The Authority of the Son/Testimonies About Jesus | John 5:16-47

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You may be seated. Good morning South. It's good to see all your smiling faces. Some of them smiling. Some of them, yeah. Wondering how I'm gonna get through all of that this morning. A couple orders of business this morning before we dive in. And the reason I'm sharing this rather than the announcement slot, is because it's near and dear to my heart.

We are assembling a Christmas season worship choir. If you don't know, my name's Aaron Bjorkman. I am normally up here leading the music, and this is one of the highlights of the year for me because our normal choir ministry sort of opens their arms and invites others to expand the choir beyond.

And we just assemble a big old choir and I can't think of some, anything more worshipful than hearing many voices. Worshiping the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords in harmony. It's like my soul food. So I'd encourage you to check that out. We're gonna be singing on the Sunday before Christmas Eve, not on Christmas Eve.

And so if you just love to sing it and you're willing to give that stint of time to rehearse check that out. First of all, if you don't know me, if you're new or newish to South, my name's Aaron Berkland. I'm one of the pastors here. If that is you, we have. A welcome wall out in the lobby that's just for you to see if this place might be a place that would, you could plug in.

Because here's the deal. If all you ever experienced of this church community is what we do on Sunday mornings, then that's good. We love this. We love corporate gathering and worshiping together. We love to learn the scriptures together. But the good stuff of South Fellowship Church happen, happens outside of these walls all throughout the week.

And so you haven't really checked this out until you've plugged in some way, shape, or form. How we doing? Alright. So this week as you're listening to that, the text read for us, you might be thinking that is a lot of ground to cover. And you're right. And you, and if you're a little bit familiar with my preaching, you might be like, why in the world would Alex assign that much scripture to Aaron of all people?

'cause he's long-winded. And you're right. And I don't, we're gonna be here till next Thursday, I will try not to do that to you, but here's the reality. The reality is this passage of scripture is full of as is true of all of John's writings full of just so many cool Bible nerd nuggets. Like he's just ties these strings all throughout his writing to other passages in the Bible, and we don't have time for the majority of that.

And we also don't have time to, to acknowledge those of us who are theology nerds because this passage is interestingly one of the most influential, important theological texts in all of the New Testament because Jesus almost never teaches explicit theological ideas. He always teaches in stories and parables and what Eugene Peterson calls telling it slant.

He teaches around the way. Through narrative and story. In this text, he teaches pretty explicit theological ideas, and we don't have time for most of that. So this, that's why we have a midweek podcast called The Red Couch Theology Podcast. And at that episode, I will try and unpack some of those more nerdy things that I love, but that I don't have time for this morning.

Because here's the deal. I don't want to commit the risk and the error that this text warns us about. This text warns us about an error that we could face this morning and it's right here at the end of the passage. Jesus says this to the religious leaders. You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.

These are the various scriptures that testify about me, and yet you refuse to come to me and have life. And so I, all that Bible nerd stuff and theology nerd stuff is so fascinating to me. But my hope and my longing and my prayer for us at South Fellowship Church on October 26th is that we would hear the voice of Jesus.

And if we don't do that this morning, this is all useless. So to that end, let's pray and dive in. Father. Holy Spirit, would you speak to us? Would you give us ears to hear?

Maybe just take a deep breath.

The presence of God was in this room long before we ever came into this space, and he is always speaking. The scriptures tell us. And so we might have something to say to you this morning, and I would just maybe ask him to speak to your heart specifically in this moment.

Amen. So in the early dawn hours of June 6th, 1944.

Operation Overlord took place over 156,000 Allied troops forged the English Channel and made their way towards the beaches of Normandy. It was the largest attack of a beach front in human history, and it came to be known as D-Day. Many of us have heard of D-Day, but not a lot. Not all of us have heard of another another operation called Operation Fortitude.

In the months leading up to D-Day, this operation took place behind the scenes

through the use of radio noise and chatter and blown up tanks, fake. Jeeps and all of this radio chatter. They filled the airwaves with all this false information about where and when this attack was gonna take place. And the Germans were listening over the radio waves and because of this they pulled off a master deception plan and they convinced the Germans that it was gonna be not only on a different day, but also.

