Jesus, The Father’s Sermon
John 5:37-47
We have been saying all along that Jesus here is preaching His first sermon in the book of John.
The unique relationship that He has with the Father.
Up to this point, the sermon has been all about Him.
Jesus has alluded to Himself at least 25 times.
He has spoken about how He is the Father’s Son and as such He:
Shares His Father’s Passions
Sees His Father’s Plan
Shows His Father’s Power
Shares His Father’s Praise.
Jesus has spoken about how He is the Father’s Standard and as such the:
Pathway of Salvation
Provider of Salvation
Plumb-line of Salvation
Jesus has spoken about how He is the Father’s Savior
He is the One the Father has given the works to testify about.
But here at the end of the sermon,
Jesus takes a shift in focus.
This last point shifts it’s focus from Jesus to them.
In these last 11 verses Jesus will use the word “You”
About twice every verse. Over twenty times.
JESUS SHIFTS TO APPLICATION.
And to simply put it, Jesus point tonight is:
If you have failed to see Me, you have missed the point.
Tonight we are going to see the conclusion of Jesus’ sermon, and that is that He is the Father’s Sermon.
Hebrews 1:1-2a “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.”
Jesus is the perfect word and final sermon of God.
Indeed Jesus has been the point of God’s sermon since the beginning.
If you aren’t following Jesus,
Then you have missed the entire message of God.
Here Jesus is confronting these who refuse to see that He is God’s Son,
He is showing them that because they do not honor Him,
They are not honoring the Father.
John 5:23b “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”
Jesus is going to show them
What their refusal to honor Him says about them.
This is one of those passages of Scripture that can cut to your heart and cut their quick, for this is one of those passages that takes what you do and then tells you what you are.
We generally don’t like passages like this too much, because it shows us truths about ourselves that we really don’t want to see.
You are going to see five facts about a person who does not honor Jesus.
Despite what a person may claim, despite what they say, if they do not honor the Son by the full surrender of their lives to Him, then these five facts are true about them.
#1 EMPTINESS
John 5:37-38
Now notice that here again Jesus speaks very plainly as to the fact
That He is from the Father.
“And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me”
The Father has been telling people who Jesus is,
But the problem is that men didn’t hear it or see it.
“you have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.”
If you haven’t heard God testify to Jesus,
then you haven’t heard from God.
People all over the world make claims about hearing from God, but if they have never heard God testify about Jesus, then they have never heard from God.
“nor seen His form.”
WELL NOW HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE. NO ONE HAS HAVE THEY?
John 14:9 “Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
Colossians 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”
But Jesus isn’t finished.
Vs. 38, “You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.”
Jesus has just taken a step further.
Earlier it was that you have not heard God’s word.
Now He says you don’t have it abiding in you.
DOES GOD’S WORD ABIDE IN PEOPLE?
I can tell you without a doubt it does.
It is probably the main thing I noticed
About myself when I got saved.
I got saved and found the word in my heart.
It came to my mind.
Reading the Bible was more confirmation than anything.
God’s word looks good in leather, but it fits best in the heart.
God commands that we allow His word to abide in us.
Deuteronomy 6:6 “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.”
Psalms 40:8 “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.”
Not only that, but God promised to put His Law in our hearts.
Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
2 Corinthians 3:2-3 “You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
HOW CAN WE TELL IF GOD’S WORD IS IN A MAN’S HEART?
Psalms 37:31 “The law of his God is in his heart; His steps do not slip.”
Psalms 119:11 “Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.”
Isaiah 51:7 “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, A people in whose heart is My law; Do not fear the reproach of man, Nor be dismayed at their revilings.”
Jeremiah 15:16 “Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.”
Jeremiah 20:9 “But if I say, “I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name,” Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it.”
When people come to Jesus, God writes His word in their heart.
It is not an external thing. It is not just forcing yourself to obey.
When you come to Jesus, His word gets inside of you
And starts showing from the inside out.
It becomes like a fire in your bones.
