Good morning, a little slippery, a little lippery and lighty on the way down here this morning, eh? We're continuing our study in the Gospel of John this morning in chapter 5. On the last Sunday of each month, we celebrate the Lord's Supper, remembering what Jesus has done for us, what he accomplished at the cross. 

And this morning in our text, we come to an amazing passage. Jesus has been performing countless miracles in his ministry, and we saw in our study last month that Jesus healed a man who had an infirmity 38 years and was unable to walk. He performed this miracle, he healed this man on the Sabbath, if you remember, was the issue, and he did this to challenge the religious leaders and the false system of works righteousness that they had developed in Israel. 

And we read in verse 15 that the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. And it says, and for this reason, the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath. 

And what transpires next is one of the clearest, most profound exchanges, statements by Jesus, clearly proclaiming who he is, that he is equal with the Father, that he is, in fact, God. In John 5, 17, it says, but Jesus answered them, my Father has been working until now, and I have been working. 

Therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. There's no question that Jesus claimed to be God. We often hear false teachers, cult leaders tell us that Jesus never claimed to be God, but this is patently false. We find many places in the scriptures, including the one before us this morning, where Jesus openly, plainly declares himself to be God, and those who heard him clearly understood what he was saying. 

The disciples, especially the religious leaders, understood very well that Jesus was claiming to be God. There are seven I am statements in the gospel of John alone. When Moses asked God what his name is, God said, I am who I am. In Exodus 3, 14, I am who I am, and he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. 

And each time in the gospels that Jesus proclaimed I am, the Jews knew quite clearly what he was saying. We see an example of this in John 10. He talks, he says, I am the door, I am the good shepherd. In verse 30, he says, I and my father are one. 

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, many good works I have shown you for my father, for which of those works do you stone me? And the Jews answered him saying, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, and because you being a man, make yourself God. 

It's clear that the Jews understood that Jesus was claiming to be God, and we will see this again in our text this morning, and we will also see that the New Testament writers proclaim that Jesus is God. In John 1, Colossians 1, Hebrews 1, there's clear testimony that he is the eternal son of God. 

So it's evident in God's word that Jesus claimed to be equal with God, to be the son of God, quite often in his ministry in his time on this earth. So what is the significance of this claim? 

Well, many of you have heard, I'm sure, the logical argument that if Jesus claimed to be God, then there are only three conclusions that we can come to concerning that claim and who he is. This argument is often attributed to C.S. Lewis, but it actually predates him. John Duncan in 1859 wrote these words. He said, Christ either deceived mankind by conscious fraud, he was himself deluded and self-deceived, or he was divine. 

There's no getting out of this trilemma, he called it. It's inexorable. Watchman Nee also wrote of this logical conclusion concerning Christ's claim, but it was C.S. Lewis who popularized the liar, lunatic, or lord argument. He wrote this, I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus. 

I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. 

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 us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. 

Now it seems to me obvious that he was neither a lunatic nor a fiend, and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that he was and is God. 

My brothers and sisters, the argument is flawless because Jesus claimed to be God so clearly so often. We cannot make the argument that he was merely a good teacher or a good man or an example to us. This is not possible, for if he claimed to be God as he did so often, then this argument holds. 

He was either a liar knowingly deceiving, thus disqualifying him as a good man or teacher example, or he was deluded himself, thus making him untrustworthy and unstable as a teacher, or he indeed was who he claimed to be, the very Son of God, equal with God, God himself and Lord of all. 

So this is the claim that we will explore in our text this morning at John 5.15. John writes, the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well. The Jews answered him, well, for this reason, the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath. 

But Jesus answered them, my father has been working until now and I have been working. Therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. 

Then Jesus answered and said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do. For whatever he does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these that you may marvel. 

For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life." 

I've given you five points on your outline this morning. First, for this reason. Second, God is working. Third, equal with God. Fourth, honor the Son. And fifth, everlasting life. 

Well, first in our text, we see for this reason. At verse 15, the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well. For this reason, the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him. Because he had done these things on the Sabbath. 

Well, we need to understand the context, the religious environment into which Jesus comes. The Jews had twisted and perverted the law which God had given them to a great degree. They had added to the law with volumes of their own rules and regulations, and they had received no revelation for the past 400 years since the close of the Old Testament. 

In this time, the system that developed called Judaism was not recognizable by the scriptures, the revelation that God had given them in the Old Testament. They had developed a solidly works-righteous religious system that was like an unbearable yoke, a burden that they could not carry. 

And that led only to defeat and to despair. And it was a hierarchy of power and abuse that existed at the top of this system in the scribes and the Pharisees, much like we see in organized religion today. Jesus came into this system in Judea, and with his words, his teaching began to confront it at its core, to tear down and destroy the hypocrisy that held men in bondage. 

And he proclaimed grace and mercy and salvation, correcting the lies and deception of the religious leaders of his time, calling them whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones, hypocrites, sons of the devil, themselves blind and leading the blind into the ditch. He confronted them at every turn, and he set himself and the truth against their whole corrupt system. 

