Sunday Gathering - John 5 : 16-30 - Chris Simpson - Sermon Only

and today's passage, I guess, is one of the reasons it has that reputation.

But deep and meaningful is not the same as simple and straightforward.

So there's a lot in this passage,

and I think we are going to be stretched.

And in fact, I think that's a good thing to remember,

that God doesn't want us to sit in what we already know.

He wants to stretch us beyond where we are now.

and that's kind of my prayer for this morning.

I'm going to set the scene a bit

and then Sarah's going to come and read

but let's have the next slide

which will have the first few verses on it

which kind of set the scene

and it does of course follow on from last week

and the story of how Jesus healed somebody

who had been ill for I think it was 36 years

or was it 38, a long time

but he did it on the Sabbath.

So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus

for breaking the Sabbath rules.

But Jesus replied,

My father is always working, and so am I.

So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder

to find a way to kill him,

for he not only broke the Sabbath,

he also called God his father,

thereby making himself equal with God.

And the first question to talk about is,

well, why is the Sabbath such a big deal

for the Jewish leaders?

And I think there are at least a couple of reasons that we can say that.

First of all, it's an identity marker.

You know, keeping the Sabbath shows that you're a faithful, believing Jew,

not like these faithless Jews or these pagans who don't follow God.

And to some extent, it still serves like that for Orthodox Jews.

So it marks us out.

We are the people who keep the Sabbath.

And if you're not keeping the Sabbath, then that's a big problem.

It would be also true to say that the Jews understood correctly

that the reason for the exile, the great tragedy that had happened

to the Jewish nation, was caused by sin.

And although they were sort of back in the land,

to some extent they were still in exile

because they were still being ruled by people who were not Jews.

And so keeping the law was a way of kind of saying

that they were kind of trying

extra hard to keep the law

because not keeping the law was

a part of the problem. And they'd actually

kind of built a fence around the law

so that you wouldn't accidentally stray

and break the law.

They created, in the case of the Sabbath, 39

extra rules to

decide what was breaking the Sabbath and what

wasn't. And one of the rules was

don't heal anybody on the Sabbath

unless it's a matter of life and death.

Well, Jesus had healed somebody who'd been sick

for years. So presumably

it wasn't a matter of life and death. So

Jesus is kind of in hot water.

And then, kind of changing

the analogy, I would say that having already

been in trouble for breaking the Sabbath rule,

Jesus answers that

accusation

by pouring petrol on the

flames. He makes things worse

straight away. And we've got to understand

that Jesus knew that that was what

would happen. He

says, my father is working

and so am I. And

And they say, well, this is getting worse.

Not only is he breaking the Sabbath, he's also making himself equal with God.

And that's partly why, you know, if he just said the Father or our Father,

that wouldn't have been so bad.

But he talks about my Father.

And he says, my Father is always working and so am I.

Well, the Jews believed, understandably, that they were to rest on the Sabbath,

but God actually worked all the time.

So, you know, people are born and die, and creation is sustained.

So God works, actually, seven days a week.

So when Jesus says, you know, my father and I are working all the time,

he's making himself equal with God.

That's what's happening.

So you can see why they were so indignant, and he made the situation worse.

Let's have the next slide.

So effectively, Jesus is on trial here.

Now, you know, it's not a formal legal process, but actually, this is the start of something that will actually lead to his crucifixion.

This is the charge.

He's on trial for blasphemy, for claiming to be God.

That's what the accusation is.

And it's probably worth saying here that, you know, if Jesus hadn't thought he was God,

if Jesus thought, well, I'm just a prophet or I'm just an ordinary guy,

now would have been a very good time to say that.

But Jesus kind of doubled down on it.

You know, he pushes it further, and he will say things that really reinforce the charge against him.

And blasphemy is a very dangerous thing.

I mean, you may know this, but actually, even today, there are something like, in Pakistan,

something like 2,100 people have been accused of blasphemy in the past 10 years or so.

Many Christians, also Hindus and some other religions.

and 89 people have been killed in mainly mob attacks in Pakistan against somebody accused

of blasphemy and there are over 40 people on death row in Pakistan accused of blasphemy

and I think that context probably it gives the sense just how dangerous this was in Jesus day

also because it's both about formal charges but it's also about what the mob might do

So being accused of blasphemy is a dangerous place.

