The Many Witnesses of Jesus John 5:30-47

If you have ever served on jury or are a fan of courtroom drama TV shows and movies you know the importance of witness testimony. Our entire justice system is hinged upon the testimony of witnesses, eye witnesses who saw events happen, expert witnesses who explain what the different evidence means, and character witnesses who speak for the defendant or victim to tell the courtroom of who they are as a person. The witnesses are interviewed by lawyers then based on the evidence and testimony given by them the jury is to determine guilt or innocence. Turley our entire justice system today is hinges on the reliability of witnesses in the courtroom. But what you may or may not have known is that is actually biblical.

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.”

But not just in old testament Law Jesus quotes Deuteronomy in Matthew 18, and Paul uses the same standard in 1 Timothy 5. We see the important of the witness and today we are going to talk about 4 witnesses that declare Jesus is the messiah the son of God the one who will live the perfect life and die on the cross for the payment of our sins. I pray that you will see how that based on the evidence of these witnesses we can have faith in confidence in who Jesus is as our savior and our lord.

This passage we are looking at today is the end of a longer discourse Jesus is giving to a group of Jews. It all begins with Jesus healing a man on the sabbath at the pool of Bethesda on the sabbath. But when a group of Jews sees this man has been healed the want to know how it happened and who did it. When this group founds out it is Jesus John describes their reaction John 5:18–19

“This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. So Jesus said to them,”

Jesus has healed a man and the Jews in the area are ready to put him death. Jesus then starts this long discourse where he shows how the Father has given him the son authority on earth and Jesus foretells of the coming judgment. After that he starts in our passage for today we will begin in verse 31.

John 5:31-32

Jesus tells us what we already know that if he bears witness about himself then that testimony is not reliable. The bible clearly gives us the principle that there needs to be multiple witnesses to determine the truth of something. If only 1 person were to be a witness then we can’t trust that. This reminds of me of C.S. Lewis when he says that Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. If Jesus only bears witness to him self then he is like the man on the street corner with a sign saying “I am God.” We know he is lunatic and a liar. That's what Jesus is saying after making the claim he is the son of God with Authority given to him from the father. Jesus says if I am the only one who bears witness to me than you can't trust me. This is a statement that should give you confidence we are dealing with someone being rational. But also Jesus is not a regular man because he is fully God and fully man we should accept his individual testimony as being trust worthy. Nebraska calls themselves the beef state priding themselves on the number and quality of cattle raised here but not far away from here Missouri calls themselves the show me state. They pride themselves on not trusting people and for good reason if someone claims to climb mount Everest you would want proof because someone's testimony about themselves should not be believed we require people to show me. We shouldn't expect God to show us but Jesus does any way. In verse 32 he tells of another witness to who he is. A witness that is trustworthy. John the Baptist.

1. John the Baptist is a witness to Jesus. v. 33-35

John 5:33-35

The purpose of John’s Ministry was to be a testimony and witness to the coming Christ. We see this in Malachi 4:5-6 that before day of the Lord comes God will send Elijah. We see in Luke 1:17 that the angel Gabriel tells Zechariah that his son John will go in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord. John the baptist devoted his life to preaching repentance and baptising people preparing the people of Israel for the coming of the Christ. When asked about his ministry John told them that “he is the voice crying out in the wilderness to make straight the way of the Lord” John 1:23 and when pressed John told them that he is not the Christ but one was coming after him who he was not worthy to untie the strap of his Sandal. John 1:27. One who would baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit Luke 3:16 Before Jesus is baptized John declares “behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said after me comes a man who ranks before me” John 1:29-30 John humbly told Jesus that he John should be baptized by jesus not the other way around. Matthew 3:14. John humbled himself saying I am not the Christ but Jesus he is and must Increase and I John must decrease John 3:30. Finally when John is in his last days in prison he sends his followers to Jesus perhaps as a final comfort before he is executed. His disciples ask Jesus are you the one or should we wait for another? I imagine John while sitting in prison telling his disciples go ask Jesus if he is the Messiah. If he tells you he is then it is true. John’s entire life and ministry is devoted to pointing people to Jesus. He stands as a prophetic witness to the Fact that Jesus is God, he is the Messiah, and He will take away sins of those who follow him. In Matthew 11:4-6 Jesus responds to the question of Johns disciples and he does so by pointing to the second witness we are going to discuss today. Jesus tells them to go tell John of the miraculous works they have seen.

