Like Father, Like Son - Part B

It's very popular today to talk about God, spirituality. I'm a spiritual person.

I have said, made it very clear whose child he was, and that has some important implications for us. Stay tuned today to find out more. But first, let's see what's going on in the Connect with Skip Resource Center this month. Ready to upgrade your Bible study in 2023? We have a plan and a package for you. Skip Heitzig's book, The Bible from 30,000 Feet, is an ideal companion for a survey of the entire scope of Scripture.

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That's connectwiskip.com slash offer. Open your Bibles to John Chapter 5 and as you do so, we'll catch up with Skip Heitzig as he continues with our study today. The Father and the Son together perform wonders because the man that was just healed was something that was done by both the Father and the Son. Watch this, verse 19. Then Jesus answered and said to them, now they're all upset. He said to them, most assuredly, he'll say that twice in the passage, it's a Greek construct, amen, amen, verily, verily. We would translate it this way. Okay guys, listen up very carefully. I'm going to say something that's really heavy, really solemn.

That's the idea. 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. See, what Jesus wants them to recognize, they're all bent out of shape that Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, what He wants them to know is this. What I just did in healing this man, I didn't do independently, it wasn't some independent act of compassion where I just saw somebody and I had to do it. It was something that was part of the will of my Father and we did it in harmony and in tandem together.

He wants them to know that out of deep love that the Father has for the Son and the Son has for the Father, that they work together so that what the Father is doing in heaven, the Son is cooperating and doing on earth. And by the way, He says to them, there's more to come. There's greater works that you may marvel.

You think that was cool, me healing this dude. You ain't seen nothing yet. I've just scratched the surface. He's going to do two things He mentions, resurrections from the dead and judgment of the world. And very soon after this, there will be three people the Bible records that Jesus will resurrect. By the way, 37 miracles are recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That's just what's recorded.

That's just what's recorded. John said he did a lot more, but I didn't record them all because I recorded enough for us to believe. 37 miracles recorded. Three recorded miracles were resurrections from the dead. One of them was Lazarus.

John 11. He'd been dead three days. He wasn't mostly dead. He was all dead. In fact, his sister said, by now he stinketh.

Don't you love that? That's the King James. By now he stinketh.

Yeah, you betcha there's a corruption that is set in. Jesus raised him up. The second was the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue in Capernaum up in Galilee.

And the third was the son of a widow from Nain, a village right outside of Nazareth. Raised him from the dead. And then a few years after that, he would resurrect himself in correspondence with the Father.

He said, no man takes my life. I lay it down and I raise it up. So what you just saw me perform in healing this man is just the beginning. I'm going to raise people from the dead. I'm going to raise from the dead. And one day I'm going to judge the entire world.

He's committed all judgment, he said, to the son. Now, when Jesus said he gives life to people, I take this in a dual meaning. I can't prove this exactly, but this is just Heitzig here, but I see it in a dual meaning. He gives life physically as creator. He can raise people from the dead, physically giving them resurrected life, but also spiritually because that term is often used interchangeably. He gives everlasting life.

We'll see by the end of this passage that he gives everlasting life to anyone who believes in him. And I would say this, you haven't really lived until you met Jesus. I saw a bumper sticker on a beat up old car. This is years ago.

I mean, I was single then, so that was like decades ago. And I'll never forget it because the car was really beat up, I mean, really messed up, you know, smashed in. And the couple that got out were a couple of young hippies and they were obviously very poor, but they had big smiles on their faces and a bumper sticker on their car that read, without Jesus, you ain't living.

It doesn't matter what car you drive or how much money you have. Here we are in this beat up old jalopy and we're living because He has given us life. So if we were to sum up what we just read so far, it's simply this. Jesus is telling them, if you want to know what God is like, just look at me. If you've seen me, He will say to Philip, you've seen the Father.

Do you know how profound that is? If you want to know what God is like, you look at Jesus. So when you see Jesus having compassion over a crowd of people, you're seeing the heart of God having compassion, wanting to restore people who've been broken and bruised by life. When you see Jesus reaching out and healing someone who is physically broken or needs a physical touch like this man, you're seeing the heart of God who's disturbed at seeing physical suffering upon the earth and is restless in the face of it. When you see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, you're seeing the very heart of God who's weeping over a world that has rejected Him, knowing the pain and the anguish that it will cause them. Now what does that mean to us? This is sort of all theological, the person and nature of Christ. What does it mean to us?

Here's what it means personally to you and I. When you pray to God, you're not just praying to a God who's been stuck up in heaven in an ivory tower who kind of peeks down on the earth and sees you in pain and says, oh, I'm so sorry that you're feeling that way today, but of course I wouldn't know what that's like. I'm up in heaven. This is a real nice place, by the way.

One day you'll come here. No, you have a God who stepped out of heaven embodied in the person of Jesus Christ so that when you talk to Him, you're dealing with somebody who knows all about the pain of humanity, all about the pain and suffering of earth, but has all of the resources of heaven. That's very different and that sets believing in Jesus apart from believing in anyone or anything else. Very strong, powerful statements.