And this is the very thing that brought Jesus to the cross. Nearly from the beginning, they sought to kill him because he threatened their power, their position, and their profit. And this is the scene we find ourselves in this morning in John 5, what became a more and more familiar theme leading up to the cross. 

The Jews held the Sabbath as something never to be violated. They piled on rules and regulations, restrictions for that day, defining every moment of man or movement of man as work and thus violating the day of rest. And what they did not understand was what Jesus said in Mark chapter 2 at verse 27. He said to them, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. 

Therefore, the son of man is also Lord of the Sabbath. God gave the Sabbath as a gift to man, a time of rest from his labors, a focus on God, a time of refreshment, not as a religious burden to serve, to bear up under, and come to despise. And it was God who gave this to man. 

Jesus was not subject to the Sabbath, but rather he was the Lord of the Sabbath. Notice what he says in verse 17 of our text. He says, but Jesus answered them, my father has been working until now, and I have been working. The Jews had come up with such nonsense concerning the gift of the day of rest that God had given to man that they even bound God by the Sabbath. 

They said ridiculous things and made all kinds of rules and restrictions. And Jesus corrects this craziness with his statement in verse 17. He says, literally, God has been working and is working, and I have been working and am working as well. Present tense in the verbs, continuous action, God is not subject to the Sabbath, and I, as the Son of God, am Lord over the Sabbath, not subject to it. 

And of course, the Jews react with anger and malice in verse 18. Therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. There was no question in their minds that Jesus was claiming with his words that he is equal with God. 

Verse 19 of our text, then Jesus answered and said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do, for whatever he does, the Son also does in like manner. 

Jesus said, I always do what pleases the Father. Verse 20, for the Father loves the Son, and he shows him all things that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these that you may marvel. 

For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. 

Imagine what he's saying to them with their perspective and their understanding. He's saying they should honor him just as they honor God. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Jesus is equal with God. 

In John 1, John wrote, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. 

In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. And in verse 14, it says, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glories of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 

In Genesis, we read that God created the world. In John 1, we see that Jesus created all things. Nothing was made without him that was made. God is the creator. Jesus is the creator. Jesus is God. 

And it's the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, who came to the world, who took on flesh, who became a man like us, in order that we might, he might, die in our place for our sins. 

In Philippians 2, 5, Paul encourages us, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 

Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

Let's look at Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews two, verse nine. The author's been talking about the world yet to come, the inhabited earth yet to come, and he says we don't see all things right in this world. Everything's upside down, everything's broken. We don't see the order that God intended in creation. 

In verse nine he says, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone, for it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings, for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly, I will sing praise to you, and again I will put my trust in him, and again here am I in the children whom God has given me. 

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 

For indeed he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham, therefore in all things he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people, for in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted. 

My brothers and sisters, I know we know these things, but think on these things, ponder these things, Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, is God. He is God who took on flesh and became a man, that he might accomplish our salvation by substitutionary atonement at the cross, taking the wrath that we deserved, and that he might become a sympathetic high priest, understanding our weakness, being able to aid those who are tempted, ever living to make intercession for us. 

Jesus is God. Back in chapter one of Hebrews, it says God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. 

Jesus is creator. Jesus is sustainer. He holds all things together by the word of his power, and Jesus has brought a new covenant in his blood, so much better than the old covenant, built on better promises with a better sacrifice. He by himself has purged our sins, and is now sitting at the right hand of God. The work is finished. He has accomplished our salvation. 

I don't know if you've been watching. I saw on the news this morning that Pope Francis is about to die. Normally, when I think about Roman Catholicism, I get a kind of low-grade anger because it's a false religion leading people to hell, by the billions. When you think about Pope Francis at this point, getting ready to meet God, it's really a sad thing. 

It's a sad thing to see men in bondage to false systems, to think that we can earn our way to heaven by works and sacraments and rites and rituals, that Jesus' sacrifice, according to their doctrine, was insufficient to save us from our sins. 

But Hebrews 1 says, He by himself purged our sins and sat down because the work is finished. Jesus is God, the God-man who died in our place. In Colossians 1.13, it says, He has delivered us from the power of darkness, conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 

He is the image of the invisible God. He's the firstborn over all creation. For by Him, all things were created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 

He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 

Jesus is the exact representation of God, the expressed image of His person. In Him, all the fullness of God dwells. In John 14, Jesus said, If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. 

Jesus is God, and it is because of this authority with which He taught and spoke, it is because He claimed to be who He is, because of the truth that He threatened the lies of false religion and the system of power that men had developed, that they sought to kill Him. 

They despised Him. They did not honor the Son, but considered Him a devil and a deceiver and a destroyer. In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus has a pivotal confrontation with the religious leaders. He again, in their mind, violates the Sabbath, plucking, His disciples are plucking the heads of wheat to eat, and He heals the man with the withered hand in the synagogue and raises the ire of the Pharisees. 

In Matthew 12, verse 22, it says, Then was brought to Him, then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute, and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw, and all the multitudes were amazed and said, could this be the Son of David? 

