Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: And Jesus says, whoever hears my words and believes in him who sent me, has eternal life. Not to us, but to your name be the glory. Yeah!

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled, Read the Red. Let's listen in as JP gives us part one of John chapters 3-5.

JP Jones: Well, good morning. Thanks for being here this morning as we are talking about the teachings of Jesus. The greatest teachings by the greatest teacher who ever lived. Read the Red. If you do have a red letter edition of the Bible, the things that we're talking about come right out of the words of Jesus. We're in John chapter 5 this morning, and if you have your Bibles, you might want to turn there.

We've been looking and we will continue to look somewhat following a chronological order of the teachings of Jesus. And so, what we're looking at this morning is still very early in the public ministry of Jesus Christ. We saw when we started this series, the first proclamation of Jesus, which was a message of repentance. It's a very good word, it's a very great message. It's the opportunity for do-overs to experience God's forgiveness and power for new direction in life. Repentance is an awesome privilege that and grace that God gives us.

And then we talked about a conversation that Jesus had with a religious leader, a man named Nicodemus, and Jesus talked about being born again spiritually, and how we can have God's spirit living inside of us. And when we believe the Gospel, that Christ lived and died and rose again, and it's only through Christ that we can experience God's love and forgiveness, we are born again spiritually. And we can come into a relationship with God.

And we discussed also where Jesus gives what I shared with you, the number one reason why people wouldn't accept that offer. And it's not because there's not enough evidence, and it's not because they don't have their intellectual questions answered. But it's because as Jesus said, men love darkness rather than light. That men intuitively understand that to become a follower of Jesus Christ, it requires a change, to step out of our comfort zone and to turn from our old life and to follow the new life that Christ has for us. And for many people, they don't want to do that. They would rather live in the darkness.

So that's all in John chapter 3. So what has happened between John 3 and John chapter 5 is Jesus has another conversation with a woman of Samaria, a woman at the well. She happens to be, we find out in the discourse, a prostitute. Jesus breaks cultural norms by having a public conversation with a woman. Jesus breaks religious expectations by having a conversation with a prostitute, and he offers her living water. He offers her eternal life and the hope of a relationship with God.

Jesus also does several miracles and the word about Jesus is spreading. And Jesus calls his disciples one final time. The Bible says there are three particular interactions between Jesus and his apostles. There's John chapter 1 where he just invites them to kind of hang out with him and check him out and listen to what he has to say. There's Mark chapter 1 where Jesus approaches them while they're fishing and says, you know, leave your nets, come follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men.

And then there's a conversation that Jesus has that's recorded for us in Luke chapter 5 where they had kind of returned back to the fishing business and they'd been fishing all night and didn't catch anything. And Jesus tells Peter, the fisherman, where to throw the net. And Peter kind of looks at him and like, you know, you ought to stick to preaching and let me do the fishing. But Peter says, okay, I'll do it, and he gets this huge collection of fish and he realizes Jesus has authority over everything. And he falls down before Jesus and Peter says, depart from me, I'm a sinful man.

And Jesus says, follow me, from now on you're going to be catching men. And from that point on, Peter and the rest of the apostles stayed with Jesus and followed Jesus. That all has transpired between John chapter 3 and John chapter 5. Now in John chapter 5, the most presenting issue is that there is a pool right outside of Jerusalem called the Pool of Bethesda. Maybe you've been there. I've had the privilege of being there.

And the tradition behind this pool was that at certain times the water stirred and if someone was near the water when it stirred, if they were able to actually get into the water, God would do a miracle and heal them. And so Jesus comes upon this pool and there's a paralytic man and he's desperate for healing. And Jesus says, I have the authority to heal, and he looks at the man and says, stand up, take up your pallet and walk. And the man is physically healed and he rejoices over the fact that Jesus Christ has healed him, only he did it on the Sabbath.

And the religious people of Jesus's day had taken the Sabbath and had developed all kind of minute rules relating to the Sabbath, and there couldn't be any kind of work, and the man was carrying his pallet. And that was considered a work, so the religious leaders took issue with him. Have you ever been around people who cared more about nitpicky rules than about things that really matter? Those were these kind of guys.

