we

can from

the words

of Jesus.

But what's

here in

these, in

these few

verses for

us today?

Well, I

think the

first thing

that we

notice is

that there's

no commands

given.

I don't

even think

this passage

is really

so much

about whether

or not we

should keep

the Sabbath

as Christian

Gentiles.

I mean,

this passage

just isn't

really about

us.

It's, it's

really all

about Jesus

and what

happened to

him when

he came

into our

world almost

2,000 years

ago.

But I don't

think that

means it's

irrelevant to

our lives

today as

Christians.

Christians.

I think

John and

through John

God has

put this

in here for

a very

specific reason

to cause

us also

to, to

come in

to ask

this big

question which

is written

all over

this section,

this question

of who

is Jesus?

This is what

the religious

leaders are

wrestling with.

who is

Jesus?

They're

trying to

come to

their answer.

They've

painted him,

they've got him

pegged and

categorized and

figured out as

a guilty

lawbreaker and

a blasphemer who

deserves to

die.

But of course

as we look

more closely at

the religious

leaders we know

that's not the

complete story.

we know

that they

see Jesus

as a threat

to their

position,

to their

authority.

They don't

like Jesus

because he

shines the

spotlight on

them and

exposes the

ugliness of

their religiosity

and the

evil and

selfishness and

pride in

their hearts.

So there's

something more

going on

here.

that's who

they think

Jesus is

and they're

not stupid.

They know

what Jesus

is claiming.

They know

what his

words mean

when he

says,

my father,

that he

is putting

himself

essentially on

the same

level as

God.

He's claiming

to be the

divine son of

God.

God,

it's against

the backdrop

of this that

we see this

truth come

out,

this truth that

John's been

trying to show

us right from

the beginning

of his

gospel,

that Jesus

is the

divine son

of God.

That's one

of the answers

to this

question of

who is

Jesus.

This question

was something

of who is

Jesus is

something that

the religious

leaders stumbled

over.

But as

Jesus is about

to say in

the weeks

ahead,

it's one of

the most

important

questions,

not just

for them

to answer,

but for

all of us

to answer,

for all

people to

answer,

for me to

answer,

for you

to answer.

And so I

want to ask

you today,

what is your

answer to

this question?

who is

Jesus?

Do you

believe that

he is the

divine son

of God?

Have you

answered this

question?

Or are

you putting

off answering

this question?

Perhaps

sitting on

the fence,

waiting for

a later time

to answer

this question?

I want to

encourage you

not to

put this

off any

longer,

if that's

you.

This is

one of the

most crucial

questions for

all people.

Who is

Jesus?

If he is

the son,

the divine

son of

God,

it has

massive

implications

for our

lives.

Our

eternity

is at

stake.

So I

want to

encourage you

if you

have not

answered that

question,

to answer

that

question.

Finally,

if you do

believe in

Jesus,

you are

born again,

as Jesus

has said,

you belong

to him.

I want to

encourage you

and remind

you that

this is

the question

that we

must bring

to our

world and

encourage them

to answer

with everything

that we

can.

Who is

Jesus?

We ought

to bring

this question

to our

unbelieving

co-workers,

neighbors,

family,

friends.

it's not

just the

most important

question for

you to

answer,

it's the

most important

question for

them as

well.

Eternity

hangs in the

balance for

them.

And it

falls,

it has

been given

to us by

Christ to

bring this

question up

with people,

to point

them as

John is

pointing us

here,

towards

answering it

and seeing

the truth

of who

Jesus is.

And Jesus

has already

made it clear

that we

will not

always be

appreciated

for doing

this.

In fact,

later on

to his

disciples,

not too

long before

he is

crucified,

we'll say

this to

them,

John 15

John 15:8

verse 8,

if the

world hates

you,

keep in

mind that

it hated

me first.

If you

belonged to

the world,

it would

love you

as its

own.

As it

is,

you do

not belong

to the

world,

but I

have chosen

you out

of the

world.

That is

why the

world hates

you.

Remember

what I

told you,

a servant

is not

greater than

his

master.

If they

persecuted

me,

they will

persecute

you

also.

May fear

not keep

us

from

sharing and

from speaking

the good

news of

our

master,

Jesus,

the son

of God.

Let's

pray.

Father in

heaven,

thank you

for your

word.

thank you

that we

get to

be the

fly on

the wall

and see

a little

bit of

what happened

and hear

what Jesus

said that

day.

We love

you,

we love

him,

and we

ask that

you would

teach us

to live

the way

that you

want us

to,

to follow

him in a

way that

honors you

and brings

glory to

his name

and to

yours.

We ask

this in

Jesus'

precious name,

amen.