Here's the third. Again, he's following this theme, the Father and the Son, the Father and the Son, like Father, like Son. Because all of this is true, the third statement is true, both the Father and the Son deserve worship. Verse 23, Jesus said that all, that means that all men, all people, panta is the Greek word, it's inclusive of every single human, every person, should honor the Son. That's in the present act of subjunctive, means to continually honor, don't stop honoring, 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.

Think about that statement. If everything Jesus said up till now is true, then this makes perfect sense, right? If Jesus is indeed on the same nature level as the Father, if everything God the Father and the Son, Jesus, do are in concert and harmony together, if Jesus is indeed God, then He deserves worship. And that's what He's saying.

It's unmistakable what He's saying. By the way, this isn't the only time He said it, if you're thinking, well, maybe this is sort of an ambiguous text and Jesus really, you know, He said it before and after. Later on, when He raises from the dead and He stands in the upper room with Thomas who, remember what Thomas said, unless I can put my hands in His side and touch those wounds, I won't believe there's a resurrection.

So, Jesus shows up one day. Hi, Thomas. Remember the other day when you said that unless you touch the wounds, my wounds, and you just said that to these guys, you didn't think I was there. I was here. I heard it all. Here, touch.

See that it's me. Remember what Thomas said to him? He said, my Lord and my God. Now, did Jesus say, no, no, I'm not. He absolutely stood there and accepted and received what was rightfully His, and that is His honor as being Thomas' Lord and God. There's another one. Here's another one. Jesus is leaving the temple and the children of the area start shouting out as kids do.

They often have more insight than adults. And they shouted, Hosanna, which means save us now, Lord. Hosanna to the Son of David, glory in the highest. And the leaders got all upset at what the children were saying. And here's Jesus' response to them. He said, don't you ever read your Bibles?

Have you never read? Out of the mouth of children, you have ordained or perfected praise. He's saying, no, what they just said was perfect because I am who I always said that I am, and that is God.

D.A. Carson in commenting on this passage said, such a statement belongs either to one who is God or else one who is insane. Anybody who says, oh, by the way, you need to honor me just like you honor God the Father is either a net case or He's God. So let's suppose that John was wrong. Let's suppose Jesus never said that.

That's what a lot of skeptics like to say. Well, Jesus never claimed that, but His disciples got all into this and they wrote it down. Well, if that's true, then you can't believe anything John wrote in this book.

You might as well throw it out. It's untrustworthy because He's an untrustworthy witness. That means also 1 John, 2 John, 3 John and Revelation, scrap those from your Bible because you can't rely on those. But let's say Jesus said what John said that He said and He recorded it accurately and it's trustworthy. And let's say Jesus isn't who He said He is. That means He's a liar. And then what are we doing here? Following somebody who's an megalomaniac or a liar. Or else, the third option, He is indeed God and He said what was true and this bent those guys all out of shape.

That's the best option. Now here's the point here. The Jews thought they were worshiping God while they were rejecting Jesus.

By the way, they still do. They think they're worshiping God but they reject Jesus. And this brings up and really answers a very sensitive question that some of us have dealt with. And the question is this. What about all of those sincere people who are very sincere and they're spiritual and they believe in God but they reject Christ?

I don't really have to answer it. Jesus already did that all should honor the Son as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Me.

Question, what did they accuse Jesus of when He said He was God? Blasphemy. They say you're blaspheming and if He was a man who made these statements, He would indeed be blaspheming. But what He is saying is I'm not blaspheming, you're blaspheming.

Because if I'm God and you don't honor Me like you honor God and God wants you to honor Me like you honor the Father, then you're the one who's guilty of blasphemy, not Me. It's a very powerful, powerful statement. And either Jesus is who He said He was or He is insane. It's very popular today to talk about God, spirituality. I'm a spiritual person. I have people tell me, I'm a spiritual person. I go, great, what's the spirit you believe in? Well, you know, I believe in the man upstairs, the great spirit, the architect of the universe, the ground of all being. Wonderful, I say. What do you think about Jesus? Well, you know, I may not believe in Jesus the same way you believe.

Okay, well, if you don't honor the Son, you don't honor the Father. I sat next to a man on the way to Israel this time, had a wonderful conversation. He was a Jewish man from Israel, immigrated to New York 20 years ago.

He had a painting business and he was this gregarious guy. We struck up a wonderful conversation, in fact, a friendship. We exchanged email addresses and when he found out what I did, because he asked me, well, what do you do? I said, I'm a minister.

I'm taking a group of people to Israel. The conversation suddenly shifted. Now he wants to talk about God, which I was, believe me, I wanted to go there. So he's talking about God and God and God here and God kept the Jews and God and he was right on.

