The Son and the Father (John 5:19-30)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:05.839 Will turn your attention with me now to John Chapter Five. John Chapter Five. 2 00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:10.910 I'm going to begin reading it verse eighteen and I'll read through verse thirty. 3 00:00:12.269 --> 00:00:19.949 This is following an event where Jesus healed this man who had been paralyzed 4 00:00:20.469 --> 00:00:24.339 for a long time, thirty eight years, I'm he had done this great 5 00:00:24.379 --> 00:00:28.980 work. He had done it on the Sabbath. It's made, as you 6 00:00:29.019 --> 00:00:33.859 will see, the Jews, I'm very angry with him, and it leads 7 00:00:33.979 --> 00:00:41.689 to some very precious revelation to us and the world. Sir, God's were 8 00:00:41.729 --> 00:00:46.570 a John Five, verse eighteen. This was why the Jews were seeking all 9 00:00:46.609 --> 00:00:50.600 the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the sabbath, 10 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:57.079 but he was even calling his calling God, his own father, making himself 11 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:03.349 equal with God. So Jesus said to them. Truly, truly, I 12 00:01:03.510 --> 00:01:07.349 say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but 13 00:01:07.510 --> 00:01:11.870 only what he sees the father doing. For whatever the father does, that 14 00:01:12.150 --> 00:01:18.150 the son does likewise. For the father loves the son and shows him all 15 00:01:18.269 --> 00:01:23.340 that he himself is doing, and greater works than these will he show him, 16 00:01:23.939 --> 00:01:26.980 so that you may marvel, for as the father raises the dead and 17 00:01:27.099 --> 00:01:33.170 gives them life. So also the son gives life to whom he will. 18 00:01:34.290 --> 00:01:38.209 The father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the son, 19 00:01:38.969 --> 00:01:42.769 that all may honor the son just as they honor the father. Whoever does 20 00:01:42.849 --> 00:01:49.439 not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Truly truly, 21 00:01:49.879 --> 00:01:53.519 I say to you, whoever hear is my word and believes him who 22 00:01:53.640 --> 00:02:00.519 sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has 23 00:02:00.599 --> 00:02:05.829 passed from death to life. Truly truly, I say to you, and 24 00:02:05.989 --> 00:02:10.430 our is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the 25 00:02:10.509 --> 00:02:16.539 voice of the son of God, and those who hear will live. For 26 00:02:16.699 --> 00:02:22.900 as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also 27 00:02:22.979 --> 00:02:28.379 to have life in himself, and he has given him authority to execute judgment, 28 00:02:29.139 --> 00:02:32.250 because he is the son of man. Do Not Marvel at this, 29 00:02:34.050 --> 00:02:37.490 for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his 30 00:02:37.650 --> 00:02:40.849 voice and come out, and those who have done good to the resurrection of 31 00:02:42.009 --> 00:02:46.560 life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of Judgment. I can 32 00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:51.240 do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my 33 00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:55.360 judgment is just because I seek, not my own but the will of him 34 00:02:55.360 --> 00:03:00.750 who sent me. And let's hear a little more. Now I want to 35 00:03:00.750 --> 00:03:07.349 go back and read from the very beginning of John's letter, reminder that we 36 00:03:07.389 --> 00:03:12.830 might have some of these things fresh in our minds as we consider on the 37 00:03:12.860 --> 00:03:16.819 nature of Jesus and his relationship with the father. John. One in the 38 00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:22.819 beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word 39 00:03:23.180 --> 00:03:28.210 was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made 40 00:03:28.409 --> 00:03:34.330 through him and without him was not anything made. That was made in him 41 00:03:34.490 --> 00:03:38.810 was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines 42 00:03:38.849 --> 00:03:43.680 in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. They God bless his 43 00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:52.560 word to us. You may be seated. In order to be a Christian, 44 00:03:54.159 --> 00:04:02.469 in order to have life in God, we must believe in God. 45 00:04:04.509 --> 00:04:09.750 We must believe in God, not as we would like to think he is, 46 00:04:11.139 --> 00:04:15.699 not as we might speculate he is, but only as he is. 47 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:23.579 We, in order to have life, Jesus says, have to believe in 48 00:04:23.779 --> 00:04:29.209 Him who sent the sun. We have to believe, if in God, 49 00:04:29.370 --> 00:04:33.170 the father. And how do we believe him? How do we know him? 50 00:04:33.930 --> 00:04:36.769 How do we know his word? How do we understand his word. 51 00:04:36.850 --> 00:04:42.560 How do we give him honor? Well, Jesus says, through him, 52 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:46.399 through Jesus, that is, through him, Jesus himself. The one who 53 00:04:46.519 --> 00:04:50.600 honors him honors the Father. The one who is saved by him is saved 54 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:56.589 by the father. The one who passes from death to life through Jesus is 55 00:04:56.870 --> 00:05:04.149 one who has life in the father, through the son. And that's why 56 00:05:04.910 --> 00:05:10.459 one of our membership vows here on one those of you who are members have 57 00:05:10.620 --> 00:05:18.660 taken, is this. Do you believe in one living and true god in 58 00:05:18.819 --> 00:05:25.490 whom, eternally, there are three distinct persons, God the father, God 59 00:05:25.649 --> 00:05:32.209 the Son and God the Holy Spirit, who are the same in being and 60 00:05:32.569 --> 00:05:40.040 equal in power and glory, and that Jesus Christ is God the son come 61 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:48.639 in the flesh. This is in some ways simply simply stated. We could 62 00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:54.189 say it even more simply that God is one. There is but one God, 63 00:05:54.470 --> 00:05:59.509 not three Gods, one God, one living and True God in three 64 00:05:59.629 --> 00:06:05.100 persons, and that these three persons are the one God. Now, though 65 00:06:05.180 --> 00:06:10.180 we can say it very simply and very plainly, it doesn't mean that it 66 00:06:10.300 --> 00:06:17.970 is a simplistic truth. Indeed, this is the greatest mystery there is not 67 00:06:18.170 --> 00:06:25.209 because it's this arcane doctrine, because, but because it is describing God. 68 00:06:26.370 --> 00:06:30.129 Would you expect anything less of a description of God than something that would be 69 00:06:30.209 --> 00:06:35.759 a great mystery. Would you expect to hear of the nature of God and 70 00:06:36.120 --> 00:06:41.839 go, Oh, yeah, of course I get that one right? We 71 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:46.550 don't even understand ourselves. This is a great point that Gregory Nancy enzus makes 72 00:06:47.470 --> 00:06:53.230 in a work that's called the five theological orations. He says you don't even 73 00:06:53.310 --> 00:07:00.310 understand yourself, your will, your mind, the ways in which you were 74 00:07:00.470 --> 00:07:06.579 born, how your parts were knit together, the distinctions between your emotions and 75 00:07:06.699 --> 00:07:13.339 your heart and these other fact you don't even understand yourself, your own nature. 76 00:07:13.980 --> 00:07:20.009 And what makes you think, then, that you can understand God in 77 00:07:20.170 --> 00:07:26.930 all that he is, who is completely and entirely separate from his creation, 78 00:07:27.730 --> 00:07:33.160 not dependent on it in any way, distinct as the creator of of the 79 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:43.040 creation? His thoughts are not our thoughts, the scripture says, his ways 80 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:47.870 are not our ways and his being is not our being. If you want 81 00:07:47.910 --> 00:07:55.389 to avoid heresy, if you want to avoid falling into idolatry or or just 82 00:07:55.629 --> 00:08:00.500 simply error, then the one thing that would be really good to do is 83 00:08:00.699 --> 00:08:07.339 not impute to God your human nature. This is where we fall over and 84 00:08:07.579 --> 00:08:11.579 over and over again. Now it's hard in some ways because God, in 85 00:08:11.779 --> 00:08:20.649 revealing himself, condescends and speaks to us in a humanly way. Right. 86 00:08:20.730 --> 00:08:24.290 What other way is he going to speak to us other than in the ways 87 00:08:24.370 --> 00:08:28.959 that we can understand? According to creation? Right, we cannot sort of 88 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:35.120 extract ourselves out of creation, as God always is and always will be, 89 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:41.789 not extracted but separate from we cannot lift ourselves out of this to think anything 90 00:08:41.029 --> 00:08:46.269 other than creaturely thoughts, if there's no way in which we can sort of 91 00:08:46.389 --> 00:08:52.590 remove ourselves from who we are in our context to take on a kind of 92 00:08:52.710 --> 00:08:56.940 a divine thinking, if I can put it that way, a divin understanding. 93 00:08:58.379 --> 00:09:03.899 So that being the case, the only way in which we can understand 94 00:09:03.659 --> 00:09:09.220 who god is and the things that he reveals is by him, in his 95 00:09:09.539 --> 00:09:16.929 infiniteness, in his great wisdom, in His mercy, to come to us, 96 00:09:18.009 --> 00:09:22.889 right, to come into the world and speak to us in a way 97 00:09:22.889 --> 00:09:28.200 that we can understand. Parents do this for their children all the time. 98 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:35.120 Right. We say things in a way that makes sense to them. We 99 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:43.070 speak simply, we use terms that they understand. We pick a metaphors and 100 00:09:43.110 --> 00:09:46.750 analogies that they might go, Oh, yeah, I know what you mean. 101 00:09:50.149 --> 00:09:56.700 And so this is how God describes himself to us. He speaks in 102 00:09:56.860 --> 00:10:00.340 ways that we can understand. But as we do that and as we come 103 00:10:00.419 --> 00:10:05.059 to understand that, we want to remember that it's always something of an analogy. 