Give me a Signal!-- John 5:30-38

Introduction

Good Morning Church, would you go to the Lord in prayer with me?

Alright, 2nd—5th graders you guys are free to dismiss. And as a reminder, parents you can pick those children up at the Wetlands Building, and if you need any help finding where that is, don’t hesitate to ask someone with a lanyard.

If you’re new with us, welcome to CBC, my name is Andrew McClure and I’m one of the Pastor’s here, and I’d love to invite you to open up your Bible’s to John chapter 5.

Here at CBC, we believe the Word of God is the just that. The very word of God, and consequently the ultimate authority for our lives.

And every Sunday we want to open God’s word, and posture ourselves underneath God’s word.

So if you’re new with us, I’d encourage you to bring a Bible— I read and preach from the English Standard Version, but any version will do--- and if you don’t have a bible we have one for you.

They’re out back on the table as you leave.

But I’d also encourage you to bring a notepad or journal with a pen. For a long pen, is better than a short memory.

So John 5.

I’ve never seen it, but I saw a clip of it this week, but in the 2003 movie Bruce Almighty, Jim Carrey, who plays a down on his luck reporter is driving his car and trying out prayer for the first time.

And he uncomfortably begins, and says, “alright God, give me a signal! Please!”

Immediately, a construction sign on the side of the road starts flashing, “CAUTION AHEAD.”

But Bruce doesn’t notice, and he press in further:

“I need your guidance Lord, please give me a Sign!”

Immediately a huge truck, with multiple road signs pulls in front of him and the signs read, “STOP, WRONG WAY, DEAD END”

But Bruce ignores it, and frustrated that the truck pulls in front him, speeds around and crashes into a Pole.

Bruce proceeds to get out of the car, and start blaming God. Contending with God. Frustrated that God would ignore his attempts to pray, and that a wreck would be the result!

That’s pretty relatable isn’t it.

Sometimes life brings us to places where we wrestle with the reality of God, and who Jesus says that He is.

We want confirmation that he actually exists, and that he does indeed love us, and is for us, and has the desire and power to intervene in our lives for our good.

So we ask for a signal, we want a sign.

And when our lives end up wrecked, we end up blaming God for failing to show up!

But what if the failure hasn’t been on God at all… what if instead, we’ve just failed to miss the signals, what if we simply ignored the signs.

As you can probably guess, that’s the case I’ll make this morning, because it’s a tale as old as time.

So let’s read our text, and then I’ll give you the outline.

John 5:30–38 ESV

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

Context

You see last week in our text, Jesus had made an astonishing claim.

That He was Equal with God.

he blatantly told the Jewish authorities that He was indeed the Son of God, the Messiah, and the Son of Man.

He couldn’t have been more clear.

but the Jews weren’t satisfied.

You see, according to Jewish Law, for a testimony or a claim like this to be verifiable there needed to be at least 2 or 3 witnesses that could support the claim.

You can find that in Deuteronomy 19:15 ““A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.”

So this was OT LAW, but even Jesus in the NT adopted it as a principle.

John 8:17 “In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true.”

And again Matthew 18:16 “But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.”

And this principle was very important because to bear false witness was a capital offense.

So although Jesus made his claim clear… it was insuffient. They wanted more clarification. They wanted more signs. A signal. They wanted supporting witnesses.

So in verse 31 this is what he’s referencing.

John 5:31 “If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.”

Jesus isn’t saying that his personal testimony is false.

He’s not telling them he’s a liar.

No, as Paul declares in Romans “LET GOD BE TRUE, though every man a Liar.”

Or as Hebrews states, “It is impossible for God to Lie!”

No, what Jesus has claimed is Truly Truly, it is Absolute Truth, rather man believes it or not

But in light of the OT Principle, that a claim needs to be supported by 2 or 3 witnesses, he affirms the principle, and proceeds to call his witnesses to the stand.

In fact, he calls 4

The Lamp

The Works

The Father

The Scripture

Today, we’ll cover the first 3, and next week Coleman will round it out, but let’s begin with the Lamp

The Lamp

John 5:33 “You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.”

