God Manifest in the Flesh
A Sermon on John 5:17-23
Scripture
17¶ But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. 18Therefore 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. 19Then answered Jesus and said …
Sermon Description
Why is it absolutely essential to believe in Jesus? In this message on John 5:37–39 titled “God Manifest in the Flesh,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones considers the essential question of why one must believe in Jesus for salvation. This seems like an odd question, even one with an obvious answer. Yet the Pharisees, along with many today, zealously believe in God but never mention or acknowledge Jesus Christ. The Pharisees had just witnessed a powerful miracle but they completely overlook it because they did not believe in Jesus. According to them, in performing this miracle, Jesus had broken the Sabbath. He had broken God’s law which the Pharisees were dedicated to protect and confront Jesus about working on the Sabbath. Jesus responds, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” Jesus responds by making himself equal with God, fully divine, fully a part of the triune God. Believing in Jesus and His identity as God in the flesh is essential to salvation and knowing God. The Pharisees ardently profess belief in God, but respond to Jesus with a further desire to kill Him. It is in the midst of this profound rejection of Jesus that Dr. Lloyd-Jones offers reasons why it is essential to believe in Jesus.
Sermon Breakdown
- Jesus is claiming to be one with God in essence and being. He says "My Father and I". No one before him ever dared to say that.
- Jesus says that everything God does, he does also. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work". They are one in work and operation.
- Jesus says that he can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do. They are one in will.
- Jesus says the Father shows him all things that he himself doeth. They are one in knowledge and purpose.
- Jesus came to reveal the Father, to glorify the Father and to enable us to honor the Father.
- Jesus came to give us life so that we can know and honor God. We need life to know God.
- The Father has committed all judgment unto the Son. Jesus is the judge and ruler of the world. Our relationship to him determines our judgment.
- There is a final judgment of the whole world to come. We will be judged based on whether we believed in Jesus.
- We must believe in Jesus because of who he is, what he came to do and what he will yet do.
The Book of John
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.