R235 The Absolute Authority of the Lord Jesus

As we open God's Word together with Dr. Don Wilton, know that we're open to talk with you and pray with you at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. Now, Dr. Don Wilton. Please turn with me in your Bibles to John's Gospel in chapter 5 this morning. John's Gospel in chapter 5. Our subject today is going to be a remarkable subject of very deep spiritual significance. The absolute authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The absolute authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many years ago, before I became an American citizen, and I'm probably one of the proudest American citizens in this congregation today, because I know what God has brought me into. What a tremendous privilege. But many years ago, before I had all those papers, and especially that little blue book that says U.S. Citizen, my wife and I were in Canada, and we came across the border back into the United States. There was just one little problem. We didn't have all our papers in order. And can you believe, folks, that the guard officials and those who were up there at the border detained me? Now, I didn't tell the deacons this until today. Can you imagine a man of my caliber being detained?

I mean, these things ought not to be. And here we were, right up in Vermont, in a faraway land detained at the border, and these gentlemen said, your papers are not in order. And guess what? If your papers are not in order, you're not going anywhere, buddy. And of course, for the first time in my life, I was unable to talk my way out of it. Then I remembered something about this great nation. I remembered that I had rights. And so I informed this gentleman that I wanted to make a phone call, which I did. By the grace of God, I managed to find the man in Mississippi with one call that I needed to call. And I told him my predicament. He said, Don, you just wait there. We'll fix this up. I could see myself five years later, still waiting, languishing around in prison in Vermont. I don't mind dying, folks, but not in Vermont.

It's out of the question. And so we waited what seemed to be like ours. Finally, the telephone rang. This very, very executive official picked up the telephone, and he said, Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Mm hmm. Yes, sir. Yes. Yes, sir. Right away, sir. Yes, absolutely, sir. Yes, sir.

Thank you, sir. Put the phone down. I said, That's it. Obviously, he's coming to talk to me. He didn't say a word. Walked around, did whatever else, and finally, after a while, he sidled up to me and he said, I have decided to let you go. Listen, one of my favorite places to preach is in the black church.

I preached in many, many black churches, some of my dearest friends, and they have a theological insight in black churches that goes like this. Mm hmm. Uh huh. That means everything that you've ever learned from Genesis to Revelation.

That's what it means. And when he told me he'd let me go, all I said was, Mm hmm. I found out later on when I was back in New Orleans that my friend called a senior senator of the United States who called the man in charge of all these operations, who called this man in charge at one little operation and told him, to borrow a phrase, Is that my boy you've got held up there?

Let him go, buddy. Isn't it remarkable that the Lord Jesus Christ was able to do what he did because of who he was. In John chapter five in the first few verses, we discovered that this man who was in a terrible predicament had found himself at the pool of Bethesda. The Bible says for 38 years, Jesus came into his presence and violated all the religious sacred observance of the religious order of the day.

There were two major violations. First of all, Jesus healed somebody on the Sabbath day. The second violation was that he told this man to get up and make a public demonstration of the inward change that he had experienced as a result of his encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews were angry.

They were absolutely positively mad that Jesus had violated the sanctity of their religious parameters. You see, to these people, my friends, religion was something which found its ultimate expression in the thoughts of the head. Whereas the birth, the death, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ finds as its ultimate expression the inner annals of our hearts. There is an eternal distinction, an eternal difference between knowing about God in your head and having the Lord Jesus Christ living and dwelling within your heart. And so we find from verse 16 of chapter five all the way to the end of this great chapter, one of the most succinct and one of the most dynamic, one of the most applicable theological discourses that Jesus shares in all of Scripture.

You see, there are three dynamics here. First of all, there was the indictment that was raised against the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 16. Then from verse 17 through verse 38, there is the refutation, the rebuttal of what had taken place as Jesus refuted these allegations. And then from verse 39 through 47, we have the reversal of the indictment against the Lord Jesus Christ. And the question is, what did Jesus say to these Jews in response to their accusation that Jesus was violating the sanctity of everything that they held dear?

Our subject this morning is the absolute authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's read a few verses together beginning at verse 16. So because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath day, the Jews persecuted him. In fact, they persecuted him all the way to the cross, did they not? They persecuted him even unto the death upon the cross. Jesus said to them, my father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working. For this reasons, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Jesus, for not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.

Now this is the answer that Jesus gave them. I tell you the truth, the son of man can do nothing by himself. He can do only what he sees his father doing, because whatever the father does, the son also does.

For the father loves the son and shows him all he does. Yes, listen to what he says to these Jews here. Yes, to your amazement.

I love that song, Steve. I stand what? Amazed in the presence of Jesus, the Nazarene. Can you just listen to this? Here it is. We're going to find this word amazement cropping up time and time again.

Why? Because it all points to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus says in verse 20, yes, to your amazement, he will show him even greater things than these. 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. Moreover, added to this, 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. Are you noticing here, my friends, an intertwining between who God is and who the Lord Jesus Christ is?