Jesus, first witness is John the Baptist.

A figure, and a ministry that the Jewish Authorities would have been very familiar with.

In fact, this early on in Jesus’ ministry, John was probably more popular than Jesus.

Just a few chapters earlier in John 3:26 the disciples of Jesus complained to him, that everyone was still flocking to John

Yes, the Jewish Authorities knew much of John.

In fact, Jesus was being literal when he said, “You sent to John.”

Turn quickly with me to John 1:19 “And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?””

He was out in the wilderness of the Jordan, but word of him had traveled all the way to Jerusalem, so the Authorities sent out to him to directly ask, “Who are you!”

And when they got there, John bore witness to the Truth.

He told them plainly that He was not the Christ, but instead the prophesied forerunner who would come before the Messiah to prepare hearts to receive him.

And then we read in John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

John bore witness to the truth.

That He had come to point people to Christ, and in front of these Jewish authorities, He points to Jesus and says, “There He is! The Lamb of God, who has come to save. Who takes away Sin! Who restores us to God!”

So he says, you sent to John… and he was bearing witness to Me.

But look at John 5:34 “Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.”

He reminds him—- that he doesn’t need to call John as a witness, because what he has said stands as true on its own, but he calls them to remember John the Baptist as an act of His grace!

Jesus didn’t need John’s Testimony.

But the Jews did!

They needed someone to point them to Christ, and that’s exactly what John had come to do.

So as an act of Grace, Jesus is reminding them of John’s ministry.

He reminds them that in John 5:35 “He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.”

Jesus calls John a Lamp.

And this is intentional, because there are 2 important facts about a Lamp.

First, a Lamp’s purpose is to illuminate. To provide us the chance to see.

And that was John’s Purpose—- to illuminate for us, who Jesus actually was.

This is why John had to decrease, and Jesus increase, because his task was to show us Jesus. Point us to Jesus. To illuminate Jesus for us.

Secondly, a Lamp must be lit by another source.

In and of itself, a Lamp is not the Light, but instead must be ignited by the Light.

And this too was true of John.

John 1:8 “He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.”

John’s burning, was rooted in the True Light, who was Jesus.

And can you imagine what this would have meant for the Jewish People?

Because prior to Joh there had been 400 years of silence from God.

Prior to John the Jews felt abandoned by God. Because God had not sent a single prophet for 400 years.

And then all of a sudden, a wild man, a man wearing camel hair, and only eating locusts and honey, is drawing massive crowds of people, and baptizing them, and preaching that the long awaited Savior of the World was coming.

That would have been water to the parched soul of the Jewish Nations.

And they were willing to rejoice in his light for a while

Because this excited the Jews. This is what they had been eagerly waiting for! This is what they had been looking for so they were excited… until they met Jesus.

And they were offended by Jesus, becuase He didn’t meet their expectations, so although excited about John and His Testimony, his burning testimony had no lasting effect on them.

Church, this happens all the time, even to us today.

You see God, still as an act of Grace, sends us people and preachers that serve as Lamps in our lives.

Now I’m not advocating that there are John the Baptists walking the earth, for John the Baptist was the greatest born among women.

But there are people like John.

Men and Women ignited by the Love of God.

On fire, and burning for Christ.

ALL IN regarding their devotion.

Almost uncomfortable because of the heat of their conviction and affection.

They are on Fire.

And God places people like this in your life, to illumine the path not to themselves, but to the source, Jesus Christ the Light of the World.

I think of a man named John that I met in Thailand in January of 2017.

While attending a Missionary conference, I woke early to pray with a group of other missionaries from all over Asia, and with eyes closed and heads bowed people prayed, one by one.

But then all of a sudden, a man to the left of me, knelt and began to pray, and his communion with God was so tangible that it was nothing I had ever experienced before.

I was to afraid to even open my eyes, for fear of breaking the weighty presence of God that had become so evident in response to this man’s prayer.

I think of men like A.W. Tozer, whose writings stir my affection more than any other.

It was his prayer in the Pursuit of God which read, “This book is a modest attempt to aid God’s hungry children so to find Him…Others before me have gone much farther into these holy mysteries than I have done, but if my fire is not large it is yet real, and there may be those who can light their candle at its flame.”