And it's interesting, a couple seats in front of me was Kay Arthur. She's an author and she said Skip the whole time I was praying for you when you were talking to this guy. So he found out that I wrote books, that I was an author and he goes, oh, I'd love to read one of your books. I said, great, because I'll send you one, trust me. And he realized what he was asking. He goes, send me one of your books, but not one that speaks too much about Jesus Christ. I said, well, I don't got one of those books.

I'll send you what I got. It's not up to you to honor one or the other. If you don't honor both, you don't honor God.

And why is that? Because God the father himself is the one who exalted Jesus. Paul writes in Philippians 2, God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven or on earth and under the earth. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father.

You know what Paul is saying? You're either going to bow now or later, but you will bow. You will bow now voluntarily or you will bow then in judgment, but you will acknowledge that he is who he said and who the father said he is.

And here's the personal question. If he is who he said he is, is he supreme in your life? Do you honor the son?

You go, how do I do that, Skip? How can I honor the son? First way you can honor the son is to receive him as the savior of your sins. And the second way is to please him on an ongoing basis as God and Lord in your life. Those are the ways he can be honored by his people. Here's the fourth and final statement. We have to close.

There's more to be said, but not time to say it. Verse 24, Jesus says, the father and the son, because of who they are in tandem, will determine your welfare, your eternal welfare. Verse 24, most assuredly, there it is again, amen, amen.

I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has, present tense, everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. I read a simple statement years ago, I think this was on a bumper sticker as well, so now you know where I get my theology. It said, know Jesus, K-N-O-W, know Jesus, know peace. And underneath it, it said, know Jesus, N-O, know Jesus, know peace. If you know Jesus, then you'll know peace. If you say know Jesus, know peace.

And you could translate a little bit differently that same idea here. Know Jesus, if you know Jesus, you'll know life. If you say know Jesus, there's no life. He says, he who hears my words and believes in him who has sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment. Everlasting life is as simple as believing, trusting, relying on what Jesus said about God, about himself. And he claims here and elsewhere to be the one who controls by whatever choices you make your eternal destiny. Again, John chapter 8, Jesus speaking, if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins. There are some conversations I wish I could have been at when they went down.

This is one of them. I would love to have watched the body language of the Jewish leaders as Jesus stepped up to the plate and said what he said. What was their response?

We're told twice they sought to kill him. They will put him on a cross and they will be so happy when they do. In other words, they're saying, we don't want this Messiah. We don't want this kind of person who claims us. We don't want this kind of Jesus. I wonder if that's your response. I wonder if your response is something like, I don't want this Jesus ruling over my life. I want my own space.

Or if you will say, I want this Jesus to rule over my life and I will surrender to him. You say, well, skip, aren't there more choices than that? You're just being very narrow minded here and saying there's only two choices.

You know why? Because there's only two choices. Jesus said, Jesus said, Jesus said, you're either for me or you are against me.

That's what he said. There's no neutral ground. There's no in between. You say, well, I'm undecided. Well, if you mean by I'm undecided, I really want to know and I'm working daily to resolve that issue, that's one thing.

But that's probably not what you mean. What most people mean, it's a smokescreen to say, I've already decided, but it's just a lot more convenient to say, I'm agnostic. I'm undecided. To be undecided is to have decided.

You don't want them. So once again, Jesus radically, he was a radical forces us down to make a decision about his claims. And as one person put it, one of the reasons people find it hard to be obedient to the commands of Jesus Christ is that they are uncomfortable taking commands from a stranger.

If he's Lord and God in your life, taking his commands will be done out of sheer love and joy. But if he's a stranger to you, it'll just become routine religion. Over 30 years ago, there was a 17 year old boy who was told about Jesus Christ personally. And that 17 year old boy reacted and said, what are you telling me about church and religion? I've heard that stuff all my life.

That boy's name was Skip Heitzig. I had been to church all my life. I had heard all the stories and I was an unsaved church goer. And then one afternoon watching an evangelist on television for the first time I heard the gospel explained to me in such a very unique and compelling and straightforward way that I simply prayed. I simply believed and trusted Jesus and everything changed after that. And I'm here years later to say it works.

He still keeps his word. He has spoken life and I'm still alive in a very unique sense. And I would say like the bumper sticker, sorry, there it is again, without Jesus, you ain't living. Bad English, great theology.

Without Jesus, you ain't living. My guilt was removed. Guilt was gone. Well, you can have your guilt removed as well. You can be forgiven and have eternal life all through Jesus Christ.

That's what this whole series Believe 879 is about. When we believe in Jesus, nothing will ever be the same ever. And if you'd like to know more about that and what it means to find forgiveness and salvation in Jesus Christ, please don't hesitate to call us at 1-800-922-1888. We'd be happy to explain to you exactly what all that means and how you can experience real change in your life. Just call 1-800-922-1888 to find out more. That's also how you can get in touch with us for a copy of today's study.

It's available for just $4 plus shipping when you call 1-800-922-1888. Everyone is seeking the secret to long life these days. And next time, we'll reveal to you exactly what that is right here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.