Jesus and His Deity – Part 1 Lesson 17
John 5:1-30
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
John 5:21-23
Three reasons for 5:1-18 (salvation – deity – hostility)
I. Better than Winning the Lottery 5:1-18
A. A picture of how He saves the lost
1. The setting
John 5:1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.
2. The situation
John 5:2-5
2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.
3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie — the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
3. The Savior
John 5:6-9a
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
7 "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
8 Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."
9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
4. The storm clouds
John 5:9b-10, 16-18
9b The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him.
17 Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."
18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
B. A platform on which to declare His deity
II. What “the Jews” could not imagine
A. The Son and the Father
John 5:17, 19-20
17 Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."
19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.
B. The Son and life
John 5:21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
a. only God gives life
Deut 32:39 "See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life,
I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand
1 Sam 2:6 "The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up
2 Kings 5:7 As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, "Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy?
C. The Son and judgment
John 5:22-23
22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,
23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
III. An authority only God can claim
A. The source of all life
John 5:24-26
24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.
B. The judge of all
John 5:27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
C. The Savior of all
John 5:28-30
28 "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice
29 and come out — those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.
30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
Eph 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works , which God prepared in advance for us to do
Titus 2:14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Three Doctrines
1. Death is not the end
2. The are two distinct existences beyond the grave
3. Those who belong to Jesus will have done good works (born fruit)
Did Jesus really claim equality with God?
1. Equality in working 5:17
2. Equality in power 5:19
3. Equality in knowledge 5:20
4. Equality in giving life 5:21a, 25
5. Equality in election 5:21b
6. Equality in judgment 5:22, 27-30
7. Equality in honor 5:23
8, Equality in self-existence 5:26
I guess maybe he did.
“I am here trying to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God’. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.”
C.S. Lewis; Mere Christianity, 1952
TNBS Study Questions 17 preparation for week 18
Read John 5:31-47
1. Why would Jesus tell the Jews the testimony about himself is not valid? (see Deut 19:15)
______
2. If we discount the testimony of Jesus, this passage reveals 5 other “witnesses”. Who or what are they? Give verses.
(1) ______
(2) ______
(3) ______
(4) ______
(5) ______
Read John 1:19-34
3. Why was a Jewish delegation sent to John?
______
4. What questions did they ask him?
______
5. Give a synopsis of John’s “testimony”
______
6. Read carefully John 5:35. How do you think this might relate to Hebrews 6:4-6?
______
Read Luke 4:16-19 with Matthew 11:2-5 and John 10:24-25
7. How did the “works” of Jesus testify to who he really was?
______
8. From John 5:37, When, where, and how do you think this might have occurred?
______
9. From John 5:38-40, is it possible for theology to impede one’s access to God? Explain.
______
Read Deuteronomy 18:15, 18
10. If Moses could have confronted the Jewish leaders on Jesus’ behalf, what would he have said to them?
(keep it clean) ______
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