Hey there, I'm so glad you stopped by for this podcast. We hope so much we can serve you today.

Would you turn with me into the Gospel of John the 5th chapter, please? John chapter 5.

You and I are continuing what may be a brief series. I do not know how long yet we're just going to see as the Spirit of God leads us.

A series into the distinctiveness and some of the distinctive features of the Gospel of John and there are a number of them.

There is one that is tucked right here in the middle of the chapter. You see it throughout the course of the Gospel.

But here in this place we see it highlighted in such a way that it brings the launching for everything that will come after as he proclaims this concept over and over.

John chapter 5, I want to begin reading at verse 16, just 3 verse 20. It says this.

So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. Jesus said to them,

my father is always at his work to this very day and I too am working. For 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. Verse 19, Jesus gave them this answer.

I tell you the truth. It would be in Hebrew, amen and amen. Is that double affirmative? I tell you the truth, barely, barely. I tell you truth, truth.

The Son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees his father doing because whatever the father does, the Son also does.

For the father lobs the Son and shows him all he does. Yes to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.

As we're looking into the distinctive features of the gospel of John, we're learning that there are many.

And you see one tucked right in the middle of this chapter overwhelmingly when compared to the other gospels.

If you line them up side by side, you would note in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and not only in the four gospels, but throughout the rest of the New Testament, that in 248 references, I'm approximating that somewhat.

248 references to God as father, approximately 120 of them are in the gospel of John. Let me say that again in 248 references to God as father in the entire New Testament, 120 of those are in the gospel of John itself.

We learn a number of things about John's approach, the same one who said in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

We see him relational from the very beginning and we see him relational throughout. It will be no wonder to us at the end that he was the one that nestled up closest to him on that last evening.

That he saw himself as the beloved disciple that this was a man who was called by love and he was driven by love and you cannot take the relational nature out of the gospel to John because it was everything to him.

So he tells us more of what Christ had to say about his father and his references to God as father than any other gospel writer and any other New Testament writer.

And I want you to see a little of what is happening here because I want you to think about a couple of characteristics regarding God referring to his father Christ referring to God as his father.

...