But I think there's something else here.

Raniela Cantalmessa, if I pronounced that right,

probably was an Italian theologian,

once said something like,

the battle today is around Jesus.

And what he meant by that was,

there are many people today who, you know,

the idea of spirituality, maybe even God,

is kind of okay, and they've got a place for all that.

But it's Jesus and Jesus' claim to be God

and Jesus' claim to be the unique way to God that causes offense.

So there's a trial still going on really around who is Jesus

and is his claim to be God justified or not?

And that demands a verdict.

Sarah, would you like to come out and read the passage for us as a whole

and then I'll carry on having set the scene.

...claims to be the Son of God.

So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus

for breaking the Sabbath rules.

But Jesus replied,

My Father is always working, and so am I.

So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder

to find a way to kill him.

For he not only broke the Sabbath,

he called God his Father,

thereby making himself equal with God.

So Jesus explained,

I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself.

He does only what he sees the Father doing.

Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.

For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing.

In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works

than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished, for just as the Father gives life

to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to everyone he wants. In addition,

the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge,

so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the

son is certainly not honoring the father who sent him. I tell you the truth, those who listen to my

message and believe in God, who sent me, have eternal life. They will never be condemned for

their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. And I assure you that the time

is coming. Indeed, it is here now when the dead will hear my voice, the voice of the Son of God,

and those who listen will live. The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same

life-giving power to his Son, and he has given him authority to judge everyone because he is the Son

of man. Don't be so surprised. Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will

hear the voice of God's Son, and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to

experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience

judgment. I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just,

because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will. Great. Next slide, please.

So, Jesus' explanation, as I said, does kind of double down on it. The son can do nothing by

himself. He sees only what he sees the father doing. Whatever the father does, the son also

does. There's something here both, there's something very intimate about this picture,

isn't it, about the whole relationship between the father and the son working together. There's

also humility from the son to the father. I tell you that the son can do nothing by himself,

he only does what he sees the father doing. And yet there's also equality in the relationship.

let's look at the humility bit first

the son can do nothing by himself

this is not the son acting independently

doing his own thing

he's doing what the father is doing

in a way you and I could identify with that first sentence

I could say truthfully

if any good comes out of my sermon today

it will be because God is at work

But the last sentence there, whatever the father does, the son also does, is quite extraordinary.

None of us could say that, not remotely.

The archangel Michael couldn't say that, whatever the father does, the son also does.

That's an absolute claim of equality.

He's saying he shares in the father's work.

Let's have the next slide.

for the father loves the son and shows him everything he's doing in fact the father will

also show him how to do even greater things than healing this man and and love is at the heart of

this it's a loving relationship um i mean one way it's kind of inadequate but maybe give us the idea

um we know that jesus was a carpenter um and actually the word i think probably means like

somebody who's a builder, so he may have worked with stone as well as wood. But anyway, that's

what he's doing. And we also know that Joseph, his father, was also a carpenter. And that's not

unusual. People would kind of learn your trade from your father. And you might have imagined that

in the carpenter's shop one day, Joseph is showing Jesus how to make things. And Jesus is

listening very intently to what Joseph has to say to him.

And in some ways, then, you'd say,

well, you know, surely the father's kind of senior

and the son's junior.

And that's sort of true, but they're still equal.

It's still father and son.

The status is still the same.

And that's kind of what I think we're seeing,

if any more tense,

is how they're working together in everything.

In fact, if you remember at the very beginning of John's Gospel, how it starts,

in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

Actually, there was a normal word for with that John didn't use.

He actually used a word that would normally mean toward.

So the Word was with God, and the Word was toward God.

And I'm sure that wasn't an accident.

And that's kind of what this picture is showing us.

It's the father and son working together.

The son looking at the father, the father looking at the son,

and they're working together.

And what might be the greater works than healing this man

who'd been disabled for, you know, 30-something years?

Well, we possibly can think of some miracles that we think would meet that.

And, you know, bringing Lazarus back to bed, maybe the storms on the sea feel like bigger miracles.

Probably what John is thinking of, though, he's thinking of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That's what he's thinking.

Next one.

For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants.

