SEVEN Series: Real Life

A short, engaging podcast that accompanies our sermon series, offering additional insights, practical application, and behind-the-scenes conversations to help you go deeper into God's Word throughout the week.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

No prophet or no person ever in scripture besides Jesus ever claims to have the ability to give life and to give judgment. Yeah. Ultimately, his addressment of his own works is him defending that, saying, I can do nothing on my own accord, but only what I see the father doing. That's not him making a statement of capability. That's him making a statement about character. Yeah. That his actions, his desires, and everything that he does falls into the will of the father. Hi, Jacob. How's it going? What's up, Jake? I'm it's going fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Good.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

This day's going well, and then I get to come here. Now we're like, I get to hang out with you for a little bit. Yeah, dude. And it's it's extra good.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Today we are continuing in our seventh series. Uh, when we're we're talking through this next next passage, it's chapter five, verses 16 through 30, I believe, correct?

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Yeah. Yeah. At least that's that's what's on the teaching calendar. Right. I I'll probably go through 47 though. Oh, hey, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

We're having you get some bonuses today. Yeah, yeah. They get a little bit of extra. So tell us what is going on here in this passage. What are we reading here?

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Yeah. So all of this is like a re it everything that happens in this passage is in reaction to what happened previously. So last week, just a quick recap. Last week we look at the beginning of chapter five. Jesus uh heals a man who's born paralyzed, was paralyzed for 38 years, sat at the pool of Bethesda for 38 years, waited and waited and waited, trying to be healed from this pool of Bethesda. He never is able to get in. Jesus comes over, says, Get up, take up your mat and walk. And he gets up and he walks out. Um and he and he takes up his mat with him as a testimony testimony to the way Jesus had healed him. Immediately after that, that's where we pick up in verse 10, I believe, is right where it starts off. Yeah, verse 10. It says, The Jews said to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to take up your bed. So they're literally criticizing him for the fact that he's carrying his mat with him. Yeah. Not acknowledging that he's he's literally been paralyzed for 38 years and got up. They're criticizing the fact that he's carrying his bed with him, which is so dumb. Um, and then down the line, this is this is really the context of it. The Pharisees and the Jewish leaders are making this huge deal that Jesus healed this man specifically on the Sabbath, right? Claiming that it was unlawful. And then this whole passage from there on out, um, starting in verse 16 all the way to the end of the chapter, is Jesus having a conversation with those Pharisees and Jewish leaders about uh his actions and specifically about who he is. Yeah. Um, that was the biggest thing that they that they questioned. Firstly, just that he was doing this these types of things on the Sabbath. And then Jesus says in verse 17 that he was starting to claim God as his father. Yeah. Not just the father, not just a father, but as my father, specifically a personal, intimate relationship with the father, says in verse 18, just kind of gives the whole context. This is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was Jesus breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. So that's the whole context of this conversation that Jesus has with these Pharisees and other Jewish leaders.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Yeah. So so walk us through some of these claims that he's making after this. Like he's talking about his authority, he's talking about a bunch of different things here. Just kind of walk us through some of this if you can.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Oh, totally. Yeah, the biggest thing is his authority. That's the the overarching thing that he's speaking to, but he speaks to it in multiple different ways. The first way is his unity with the father. He's kind of defending that to begin with. He's he talks about how everything that he does, that he he uses specifically, he uses the phrase in verse eight, verse 19, I can do nothing of my own accord. Or truly true, I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing. So basically, the Pharisees and Jewish, they're coming at Jesus for doing works on the Sabbath, and Jesus is defending that, saying, I only do what the Father's doing. It's not that I don't have the capabilities that I it's not in my nature to do anything that the father wouldn't have me do.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Because we're completely united in our desires, our will, completely united in our character, and therefore also in our actions. So he's defending his actions and the authority behind his actions. That's the first thing. The next thing he he does is he actually defends his greater authority that goes beyond just defending himself, but actually goes into what he came to do. He says in verse 21, for as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the son gives life to whom he will. So basically, he just like a couple chapters earlier, he has this conversation with Nicodemus, yeah, lets him know why he's here to give eternal life because the fat because God so loves the world that he would send me, Jesus, to come and to do that, yeah, to give eternal life. He's letting the Pharisees know about this. This is the first time he's ever mentioned this to anyone outside of Nicodemus and the woman of the well. So that's that's the next thing he's defending and he's he's arguing for. Um the next thing he argues for, this is kind of interesting, is that he has the authority to judge. It's not just that he has the authority to uh give eternal life. He also has the authority to judge. He specifically mentions in uh in verse, I'm just trying to find it here, verse 22, for the father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the son, that all who may on 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. And then he goes on to even even discussing the end of all things, the at the end where he will uh eventually return and he will have the authority to judge. Yeah. Uh not just to give life.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

