For
this reason the Jewish leaders were persecuting
Yeshua, because He was doing these things on
the Sabbath.
Doing
what things? Miraculously healing people on the
Sabbath, and telling the man who had been healed
to pick up his mat and take it home with him.
These Jewish leaders considered doing a miracle
of healing to fall into the category of work,
and carrying the mat to be work, and a violation
of the Sabbath. So they considered the Messiah
to be violating the Forth Commandment.
Yeshua's
defense of His actions are unique. I can honestly
say that if it was me who was being accused of
breaking the Sabbath, I wouldn’t have come up
with this answer like Yeshua did: But He answered
them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself
am working."
Is God
engaged in some divine activity on Shabbat? The
answer is yes. What would happen if God the Father,
the King of the Universe, the One who sustains
all things, stopped all activity on Shabbat? The
universe would implode, or disintegrate, or its
trillions times trillions of atoms would explode.
Something horribly cataclysmic would happen.
So what’s
Yeshua claiming? That this action, this miracle
of healing on the Sabbath, should be exempt from
the normal human rules for working on the Sabbath,
because just as God works on the Sabbath, in just
the same way, Yeshua is likewise entitled to!
And the Jewish leaders understood what Yeshua
was claiming:
For
this reason therefore the Jewish leaders were
seeking all the more to kill Him, because He
not only was breaking the Sabbath (in their
opinion He was breaking the Sabbath - He really
wasn’t. The Torah says nothing against doing
a miracle of healing on Shabbat - this was merely
their opinion, which was in fact wrong),
but also was calling God His own Father, making
Himself equal with God.
So, we
see that already, early in Yeshua’s career, these
Jewish leaders already wanted to kill Yeshua.
Why? For two reasons: according to their understanding
of Torah, they believed He was a Sabbath breaker.
And, they believed that He was guilty of blasphemy
by claiming to be God.
According
to the Torah, someone who works on the Sabbath
can rightfully be killed, as can someone who blasphemes.
They were right about the serious consequences
for breaking these two commandments. But, in this
case, Yeshua was accused of breaking Shabbat (which
He wasn't), and declaring equality with God (which
He was), and so these Jewish leaders were terribly
mistaken. They had zeal for God and Torah, but
it wasn’t filled with knowledge.
Yeshua
responds by clarifying even further exactly who
He is:
Therefore
Yeshua answered and was saying to them, "Truly,
truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing
of Himself, unless it is something He sees the
Father doing; for whatever the Father does,
these things the Son also does in like manner.”
My people,
unlike you, I have a view of God that is unobstructed
by sin, and so I can perfectly see what God is
doing all the time. I am in touch with My Father,
and I constantly am able to see what God, who
is My Father, is doing, and like a good Son, I
imitate what I see God. I am the good and faithful
Son of God, doing exactly what God does. Wow!
Yeshua
continues: For the Father loves the Son, and
shows Him all things that He Himself is doing;
and the Father will show Him greater works than
these, so that you will marvel.
There
is perfect love and intimacy between My Father,
who is your God, and Myself. I share in the counsels
of God. He shows Me all the miraculous things
that He is doing, and then He authorizes and empowers
Me to do the miracles He wants Me to do. So God
the Father makes the plans, including miraculous
works, and then I carry them out and do them.
And I’ve got news for you - I’ve already been
doing some of these miracles that God wants Me
to do, including healing this man who had been
sick for 38 years, and I’m telling you, you haven’t
seen anything yet! I am going to do even greater
miracles, so that you will be amazed by the power
of God that will be working through Me!
You may
be wondering what kind of greater works? OK, how’s
this? For just as the Father raises the dead
and gives them life, even so the Son also gives
life to whom He wishes.
We Jews
believe in the Resurrection of the Dead. It has
been revealed to us that at the end of the ages,
God will raise all the dead, and give them life.
But what you don’t know, is that I have the authority
and power to give life to anyone I want to give
life to. That’s one of these greater works that
I will do. Just as My Father is the Giver of Life
and the One who will raises the dead, so am I!
Wow!