On a different location at Dule rather than the beaches of Normandy. So much so it was so effective that they convinced the primary general that would oversee the Nazi troops there in Nazi occupied France, that it was gonna happen at different times. So he went home and celebrated his wife's birthday and they.

They knew that this was happening because of the they employed the Bletchley Park Code breakers. There's a movie about this of these code breakers. And they listened to the Germans. They knew that the Germans had taken this hook, line and sinker, and because of this deception that went over so well, it changed the course of the entire war.

And it reminds me today of our passage in a lot of ways. 'cause here's why. It illustrates the fact that it is so important for us to be to when we hear a voice, to ensure that we're hearing the right voice and to ensure that voice is telling the truth. And I think that's some of what Jesus is teaching us in this passage.

Before we think how in the world could the Germans have been so duped? I'm reminded of the fact that this week I couldn't even figure out how to navigate my own email inbox. I was trying to find emails that I personally sent things I said to someone and I was all wrapped up and confused.

And so communication's a difficult thing. It's hard to get it figured out and. More than an ever in human history. We are living in a world where there is an onslaught of voices that are calling for our attention. The radio waves are filled with chatter, full of voices that says, this is the life.

This is life. No, this is the good life. No, this maybe if you invest in working harder and building your career. No, maybe it's just family life here. Or maybe it's. Building wealth or these sorts of things. This is all filling our world with chatter and it's more than ever in history. In fact an American historian here Daniel Borstein wrote this about sort of the settlers days before the telegraph and railroad.

Most Americans lived and died. Never having been more than a few miles from where they were born. Their world was bounded by the few faces and voices nearby. And so for us today, I feel like the noise, the sheer quantity of voices in our world is staggering. And they're all vying for your attention saying, listen to me.

I have the key to the good life. So the question we're gonna explore today is in a world where every voice promises life. Which one's telling the truth, which one is telling the truth? In order to dive in this passage, I need to back up just a little bit in case you weren't here last week to explain why Jesus is talking to these people.

So for a little bit of context, all we need to know is last week if you weren't here, Alex shared a story about Jesus healing a man by the pool of Bethesda. But in the passage we read that this took place on the Sabbath. Why is that a big deal? It was a huge deal for the religious leaders. They find out Jesus is healed on the Sabbath because they see this guy carrying his mat, which was against the law in a public place on the Sabbath, and they're not a big fan of the fact that there was a healing in the first place.

So why is that? Why was healing such a big deal on the Sabbath? There's two reasons that I'll cite for you this morning. Real quick to give you some context. The first one is a religious teaching reason. So Alex pointed this out last week. The mish Nash about seven two outlaws carrying of a load in a public place on the Sabbath.

So they were citing a religious text in their day and in that context and they said that this is against the law. This is why they stop him while he's carrying his mat. And then another one. The Mishna Shabbat 18 three, and there's a bunch of others that sort of allude to this. These are commentaries on the Torah and on the prophets and on the law.

It, it outlawed certain medical activities like you weren't supposed to treat ailments. On the Sabbath unless it was a life-threatening situation. So they're not wrong in the sense that they're citing their own religious texts. They're upset about this healing taking place, but there's another reason that sort of deeper, more psychological and deeper in their souls that's causing them to be bent out of shape by this healing.

And it's this. Several years before we learned this from Second Temple Judaist Judaism texts, we hear about a revival in the Jewish nation. You can read about it and the topics of the revolt of Maccabee, the Maccabean Revolt and this sort of thing. And the religious leaders in that day decided, you know what?

We are gonna commit ourselves to God. We're gonna try our best to obey the teachings and the law of God. And here's why they did that. They believed that maybe just, maybe if we could just obey God, then we can force God's hand to work on our behalf, because we're under the regime of Rome and we just, we don't have autonomy as a nation.

We don't have, it seems like we just don't have the favor of God on us right now. And so if we can convince enough of the population to obey the law and obey his commands, then maybe. God will act on our behalf and we can get religious freedom and political freedom and economic freedom once again. And so they're wrapped up in thinking that obeying the moral law was the key to the good life, right?