And so they not only took issue with him, but they took issue with Jesus because Jesus had healed him on the Sabbath, which was an even a greater violation in their minds. And so they find Jesus to interrogate him on the fact that he had done this work on the Sabbath, and Jesus says to him, you know, my father's been working up until now. But now I'm working. And with those words, these religious leaders plotted to kill Jesus because they understood the implications of Jesus's words. Jesus was making himself out equal with the Father. And we pick up the text at that point, in John chapter 5.

John 5 verse 18. This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself out equal with God. So Jesus said to them, what Jesus is about to say is in response to their accusation that you're making yourself out equal with God. So Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing, and greater works than these will he show him so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honored 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.

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out. And those who have done good to a resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to a resurrection of judgment.

Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. Jesus says, the Father's been working, and now I'm working. The Jewish leaders take issue with him because they understood that Jesus was making himself out equal with God. And to this accusation, Jesus gives the words that we just read. In other words, Jesus is making a case for why he could heal and why he could claim that he was working in concord with the Father, and why their assessment was accurate.

In other words, Jesus doesn't say, wait a minute, time out, you didn't get it right. No, I'm not trying to make myself out equal with God. You've got it all wrong. Let me try to clarify the issue for you. No, in fact, it's the opposite. You got it right. And let me tell you why. And so in effect, what Jesus says in this section is the unique relationship that he has with the Father. He makes a case for the unique relationship that he has with the Father.

And the first thing that he says is that the Son does what he sees the Father doing. You know, when you read the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, on numerous occasions, Jesus said something to the effect that he was equal with God, he was the only way to God, that he was God. And in this passage, in the case that he's making in response to their challenge, Jesus says, he only does what he sees the Father doing. There's a complete harmony between the work of the Father and the work of the Son. There's a complete continuity between the work of the Father and the work of the Son. The work of the Son is the work of the Father.

Secondly, Jesus says, the Father loves the Son and shows him all things. Jesus says, there's this intimacy between the Father and the Son, such that the Father reveals things to the Son and reveals everything to the Son. Thirdly, Jesus says, like the Father, the Son has authority to give life to whom he wills. God raises the dead, and Jesus says, in the same way, I can give life to whoever I will. I have resurrection life in me. I can bring life from the dead. I can give life.

Jesus says that the Father has given all judgment to the Son. The Son is the one who will execute the final judgment. The Son is the final judge, and he has been given that by the Father. And Jesus says, whoever hears my words and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. This offers eternal life, Jesus continually makes all throughout the Gospels. In Matthew chapter 11, Jesus said, if anyone is weary and heavy laden, let him come to me and find rest for his soul.

In John chapter 7, Jesus said, if any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. John chapter 3, we already saw, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish. John chapter 1, whoever receives me, becomes a child of God. Here again, in John chapter 5, if you hear my words and believe in him who sent me, you have eternal life. That's what's at stake.

See, Jesus Christ is claiming to have this unique relationship with the Father, being the only way to the Father, being the unique revelation of the Father, and being the only one who can give eternal life. Jesus says, the Son of God has life in himself. And this is a powerful statement. One of the classes that I teach at Biola University, it's a class called Theology 1. And part of Theology 1 is discussing the doctrine of God, the attributes of God.

And when you study the attributes of God, there is a sense in which these attributes of God are put into two categories: incommunicable attributes of God and communicable attributes of God. Those are big words that basically mean there are some things about the nature of God that are absolutely unique to God. Kind of like the old line from Rudy where Rudy goes to the priest, and the priest says there's two things I've learned, there is a God, and I'm not him. In other words, the priest is acknowledging there's a difference between God and us.

Well, the incommunicable attributes of God are those attributes that point out that difference. There are certain things that are just the nature of who God is. These are unique to who he is. The communicable attributes of God, those are characteristics that because we are God's creatures, created in God's image, we share in. So they're common attributes. They're true about God in an infinite and perfect way, but we share in them in a certain limited way, right?

