Turn with me then, friends, to that passage that we read in the fifth chapter of John's Gospel. I read verses 19 and 20. 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 for the Father loveth the Son, and hath showed him all things that himself doeth. And he will show him greater works than these that ye may marvel. So we're considering tonight, friends, the powerful presence, a powerful presence, the presence of Christ in his church. The Lord Jesus was careful to attend these feasts of the Jews, feasts of the Jewish church. So, because he was recognizing that church as the church of God. But when he came to visit his church, he soon found that all was not well with the church of that time. There was a dearth of power. There was a lack of power in the church. When Jesus came to Jerusalem, he found a powerless people. Do you sometimes feel powerless? Do you sometimes feel if only there was power among us, if only there was a mighty power, a mighty work being done, But friends, power is not separate from Christ. If Christ is present, then there is power. So it's not so much power that we must seek as Christ himself. If he's present, then he demonstrates who he is by doing his work, his powerful work. So here we're a powerless people because it was a church without Christ. There are churches like that and we must fear lest we become like that ourselves, a church without Christ. They had the feasts as we've seen. And what were these feasts for? These feasts were to celebrate God's mighty works in the past. But it seemed almost a mockery because they were remembering what God had done long ago and days before their fathers. And yet there was no evidence that that same God was with them. So what was there to celebrate? What was there to celebrate? What do we have to celebrate? Is it a true feast, a true celebration that the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge? It was a power to speak of it because there were no mighty works, there was nothing to celebrate in recent days. There were feasts, but another thing that was evident, there were pauses. There, as people passed on their way to the temple in through the sheep gate, the gate through which the sheep passed when they were being taken to the sacrifice in the temple, there near that gate was this pool. I don't know whether the sheep were washed there or what was done, but Sheep were driven past this pool on their way to the temple, and there where a shelter was made with five porches. Why? Because this was to accommodate a great multitude of people. But these people were impotent. They were powerless. There was a lack of power. They were blind, they were halt, they were withered. And so this was another evidence of a powerless church. People that had problems, big problems, but the church could do nothing for them. When we were out in Zambia, we had people afflicted. with oppression from the evil one, the devil. There was a lot of witchcraft, witch doctors, demon dances, and there's almost a palpable sense of the presence of evil. And people would come to some of the pastors who were willing to pray for them and get the deliverance for them. And sometimes they would find Roman Catholics coming, let's say, to the Baptist church. And if you said to them, why are you not going to our church? Oh, they said, there's no power. There's no power in the Roman church. We have to come to the Baptist to see, to get a power that will overcome the demons. Do we have that power? Well, in this case, there was no healing for these people, apart from a very, very limited Yes, there was. The Lord had not wholly deserted that church of the Jews because an angel came at certain unpredictable points and stirred up the water. And so there was only the opportunity for one person out of that great multitude to be healed. We talk about a day of small things. Can you get any smaller than that? Only one person. Only an angel. There was no prophet. There was no gospel along with it. Just this messenger from heaven came down and they watched for the stirring of the water and in they went. Only the one person. All the others were disappointed. Well, friends, when Christ comes and his gospel is preached, as I hope it is tonight, there's healing for everyone. Those that are broken in their heart and grieved in their minds, he healeth, and their painful wounds he tenderly unbinds. Are you hurting tonight, friend? Have you got a wound in your soul? Perhaps it's in your conscience. An angel can't help you. But Christ is present to heal in his word. And that's what happened on this day. Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. He came in that gate. Here was the Lamb of God who was going to be sacrificed. Perhaps he felt that as he came in that gate. Here I am, the Lamb. be sacrificed for my people.' And there he saw and recognised one of them, one of his people. He saw him lie there and of course he was able to detect and to know that he'd been there a long time, we're told, 38 years, that was a long wait, wasn't it? Perhaps somebody here has been waiting a long time to be assured that they're Christ's. Do you know that your sins are forgiven, or are you still to hear that word? Son, your sins are forgiven you. It just takes a word from Christ. For a pardon to be yours. In fact, Jesus is asking us. He's saying, do you want to be made whole? Do you want it? I've got it. Do you want it? Somebody in our family was offering things and saying, do you want this? Do you want that? Otherwise, I'm just going to dispose of it. Here's your opportunity. And I missed my opportunity. I wasn't quick enough. Friends, don't delay. Jesus is saying to you, Wilt thou be made whole? Say yes. It only needs an affirmative. It says, I want it. Oh, I want it. That man was healed there and then. Rise, take your bed, and walk. And so into this powerless situation, into this powerless church, there came a personal power and a person. of the Son of God. And that's the only thing that can bring conversion to this church or any other church. We're all in the same boat, you could say. We're totally dependent on Christ acting with us and among us. And that's what we must plead and ask for. And that's why this account is here. John says, I've written this. that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that believing you might have life through his name. There it is. What an offer. And so there was what we could call a sudden flood of power into that situation. Better than an angel. He was no longer a servant of God. It was God himself. had arrived in Jerusalem, had arrived at his temple. According to the promise, he will suddenly come to his temple, and it can be true tonight. Unexpectedly, you feel that flood, that surge of power, better than an angel, better than an assistant. This man says, there's no one, there's no man, When the waters troubled to put me into the pool, this man was waiting. 38 years he was waiting, and not one single soul was prepared to help him. What kind of church is that? Nobody had the compassion to see this man. They saw him year after year after year, worse than the good Samaritan. They passed by on the other side. Perhaps there's somebody in this church, friends, that's needing you to say a word of encouragement. Why have you not tried to say it? Perhaps there's somebody in Stornoway. They're waiting for some encouragement. Perhaps they're waiting for you to say, come along tonight. I'm going to the church tomorrow night. Would you like to come? Won't I be made whole? There's no one. It's not an evangelical church, this Jewish church, is it? There's no one doing the work of seeking the lost, inviting strangers. Let's be a church of inviters, friends. You don't know who's going to say yes. Back there in Shetland last week, I found a young man in the church I'd been praying for that family for years. And they would welcome me in the home. They would enjoy my prayer, my Bible reading. But when I said, come to the church, they would say, oh, we just can't get out the door. And that boy was in church last Sabbath evening. And he says, I'm coming regularly. And at the door I met his father. And father said, I wanted to come but he wouldn't let me, but I'm coming next week. Friends, are you asking, asking, keep on asking, keep on pleading until we see them appearing at the door, coming in. Better than an assistant, better than an ancient law. According to the Jews, this man should not have been healed that day because the law was being broken. In it thou shalt not do any work. So according to the letter of that law, as they interpreted it, this healing shouldn't have been done on that day. As they said in another occasion, why didn't you wait for another day to do it? And of course, the reason was that the Sabbath was the perfect day. The whole character of the Sabbath is that it's a day of compassion. It's a day for mercies. Perhaps there's some mercy you can do. I remember going out to preach in Buchanan Street in Glasgow. I invited a member of the church to come with me. He said, oh no, I'm not coming. It's the Sabbath. I need my rest. So for that reason, because his rest was more important than perishing souls, was that obedience to Christ. not according to chapter five of John's gospel. No, there's work to be done on the Sabbath day. You can keep the Sabbath by doing the right kind of work. Third thing we see here is a shattering challenge for deadness. This dead church was roused to activity because the Son of God had come. But the activity was not really what it should have been. Why was that? Because in that Jewish church, there was righteousness without love. Is that possible? Well, as far as we can define it, that's what they would think. Therefore, did the Jews persecute Jesus? A man who had done what they couldn't do in 38 years. He had demonstrated that there was a God in heaven who had mercy on the needy and they wanted to kill him for that because they couldn't see the true character of the Sabbath day when they should cease from their own works and do the works of him that sent them. They were powerless because it was a righteousness without love. If we are doing the right thing, but not doing it with love, then it is no righteousness. It was a righteousness without love. It was a religion