In addition, the Father judges no one.

instead he has given the son absolute authority to judge so that everyone will honor the son

just as they honor the father anyone who does not honor the son is certainly not honoring the father

who sent him it's interesting to watch how jesus claims to be god you know he doesn't have a t-shirt

on saying i'm god and wander around galilee saying can i look at me what he does do is talk about

himself in religion, God, in a way that shows the two together, you know, that Jews understood

and prophets understood.

There were two things that were kind of unique to God, and one was giving life, and the other

was final judgment.

So those are God roles, and yet here we see the Son given those roles.

So the father is sharing his right to rule with the son

and sharing his right to give life with the son.

And then it says, so that everyone will honor the son

just as they honor the father.

I know this would never happen,

but just imagine that a leader in the church

came and stood at this podium and said,

I want you guys to respect me in the same way you respect God.

I hope we would be on our feet in a second shouting, no, no, no.

Because the respect and honour that's due to God is not to be given to anything except God.

So there's a glory and respect that's due to God alone.

And if we give it to anyone else, that's blasphemy and that's idolatry.

But when it says we honour the Son as we honour the Father,

we're saying the Son and the Father

are both part of the Godhead

let's have the next

the next slide

I tell you the truth

that's a phrase that Jesus

you may have noticed that coming up a few times

Jesus is a way of emphasizing

what he's about to say

so Jesus is not kind of

quietly saying these things

he's firmly saying these things

I really want you to get this

across so that you really understand

this, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. Again, we

notice how easily listening to my message and believing God are part of the same thing, a part

of the same thing. And we are as Christians called, and what being a Christian means is that we

listen to the message of Jesus Christ, listen intently to the message of Jesus Christ,

Hang on every word of Jesus Christ and believe in the God who sent him.

A missionary called John Patton, who was a Scot who came from Dunfreeshire, I think in the 19th century, went out to the New Hebrides and he was working with a tribe who were cannibals.

And he was seeking to translate John's gospel into their language.

and he found a problem and the problem was they didn't have a word for belief or trust

because actually that was a culture that valued deceit and trickery and and so well how can you

translate John's gospel if there isn't a word for belief or trust and so he was struggling with this

and then one day he had a bright idea and and his assistant who was a one of the local guys came

into the room and John Patton leaned back in his armchair and put his feet up and he said to the

assistant. So what am I doing now? And the assistant used a word that meant to rest your

whole weight on something. And that was the word that John Patton used for faith when he translated

John's gospel. And that's what it means to believe in Jesus Christ. It means to lean our entire weight

on Jesus Christ, to put our whole trust in him. And certainly that first sentence, eternal life

there is not another way of saying going to heaven when you die, because here he's talking

about the here and now. It's very clear. He's talking about the here and now, and he's talking

about passing from death into life in the here and now. Eternal life starts, new life starts when we

believe in Jesus Christ. Some Christians, I suspect, kind of think of the Christian life in

this world as being a bit like in departures at the airport. You know, you've gone through security,

but now basically you're kind of hanging around waiting for the main thing to happen. That's not

a New Testament picture, that, you know, eternal life and our calling to live for Jesus Christ

begins now. Next slide. And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it is here now,

when the dead will hear my voice, the voice of the Son of God,

and those who listen will live.

The Father has life in himself

and has granted that same life-giving power to his Son.

Even though he's talking about the dead,

he's still talking about now.

We will get on to what happens at the end,

but he's still talking about now.

And you might think, because he says, indeed, it's here now.

And we could be thinking of something like Lazarus.

Probably, actually, Jesus is using the idea of death to life

to describe what it means to become a Christian in the first place.

And that was certainly how Paul understood it.

At the beginning of Ephesians chapter 2, Paul said,

once you were dead in your disobedience and your many sins.

And then you get to verse 4 and he said,

but God who is so rich in mercy,

even though we were dead because of our sins

he gave us new life

through Jesus Christ

so this idea of passing from death

to life is what Jesus

is talking about

those who listen will live

and then verse 26

is very interesting, he said the father has life

in himself and is granted

that same life giving power to his son

actually other translations

just say and has

given the son life in himself too

kind of different way of saying

the same thing

let's think about it this way

you and I all had a beginning

there was a time when we were not

and I guess if we had a biologist

here or something they would say well

actually you know

your life began when

a cell was first lised

you could quibble about

some of the details but actually life begins

when the heart starts beating

but what's very clear is

there's a moment when life comes

and it wasn't there before.

So there's a starting point to our life.