So the voice that they believed said moral purity will result in the good life. And when Jesus comes along, they believe that Jesus's actions were risking the entire nation's security. And favor with God. Do you understand why they took this so seriously? They were really concerned, and I don't blame them.

They looked back on their nation's history and they saw Israel when they were faithful to God, they had God's favor on them, and then they, when they disobeyed God, then they went into exile. They're just looking at their own nation's history and they're just really antsy when Jesus starts fiddling with things.

Does that make sense? And so the same question I asked earlier for them in their world where every voice was promising life, or in this case the law, obeying getting all of our ducks in a row was promising life. The question is, was that voice telling them the truth? Okay, so there's the context of our text.

We haven't even dove gotten into the passage here, but what is Jesus's response to all of this? He can tell that they're getting bent outta shape because they keep challenging him at every turn. And so he responds in a very formal way. It's one of the most formal sort of beginnings of an address that Jesus gives.

He stands up and he says, once and for all, I'm going to respond to your concerns, and that's the passage that we have today. The first thing that we find here is found here in verse 17. So because Jesus was doing these things in the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. No, duh. I probably would too if I was in their shoes, if that's the voice I was believing in his defense.

Jesus said to them, my father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working. And something that we miss when we read this is we miss that there's a ton of religious nuance to what Jesus says here, because in Jesus' day, the religious leaders, the theologians of his day had this conversation because they were reading Genesis and they're like, God created the world in six days, and he rested on the seventh day, and so they had some.

Questions about that. How in the world can God rest? He upholds the universe by the word of his power. He sustains everything like, is that really a rest? And so they'd actually concluded. The theologians in Jesus' day concluded this philo of Alexandria Hellenistic Jew Jewish scholar before Jesus wrote it this way, and a bunch more citations I could give you.

God never ceases working. Just as it is the pro property of fire to burn, so it is the property of God to work. And so they believed, fair enough, Jesus does stop working in the creative sense. He's not creating the world anymore, but he still, he's allowed to work in the Sabbath. God alone is allowed to work in the Sabbath because he sustains the universe with his very presence and his power.

So he's allowed to work. And so when Jesus comes on the scene, he says. My father's always at his work. They're like, yep, we agree. We get that. He's allowed to keep working on the Sabbath to this very day, and I too am working. So they know exactly what he's saying. He's saying God's allowed to work on the Sabbath, so I'm allowed to work on the Sabbath.

I am God. I'm equal with the father, and that's for this reason. They tried all the more to kill him. Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. See, he was citing their own theologians and then declaring unequivocally that he was the son of God equal with God.

So this is his claim. If you've ever wondered. Is Jesus just a good moral teacher? Is he just a really good guy who had some great ideas about how to be human? I'm just gonna warn you that's not what Jesus thought about himself. He says unequivocally, he Jesus is saying, I am equal to God, the giver and sustainer of life.

That's an outlandish claim, and it's no reason. It's no wonder to me that the religious leaders wanted to kill him for saying such a thing. It's no wonder. So here's what he goes on to teach. Everyone's listening to something, but only Jesus' voice can bring you life. Everyone is listening to something.

This is what he says to these religious leaders, and I'm gonna fly through the passage to prove to you that's what he's saying. But ultimately, when it all boils down past the theological nuggets, past the Bible nerd nuggets, this is what Jesus is saying to us this morning and what he's saying to the religious leaders in this context, everyone's listening to something, but only Jesus' voice can bring you life.

So how does he do this in this passage? It starts here first in verse 21. We read this earlier for just as the father is raised the dead and gives them life even so the son gives life so the son can give life. This is a, an operation that the son has more of 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. Whoever does not honor the son, does not honor the father who sent him. And all throughout the Book of John, when, whenever we read about condemnation and judgment every time in the Book of John, what he means by that in the book of John is that we will be judged according to what we do with the person of Christ.

Do you believe this or don't you? That's the barometer by which we're judged. That's what he's speaking about here. He goes on very truly, I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. It's just all over this passage. Continue. Very truly, I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of who?

