The eighth in a series of 17 sermons

Series Theme

This series of sermon follow the articles of the Belgic Confession to present an bird’s eye view of the main doctrines of the Bible.

For overview of entire series click here 

Readings reproduced on this page:
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996, 1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan

Readings

John 5:1–16 (NIV84)

1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.

2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.

3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

7“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

8Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,

10and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

11But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

12So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

13The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

16So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him.

Text

John 5:17–30 (NIV84)

17Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”

18For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

19Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.

21For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.

22Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,

23that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

24“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

25I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

26For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.

27And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

28“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice

29and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

30By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

Belgic Confession
Article 10: The Deity of Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ, according to His divine nature, is the only Son of God__ eternally begotten, not made nor created, for then He would be a creature.
He is one in essence with the Father; coeternal; the exact image of the person of the Father and the “reflection of His glory,”13 being in all things like Him.
He is the Son of God not only from the time He assumed our nature but from all eternity, as the following testimonies teach us when they are taken together.
Moses says that God “created the world;”14 and John says that “all things were created by the Word,”15 which He calls God.
The apostle says that “God made the world by His Son.”16 He also says that “God created all things by Jesus Christ.”17
And so it must follow that He who is called God, the Word, the Son, and Jesus Christ already existed when all things were created by Him.
Therefore the prophet Micah says that His origin is “from ancient times, from eternity.”18
And the apostle says that He has “neither beginning of days nor end of life.”19
So then, He is the true eternal God, the Almighty, whom we invoke, worship, and serve.

13. Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3
14. Genesis 1:1
15. John 1:3
16. Hebrews 1:2
17. Colossians 1:16
18. Micah 5:2
19. Hebrews 7:3

1689 Baptist Confession
Chpt 8.2: Of Christ the Mediator

The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father’s
glory, of one substance and equal with him who made the world, who upholdeth and governeth all things he
hath made, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man’s nature, with all the essential properties
and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin; being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin
Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her: and the power of the Most High overshadowing her; and so was
made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David according to the Scriptures; so that two
whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition,
or confusion; which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and
man.