2/17: The Fourfold Witness
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31 “If I testify about Myself, My testimony is not valid. 32 There is Another who testifies about Me, and I know that the testimony He gives about Me is valid. 33 You have sent messengers to John, and he has testified to the truth. 34 I don’t receive man’s testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 John was a burning and shining lamp, and for a time you were willing to enjoy his light.
36 “But I have a greater testimony than John’s because of the works that the Father has given Me to accomplish. These very works I am doing testify about Me that the Father has sent Me. 37 The Father who sent Me has Himself testified about Me. You have not heard His voice at any time, and you haven’t seen His form. 38 You don’t have His word living in you, because you don’t believe the One He sent. 39 You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, yet they testify about Me. 40 And you are not willing to come to Me so that you may have life.
41 “I do not accept glory from men, 42 but I know you—that you have no love for God within you. 43 I have come in My Father’s name, yet you don’t accept Me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe? While accepting glory from one another, you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God. 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me. 47 But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
POLYCARP, Bishop of Smyrna, was a disciple of St. John. He wrote to the Philippians, exhorting them to mutual love and to hatred of heresy. When the apostate Marcion met St. Polycarp at Rome, he asked the aged saint if he knew him. “Yes,” Polycarp answered, “I know you for the firstborn of Satan.”
These were the words of a saint most loving and most charitable, and specially noted for his compassion to sinners. He hated heresy because he loved God and man so much. In 167, persecution broke out in Smyrna. When Polycarp heard that his pursuers were at the door, he said, “The will of God be done;” and meeting them, he begged to be left alone for a little time, which he spent in prayer for “the [universal] Church throughout the world.”
When the proconsul besought him to curse Christ and go free, Polycarp answered, “Eighty-six years I have served Him, and He never did me wrong; how can I blaspheme my King and Saviour?” When he threatened him with fire, Polycarp told him this fire of his lasted but a little, while the fire prepared for the wicked lasted forever. At the stake he thanked God aloud for letting him drink of Christ’s chalice.
The fire was lighted, but it did him no hurt; so he was stabbed to the heart, and his dead body was burnt. “Then,” say the writers of the Acts, “we took up the bones, more precious than the richest jewels or gold, and deposited them in a fitting place, at which may God grant us to assemble with joy to celebrate the birthday of the martyr to his life in heaven!”
Just for some context, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was performing miracles and signs on the Sabbath. And we get some insight from John that the persecution is ramping up.
17 But Jesus responded to them, “My Father is still working, and I am working also.” 18 This is why the Jews began trying 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.
And this was a capital offense! It was not necessarily strong footing to oppose a person for doing good. They knew that. The people would be on Jesus’ side. Already, Jesus’ name is being known all over and they are coming to him for signs and healings and to hear the words he speaks. And so for those reasons, they may have exercised a bit of restraint. However, by calling God His Father, they understood what Jesus was saying. And they knew that the association he was making to God was not in any way implying that Jesus is related to God or that he was created by God. They understood that Jesus was saying that he was equal to God.
Now there was really only two ways which they would react to this statement. Only two.
Believe him. This really is the most astounding news in the whole world. The Jews knew that there was only one God. So to claim power and status equal to that of God, you were in essence saying that you are God. And so really, what could be a more life altering statement. Truly we can all think of times in our lives when our lives have forever been changed. You receive a long awaited letter from the college you had dreamed of attending. You wait nervously and anxiously for the call from the job that you applied to. Maybe you ask your significant other to marry you. The three words from the doctor, it’s a _boy/girl__. These are short simple statements that convey with clarity life changing news, some with greater degree than other.
But think to yourself for a moment, is anything more significant that hearing from a person that they are God. Like truly God. I am not talking about the petty or conceited statements that sometimes can be attributed to someone stating that they are God-like, I am talking about someone claiming that they are truly God. If they are telling the truth, then what other news could be greater?