104 00:10:05.100 --> 00:10:11.169 We are not giving, we are not getting, we are not getting 105 00:10:11.169 --> 00:10:20.129 an understanding of God as he understands himself. Impossible. His ways are not 106 00:10:20.289 --> 00:10:22.919 our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. He would not be God 107 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:33.360 if we could totally come rehend him and understand him. So this doctrine is 108 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:39.990 a great mystery, but it is true because God is true and God speaks 109 00:10:41.070 --> 00:10:46.350 it and it can be trusted. Indeed, it is for trusting. Right. 110 00:10:46.509 --> 00:10:52.620 God reveals himself in this way so that we might believe and understand and 111 00:10:54.740 --> 00:11:03.059 have eternal life. So though the doctrine is rich and complex and and and 112 00:11:03.809 --> 00:11:11.490 indeed the WHO God's nature is something that can never be fully comprehended, it 113 00:11:11.610 --> 00:11:13.970 doesn't mean we throw our hands up in the air and say, well, 114 00:11:13.009 --> 00:11:16.570 it's not even worth talking about then, right, because then that would just 115 00:11:16.649 --> 00:11:20.120 be take our scissors and sort of cut this passage out of the Bible and 116 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:26.720 say not worth my time, too hard, unimportant. But of Coorse, 117 00:11:26.799 --> 00:11:33.470 it's not the case. God's God's God, the spirit has inspired these words, 118 00:11:33.509 --> 00:11:37.350 recorded to them in scripture for our benefit, so that we might study 119 00:11:37.429 --> 00:11:41.389 them, so that we might meditate on them, so that we might grow 120 00:11:41.629 --> 00:11:46.500 in in godliness and in living in him. So we approach this passage with 121 00:11:46.980 --> 00:11:52.980 do humility and respect and reverence and honor, as we ought to every passage, 122 00:11:54.019 --> 00:12:01.409 but also, I'm without fear. We approach it, I'm with boldness 123 00:12:03.049 --> 00:12:09.330 and faith that God will bless us as we as we hear him and come 124 00:12:09.409 --> 00:12:16.919 to him in faith. Now, one other thing I want to mention before 125 00:12:16.919 --> 00:12:20.279 we think about some of the particulars of this passage is that we don't have 126 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:26.960 a full doctrine of the trinity here, and every question can't be answered in 127 00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:33.070 this one passage or certainly in this one sermon, but we do have a 128 00:12:33.190 --> 00:12:39.190 very large expression of it and in particular the focus is on the son's relationship 129 00:12:39.309 --> 00:12:43.500 to the father. Remember, this is the Gospel about Jesus. It's a 130 00:12:45.100 --> 00:12:50.379 revelation of Jesus and who he is. But as we see in this passage. 131 00:12:50.379 --> 00:12:56.659 There's no understanding Jesus without understanding his father. He is the son of 132 00:12:56.779 --> 00:12:58.809 God, and the only way to understand him as the son of God is 133 00:12:58.889 --> 00:13:03.210 to understand him in relationship to his father, and that's why we have this 134 00:13:03.889 --> 00:13:09.529 big discussion. Remember, this all turns on this fact that Jesus had healed 135 00:13:09.730 --> 00:13:16.639 this man on the Sabbath. He had done something that only God can do, 136 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:22.159 and he had done it on this particular day, God's Day, a 137 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:24.840 day that was to be sanctified to him. It was it belongs to him, 138 00:13:24.840 --> 00:13:30.909 it was sacred. The Jews accused him of breaking the sabbath, of 139 00:13:31.070 --> 00:13:35.389 making himself equal with God. Well, he wasn't making the sad wasn't breaking 140 00:13:35.429 --> 00:13:41.019 the Sabbath, but he certainly was making himself equal with God, because he 141 00:13:41.139 --> 00:13:46.460 is God, son of God. And so he says my father, this 142 00:13:46.500 --> 00:13:52.419 is verse seventeen. My father is working until now and I am working. 