Jesus was a force for disruption during his ministry. At Passover he cleared the temple, sent livestock and moneychangers running, and acted like he owned the place. He started baptizing in the Judean countryside, becoming even more popular than John the Baptist. Jesus healed an invalid at pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, and the religious leaders said you can’t heal on the Sabbath. It drove the religious leaders crazy.

 

They asked, “Who does he think he is!?”

 

In response, Jesus gives his first extended discourse in John 5:18-47. Jesus tells us just who he thinks he is…and holds nothing back. This sermon explores the resume of Jesus—experiences, qualifications, and references—that forms that basis for the extravagant claims of deity that he made during His ministry. Is Jesus really the Messiah, the Son of God?

 

After exploring these claims and Jesus’ response, the resounding answer is YES! Our take-aways are two-fold:

  1. Jesus is the only one really able to help us. He can, with a word, make us alive again. Jesus is the resurrection and the life that we all need.
  2. If Jesus is for us, we have much to be thankful for. If we have heard Jesus’ word, and believed on his name, we will never face him as a judge. We have passed from death to life, and nothing can ever take that away from us.

 

John 5:18-47

 

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