And there
is more: For not even the Father judges anyone,
but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that
all will honor the Son even as they honor the
Father. He who does not honor the Son does not
honor the Father who sent Him.
And, speaking
about Final Things, like the Resurrection of the
Dead, it will be followed by the Day of Judgment,
when everyone who has been raised from the dead
will appear before God for their judgment. What
you don’t know is that I am going to mankind's
Judge. I am going to be the One sitting on the
Great White Throne, and the Judge of Israel and
the nations, the righteous and the wicked. I am
the Judge of the whole Earth.
And there
is a reason why God wants Me to judge mankind.
It is God’s will that all of mankind honor Me,
just as they honor God, who is My Father. I am
to be equally honored along with God, because
I share the same name and nature, character and
essence as God.
And so,
if any human being - Jew or Gentile, even if they
are a priest, rabbi or member of the Sanhedrin,
if anyone does not honor Me in the same way as
they honor God, with the same respect, reverence,
fear and belief, they do not honor my Father,
who has in fact sent Me to do and say everything
I am doing and saying. Don’t tell Me that you
love and honor and revere and respect God, but
you don’t honor Me! I’m telling you that’s impossible!
I must be acknowledged as the divine Son of God,
who was sent by God, and I must be believed in
and honored by all of mankind.
Now listen
very carefully to Me, because what I am about
to say is very important, and of the utmost truthfulness,
and so you have better believe it:
Truly,
truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and
believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life,
and does not come into judgment, but has passed
out of death into life.
I, who
know the truth, and who cannot lie, tell you that
in order to have eternal life, you must believe
in God, and you must believe in Me, and you must
hear My words, and obey what I say. I am the Messiah
and the Son of God whom God has sent into to be
the Savior of the world. You cannot ignore Me
or My coming. If you do believe in God, and believe
in Me, and do what I say, you will not be condemned
on the Day of Judgment. You will passover from
the state of spiritual death, which afflicts the
whole world, and you will passover into a new
state - the state of life - eternal life.
Again,
listen very carefully to what I am about to say,
because what I am about to say is very important,
and of the utmost truthfulness, and so you have
better believe it:
Truly,
truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now
is, when the dead will hear the voice of the
Son of God, and those who hear will live.
A time
is coming when I Myself, Yeshua of Nazareth, the
Carpenter-Turned-Miracle-Working-Rabbi, will raise
the dead. Every one of the billions of human beings
who have ever lived, and died, will hear My voice,
the voice of the Almighty Son of God, and they
will come back to life. Just as God spoke and
said, “Let us make man in our image” and man became
a living being, so at the very last I will speak,
and men will live.
And, if
you could only understand Me, My people - I am
already speaking to the dead - that’s you - because
you, My people, even the leaders of My people,
you are spiritually dead; dead in your sins, alienated
from God, who is the Source of Life - if you only
heard what I am saying about Myself, and believed
Me, you would rise from this state of spiritual
death that you are in, and you would live. You
would come alive spiritually, and receive the
life of God.
Why is
My voice so powerful that it can bestow life?
How can My words, if believed by human beings,
bring forth the spiritual breath of life? For
just as the Father has life in Himself, even so
He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;
My Father
is Adonai - the Yud Hay Vav Hay, the One who is
who He is, and who will be who He will be, the
eternal and all-existing Creator, the One who
has absolute being, existence, reality, and life
in Himself, whereas the life of everyone and everything
else in the universe has life that is that is
totally dependent on God’s life - everyone else,
that is, except for Me. I am God’s Son, and I
share the Father’s nature and Name - the Yud Hay
Vav Hay - and I have the same kind of independent,
self-existent, eternal life in Myself, just as
God does. And that kind of independent, self-existent,
eternal life is only truth of One who is fully
deity - as I am, the divine Son God.
and
He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because
He is the Son of Man. God gave Me the authority
to be the final Judge of mankind, and to carry
out and execute that judgment, sending those who
are destined for Hell to the Lake of Fire, and
judging and rewarding the righteous, and giving
them eternal life. How’s that for one of these
greater works?
Do
not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in
which all who are in the tombs will hear His
voice, and will come forth; those who did the
good deeds to a resurrection of life, those
who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection
of judgment.
