Q7. Dependent

[Pastor Ralph]

Q7. (John 5:19, 30) In what sense is Jesus powerless on his own? What is the key to Jesus’ power and effectiveness? How does this demonstrate his basic humility? How can we emulate Jesus in this? How does that demonstrate our humility?

[Clelie]

Jesus was sent by His Father for a mission on earth . He would do only  what the Father told  Him to do. So in Himself He was powerless.

 Jesus power came from His relationship with His Father in constant fellowship and total commitment to do the Father’s s will.

He showed total humility towards his Father while on earth  though He Himself is God but He made Himself subject to His Father. 
 

We are saved by grace through our faith in Jesus. We  can do nothing without Him. We humbly submit ourselves to  His Lordship for all that leads to eternal life .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jewells]

Q7. (John 5:19, 30) In what sense is Jesus powerless on his own? What is the key to Jesus' power and effectiveness? How does this demonstrate his basic humility? How can we emulate Jesus in this? How does that demonstrate our humility?

Jesus said he could do nothing but only as the Father showed Him.  He had submitted his will to the will of God.  He had no will or desire outside the Will of God.  The humility is God Knows Best and I trust Him Fully attitude and he complied with the voice of God and obeyed.  We can emulate Jesus by seeking His face and His will and obeying.  Jesus being the example and having fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf we follow his example.  To admit God's way and God's will is perfect we humble ourselves to obey and follow.

[Frances Kay]

Jesus was powerless on his own while He was on earth because, like us, He was in a created human body. He could only be effective when in close communication with God, His Father. He did not try to “go it alone” in His own strength. We tend to think we should be able to manage life on own own. We try to “go it alone” and think we should be able to manage things on our own and not bother God or other people. The opposite is true. We need, should and please God when we work with God and with other people, especially other people who also have this same humility in Christ.

[Brother Clifford wilson]

We serve a triune God head, the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit,  Jesus obeys as the Father directs.  This means that unlike you or I there is no question that they are united in one. Jesus is powerful as three.

The triune God knows the will of the father and humble follows never veering off this perfect relationship.  The will of the father is the will of Jesus.  Is"nt this what we try to achieve?  We try to stay in alignment with Jesus.  Jesus power on earth comes from God.  Jesus humbles himself before the Father.  We humble ourselves before Jesus.  Humility before Christ aids the power of Christ in flowing through the hearts of believers.  We are tasked to be as one with Christ just as Christ and the Holy Spirit are one with God.  Jesus hears from the Holy Spirit whom knows the deep thoughts of God and he obeys him to the death.  We must be obedient to the spirit also.

[Zanele Tlhakanelo]

Jesus Christ is powerless on His own because He has not come on His own accord but has been sent by the Father to do His Father's Will. All the power that He has, He got from the Father.

Jesus' power and effectiveness is that He has seen what His Father does and as such emulate the Father in all aspects. He is not doing what He wants but continues to follow the instructions given Him by the Father. Therefore, Jesus is guided and listens to all the instructions that come from His Father. He keeps in touch with the Father.

This demonstrates basic humility because He knows who sent Him and hence He is not doing what He wishes but basically listens to the instructions given by the Father and also does what He has seen His Father do. This is the sense of humility because He does not contradict the actions of His Father but follows in the pattern that His Father operates in.

It demonstrate our humility in that Jesus Christ expects us to follow in His footsteps. We cannot call ourselves children of God but contradict what He has taught us in His commandments. Love your neighbor as you love yourself is exactly what we are supposed to do. We cannot say we love God and yet hate your brother. Jesus Christ expects us to do what we have seen Him do, that is, have compassion and love one another.

[Janzie]

On 8/12/2024 at 8:39 PM, Pastor Ralph said:

Q7. (John 5:19, 30) In what sense is Jesus powerless on his own? What is the key to Jesus’ power and effectiveness? How does this demonstrate his basic humility? How can we emulate Jesus in this? How does that demonstrate our humility?

