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Welcome to Day 2144 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom The Gospel of John – 12 – The Claims of Christ – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 04/24/2022 The Gospel of John – Part 3 Authentication Of The Word – The Claims of the Christ Today we continue our Good News series according to John the Apostle.  Three weeks ago, we looked at a Picture Of Legalism and how the Pharisees and religious leaders started to look for a way to kill Jesus. Their reasons were that he healed on the Sabbath, performed many miracles, claimed to be equal with God, and people were beginning to follow him instead of them. Since they brought up the subject, Jesus was compelled to support his claims of being equal to God.  Today’s passage is John 5:19-30, on pages 1655-1656 in the Pew Bible.  I am starting with verse 16 to give the passage context. Follow along as I read it. So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.  In his defense, Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason, they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, 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. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. For 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. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Very truly I tell you, 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. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. By 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.   Let me start with a story today. As a distinguished-looking gentleman stood behind a microphone to rally his people in the name of Allah, he praised Jesus as a genuine prophet, a wise teacher, and a worthy example of human goodness. However, he then declared with remarkable confidence that this same Jesus never claimed to be anything more than a man—that He never claimed to be God. While it is true that no one ever recorded the exact phrase “I am God,” Jesus boldly asserted His deity in such precise, unambiguous terms that His enemies were outraged. They called Him a blasphemer for “making Himself equal with God” (John 5:18). The...