The son of God. That's Jesus. There will be dead. Who will hear the voice of Jesus and those who hear will live for the Father has life in himself. So he has granted the son also to have life in himself and he's not beating around the bush. He's saying, I am the creator and sustainer of life. I give life.

And he has given them him authority to judge because he is the son. Son of man and he continues. Do you not be amazed at this for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear the voice of Jesus and come out. Those who have done what is good. In other words, the definition of that is those who have believed Jesus.

This is John's definition of what it means to be good, and those who have done what is evil, were raised to condemnation. 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 as a completely side note for free. If Jesus doesn't do anything and without the voice of his father, why would we, that's not part of the sermon.

So the first thing we see, Jesus teaching these people here in this context is hear his voice. And start living. So they get all antsy about this healing on the Sabbath, and Jesus says, blah, blah, blah, blah. Wait. I came to speak life into the world. Hear my voice be alive. My voice is life. The voice of Jesus is the bedrock of life.

The voice of Jesus is the bedrock of life. So we learn first that his voice is the beginning of life. There's another thing that he does here in this passage, and he turns to say this. Recognize his voice. He's been speaking all along. So in this context he turns his method of communication to more of a law a courtroom.

And in Jewish tradition, this stems right from the Torah, from the scriptures. In Jewish tradition, you'd have to have two or three witnesses to have any witness validated. And so Jesus says, I will see your two witnesses and I will raise you multiple more witnesses. And he brings. Witnesses to advocate for the fact that he is exactly who he says he is.

Here's where it shows up first. He brings the witness of John the Baptist in verse 33 to 35. He says, it's a human testimony and I, there's so many cool things going on with that one. I wish we had time, but we're gonna move on and I'll highlight a couple of the other ones here. Then he says his own works are a witness to him, his miraculous deeds.

If you remember when we studied the. The water to whine passage. John tells us this is the first sign that Jesus gave to who he was. And then we see another miracle, and this is the second sign. So Jesus is actually unfolds seven signs in the book to articulate and show as a witness that he is who he said he is.

So he does that. And then the father gives witness to him in verse 37 to 38, a divine confirmation. And then the scriptures, the wider scriptures were another witness that he brings forth to the courtroom in verses nine, nine or 39 to 40. And then finally, Moses, the Torah, sort of the bedrock of Jewish scriptures, the heartbeat of their entire religious system was.

Mo when they said Moses, that's what he's talking about the first five books of the Bible. They speak according to Jesus about him. I wanna just highlight the one that where the father speaks of as a witness. In verse 37, it says this, and the father who sent me has himself testified, concern me.

You have never heard this voice. Nor seen his form, except for earlier in the Book of John, when the voice of the father speaks down and says, this is my son and whom I'm well pleased. That's maybe the one context where we have indications that people heard that voice of the Father. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you for you do not believe the one who sent him.

You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me, that you refuse to come to me to have what life. So he's saying over and over again that we need to recognize his voice. Because he's been speaking all the time.

His voice is speaking all the time. Hebrews tells us this way, the sun is the radiance of God's glory, and the exact representation of his being, and he sustains all things by the. Powerful word. His powerful world. So maybe a question I could ask this morning. Okay, that's great. Jesus. You say that you're the one that gives life and you say you're constantly talking.

I don't hear anything. So how are we to hear this voice? Because here's the strange thing about preaching a sermon this morning. I am reading the Bible. A text, how the Bible was insufficient to wake us up to the voice of Jesus. So unless you hear his living word, this becomes a dead thing. So what? It feels so strange.

Unless Spirit, unless you speak to us this morning, how are we to hear? So it's a great question and it's way too complicated to, to like plumb the depths of, and there's no formula necessary necessarily for it. But I wanna give you at least a little bit of guidance. One of the great scholars a philosopher and theologian Dallas Willard talks a lot about hearing God's voice.

And he says it this way. The fact that we do not hear does not mean that God is not speaking to us. We know that messages from radio and television programs are passing through our bodies and brains at all hours of the day. Messages that an appropriate appropriately tuned receiver could pluck from the air we breathe.