Jesus is powerless on His own.  He says, I can do nothing of myself.

The key to Jesus power and effectiveness is that He can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 

This demonstrates His basic humility because He does not do His own will but the will of the Father which sent Him.

We can emulate Jesus in this by spending time with the Father and hearing and doing His will.  

It demonstrates our humility by not doing our own will but hearing what Jesus and the Father desires.  Not my will but thine be done.

[Mama Eve]

Q7. John 5:19,30) In what sense is Jesus powerless on his own?

Jesus cannot do anything on his own. He is dependent on His Father. This is the perfect example that we too cannot do anything on our own we too are to be dependent on Our Lord. In this passage Jesus explains more about his special relationship with his Father. Jesus was equal to God. But Jesus was in complete unity and obedient to God. Because of the perfect love between them. Like Jesus we must be obedient to what the Holy Spirit prompts us to do for God.

What is the key to Jesus' power and effectiveness?

Constant communication, obedience, and submission to the Father.

How does this demonstrate his basic humility?

Again, dependence upon the Father.

How can we emulate Jesus in this ?

Our desires should be the same as his desires. Our relationship with Jesus should be He has with God his Father. Because we can do nothing on our own. We should obey Jesus because we love him, we talk to him in prayer and worship him when we read the Word of God.

How does this demonstrate our humility?

We are Jesus disciples. We must learn from Jesus how to listen to the Father and then follow his instruction here on earth. As believers we are the hands and feet of Christ in this life.

[Brenda Joy]

Q7. (John 5:19, 30) In what sense is Jesus powerless on his own? What is the key to Jesus' power and effectiveness? How does this demonstrate his basic humility? How can we emulate Jesus in this? How does that demonstrate our humility?

Jesus makes it very clear that even though he is equal to God, "he can do nothing" without the Father and "he can only do" when he is connected.   This demonstrates humility because he shows that he has a low focus on himself.  We emulate this because we too must do nothing on our own without the Father.  We are powerless.  We will be effective as a witness when we are connected to God and His power can flow through us.

[hanks]

Q7. (JOHN 5:19, 30) 
In what sense is Jesus powerless on His own? What is the key to Jesus' power and effectiveness? How does this demonstrate His basic humility? How can we emulate Jesus in this? How does that demonstrate our humility? 
Jesus is powerless on His own in that He does not act independently – He and the Father always work as One. The key to His power and effectiveness is that He is fully equal to God the Father having continual access. Like the Father He is omnipotent. We see His humility in that while being fully God, He was obedient to God the Father, and lived the life of a servant here on earth. We do this by trying to emulate our Lord and Saviour by listening to our Heavenly Father and following His instructions. Jesus being the perfect example of humility we can only learn from Him. 
 

[Nicolaas A.P. Mostert]

Q7. (John 5:19, 30)

In what sense is Jesus powerless on his own?

JESUS doesn't operate independently of the Father. The SON can do nothing by HIMSELF.

What is the key to Jesus' power and effectiveness?

JESUS can do only what HE sees HIS FATHER doing.

How does this demonstrate his basic humility?

JESUS submit HIM totally to the FATHER.

How can we emulate Jesus in this?

By following JESUS' example, to say we can do nothing by ourself. We can do only what JESUS is doing. 

How does that demonstrate our humility?

We submit and surrender our being towards JESUS.

[Lisa Wolf]

Q7. (John 5:19, 30) In what sense is Jesus powerless on his own? What is the key to Jesus’ power and effectiveness? How does this demonstrate his basic humility? How can we emulate Jesus in this? How does that demonstrate our humility? 

In John 5:19  Jesus talks about the strong connection between Himself and the Father.  "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."  We know from Philippians that when Jesus came to earth, He humbled himself to take the form of a human.  This passage in John shows that He is not putting forth His own agenda, rather doing what He sees the Father doing.  In John 5:30,  He repeats the message that He does not work on His own, but in complete alignment with the Father.  He goes a step further to demonstrate humility by stating He does not please Himself, but instead seeks pleasing the Father.  "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."  As Jesus is sent by the Father, He sends us to also bring glory to God.