But when you don’t come to Jesus, it proves that God’s word does not abide in you, for if it did, you would love Jesus.
“You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.”
Now the wild thing about this is that these are the highly religious people.
These are the people who claim to be the closest to God,
But yet their heart is serious trouble.
Psalms 95:10 “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways.”
Hebrews 3:7-12 “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.'” Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”
When you don’t come to Jesus, it is proof that your heart is empty,
You do not have the word of God abiding in you,
For if you did, you would be a follower of Jesus.
This is also why so many cannot grasp the word of God.
They can read it, but it isn’t in them.
1 Corinthians 2:14-16 “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.”
If you have never surrendered to Jesus, your heart is empty.
You know nothing of the passions of God.
Emptiness
#2 FUTILITY
John 5:39-40
Last week after the sermon Lee Kidd came up to me and pointed these two verses out as the saddest two verses in the Bible.
It is the picture of a person who knows they need life after death, and so they turn to the Bible hoping to find the solution, but they will not accept the solution and so a life of searching still lands them in hell.
We live in a world today with a whole
Group of people who have defined themselves as seekers.
I saw an ad in the Lubbock times for a church yesterday.
First Unitarian Universalist Church
Freedom, Tolerance, Reason
A group of non-dogmatic seekers
The problem is many have looked at seeking as finish line.
A non-dogmatic seeker is by definition
Seeking truth they don’t believe exists.
In other words they just want to seek and stop there.
They don’t really want to find.
I’ve told you many times before, I do not agree with the seeker sensitive movement. I do not agree with catering to seekers.
I agree with preaching the gospel to every man, woman, and child, on this earth, but I do not agree with targeting seekers.
That is because if they are really a seeker, they will find.
Matthew 7:8 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
People who spend a lifetime seeking are not really seekers,
They are suppressors.
Romans 1:18-19 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.”
How else could you read the Bible your entire life and not come to Jesus?
If you can read the Bible and not give your life to Jesus,
Then you are a suppressor of the truth, and your quest has been in vain.
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY?
Because the Bible only has one subject: JESUS
It is all about Him.
W.A. Criswell preached a sermon known as “The Scarlet Thread”
He mentioned how throughout Scripture there is a scarlet thread of Jesus that runs from Genesis to Revelation. You can take any book of the Bible and preach Jesus.
Genesis Ark of God (Gen. 7:1 & 1 Pet. 3:18-22)
Exodus Passover Lamb (Exodus 12:1-13 & 1 Cor. 5:7)
Leviticus High Priest (Lev. 16:29-34 & Heb. 5:8-10)
Numbers Pillar of fire and the Cloud (Num. 14:14)
Deuteronomy Prophet greater than Moses (Deut. 18:15-18)
Joshua Leader in Battle (Joshua 24:8)
Judges Judge of Israel (John 5:22)
Ruth Kinsmen Redeemer (Ruth 4:14)
Samuel Anointed of God (1 Sam. 16:12)
Kings King of Kings (Rev. 19:16)
Chronicles Lord of Lords (Rev. 19:16)
Ezra The Restorer (Ezra 9:8-9)
Nehemiah Wall around His people (Neh. 6:15-16)
Esther One chosen for such a time as this (Esther 4:14)
Job Living Redeemer (Job 19:25)
Psalms Great Shepherd (Psalm 23)
Proverbs Wisdom of God (Prov. 8)
Ecclesiastes Abundant Life (Ecc. 12:13-14 & John 10:10)
Song of Sol. Beloved Groom (SOS 2:8)
Isaiah Won. Coun., Mty God, Ever. Father, P of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)
Jeremiah Potter of the Clay (Jer. 18)
Lamentations Weeping Prophet
Ezekiel Son of Man
Daniel Ancient of Days, 4th man in the fire (Daniel 7:9-10)
Hosea Harlot’s Husband (Hosea 1:2)
Joel Refuge for His people (Joel 3:16)
Amos Tabernacle of David (Amos 9:11-12)
Obadiah Protector of Jacob (Obad. 1:15-18)
Jonah One who spends 3 days and 3 nights in the earth (Matt. 16:4)
Micah Ruler from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)
Nahum Jealous God (Nahum 1:2)
Habakkuk God of my salvation (Hab. 3:18-19)
Zephaniah The Lord in your midst (Zeph. 3:15-17)
Haggai Signet Ring of God (Haggai 2:22)
Zechariah The Righteous Branch (Zech. 3:8, 6:12)
Malachi Refiner’s Fire (Mal. 3:3)
The Bible is all about Jesus.