143 00:13:54.379 --> 00:14:00.210 This was very well. This made the Jews want to kill him, John 144 00:14:00.330 --> 00:14:11.240 says. Why does Jesus then speak in this way? Why does he address 145 00:14:11.320 --> 00:14:16.879 their concerns? Will Not just to preserve his life, because ultimately that wouldn't 146 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:22.080 happen. They would kill him because of these things. But he speaks to 147 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:26.269 them so that we might know the truth. Notice what he says in Verse 148 00:14:26.309 --> 00:14:33.870 Nineteen. Truly, truly, I say to you, he says these things 149 00:14:33.990 --> 00:14:37.590 that we might know the truth. He says these things so that we might 150 00:14:37.830 --> 00:14:43.379 marvel at the works that God has done. We have this here where he 151 00:14:43.500 --> 00:14:48.259 says and and and to also know the love of God. Verse Twenty, 152 00:14:48.700 --> 00:14:52.889 for the father loves the son and shows himself, shows him all that he 153 00:14:52.049 --> 00:14:58.409 himself is doing these this is why we are given this passage, so that 154 00:14:58.529 --> 00:15:03.570 we might know that God is love, that the way in which Jesus comes, 155 00:15:03.649 --> 00:15:05.330 the way in which he lifts up this Paralytic, the way he lifts 156 00:15:05.370 --> 00:15:11.559 us all up out of our deadness and our trespasses and our sins, it's 157 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:16.399 out of Love, love that it is between the father and the son, 158 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:22.309 love that is given to us by God in this way, so that, 159 00:15:22.350 --> 00:15:31.230 as we have in verse twenty, you May Marvel. What is the application 160 00:15:31.429 --> 00:15:35.860 of this sermon? What is the application of this text? One of them 161 00:15:35.980 --> 00:15:43.059 is that you may marvel, that you may stand before God Almighty, the 162 00:15:43.220 --> 00:15:50.289 try you and God, with your mouth open or maybe shut, and marvel 163 00:15:50.409 --> 00:15:56.809 at him, wonder at him, worship him, praise him, rest in 164 00:15:56.929 --> 00:16:02.769 Him, knowing that he is not you, but that he loves you and 165 00:16:02.929 --> 00:16:07.399 saves you. He gives this passage so that you might honor the son even 166 00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:11.679 as you honor the father, and that, honoring him and believing him and 167 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:17.120 marveling him, in other words by treating Jesus as God, you would have 168 00:16:17.879 --> 00:16:23.190 eternal life. So what does Jesus say in particular, beyond the things that 169 00:16:23.230 --> 00:16:29.029 have mentioned already in this passage, what does he say about himself and his 170 00:16:29.190 --> 00:16:34.700 relationship with God, of the Father? There are two things in particular that 171 00:16:34.820 --> 00:16:40.379 I want to emphasize. The first is that he is distinct from the father. 172 00:16:41.500 --> 00:16:45.500 God, the son is not God the father. They are not the 173 00:16:45.659 --> 00:16:53.009 same person. But number two, that distinction between these two persons of the 174 00:16:53.049 --> 00:17:00.480 trinity is not one of separation, in that we don't have two gods here. 175 00:17:03.480 --> 00:17:08.079 When Jesus makes himself equal with God, it is as God that he 176 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:18.549 is equal in power and glory. He on the father have this same substance, 177 00:17:18.750 --> 00:17:22.109 we say, the same essence, the same being. There are not 178 00:17:22.390 --> 00:17:30.500 two beings or two substances or two essences. There is one God, living 179 00:17:30.700 --> 00:17:37.740 and true who exists eternally in three persons, Father, son and Holy Spirit. 180 00:17:38.259 --> 00:17:41.900 So again, the two points here are that he is distinct from the 181 00:17:42.059 --> 00:17:47.730 father, but that he and the father, together with the spirit, are 182 00:17:48.490 --> 00:17:57.210 one God. So first we see that Jesus is God the Son and not 183 00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:03.880 God the father. Jesus, we say, is the second person of the 184 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:08.920 Trinity. He is God the Son and not God the father. He's called 185 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.990 the second person of the trinity partly because he has revealed himself as the son. 186 00:18:15.309 --> 00:18:18.990 How do we know he has revealed himself as the son? Because he 187 00:18:19.109 --> 00:18:25.390 says it over and over and over and over and over again, just here 188 00:18:25.470 --> 00:18:30.500 in John Five and of course, all throughout the New Testament. He has 189 00:18:30.539 --> 00:18:37.460 revealed himself as the son. And sons come after father's again, we speak 190 00:18:37.500 --> 00:18:42.529 in human ways in our language when we speak of three, in order to 191 00:18:42.730 --> 00:18:48.890 make sense, when to make sense of the distinctions between the three things, 192 00:18:49.369 --> 00:18:53.690 we have to use words, words like one, two, three, first, 193 00:18:53.849 --> 00:18:57.920 second, third. In other words, when we talk about three things, 194 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:02.960 we don't say one, one, one, or two, two, 195 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:07.519 