Jesus is Equal with God (John 5:1-18)
Have you ever heard someone say that Jesus never claimed to be God, or equal with God?
There are a variety of groups that say this with some regularity. Some groups that hold the Bible as important will say that Jesus never claimed that He was God Almighty. This is the case for Unitarians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Oneness Pentecostals. Islam holds Jesus in high esteem but says that He never claimed to be God. Many modern Bible scholars state that Jesus did not claim divinity. Many Liberal Church leaders also state that Jesus didn’t claim to be God, that this was somehow a later development, which is very similar to what many atheists believe about Jesus as well.
We can even see some of this crop up early in the history of the Church. In the 2nd Century church leaders were warning against the heresies of the Ebionites that were a Jewish-Christian sect that denied the divinity of Christ. And, of course, the Arian heresy of the 4th Century.
John 5 blows this up completely. And I do mean completely. Over the course of the next few weeks we are going to see Jesus claim to be the very thing that so many people today say that He was not. And He does it in a way that everyone understood, for it made them want to kill Him in response.
The things we will see here are difficult to wrap our minds around, but that does not mean it is untrue. John attempted to prepare us to see this about Jesus. He told us this is one of the things that we would see about Jesus.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. … 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-5, 9-14 ESV)
Work and pray to know these truths well, for the best way to not fall into the traps set by false teachers today is to know the truth very well. It is common to think that we need to know everything about all the false groups around us. But that’s not actually the truth.
Illustration:
It was once the case that banks taught employees how to spot counterfeit money by having them handle a lot of real money. If they intimately knew the look and feel of real money, then it would be easier to spot the counterfeit. It is the same for us today. We don’t have to know every little detail of what cults believe today. But we do need to have an intimate knowledge of the truth. And when we know the truth, we will be able to spot the counterfeit.
And today we will see that Jesus is equal with God.
Rather than run through this event in order, I want to see the main point and then dive into the implications of this story. That means we will really be looking at the end first. So let’s read the entire text and see that Jesus is equal with God.
Jesus Claimed Equality With God (John 1:15-18)
As you can tell, we are jumping around in the narrative a bit. But the main point of the narrative helps us to understand the whole of it. And the main point comes at the end.
Jesus healed a man and was not being persecuted for breaking the Sabbath (John 1:16). But His reason for doing so might not be what you would guess at first reading. It is His relationship to the Father.
Jesus’s reason for doing this was not that the Sabbath needed to be done away with. It was His relationship with the Father. His Father works on the Sabbath, so He does as well (John 5:17).
You see, there was a common understanding among the Jews that, even though they rested on the Sabbath God did not. How could He? If He completely rested from labor the entirety of existence would tear apart. God is holding all things together.
So, Jesus’s twofold response was very offensive to the Jewish leadership. And His response would cause them to seek to kill Him.
First, Jesus called God “My Father”. Jews didn’t do that. They were completely willing to say “our Father”, and often did. But none of them claimed a special enough relationship with God to call Him their person Father.
Second, the Father was working, so the Son is working. Jesus was saying that He had this special relationship with God and so He was allowed to work. He was allowed to work when everyone else but God could not.
And the Jews understood Jesus’s statement completely. Notice why they were angry. Jesus was making Himself equal with God (John 5:18).
Of late, I have been talking about the Doctrine of the Trinity a lot. And this is one of those passages of Scripture that is discussed in our understanding of the deity of Christ and the Doctrine of the Trinity.
The biblical information on the Doctrine of the Trinity is not found in one singular place. It is found scattered throughout the Bible, both in the Old and New Testament.
Illustration:
I heard an illustration that illumined this for me one time. If you were to look at mine and Amanda’s text thread, there’s probably not any direct evidence that we are married in there. There would be a lot of “Remember to pick up our daughter.” “When do you think you’ll be home.” “You’ll never believe what your child did.” You know, that sort of thing. But within that text thread, you would be able to piece together all the evidence that you need to say that we are married.
And the same is true of the Doctrine of the Trinity throughout the Scriptures. Here is what the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 says,
“There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.”
We believe that there is “only one living and true God”. And we also believe that “the eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…”
Now, how did we get there? What was the data? Well, events like this one is part of that.
We see through the Scriptures that there is but “one living and true God”. But we also see in the Scriptures that The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. On top of that, we find that these three distinct persons are not three beings, but one.
In our text today, we see that the Son is equal with God.
Jesus worked to heal on the Sabbath, because God works on the Sabbath. The Son works because He and the Father are One and the Father works on the Sabbath.
This, and many other things that happen in the Gospel of John, are part of that chain of evidence that proves that Jesus is God.
What is it that Jesus claims for Himself? That He is the special Son, who has the right to be at work because His Father is at work.
What did the people understand about this? That Jesus was claiming equality with God.
Today, I want you to understand something clearly and contemplate it deeply. Jesus is equal with God.
Jesus, who has all power and authority, lived and died for us. Jesus, who is God, came to us in human flesh, died on the cross and paid the punishment for sin. Jesus, the Son, who is equal with the Father bore the punishment due us.
What an astounding thought!
What kind of worship should this bring out in us?
How much gratefulness should we have for our redemption?
What should we be pondering before we partake in the Lord’s Supper today?
Are you worthy of taking that cup? No. How could you be?
Are you worthy of taking that bread? No. How could you be?
