"You do not have the love of God."

John 5:16-47

Welcome! Today we begin a series of messages from the book of John, chapters 5 to 11. The title of the series is “What did He say?!” with a question mark and an exclamation point. The idea behind the title of the series is that what Jesus said was shocking, beyond shocking. In fact, I would say that the things Jesus said were the most outrageous, most extreme, most blasphemous things anyone could ever say – except for the fact that, being said by Jesus, they are actually true. (If anyone else said them they would be blasphemous.) The fact that they are true does not lessen the shock of what Jesus said; instead, I might say that they are perhaps the most serious things ever said, the most profound, and, especially, the most important. They have immense implications for every person on earth, eternal implications, and I am excited that we will be exploring these things during this series.

Today’s message  begins with John 5:16 and goes to the end of chapter 5, and we will see that the things Jesus says here every bit as shocking and important as anything else we will see in the series. Now, the very first word of verse 5:16 is “so.” That means that it comes from something that has happened before, and so (there’s that word again) I think it will help to give a very quick summary of a few key events in the book of John given prior to this point.

The first event I want to highlight appears in chapter 2, right after Jesus reveals a fair amount about His nature to His disciples by changing water to wine in Cana. According to the chapter, Jesus then went to Jerusalem, and, going to the temple courts, He overturned the tables there, driving out the moneychangers and others who were there using the sacrificial system as an opportunity for personal gain. We now use the phrase “turned the tables” as an idiom; it means to change a situation so that a person’s position is the opposite of what it was. With this action, did Jesus really “turn the tables” on the religious establishment in Jerusalem and in Israel?

I would say yes. He challenged their authority; in fact, they asked, “What proof of authority do you have to do all this?” His answer, which they did not understand, was a reference to His future resurrection. Jesus’ justification for His challenge to their authority was His own authority; the essence of His answer was that He was a greater authority than anyone there, even the High Priest or the high court, the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin. The essence of His answer was that His authority was greater than that of any teacher of the Law, even that of the greatest rabbis in Israel. His authority was so far beyond theirs that He rebuked them the way a king might rebuke his servants when he comes back from a trip to discover that they are playing with his crown and scepter and otherwise acting totally out of line: “How dare you turn My Father’s house into a market!”

Of course, the Jewish leaders did not take this well; they had already been quite uncomfortable with what John the Baptist was doing; but these actions of Jesus, who was also making a stir with rumors of  talking with Samaritans and a miracle involving water somehow becoming wine, were far more serious. Sides were already being drawn; so as to not be labeled as “with” Him, any member of the leadership who was genuinely curious about Jesus had to meet Him in secret; John chapter 3 records such an event when Nicodemus visited Jesus in the night.

The other event I want to highlight is described in the first half of chapter 5, immediately before the passage we will explore in depth today. Jesus was in Jerusalem again, and He went to a pool named Bethesda where a great number of disabled people gathered. Nothing about what happened next was accidental. Jesus had chosen the day and time to be there; it was a Sabbath, and it was a time when a particular invalid was there. This person and others were at this particular pool because they believed there were healing powers in the water at this pool. In particular, the pool would periodically bubble up, and when it bubbled it was believed that if one could get to that water doing the bubbling at that time, one might be healed. Jesus talked to this person, who explained this to Him. I love what happened next: Jesus told him to pick up his mat and walk. He didn’t pick him up and put him in the pool; he didn’t use the pool at all. Jesus doesn’t need a magic pool (a so-called magic pool) to heal someone. That was it! Instantaneously, the man picked up his mat and walked – he was healed!

A quick note: I wonder what it was about Jesus that had the man try such an impossible thing? What was it about gazing at Jesus that inspired such faith? All I know is that if I went to a hospital and told a person with a similar ailment to do this, I seriously doubt I would receive the same response. All I can think of is the passage that says “My sheep hear the sound of My voice.” Jesus didn’t stir the waters; He stirred the man. To the depths of his soul, to the depths of his heart, the man was stirred. And the same is true today of any person who hears Jesus’ call into their lives.

Now we don’t know if the man also started jumping and leaping in the air, or dancing, or whooping and hollering, saying “Yippee!” and “Yahoo!” and “I can walk!” But we do know that there were religious leaders there and what they saw was a man carrying his mat on the Sabbath. And what they said to this man was “It is the Sabbath; the Law forbids you to carry your mat.”

