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Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (7-3-1999 Guisborough Evangelical Church)
After Jesus had healed the man by the pool of Bethsaida,
who had been ill for 38 years, one might have expected universal acclaim and
thanksgiving. But orthodox Jews with their mass of burdensome oral traditions
about the Sabbath were alarmed. They were full of black looks. How could they be
pleased? Here was a man carrying a burden on the Sabbath. They did not allow
anyone to have as much as a needle in their robe on the Sabbath, or have
artificial teeth, or wooden leg, or broach on the robe. They did not allow
anyone to lift a chair, and they agonised over whether it was right to pick up
and carry a baby. No wonder they did not take kindly to a man carrying his bed
after he had quite wrongly been healed on the Sabbath day. This was to add
insult to injury.
So they laid
this charge against Jesus that He was a Sabbath-breaker – in fact a habitual
Sabbath-breaker (eluen). This led to
another of the bitter controversies that Jesus had with religious legalistic
enemies among the Jews. In the course of the controversy, Jesus makes some
extraordinary claims about who He was and what He was able to do – both now
and in the future.
Let Him speak for Himself. Listen carefully as He explains what He can do for you now and what He will do for you when He empties the graves and raises the dead. Jesus in talking here, not just inspired apostles explaining the teaching of Christ. Jesus could not be more direct as He speaks to us. The issue is between Him and us directly.
Jesus makes claims found on the
lips of no other teachers, pointing us to the uniqueness of the Christian
message. We do not dare put Christianity as just another religious option and
another world religion. Never put Jesus Christ on a level with Buddha or
Mohammed or Confucius. He puts forward most extraordinary claims about Himself.
In one of the
most important statements about the person of Jesus Christ to be found in this
Gospel, or indeed the whole New Testament, He puts Himself on a level with God
the Father. He tells His enemies that God in a very special way is His Father.
At once His enemies accuse Him of making Himself equal with God, and of course
they are right. Jesus does the same things as God. God is working still, and
Jesus is doing the same. God has finished the work of creation, but is still at
work governing the world and supplying needs. He still causes the sun to rise
and the grass to grow on the Sabbath. Jesus also works, hence His healing of the
invalid. The Father raises the dead, and Jesus says He raises dead. The Father
exercises judgment over man, and so does Jesus. He is absolutely one with God in
every way. Then He points out that since they honour and glorify God, they ought
to honour and glorify Him. There is no jealousy in the Father; He is delighted
when we honour the Son.
Jesus deliberately puts Himself on level with God. God is almighty, powerful and perfect. Jesus says He is also. The Father is eternal, and so is the Son. The Father is God, and so is the Son. Here we are in the presence of a great mystery, far too great for feeble minds to take in. The mystery of the Godhead – three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The mystery of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ – two aspects or sides to His person: The man, Christ Jesus, who was hungry, thirsty, suffered and died; and at the same time equal with God, same power as God, honoured with God, shared His mystery and wonder. Salvation depends on this truth. If He was not man, He could not have represented us on the Cross. If He were not God, He would not have been able to offer Himself as a sacrifice to save the vast multitude which no man can number.
“He came down to earth from heaven
Who
is God and Lord of all.”
This passage emphasises His deity, that Jesus Christ is a member of the Godhead, the second person of the Trinity. We are to honour Him. And with our lips and our hearts and lives we crown Him Lord of all.
Whoever
hears my words and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be
condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, 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 (John 5:24,25). How often people think that
eternal life if something they get when they die. We get it in fullness then,
but it is a present possession now. From the spiritual point of view, we were
dead. But it is possible to be alive. God becomes real, His Word becomes real,
Christian fellowship is real, worship is real, life has point and meaning and
purpose because it is linked up to God. Till we know Christ, we only exist.
We see it all
around – people wandering without sense of direction or goal. Although
occupied – love making, war making, peace making, and career making – yet
dissatisfied, bored and unhappy. No ultimate values to give integration to life,
confined to this life with no link to the eternal world, no recognition of
God’s controlling hand. Statistics show an alarming jump in suicides,
especially among young people, in recent years, and Samaritans report a growing
number of contacts made by people who are calling out for help. A former chief
government medical officer described suicide as “the tip of a huge iceberg of
despair and misery in young people”. People swallow the devil’s lies
wholesale. “Throw off your Victorian ideas, express yourself, indulge self to
the full – drugs, promiscuity, indulgence, marry fame, please yourself –
this is all you need, you have arrived, you’ll be made.” But the truth is
the huge iceberg of despair and misery.
How often people say when they felt the liberating touch of Christ on their soul, “only then did I begin to live”. He gives us life through His voice. So often hearing a voice made all the difference – consider Samuel in the Temple, Isaiah in the Temple, Saul on the road to Damascus, Lazarus in the grave, the disciples at their workplace – hearing His call and turning to answer. Have you turned to Christ’s voice? “Follow me”, “Come to me”. Are you listening? Are you tuned in? Sometimes He speaks with a still small voice; sometimes it is a trumpet call, masterful and impassioned. But whatever its tones, it tells of life made new, and it comes with power. It speaks of forgiveness and purpose. He promises that when anyone hears, i.e. with trust, obedience and response, he will live. The dead, merely existing, come alive.
A time is
coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out –
those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will
rise to be condemned (John 6:28.29). What solemn and serious words. No mere
man’s words. The Son of God, who is one with God, One to be honoured with the
Father – He is the speaker. How seriously we need to face what He says.
There is going
to be a resurrection. The dead will go in one of two directions – either to
live, to enjoy fullness of eternal life, or to condemnation, banished from the
presence of God forever. This life is not the end. Death is only the end of this
life. There will be another one of eternal dimensions. Which direction will you
go in? There are only two. No third destination, no annihilation, no
alternative. Do not just hope for the best. Jesus says we can know with
certainty, and He describes precisely who is going where.
“Those who
have done good” – how important to interpret that phrase in the light of the
teaching of the Gospel of John, not as the man in the street would choose to
interpret it. “Done good” means the things God requires of us, that we have
put our trust in His Son, abide in His Son and obey His Son. That brings eternal
life. And doing evil is just the reverse – rejecting His Son, not believing
His Son, turning back on His Son.
So everyone
can know exactly where he or she will be when Jesus opens the graves. Christ is
the touchstone. Must take these things seriously.
A man was once standing by the rail of a big Cunard liner crossing the ocean, tossing something up and down. Someone asked what it was he was playing with, a marble? No, it was a diamond. The man had put all his savings into the diamond, it was his investment, it represented his entire fortune, and he was taking it to the States to get a better price for it. Asked if he wasn’t taking a great risk, tossing it up and down so close to the edge of the rail, he replied he had been doing it safely for the last half hour. And with that he threw it up, but was distracted, failed to catch it, and it fell into the ocean to be lost forever. You say, that’s a ridiculous story, couldn’t possibly be true, no one would be mad enough to do a thing like that. But it is true. The person in the story is right here. That person is you. That sea is the ocean of eternity. That diamond is your soul. Are you not playing around with it? Are you not taking a great risk? You say, it will be fine, I’ve been doing it for the last 40 years, no risk. Do not play the fool. Take action and take it now. Be sure of Christ now. Put your soul into safe hands or else you might lose it forever.