1 Peter 1:10-12 “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long to look.”
If you are not willing to see Him,
Then all your Scripture reading is in vain.
That is what these people did.
Vs. 40, “And you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”
Jeremiah 6:16-21 “Thus says the LORD, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ “And I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.’ “Therefore hear, O nations, And know, O congregation, what is among them. “Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing disaster on this people, The fruit of their plans, Because they have not listened to My words, And as for My law, they have rejected it also. “For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba And the sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.” Therefore, thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am laying stumbling blocks before this people. And they will stumble against them, Fathers and sons together; Neighbor and friend will perish.”
Emptiness, Futility
#3 DECEPTION
John 5:41-43
Now Jesus starts this section off with a premise.
“I do not receive glory from men;”
“I’m not saying this because I need you.
I’m saying this because I know you and you need Me.”
Then look at what He says.
“but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.”
HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?
“I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him.”
Jesus says, you don’t love God.
I know this because I came from God and you don’t love Me.
If you don’t accept Jesus, then you do not love God.
If you cannot accept His Son, how can you accept the Father?
What this means is that your claims to love God are mere deception.
It is that high form of hypocrisy that we often talk about.
Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”
In other words, your entire religion is a lie.
How many times have we talked about how the prophets don’t just want you being religious for the sake of religion?
How many times have we talked about how loving God is not to just go through the motions.
If you want to love God, then give your life to Jesus Christ.
John 8:42 “Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.”
Emptiness, futility, deception
#4 SELFISHNESS
John 5:44
Here Jesus actually points out the inhibitor to their faith.
“How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?”
In other words, if you only want glory from men,
Then how can you be a believer in God?
SELFISHNESS DOESN’T LEAD TO SALVATION
Matthew 16:21-24 “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”
Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
James 4:6 “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”
This is the reason many people will not come to Jesus.
It requires death to self, it requires hatred of self, it requires denial of self, Many love themselves to much.
Luke 14:26-27 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”
Was it not because of this self love that the Rich Young Ruler went away sad?
Emptiness, Futility, Deception, Selfishness
#5 CONDEMNATION
John 5:45-47
Here is perhaps the hardest of all.
These people thought that they could reject Jesus,
But still be ok because they were disciples of Moses.
They say, “Moses won’t accuse me, I’m on Moses side”
John 9:28-29 “They reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.”
DO YOU KNOW WHAT JESUS SAYS TO THAT?
“if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe His writings, how will you believe My words?”
Jesus point is yet again clearly seen.
You cannot claim to love the Bible and not love Jesus.
You cannot claim to love God’s prophets and not love Jesus.
Jesus is the main point of all of them.
If you don’t come to Jesus,
Then you are under condemnation.
John 3:18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
“Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope.”
It is a sad person who is looking to the Law for salvation.
Romans 7:9-11 “I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”
Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Some day it will be the knowledge of God’s word
That will be the harshest condemnation on people.
Luke 12:42-48 “And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. “Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. “But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. “And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”
The Law can only condemn.
It has no power to save.
The point to this text is simple.
Jesus is the Father’s Sermon.
Jesus is what the Father has been trying to show people
Since the dawn of creation.
If you have missed Him, you have missed everything.
This is what God wants you to see more than anything else.
Matthew 17:1-5 “Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”
DON’T GET SO CAUGHT UP IN RELIGION THAT YOU MISS JESUS
The greatest tragedy of all is to have your name written on the church role, but not written in the Lamb’s book of life.