Well, in this statement that the Son of God has life in himself, this is one of those statements of the incommunicable attributes of God. In other words, what Jesus is saying is very profound. Jesus is saying, I am the source of my own existence. I am the source of my own life. I am independent. I am autonomous. I am self-existing. I have life in myself. See, every one of us, we have derived life or contingent life or dependent life. We depend on a whole host of other things to be existing, and we depend on a whole host of other things to be sustained in our existence.

Jesus says, I have life in myself. Because I have life in myself, I can be the source of life for you. Jesus says, the Son of God has life in himself. Remember, this is a response that Jesus is giving to the accusation that you're making yourself out equal with God. He's saying, yeah, that is what I'm saying, and I'm going to tell you why I'm saying it, and why that's an accurate assessment, and why you ought to believe it. I have a unique relationship with the Father. I've got life in myself.

Then Jesus says, the Son of Man has authority to raise the dead for judgment. Now, up to this point, Jesus has been identifying himself as the Son of God. Here Jesus says, the Son of Man. Some of us might be quick to say, oh, I see what Jesus is doing. He's talking about his two natures, one being divine, one being human. Son of God is divine, Son of Man is human. Well, that's not exactly what Jesus is doing, because the Son of Man is a title.

And it's a title that's been used in the Bible already, back in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew Scriptures, in Daniel chapter 7. In Daniel chapter 7, Daniel has this vision of kind of the future and what's happening in the future, and in this vision he sees God on the throne exalted, and he's referred to as the Ancient of Days. And then he sees what he says, one like the Son of Man who comes to the Ancient of Days, and the Ancient of Days gives all authority, all dominion, all sovereignty to the Son of Man.

And in the context of Daniel's vision, that was a prophetic statement about the Messiah. And so in Jewish expectation, the Messiah of Israel would be the Son of Man who would have absolute authority. Now, when Jesus comes on the scene, the way the Jews of his day had personalized that is they wanted the Messiah to exercise his absolute authority to kick out Rome so they could be an independent nation.

Jesus says, I'm the Son of Man, and my authority isn't going to be exercised right now to kick out Rome. It's the authority to judge the living and the dead, to decide who goes to heaven, who goes to hell. Whoa. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Son of Man. Remember why Jesus is even unpacking this for his listeners. He's saying it because I have a unique relationship with the Father. So when you said you were making yourself out equal to God, you're making an accurate assessment, and let me give you why that's true.

I have life in myself. I have this love relationship with the Father. I only do what I see the Father doing. Anyone who hears my words and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. I have the authority as the Son of Man to judge the living and the dead. And then he says, as the Son of Man, I will reward some to a resurrection of life, and others to a resurrection of judgment.

So all of this is Jesus's response back to these religious leaders and their musing about him and their perception that he is making himself out equal with God. And in effect, Jesus says that is exactly what I'm doing. And what Jesus says is that the Son of God is the unique representative of God. The Son of God is the revelation of God. The Son of God is the one through whom we come to know God. You cannot know God apart from the Son.

Now, if you step away, that is a very exclusive claim because there's a lot of religions in the world. And there's a lot of spiritual people in the world. And Jesus is saying, I'm the only way to God. And if you don't honor the Son, you don't honor the Father. And if you don't believe in my words, you don't have eternal life.

It'd be like us all deciding to take a drive up, you know, drive up some mountain, and we get on Google Maps and we look at it and we break it down. You know how you zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, and then we see all the trails up the mountain. And we see there's one made road, and then it forks off and then there's other trails on it. So we get in our car, we start driving up, and we come to that main fork. And standing in the fork of the road is somebody. So we drive up, we roll the window down, and the guy welcomes us and he says, I'm the guy who put the trail on the map. I designed it. And let me tell you, the only way to the top of the mountain, you got to drive up this way.

If you go this way, it looks like it's going to take you somewhere, but there's all kinds of obstacles in the road and then the road just falls away and you're going to drive your car off to destruction. So don't go down that path. You got to follow this path up. I'm the guy who designed it, so listen to me. Now, we got a choice. We could say, he's the guy who designed it. So he's the guy who knows. I'm going to follow what he just said and drive on that path. Or we could say, I don't like that path. I like that path. Or I don't like the way he said that to me. Or I don't know if I believe him.