Now earlier this summer we went through the Law of Moses, looking at Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and although it did say to keep the Sabbath holy, resting and not doing work, I don’t recall seeing anything about carrying mats. And I certainly don’t recall ever seeing something saying that if you are miraculously healed on the Sabbath, go leave your mat there and don’t pick it up until the Sabbath is over.

And of course, the man was just doing what Jesus told him; how interesting that Jesus didn’t just tell him to get up, but to pick up his mat and walk. Do you think this man, stirred to the depths of his heart, is going to tell Jesus, “Well, Jesus, I really would like to be healed, but you know, the religious leaders say it is a sin to carry your mat on the Sabbath, so I will just stay here and not receive your healing gift in my life. I’ll just stay an invalid forever.” Of course that wouldn’t happen!

Now Jesus could have healed him without requiring that he pick up his mat. He didn’t need moving waters, and he didn’t need moving mats either. This was a calculated move on Jesus’ part. Calculated for whom? Those very leaders who He knew would be offended, those “mat police”! These leaders questioned the man, and asked who had healed him. The healed man could not point Him out, because Jesus had already slipped away. But later Jesus found him at the temple and warned him to “stop sinning or something worse may happen” to him. This was also a calculated move. Now the man who had been healed knew it was Jesus who had healed him, and told others all about it. And now the leaders, who were already quite upset with Jesus over the overturning tables thing, added this to their list. This brings us to our passage. Beginning at John 5:16:

So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted Him. Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”  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. – John 5:16-18

From this passage we see that some of the Jews tracked Jesus down and confronted Him about His healing the man on the Sabbath. I guess if it is bad to carry a mat on the Sabbath, it must be really terrible if you heal someone miraculously then?

Now the Jewish leaders had added all kinds of crazy requirements and rules to the Law, but perhaps the place where it had gotten the craziest was with the rules for the Sabbath. Why? I think because the Sabbath was an outward thing, an area you could show off in. And that is what hypocrites love to do, what phonies love to do – it is to show off. I could tell you stories from my own upbringing in the Jewish faith, but I want to stay focused here. What Jesus did with this carefully orchestrated series of events was to confront their blind legalism, their nonsense, their false religion of outward works for public approval. He wanted to tear it down, just as He had torn down their tables. Their legalism and hypocrisy was every bit as much an affront to God as their using the Temple for illicit personal gain. Jesus’ actions here were a kind of “How dare you!” just like the overturning of their tables. “How dare you put My people in bondage to your onerous rules and regulations while refusing to bow your hearts to Me!”

His answer infuriated them even more. “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” What was He saying? He was equating Himself with God. God the Father keeps on working, and He, the Son, keeps on working too. He had used the “My Father” before, but never in such a direct analogy. He was saying God the Father and I are similar because, well, we are cut from the same cloth.

Note that God did not take off the first seventh day because He was tired; God doesn’t get tired. He took it off as a model for us. He rested from His creative work, but He didn’t rest from His “upholding” work; God holds everything together all the time. Jesus’ claim of “exemption” from the Sabbath law was in part a claim to deity.

I think there’s more here as well – this was also an attack on the hollow rules upon rules and hypocrisy of those accusing Him. It’s just plain wrong to translate a rule for resting, a rule given to man for man because man needs rest and because a man needs time to reflect on God and seek Him, and turn it into rules against doing good on a certain day. God has implemented no rules against mercy, against help, against loving the needy! What about “Love your neighbor as yourself”? Again, Jesus was “turning the tables” on them. And in response, instead of humbly repenting, instead of really turning to God, they hated Him more than ever and schemed more and more actively to kill Him.

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. 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. – John 5:19-20

What’s Jesus saying here? Well, one implication is that if you accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath, then you are also accusing God the Father of breaking the Sabbath. Jesus here says He is doing exactly what the Father does. And by the way, if you accuse God of breaking His Law, if you are calling God a lawbreaker, a sinner, then aren’t you the one guilty of blasphemy?

Jesus here is speaking not only of His divine nature but of the fact that He and the Father are one in this divine nature. There are not two Gods, or three, if you include the Holy Spirit. There’s only one. The Son can do nothing by Himself. He can do only what His Father does. And yet there is a degree of “separateness” between the Father and the Son. The Father loves the Son. The terms Father and Son imply a non-symmetrical relationship. You all have fathers; your fathers are not your sons. There is a sense of hierarchical relationship here; a father in some sense is “over” a son, and although the details are a mystery, there are elements of this kind of relationship in the Godhead.

I love the last part of this verse – in essence, He is saying, “Yes, healing a man who was sick for 38 years is a pretty major marvel, but you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! You will be amazed.”