At the
Time of the End, every human being who has ever
died - Jew and Gentile, man and woman, will hear
My voice. I will speak, and my words are so powerful
that even the dead, throughout the entire world,
will hear My words, and they will rise from death.
They will come back to life, and a new body will
be given to them. Those who truly loved and served
God and proved that they truly loved and served
God by consistently doing good deeds will rise,
receive a gloried body, and live forever.
But those
who ignored God, who didn’t love Him, serve Him,
honor Him, whose lives were characterized by sin
and selfishness, will likewise be raised from
the dead, be given a new body, appear before Me
at the Great White Throne judgment, where I will
judge them, find their lives inadequate, and I
will send them to Gehenna - the fate that they
deserve.
You see,
there are two resurrections. The resurrection
of the righteous will take place when the Son
of God returns to Earth, and the resurrection
of the wicked will take place 1000 years later
at the end of the Millennium.
I can
do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I
judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not
seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent
Me. I never act independently from God, My
Father. He speaks to Me constantly, continuously,
and I do, I speak, I judge, based on what I hear
God saying in each situation. Whatever I say,
whatever I do, however I judge, will be right
and true because I am not motivated by selfish
desire, ambition or sinful pride. I am completely
motivated by doing the will of God. It is God’s
will that is perfectly carried out, flawlessly
expressed through Me, 100% of the time. That makes
Me unbiased and fair in My judgment.
These
are absolutely amazing claims. Can we believe
these amazing assertions? C. S. Lewis understood
the implications of Yeshua’s claims and He put
it this way: "Either Jesus is a mad man, on a
par with a man who claims to be a poached egg
- out of his mind, uttering meaningless, garbled,
rambling, megalomaniacal statements - or He is
telling the truth. And if He is telling the truth
He is the most important Being in the universe.
He is at the center of everything: He is the center
of life, the giver of truth. Jesus of Nazareth
is the center of everything. To ignore Him is
to grope in darkness, to continue in the rebellion
against the Most High started by our first parents,
and to miss out on joy, peace and love, and end
at last as part of the world's fiery judgment."
In the
rest of this interaction between Yeshua and these
Jewish leaders, in addition to His own claims,
Messiah will give us four witnesses to authenticate
His assertions.
Yeshua
continues: If I alone testify about Myself,
My testimony is not true. Why? Isn’t the word
of the Son of God sufficient? Yes, of course His
word is sufficient, but it helps, especially in
a legal sense, to have at least two or three witnesses
to establish these all-important, life and death
issues that effect every human being. The Torah
understands this principle when it declares: on
the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter
shall be confirmed (Deuteronomy 19:15).
So, what’s
the first line of evidence? It’s the testimony
of John: There is another who testifies of
Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives
about Me is true. You have sent to John, and he
has testified to the truth. But the testimony
which I receive is not from man, but I say these
things so that you may be saved. He was the lamp
that was burning and was shining and you were
willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
Testimony
and testify are legal terms, used in courts of
law and other important situations to attest to
the truth. John testified to the truth. He was
a very special man, raised up by God, the greatest
man to have ever lived, who knew the truth, and
spoke what he knew.
What did
John testify about Yeshua? That He was the long
awaited Messiah, the Lord, who had already come,
who already stood among them, but they didn’t
know Him. He testified that even though Yeshua
was born six months after John, He existed before
John, that B’re-sheet - In The Beginning, Yeshua
forever and always existed, and so He was infinitely
greater and holier than John.
And John
testified that his cousin Yeshua, the son of Mary
and Joseph, was God's Lamb. Yeshua will be the
Final Sacrifice, who will make full and final
atonement for the sin not only of Israel, but
He will also atone for all the sin of the entire
world.
And John
testified that he saw, with his own eyes, the
Spirit of God descending on Yeshua, coming down
and resting on Him, like a dove sent from Heaven,
like a dove which is a symbol of peace, because
this One will bring us peace; like a dove which
is a symbol of innocence, because Yeshua is perfectly
pure and innocent; like a dove which is a symbol
of that which we love, because Yeshua is loved
by God, and loved by all those who love God; like
a dove which was used for sacrifices in the Temple
for the poor, because Yeshua is the Final Sacrifice
for every human being, even the poorest of the
poor.
