Introduction
It is a big day for Jesus! Today we read that he will appear before the religious leaders in Jerusalem. He is being brought up on two very serious charges.
Charge #1: Jesus broke Sabbath by healing a man and then telling him to carry his mat (do work).
Charge #2: Jesus was claiming that God was His real Father and that He and God the Father were equals. Wow! I hope you can’t wait for the declaration of truth that is coming your way today.
Reading [You can read as much as you can, depending on your availability]
John 5:16-47
Meditating [Use these questions to start your thinking]
- What was the primary message of Jesus in this passage (v. 18)?
- There are several witnesses that Jesus calls forward to testify on His behalf. Find them and write down the truth they tell about who Jesus is.
- What does this discourse by Jesus tell us about His character?
- What other questions do you still have?
Sharing: Text ONE of your answers to the questions above to your team. Each team should post a sharing from a team member in the comments below.
There has never been and never will be a more powerful declaration of the person of Jesus Christ than what we see in this passage. Here we have Jesus Christ Himself, addressing the religious and political leaders of His day in an all-out defense of who He is. Like a masterful lawyer, Jesus works His way through point by point, witness by witness, to the logical conclusion that He really is equal with God. He argues that it is a fact and not blasphemous at all. Here is Jesus, fully God, and yet standing before them fully man. He is the God and Man, God made in flesh, God come to live as His creations do and show us how to live in complete dependence on the Father.
How did you do with the five witnesses? Let’s take a brief look at each one.
Witness #1: Jesus Himself (John 5:19-31). Jesus says that He is loved by the Father (v. 20), has an ongoing intimate relationship with Him, was given authority by the Father to execute judgment and is willing to submit to the Father and do only His will (vs. 19, 30). He also says that He is equal with God (v. 23).
Witness #2: John the Baptist (John 5:33,35). John gave testimony of who Jesus was, back at the Jordan River (John 1:19-34). John testified that Jesus was the Messiah, the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world. Unfortunately, John is now rotting in prison, his light hidden from the people.
Witness #3: Jesus’ Own Works (John 5:36). Jesus says that greater than the testimony of the prophet John is Jesus’ works that God has given Him to do. The miracles of transformed lives all around Him bear witness of His authenticity, like the man who was sick for 38 years before Jesus healed him.
Witness #4: The Father Himself (John 5:37,38). Jesus now calls God the Father to witness about His true self. But when did the Father testify about Jesus? Go back to the river again (Matt. 3:16-17). The Father opened the heavens and said, “‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’”
Witness #5: The Scripture (John 5:39-47). Jesus tells them, “‘But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me’” (John 5:45-46). Wow! But what does He mean, that Moses wrote about Him? I have read the first five books of the Bible (those that Moses wrote) and I have never seen anything about Jesus there. Unfortunately, our generation has long lost the fact that the Bible, the whole Bible, is really all about Jesus, and not about us. In our individualistic society, we have been taught to read and study the Bible looking for ourselves. What does it say about me? What am I supposed to do? What does God want from me? These are all good questions, but not the real point of the Bible. From cover to cover, the Bible points to Jesus. It is the same with history, we tend to interpret history in terms of ourselves and not Jesus. We are self-centered, instead of Christ-centred. Really, all of history is simply His story (Jesus’ Story).
My challenge to you is to read the Word of God, not looking for you, but looking for Him. I guarantee a life change. Spend some time today sharing who Jesus is with a friend — not who you think Jesus is but who Jesus says He is. In John 5, the man Jesus tells us that He is God and gives proof of that truth. Discuss Jesus with a friend who does not know Him yet. Use John 5 as your source of discussion. Ask them simply to read it and react to what Jesus says about Himself. You will have to come to the conclusion that either Jesus was mentally ill and self-deceived, a complete nut case, or that He was telling the truth and He was God in an earthly body. After allowing your friend to read this passage and respond, simply ask him/her what they will do with Jesus. Be brave! Be courageous! You will simply be asking someone to read what Jesus said about Himself. You don’t have to hardly say a thing. Don’t even feel like you need to defend Jesus — He does a much better job than we could ever do. Go ahead and find that friend.
It’s a little ironic that the Jews were accusing him of claiming to be the Son of God bc he actually was. But to be fair, his claims were pretty outrageous if you didn’t know he was actually the son of God. He claims to have the power to forgive sins and that the scriptures all point to him. And like Cody said, Jesus has the God card in his back pocket the entire time but still tried to reason with his enemies. This shows immense self control in the face of adversity.
Today’s passage was a lot to unpack but was necessary for the leaders and even myself to hear. The primary message of Jesus in this passage was to let the leaders know that they do not believe. Jesus is the living God and yet with little to no faith, they do not see that. Instead, they choose to honor each other and be stubborn in their hearts. I can imagine the frustration that Jesus could be feeling yet instead of acting on his emotions he was meticulous in how he wanted to address the actions. He brought up a lot of witnesses and it still astonishes me to see that they do not recognize. Jesus even brought up Moses, someone the leaders put all their hopes in, talked about Jesus and his written testament aligned to Jesus yet they do not see or believe that.
For me, this whole discourse shows how patient and confident Jesus is. No matter how many times the leaders would infuriate Jesus, rather than acting on His emotions, he thought but also in the way he spoke shows that He is confident in the Lord and His identity. He did not let anyone tarnish Him and continues to remain faithful in His path.
The Jewish leaders agreed with the concepts that God continued to work but disagreed with the way Jesus making Himself equal with God. However, Jesus also said “by myself I can do nothing…” this shows Jesus doesn’t operate independently from the Father. He constantly is in touch with the Father. The key here is Jesus is constantly in communication with the Father and being obedience to the Father. We must learn from Jesus how to listen to the Father and follow his instructions. If we do things independently from the Father, we will be powerless and ineffective.
In this discourse I see Jesus proving to the Pharasies who he is. Almost like a court hearing, hes like his own lawyer.
If I took a second to think it over, I saw thru v19-21 in this discourse to be comforting. Comforting to know that Jesus was a blueprint/tool into what God was trying to do for the people he loved.