Now, when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this fellow does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself, how then will his kingdom stand? 

And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. 

Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder his house? He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad. Therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 

Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. They had attributed the works that Jesus did to Satan, blaspheming the Holy Spirit. 

And Jesus said that this sin would not be forgiven. You see, the Pharisees held to the logic of our argument. They did not accept him as a good teacher or an example to live by. What would Jesus do? They understood that in claiming to be God, Jesus was either God, which was unacceptable to them, or he was a liar and a demonic or delusional person. 

And so they called him a blasphemer. They said he was from Satan and that his power came from the devil, and thus they sought to and eventually did kill him. What they did not understand was that this was God's sovereign plan for our salvation from before the world began. 

Turn to Acts 2 with me at verse 22. Acts 2.22, a wonderful passage. Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost says, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. 

My friends, in this, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in this pivotal event in all history, in the unfolding of God's salvation plan, being predetermined by God and yet carried out in the free will of evil men by lawless hands, we find the only way to everlasting life. 

Verse 24 of our text, Jesus said, most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death unto life. 

All men born in Adam are born sinners, controlled and dominated by indwelling sin. They manifest this inward condition by outward acts of personal sins. And it's for their sins that they are condemned, that they are under the wrath of God. And the only remedy for this condition, this separation from a holy God, is for God himself in the person of Jesus Christ, innocent and sinless, to take in our place the punishment for our sins so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. 

And this is nowhere more clearly presented than in Romans 3. Verse 19, turn to Romans 3 with me, a truly tremendous passage. 319, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. 

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. 

For there's no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness. 

Because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 

I'd like for you to look closely at verses 25 to 26. It says that God set forth Jesus as a propitiation by his blood. That's a full satisfactory payment for the sins of the world. And how do we know that this atonement was not limited? Look at the explanation of verse 25. Why did God set forth Jesus as a full satisfactory payment? 

In order to demonstrate his righteousness. To demonstrate his righteousness. Why? Because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. He repeats himself for emphasis. To demonstrate at the present time. What time is this? The time of the cross. 

To demonstrate at the present time his righteousness. So why was it that God's righteousness was not demonstrated before the cross? Because he had in his forbearance passed over the sins that were previously committed. In other words, God's righteousness had not been displayed. It had not been demonstrated because there were still sins that had not been paid for or punished. 

And the very point in Romans 3, 25 to 26 is that it is at this time at the cross that God's righteousness is demonstrated specifically by leaving no sin unpunished. So we can determine from these words that Jesus' death on the cross was for every sin, for every sin of every man. 

And then the objection comes, why then are men still sent to hell? Most men. And Paul explains that in the following verses. Look at chapter 4, verse 1. 

What then shall we say that Abraham, our father, is found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 

Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is accounted for righteousness. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered, blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. 

Justification only comes by imputation of God's righteousness. The righteousness is available to every man who believes. So the imputation of righteousness is based on faith alone, in Jesus alone. 

Jesus makes this very clear in John 3 as well, John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. Now listen to verse 18, he who believes in him is not condemned but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 

The application of Jesus' atoning work, the imputation of Jesus' righteousness, comes only by faith and men are condemned because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 

These are the words of Jesus in our text at verse 24 concerning eternal life. Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but has passed from death into life. 

He who hears my word and believes, how will they hear without a preacher? This is our part. This is our part, my brothers and sisters in Christ, as ambassadors for Christ. We've been given the words of reconciliation, the gospel, the message about Jesus. Romans 10 17 says faith comes by hearing a message about Jesus. 

It is our role, our privilege, to bring this good news to a lost world, to persuade men through the preaching of the gospel to be reconciled to God through faith. And it's incumbent upon men to receive this message, to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. 

And everyone who hears the message about Jesus and chooses to place his faith in Jesus alone receives the gift of eternal life, has everlasting life, has passed from death unto life. 

We are regenerated, recreated at the point of faith, made new creations with a new heart and a new spirit and the Holy Spirit indwelling us, permanently sealing us. These are new covenant promises, the blessing we enjoy out of the covenant made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 

My brothers and sisters, we have everlasting life and we shall not come into condemnation. What a gift, what a promise, what a privilege. And now our life is gratitude, is thank you Jesus. 

And our desire is now to live for him who died for us, to know him, to make him known. And this is what our service is about this morning, to remember, to proclaim what Jesus has done for us, the salvation available to everyone who believes. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for the gift, the gift of salvation. We thank you that it's available through faith alone, that it's not by works of righteousness that we have done, but by your mercy you've saved us. 

Thank you that Jesus is God, thank you that he became a man, took on flesh, humbled himself to the point of death, even the death of the cross, and on the third day was raised from the dead. Thank you for his satisfactory payment, satisfying your wrath in our place that we might become sons of God. 

That you remain just, but are able to justify the one who has faith in Jesus. Thank you for that truth. Help us to remember, to proclaim, to be thankful, and to bring this good news message to everyone that you bring into our lives. 

In Jesus' name, amen.