NO WONDER THEY CALL HIM SAVIOUR

John 5:16-30
"For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.
But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."
Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly I say to you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
"For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
"For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.
"For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
"Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.
"For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.
"Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth--those who have done good, to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me."

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In a book written by Max Lucado entitled: NO WONDER THEY CALL HIM THE SAVIOR, he writes these words: It's Friday morning. The news is blazing across the Jerusalem streets like a West Texas brush fire. The Nazarene is being executed!" From Solomon's Porch to the Golden Gate people are passing the word. "Have you heard? They've got the Galilean." I knew he would go too far." They've got him? I don't believe it! They say one of his own men turned him in."
A few weep. A few smile. A few walk up the hill to watch the spectacle. A few are irritated that the sanctity of the Passover is being violated by a bunch of social activists. Someone wonders aloud if this was the same man who was celebrated just a few days ago on a carpet of palm leaves. "A lot can happen in seven days," he comments.
Max concludes his chapter with this summation:
"There was something about the crucifixion that made every witness either step toward it or away from it. It simultaneously compelled and repelled.
And today, two thousand years later, the same is true. It's the watershed. It's the Continental Divide. It's Normandy. And you are either on one side or the other. A choice is demanded. We can do what we want with the cross. We can examine its history. We can study its theology. We can reflect upon its prophecies. Yet the one thing we can't do is walk away in neutral. No fence sitting is permitted. The cross, in its absurd splendor, doesn't allow that. That is one luxury that God, in His awful mercy, doesn't permit.
ON WHICH SIDE ARE YOU?"
Johann Wolfgang Goethe, perhaps the most sophisticated of the German poets and literati, said:
"The conflict of faith and unbelief remains the proper, the only, the deepest theme of the history of the world and mankind, to which all others are subordinated."
The great issue that this world's struggle is all about is whether or not we believe in Jesus Christ.
Dr. Philip Schaff, an eminent historian and professor at Yale University, cautions us with this warning: "Infidels are seldom convinced by argument; for the springs of unbelief are in the heart rather than in the head."

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Dr. Schaff continues: "A reprobate mind and heart bring forth ungodly words, deeds, and actions. But honest inquirers and earnest skeptics, like Nathanael and Thomas, who love the truth, and wish only for tangible support of their weak faith, will never refuse, when the evidence is laid before them, to embrace it with grateful joy and to worship the incarnate God."
FOR THOSE WHO ARE HONEST SEEKERS AFTER THE TRUTH THERE IS ABUNDANT EVIDENCE.
What shall we say about Jesus Christ? He is the founder of the largest religion in history...for Christianity is twice as large as its closest competitor. Today, there are one billion three hundred and twenty million who claim to be Christian!
What shall we say about Jesus Christ? Some have said He was just a myth. He never really existed. This is one possibility that we might consider. One historian has written that the wisest opponents of Christianity have abandoned the legendary hypothesis as utterly incompatible.
Historian J. Gilchrist Lawson says: "The legendary, or mythical theory of Christ's existence is not held by any one worthy of the name of scholar. The historical evidences of Christ's existence are so much greater than those in support of any other even in ancient history; no candid scholar could reject them without also renouncing his belief in every event recorded in ancient history."
The evidence for the historicity of Christ is so great I know of no historian in the free world who would dare place his reputation on the chopping block by denying that Jesus Christ ever existed.
What about the unique character of this One that we know existed? Through studying many biographies, I have found something that all historians have discovered--the more you look at any human being, the more the luster grows dim. No matter how great the hero many have been, if you examine him closely, you see his feet of clay; you see all his frailties and foibles. All human greatness diminishes on closer inspection. BUT CHRIST’S CHARACTER GROWS MORE PURE, SACRED AND LOVELY THE BETTER WE KNOW HIM!
Why? Because Jesus Christ is everything He claimed to be....THE DIVINE SON OF GOD!

