I. Unbiblical Religion Versus Jesus Vs. 10-18
A. U.R. More Concerned With Rules Than With People Vs. 10-13
1. V. 10– The Jewish religious leaders misinterpreted the 4th commandment.
Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it”.
a. They wrongly interpreted it, and forbade many daily activities that made life more difficult for the Jewish people. Their prohibition was not God’s intention.
b. They may not have known that the man was just healed, but didn’t ask about that.
2. V. 11– The man seems to say to them that someone with real authority said it was ok.
3. Vs, 12, 13– They didn’t ask about the healing, but about the alleged law breaker.
B. Jesus Concerned For The Man V. 14
1. Jesus had already healed him, but now He lovingly warned him about not sinning.
C. U.R. Rejects The Biblical Concept Of Jesus Vs. 15-18
1. V. 15- The healed man discovers who Jesus was, and responds to the Jewish leaders.
According to them, he could have been punished by death. He cooperated.
2. Vs. 16-18 Afterwards Jesus and the Jews had conversation.
a. The Jews decided that Jesus was worthy of death for two reasons.
b. He healed a man on the Sabbath, going against their interpretation of the Law.
c. V. 17- Jesus claimed that both He and His Father “worked” on the Sabbath.
d. He claimed to be equal with God by claiming God was His Father.
e. The Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that Jesus was/is God.
f. Many say that they honor God, but they do not honor Jesus in the same way.
II. Jesus Explains Himself
A. Jesus’ Relationship With God The Father Vs. 19-23
1. V. 19– Jesus was fully God and fully man, but denied Himself all the attributes of Godhood, and chose to live as a Spirit filled man dependent upon His Father.
a. In other words, seeing Jesus in action was to see the Father in action.
2. V. 20- The relationship of Father and Son was built upon love, displayed in word & deed.
a. The Father & the Son intended that people would marvel.
3. V. 21- The Son was given the same power as the Father had, to raise the dead.
4. V. 22- The Father has committed eternal judgment to the Son, a prerogative of deity.
5. V. 23- Jesus claimed that he deserved the same honor as the Father. A claim to deity.
B. Jesus Grants Everlasting Life Vs. 24-30
1. V. 24– Jesus said that to hear His word and believe in the Father brings eternal life.
A person goes from everlasting judgment into everlasting life.
2. Vs. 25-30 Jesus now speaks of the resurrection of the dead, to punishment or to glory.
a. When a person dies, there soul continues with or apart from God until resurrection.
b. At judgment, bodies and souls are re-united for heaven or for Hell.
c. V. 26- Jesus has the power of life inherent in Him, a sign of deity.
d. V. 27– Jesus will be the judge. The one who gave his life to offer pardon will now judge those who refused His pardon.
e. Vs. 28, 29- Jesus said to not be amazed that this will happen. He asks us to believe that which sounds so unlike anything we experience.
f. V. 30- The Father gave the Son authority and power for all of this, and the Son didn’t and doesn’t and won’t work independently of the Father’s will.
C. True Witnesses Regarding Jesus Vs. 31-37
1. V. 31- Jesus said that He alone cannot rightly testify of Himself. (Deuteronomy19:15)
2. Vs. 32-35 John The Baptist bore witness of Jesus.
Many of the common people believed the testimony of John re. Jesus, but these didn’t.
3. Vs. 36– Jesus’ works bore witness of Jesus. Jesus performed many miraculous acts, but the religious rulers refused to see those works as being from God the Father.
4. Vs. 37– God the Father bore witness of Jesus.
a. At Jesus’ baptism, the voice of God was heard
Luke 3:21, 22 21When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. 22And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”
b. Also, the “voice” of God was heard through the writing of the prophets.
D. Why U.R. Is Blind To Jesus Vs. 38-47
1. V. 38– The Jews claimed to believe in God the Father, but refused the One the Father sent.
a. God’s word was not abiding in them. Abide- to continue, to make at home, to dwell.
2. V. 39- We don’t have life from a book, we have life from the God that wrote the book and reveals Himself through the book, through Jesus, through conscience, through nature.
a. The Old Testament scriptures spoke of Jesus, and prophesied of Him.
3. Vs. 40-44 The following thoughts seem to be tied together.
a. 40- They were unwilling to come to Jesus to have eternal life.
b. 41- They were men who were very concerned about being honored by man. They later mocked and derided Jesus in many ways, as they did His disciples: “unlearned men”.
c. 42- They didn’t have the love of God; they wouldn’t love the One the Father sent.
Instead, they would choose men over God in the flesh.
*** Ultimately, refusing Jesus is not a mind issue, but a heart issue.***
d. 43- They were willing to receive impressive people who came in their own name, but wouldn’t receive Jesus who came in the Father’s name.
e. 44- They were proud, arrogant, respecters of men, and not respecters of God.
E. U.R. Misses The Revealed Truth Vs. 45-47
1. Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.
2. Micah 5:2 The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
3. Isaiah 7:14 The Messiah would be born of a virgin.
4. Genesis 12:3; 22:18 The messiah would come through the line of Abraham.
5. Genesis 49:10 The Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah.
6. Hosea 11:1 The Messiah would spend a season in Egypt.
7. Jeremiah 31:15 Children would be massacred at the Messiah’s birthplace.
8. Isaiah 40:3-5 The Messiah would have a forerunner.
9. Isaiah 11:11 The Messiah would be called a Nazarene.
10. Isaiah 9:1, 2 The Messiah would bring spiritual and moral light to the Galilee region
11. Psalm 41:9 The Messiah would be betrayed.
12. Zechariah 11:12, 13 The money gained by betraying Jesus would be used to buy a potter’s field to bury criminals.
13. Psalm 22:16 The Messiah’s hands and feet would be pierced, and his bones out of joint.