We're going to see something more about this in just a moment. Verse 23, why is this so? So that all may honor the son just as they honor the father. He who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. I tell you the truth, said Jesus, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death unto life.

That's exactly what happened to the man at the pool of Bethesda, the absolute authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to submit to you today, my friends, that they were two relationships that Jesus referred to as he endeavored to refute the claims of guilt that these Jews had laid against them. First of all, was the relationship between God the father and the Sabbath day. The second was the relationship that we're going to discover was between God the father and God the son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's right here in this text. You see my friends, these Jews absolutely despised. They were mad. They hated the fact that Jesus referred to himself and to God in intimate and in absolute terminology. And so the first thing we need to look at is Jesus and his relationship between the father and the Sabbath.

It's right here in verses 17 and 18. There were four things that Jesus was saying in these two verses about the father and the Sabbath. Number one, Jesus put his activity on a complete par on an equal footing with God. Boy, the Jews didn't like that. They didn't like the fact that Jesus said, wait a minute, I did this for the man at the pool of Bethesda, not just because I'm Jesus, but because I'm God. But the second thing I believe Jesus was saying to these religious people was that God's Sabbath day.

Now listen carefully. What he was saying to these Jews was that God's Sabbath day was not the rest of inaction. It was rather the rest of divine satisfaction. Jesus was pointing out to these Jews who were so distraught that Jesus Christ had violated the sanctity of the Sabbath.

He said, number one, I'm on an absolute par with the father. He said, secondly, the Sabbath was not God's rest of inaction. It is rather God's rest of divine satisfaction. You see, my friend, God created man in his image. And when you go back into Genesis chapter one and you read these wonderful accounts of God's creative act, God created man in his own image.

And then what does the Bible say? He saw that it was good. And God came to the seventh day and he rested. It was not rest of divine inactivity. It was not rest of creative activity. It was rest, my friend, of divine satisfaction.

God saw that what he had created was the very best of the best. But then in third place, Jesus was trying to remind these Jews, these religious leaders, my friends, that God's rest had been interrupted by the unbelievable violence of sin. And when his rest of divine satisfaction was interrupted by the violence of sin in the fourth place, God's creative rest began to be translated into his redemptive work. And that redemptive work which began right there, my friend, at the fall of man has continued until this day.

I want to run that by again. The Bible teaches us very clearly, my friend, that after God created the world and he created man in his own image, his rest was not the rest of inaction. It was the rest of divine satisfaction. And then sin came into the world. The Bible says in Adam all die and his rest of divine satisfaction was interrupted by sin and by Satan. And so his creative rest was translated into redemptive work and the redemptive agent of the redemptive work of Almighty God was and is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen? Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. And you see, my friends, it is this broken man, this man at the pool of Bethesda who was God's prime exhibit of the ruin that sin had brought into the world. This man sitting there on the Sabbath day after 38 years of unmitigated social and cultural and religious effort to try and alleviate his position. He was the ultimate exhibit in the presence of the divine creative redemptive agent, the Lord Jesus Christ, of the absolute ruination of sin.

So what happened? Here we find God's creative genius, man, created in the image of God, the ultimate satisfaction that had led ultimately to God's creative rest. Here he was disfigured by the ugliness of sin, interrupted in his relationship with Almighty God, lying there in his pitiful hopelessness and in his helplessness and Jesus Christ came into his presence. And when Jesus encountered this prime exhibit, what happened? God's redemptive work kicked into high gear.

That's exactly what happened, my friend. God's creative work kicked into high gear as the exhibit of his disruptive creative rest was directly confronted by God's divine agent, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what was Jesus saying? Jesus was saying, I did what I did on the Sabbath, my beloved friends, because I am God and because I am part of God's redemptive work and because I gave my life and because I am about to die for the sin of man and therefore there was a sense in which because God and Jesus are one, when Jesus looked at the man, Jesus looked at God, he saw the redemptive work of God, it came back to Jesus and Jesus acted upon it Sabbath day or not. There are people here today who are prime exhibits of the ugliness of sin. I want you to know I stand, my friend, as a prime exhibit of the disruption of God's creative rest.

Sin was in my life and yet there came a time in my life when seated at the pool of Bethesda, I encountered the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and when I encountered the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, his redemptive work was applied to my own heart and life and because of the relationship between the Father and the Son, I was made completely whole again. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word and we'll be back with the completion of today's message, The Absolute Authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in just a moment. But Dr. Don wants me to remind you that we're here for you connecting at 866-899-WORD.

That's our phone number 866-899-9673 and online as well at www.tewonline.org. It's a brand new freshening of our website, that's tewonline.org and so many are talking about the Walking with God's Giant series. It was so successful and so many people strengthened and encouraged last month.

We've done a part two this month. Do you know Jesus? Have you settled the issue of your personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? May I submit to you that despite all the opposition that these religious leaders were coming on to Jesus about. Read that verse in verse 17 again. Here's what Jesus said, My Father is always at His work to this very day and I too am working. Do you know what that word working means?

