John 5:1-29

Scripture Reading: John 5:18-29 Page 754.

18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. 21 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. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 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. 24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25 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. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. 28 "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out-- those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

In this passage, Jesus is claiming to be God. Jesus existed in heaven before he was born of the Virgin Mary. Only in his human form was he a son of Mary. “Jesus claimed deity by saying he was not dependent on another for life just as the Father derived his life from no one. Jesus possesses inherent life, the power to create and the power to renew life that has been extinguished.”[1]

He says this in several ways.

· Verse 21, just as the Father gives life, so the Son gives life.

· Verse 23, the Son receives the same honor as the Father.

· V 24, to believe the Word of Jesus is to believe in the Father. This results in “eternal life.”

· V26, Just like the Father, the Son has life in himself. It is inherent life, not derived life. He did not get it from somewhere else. He has it within himself.

This is the life principle. God alone has inherent life. Inherent life is the power to create life, renew life, and terminate life. The most fundamental thing you can say about God is that he is life.

That is how the Apostle John began his telling of the story of Jesus. He is life.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”[2]

Jesus was able to create all things in the beginning because he was inherent life.

God is life.

The devil is death.

God is in love with life.

The devil is in love with death

God has life in himself. The devil has death in himself. As a result, God is able to forthrightly reveal himself. The devil, however, must operate by deception because no one would ordinarily choose death if given the option. He must appear to be life or he would have no followers. So the devil’s whole game is to make death look like life. When you see a drug addict on the streets of Seattle or Vancouver you see death. They probably started out just to have fun. They wanted to experience and enjoy life. It is the same as the affair that starts out seeming to be so wonderful but just makes a mess out of everything.

This has been the devil’s game from the Garden of Eden. God told Adam "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."[3] But when the devil tempted Eve what was his line? "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."[4]

The devil had to make death look like life. His angle was, your eyes will be opened. You will know. If you can know, then you will be fully alive, something you are not now because of your lack of knowledge. So Eve ate in order to be fully alive, but sealed her own death in the process.

Paul described this as being true, not just in the beginning, but in the end as well. He said in 1 Timothy 4:1 “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.”

We know that life comes from God. The devil’s whole game is to make it look like life comes from him. That was his angle with Adam and Eve. That has been his whole deal right all through history. In my book, The Revenge of Ephesus, I trace out some of the ways in which the devil has used the false religions of the past to lay claim to being the creator of all that is. Often this is in some feminine form as some kind of goddess. Sometimes it is even as a serpent.[5]

“In several Sumerian tablets the Goddess was simply called Great Mother Serpent[6] of Heaven.”[7] Stone also traces it in other cultures.

So far we have seen that the female deity, as She was known in Babylon, Egypt, Crete and Greece, was identified as or with serpents and closely associated with wisdom and prophecy. But it was not only in these lands that the Serpent Goddess was known. Again, when we look over to Canaan, which bordered on the Mediterranean Sea (as do Egypt, Crete and Greece), we discover evidence of the esteem paid to the Goddess as the Serpent Lady.[8]

God brought life, but the devil’s deception brought death.

Since God is life, if we seek and find God, we will also find life. Jesus summed it all up in John 14:6 when he said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The most negative moment in the life of Christ, his crucifixion, has life written all over it. His blood is shed, and death seems to be the dominant picture for a while. But the Bible assures us that the life is in the blood. In Leviticus 17:11 it reads, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.” The crucifixion was far from being death and negative. In fact, it became life-giving because atonement was made for sin through the blood of Jesus.

In God’s system, even death is not allowed to remain death. It turns into resurrection. “…a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out…”

I want us to think about the life of God that we have in Jesus.

If God is within you, YOU HAVE LIFE.

Instead of thinking about your illness, let your heart turn to God.
Instead of thinking about divorce, draw near to God and you will find life.
Instead of worrying about the economy and your job, get ahold of some life this morning. Get Jesus into your life. In the Garden with God meant all their needs were met. Instead of going your own way, go God’s. He is the one with the life.
Don’t look to the future with dread. Look to God who is life.

John 20:31 “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (NIV)

I John 5:12-13 “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (NIV)

[5] This whole serpent discussion is interesting to me. I didn’t have time in this message, nor had I given it sufficient thought, to deal with the issue of the serpent on the pole in the wilderness. The devil tried to hijack that with the Asklepios cult and the serpent on a pole image as the image of healing for that god. Send me an email and I will send you what I have on that subject so far.

[6] Lest there be any mistake, the Bible is clear in calling the serpent the devil. In Rev 12:9 it reads, “The great dragon was hurled down-- that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.”

[7] Stone, Merlin. When God was a Woman. (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1976) p 199.