I think of people like my Great Aunt who overcome with Polio, and possessing a disfigured body was confined to her home. But there, from her knees she penetrated hearts in India, and Africa, and Europe, and even the heart of a young college freshmen at the University of Georgia.

You see it was her passion for prayer, that I attribute my call into ministry to.

I think of Preacher’s like John Wesley who said, “Light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles to watch you burn.”

Church, God will place people like this in your lives, not because He needs them to testify to His claim, but because he loves us and wants us to be saved.

And really quickly, I know that many of you are church shopping, and many others will move out of our little community and have to find another church.

May I encourage you to look for a burning lamp behind the pulpit.

Too many today seek to be the source of light themselves.

Too many preachers today desire to draw attention to themselves, build up their own names, grow their own brands and organizations.

But you do not need entertainers behind the pulpit, but lamps on fire for the love of God.

Men like John the Baptist, willing to decrease, willing to suffer, willing to point to the Light of the World.

As Tozer again once wrote, Before we follow any man we should look for the oil on his forehead. We are under no spiritual obligation to aid any man in any activity that has not upon it the marks of the cross. No appeal to our sympathies, no sad stories, no shocking pictures should move us to put our money and our time into schemes promoted by persons who are too busy to listen to God.”

We want God to give us a sign, and give us a signal— who in your life burns for Christ? Are you paying attention?

But the second witness Jesus calls to the stand, are His Works.

And Jesus says they are greater witnesses than John.

The Works

John 5:36 “But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.”

The works of Jesus are weightier than John’s witness, because they encompass Jesus’ entire mission, including his miracles but also his death and resurrection.

Jesus ministry, although only lasting 3 years, was full of WORK that witnessed to his claim of deity.

In fact, concerning his works John says this, John 21:25 “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

Everything he did was for the purpose to witness to His claims.

All of his saving, and renewing, and healing, and liberating, and comforting, and lifting, and directing were not ends in and of themselvs.

But instead his works were means to witness to His claim as the Son of God.

That’s the purpose of Works—- to evidence His deity and to encourage those who doubted his words to look at His works.

Right, Jesus said some wild things.

Many thought he was a lunatic, and often Jesus would say—- If you can’t listen to My words, look at the works.

That’s how you can discern a wolf in sheep's clothes, not by listening to the flattery of their lips but by paying attention to the works of their lives.

For you can only know a tree by the fruit that it bears.

This is what he says in John 10:38 “but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.””

And again in John 14:11 “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

The Works Witness to His Claim.

And many understood this.

Nicodemus understood John 3:2 “This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.””

And who could forget when Jesus heals the paralytic in Matthew 9, and Matthew 9:8 “When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”

Or when Jesus walked on water and his disciples, Matthew 14:33 “And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.””

Or one more, when Thomas saw his resurrected body he proclaims, John 20:28 “Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!””

All of these works, serve as witnesses to the claims of Christ.

Sure they are performed with love and compassion, but it is not compassion that is the primary motivator for these works.

Instead the works are witnesses to His Words, to His claim.

Works are witnesses to His Claims

And guess what… The Father is still working. He is always working.

He is still healing, and restoring, and saving, and comforting, and directing… and he wants you to see them, not for the works themselves, but that you will be saved.

That you would see HE is who He said he is.

We all want a sign, we want signals—- but are you paying attention to His works?

Just this week I know of a life where alcohol is losing its grip, because Jesus is healing.

I know of a family expecting, and a year ago divorce seemed imminent all because Jesus is still restoring.

I know of someone grieving loss, but with supernatural hope all because Jesus is still comforting.

I know of one stepping into Military Retirement, because they sense Jesus leading them to the ministry… all because Jesus is still directing.

If we would but contemplate, you too would know the truth that Jesus is still working today.

But are you paying attention? His works are signals--- but we have to pay attention.

The next Witness he gives- is that of the Father Himself.

The Father

First, go back up to vs. 31 & 32

John 5:31–32 “If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.”

