"Then answered
Jesus...", John 5.19(a). You know, whether you believe in Jesus
or not, it's true...Jesus has answers for us!
Now v. 19 is the ultimate
connecting verse between what we have read in the first 18 verses,
and the rest of chapter five. You've probably used the
saying..."Like father, like son"; well that's exactly what
Jesus is saying here. But of course, the problem with these Jews,
according to vss. 37-42, was that they didn't even know God, so how
could they know His Son?! How can we recognize the work of the
Saviour in this world, or even within ourselves, when we have never
experienced first-hand, the love of God? Jesus has put it very
bluntly over in vss. 40-43...you will not come...you will not
honour...you have not the love of God...you receive Me not, and in v.
47...you believe not! These Jews did not have the love of God in
them, or they would have recognized the very hand of God performing a
healing miracle. Instead, what they saw was a rebellious itenerate
preacher breaking the Sabbath, and so Jesus stated His case, and from
this point in the scriptures, His eye is on the cross, and He never
looks back!
I wonder how many
Christians have at one time set their eyes upon the cross, and have
found their vision blurred by the plank in their eye, that is, the
spiritual/physical/emotional obstruction that is there. It's all too
common a story, isn't it? But not for our Lord, and He plainly
states His case, here in vss. 19-30.
Notice first of all, the
three "verily, verily" verses here...19, 24 and 25; and
each one of them introduces a new truth, and each new truth builds on
the one before it...that's how you study Scripture. Another thing we
must do with the study of Scripture, especially with a passage that
can be a little bit troublesome, as some scriptures tend to be, is to
look for key words or phrases that may help us in the understanding
of it. Well, in this passage there are several such examples that
really do help us to understand what Jesus is saying about His
eternal relationship with God, and in doing-so, He's giving His
defence against the accusation that He had, by healing that once-lame
man, broken the Sabbath.
First of all we see
that...
(a) He does His Father's
work, vss. 19-20
Now what better reason
could there be, for performing a miracle of healing on the Sabbath?
Because that's Who Jesus is, and He's all about His Father! You see,
in criticizing Jesus, these Jews were criticizing God, and we can see
from v. 18, which has to be one of the most blatant examples
of..."the carnal mind, which is enmity against God", just
how serious an accusation these Jews are making! It just goes to
show the great need that this world, and this man (me), has for a
Saviour.
Do you know the greatest
question that has been on man's mind since the dawning of the seventh
day? "What is God up to?" And we all wish that we knew
the answer..."What is God's purpose, in me? Why does He allow
this crazy quilt of a world to go on the way it is?" You see,
as I've said before, we don't know the mind of God, or in this case,
the works of God, because His mind is not our mind; and even more to
the point, His works are not our works!
If you want to know what
and why God is doing, Jesus said in v. 17..."Just watch Me!"
We don't need to spend $20.00 on a Saturday seminar, or invite the
great preachers and teachers of the world to our churches to find
that out; all we need to do is study Jesus, and study Paul and study
the Prophets! But that takes work; as Jesus said in v. 17..."My
Father worketh hitherto, and I work." Just suppose you and I
were to make that our creed for every waking moment; just think on
that for a minute! And in v. 19..."Verily, verily I say unto
you (that's you and me), the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what
He sees the Father do...". Jesus identified with God by His
works; who do we identify with...the pastor?
The deacons? The Premier,
or the President of the United States? Jesus identified Himself with
God, and so we must clearly identify ourselves with Jesus!
Just think, for another
minute on what the world has to offer us. First of all, every man
and woman of us knows that our lives in this world are not what they
ought to be. We are dying in fact, just like the world is dying; we
are bound and buffeted and bogged-down with cares and concerns, and
the world offers us its remedies...two weeks in the sun, two days at
the casino, or even two hours of hockey playoffs. It could be just
that simple, but it could also serve to steal our zeal for the Lord
and His work! Instead of being caught-up in the works of God, we are
caught unawares when the crises of faith threaten to do us in. We
pollute our bodies, we poison our minds and we push Jesus to the
sidelines, every time we purchase what this world has to offer. We
look for answers in the opposite direction from the cross of
sacrifice, when the answer can only be found in the One Who hung
there!
The sun rises on your
Sabbath, and the tides go in and out and the rain falls and the winds
blow and the grass grows, just as on every other day of the week; and
God's works, work on Saturday and Sunday and on every other day. In
fact, every day is the Lord's day, in that sense of the word, and so,
He was about His Father's business, when that once-lame man was
healed!
Secondly we see that...
(b) Jesus does His
Father's will, vss. 21, 30.b)
Now, what was the Father's
specific will for Jesus? Well it's very clear, isn't it? Can you
imagine a family where every son is so anxious to do his father's
will? Well we're a part of a family like that aren't we? Aren't you
anxious to do the will of your Heavenly Father? It may be hard for
us to believe, but it is possible, and not just in a perfect world,
to do the Father's will. Remember, we have Holy Spirit to help us!
And we have the scriptures as our guide, and we have prayer for our
encouragement. Remember what v. 19 said, that even Jesus..."can
do nothing of Himself". And that's not because His power was
finite, but because, as Philippeans 2.7 says..."He made Himself
of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant...".
In other words, it was entirely a matter of His own will; Jesus made
no attempt to act independently of the Father, nor should we. Now of
course, within every one of us there is a will that needs to be
broken before we are fully useable by God. In fact, as noted in Luke
2.49, Jesus' very first recorded words were..."wist ye not that
I be about My Father's business?" And then, recorded amidst
some of His very last words spoken on this earth..."Father, if
Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless, not My will,
but Thine be done!" (Luke 22.42)
Now before we go on to the
next point, let's look again at v. 21..."the Son quickeneth whom
He will." Notice that Jesus chose only one man from that whole
company of impotent folk; He didn't choose to heal all...only that
one He had singled out for healing, and that's the way He works in
the spiritual realm. He doesn't quicken the worthy, because there
are none; nor those who are waiting to be quickened, because none of
us really know what quickening is, until we are quickened...that is,
given life from above! And as much as we might like to reason this
away, we can't, because..."He quickeneth whom He will", and
when He will! And He has the will to quicken you, that is, give you
life, if you will only believe and receive! (For further study, see
Ephesians 1.1-6, and Romans 8.26-30)
In the next installment we
will see that...Jesus also shares His Father's worth.
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