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The portion of Scripture which we have selected to study today is one of the profoundest passages of the Bible. It sets forth the Divine glories of the Incarnate Son of God. It gives us the Lord's own teaching concerning His Divine Sonship.
Outwardly, to human eyes, Christ appeared to be an ordinary man. Born into a peasant family; cradled amid the most humble surroundings; carried away into Egypt to escape the cruel edict of Herod, and returning later, only to grow to manhood's estate in obscurity; working for years, most probably, at the carpenter's bench—-what was there to denote that he was the Lord of Glory?
Then, as He began His public ministry, appearing not as the great of this world are accustomed to appear, with much pomp and ostentation; but, instead, as the meek and lowly One.
And now by the year A.D. 90 almost all of His original disciples would be dead. Of the twelve apostles who had accompanied Him during His public ministry, only John remained. On every side were teachers denying the Deity of Christ. There was thus a real need for an inspired, authoritative, systematic presentation of the manifold glories of His divine person. The Holy Spirit therefore moved John--the one who of all the early disciples knew Christ best, the one whose spiritual discernment was the keenest, the one who had enjoyed the inestimable privilege of leaning on the Master's bosom--to write this fourth Gospel. In it abundant evidence is furnished to satisfy the most credulous of the Deity of the Lord Jesus. It is to the written Word God now refers all who desire to know the truth concerning His beloved Son, and in it are presented the "many infallible proofs" for the Godhood of our blessed Redeemer. Chiefest of these are to be found in John's Gospel.
From our text today, let's note the specific things Jesus said about Himself that caused His listeners to accuse Him of blasphemy--making Himself equal with God.
In verse 17, Jesus said:".....My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." Here is the first of the seven proofs which Christ now gives of His absolute Deity. Instead of pointing to the example of David or appealing to human sympathies, Christ identifies Himself directly with "the Father." In saying "My Father worketh hitherto and I work" He affirms His absolute equality with the Father. It would be nothing short of blasphemy for a mere crea-

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ture--no matter how exalted his rank of how great his antiquity--to couple himself with the Father thus. When He speaks of "My Father...and I" there is no misunderstanding the claim that He made.
When Jesus said..."My Father worketh"...He is making reference to the creative work of God relative to His creation, and, while it is true that God rested on the seventh day from all His creative work. He has never rested from His governmental work. His providential work, supplying the needs of His creatures.
The sun rises and sets, the tides ebb and flow, the rain falls, the wind blows, the grass grows on the weekly Rest Day as well as on any other. What we may term works of necessity and works of mercy--that is upholding and sustaining the whole realm of creation and the daily recurring needs of His creatures--God never rests from.
Now says Christ, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." All through the centuries has the Father been working. If, then, it was meet that God the Father worked with unremitting patience and mercy, if the Father ministered to the wants of His needy creatures on the Sabbath day, then by parity of reason it must also be right for God the Son, the Lord of the Sabbath, to engage in works of necessity and mercy on the weekly Rest Day.
Remember, it was the fact that Christ had healed on the Sabbath that caused the religious leaders to so hate Him! For them, when He healed, He broke the Sabbath. "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." Christ's claim to absolute equality with God only fanned the horrid flame of the enmity in those Jewish zealots--"they sought to kill Him."

The reason why we call Jesus...SAVIOR...is because He was God in human flesh, manifesting the very character and power of God Almighty in a human body!
Paul writes to the Christians in Philippi these words:
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men.

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And being found in appearance as a man. He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, of those under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:5-11)
This early hymn of the Church celebrates Jesus as the One who, because of His willing submission to humiliation and death, has been elevated by God to a position of supremacy over the universe and invested with the title "Lord"--"the name high over all."
NO WONDER WE CALL HIM....SAVIOR!
"Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, Verily, I say unto you. The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." (5:19)
This is another part of Christ's reply to those who accused Him of blasphemy. This reply does not suggest that Christ's ability or power was limited, instead of pointing to an imperfection, either in His person or power, they rightly understood, only serve to bring out His peerless excellency. In verse 30, we find that the Lord explains His meaning by giving as a reason--"Because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me." The force of what He said was this: "I cannot act independently of the Father. And why could He not? Because in will He was absolutely ONE with the Father. If He were God the Son then His will must be in perfect unison with that of God the Father, otherwise, there would be two absolute but conflicting wills, which means that there would be two Gods, the one opposing the other, which in plainer language still would be affirming that there were two Supreme Beings which is, of course, a flat contradiction of terms. It was just because the Lord Jesus was the Son of God, that His will was in fullest harmony with the will of the Father! in this statement, Jesus makes an assertion which none but a Divine person (in the most absolute sense of the term) could truthfully make. This is proof positive that He is speaking here not in His mediatorial capacity, as a servant, but in His essential character