two or three, three. Three. So also, God is one. 196 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:11.190 He is one in three persons, and it would be confusing if we said 197 00:19:11.670 --> 00:19:15.990 that the first person is the father and the first person is the son and 198 00:19:15.109 --> 00:19:19.549 the first person is the Holy Spirit, not only would be it the confusing, 199 00:19:19.589 --> 00:19:22.670 it would also be unorthodox, because it would be saying that the father 200 00:19:22.910 --> 00:19:26.339 is the son and the son is the father, and and so on and 201 00:19:26.420 --> 00:19:33.500 so forth. But they are three distinct persons, son, father and spirit, 202 00:19:34.059 --> 00:19:40.930 not one person. The son is called second, not arbitrarily, but 203 00:19:41.170 --> 00:19:47.690 because that's what he calls himself, and sons come after father's again, this 204 00:19:47.970 --> 00:19:52.329 is just the plain reading of the scripture. I'm not doing anything fancy here. 205 00:19:52.490 --> 00:19:56.200 Right perhaps it even sounds kind of basic the way I'm talking about it 206 00:19:56.359 --> 00:20:00.839 here. I point that out to say that if you are if you are 207 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:07.309 offended by this, your argument isn't with me, it's just with the plain 208 00:20:07.470 --> 00:20:14.109 reading of scripture. Not Simple, not undeep, not shallow, but plain. 209 00:20:17.430 --> 00:20:22.859 But plainness and simplicity in speaking doesn't mean that we can't marvel at it, 210 00:20:23.779 --> 00:20:29.180 wonder at it. Now, how do we know that there are three? 211 00:20:30.619 --> 00:20:33.940 Because God tells us so in the Holy Scriptures. He tells us who 212 00:20:33.940 --> 00:20:37.009 he is so that we might know him, praise him put our faith in 213 00:20:37.170 --> 00:20:42.210 him. Father, son and spirit. How do we see that the father 214 00:20:42.369 --> 00:20:48.250 and son are separate persons though one God? Some people have claimed that this 215 00:20:48.369 --> 00:20:52.680 is not true. Some people have claimed that the father and the son are 216 00:20:52.759 --> 00:20:57.799 not separate persons but are in fact the same person, but in different modes. 217 00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:03.839 This is the heresy of modalism. It's known by other names. It 218 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:11.829 comes in other forms, Sabellianism, UNITARIANISM, oneness theology. It's a wrongheaded 219 00:21:11.829 --> 00:21:18.150 attempt to affirm the divinity of Christ and uphold that there is but one God. 220 00:21:18.420 --> 00:21:22.700 Now, of course it's not wrong to affirm those things. We must 221 00:21:22.740 --> 00:21:27.099 affirm those things, the divinity of Christ and there is one God. The 222 00:21:27.259 --> 00:21:33.690 problem with modalism is not what the heresy affirms, but what. But what? 223 00:21:33.049 --> 00:21:38.369 But what it denies, namely that the father and the son are distinct 224 00:21:38.490 --> 00:21:45.450 persons in the godhead. There are many ways in which Jesus shows us that 225 00:21:45.650 --> 00:21:51.240 he is divine and therefore one with the father in essence, for there is 226 00:21:51.319 --> 00:21:53.640 only one God, one divine and we will get to these, but note 227 00:21:53.720 --> 00:22:02.589 carefully this. In affirming his unity with the father in essence, he does 228 00:22:02.710 --> 00:22:08.309 not he does not deny a distinction between the persons. He does not call 229 00:22:08.390 --> 00:22:14.029 himself the father. He calls himself the son. The son is the son, 230 00:22:14.269 --> 00:22:21.619 the father is the father. Words matter from the beginning to the end 231 00:22:21.660 --> 00:22:23.819 of this past sage that I read to you today, and it's consonant with 232 00:22:23.859 --> 00:22:29.299 the rest of scripture as well. Jesus speaks of himself as distinct from the 233 00:22:29.420 --> 00:22:33.009 father. If he were not the father and the son, if the father 234 00:22:33.210 --> 00:22:38.930 and the son were one person and not to why all the language of begetting, 235 00:22:40.690 --> 00:22:44.799 of being a son? Why would why would there be this distinction? 236 00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:49.480 Why would John Begin the Gospel by saying that he was with God? Why 237 00:22:49.599 --> 00:22:53.599 not just so? Why would Jesus not just say I am God or I 238 00:22:53.799 --> 00:22:59.349 am the father, I am he who was from the beginning, instead of 239 00:22:59.430 --> 00:23:03.069 saying that he was with him, who was from the beginning? Why not 240 00:23:03.190 --> 00:23:07.869 simply say that he is the father? Why even speak of a father at 241 00:23:07.869 --> 00:23:14.099 all if there is no actual father? What do the scriptures say? Did 242 00:23:14.180 --> 00:23:19.259 the father send himself or did he send the son? Verse Twenty Four Says 243 00:23:19.299 --> 00:23:23.700 Truly. Truly, I say to you, whoever hears my words and believes 244 00:23:25.059 --> 00:23:30.410 him who sent me, do you hear the