And also it's a starting point

that we had nothing to do with.

We certainly didn't cause it

and we find ourselves alive

where we wanted to be.

So life is kind of done to us.

But God has life in himself,

which means there's never been a time

when God was not.

And life is part of the essential characteristic

of God in the same way that love is. So God is life, and he can give life to other people.

And he says, and Jesus has got the same thing. So Jesus also has life in himself. In the beginning

was the word. From the beginning was the word. There never was a time when Jesus was not. And so

So, here, you know, the very kind of being of who God is, is being attributed to the Son.

Next slide.

And he has given him authority to judge everyone because he is the Son of Man.

And first of all, kind of as I already said, on good authority, it says it in the Bible,

judgment belongs to God and shall not the judge of all the earth do right.

So, God is the one who does judging.

but here it is given to the son of man

and very happily

even though we hadn't talked about it beforehand

it might got us all reading

that passage from Daniel 7

particularly verses 13 and 14

when it talks about one

like a son of man

and that

I think links to that

but I think there's also something else

in there

you sort of wonder whether sometimes

a criminal's been in

not before a trial.

They've been tried and they've been found guilty.

And they must, I think, sometimes find themselves thinking,

well, yes, I'm being guilty and I've been convicted.

But I'm looking at the judges and the jury

and all the court officials and the barristers on both sides.

I'm thinking, you know, if your life had been half as tough as mine,

maybe we wouldn't be so different.

I'm sure people must feel that.

It's all very well for you to judge

because you've had an advantaged life.

But let's think about Jesus, because, you know, part of the meaning of the incarnation

is that Jesus experiences life in its awfulness.

We've just got to think about the circumstances around the end of Jesus' life.

He's betrayed by a close friend.

His followers all run away.

He then ends up in a trial that's an entirely crooked trial.

It's only ever going to have one outcome.

He's convicted.

He's taken before a judge who knows perfectly well he's innocent,

but still sends him to his death.

And he's then tortured slowly to death while people stand by and jeer.

You know, Jesus is familiar with life in its awfulness,

and he knows what injustice looks like,

because he himself has experienced injustice.

Who better to judge the world?

Who would be fairer?

who would be more understanding and compassionate than Jesus Christ?

Next slide.

Don't be surprised.

Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves

will hear the voice of God's Son, and they will rise again.

Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life,

and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.

Relatively quickly, because I am keeping a vague eye on the clock.

And my house backs onto a graveyard.

And we'd not long moved in.

And a Christian friend came to stay.

His name was Noel Moules.

And Noel said, you know, he said,

even some church people are a bit funny about that sort of thing.

Don't think I'd want to live that close to a graveyard.

He says, I think, he said,

I think houses next to graveyards should be worth more

because when Jesus returns,

you'll get a spectacular view of the graves being opened.

So here he is talking about the future return.

But then verse 20 might be a question, he says, and they will rise again.

Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life.

And those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.

You'd say, well, wait a minute, in verse 24, he said, we're going to experience eternal life if you listen to my words and believe in me.

And now it sounds like, well, it's the good who are going to experience eternal life, which is true.

And I think that the short answer is both.

But I think what the answer looks like is this.

We do experience eternal life by listening to Jesus Christ and believing in God.

But the proof that that's genuine is that our lives change.

The proof that it's genuine is that our lives change.

And that's the consistent message of the New Testament.

Next, I can do nothing on my own.

I judge as God tells me.

therefore my judgment is just because I carry the will of the one who sent me again there's that

intimacy there's that submission but still with equality but you know sometimes and we can

experience this in an organization or a country it feels like the people at the top pass rules and

laws that they want everybody else to keep but they themselves aren't always as careful about

following the rules. So you think that, you know, during the whole COVID thing, the parties in

Downing Street kind of spoke to that. Everybody else has told that these are the rules. But

actually, that wasn't quite how it was playing at home. And right in the middle of the Lord's

prayer, we have Jesus saying, your will be done. So we're encouraged to say, your will be done.

This is not a case of one rule for you and another rule for them,

because Jesus himself expresses perfectly, your will be done.

He is doing the will of his Father,

and we are called to join with him in the doing of the Father's will.

Next slide.

I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher,

but I don't accept his claim to be God.

Well, I think there are lots of people who would say that.

In a sense, it's kind of the official position of Islam in a way that, you know,

Jesus is a great prophet, but obviously he's not God.