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as one absolutely equal with God.
NO WONDER THAT WE CALL HIM...SAVIOR!
"For the Father loveth the Son and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth." (v.20) Because He is the Son of God, the Father loveth Him; that is to say, because they are in common possession of the same infinite perfections, there is an ineffable affection of the Father to the Son, and this love is manifested by the Father "showing the Son all things." There is no restraint and no constraint between them; there is the most perfect intimacy because of their co-equality. But not only do the words "the Father loveth the Son" make manifest the perfect intimacy there is between them, but the additional words "showeth Him all things that Himself doeth" evidences another of the Divine glories of Christ, namely, that absolute equality of intelligence that there is between the Father and the Son.
Christ has the capacity to apprehend and comprehend "all things that the Father doeth," therefore. He must be "equal with God," for none but God could measure the Father's mind. The Son, in consequence of His perfect knowledge of the mind, the will, and operations of His Divine Father, will yet make still more remarkable displays of that Divine power which is equally His Father's and His own--and such displays, Jesus adds, will fill with amazement all who witness them. What these displays were to be, appears from what follows: He had healed the impotent man, but He was soon to raise to life some who had been dead; nay, at a future period He was to raise to life all the dead and act as the Governor and Judge of all mankind!
NO WONDER WE CALL HIM...SAVIOR!
"For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them: even so the Son quickeneth whom He will." (5:21)
Here He affirms His absolute equality with the Father in sovereign rights! The healing of the impotent man was an object-lesson: it not only demonstrated His power, but it illustrated His absolute sovereignty...He had not healed the entire company of impotent folk who lay around the pool; instead He had singled out just one, and had made him whole. To quicken is to impart life, and to impart life is a Divine prerogative.
Divine sovereignty is an attribute of God, and thus, Jesus Christ once again claims His Deity!
NO WONDER WE CALL HIM...SAVIOR!

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"For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the son honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him" (5:22,23) This declaration that the Father judgeth no man—better "no one"--is especially noteworthy. The Father is the One whom we might most naturally expect to be the Judge. He is the first who was wronged. It is His rights (though not His exclusively) which have been denied. His governmental claims have been set at naught. He was the One who sent here the Lord Jesus Christ who has been despised and rejected. But instead of the Father being the Judge, He hath "committed all judgment unto the Son," and the reason for this is "that all should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father."
There is then, or more correctly, there will be, absolute equality between the Father and the Son in Divine honors! CHRIST MUST BE HONOURED EQUALLY WITH THE FATHER!
NO WONDER WE CALL HIM....SAVIOR!
"Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (5:24)
Jesus says quite simply that to accept Him is life; and to reject Him is death. What does it mean to listen to Jesus’ word and to believe in the Father who sent Him? To put it at its briefest it means three things: (1) It means to believe that God is as Jesus says He is; that He is love; and so to enter into a new relationship with Him in which fear is banished. (2) It means to accept the way of life that Jesus offers us, however, difficult it may be and whatever sacrifices it may involve, certain that to accept it is the ultimate way to peace and to happiness, and to refuse it the ultimate way to death and judgment. (3) It means to accept the help that the Risen Christ gives and the guidance that the Holy Spirit offers, and so to find strength for all that the way of Christ involves.
In this passage, Jesus Christ makes the claims of Deity. This is why His critics charged Him with blasphemy and that is why He died on the cross! But in so doing, He paid the penalty by His death for all man's sins, and He provides forgiveness and a new relationship with God. That is why we call Him...Savior...and that is why you should believe in Him as your personal Savior and Lord!