John 5:16-47
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Intro/Background
Are you ready to have your brains melted tonight?
We are going to talk about the Trinity!
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
And specifically in that, we’re going to focus a bit on the Son (Jesus) tonight
Who He is and what His role/mission is
Finally we’ll tie it into how that impacts our lives
A bit of background before we start reading
Last week, we saw these two amazing miracles that Jesus did to heal people who were sick
He healed the son of a nobleman who was at the point of death
And He healed this paralytic who couldn’t walk and was trusting this superstition for nearly 40 years to fix his problem.
If you remember, the second miracle was done on the Sabbath, the day of rest God commanded in the 10 commandments
But the religious leaders made all these lame definitions of what “work” was to “help” people keep the Sabbath
One rule was don’t carry your bed, which is what the guy who healed was doing!
Another rule was don’t do miracles and heal people, which is what Jesus did!
The religious leaders were super mad that this dude, who was becoming hugely popular and taking the fame/power away from the Pharisees, was throwing many of their fake laws in their face and focusing on a relationship with God instead.
They’re going to confront Jesus on this in what we read tonight.
Lesson - John 5:16-47.
Verses 16-18
So we start of with the reaction of the Pharisees to all that has been going on - let’s kill Jesus
And they don’t say it directly, but they essentially tell Jesus, “Who do You think You are?”
Great question! Who is Jesus? Probably the most important question you can ever answer.
He answers them and refers to God as His Father.
The religious leaders flip out
We don’t get this as much. We talk about God the Father. When we pray, we say, “Heavenly Father...” The Bible tells us to call out to God like a Father/Daddy.
But when Jesus says that He is the Son, He’s not just talking about how we all say we relate to God, He’s saying that He’s the Son of God
The religious leaders flip out because they thought Jesus was just some dude. So for Him to say He was the Son of God, that was blasphemy to them.
It makes Jesus equal to God in verse 18.
It made the Pharisees want to kill Jesus even more.
Now, before we go on with our study, many of the next verses are going to discuss this relationship between the Son (Jesus), and the Father.
And before we dive too deep, I want to talk for just a minute on the Trinity
How can Jesus be God’s Son, but also be God?
Watch video?
So with that in mind, let’s read our next verses
Verses 19-23
We learn a couple of big important truths here in these verses
On earth, Jesus was fully submitted to God the Father’s will. So He was a perfect reflection of God the Father, so He shows us who God the Father is in His life and teachings
That’s why we’re studying this gospel! To get to know Jesus is to get to know the heart of God
It’s more than just reading a bunch of stories that happened 2,000 years ago, we are getting to know the character and heart of God
Jesus is equal with God
Even though we call Him the Son in the Trinity, it doesn’t mean that He is inferior or less than God, b/c He is God!
More teaching on this
Verses 24-30
Next big truth here - Jesus is the source of eternal life
We learned this a few weeks ago when we read John 3 and the famous verse John 3:16.
We saw there that the path to eternal life (life that starts now and lasts forever) was to believe in Jesus (follow/trust Him)
Now we see that hearing the Word of Jesus and believing in the Father is the path to eternal life
B/c Father & the Son are equal (both God), believing in Jesus is also believing in the Father
So how do we follow after God and believe in Him? Follow His Word (what Jesus says)
Alright, how do we know all this is true then? How do we know Jesus isn’t just some crackpot making up crazy talk.
Think about it for a minute. There are only 3 things that Jesus could be
A liar, a lunatic, or the Messiah
Many people think He was just a good teacher or a religious leader like Buddha or Mohammed
But if you look at what Jesus says (like here when He says He is God!), He can’t be just a good guy with some inspiring words
He is claiming to be God Himself, God in the flesh!
Either he’s a liar
He made it all up, He’s trying to deceive people (we’ll hit on that one in a minute, but Jesus is going to give 3 witnesses that prove He’s not a liar)
Or He’s a lunatic
He was flat out crazy and claimed to be God even though He wasn’t in His right mind
Again, let’s look at the evidence and see if a crazy person would have the witnesses that He does
Or He’s what He said He was and He is God
There is no in between on Jesus!
Verses 31-35
Witness #1 = John the Baptist
He came to tell everybody about the coming Messiah (Savior) and he told everyone it was Jesus
John was a prophet (think OT) - a messenger sent by God to His people to tell them important truths
This messenger, or forerunner of the Messiah, was promised a few hundred years before John was around. God thought it was important to let His people know that someone would warn them (let them know) that His promised Messiah was finally coming.
That someone was John
And Jesus reminds them that a lot of people believed John’s message!
Verse 36
Witness #2 = the miracles of Jesus
All those things that He did were proof of who He said He was
Who do you know that can make the blind see, the lame walk, and the dead live again?
He didn’t do those things just to show off. He did them b/c of His love and compassion, but every time He did a miracle, it was proof of who He was
Verse 37
Witness #3 = The Father
God Himself audibly spoke from heaven on a few different occasions to let people know who this was
The baptism of Jesus (Luke 3:22) & the transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:5) are two examples
In a court case, what moves a trial from a he said/she said event to defining the truth is witnesses.
Jesus shows that He’s not lying to them, and He’s not crazy, b/c there are these witnesses other than His word that show evidence that He’s God!
But even with all these witnesses, the Pharisees still didn’t believe Him, so Jesus gives them one more witness
Verses 39-47
Witness #4 - The OT
God had promised His Messiah from the time of Adam and Eve, and one thing He did to make sure we all knew it was Him and not some crazy person or some liar was to give certain clues (prophecies) on who this Savior would be
In fact, there are 332 in OT regarding the promised Messiah - that’s a lot of clues!
Ones like He would be born in Bethlehem, He would be from the family tree of King David, that He would do miracles, that He’d be born of a virgin, that He’d die, etc.
Some uber nerd did some statistics on the odds of meeting all of those clues to figure out if it could be random chance that someone would match those clues. He found that the odds of one man fulfilling just 8 of those prophecies is same as filling Texas 2’ deep w/ Silver dollars, marking one, blindfolding someone, and asking them to find that marked coin - Just 8 out of 332!!!
Jesus fulfilled all 332!
He tells the Pharisees, the spiritual leaders who had the OT literally memorized, that the Messiah that they had been studying in their Bibles their whole lives was standing right in front of them and they missed it.
Our important take away - life is found in Jesus.
He is the path to eternal life. We are to follow His words, live them out, let them change us.
This stuff we talk about week after week is real! It’s not just a pep talk or something we do out of habit or tradition.
It’s real. It should impact your life, impact your heart, impact your decisions.
Small Groups and Prayer Requests
Sample Small Group Questions
Sample Small Group Questions
What did you find new or interesting about our study tonight?
What did you find confusing or challenging about our study?
Why did Jesus either have to be a liar, a lunatic, or telling the truth? Why can’t He be seen as just a good teacher or a religious figure?
Why do you think God laid all of those clues in the Old Testament about who the Messiah would be?
Read Matthew 16:13. How do you think other students would answer that question on who Jesus is?
13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
Now read Matthew 16:15. Why is our answer to that question so important?
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
How would you personally answer that question, and what impact has that answer had on your life?
Prayer Requests & Group Prayer