Jesus shames the crowd a little bit here he tells them his testimony is not from man but showing that his testimony is from God. Testimony from God should not be dependent on man to be believed. They were given a burning lamp in John the baptist. They were provided a man to be witness to who Jesus was. This was a gift from God that they are given a person to prepare the way. A witness that was trust worthy and while John was around they rejoiced and were happy but now when they are in the presence of the one John was a witness to they want to kill him. In verse 36 Jesus goes on to tell them of a witness greater than John.

2. Jesus' Works are a witness to Jesus. v. 36

John 5:36

Jesus tells the Jews that want to kill him that his miraculous works that he is given by the father to accomplish are a witness to who he is and prove that the father sent him. Jesus when questioned by John’s disciples points them to the miraculous works that he has done. his should not be a strange concept to the jews Jesus is talking to. We see in the Old Testament that the messengers of God and the those sent by God often perform miracles to prove who they are. Moses is given 3 miracles by God to prove he was a messenger from God. in Exodus 4:1-9 He throws his staff down and it becomes a snake then he picks it up and becomes a staff again, he puts his hand in his cloak and it becomes white as snow with leprosy when he puts it back it returns to normal. Finally he takes water from the Nile pours it on the ground and it becomes blood. God explicitly tells Moses of the purpose of these signs in

Exodus 4:5 ““that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.””

God gives Moses these miracles as witness that his message is a message from God. One of my favorite old testament miracles is in 1 Kings 18 when Elijah confronts King Ahab saying how long will you go limping between 2 opinions either God is real or Baal is real follow the one is real. Then he challenges the prophets of Baal to a contest to prove who the real God is. The both build altars and the prophets of Baal scream and wail and cut themselves but their altar doesn’t burn. While Elijah pours water on his altar and the the entire altar is consumed by fire even the stones. proving to King Ahab and all the people that there is only 1 true God.

1 Kings 18:39 “And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.””

Jesus his miracles serve the same purpose the validate his message. Each of the 4 gospels give us miracles over and over and over again that validate his message. The list of miracles that Jesus gives the disciples of John is just sample but they all speak to Jesus’ power and authority.

Matthew 11:4–6 “And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”

This continues after Jesus in Act with Paul and Peter both demonstrating amazing miracles including the raising of the dead to verify their message is from God. All of these miracles are a witnesses that the messenger is from God. Jesus continues in verse 37 to tell how even the father directly bears witness to Jesus.

3. The Father is a witness to Jesus. v37-38

John 5:37-38

These verses made me take a step back and really think about what Jesus is saying here. Because we know of Jesus’ baptism. This event is recorded for us in all 4 Gospels and in all 4 Gospels the Father says that Jesus is his Son. In all 4 also the Holy Spirit descends from heaven like a dove and rests on Jesus. So we have the explicit voice of God saying that Jesus is his son in connection to the witness of John the Baptist. But then why does Jesus in verse 37 that they have never heard the fathers voice or seen his form. This is what confused me. But this is why its important to look at the context of the passage. Jesus is speaking to a group of Jews who are wanting to kill him. Though his disciples are present for this He is not speaking to them. This crowd of Jews based on the context is comprised of people who were not present at the baptism of Jesus and therefore they did not hear the fathers voice. Calvin in his commentary on the Gospel of John states that if we limit Jesus statement to only mean the hearing of the fathers voice at the baptism would be a mistake. Because the father testified about the coming of Christ to his people through out history and we explore that more here in a minute. When Jesus says that they haven’t heard the fathers voice or seen his form he is using metaphorical language to criticizing them for not recognizing that Jesus is God. In verse 38 he continues that saying that you don’t have the word of God abiding in you and because of that you don't believe in the one the father has sent. Jesus is saying that if you had the word of God written on your heart then you would recognize that he is the messiah who the Father had been telling them about since the beginning. That I believes makes us ask a question for us today how do I hear the Fathers voice today? How do I have his word abide in me? How do I write it on my heart? Well we have word of God written down translated into English and easy to access in the Bible. As Justin Peters says “If you want to hear God speak read your bible if you want to hear him audibly, read your bible out loud.” That brings us to our last witness Jesus gives the Scriptures