So what's interesting to me is that this this is a very theologically rich passage. Oh, yeah. There's a lot of things that when it comes to Christology and understanding, uh helping us understand who Jesus is. He's not only like just teaching it to them, but like this is where we go as well, because you know, we we go to the Bible for everything. This is our source of truth, and so this is where we go to understand who Jesus is, is who he's saying he that he is. And we have to trust all this. Yeah, there's a lot in here that that reading it for face value, maybe not understanding even some of the the historical context behind some of this, might be a little bit confusing. We as Christians, um, we we believe in something called the Trinity, where God is three, but he's also in one Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that they are they are co-eternal, that they all share authority, you know, that they they are all God, but it's one God and three different persons. Yep. And so the I know what I know the the the thoughts behind this, but I'd love to hear you kind of describe um when Jesus says at the very very top of this section in verse 19, it says, Truthfully, I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing. That feels to me like they're reading it again at face value, maybe even just not reading it in context of the rest of the passage as well. We could quickly read that and think, okay, so is there is there authority? Is there an authority structure amongst the Trinity where one's in charge and then someone else isn't? Can you kind of talk through us there about how we reconcile this idea or what Jesus is actually showing us here? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Yeah, in some ways, and this isn't meant to be a cop-out answer, like I want to get to the question, but in some ways, this is just something that we're never gonna fully understand. Sure. Yeah. The more, honestly, the more and more we dive into it, the more and more mind-boggled we are. And there's actually, I think, beauty in that. I think God doesn't always call us to understand him, he calls us to worship him, yeah, and to be in awe of him. And I think this is one of those areas that we just have to be okay with not understanding everything and just being in awe and worshiping him. But um, specifically to the question about their dynamic here, so you can definitely, if you're reading it just on the surface, you can almost make it seem like oh, Jesus is just like a chosen saint that the father loves a lot. Yeah. And therefore, he's just kind of doing whatever the father tells him. He has a special relationship with the father, but he's not necessarily God in the flesh.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Just because he's so obedient, he can do these things, is what it is.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Almost like a prophet. Okay, this is this is you know, maybe a better version of a prop. Like, I mean, you even Elijah. Elijah performed miracles. Right. Um, so why how is this any different? What you see here is really, really interesting. Um prophet or no person ever in scripture besides Jesus ever claims to have the ability to give life and to give judgment. Yeah, no one ever claims that. So what Jesus is doing ultimately his addressment of his own works is him defending that, saying, I can do nothing of my own accord, but only what I see the father doing, that's not him making a statement of capability. That's him making a statement about character. Yeah. That his actions, his desires, and everything that he does falls into the will of the father, and therefore also into his own will because they're united. So if anything, this is actually this is Jesus arguing that they're united, right? Not necessarily him saying that they're separate. Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

You know, by this point, if you're reading John sequentially, like John has already made the statement here that Jesus was their creation, that he was God, he was with God, he's the word of God, you know, he is he is the foundation the universe is laid upon. And so making these statements in context of what you're reading is really important. Oh, yeah, you know, and to be able to understand what Jesus is saying here. So I wanted to make that delineation because I don't want people to read this and get confused. Totally. I know I know people are gonna ask that question when they're reading this. Like, so what does that mean that he can't do anything that the father isn't doing, you know, or that that he's receiving authority, you know, those things. And that there is a receiving of authority in his flesh because no man ever has done what he does. You know, no man has can claim that he gives life like the father gives life. You know, that that's that's way different than any prophet that has ever existed. There are prophets that have been given messages from God to deliver to other people, you know, but they but they they're not intrinsically connected to him, they're not one with him, they're just hearing things from him, and then delivering those messages, even the miracles that they would that would they would have performed, like that that that is the power of God working because of answer prayer, not necessarily he just does it. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. So it's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Yeah. The cool thing too. I mean, I don't even know what to how much time we got left, but a cool thing just to add to the end here, too, like those last verses in the chapter, chapter verses 30 through 47, Jesus basically shifts from defending his actions and saying he claiming his unity with the Father to then giving a list of all the things that bear witness to him. Yeah. And the first being John the Baptist and the prophets before him, the second being his own works, like you know, telling a paralytic who's been paralyzed for 38 years, get up and walk, and him getting up and walking, that's that's a pretty clear testament to his son's power. And the third one literally being the word of God that Moses talked about Jesus. Yeah. Um, that that the law talks about Jesus, that the prophets talked about Jesus. Um, so just you know, the the argument for Jesus' identity as not just man and not just um not just a good moral teacher, but the son of God takes center stage here from beginning to end.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Yeah, so good. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Jacob. I appreciate it. Um we'll dive into the passage now. If you're if you're doing personal study time or maybe with a group, now's a good time to start your discussion. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Of course, thank you.