without knowledge. They thought they knew it all. But when the God came, the God whom they professed, when the God arrived, they couldn't recognize him. Something far wrong with their theology, wasn't there? Something far wrong there. We have to be careful when we criticize what others are doing, because sometimes their theology might not be perfect, but God is using them. Are we righteous over much? Righteous without the knowledge of the Lord. It says in verse 12, what man is this which said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk? I wonder if we would, and we are so sensitive that if the Holy Spirit comes in among us, we immediately become aware God is here tonight. Or can it all pass you by? Can the Spirit be moving and you're left untouched? You see, if we're true people of God, immediately the presence of the Lord comes in. We say, ah, he's here, he's here. Even those disciples on the way to Emmaus said, did not our hearts burn within us? They couldn't help but be aware because of the truth that was being spoken, the heavenly witness that was being made. A religion without knowledge of the Lord. Remember what John says at the beginning of his gospel, chapter one, verse 26. John answered him, saying, I baptise with water, but there standeth one among you whom you know not. What an indictment on these religious leaders, one whom you know not. He it is who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose shoes latcheth I am not worthy to unloose. And then thirdly, friends, after a powerless people, a sudden flood of power, a challenging, a shattering challenge of their deadness, we have this, a skillful demonstration of his glory. Let's look at Christ. Let's look at the one that we dare not miss. If he's with us, if he's speaking to us, let's catch every word, lest we miss something that will make all the difference for us. First of all, he speaks of a partnership of love. He said, this is what you need. You need this, our partnership of love. Described in verses 19 to 21, truly I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the father do. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that he himself doeth. And so a wonderful thing was going on there in Jerusalem. And during the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus, the Son was being guided by the Holy Spirit, as the Holy Spirit revealed the will of his Father. In his humiliation, he subjected himself to the limitation of dependence on the Holy Spirit, and so he loved to wait and to hear what he must do next. And a pathway was made up for him each day, and along that pathway, he joyfully and faithfully followed to demonstrate that he was in our position as children of this world, requiring and depending upon guidance from above. And so here, the Lord Jesus gives an intimate disclosure. This is how it works. This is the way I do it. And he's doing it the same today. If you feel the influence and the impact of Christ tonight, he's doing it in conjunction with the eternal father who doesn't leave the throne above, but from there participates with his son through the spirit to gloriously and divinely influence your poor, impotent soul and draw you into the knowledge of His grace, of His power, and of His love. The Father sheds abroad His love by the Holy Spirit. A partnership of love. What a discovery! And these Jews, these experts couldn't see what was going on. They wanted to kill Him. But we tonight, friends, does it not make us rejoice? To know that as we, we only have to be listening to the word of truth and the Father and the Son of the Spirit will be doing that gracious, healing, delivering, empowering work in your soul and heart. And you'll say, ah, we found him there. He visited us tonight. It was none else but the Son of God. He was none else but the Father with the Son, disclosing his mercy to poor, worthless sinners. Glory be to his name. Yes, it was a partnership of love. Jesus talks about the work that he's doing. What kind of work is it? It's a work of showing, of displaying, of disclosing more of God, more of the knowledge of God. For this is life eternal, that thou might know thee the Father. He says to them, this is life, it's to know. It's a matter of knowing the Father. If you know Him, you have life, and you have life that never dies, because He issues, through the disclosure of Himself, a life-giving power that floods into your soul, and you live a partnership of love. The second thing that he wants to disclose is, it's the precedence of the father. Oh, what humility is here. Him who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, gives, defers to his father. He says, I want to do this because I've taken on the role of the son of man, the representative man. And so as representative man, I must be what I want all my children to be. They must be like me. They must defer to the father. They must wait for his bidding. They must live in full and glad obedience to the direction of the father. And so he says here in 17, my father worketh hitherto and I work. What is he saying here? He's saying that in the Old Testament, we have a display of the Father in