distinction? That person has eternal 245 00:23:30.529 --> 00:23:37.049 life. What do the scriptures say? Does the son do things of his 246 00:23:37.329 --> 00:23:42.000 own accord because he is the father, or because he sees what the father 247 00:23:42.279 --> 00:23:47.440 is doing? Verse Nineteen. Truly, truly, I say to you, 248 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:51.720 the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees 249 00:23:52.319 --> 00:23:59.349 the father doing. A distinction. You always have to ask yourself, what 250 00:23:59.470 --> 00:24:03.430 do the scriptures say? Do you want to worship God, the one true 251 00:24:03.549 --> 00:24:07.710 living God? Do you want to believe in him and have life in his 252 00:24:07.750 --> 00:24:11.579 name? Then we have to believe him as he is, and what we 253 00:24:11.740 --> 00:24:15.859 see is that the father and the son are distinct. In God, it 254 00:24:15.980 --> 00:24:21.460 does no good to love a god of your own imagination. Think of a 255 00:24:21.500 --> 00:24:25.650 husband. Would it be good for him to love a woman of his imagination 256 00:24:25.690 --> 00:24:32.450 or his wife? Of course it's the latter. Should a son honor the 257 00:24:32.609 --> 00:24:38.359 idea of fatherhood merely, or should he honor his father? Of course it's 258 00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:42.160 the latter. And when it comes to God, it's not good enough to 259 00:24:42.640 --> 00:24:51.160 simply honor divinity or honor divine things or a higher power. We have to 260 00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:57.230 honor God who he is. Here's another question for you. Out of love 261 00:24:57.390 --> 00:25:03.990 for the son, will you deny the father? Is that what the son 262 00:25:03.029 --> 00:25:08.700 would want out of love for the father, would you deny the son? 263 00:25:11.220 --> 00:25:15.339 Is that what the father would want? What does God say? He says 264 00:25:15.380 --> 00:25:21.890 in Verse Twenty that the Father Loves the son, so I suggest you should 265 00:25:21.890 --> 00:25:26.250 too. What does God say in Verse Twenty Three? That all may honor 266 00:25:26.369 --> 00:25:32.970 the son just as they honor the father. So should you, for if 267 00:25:33.009 --> 00:25:37.200 you do not honor the son, bither do you honor the father who sent 268 00:25:37.319 --> 00:25:41.680 the son. To deny the father, the son or the spirit, even 269 00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:47.319 for the sake of affirming one or two of them, or divinity in general, 270 00:25:47.880 --> 00:25:56.109 is to Deny God himself, for these three are one God. I 271 00:25:56.309 --> 00:26:03.230 don't love my wife as sort of her just being a woman. I love 272 00:26:03.339 --> 00:26:08.460 her because she's Dulla. I love her because she is who she is. 273 00:26:10.940 --> 00:26:15.220 We Love God because he is who he is. We don't love another, 274 00:26:17.700 --> 00:26:22.849 we love him as he is in three persons. We love these three persons 275 00:26:22.890 --> 00:26:29.730 because they are one God. Is this a mystery? Of course it is, 276 00:26:33.160 --> 00:26:37.519 but we aim not to be comfortable with God, but to worship him, 277 00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:41.480 adore him and fear him. Father, son and Holy Spirit. There 278 00:26:41.559 --> 00:26:48.269 is a distinction between the father and the son. But having affirmed the distinctions 279 00:26:48.309 --> 00:26:52.789 between the persons. To say that the son is the son and the father 280 00:26:52.990 --> 00:27:00.460 is the father does not mean to affirm that there are two gods. Here's 281 00:27:00.500 --> 00:27:07.059 another way to put it. Jesus is not a polytheist. Jesus is not 282 00:27:07.299 --> 00:27:12.900 saying the father is God. And you know what, I'm one too that 283 00:27:14.099 --> 00:27:18.170 lots of people have said that in human history. Lots of people have affirmed 284 00:27:18.450 --> 00:27:27.690 their divinity and lied and died. I didn't mean to rhyme. Jesus is 285 00:27:29.089 --> 00:27:33.599 not a polytheist. Jesus is not saying that God the father, is one 286 00:27:33.839 --> 00:27:41.880 God and that he is also a god. When he attributes to himself as 287 00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:49.549 the son the divine attributes of having life in himself, of granting life to 288 00:27:49.789 --> 00:27:59.700 the dead, of creating the world, he's saying that he is God. 289 00:28:00.900 --> 00:28:07.299 He affirms this in many ways of his power. For example, Verse Nineteen, 290 00:28:07.380 --> 00:28:10.099 he says truly, truly, I say to you, the son can 291 00:28:10.180 --> 00:28:15.170 do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing. 292 00:28:15.250 --> 00:28:18.970 Cyril e Vou Alexandria puts it this way. Those who don't share a 293 00:28:19.049 --> 00:28:26.809 CO in nature have different modes of working, but God the Son and God 294 00:28:26.930 --> 00:28:34.079 the father have the same nature, unique nature, and that there is only 295 00:28:34.200 --> 00:28:38.359 