“I SEEK NOT MY WILL”

#199                                                                “I SEEK NOT MY WILL”                                                                                       

Scripture John 5:17-30 NIV                                                                                                                          Orig. 6/10/1962

                                                                                                                                                                               Rewr. 3/1/1990

Passage: 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 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. 19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, 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. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 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. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 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. 24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, 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. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. 28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. 30 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.”

Purpose: Continuing a study from the gospel, here revealing the intent of Jesus to do God’s will even though it will result in His death

Keywords:           Bible Study of John’s Gospel                       Divinity of Christ               Resurrection                      Sovereignty

Timeline/Series:               Bible Study of John’s Gospel

Introduction

                Last Sunday we followed Jesus back into Jerusalem, and near the sheep gate, at a place called Bethesda.  We looked on as He healed a man paralyzed for thirty-eight years.  When the Jewish religious leaders found out that this had been done on the Sabbath they were incensed.  It was a violation of the law, and as says verse 16:  “Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him.”

                Most of us are smart enough to know that when someone is out to get you, the thing to do is to lie low, to be  obscure.  Apparently, Jesus didn’t know the meaning of lying low, didn’t know how to be obscure.  “My Father worketh hitherto,” He said, “and I work.”

                And with that terse statement they hated Him the  more.  They hated Him so much that they started keeping a book on Him.  They would record everything He did that was outside the law.  They would be especially sensitive to charges, legitimate or otherwise, that they could bring against Him that would result in His death.  They were not interested in redeeming Him as a Jew.  They were interested in destroying Him as an enemy.

                John records then, the first discourse of Jesus to the Jews.  He has talked at length to Nicodemus, and to the woman at the well.  He  has  talked with disciples (2:22) and others.  There were brief encounters with Jews (2:18f), and with individuals.  Here, Jesus gives notice to the Jews for what He has come.  And they do not like it.

I.             Jesus First Identifies Himself with God.  V17 “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”  This is one of five parallels established.  The same word for work is used.  The Father and I are both doing the same perfect work.  There is a oneness in ACTIVITY.

                Next Jesus correlates what is done.  “Whatsoever things the Father doeth, also the Son.”  You can imagine their uneasiness.   There is a oneness not only in ACTIVITY, but also in WILL.  It is one thing to claim to be righteous but to be one in WILL with God.

                Thirdly, Jesus takes sovereignty upon Himself.  V21 “As the Father raiseth up and quickeneth, even so the Son.”  He has already alluded to the work at Bethesda.  In response to their disdain for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus responds saying, “My work is God’s work.”  Now Jesus talks about ‘raising’ the dead. SOVEREIGNTY.  So, a man paralyzed 38 years is walking.  You will see much more.  He will return to this subject momentarily.

                Next, Jesus interrelates honor of God and Son.  Someone suggests that Jesus came to Jerusalem to leave His calling card.  It was Passover.  God redeems.  Redemption had its inception in the covenant, but the law stifled it.  A friend years ago: “Me: missed nothing; my church: missed something; Christ: you’ve missed everything.”  The major negative quotient in our lives is failure to honor God, Son.  Letter in New Orleans inviting participation in highway dedication. “Don’t pray in Jesus’ name.”  Don’t blame them.  Blame Christians who compromise.

                Finally, the same life-force the Father has in Himself, so also has the Son.  V26 “As the Father hath life in himself, so has he given to the Son to have life in him.”  In Him is  the fulness of divinity.  Also, there is undiminished humanity.

II.            Next, Jesus Establishes the Dominance of the Role that is His.  V26 “The Father hath . . . given to the son . . . authority to execute judgment.”   Back in the old days, a gospel was preached that required sublimation in Christ.  Funerals didn’t beat around the bush.  You were a Christian or you weren’t.  You gave evidence of your faith by the way you lived, worshipped.

                People depend on something other than faith.  The sobriquet “I don’t drink and I don’t chew and I don’t go with girls who do” never has been a valid distinction.  How much graver the danger today: “I’m a church member!” “Deacon!” “I go to Sunday School!” “Teach!” “I don’t drink!” “I don’t use drugs!”  “l live by the Bible!” “I follow the Golden Rule!” 

                If Christ is not Lord of your life, and a part of every decision, you don’t!  These people got riled with Jesus because He told them their ragged righteousness would not save them.

                We don’t have time to get into the resurrection this morning, but Jesus defines two momentous events.  One has already come, and they are accountable for it.  V25, “The hour is coming, and now is.”  V24, 25 both use the Greek word for “hear”—to hear obediently.  V24 establishes the condition, not only of eternal life, but deliverance from Hell as well.  In life, we determine our own destiny in the way we choose to live.  But v25 eliminates the condition  The spiritually dead shall hear the call to live, and in response, live.

                Which brings us to the second event.  V28 “For the hour is coming, (note) in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice.”  V25 addressed spiritually dead. V28 speaks of physically dead.  V25 is conditional, optional even.  V28 holds no condition, option.

                Whether you have heard it believingly in life or not,  you will  hear it in death.  Jesus is the essence of your choice.  You, I, cannot honor the Father and dishonor the Son.  Believing in deity doesn’t save you, believing in Jesus does.  You don’t believe that, you throw the Bible in the garbage.  Deny that,  you say Jesus is a liar, a charlatan.

                This did not start out as a message of the resurrection, but the word is there.  Most of us have been touched by death.  Some of us have recently been to the grave.  My second Winter, six in 12 days.  Proclaimed message was different.  Some gave evidence when v25 in “spiritual death, heard, and responded.”  Some gave  no evidence. Others, only God knows.  All, will hear, v28 and they will do as they are commanded.

                There are members of First Baptist Church, if I had to preach their funeral tomorrow, I would  have to guess if asked their spiritual condition.

                The human bones, apparently of a 17-year-old girl, were found in Union Parish earlier this week.  A search went on for days for proof. When the dead are called from their graves that girl will come forth fully formed.  No question about identity.  If a believer she will answer the summons unto “the resurrection of life.”  If not, just as certainly, “unto the resurrection of damnation.”  It matters not that she was brutally murdered by a person more beast than man.  Unimportant detail that she had so little time to prepare.  The Christ who came seeking “not  His own will, but the Father’s” holds absolutely and eternally  her condition, yours, mine.