4. Scriptures are a witness to Jesus. v39-47

John 5:39

Jesus tells us that scriptures provide a witness to who he is. I truely believe this is one of the greatest light bulb moments in the life of the believer when you realize how the Old Testament screams to us of Jesus Christ. Its hard to think of anything more exciting to me than the realization that the Old testament is not just stories its not just telling us about the Jewish people but its constantly pointing us to the fact that there is a messiah a anointed one a savior who would come. When the messiah came he would take away the sins of the world. This was the promise to Abraham that all the nations would be blessed through his offspring. Then the prophets gave the people what to look for so they could identify the messiah when he came. I got a suggested video awhile back and it was an older recorded testimony of man named Stan Telchin.

Stan was an orthodox Jew his parents immigrated from Russia in the 1900s. He described his family like fiddler on the roof. When Stan was 50 years old his daughter went off to college and became a Christian and she reached out to Stan and asked him to read the Bible and help her because she was convinced in her mind that Jesus was their messiah. So stand said he sat down and read Matthew in the first night and by the end of the 1st week had read all the gospels and Acts. He began to have questions of his own and decided to fully devote him self to the reading the scriptures. He said I knew the prayer book, I knew parts of the Talmud but I didn't know the scriptures. So Stan took a leave of absence from the businesses he owned and fully devoted himself to study. He asked questions to his Rabbi and the Rabbi admitted he knew the Talmud but he nothing of the messiah and the soul. Stan found a group of Christians that he could talk to and ask questions.

One day he was challenged to read the Old Testament specifically Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Jeremiah 31, and Daniel 9. So Stan left and started to read and said he felt safe because as a orthodox Jew he was in quote “our side of the bible”. “Psalm 22 and as I'm reading my eyes fill with tears because I can see him hanging on a tree and I didn't expect to see him there I'd never read Psalm 22 in my life and then I went to Isaiah 53 which I had never read in my life and now the tears that were behind my eyes flowed from my eyes because not only could I see him but I could understand why he was on that tree why he was killed he was punished for us our sins were placed upon him and he was crushed in our stead and I just wept I just wept and wept and wept I felt terrible uh how come I was 50 years of age I've been going to synagogue all my life how come we never read Psalm 22 or Isaiah 53 and then I turn to Jeremiah 31 and at verse 31 I I read an amazing statement Jeremiah 31:31 in our side of the Bible says the go God says lo the day is coming when I will enter into a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah a New Covenant God's promising to us Jewish people a New Covenant.” Then he read Daniel 9:25-27 and he made a realization

“I knew that the temple had been destroyed in the year 70 I knew that emperor that that General Titus was the Roman general who destroyed the city and he was the son of emperor of Vespasian therefore Titus was a prince and if I only had stopped there I would have been safe Jerusalem shall be destroyed and the temple by the prince who shall come but there was a fourth part the fourth part says these things will happen after the Messiah is cut off which said to me that either this book that I've been reading these scriptures the Hebrew scriptures are nothing more than the story of the Jewish people or the Messiah came before the year 70 ah I was in shock how can this be how can this be I don't want to believe this I can't believe this” Through reading the Old Testament Stan was forced to say either the Hebrew Scriptures is not true or Jesus is the messiah.

