26
John 5:16-24 THE ANSWER OF JESUS TO THE
CHARGES AGAINST HIM
Introduction:
In
our text last Sunday the Jewish leaders at Jerusalem
accused Jesus of breaking the law of the
sabbath. They
first charged the man whom Jesus healed
because he carried
his bed on the sabbath. Then, when they found out that his
healer told him to take up his bed and
walk, they excused
the man but inquired who healed him. When they found out
that it was Jesus who had healed the man,
they accused Jesus
of breaking the law of the sabbath.
In
our text today I want us to review the charges that
were made against Jesus and see the hatred
of the Jewish
leaders for Him. Then I want us to hear the answer which
Jesus gave to those charges.
I.
The hatred which the Jews had for Jesus and the charges
which they made against Him,
V. 16, "And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and
sought to slay him, because he had done
these things on the
sabbath day." The hatred which the Jewish leaders at
were made.
They started when He made the first trip of His
ministry to
down through the years starting from the
time that He was
twelve years old. But this was the first trip there after
His ministry started.
When
He went into the
tables and drove out those who operated
the tables. He
drove out the sacrificial animals which
were for sale within
the temple and drove out those who sold
the animals. He
really upset the apple cart for the Jewish
leaders, because
they were going to make a bundle from the
money tables and
from the sale of the animals. He made bitter enemies of
them and they would never forget it.
Even
after He left the temple and went out into the city
of
performed many miracles in
and became very popular among the common
people. The people
immediately began to think of Him as a
prophet come from God
and some few of them began to say that He
is the Messiah,
the Christ of God. The Jewish leaders hated Him all the
more, because they saw that their
leadership in the land was
being threatened.
When
Jesus left
wilderness of
preaching and Jesus drew larger crows than
John the Baptist.
He made and baptized more people than John
was baptizing.
This alarmed them all the more and stirred
their hatred for
Him all the more.
The
Jewish leaders must have breathed a sigh of relief
when Jesus left
relief was short lived. Soon they began to get reports of
the great miracles that Jesus was doing in
and around
As
the time drew near for this religious feast at
come.
They must have been looking for Jesus with the full
intention of trying to put an end to His
ministry. So when
a report came in that some of the
officials had seen a man
carrying his bed on the sabbath day and
they found out that
somebody had healed this man on the
sabbath day, they were
very confident that the healer was Jesus.
They
inquired who the healer was but the man did not
know at first. When he did find out he told them that it
was Jesus and they immediately set out to
find Him and bring
charges against Him.
The
term "these things" in verse 16 shows that there was
more than one thing on which they based
their charge of
sabbath breaking. The first thing on which they based their
charge was healing on the sabbath
day. They considered
healing on the sabbath day to be a
breaking of the sabbath
law.
The
second thing on which they based their charge was
that Jesus had told the man to take up his
bed and to carry
it on the sabbath day. They, thus, considered Him to be the
instigator of what they considered to be a
crime on the part
of the man who carried his bed.
They
must have been tickled pink because they now had
charges against Him that carried the death
penalty. If they
could get Jesus stoned for breaking the
sabbath, they would
have Him out of their hair.
II. The work of God the Father on the
sabbath day,
V. 17, "But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh
hitherto..." Jesus answered their charge against Him by
pointing out that God the Father is His
Father. He said,
"My Father" and, thus, was
calling Himself God's Son.
He
did not claim to be God's son in the same sense that
any saved person is a son of God. Rather, He was calling
Himself "The Son of God" in a
special sense. In the next
verse we will see that the Jews understood
Him to be
claiming to be equal with God the
Father. We will talk more
about that when we get to that verse.
The
point that He is making right here is that God the
Father works on the sabbath day. The word "hitherto" means
"To this point of time." That is, God the Father has worked
right up to this very point of time on
this sabbath day.
God
works on every sabbath day. He does not,
of course,
do creative work on the sabbath. God did creative work on
six days and refrained from work on the
seventh day. That
is how the sabbath day got started. God set the example and
designed that all mankind should follow
His example. From
that time forth God has never done
creative work on the
sabbath day.
But
He does do governmental work on the sabbath.
God
still rules the universe even on the
sabbath. God still
makes the sun to rise on the sabbath
day. He cause it to
shine on the sabbath. He causes the wind to blow, the rain
to fall and the plants to grow. He still hears and answers
prayers on the sabbath day. When anybody gets well of some
disease on the sabbath, it is because God
made him well on
the sabbath day. God gives orders to the angels on the
sabbath day and they carry out His orders
on the sabbath.
III.
The work of Jesus on the sabbath
(V. 17), "...and I work."