John testified
that Yeshua is the One who will immerse people
with the true immersion, when the Spirit of God
is given, poured out like a Jordan river full
of water, and that person is spiritually washed,
cleansed, indwelt by the Spirit of God, and given
spiritual life, the life of God, and a new birth,
and forever joined to God.
John testified
that Yeshua is the Son of God. That does not mean
that God created Him, or that He is younger than
God. It means that Yeshua shares the very same
nature as God. He is deity, divine, eternal, uncreated,
with life within Himself, sharing all the attributes
of God.
That was
John’s testimony about Yeshua to Israel. Should
the Jewish people have believe the testimony of
this greatest of prophets, this courageous, godly,
holy man sent to us by God to speak the words
of God and prepare us for the first coming of
the Messiah ? Yes - we should have, but alas,
most didn’t.
The next
witness to Yeshua is His miracles. But the
testimony which I have is greater than the testimony
of John; for the works which the Father has given
Me to accomplish - the very works that I do -
testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.
Mohamed
never performed a miracle. In fact, very few prophets
in Israel's long history ever performed miracles
- Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, and a few
others, but Yeshua's miracles exceeded them all.
He turned water into wine, walked on water, healed
the sick, cleansed lepers, brought sight to the
blind, hearing to the deaf, fed five thousand
men from a few loaves of bread and some fish,
raised the dead and stilled the winds and waves
with just a word. That tells us that He was connected
to the supernatural, that He came from God.
And
the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me.
How? After Yeshua was baptized, He came up from
the water; and the heavens were opened, and the
Spirit of God descended as a dove and rested on
Yeshua, and God’s voice spoke from the heavens,
"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."
The voice of the Creator, the same all-powerful
voice who spoke the universe into existence, likewise
spoke in the hearing of human beings when Yeshua
was baptized, stating that Yeshua was His Son,
who shared His Name and nature, divinity and deity.
God loved His Son, approved of Him, and endorsed
Him. The Father who sent Me, He has testified
of Me. If God, the Father, sent Yeshua, loves
Him, is pleased with Him, and testifies about
Yeshua’s worthiness, dare you do differently and
think that you will not suffer the most serious
consequences?
There
is one other witness that Yeshua calls our attention
to. It’s found in verses 39 and 46: The Scriptures
testify about Me... Moses wrote about Me.
According
to the all-knowing and infallible Son of God,
who wrote the Torah? Was it multiple editors,
the so-called JEPD schools, like the heretical
so-called “higher critics” claim? No. It was Moses
himself who wrote the Torah.
The
Scriptures testify about Me, and Moses wrote about
Me, from the first chapter of Genesis where
we get hints of God being plural and yet singular
at the same time, to the first Messianic prophecy
in Genesis, when Eve was told that a descendant
of hers would crush the head of the serpent, to
the last book of the Bible where it is written
that the testimony of Yeshua is the spirit
of prophecy. The main purpose of the Holy
Scriptures is to reveal Messiah Yeshua.
In Genesis
He is the Seed of the Woman who destroys the Devil
and his works. In Exodus He is the Passover Lamb.
In Leviticus He is the Yom Kippur Atonement, and
our ultimate High Priest. In Numbers, He is the
rock that was smitten, and the star to arise from
Jacob. In Deuteronomy, He is the prophet greater
than Moses. In Joshua, He is the Captain of the
Lord of Hosts. In Judges, He is the Angel of the
Lord. In the book of Ruth, He is the kinsman redeemer.
In Samuel, Kings and Chronicles He is the ultimate
King of David's line. Throughout the Psalms, Proverbs
and other wisdom literature, He is the wisdom
of God. Throughout the prophets He is the coming
Messiah, the Savior, the Suffering Servant, the
Branch, the Stone that the builders rejected and
Adonai Tzidkaynu - the Lord our Righteousness.
