Is it wrong to honor Jesus as you would honor God the Father?

“Honor the Son”

(John 5:18-47, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 29, 2009)

John 5:18-47 ¹⁸ This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. ¹⁹ So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. ²¹ For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. ²² The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. ²⁴ Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. ²⁵ "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, 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 also to have life in himself. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. ²⁸ Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. ³⁰ "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. ³¹ If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true. ³² There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. ³³ You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. ³⁴ Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵ He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. ³⁶ But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. ³⁷ And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, ³⁸ and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. ³⁹ You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, ⁴⁰ yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. ⁴¹ I do not receive glory from people. ⁴² But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. ⁴³ 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. ⁴⁴ How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? ⁴⁵ Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶ If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. ⁴⁷ But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

The Father and the Son equally honored (18-23)

In the verses just before this passage, Jesus healed a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. In performing this great miracle he attacked two false spiritualities, the first was the spirituality of the “magic” waters near the gate of Jerusalem, where it was thought by many desperate people that the answer for their lives would come from some kind of method or technique that would yield the result they desired. The second was the spirituality that insisted that Jewish traditions brought life and should be followed as God’s Law. It was according to this way of thinking that Jesus was classified as a Sabbath-breaker. Jesus’ healing was a divine work of resurrection life, a work that was a fulfillment of Sabbath and not a violation of it. Jesus knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Many Jews were sure that Jesus was in the wrong because He did not keep their traditions in the way that they thought He should. This was not their only problem with Him. They also understood Him to be asserting His equality with God. Though Jesus was very willing to take on a role of functional subordination to His Father in His work for us, there should be no doubt that Jesus taught that He, the Son of God, was just as fully God as His Father in the essence of His divine nature. When John mentions the objection that many Jews had that by calling God His Father, Jesus was making Himself equal with God, John does not go on to deny this claim of full divinity for Jesus, but to support it with various statements and actions of our Lord.

The Son does what the Father does. The Father shows the Son everything He is doing, just as the Son shows the Father everything that He is doing. The Father raises the dead, and the Son raises the dead. Especially in verse 23 we read that everyone may honor the Son, “just as they honor the Father,” and that, “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.” We honor the Father with true worship. Many, both in ancient days and even now, have come to the very wrong conclusion that the Father will somehow be slighted if worship is given to the Son. This is exactly wrong. The Son is to be honored just as the Father is honored. If a person claims to worship God, but refuses to worship Jesus, then the Lord says that such a person is not really honoring the Father.

The powerful voice of the Son of God (24-30)

Jesus goes on to some amazing things here about Himself. His voice is the voice of the new creation. It is by the hearing of His Word in faith that a person has eternal life. More pointedly, Jesus says here that there are those who are dead now who will hear the voice of the Son of God and live. This can be taken in two ways, both of which are true. When you come to believe in the Father and the Son, you do this by hearing the voice of the Son of God in the Word proclaimed to you, and your souls that were dead, are given new life. The voice of the Son of God has this kind of power for those who will hear with faith. You are born again and grow in faith by the voice of Jesus. The second meaning is this: At His return, it will be the voice of Jesus that will call forth dead bodies from the grave. We should not think of such a thing as beyond His power, since Scripture tells us that by the Word of God all things were made. This second meaning is explicitly affirmed in this passage in the strongest way in verses 28 and 29: Everyone in the tombs will hear the voice of Jesus at His return, and those who have done good will rise to a resurrection of life, but those who have done evil will rise to what is called here a resurrection of judgment.

Verse 27 tells us by our Lord’s own Word that He is the one in charge of judgment as the Son of Man. Here is a distinction between the Father and the Son. Both are fully God, but only the Son of God is also the Son of Man. The Father is not a man, but the Son is. In the councils of Almighty God it has been determined that a Man who would die for men would have judgment over men, and that Man is the God/Man Jesus Christ. He has been given the right of judgment, the right of distinguishing between those who will have one resurrection and those who will have another. Some will be judged as those who have done that which is good, and others as those who have done evil. How can this be? The Apostle Paul tells us that it is by the credited righteousness of Christ that we will be called good, and that this righteousness comes to us by faith in Jesus. This judgment is in accord with God’s will.

Hearing the testimony concerning the Son of God (31-40)

So far we have seen two things. 1. Jesus is to be honored just as the Father is honored. 2. By the voice of Jesus Christ we are given resurrection life in our spirits and in our bodies. These are strong claims. How do we know them to be true? Jesus tells us in verses 31-40. He says that there is “another” who bears true witness about him. He first mentions John the Baptist, as one who brought light from God, and while John’s testimony is true, there is Someone greater than John. The miracles that Jesus is performing show Him to be the One who was sent by the Father. In these signs, the Father is testifying to the fact of the Son for all who will receive this testimony. Finally, the Scriptures bear witness that Jesus is the Son of God and the Lord of the resurrection.

Whether the testimony is the proclaimed Word of God through the prophetic John the Baptist, or the attesting miraculous works of Jesus that have come from the Father, or the Scriptures that can be searched by men who are seeking God, it is Jesus who brings life, and people must hear His voice and come to Him if they are to enter into this thing He calls life. From what He has said so far, this life is something that begins now, and it continues forever. Death is all around us in a world that is under God’s wrath because of sin. The solution for us is to hear the voice of Jesus and to live. Why do we refuse to hear that voice, presented to us in the Word that is even here today? We need life so much, and life is freely offered to us in Christ. Jesus is the way to life. The Father has testified that Jesus is the One. The Spirit testified that Jesus is the One. John the Baptist testified that Jesus is the One. The Old Testament testified that Jesus is the One. The writer of this gospel testified that Jesus is the One. Jesus is the One.

Receiving the glory of the Son of God (41-44)

Jesus Christ is addressing those who are against Him. He is not seeking the praise of men. He does not need it. He knows who He is. They need Him, but they do not have the love of God within them. They certainly claim to love God. When they insist that Jesus is violating the Sabbath command by healing on that day, they think that this is an expression of their love for God. They also believe that God loves them, and they think that there is reason for God to love them because they are carefully adhering to the traditions of Judaism. I ask you this: In this kind of religious system of what purpose is the cross? If we all can be good through our own good works and our keeping of good religious customs that have come down to us through the centuries, why did the Son of God die on the cross?

The fact is that we are not good. There is no one good but God. Our problem with goodness shows up especially in our willingness to receive some great person who comes in his own name as someone special, while we reject the One who comes in His Father’s Name who plainly does the works of the Son of God. To reject Him is the worst thing we can do. There is much that we should repent of. We have broken God’s laws. We have been hateful and unforgiving and in persistent denial concerning our guilt. But there is nothing worse than this, we have refused to hear the voice of the Son of God and live. We turned away from the One who came as the love of God for us, the One who died for our sins. In doing this we turned away from the glory that comes from the only God.

Believing the words of the Son of God (45-47)

The Jews who were against Jesus thought they were for Moses. They even set their hope for life on following their understanding of the Law of Moses. But Moses believed. He wrote of One who would come after him, who was his hope. He wrote of Jesus. It is time for us to believe in the hope of Moses. This coming Messiah was the hope of patriarchs and prophets. He is the only hope with power to bring life. You must believe in the words of the Son of God. This is what God wants you to do. Honor the Son just as you honor the Father. Listen to the voice of the Son of God. Thank Him for the cross, because you know that you needed it. Believe and live.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. How is Jesus the same as the Father?

2. How is Jesus different from the Father?

3. What are the various testimonies to Jesus presented in this passage?

4. How are we to understand the concept of Father and Son within the Godhead?