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

There is nothing veiled in these statements, nothing hidden. Any doubts of what Jesus was claiming had to be removed with these verses. These are “jaw-dropping” verses! I can just hear the Pharisees around Jesus saying “What did He say?!” Do you understand that these things are blasphemous in the extreme unless Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be?

If anyone ever tells you that they think Jesus was just a good teacher, show them these verses. God has entrusted no mere “good teacher” to be judge of all men! No mere “good teacher” is to be honored (that is, worshiped) just as God the Father is to be worshiped!

And if anyone ever tells you that they believe the Bible but think there are many different paths to God, show them these verses too. “He who does not honor (or worship) the Son does not worship the Father.” That sure sounds an awful lot like one path to me.

“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. 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. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. And He has given Him authority to judge because He is the Son of Man. – John 5:24-27

Apart from Christ, all men are condemned, because all sin. And the wages of sin is death, separation from God.  But with faith in God, believing the words of Jesus, trusting in Him personally, there comes a change, a crossing over. The Greek word is metabaino, and it implies a departing, a leaving a place. The roots are meta which here is a prefix meaning “with” and baino which means “walk,” and this word comes from basis which literally means the sole of one’s foot. Metabaino is used again and again in describing Jesus’ travels from one part of Israel to another, with leaving an entire land, a people, for another. We, upon truly believing God, leave the land of death for the land of life. The verb is in perfect tense, meaning that it has been completed in the past (once we believe), once for all, never needing to be completed again.

“A time is coming and has now come” – what does that mean? In one sense Jesus is referring to the future, but that epoch, the age, of that future has arrived with the physical presence of Jesus, God in the flesh. Now don’t separate this verse from the one before it. There is a death that is not physical death; it is deadness due to separation from God, due to sin. Charles Stanley calls it “walking dead men.” Jesus used this terminology in Matthew 8:22 when He said to let the dead (walking dead men) bury their own dead (truly dead people). We are in this age that is coming and has now come – when we share the gospel with someone and they come to faith in Christ, they are hearing the voice of the Son of God and they pass from death (from being walking dead men) to life (to being alive in Christ). And just as there are multiple kinds of dead, there are multiple kinds of hearing. Those who “hear” will live – that’s not everyone; that’s those who hear with their hearts; to hear in this sense is to respond, to respond in faith, with our hearts to the call of Christ.

By calling Himself “Son of Man” He states that Old Testament prophecies apply to Him; that is, He is the promised messiah, the Christ. From the book of Daniel:

In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. – Daniel 7:13-14

You see these same themes of authority and dominion here that we see in John 5. Continuing with the passage:

“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. 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. – John 5:28-30

Now Jesus talks of the future, a time coming (not coming and now here); this refers to physical resurrection. Actually, if you look carefully at other verses such as Luke 14:14, I Cor. 15:23, I Thess. 4:13-16, and Rev. 20:4-5, you see that there is not a single resurrection but more than one.

Note also this is not implying a works salvation! That’s not what this means. (That would also contradict many of the verses we have already seen in John such as John 3:16.) The verb in “who have done good” is poieo which is a bit hard to translate but implies being made or fashioned to do something as opposed to just doing it. For example, it is used when Jesus says “I will make you fishers of men.” The verb in “who have done evil” on the other hand is prasso which simply means to do something. You could translate this is as “Those who have been fashioned to do good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.” Jesus goes on to again speak of His interdependence with the Father, doing all He does seeking to please Him.

“If I testify about Myself, My testimony is not valid. There is another who testifies in My favor, and I know that his testimony about Me is valid. “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. – John 5:31-35

To summarize what we have seen before these verses, Jesus was accused of breaking the Sabbath by healing a person, making him able to walk. Jesus’ defense, in effect, is this: He says, “I am God. God doesn’t break God’s laws. If you see a contradiction between a law and what I do, that should tell you that there is something wrong with your law, that it is not really God’s law. And what you are doing is accusing God of immorality, which makes you the blasphemer, not Me.”

So now, beginning with verse 31, Jesus moves to provide testimony of His astounding claims. By saying His testimony is not valid, He is speaking to them in their terms, saying that He gets that they aren’t going to accept what He says about Himself just based on His own words. This idea actually is in accordance with Old Testament Law, because in Deuteronomy it talks about requiring testimony of two or three witnesses. Witness number 1 is John the Baptist; Jesus refers to John’s past testimony. Remember what John said? “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” He also referred to Him as the one who was to come after him, the thongs of whose sandals he was not worthy to untie.