one God. There is not this nature that is sort of spread throughout various 296 00:28:38.839 --> 00:28:45.190 other gods. There is one God with this one divine nature, and Jesus 297 00:28:45.230 --> 00:28:56.539 is it. And so, for that reason, he acts and demonstrates the 298 00:28:56.660 --> 00:29:02.819 power of God. Get up, take up your bed, walk. It's 299 00:29:02.859 --> 00:29:06.180 the sabbath, it's a great day for these things. Right. This is 300 00:29:06.259 --> 00:29:10.769 what he says, this is what he does. How does he speak with 301 00:29:10.930 --> 00:29:15.609 that power? How does he have that power? It's interesting the way he 302 00:29:15.730 --> 00:29:21.650 puts it. It's not. He's not saying he has an inability, like 303 00:29:21.849 --> 00:29:29.279 he's weak in some way. He is saying that he is always tied to 304 00:29:29.400 --> 00:29:33.240 God. In other words, he's only able to do that which is according 305 00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:41.950 to his divine nature, and it's not just his power. In other words, 306 00:29:41.269 --> 00:29:45.470 he affirms the Second Truth, which confirms all the more that Jesus is 307 00:29:45.630 --> 00:29:52.980 in fact divine, the divine, the one divine, and that's that it's 308 00:29:53.019 --> 00:29:56.980 not just that he's acting in this power, but that he's acting according to 309 00:29:57.059 --> 00:30:02.099 the will. In other words, God doesn't just grant him this miraculous power, 310 00:30:02.180 --> 00:30:08.250 as he does let's say, the Prophets or Moses or even the apostles, 311 00:30:08.890 --> 00:30:15.650 who also do amazing and miraculous things. Jesus has not merely been granted 312 00:30:15.930 --> 00:30:21.329 the power of God to exercise it separately from God. No, he exercises 313 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:26.079 this power according to his will, a will that he shares with God. 314 00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:30.720 For as the Verse Twenty One, for as the father raises the son and 315 00:30:30.839 --> 00:30:37.269 gives life to them, so also the son gives life to whom he will. 316 00:30:37.190 --> 00:30:41.509 Is that amazing? How the way Jesus expresses this. I can't help 317 00:30:41.630 --> 00:30:48.150 but see the way, see that the divine nature of scripture. Here Jesus 318 00:30:48.509 --> 00:30:56.859 simultaneously expresses his his authority, his singular authority. I do what I will, 319 00:30:56.859 --> 00:31:03.329 I give life to whom I will, and yet it is in perfect 320 00:31:03.529 --> 00:31:10.170 unison, perfect unity with the father, the father, he says again, 321 00:31:10.250 --> 00:31:14.410 for as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the 322 00:31:14.490 --> 00:31:22.359 son gives life to whom he will. Whoever hears my words, Verse Twenty 323 00:31:22.359 --> 00:31:26.720 Four, whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me, has eternal 324 00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:30.079 life. He does not come into judgment, but has has passed from death 325 00:31:30.519 --> 00:31:36.630 to life. That's what's demonstrated here in this miracle with the paralyzed man with 326 00:31:36.710 --> 00:31:44.509 this invalid this man has gone from weakness and inability and frailty to walking around. 327 00:31:44.549 --> 00:31:49.980 and Jesus says, and you will see greater works than these, greater 328 00:31:51.099 --> 00:31:56.539 than that, absolutely like what? Like raising the dead, not just sick 329 00:31:56.700 --> 00:32:02.329 and infirm and invalid for thirty eight years, but dead, dead, dead. 330 00:32:04.970 --> 00:32:10.089 Who can do that? God can do that, and Jesus is the 331 00:32:10.289 --> 00:32:16.799 son of God. An hour is coming when all who are in their tombs 332 00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:22.599 will hear his voice. It's interesting that Jesus says, and Verse Twenty Eight, 333 00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:27.200 he says do not marvel at this, after he's already said these things 334 00:32:27.240 --> 00:32:30.069 are given to us to marvel. Why does he say that? Well, 335 00:32:30.069 --> 00:32:34.549 in the first place he says Marvel at this theme, Marvel at these things 336 00:32:34.630 --> 00:32:37.349 because, well, I almost meant I was gonna say they are marvelable, 337 00:32:37.509 --> 00:32:42.390 but oh, that's not a word. They are marvelous, right they we 338 00:32:42.549 --> 00:32:46.019 ought to marvel at them. But there's another sense in which we ought to 339 00:32:46.140 --> 00:32:52.380 marvel at them, and that, it's is not a surprise. Jesus is 340 00:32:52.460 --> 00:32:57.539 pointing back here to the Book of Daniel and twenty seven and twenty eight when 341 00:32:57.539 --> 00:33:00.769 he says he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son 342 00:33:00.890 --> 00:33:07.529 of man. This son of man phrase does not mean primarily that he is 343 00:33:07.690 --> 00:33:14.799 incarnate, although that's related. He's referring back to Daniel and this promised son 344 00:33:14.880 --> 00:33:19.240 