Could Jesus Really Do Nothing on His Own?

Tom:

We are going through the gospel of John, we have been for many, many weeks and if the Lord tarries—

Dave:

We’re trying to Tom.We’re doing a poor job of it because God’s Word is so much beyond us.It’s infinite, but anyway we’re—

Tom:

No problem with taking our time with it.Every verse, every phrase is a meal and a banquet in itself.

Dave:

Every person out there must check us against the Word of God.We are not the authorities and there is no authority.We don’t look to some human headquarters, or authority, but the Bible is written for all of us and we are trying to express our understanding.It’s very partial, but we hope that it will be helpful.

Tom:

Yes, and our encouragement here is, if you want to know the heart of God…in the first segment we’ve been talking about who is God?Well the next question is, okay, what does he have in mind?What is he saying to us?And you are either going to come up with something out of your own imagination or you are going to go directly to God and find out what he wants; what he says; what he is telling about himself and about us.That’s usually the way I introduce this radio program.

Dave:

And he has a lot to say and the tragedy is that the Bible is the biggest seller and probably the least read.We don’t really study it as we should.This is what God has said to us and we need to pay attention.

Tom:

Well we are going to pick up with the gospel of John:5:30I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
See All..., this is Jesus speaking and he says, “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” Dave some people would pick up on this and say what does Jesus mean of his own self he can do nothing? This is really alluding to not only that he is God, but he is part of the Godhead; the Trinity.He does nothing on his own.

Dave:

Some people would say he is speaking as a man and this is what all of us would have to say.We are totally dependent on God even for our breath so we can do nothing.But you intimate that this involves the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.This goes even farther than his dependence upon God the Father as a man.If we go to John 16—trying to jump ahead a little bit here, but we’ll have to come back and get to it.

Tom:

Okay.

Dave:

John:16:13Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
See All..., “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that] shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.”Now I can remember when I used to be a little upset at these hyper-Pentecostals always talking about the Holy Ghost, you know, and I remember going to this verse and saying but it says the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak about himself.It doesn’t say that.It says he will not speak of or from himself on his own initiative and it’s very clear what it means.For whatsoever he shall hear.From whom?The Father.That shall he speak and this is exactly what Jesus says.I can’t of my own self do nothing.What I hear, what I see the Father do—the Father that dwells in me, he does these works.Now Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three persons, but one God.Neither one acts, or speaks, or thinks, or does anything on his own, but as one.This is the amazing unity that is in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and this is what Christ, when we get to chapter 17, prays for us that we would be one as he is in the Father and Father in him.That we would have this oneness of the very Godhead with God.I remember—who was it?Maybe it was Tozer who said some of us are too strong to be used of God.We think we are strong and therefore we don’t depend upon him for everything.I need to depend upon God for everything.We are finding that in our ministry.We’ve had some little problems that we didn’t bring upon ourselves, but happened to us, putting us in a financial hole for example.Well we find we have to trust God momentarily, every moment of every day.It’s wonderful I guess to have the Red Sea in front of you and the Egyptian army behind you and know that there is nothing you can do but as God says, stand still and “…know that I am God.”Well, Jesus says, I don’t act on my own.It’s the Father who lives within me.He’s the one who sent me.And Tom, again, we are spending a lot of time on verse 30, but he says one thing that he desires, “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me.”We have been created by God and then we have been sent forth and every Christian if you are out there and you truly know Christ, you should be able to say that sincerely from your heart.“I have no desire except that God’s will might be done in my life.I don’t seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me and we have all been sent by him.And when I believe that he really loves me and he’s smarter than I am, what more could you ask that to put yourself in the hands of infinite wisdom and infinite love?

Tom:

Right, you know Dave, [there are] some people listening to this who have never done this.Never really trusted God completely and as you said there are circumstances in which you have no other option.God sometimes allows that to happen.Even if we have been walking with him for a long time, but we’ve over the years put more confidence in the flesh and in our successes and so on.People like that think sometimes that is kind of impractical.I think about George Mueller, an absolutely amazing man.We are talking about the turn of the century in England.He began to put together orphanages to the tune of not just a little one here or there, his budget was in the millions of dollars back then.

Dave:

Well there were thousands of orphans that he housed, fed and clothed and he never sent out a prayer letter.He never let—well I think he told people how things were going, but he never indicated he had a need, never asked any one for any thing, because he wanted his life to be a demonstration of a great God who hears and answers prayer.

Tom:

Now at the same time, he was not an impractical man.I remember reading his books and his lists of how he would go before God.I mean he did his homework.He said here are the pluses, here are the minuses, but when he got down to the end of the list (and this really struck me the first time I read it), he said and then I would have no mind in the matter. I mean he used his head to do all this stuff, but the bottom line was he submitted it to God.

Dave:

Well that’s what we should do in everything in our lives.Then in verse 31 an interesting statement, “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.”

Tom:

Dave, this is more than interesting, I don’t get it.

Dave:

Well first of all, if Jesus suddenly went on his own, independent of the Father and the Holy Spirit, it wouldn’t be true.He would have wandered away, but then also he’s saying look, if I’m the only one who knows this, then what happened to God?How could I be independent and how could I be the only one who is capable of making this statement about myself?It couldn’t possibly be true, because God knows everything.“I bear witness of myself—there is another, verse 32, “There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.”And he goes on and he talks a little more about it.“Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.But I receive—Tom this is a powerful verse here, verse 34.So he is talking about the witness of the Father as well as the witness of John.34) “But I receive not testimony from man:…” Wow!Tom that’s one of the things that embarrasses me when I’m speaking at a conference.They want to give you a flowery introduction.I would say please, don’t say anything.We like to kind of build up one another and I—we should compliment one another and encourage one another, but Jesus said look, I don’t receive testimony from man.You want to tell me how great I am?What does it matter?You see I think we could learn that, each person could learn that.What does it matter whether someone praises you or blames you? All that matters is what does the Father have to say about this?So Jesus, I don’t think he is saying don’t praise me, because we do praise him.We’re grateful for what he has done.But he’s talking about testimony.And who is the man that could testify about the greatness of God?And who God is and who Jesus Christ is.Jesus is saying it takes someone bigger than a man to tell who I really am, the truth about me.But it’s a lesson for us Tom.Let’s not receive honor.Another place he says “I don’t receive honor from men,…” and just jumping down he says it in verse 41, “I receive not honor from men. And then he says in verse 44, “How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that [cometh] from God only?” So I think this is what we desire is God’s affirmation, God’s blessing upon our lives, not necessarily what others will say about us.

Tom:

Yes, and Dave many times that comes from people and we ought to be able to tell the difference between encouragement and just flattery.

Dave:

Right.