We're just not attuned to God's voice. So I'm just gonna give you a couple tips and these are tips that you can find and there's tons more tips on hearing from God and hearing his voice 'cause he speaks. But here's ones that have helped me along the way. How do we hear him? One is to take time to listen, and this is in our culture where there's so much noise taking place and there's so much thing vying for our mental attention.

Just taking time might be one of the biggest things you could do to just set aside a little bit of time to do some listening. Redefine Jesus' most. It's a strange way of saying that, but read to find Jesus in the scriptures according to this text, all of the. The Torah and the prophets are about Jesus.

And the New Testament is the teachings of Jesus and the implications of those teachings for us. And so the primary lens through which we will read the scriptures is to find Jesus, to find his character, to find his personality, to understand how he operated when he walked this earth, and how he continues to operate in the world today.

And maybe just, maybe if we read with that lens, it'll help us to hear his living voice today. Get to know his gait. What do I mean by that? I remember a number of years ago, I decided I wanted to understand I wanted to be so familiar with his personality that I could start to intu intuit his way.

So I just spent six years only in the gospels just reading and rereading. When you see a friend across the way and you like. A hundred yards away. You still can't see their face, but you know exactly who it is because the way they walk. That's the kind of scripture reading I would advise to you get to know him specifically, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John.

Just read it and reread it until you can sense his gait in the world. How would he operate in this situation? How would he operate in this situation? Get to know his gait. Find a teacher. Our Watchman prayer ministry, our saints, who have been listening to God's voice for years. Maybe you just need someone to guide you to listen to their prayer life.

Ask for some advice on how do I pray in such a way that I would hear him pay attention to the chatter in your own mind. This one's super freeing for me, and for a person who, when I get quiet, my mind is just filled with noise. Anyone else want to admit that? I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna pray.

And it's just it's just chaos, right? Maybe that's partially a feature, not a bug. Maybe some of that noise is a guide to the voice of God. So pay attention and just bring each thing, oh, I need to do that thing, Lord. Is that you? Is, do you have anything to say about that? Okay, I'm on six things later.

Okay. So do you have anything to say about this? And interestingly, what I found is sometimes the noise starts to hone in a single concern or topic that lingers a little bit longer than the others. And usually that's where I sense that he is guiding me to listen and say. And shockingly, when I read the scriptures, it's okay, that noise in my mind.

Part of that noise was you trying to weed through the chaos, pay attention to the chatter in your own mind. Sometimes you're, you already know, this is more and more, if I'm honest, in my prayer life, the longer I walk with Jesus I say, all right, Lord, I have this thing, this leadership thing I need to do, and I need your wisdom.

What should I do? And I just feel like the father's how long have we been doing this, Aaron? You know me, you don't need the training wheels on anymore, you're asking me 'cause you don't like it. So just come on. So it's a very silent heaven in this moment for me, if I'm honest, but I just picture him up there smiling down.

Go on, that's a lot of the voice of God for me is I already know his way. I've been reading about it, studying about it for, I've been knowing him, all these sorts of things, and he knows that I'm just trying to avoid something. Notice what lingers God is persistent. Oftentimes I'll ask him, Lord, is this you like this random idea that pops in?

Is that you? And if it just keeps on coming and keeps on coming up to mind, I'm like, okay, so then maybe that's you. Give me some wisdom, know what to do with this thing. And I could tell you there's been some strange stories that I am absolutely confident that some of the things that I heard and because of his persistent voice have allowed me to be a better husband.

One of the reasons I exercise semi-regularly is because of one of those voices. I was like, what do you mean? I asked you about how to be a better leader, and you said, go to the gym and I don't, is that you? And it just lingered and lingered and lingered until I was like, oh, you want me to care for my body?

'cause I'm avoiding that thing. So recognize his voice. He's been speaking all along. The last thing I'll just bring to us is this. Prioritize his voice. Turn down the noise that keep you from him.