[Kak]

Q7.Jesus has told us that He does nothing on His own. He is in constant communication with His Father seeking His guiding and leading and only then does He act. This constant communication with the Father enables Jesus to be powerful and effective, by Him being humble and willing to follow the Fathers leadership and guiding. This also shows us how humble Jesus is in His obedience and also the way He is open and honest about the power of the Father in His life. Jesus does not try and take any praise or adulation for Himself but directs it towards the Father all the time. 
We can emulate Jesus by being in constant communication with Him and listening, waiting and obeying His leading in our lives. If we endeavour to do this and not be determined to have our own way , it will show that we are humble and draw us closer to Jesus.

[George L]

Q7. (John 5:19, 30)

1.  In what sense is Jesus powerless on his own? Jesus mission on earth was to fulfill the prophetic promises of his father. God’s power only manifests in acord with His our ose and His theming.

2.  What is the key to Jesus' power and effectiveness? Oneness with the Fathers purpose and plan.

3. How does this demonstrate his basic humility? His time in prayer making sure he understands the step before him.

4.  How can we emulate Jesus in this? Time alone in our secret place with God in prayer and meditating through what we are being assigned.

5.  How does that demonstrate our humility? We are to put our self out of the way acknowledging we are incapable of doing heavenly grade work by human worldly means.

[JOLLAM BANDA]

Q7. (John 5:19, 30) In what sense is Jesus powerless on his own? What is the key to Jesus' power and effectiveness? How does this demonstrate his basic humility? How can we emulate Jesus in this? How does that demonstrate our humility?

On his own without God the Father, Jesus Christ is powerless. For Jesus Christ to do whatever He does, He depends on God the Father. He is in constant touch with God the Father, and He does what He discerns God the Father to be doing. Jesus Christ constantly communicates with and voluntary submit to God the Father. This demonstrates His humility because He depends and submit to God the Father. We should emulate Jesus Christ by depending on God the Father through Jesus Christ and do what He wants us to do. Our dependence on God the Father through Jesus Christ demonstrate our humility and dependence on Him.

[Krissi]

Jesus' powerlessness was voluntary, in that He chose to be powerless rather than had powerlessness "inflicted" on Him. It is so hard to understand the meaning of Jesus' dual nature -- man and God, both fully  -- ... in practice. It seems that Jesus chose to emphasize his humanity in these passages as well as His utter dependence and subjection to God the father. Yet, as He submitted, Jesus seems to have known  He was submitting. He was fully aware of what He was doing. He must have known, then, that He was fully God, which meant He was all-powerful. He was aware, then, of making the choice to submit.

Instead of being who He was -- "fully God" -- Jesus acted as if He were merely a man completely contingent and dependent on God the Father for everything including His power. Power to do what? To do good. To act as God would on earth. So the key to Jesus' earthly power is HIs intentional and abject submission to God.

Submission is, by definition, taking a lesser position vis-a-vis another person or power. A nation submits when it signs an unconditional surrender document after losing a war, for example. Submission is powerlessness. This means that that nation would be in no position to reassert itself, that it acknowledges it's weakness and subsequent subjugation.

Jesus submitted to God even though He was God Himself. I don't understand this -- how can you submit to yourself? -- but somehow as a man, Jesus submitted to God the father. He was, thus, humble not humbled; He chose to be dependent but was not coerced to do so. Somehow the fact that He made this choice is significant. He chose to do what the Father told Him to do. To be wholly obedient. To serve. To submit.

Obviously, if we are to be like Christ, we, too, are to obey, serve, submit, wholly divest ourselves of the idea that we can do anything apart from Him. LIke Jesus, we may know we could make decisions on our own, and do have power of our own, but we choose to submit our power and self-determination to God. We choose to be son-like. Child-like. We choose to mimic and destroy our identities, not self-actualize. This is humility in action.