Do you know what it points to? It points to the continuing work of the ministry of intercession. You see the Bible says that when God was exalted and raised to be seated at the right hand of the Father, His work was completely complete.

He had paid the price in full. There was nothing more that could be done for your salvation and for mine. But His ministry continues to this day. And right here in verse 17, Jesus reminds us my friend of the continuing work of the ministry of intercession.

Jesus Christ, the redemptive agent, God's Son, having given Himself for you and for me. And so it seems to me that this fact of the relationship between the Father and the Sabbath points to the authority of Jesus. But there's a second fact that points to the absolute authority of Jesus. And that is the relationship between the Father and the Son. Verses 19 through 24, the Bible is very clear. You see, beginning at verse 19, and indeed all the way through the end of the chapter, I just don't have time to preach on the whole chapter today, all the way through the end of the chapter, Jesus begins to speak about His unique relationship with the Father. And there are two aspects or two dynamics that grow out of Jesus' unique relationship with the Father. Number one is the Lord's jurisdiction.

In other words, how far and to what extent does Jesus' power extend? The Lord's jurisdiction. But the second thing that the relationship between the Father and the Son speak to is the Lord's judgment. You see, not only does the Lord have jurisdiction, He has power, but the Bible says on the basis of who He is in God, because He is God, He has complete absolute power over judgment. Let's look first of all at His jurisdiction. And if we're going to understand the jurisdiction of the Lord Jesus Christ and what Jesus was trying to say to these disciples, there are two things that it speaks to.

Number one, it involves His loyalty. It involves Jesus Christ's loyalty. I want you to look at verse 19.

Look at it very carefully. Follow along in your Bibles, folks. Very important to read this for yourself. Jesus gave them this answer. I tell you the truth, said Jesus, the Son can do nothing by Himself. He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does, so the Son does also. This is ultimate spiritual, biblical loyalty.

You see, friend, there was no friction here. There was no independence of thought between the Godhead as man and Jesus. You see, as man, my friends, Jesus still possessed all the attributes and all the properties of deity, but He never used them without permission from the Father. That's what the Bible teaches us.

He still had all the attributes, all the properties, as the Son of Man because of His deity, but He never used them without the direct permission from the Father. In fact, what Jesus is saying to these religious leaders, any thought of acting independently of the Father would be the ultimate satanic violation of everything that God is. In fact, my friend, independent thought from God is what? It is the very essence of what sin is. That's what sin is all about. It is thinking apart from the thoughts of God.

That's what it's all about. Satan wanted to be God and he felt. In other words, here's what Jesus was saying. He was saying, while I, as God, am never anything less than God, so it is that I, as man, am never anything more than man.

I'm going to run that by again in case you had a rough night last night. Here's what He was saying to these Jews. He was saying to them, while I, as God, am never anything less than God, at the same time, I, as man, am never anything more than man. What was going on here? Jesus was saying that He was here on this earth to these people.

He was here to make all that He was as man available to all that the Father was as God, so that all that the Father was as God might be made available to all that He was as man. Isn't that incredible? Don't ask me to run that by again, but I want you to listen. Isn't that unbelievable, folks? That's what Jesus was saying to these religious leaders. In other words, my friends, it was an incredible dynamic in which perfect deity was enshrined in perfect humanity. Jesus was saying, on the basis of His absolute loyalty to God, independence of thought was absolutely impossible. Now, what about you and me today? The Bible says all of us have come into a relationship with Jesus Christ. We have been adopted to become joint heirs with the Son.

Isn't that incredible? Do you know what one of the greatest calls that God places upon our lives? It is our loyalty to Him, folks. It is our absolute loyalty to the One who has absolute power and authority. Jesus here is saying, yes, the Lord's authority, because of the relationship between the Father and the Son, but it is based upon my absolute loyalty to Jesus Christ and God.

Well, there's a second thing that this means. The Bible says not only was it based upon His loyalty, but it was based upon His love. Verse 20 speaks about love.

It's right there. Look at what the Bible says. For the Father loves the Son, and He shows Him what? He shows Him all that He does. Then He says that verse I read a little while ago. Yes, even to your amazement, He will show Him even greater things than these.

For just as the Father raises the dead and give them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He is pleased to give it. Are you seated at the pool of Bethesda? Do you know Him?

Do you know Him? You've heard Dr. Don as he's been preaching his heart out, preaching through God's Word in John chapter 5, but now as he comes into the studio, would you open your heart to what Dr. Don's going to ask next? Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin, and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you just prayed with Dr. Wilton, in your heart you've given your life to Christ, you've rededicated your life to Christ, welcome. Welcome back to the family of God. Welcome to the family of God for the first time. We are excited to see you grow. For more than just your fire insurance, more than just knowing you have been saved from hell for heaven, but an opportunity to see God do something in your life now, here on earth. We have wonderful resources, absolutely free.

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