John the Baptist was one such human witness, for He proclaimed: "This is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world." And both the Father and the Holy Sprit were heavenly witnesses of Jesus at His baptism in the Jordan (an act . There are two ways of resisting: the one, by warding off injuries through inoffensive conduct; the other, by retaliation. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. Knowing the scriptures does not save you. Matthew, Mark, and Luke start, as far as regards the public labours of the Lord, with John cast into prison. Nevertheless, Christ did come to His own things, His proper, peculiar possession; for there were special relationships. Verse 43. Thus it is not only the person of our Lord viewed as divine, and coming down into the world. He saw him under the fig tree. After these things there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." Hence, then, we have the Lord Jesus alluding to this fresh necessity, if man was to be blessed according to God. It occurs within the context of a family Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Using the Bible to impress others rather than to grow in humility and love for God will keep you from faith in Christ (5:39-42). Nevertheless, the heavenly part is little dwelt on, as John's gospel displays our Lord more as the expression of God revealed on earth, than as Man ascended to heaven, which fell far more to the province of the apostle of the Gentiles. John 5:30-47 Blindness to the Truth of the Scriptures. Thus we have here the other side of the truth: not merely what God is in life and light, in grace and truth, as revealed in Christ coming down to man; but man is now judged in the very root of his nature, and proved to be entirely incapable, in his best state, of seeing or entering the kingdom of God. Just as in John 4:1-54, so here it is a question of power in the Holy Ghost, and not simply of Christ's person. Nay, therefore it was they, reasoning, denied Him to be God. It is not merely a Messiah, who comes and offers Himself, as we find in other gospels, with most painstaking diligence, and presented to their responsibility; but here from the outset the question is viewed as closed. The Light, on coming into the world, lightens every man with the fulness of evidence which was in Him, and at once discovers the true state as truly as it will be revealed in the last day when He judges all, as we find it intimated in the gospel afterwards. Later He was determined to be Son of God with power by resurrection of the dead. A greater work was in hand; and this, as the rest of the chapter shows us, not a Messiah lifted up, but the true bread given He who comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world; a dying, not a reigning, Son of man. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life . They spoke of the world; the world might hear them. John Chapter 5 Bible Study Questions (Handout) JOHN 5:1-2 1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Had it been meant, it was no wonder that Nicodemus did not know how these things could be. This is the more striking, because, as we have seen, the world and Israel, rejecting Him, are also themselves, as such, rejected from the first. He that comes from above from heaven is above all. The hour was one for faith, or unbelief. (VersesJohn 6:1-21; John 6:1-21). Expressly had He told the man to take up his couch and walk, as well as to rise. Following on from yesterday's share here is the wastewater treatment explanation, nice and simple as before. Such was the grace that God was displaying in Him, the true and full expresser of His mind. John 5:39-40. Remark, too, the extent of the work involved in verse 29. They are rejecting Jesus and His message (John 5: . Lhetetn 5-7 arkipivss. This brings all to a point; for the woman says, "I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things." he might be; and this, too, as the expression of the true and full grace of God in His only-begotten Son given. The subject is introduced abruptly, but rises naturally out of the circumstances. John was not yet cast into prison. Notably He is now applying it to the reconciliation of a people, who are also baptized by the Holy Ghost into one body. Nobody had gone up to heaven: God had taken more than one; but no one had gone there as of right. International Bible Lesson. Resume Prayer. Alas! His exaltation there is not without notice in the gospel, but exceptionally. They had the Scriptures, and they searched them. Verse 4. . John 5:39-42New International Version. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. Each had his own; all are harmonious, all perfect, all divine; but not all so many repetitions of the same thing. Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament, Old Testament (I. Christ as Fulfilment of). John 5. In John He is One who could be described as Son of man who is in heaven; but He belonged to heaven, because He was divine. Their refusal to come to Jesus was despite their searching of the Scriptures ( John 5:39 ). Verse 41. But there was this difference from the former occasion, that, at the marriage in Cana (John 2:1-25), the change of the water into wine was clearly millennial in its typical aspect. I would render John 5:39 this way: The context makes it unmistakably clear that is Jesus' observation about the current occupation of those to whom he is speaking, not his instruction for them to go and be so occupied.. One has to be careful not to coerce the scriptures to support personal points of view. For evidently it is the theme of worship in its Christian fulness, the fruit of the manifestation of God, and of the Father known in grace. and the more manifest from His lips to one who was a real impersonation of sin, misery, blindness, degradation. One must be born again. John 7:25-31) He is going where they cannot come, and never guessed (for unbelief thinks of the dispersed among the Greeks of anything rather than of God). 