Part One – Introduction and Background
In John 5:21-40, Christ preached this section exactly as it should be. Though combined for effect by our Lord, writing for instruction here and admitting much overlap and repetition in Christ’s discussion as presented, we’ll examine, in turn, the four topics shown in verses 21 through 40: resurrection, life everlasting, judgment, and the witnesses of this first-century judgment. It’s presented in six parts, none long, for ease of reading. Read the entire chapter first.
Lesson 1, Introduction and Background
John 5:1-9. Jesus healed a man who had been lame for Thirty-Eight years by the pool of Bethesda. There, an angel would go in and trouble the water, permitting the first man after who entered the pool to be healed. These verses conclude, “8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. 9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.” – John 5:8-9
John 5:10-16. The Jews see the healed man carrying his bedroll and accuse him of violating the law by working on the Sabbath. The Jews discovered that Jesus had healed him and told him he could take up his bed. The section concludes, “And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.” – John 5:16
“17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. 18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” – John 5:17-18. See Philippians 2:6.
In Verse 17, Jesus begins a range of topics that runs through the end of the chapter. Having been presumably interrupted by the Jews in verse 18, He continues without disruption to the end. It’s not until verse 34 that we find Christ’s purpose in this discussion: that ye might be saved. Ever the evangelistic Christ of God, full of grace and truth, the Word made flesh dwelling among men, He offers salvation over and over again that they, and you, not perish but have life, and still, too many in that day and now will not obey the truth.
We’ll look at this section of Scripture, seeing several aspects of Christ’s teaching, making some contextual notes, and further application. The section includes a critical salvation message about everlasting life blended, rightly, into a discussion of the final resurrection and judgment being brought to fruition by the power of God (Verses 21-29).
Christ pivots in verses 30 and 31 from judgment to the many proofs that He is the Christ of God, showing that, indeed, all these things must come to pass. Verse 40 is a key summation before the last several verses to which we’ll only refer but not examine in detail. Verses 39 and 40 are the impetus for this writing.
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Background.
Without teaching the covenant nature of God in American churches, a critical aspect of Biblical understanding goes missing. God makes covenants with men and nations; the Church of Jesus Christ is worse off for neglecting this teaching.
Judicial terminology and word pictures are used throughout the Scriptures, including the New Testament. God presents His word this way in general because He makes contracts. Like it or not, your salvation is one such covenant; you must serve Him to bring Him glory, becoming His bride.
Neither is the legal sense of the term witness to be overlooked. In this covenant you made with Christ, you are a witness of Christ before sinners (Acts 1:8), as a legal matter in the courts of heaven, that those at enmity with God may face trial for their crimes (sin) against Him. Primarily, just as Christ did, we offer to show all men sin and hell that they would believe in Christ crucified, repent, and be saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ’s atonement.
Witness as a legal term derives from the law of God “One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.” – Deuteronomy 19:15. The concept is brought into the New Covenant by way of similar application, establishing evidentiary proof of sin, conversion, and good works toward God. See 2 Corinthians 13:1.
In John Chapter Five, Christ establishes several witnesses as though a courtroom scene is taking place. Remember that the Pharisees are lawyers and scholars of the Old Testament law; they were being warned because they knew these things.
There are many witnesses of Jesus Christ even today. Still, there are indeed three who witness of Christ: our word, the witness of the apostles, prophets, and disciples, including every book in the canon, which is the word of God, and the power of conviction by the witness of the Holy Spirit upon the heart of the lost sinner who hears from God as we share Scripture, tell our own story, and show them about Christ crucified. Though we pray for later realization of their offense against the Almighty, if the hearer rejects this threefold witness, they are condemned to eternal death (John 3:18). A very similar situation is presented in John Chapter Five for us today.
In this chapter, Jesus relies on the witness of others. Today’s modern Pharisees are also a pack of lawyers using lawfare for their gain to manipulate and ensnare men, as it was two thousand years ago.
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