By the way, that word for John meaning lamp is lychnos, which does not mean light, but candle, or small lamp. I mention this because it is consistent with John 1:8, which says, speaking of John the Baptist, “He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.” The Greek word for light is phos (from which we get photon and photograph and many more).

 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given Me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent Me. And the Father who sent Me has Himself testified concerning Me. You have never heard His voice nor seen His form, nor does His word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one He sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life. – John 5:36-40

Jesus’ second witness to his persecutors, weightier than John, was the work Jesus was doing. What did Nicodemus say about Jesus? “For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Had any of them ever changed water to wine? Had any of them ever healed a man who had been unable to walk for 38 years? And this was just the beginning. The ultimate proof in this respect was the resurrection.

Jesus provides a third witness: God the Father. If they were truly of faith, God would testify in their hearts. I believe this is the same witness described as the Spirit in Romans 8:16 which says

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. – Romans 8:15-16

So the third witness is the testimony of God in one’s heart. And then the fourth witness is the Scriptures. The Old Testament is filled with prophecies about Christ. Prophecies about His lineage, the place He would come from, some of the detailed things He would do. But beyond this, major themes of the Old Testament hinted of the coming savior, His eternal nature, His absolute power, His death and resurrection, and so much more. And yet these “teachers of the law,” some of whom had memorized gigantic amounts of Scripture, who spent almost every waking moment dealing with Scripture in some way, were completely blind to what it really was all about!  As Jesus said, these are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.

“I do not accept praise from men, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept Me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? – John 5:41-44

What does Jesus mean when He says “I do not accept praise from men but I know you”? I think what He means is that He does not accept praise from unbelievers. He’s not on some ego trip. He’s not seeking a good reputation among the Jews. He’s not a politician running for office.  He wants people to come to Him, humbly, honestly, brokenly.

He knows these people. They are just like people in America and in every culture. He knows how man yearns to be popular. When He talks about those who accept praise from one another, for some reason I am reminded of Facebook where people can compare one another by how many “friends” they have. I’m reminded of high school where being popular or unpopular is magnified to gigantic proportions. I’m even reminded of churches and church ministries because sometimes the same thing even happens here. Some churches or church ministries become the “cool” place, the place where the popular people or the professional people or the pretty/handsome people or where the rich people go. Jesus’ question is haunting – how can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?

Sadly, this perfectly describes much of American culture, much of American life. Some people “go to church” (and many do not) but someone who really lives to serve God, whose deepest desire is to hear God say “Well done, good and faithful servant” is rare. What kind of person is like this? These are the ones who have the love of God in their hearts.

If you find yourself falling back into secular thinking during the week, if you don’t give God much thought until the next Sunday rolls around, this is where the battle should be – for your heart. This is what you should pray for – your heart. Pray for a softened heart. Pray for a broken heart. Pray for a heart filled with love for God. If the world is overwhelming your thoughts, tune out more of the world. Watch less on TV. Spend less time doing meaningless stuff on the internet. And replace it with times with God, in prayer, in the Word, in fellowship with other believers. Church is not just coming here on Sunday – church is any time two or more are gathered in His name. Get with a friend and talk about God or pray for one another or read the Bible together. That is church.

I don’t know about you, but I want God’s praise. I know God loves me unconditionally, that He rejoices in even little baby steps of faith, but I want to give Him more than baby steps. I want to give Him giant leaps! He is worth it! He is my Savior. He is my Friend. He is my Comforter. He has given His life for me and I want to give mine for Him.

“But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” – John 5:45-47

Jesus concludes this powerful narrative by hitting them at their greatest point of pride. It’s like a kick to the stomach. If there was one thing these Jews believed in with all their hearts, it was that they were experts in the Law, not just in knowing it, but, they believed, in living it. After all, they wouldn’t even let their fellow Jews carry mats on the Sabbath! Moses would be so proud of them, they thought.

 But Jesus tells them that Moses would not be proud of them; he would accuse them! Moses wrote about how “a prophet like me” would come, and how they must listen to him. But, Jesus explained, they didn’t really follow the Law of Moses. They didn’t even really believe what he wrote! They had instead created a religion in their own image, a fiction in their minds. It was loosely based on the Law, but they were ignoring the most important parts. They didn’t love God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength. They loved keeping their version of the Law, they loved receiving the praise of men, they loved the self-satisfaction of a disciplined life, but they didn’t really love God. There was no room for God in their carefully constructed lives. And there was certainly no room for Jesus, who threatened their little self-contained worlds with every word He said.