of man who is going to come and bring about this resurrection from the dead. 345 00:33:20.160 --> 00:33:22.480 That's what he's talking about. On the one hand he's saying marvel these 346 00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:27.630 things are marvelous. On the others sand he's saying this has been told for 347 00:33:27.750 --> 00:33:32.349 a long time. Don't be shocked, don't be surprised. In other words, 348 00:33:32.430 --> 00:33:37.710 the things that Jesus is doing here have been spoken of by the Triune 349 00:33:37.829 --> 00:33:45.539 God for a long time. The prophets testified to this very thing. Of 350 00:33:45.660 --> 00:33:52.940 course this is true, because God always speaks through his word. His power 351 00:33:53.220 --> 00:34:00.569 is exercised in the world through his word. In the beginning was the word, 352 00:34:00.690 --> 00:34:05.650 and the word was with God, and the word was with God and 353 00:34:06.130 --> 00:34:12.400 nothing was made that was made without him. Remember back to Genesis. God 354 00:34:13.079 --> 00:34:20.480 said, let there be light, and there was lie eight and light came 355 00:34:20.559 --> 00:34:23.199 into the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. And here again we 356 00:34:23.280 --> 00:34:30.349 see the same thing happening, as new creation is happening right this work, 357 00:34:30.510 --> 00:34:37.269 this this new creation, Sabbath work, this Kingdom of God, work of 358 00:34:37.820 --> 00:34:44.179 new life beginning. When Jesus says to the paralyzed man, get up, 359 00:34:44.260 --> 00:34:47.019 take up at your bed and walk, he's not just doing this amazing miracle, 360 00:34:47.739 --> 00:34:52.210 he's testifying and pointing to the work of the Kingdom of God and the 361 00:34:52.369 --> 00:34:57.730 nature of the Kingdom of God that comes through him, who is the word 362 00:34:58.090 --> 00:35:10.719 that God speaks and creates life. Amazing. The work, therefore, of 363 00:35:10.840 --> 00:35:16.840 the father and the son are in as inseparable as the one who speaks a 364 00:35:16.920 --> 00:35:22.510 word and causes it to be drawing on an analogy that God himself uses, 365 00:35:22.630 --> 00:35:30.030 Augustine compares it to a flame and a light. He says, give me 366 00:35:30.070 --> 00:35:32.349 a flame without light and I'll give you God, the father, without the 367 00:35:32.429 --> 00:35:40.420 sun. They go together. You can't take them apart. As instantly, 368 00:35:40.739 --> 00:35:46.619 as as instantly as you have a flame, you have a light. As 369 00:35:46.699 --> 00:35:55.289 instantly as God speaks through his son the word, work is done. Nothing 370 00:35:55.570 --> 00:36:01.969 was made, nothing was created without Jesus, Jesus as the word of God, 371 00:36:02.130 --> 00:36:08.559 Jesus as the son of God, Jesus who speaks this word of life 372 00:36:08.719 --> 00:36:13.599 and says to this man, get up, take up your bed, and 373 00:36:13.760 --> 00:36:15.719 walk or to Lazarus, come out of your tomb, or to us. 374 00:36:17.039 --> 00:36:25.349 Believe, and your sins will be forgiven. This is how Jesus speaks of 375 00:36:25.429 --> 00:36:39.019 himself. Speaks of himself not as another God, but as God, as 376 00:36:39.219 --> 00:36:44.500 one with the father, the same in essence, the same in substance, 377 00:36:44.619 --> 00:36:49.210 the same in being and equal in power and glory, and, as we 378 00:36:49.289 --> 00:36:52.809 confess in our membership vows, and as the son of God, who has 379 00:36:53.090 --> 00:37:00.289 come in the flesh, this man who has healed this paralytic that we considered 380 00:37:00.289 --> 00:37:07.800 last week, as none other than God himself. He is not a lesser 381 00:37:07.960 --> 00:37:10.039 being, he is not a created being, he is not an angel or 382 00:37:10.079 --> 00:37:17.710 a spirit or some sort of third thing. He is not the father, 383 00:37:20.670 --> 00:37:22.949 he is the son. He is the word who has been spoken by the 384 00:37:23.070 --> 00:37:31.579 father in this world to bring life, life in his name. He came 385 00:37:31.619 --> 00:37:37.380 into this world not only to reveal these things, to reveal the nature of 386 00:37:37.420 --> 00:37:43.699 the Kingdom of God, but to accomplish that, and he did it by 387 00:37:43.860 --> 00:37:51.849 taking on the form of man, my suffering and dying on a cross for 388 00:37:52.289 --> 00:37:59.559 our sins, by taking humanity on to his divinity. Jesus took our place 389 00:38:01.960 --> 00:38:06.079 so that we might rise up out of our graves, just as he promises 390 00:38:06.119 --> 00:38:14.150 here. So what can else can I say, other than believe, Marvel, 391 00:38:15.510 --> 00:38:20.949 repent of your sins, turn to God as he reveals himself in the 392 00:38:21.110 --> 00:38:27.659 Sun, and worship him, knowing that it is is in his spirit that 393 00:38:27.739 --> 00:38:30.780 he sends to you, that your heart is changed, that this work is 394 00:38:30.900 --> 00:38:35.860 done in your body and in your soul, that you might rise up in 395 00:38:35.980 --> 00:38:45.889 the resurrection of life and praise God. Praise God, Amen.