So if the first response is to believe him, the second is obviously to reject him. There is no middle ground. In evangelism, that is essentially what you do. You are bringing a person to have to come face to face with the person of Jesus. And so, if they do not accept him, they are rejecting him. Some may like to claim that they are in the middle. That they are still mulling it over but the truth is that there is no middle ground. On the day of judgment, you have no case to present to God. You cannot say well I was in the middle, I did not truly reject the Son, I was still thinking it over and God if you had given me 10 more days on earth well then I would have believed.
20 For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.
No, you will be without excuse. You had sufficient testimony about the Son. And will have no excuse to deny even the existence of God.
And how do the Jews react? They harden their hearts and they look for ways to kill him. They reject him. And if we are honest, they are a lot like you and I. Aren’t they? How many of us know that Jesus is God? How many of us live like that? Given the commands that God has given to each and everyone of us, do we live as though they are truly coming from God? Or…do we try and forget?
The problem I see is that in the church today, people have lost this sense of awe and wonder. You have come to have an encounter with God! Unlike that of Abraham, or Moses, or the disciples, or Paul for sure. But true believers have and what is striking is that many have been lulled to sleep. Why are you asleep? God commands, not suggests, he is not a wimp, He is Lord and He commands us to live as holy people.
And we have to respond! There are only two responses, faith or disbelief.
And how can we believe? Jesus speaks of the four witnesses who testify to who he is. Jesus is not telling the people, “just trust me, what could go wrong?”
31 “If I testify about Myself, My testimony is not valid.
No, instead he points to four witnesses that point to who He is.
John the Baptist
Jesus’ signs
God the Father
The Scriptures
vs 33-35: John the Baptist. None of the Jewish leaders could deny that John was a prophet of God. And one of the proclamations that John made was about Jesus. The Lamb of God. Even when a dispute was brought to John about the crowds going to Jesus, you will recall in chapter 3, he was pointing people still to the fact he is not the Messiah, but that he was preparing the way for the Messiah. And in vs 30 “he must increase, but I must decrease.” He is saying Jesus is the Messiah.
vs 36: But not just his testimony. Even greater than that look at the signs I perform. Jesus was not doing magic tricks or illusions. The signs that Jesus performed were very real. Last week, we read even of one of the signs of Jesus when he took that poor crippled man of 39 years and immediately healed him. And even greater signs will be done by him in raising the dead. They show that Jesus is no ordinary person. He is God! The signs if you will remember always point to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God.
vs 37: But eve greater than His signs, you have the testimony of God himself! How did God speak to them? From their Scriptures. These people were reading it studiously. They were seeking in it how to find life and all this time it was testifying about Jesus and they had missed it! God was speaking to them and pointing them to Jesus, and they have him right in front of them, speaking with them, walking with them, teaching them, laughing with them, rebuking them and still they did not believe. How sad is that!
There really lies the tragedy of it all. They had spent their lives poring over the Scriptures and they missed the whole point. It’s like watching Romeo and Juliet and thinking that the moral of the lesson is that you should not drink poison. They are missing the point. They were so busy nit picking all of the laws, confronting Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath that they missed Christ!
And it is a tragedy that this still happens today. Many will read the Scriptures and come away from it thinking it is a historical book or a moral guide when it is pointing the way of salvation. You see, while I am urging each and everyone of you to holiness, it would be tragic for you to think that some level of morality would be enough for salvation. No, you cannot even begin to contemplate on holiness, until you have met the Holy One!
On the day of judgment you will not stand before eternal scales that will weigh out your good and your bad before you and if your good outweighs your bad you will be fine. Not at all. If you do not believe in the Son, you stand without hope.
And Jesus gives very strong words to the people confronting him “But if you don’t believe [Moses] writings, how will you believe My words?” And that really is it for us.
Do you believe the words of Jesus? First, in speaking about who he is. And secondly, in what he expects of those who are truly born again.
Confidence- He is God. We are not those who are without hope.
13 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 14 Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.
Conviction- We are moved and compelled to tell the world about this truth.
Conduct- Trusting in who he is, we can stand like those before us.
39 All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us.