The “another” who bears witness about Jesus, is none other than God the Father.

You see, Jesus didn’t need any other witnesses than this one.

He was so sure, that everything he did, said, and taught was true because due to his perfect unity with the Father, He could do nothing of his own accord, but only what he saw the Father doing (as John 5:19 says).

He was confident that He was TRUE, because he knew he wasn’t here to seek his own will, but only the will of the Father who sent him as John 5:30 states.

Here again, is another insight into the perfect, and complete awareness Jesus’ possessed of his unity with the Father.

We know later in the Gospel of John that Jesus knew without a shadow of a doubt where he came from, and where he was going. (John 8:14)

He knew, without doubt, who had sent him (John 8:16)

He Knew that he only says what the Father says (John 12:49).

He knew that he only sought the Father’s will (John 5).

He knew that He was equal with the Father.

So for Him to state that He is equal with God, is in an indirect way, the Father Himself witnessing about Jesus.

He states this clearly in Vs 37.

John 5:37 “And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me.”

For it is the Father who sent John the Baptist, and the Father is shows the Son the works he is to do, and the words that He speaks

.. Behind the claim of Christ, stands God Himself.

That’s a pretty stout witness.

If a claim could only be substantiated in with 2 or 3 witnesses— Jesus just won the case.

He points to John the Baptist, the WOrks, and the Father Himself.

But shockingly—- it’s not enough.

look at the end of 37

John 5:37–38 “And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.”

Let me take the last 5 minutes to unpack this

Conclusion

Here lies a triple indictment… You see, Jesus’ claims nor the evidence of His witnesses worked, because they refused to pay attention.

You see, unlike Moses who frequently heard the voice of God. In fact, he spoke with God as a man speaks with his friend.

And Moses not only heard God’s voice, but attended to it. Submitted to it. Believed it.

But not the Jewish Authorities because they failed to recognize God’s Voice in the person of Christ.

They didn’t pay attention to the signal right in front of them.

And unlike Israel, or Jacob who saw God face to face at Penuel.

And not only saw God, but wrestled with him, and was touched by Him.

But not the Jewish Authorities because they failed to recognize God’s Form in the person of Christ.

They didn’t pay attention to the signal standing right in from of them.

And unlike Joshua or the Psalmists, who cherished God’s Word and Hid God’s Word in their hearts…

And not only that but allowed God’s Word to abide in them by Meditating, and memorizing and obeying…

But not the Jewish Authorities because they failed to recognize the Word of God in the person of Christ.

They didn’t pay attention to the signal standing right in front of them.

And the same is true for many of you.

Like Bruce Almighty you’re desperate for a signal, some form of sign that God is real, and the Jesus Saves.

But I wonder—- how many Lamps like John the Baptist are in your life that you’ve simply ignored.

I wonder—- how many Works of God pepper your life that you fail to pay attention to.

Church, Jesus is God, and He will save you from your sins—- but you must believe Him.

And as an act of His Grace, he not only states his claim, but also provides us supporting witnesses.

Don’t be like these Jewish Authorities.

Pay Attention.

Hear the Claims, See the Signals, and believe in the Lord.

Well today, we are going to close by taking Communion.

Communion

So if you’re one of our volunteers serving communion Would you go ahead and prepare.

Communion is a sacrament of the church, instituted by Christ on the night that he was betrayed.

On that night he was sharing a meal together with his closest followers, and told them to do it regularly after he’s gone in a way to remember Him.

And that’s what we want to do together this morning.

And if you’re not a Christian this morning, or wouldn’t call yourself a disciple I’d like to kindly ask you to let these elements pass you by as they are handed out.

But for everyone gathered this morning, Communion gives us an opportunity to reflect. To contemplate. Dare I even say, Pay attention.

So as you take the elements, and Justin plays for us I want you to think:

What Lamps has God, by His grace, put into my life? What about them points me to Christ? What do their lives teach me about Christ?

What works has God done in mylife, that are evidences of His grace?

And in light of the Lamps and the Works--- Have I placed faith in Christ.

To take the elements, reflect a moment, and then in a moment I’ll come back up to lead us thorugh communion together.