This is what Jesus is trying to make this group of Jews realize when he says in verses 40-47

John 5:40-47

Jesus tells these Jews if they believed Moses that is to say that if they believed Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy was true then they would know that Jesus is the messiah. The would believe Jesus when he told them that eternal life would be found in him. They only needed to read the scriptures like stan and they would realize that the scriptures were a witness to Jesus. Just like John the Baptist, Just like the miracles of Jesus, Just like the Father himself, all of them witness to who Jesus is the messiah. But they don’t and if they do they can’t see the truth Paul understood this 2 Corinthians 3:14 “But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.”

When you hear the testimony of these witnesses to Jesus what are we to do about that? what is our responsibility after hearing this? We have to put our faith and hope and trust in Jesus Christ. We are to be the Jurors and look at the overwhelming strength of the testimony and place out faith in Jesus Christ as our savior and lord. That bring us to our final point.

5. Faith is rooted in the testimony of witnesses.

Faith is rooted in Jesus Christ. There seems to be an idea in the culture that faith is based in nothing or pure hope. Because when Christians talk about their faith non believers think that we are like children believing fairy tales believing in things that are untrue purely because we wish that it was true. While we are instructed to have faith like child our faith is not baseless our faith is not with out good witnesses. i want to give you 2 scriptures to prove to you that our faith is based on strong witnesses. First

Luke 1:1–4 “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.”

Luke at the beginning of his Gospel sets out and says that he wrote an orderly account based on the testimony of eye witnesses so that we may have certainty that the things we have been taught are true. Luke tells us that the whole point of his Gospel is that we can know that things we are taught about the life death and resurrection are true and based on eye witness accounts.

The second verse for your consideration.

2 Peter 1:16–19 “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,”

Peter tells us that we don’t follow children's fairy tales this is not clever fiction and myth but we believe based on the people who were eyewitnesses to Jesus’ majesty. He goes on to say that they were there when the Father’s voice from heaven bore witness to him and said “this is my son with whom I am well pleased.” You may still doubt me and say that's great and all but all that comes from the bible isn’t that all just 1 source. You are still just trusting the bible. I understand that criticism I hold the bible up and talk about it. I believe that it is the word of God and God’s word is perfect and infallible. So if you don’t believe that you think that I am just following a well contrived myth and a single witness. But I want to give 1 challenge to you. Because the bible is not 1 book its 66 written by roughly 40 different authors in 3 languages. written in a period of 1500 years.

The testimony of the Bible is that God created the world and created Man and Woman. Adam and Eve and they walked with God in the garden until the disobeyed his commands. When they did that sin entered the world. Sin is when we disobey God and we go against his commands. We all sin everyone of us me included. Paul called himself the chief of sinners. That sin causes us to be separated from God and our your my sin puts at odds with God and earn us death. But we have good news 4 witnesses called the Gospels that directly about the birth life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In His birth Jesus showed us he was God become flesh, in his life we see Jesus live a perfect life without sin keeping the law perfectly. a life we are incapable of living. Jesus humbled himself and offered himself as payment for our sins so that we may be counted as righteous. Then he conquered death being raised back to life. Offering life to all who believe in him with faith. He told us he is coming back again. To judge the world and reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That is why we can sing this great Hymn. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame But wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness veils his lovely face I rest on His unchanging grace In every high and stormy gale My anchor holds within the veil His oath, his covenant, his blood Supports me in the 'whelming flood When all around my soul gives way He then is all my hope and stay When He shall come with trumpet sound Oh may I then in Him be found Dressed in his righteousness alone Faultless to stand before the throne.

I pray that you can sing that Hymn knowing you are secure in Jesus 100% sure what will happen on the day you die. If not please come speak with me afterword's and I would to share with you more about how you can be confident that in Jesus your sins are covered and you will inherit eternal life. If you are believer I pray that you have seen how Jesus pointed us to the 4 witnesses that speak about who he is. John the Baptist, His own Miracles, the Father himself, and the Scriptures. Then finally you pray you know that your faith is not built on well devised myths or legends but your faith is firmly built on the witnesses to Christ recorded for us in the scriptures.