1. The Son insists he has the right to do what the Father does. In particular, like the Father, the Son works on the Sabbath (16-18).
2. The Son insists he is subordinate to the Father, but it is a uniquely defined subordination: his functional subordination is grounded in his co-extensive action with the Father (19-23).
3. The Son insists that, like the Father, he has life-in-himself (24-26).
4. The Son of God insists he is also “a Son of Man” and as such, he is the God-sanctioned Judge of all (27-30)

Subordination Texts in John 5

• The Son can do nothing by himself (of his own initiative) (19). 
• The Son can do only what he sees his Father doing (19). 
• Whatever the Father does, the Son also does (19) 
• The Father shows the Son all he does (20).
• The Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all might honour the Son as they honour the Father (22)
• The Father has granted the Son to have life-in-himself (26)
• The Father gives the Son authority to judge (27)
• The Son can do nothing by himself, he judges only as he hears (30) 
• The Son seeks not to please himself, but the one who sent him (30)

This sermon owes a debt to D.A. Carson’s commentary “The Gospel According to John,” and my 20-year-old notes from a cassette tape of Carson lecturing on this passage.