Day 18

This is a big day for Jesus! Today he will appear before the religious leaders in Jerusalem. He is bring brought up on two very serious charges.

Charge #1: Jesus broke the Sabbath by healing the man and then telling him to carry his mat (working).

Charge #2: Jesus was claiming that God was His real Father and that He and God the Father were equals. Yikes! This is going to get tense!

Read John 5:16-47

• What was the primary message of Jesus in this passage? (Vs. 18)

• There are several witnesses that Jesus calls forward to testify on His behalf. Find them and write down the truth they tell about who Jesus is.

• What do we learn about Jesus' character from his "answer" to the Jews (vs 19-47) 

There has never been and never will be a more powerful declaration of the person of Jesus Christ than what we see in this passage. Here we have Jesus Christ Himself, addressing the religious and political leaders of His day in an all-out defense of who He is. Like a masterful lawyer, Jesus works His way through point by point, witness by witness, to the logical conclusion that He really is equal with God. He argues that it is a fact and not blasphemous at all. Here is Jesus, fully God, and yet standing before them fully human. He is the God and Man, God made in the flesh, God come to live as His creations do and show us how to live in complete dependence on the Father.

How did you do with the five witnesses? Lets take a brief look at each one.

Witness #1: Jesus Himself (John 5:19-31). Jesus says that He is loved by the father (v.20), has an ongoing intimate relationship with Him, was given authority by the Faither to execute judgment and is willing to submit to the Father and do only His will (vs.19,30). He also says that He is equal with God (vs.23)

Witness #2: John the Baptist (John 5:33,35). John gave testimony of who Jesus was, back at the Jordan River (John 1:19-34). John testified that Jesus was the Messiah, the Lamb of God, Who came to take away the sings of the world. Unfortunately, John is now in prison, his light hidden from the people.

Witness #3: Jesus’ own works (John 5:36). Jesus says that greater than the testimony of the prophet John is Jesus’ works that God has given Him to do. The miracles of transformed lives all around Him bear witness of His authenticity, like the man who was sick for 38 years before Jesus healed him.

Witness #4: The Father Himself (John 5:37,38). Jesus now calls God the Father to witness about His true self. But when did the Father testify about Jesus? Go back to the river again (Matt.3:16-17). The father opened the heavens and said, “This is my son, Whom I love, With him I am well pleased.”

Witness #5: The Scripture (John 5:39-47). Jesus tells them,

“But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me’” (John 5:45-46)

Wow! But what does He mean, that Moses wrote about Him? I have read the first five books of the Bible (Those that Moses wrote) and I have never seen anything about Jesus there.

 Unfortunately, our generation has long lost the fact that the Bible, the whole Bible, is really about Jesus, and not about us. In our individualistic society we have been taught to read and study the Bible looking for ourselves. What does it say about me? What am I suppose to do? What does God want from me? These are all good questions, but not the real point of the Bible. From cover to cover, the Bible points to Jesus. IT is the same with history, we tend to interpret history in terms of ourselves and not Jesus. We are self-centered, instead of Christ-centered. Really, all of history is simply His story (Jesus’ Story).

My challenge to you is the read the Word of God, not looking for you, but looking for Him. I guarantee a life change.

 In John 5, Jesus tells us that He is God and gives proof of that truth. At some point we all must come to grips with who Jesus says he is.

 You will have to come to the conclusion that either Jesus was (as C.S. Lewis famously puts it);

• mentally ill and self-deceived, 
• A demon of hell
• He was telling the truth and He was God in an earthly body

So what is one to do with Jesus?

You know, part of being a disciple maker, part of sharing the gospel with those around us is choosing to be brave and give testimony to the truth of who Jesus is. Sometimes we're tempted to make apologies for Jesus and his teachings... especially when they are unpopular. What kind of witness are you?
 
As I said, sometimes we're tempted to make apologies for Jesus and his teachings... on the other hand, sometimes we're tempted to "defend" Jesus.

I'm reminded of the words from the famous preacher:

“The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.”
― Charles Spurgeon

  Don’t even feel like you need to defend Jesus– He does a much better job than we could ever do.

As we start ministry training, ask God to open your eyes to opportunities to share the truth with those around you!