We could say all kinds of things and make our own decision to go down the other path. But if the guy really was the guy who designed the path, and he really knew what he was talking about, if we don't listen to him, we're going down a path of destruction. Jesus said to the religious leaders who reacted to the fact that he'd done a miracle on the Sabbath and were all nitpicky about something that really didn't matter, and who heard what he had to say and concluded, he's making himself out equal with God. Jesus said, you're exactly right.

I have an intimate relationship with the Father. A love relationship with the Father. I've been sent by the Father. I have all authority. I have life in myself. I judge the living and the dead. And anyone who hears my words and believes them and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life. And I'm the Son of Man, and I have the authority to send people to heaven and to send people to hell. So you better listen to what I have to say.

Now, using that little illustration I gave, if we're in the car, and the guy says, yeah, I designed, I designed all the maps. I designed the road system up here. And that goes to destruction. But this is the one that'll really take you to the top of the mountain. You might say, well, how do I know you are who you say you are? And how do I know I should really listen to you? Do you have some kind of identification? Do you have some credentials?

Well, that's kind of like what Jesus is going to do in the next few verses. He's going to give us the credentials, the reasons, the proof, the evidence, the testimony, why he actually is who he just said he is.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250. For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in this series called Read the Red. We're looking at the actual teachings of Jesus. What did Jesus Christ teach? It's highlighted in a red letter edition in the Gospels. And today we're looking at John chapter 5. This is one of these great passages where Jesus is in dialogue with people and it reveals what's in pretty much everyone's heart, the kind of questions that we have, the kind of fears that we have, the kind of barriers that we put up in terms of actually having an authentic relationship with God.

You know, I've discovered both in my personal conversations, and more importantly, really from the Scriptures, that the real reason why people reject Christ, the real reason why people try to defend themselves against coming to God, it's not an intellectual reason. It's not because they haven't heard enough evidence. It's usually because of fear or pride or selfishness.

And in John chapter 5, what Jesus exposes is that one of the barriers that prevent people from coming to God is pride. Jesus basically says there's more than enough evidence for the person who's willing to believe, but there's not enough evidence to convince the person who's dug in his heels and is unwilling to surrender his life to God. That's illustrated in John's description of Jesus's conversation with the religious leaders here in John chapter 5.

Jesus says, if anyone is willing to hear his word and believe in him who sent him, he would have eternal life. In other words, if we were willing to listen to the actual teaching of Jesus, the words of Jesus, and if we were willing to believe in the fact that God the Father sent the Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins, to be the one who would bridge the gap between us and God, if we were willing to believe that, then we would have eternal life. But you see, people oftentimes are unwilling to believe that. They're unwilling to believe the truth, and their unwillingness is the barrier, not the fact that there's not enough evidence to convince them, it's their heart. It's always a heart issue.

So let me ask you, where is your heart with God? Is your heart humble before God? Is your heart willing to believe the truth? Is your heart submissive to God's will in your life? Because, boy, the Bible says in James chapter 4, that God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. When we come to God with a humble heart, our eyes are open, we see the truths and the truth sets us free. The truth of John chapter 5 is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He's the only bridge between God and man.

When we believe in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven, and we receive the gift of eternal life. And when we believe in Jesus Christ, we enter into the abundant life that Jesus came to give us. The key to believing that isn't being convinced intellectually, because there's more than enough evidence to prove that Jesus is the Son of God. The key is humility, being willing to surrender our life and humble our heart and humble our minds to the truth of God, the truth that's revealed in Jesus Christ, God's Son.

Would you be willing to surrender your life to God right now? I invite you to pray with me. Lord, thank you that your truth is evident in creation, and your truth is evident in your Word, and your truth is supremely evident in your Son, Jesus Christ. I pray, Lord, that we'd humble ourselves before you, seek you and find you because we search for you with all our hearts. And I pray that we'd believe in Jesus and be set free. I pray for that in Jesus' name. Amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.