creation. We know that the Son was present there, but that only was shown to us later in the New Testament. The Old Testament people had a limited view, and they were only conscious that the great creator God, the one God, had acted. He had worked hitherto, my Father worketh hitherto. And the first thing he's saying there is that the Father isn't at rest. On the Sabbath day, we're told that he rested the Sabbath, having created in six days, but he didn't. He rested from his creative work, but he didn't rest from his gracious work and providential work, otherwise Adam would have been snuffed out like that. So while he rested from his creation, he continued his merciful work of sustaining all his creation. And Jesus says, my father is working. You might say, through the Sabbath, he's got things to do on the Sabbath day, and I've got things to do on the Sabbath day. We lay aside our worldly employments and recreations, but we don't lay aside our service for the Lord, diligent service. And if I didn't do something tonight, I wouldn't be standing here, but I'm allowed, I'm permitted. and you're permitted to do service for your God on the Sabbath day. The Jews missed it. They were blind. He gave precedence to his father. And there's also this, that the father raises up the dead and quickeneth them. In other words, he said, look at the Old Testament. If you want evidence, of a person doing a divine work, then you must go to the Old Testament, and you'll see there how Elisha and Elijah raised the dead. No, they didn't. No, they couldn't do it themselves. They pled with God, and God the Father operated through the prophets and raised the dead. Or when Ezekiel went to that vision of dry bones, and these bones were made to live. It was the operation of God working figuratively to revive his church, to deliver them from captivity, to resurrect his church in the Old Testament. Jesus says, I'm doing the same thing. I'm here to resurrect a dead church. Christ has come, and when he comes, he resurrects our dead spirits to new life. My Father works hitherto, I'm doing the same thing. I'm continuing his work. I'm doing the Father's work for him. And then, that brings us then to the third point about this demonstration of his glory. It's the power of the Son over death. How is it, or in what way does Christ demonstrate his deity? For there's none can raise the dead except God himself. Man is utterly helpless in the face of death. It's the enemy that he cannot overcome himself. Only God can do this work. And anyone who raises this dead must be God. And that's what Jesus is saying. I have this power. As the father hath life in himself, so has he given to the son to have life in himself. And those that hear the voice of the son of God they shall hear and they shall live. The voice of Christ resurrect your dead soul so that your lies, that you're like a newborn child and you can cry out in wonder and amazement, once I was dead, now I live. Excuse me. And so there's this skillful demonstration of his divinity, his power over death. He says, those that are in their grave shall hear his voice and come forth. It's all going to happen. Every cemetery is going to empty. The sea is going to give up the dead. Why? Because the father has given this role to the son to bring judgment. And so we can close with his friends. a solemn judgment to come. We've seen a sudden flood of power, a shattering challenge to deadness, a skillful demonstration of divine glory, a solemn judgment to come. Jesus is addressing these wicked Jews, these leaders of the church who are still dead in trespasses and sins. And he says, look, you're hearing me now offering life Your response will determine my judgment of you at the end. 27, the Father has given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of Man. And so, amazingly, this Son of God is going to judge the world as a man over men. because he has lived through a human life to perfection. In other words, he is the only man worthy to make a judgment on any one of us and how far short we have fallen. And he knows exactly what it's like to be faced with temptation, to satisfy the demands of a holy God, and to live out his human life in perfect obedience. Therefore, the Father has committed all authority to the Son. That is his purpose. Though He is the Son of Man, yet He has this one purpose, final purpose, with man, with the creation. And the second thing is, it is the Redeemer who will judge. He came not to condemn the world, but to give His life as a ransom for many. But look out, any of those that despise that grace and that offer, they deserve judgment. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in their grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth, they that have done good, in other words, have responded to his offer of mercy. unto the resurrection of life, they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. Is there anyone here who will be raised up to face the condemnation of a one that refused to listen, refused to recognize that Jesus is the Christ, refused to take life when it was paid for, with the very blood of the Son of God. Let us pray.