Jesus claimed a special
relationship with God the Father in
heaven. He claimed that
God in heaven is His Father and, thus,
that He is the Son of
God.
He
was not claiming to be the Son of God in the same
sense that any saved person is a son of
God. Rather, He is
claiming to be equal to God the
Father. He is claiming to
be equal with God in nature and
character. He is claiming
to be equal with God in power and
authority. As the Son of
God, He is claiming to share the ownership
and rulership
with God the Father.
Therefore,
as the Son of God who is equal with God, He
claims to do the same works on the sabbath
day which Gop the
Father does. Therefore, He healed the diseased man on the
sabbath day and commanded him to rise and
walk and carry his
bed on the sabbath day.
His
anwwer was not at all satisfactory to the Jewish
leaders.
V. 18, "Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill
him, because he not only had broken the
sabbath, but said
also that God was his Father, making
himself equal with
God."
His answer infuriated them all the more and they were
more determined than ever to find a way to
put Him to death.
IV.
God The Father setting an example for His Son to follow
V. 19, "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, The Son can do
nothing of himself,
but what he seeth the Father do: for what
things soever he
doeth, these also doeth the Son
likewise." Jesus said that,
as the Son of God, he could do nothing
without the Father.
This does not mean that He is without
power or authority to
do anything which He wishes.
It
means two things. For one thing, it
means that He,
as a man, has submitted Himself to God the
Father. As Deity
God, He has all power both in heaven and
earth. But as man,
He will not rely upon His own power, but
He relies upon God
the Father to lead Him, direct Him and
empower Him through
the Holy Spirit. Jesus is one man who is totally submissive
to God The Father.
It
also means that even before He came to dwell in human
flesh, He was already submissive to the
will of God the
Father.
As the Son of God, He would never go against the
will of God the Father. He would never do anything without
first knowing that He was acting in
complete harmony with
the will of God.
So
it was that when He healed the man on the sabbath
day, He was in complete submission to the
Father's will. He
was acting in complete harmony with the
Father's will. He
was not breaking God's law, but was in
complete harmony with
God's law.
He was in harmony with all of God's laws.
He
had seen God the Father heal on the sabbath and He
just followed the example of God the
Father and did
likewise.
V.
The Father's love for His Son
V. 20, "For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him
all things that himself doeth: and he will
show him greater
works than these, that ye may
marvel." Jesus had done a
great work before them. He had done a work that God the
Father had showed Him and He had just done
the same kind of
work that God the Father had done.
He
says that the Father will show Him greater works and
that He will do those greater works. V. 21, "For as the
Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth
them; even
so the Son quickeneth whom he will." God the Father raises
men from the grave and Jesus will raise
the dead. He would
go to a home and raise a young girl back
to life. He would
stop a funeral in the streets and raise a
young man back to
life.
At the tomb of Lazarus, He would call Lazarus back to
life after Lazarus had been dead so long
that he was
stinking.
When Jesus returns to this world, He will raise
all of the saved from their graves. After the millennium
when the Great White Throne appears, it
will be Jesus who
will call all of the unsaved from their
graves to appear
before Him.
This
brings up the judgment. God the Father
has
committed all judgment into the hands of
Jesus, His Son. V.
22, "For the Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son."
Jesus
is the ideal one to judge man. As Deity
God, He
has perfect knowledge of all things that
all men have done.
He has perfect knowledge of what is fair
and just. He will
see that the cause of God is carried out
perfectly.
As
man, He understands perfectly every human weakness.
He understands, not only because He has
knowledge of all
things, but because He has experienced
what it is to live in
human flesh. He understands what it is to face
temptations.
He experienced every human weakness that
other men
experience, yet without sin. He endured every temptation
that Satan can place before human beings,
yet without sin.
He can be fair and equitable in all His
judgments.
V. 23, "That all men should honour the Son, even as they
honour the Father. He that honoureth not
the Son honoureth
not the Father which hath sent
him." God has plans that
will honor Jesus to the highest. God wants all men to honor
His Son.
He would prefer that they honor Him both in this
life and also in the next. But even if they will not honor
Him in this life, they will honor Him in
the next. Every
knee shall bow to Him and every tongue
will confess that
Jesus is the Christ.
V. 24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth
my word, and believeth on him that sent
me, hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into
condemnation; but is passed
from death unto life." God wants all men to hear His Son
and hear Him receptively. God wants all men to believe on
God the Father as the sender of Jesus
Christ, His Son. God
wants all men to be saved and have
everlasting life. God
wants them never to come into condemnation
again. God wants
all men to pass from death unto life.