Overflow: Living Each Day Filled with the Spirit

SATURDAY, 16 AUGUST 2025

TEXT: JOHN 5:16-30

16: So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.

17: In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”

18: 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.

19: 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.

20: 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.

21: 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.

22: Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,

23: 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.

24: “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.

25: 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.

26: For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

27: And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

28: “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice

29: 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.

30: 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.

(New International Version Holy Bible)

TOPIC: WHERE DID JESUS SAY, "I AM GOD WORSHIP ME?"

The opponents of Christianity, especially the deity of Jesus Christ, have been trained to ask Christians: "Where did Jesus say, 'I am God worship me'?" To a wrong question, there could be no right answer. The question is silly, absurd and ill-motivated.

"Exact word criterion" is the epitome of intellectual dishonesty. For example, nowhere in the Bible did Jesus say, "I am virgin born honour me." But 99 percent of those trained to ask the "exact word criterion" question all belief in the virgin birth of Jesus.

John, an eyewitness apostle, tells us in verse 18 that the Jewish religious leaders graduated from persecuting Jesus for breaking the law on Sabbath to attempting to assassinate Him for making Himself equal with God.

Jesus added salt to injury by telling the religious leaders that He can do whatever God the father does such as raising the death, giving life eternal, judging the world, receiving honor, worship and glorification, which is God's exclusive prerogative (vs 23).

QUESTION: Where did Jesus say, "I am not God, do not worship me?"

PRAYER: You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God, the second Person of the Triune God. Help me to hold this conviction, in Jesus' name. Amen.