But we are commanded to do so. God reveals to us our own unworthiness. But He also reveals to us His glorious redemption. He reveals to us, in the Lord’s Supper, our perfect salvation. Jesus, who is equal with God, die on our behalf. His body was broken for us. His blood was poured out for us. And in Him we have salvation.
Jesus, Who is Equal with God, Came to Save (John 5:1-14)
Now we go back to the beginning.
We’re not sure what feast this was. Guesses about and people have argued about this since the time of the Early Church Fathers. But really, it is not important (John 5:1). Knowing the feast would not help us to understand what is happening, for the real contextual clue is that this happened on the Sabbath.
The location of the healing is “the Sheep Gate”. And this location puzzled scholars for a long time. At times skeptics would argue that this place did not exist. But in the late 1800’s this exact structure was excavated. It is near the location of St. Anne’s Church in Jerusalem. The destruction of 70 AD and other events left it buried for years, so older commentators had to guess at the location. And many older skeptics had to eat crow when it was found. But, now we have the location.
I am not sure that there would be a more pathetic sight to behold (John 5:3). I can’t imagine walking into an area with this many people that had serious ailments. Here there were “invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed”. And they all around.
Now, in a lot of your translations verse 4 is missing, bracketed, or has an asterisk. And the reason is simple. It is not found in the oldest Greek manuscripts. This leads us to believe that it was not in the original text.
But it seems necessary to understand what is happening with the event. Therefore, I really believe this to be a common thought of the day. And it is very likely that someone scribbled it in as a note.
“For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.” (John 5:4 NKJV)
Because it is necessary for us to understand the situation these people were in, we have to reference it here. The water stirred and there were healings that took place.
One man was in a particularly sad state. He was possibly the worst there. He had been an invalid for 38 years.
Imagine this for a moment. For 38 years he had been unable to care for himself (John 5:5). And Jesus looked at him and said, “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:6).
That certainly seems to be a strange question at first, but there are some reasons for asking the question.
Some people don’t want to be healed. They’re always miserable and they love the attention they get from being miserable. You know them. I’m sure of it. There are probably a few faces popping into your mind at this moment.
This question would also awaken a person that was about to be healed to what was about to happen. It would center his mind upon the idea of being well just before he became well.
So this man’s mind jumped immediately to the waters. He thought that he needed to get into them for a healing to take place. He needed someone to be with him so that they could put him in the waters when the angel stirred it so that he could be healed. That’s where his mind was.
Rather than waiting around with him Jesus said “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” (John 5:9). And then the man did just as Jesus commanded.
This healing was unlike a lot of the other healings. Here there was no faith involved beforehand. It just happened. And he did as Jesus said (John 5:9).
As has already been mentioned, all this happened on the Sabbath. This set up the entire confrontation for this event.
A person was not allowed to carry their bed on the Sabbath and folks were frustrated (John 5:10). It is thought that the frustrated people here were probably Pharisees, for they cared deeply about such things and the controversies with Jesus are common. And that is probably a safe bet.
When confronted the man doesn’t take any blame upon himself. He blamed Jesus for telling him to carry his bed.
Consider this for a moment. A man, who they had likely seen many times before unable to move, was confronted about breaking the Sabbath for carrying his bed. It seems heartless and cold. But it was a strict interpretation of the Law based upon Jeremiah 17:21.
“Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.” (Jeremiah 17:21 ESV)
But surely a man healed on the Sabbath, a man that was now able to walk, would be able to walk home. They seem to be missing the heart of the Law while making people obey it to the letter.
In fact, Jesus, who knew the Law better than all of them did, saw no problem with this man carrying his bed. He did not see it as breaking a Sabbath command or He would not have commanded it.
The man didn’t directly implicate Jesus yet. There had been such a crowd that he could not point out who had healed him (John 5:13).
Later, Jesus spotted him and gave him a terrible warning. He said, “see you are well! Sin no more, then nothing worse may happen to you.” (John 5:14) In other words, a physical ailment is worth less than eternal punishment. Though sin is not always the cause of ailments, it might’ve been the case for him. But whatever the case may be Hell is worse than being an invalid for 38 years.
This man had no faith before the healing.
And it is difficult to determine whether this man truly believed in Jesus as who Jesus said that He was. But Jesus, after He healed the man, did help him to understand eternity.
The warning that Jesus gave to him was one that needed to be heeded.
Jesus walked into that place and healed a man that hadn’t been able to take care of himself for many years, asked him if he wanted to be well, healed him. Then when he spoke with the man later told him that if he lived in sin then his final outcome would be worse than being an invalid for 38 years.
Hell is worse than being an invalid for 38 years. And that final warning should stick with you.
How awful it is to not be independent! To need people to do everything for you. People lament of this all the time. But Hell is worse! It’s much worse.
To be sent to that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth is far worse than being an invalid for 38 years. It is worse than anything we can imagine.
And here in our text we have Jesus who came to save, Jesus who is equal to God, who poured out His life on the cross for our salvation, who made a way for us to be saved from the wrath of Almighty God. He offers to you today, salvation. He offers to you today redemption full and free. Today, He offers to you salvation full and free.
Turn to Him today.
And Christian, heed his warning. We believe that a person that is truly saved will not fall away. But that doesn’t mean that we go forth and live in sin. Heed the warnings of Jesus and repent of ongoing sin in your life. Do not return to your past! Do not return to your wicked ways!