I guess a lot of Jews would say that, and certainly many atheists would say that.

Why doesn't it work?

Well, I think there are a couple of reasons.

First of all, anybody who says, you know, give me the same respect that God gets,

or I can do anything that God can do,

those are not the words of a great moral teacher.

You think, well, if that person's sincere,

if they really think they can do anything God can do,

then they're nuts, and not just a little bit nuts.

I mean, they're ready to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act

and locked up nuts if they really believe that.

Or if they don't believe it, if they know it's not true,

but they're saying it anyway,

is there a kind of whole power thing going, this abusive power?

I'm claiming to be God because then people will give me stuff

they wouldn't give me otherwise.

So it's either abuse or it's insanity.

Here's how C.S. Lewis put it many years ago.

Next slide.

You must make your choice.

Either this man was and is the son of God

or else a madman or something worse.

You can shut him up for a fool.

You can spit at him and kill him as a demon

or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.

but let's not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.

He's not left that open to us. He did not intend to. Next, I've got two more slides to go, and I

think, even though I'm going to do them, a little bit of history, very quickly. In the fourth century,

a priest called Arius became very popular, had a big following, and in Arius's head,

Arius' head, Jesus

is kind of almost

God, but maybe not

quite. He's God-like

or he's God-ish. So

in some senses he's God, but not

a full deal. Maybe he's

the most important thing that's ever been created,

but he's not quite

100%.

So he said on one occasion, there was a time

when the sun was not.

So in other words, you know, Jesus is

created. And

another leader at the time called

Athanasius and other people who

supported Athanasius disagreed

profoundly with Athanasius. Not what the Bible

teaches and actually it undermines

so much about our faith

and

it went on for most of the

century but

they had two big councils

one in 325 in Nicaea

and one in 381

in Constantinople when they

they kind of sorted all

this out. And the Christian

position, this is an extract from the

Nicene Creed, was to

say, we believe in one Lord, Jesus

Christ, of one

being with the Father.

He's

fully God. He's 100%

God, was what they were

saying. And that's been the position

of Orthodox

Christians ever since.

Funnily enough, what Ari has taught is pretty much

what JW's, Jehovah's Witnesses,

believe today. So, you know,

You're kind of God-like, but not the real deal.

Finally, why does it matter to us today?

You see, if Jesus is fully God, if Jesus is 100% God,

then we can say, if I look at Jesus, I know what God is like.

There's a story told, it's a true story.

A padre in the Second World War called Tom Torrance

was called to attend to a young soldier

who was dying on the battlefield in Italy.

And the young man had only a very short time to live.

And he said to Tom, he said,

Padre, is Jesus really like God?

Or where was it?

Is God really like Jesus?

And I guess behind that maybe was a thinking,

well, I like the Jesus I've seen,

but is there another God behind that

who is a more severe, different God.

And Tom Torrance, who, by the way,

later went on to become a professor of divinity,

he said, yes, God is exactly like Jesus.

God is exactly like Jesus.

There is no hidden God behind Jesus.

And that's a very important truth.

Only this God can be love.

This needs a little bit of thinking about.

So if your conception of God is a bit more like probably Jews understand it or Muslims,

that God is one and only one, and that's what you have to see.

So God is kind of alone in being God.

But he cannot be love.

He might be loving, but he cannot be love.

And it might even say that God's desire to create the world is because God is needy.

God needed something to love, so he created a universe to have something to love.

But you see, the Christian conception of God, which we've very much been following,

is that God has been eternally a love affair of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit loves...

So love has been going on eternally between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So God is truly love.

And the reason that love is so important in the Christian faith is because that is what God is really like.

And the reason that God created the universe is not out of inadequacy, it's out of overflow.

It's that God has so much love to give that he wants a bigger family.

That's why he's called us.

He's calling us to join us in his love affair.

Finally, and then I will shut up and hand back to my...

Jesus shows us how to be children of God.

You know, we can't think that my being a child of God

is about me doing my best to live my life

and asking God to help me.

And that's not necessarily wrong,

but what Jesus shows us in this

is that being a child of God

is about dependent obedience.

Dependent obedience.

We're called, in a sense, like a small child

to put a hand into the hand of God,

to hang on tightly to work with him moment by moment dependent obedience that's what we're called to amen