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. The Lord Jesus did, without question, take humanity in His person into that glory which He so well knew as the Son of the Father. Did the dead (for so men are treated, not as alive under law) did they hear the voice of the Son of God? What love! What sayest thou of thyself? The Present Hour. God does not here condescend to call it His, though, of course, it was His and holy, just, and good, both in itself and in its use, if used lawfully. 5:39 The indicative of eJrauna'te fits the context better (indicative and imperative forms are the same here). Man, under law, proved powerless; and the greater the need, the less the ability to avail himself of such merciful intervention as God still, from time to time, kept up throughout the legal system. But Jesus finds him in the temple, and said, "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." (e.g. Verse 40. John 3:1-36 follows this up. There is a crying need today for people to seek out the wisdom of God as revealed in His Scriptures and make application of it in their lives. Further, John attests that he saw the Spirit descending like a dove, and abiding on Him the appointed token that He it is who baptizes with the Holy Ghost even the Son of God. Without it there is no divine understanding of Christ, or of His word, or of Scripture. This last is the figure of a truth deeper than incarnation, and clearly means communion with His death. English Standard Version. (John 5:39) Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have Of course it is the revelation of Christ; but here He was simply revealing the sources of this indispensable new birth. He that believes on the Son has everlasting life; and he that disobeys the Son, in the sense of not being subject to His person, "shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" Such is the issue of the Son of God present in this world an everlasting one for every man, flowing from the glory of His person, the character of His testimony, and the Father's counsels respecting Him. For this, therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill Him; because He added the greater offence of making Himself equal with God, by saying that God was His own Father. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. This is indispensable; for God is a Spirit, and so it cannot but be. There is but one unfailing test the Son of God God's testimony to Him. Verses 5:5, 6, 7, 8. But "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must ( ) the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Governmental healing even from Him might only end in "some worse thing" coming. The Father did not judge, but committed all judgment into the hands of the Son, because He is the Son of man. In the five porches, then, of this pool lay a great multitude of sick, blind, lame, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. On the third day is the marriage in Cana of Galilee, where was His mother, Jesus also, and His disciples. Beholding Him as He walked, he says, Behold the Lamb of God! "Ye do search the Scriptures," and ye do well to do so. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. In a certain sense, the principle of John 4:1-54 was made true in the woman of Samaria, and in others who received Christ then. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. Such was Jesus in person, contrasted with all who belong to the earth. And they are they which testify concerning me. (SeePsalms 2:1-12; Psalms 2:1-12) But the Lord tells him of greater things he, should see, and says to him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, henceforth (not "hereafter," but henceforth) ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man. Nay, "the world knew him not." Coming after John as to date, He is necessarily preferred before him in dignity; for He was ( ) [not come into being ( )] before Him. They were not to wonder then at what He says and does now; for an hour was coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those that have done good to resurrection of life, and those that have done evil to resurrection of judgment. But the Scriptures point to me! It is thus strikingly an anticipation of the result in glory. (VersesJohn 7:33-36; John 7:33-36) Jesus was returning to Him that sent Him, and the Holy Ghost would be given. John 1:35-40) Our Lord acts as One fully conscious of His glory, as indeed He ever was. 4 5 One man was there who had been an . When Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures" (John 5:39), the New Testament had not yet been written; the "Scriptures," which in the original language is (graphas) and literally means "writings," Jesus is referring to is just the Old Testament. (Verses John 7:19-23) What judgment could be less righteous? All this, however, was abstract, whether as to the nature of the Word or as to the place of the Christian. Do I lose my ticket to heaven if I sin too much? One must be born again for God's kingdom a Jew for what was promised him, like another. John 5:39. We have seen already that thus light was shed on men. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? What Does It Mean That There Is No One Holy Like God? This testimony differs from the rest in having a more permanent character. But the Lord reproaches him, the master of Israel, with not knowing these things: that is, as a teacher, with Israel for his scholar, he ought to have known them objectively, at least, if not consciously. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him." He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. Verse 2. How little they conceived of what was then said and done! Whosoever denieth the Son hath not the Father; he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. But He, being God, was manifesting and, on the contrary, maintaining the divine glory here below. Now they testify about me; (40) but you will not come to me so that you may receive life. They had the mine, and they dug in that mine in quest of the eternal riches. I. (Verses John 5:13-16), A graver issue, however, was to be tried; for Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. It is this which our Lord so emphatically marks in the case of the Jews. The Lord, in the latter part of the chapter (verses John 6:27-58), contrasts the presentation of the truth of God in His person and work with all that pertained to the promises of Messiah. Thus we all not only receive of His fulness, (and what fulness illimitable was there not in Him!) Was this false and blasphemous in their eyes? John. They had stumbled before, and the Lord brought in not alone His person, as the Word made flesh, presented for man now to receive and enjoy; but unless they ate the flesh, and drank the blood of the Son of man, they had no life in them. It becomes a question of man's own condition, and how he stands in relation to the kingdom of God. 1 t, I*-: I hilharmorut Orchestra "Baron Ncuh h;-> ' Suite (Mtlicnart T John 5. And He did accept that place thoroughly, and in all its consequences. John 5:1-13 Man Healed at the Pool of Bethesda. Thus it is a kind of transitional fact for a most important part of our gospel, though still introductory. It was impossible that there should not be righteous dealing with human evil against God, in its sources and its streams. Yet some, by reason of the unsettled state of their wills, make slower progress in purification than . There is the need of another nature, and the only way in which this nature is communicated is by being born of water and the Spirit the employment of the word of God in the quickening energy of the Holy Ghost. It is the final setting aside of Judaism then, whose characteristic hope was the display of power and rest in the world. Nothing in the slightest degree detracted from His own personal glory, and from the infinitely near relationship which He had had with the Father from all eternity. , , . Not only man under law has no health, but he has no strength to avail himself of the blessing that God holds out. "Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" Neither does the Spirit say exactly as the English Bible says "sons," but children. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me. Thus, manifestly, the whole question is terminated at the very starting-point of our gospel; and this is characteristic of John all through: manifestly all is decided. See John 5:38-40 (printed below), note, especially, verse 38. Commentary on John 5:39-44 (Read John 5:39-44) The Jews considered that eternal life was revealed to them in their Scriptures, and that they had it, because they had the word of God in their hands. Thus it is not the Spirit of God simply giving a new nature; neither is it the Holy Ghost given as the power of worship and communion with His God and Father. Jesus urged them to search those Scriptures with more diligence and attention. We look at how God defines salvation and work through the . But this is not the question of grace: not what she was, but what He is who was there to win and bless her, manifesting God and the Father withal, practically and in detail. Ron DeSantis. Except one were born of water and of the Spirit, he could not enter the kingdom of God. 41 "I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I know you. "But He said to them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of." How withering the words! Christ Proves His Divine Mission; Infidelity of the Jews Reproved. Her testimony bore the impress of what had penetrated her soul, and would make way for all the rest in due time. John 6:1-14 Philip Fails the Exam . It was but preliminary, of course; still it was a deep reality, the then present grace in the person of the Son, the Saviour of the world, who filled their once dark hearts with light and joy. Bear in mind though that treated wastewater is not There is difference of manner for the world and His own ignorance and rejection. This we have had fully before. Search the Scriptures Because the Jews were exceedingly averse to acknowledge Jesus for their Messiah, notwithstanding that the evidences of his mission were so unexceptionable, he appeals, lastly, to their own scriptures, which, for further proof, and their full satisfaction, he desires them to search, because these writings, as they justly supposed, contained the knowledge . But here these streams of the Spirit are substituted for the feast of tabernacles, which cannot be accomplished till Christ come from heaven and show Himself to the world; for this time was not yet come. He who, living, was received for eternal life, is our meat and drink in dying, and gives us communion with His death. Jesus, therefore, answered, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. The family later hosted a dinner for the honored . Nor will the full force of this expression be witnessed till the glorious result of His blood shedding sweep away the last trace of sin in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. The refusal of His precious blood will, on the contrary, make their case incomparably worse than that of the heathen who never heard the good news. If, on the contrary, a soul has been taught of God the glory of the person of Him who was made flesh, he receives in all simplicity, and rejoices in, the glorious truth, that He who was made flesh was not made flesh only to this end, but rather as a step toward another and deeper work the glorifying God, and becoming our food, in death. Glory would be displayed in its day. )7.30: Studio recital by Maurice Turley (boy singer).