This is a hard one to do in our world. I could give you a bunch of tips about that one too. Turn off your phone, find some space. Maybe let the first voice in the morning be from him rather than some sort of podcast or an article or music or whatever it may be. Use some wisdom. Find ways to turn down the voices of the world and listen into his voice.

And maybe just, maybe you'll start hearing it. It's like a muscle. You'll get better and better at sensing that inner still voice. But there's a warning that is embedded in this one as well. Turn down the voice of the world in this passage. Jesus. Says one of the reasons why these religious leaders weren't hearing him, even though they're reading the scriptures, is this verse 43, I have come in my father's name and you do not accept me, but if someone else comes in his own name, you would accept him.

If God testifies about me, you don't want anything to do that with that, but with if a human that you're interested in pressing. If they come and they use their own testimony, you accept them. How can you believe since you accept glory from one another, but do not seek the glory that comes from God In our fallen state, our fallen hearts trust, the loud voice of self glory, self effort, and self-protection more than the humble voice of God's love In Jesus.

We are like one of the broken things that happened in humanity when humanity fell. Is that we started to only trust the things that we could understand. The human effort, the self effort the voices of those who speak on their own behalf. That makes sense to us. Or working harder.

Self-protection. This all makes sense to us. Jesus doesn't make sense to us. How is the way to glory to go to a cross and die for your enemies? Doesn't make sense to us. And so maybe just maybe the way we prioritize his voice and turn down the noise that keeps you from him is to start to recognize the counter intuitives of the kingdom of God that le the weak are strong, that the way of life is to die to self.

These are the kinds of things. So how do we do this? Let the voice of God be the first one you hear in the morning. Prayer helps heal the dopamine addiction that we have. Like literally, scientists have shown that prayer helps heal and you are able to focus better. When we pray, take a Sabbath from media.

I don't know what it is, but here's the reality. If Jesus is speaking life, what is he saying to us today as I come to a conclusion?

He already told us in the book of John. Jesus is saying this, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. The self-giving love of Jesus, the self deflecting, self-giving love of Jesus on the cross is the loudest voice that speaks life and it doesn't make sense to us.

I get it. It doesn't make sense to us. That is the voice of Jesus. It's the voice that says, I die for my enemies. It's the voice that says I will uplift those who are weak. It's the voice that says, I love the world so much that I the creator of all of the universe, the sustainer, rather than holding my power and holding my glory in my own hand.

I choose to lay it down because I love, this is the voice of Jesus. And if you hear that voice, that is the voice of Jesus. Can you hear his voice?

Can you hear his voice?

Hear his voice. This morning,

this great movie that tells the true story of Helen Keller, the Miracle Worker is the name of the movie A. It's a story of Helen Keller, who is because of a childhood illness, became blind and deaf. And in this story, in this. It recounts the her teacher trying desperately to break through the darkness.

That was Helen Keller's life. She couldn't see anything. She couldn't hear anything. And it's a maddening beginning of a movie because this teacher is trying everything and getting increasingly frustrated. How do I break through this little girl and help her hear something. I think that's how Jesus is for us today.

He's trying to break through. Take a li listen to this.

Helen Keller said this about, this moment, the living word awakened my soul. The day that she first understood that her teacher was trying to spell water.

Awakened in my soul, it gave light hope, joy. It set her free from the cage of darkness. There were barriers still, and it is true, but the barriers that could in time be swept away When she described that moment, and my hope, my prayer for us as I invite Hannah back up just to sing this refrain over Us, my prayer is that maybe just maybe the spirit will be your teacher today.

That for the first time, you might hear him spelling life into your soul, that you'll be released from the cage of darkness. That is this world. It's shouting in your face. This is the life. This is life. This is life. It's a cage of darkness. Only the voice of Jesus, only the voice of Jesus. Brings you life.

Can you hear his voice? I'm gonna ask Hannah to just sing this, a little bit of this song over us, and I want you to just ask him to speak afresh. If you've never heard his voice before, you've never heard that voice, spelling, life into your soul, then ask him to waken your heart this morning. Or maybe you haven't heard it in a long time because you've been listening to the other voices, ask him to speak.