The Ark that saved Noah and his family, the Exodus
from Egypt, the Temple, the Sacrifices and the
Holidays, all the prophets, priests and kings,
point us to Messiah. “The Scriptures testify about
Me,” claimed Yeshua, “and Moses wrote about Me.”
So, we
have the claims of Yeshua - His words about Himself.
We have the testimony of John. We have the testimony
of God the Father. We have Yeshua’s miracles.
We have the testimony of the Word of God. This
is overwhelming testimony, powerful evidence and
solid reasons that should lead to faith in Messiah
Yeshua.
Unfortunately,
most of the Jewish people in Yeshua’s day did
not respond to Yeshua or His words about Himself
with faith. And, we were either unaware of or
ignored the testimony of John. And we were far
from God and didn’t listen to God’s testimony.
You have neither heard His voice at any time
nor seen His form. And you do not have His word
abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom
He sent.
Who did
Yeshua address these words to? The Am Ha’Aretz,
the common and untaught people? No - He addresses
Jewish leaders and scholars. The sad reality is
that they had never heard the voice of God, nor
had the privilege of seeing the Lord. But Yeshua
had. He heard God’s voice and seen His form. He
was intimate with the invisible God, and knew
Him firsthand, and knew of what He spoke and was
sent by God to teach the truth about God. O, what
an opportunity these Jewish leaders had to learn
about God from One who knew. How sad that they
missed it, and most of our people continue to
miss it.
Now, pay
very careful attention to these words of Yeshua.
He says that it is impossible for the Word of
God to live, to dwell, to abide, to find a home
in anyone, to properly be understood by them,
to accomplish its purpose for them, if they don’t
believe in Yeshua - no matter how religious they
may be, no matter how much they may read or study
the Torah, or the Prophets, or the Writings, or
the New Testament.
Yeshua
is the focus, the center, the meaning of the Scriptures:
You search the Scriptures because you think
that in them you have eternal life; it is these
that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to
come to Me so that you may have life. The
Scriptures point us to Yeshua, and we come to
Him, believe in Him, join ourselves to Him, and
thus have life - real life, enduring life, God’s
life, eternal life. In spite of these truths about
Yeshua, and in spite of the witnesses that validate
His claims, most people won't come to Him for
life!
Why not?
What’s the problem? Yeshua tells us: I do not
receive glory from men; but I know you, that you
do not have the love of God in yourselves. 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. How can you believe, when you receive
glory from one another and you do not seek the
glory that is from the one and only God?
Why won't
most people truly love God? They want to go with
the crowd. They want to be accepted by the immoral
majority. They want approval from people more
than that which comes from God. If that’s you
- if you are unwilling to put God first, and go
against the majority, and stand out from the crowd,
you will never truly love God, you will not receive
the Messiah, who is despised by the world, you
will be prey for false teachers and false Messiah’s.
There
are consequences, my friends, for not having belief
in Yeshua, when there are so many reliable witnesses,
when there is so much evidence. 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. For 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?"
These
Jewish leaders assumed that they were the true
disciples of Moses, but they deceived themselves.
Who are the true students of Moses? You and I,
and all who come to believe in Yeshua, because
that is the core message, the basic teaching of
the entire Torah. Refusal to believe in Yeshua
is to deny Moses, repudiate the Torah and one
day face Moses as your accuser. Moses our teacher
will be your prosecuting attorney, accusing you
in front of God of breaking the Law of Moses.
Unfortunately,
sadly, very sadly, there are going to be millions
of my beloved Jewish people, who have deceived
themselves into thinking that they are the faithful
disciples of Moses, and the keepers of the Torah,
who will on the Day of Judgment be repudiated
by Moses himself!
So, what
do we learn from this fifth chapter of Sefer-Yochanan?
Who is Yeshua? What kind of Messiah is He? He
is a miracle-working healer, equal to God, the
perfect Son of God, the One who has the eternal,
independent life of God, and who is able to give
that eternal life to others, the One who raises
the dead, the Final Judge of mankind who will
be honored by all of mankind as God is honored,
whose truthfulness and authenticity is testified
to by Himself, by His great miracles, by the prophet
John, by God the Father, and by the Word of God.
Do you believe in Him? Are you serving Him? Does
God come first in your life?
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