Witnesses of the Gospel

In the early verses of we have read how Jesus performs a miracle on the Sabbath day, and then makes some remarkable claims that the Jews considered blasphemous, further enraging them. Jesus’ response to their anger by clearly pointing out to them that he is equal with God the Father and has the power to give life and the authority to judge all men. Jesus has made his case, and now he is going to call witnesses to testify.

15 “One witness cannot establish any iniquity or sin against a person, whatever that person has done. A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Jesus knew the hearts of these men, he also knew that they knew the Law of Moses very well. His opening words in vv.31-32 reveal the standard for a verifiable testimony. states, “A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” Jesus is going to make clear that he is not the only witness to his claims. The word witness is a key word in the gospel of John as well as the book of Acts. In John’s gospel you will find the word used 47 times.

Who are these witnesses? First let’s look at verse 33-35

I. The Testimony of John the Baptist

John testified to the truth of who Jesus is. In we read John saying, “Here is the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

The Impact of Human Testimony

These very men who are now questioning Jesus had sent an investigative panel to interview John the Baptist. They even rejoiced initially at John’s testimony, yet it did not last. There are many today who get caught up in the celebrity of a preacher or teacher and yet at the end of the day they never submitted to the authority of what was being taught. These religious leaders of Jesus’ day were like this. Following Jesus, as we will see, was a mixed multitude…those who were truly following him by seeking to obey his teaching, and others who were simply swept up into the celebrity-like excitement of a moment. No root = No fruit. No root = No endurance.

The imagery of John as a burning and a shining lamp should be a reminder to us that we should burn brightly and shine for Jesus to testify and witness for him. Pointing people to him, the God-man, the Savior of the World.

Salvation is not Dependent on Human Testimony

The imagery of John as a burning and a shining lamp should be a reminder to us that we should burn brightly and shine for Jesus to testify and witness for him. Pointing people to him, the God-man, the Savior of the World.

We should be declaring that Jesus is Lord.

Jesus makes clear in verse 34 that human testimony is not a requirement for God to verify the deity of Jesus. He is God whether we affirm his claims or not. So he calls another witness to testify:

II. The Testimony of HIs Miracles (vv.35-36)

“the works that the Father has given me...” and “These very works I am doing testify that the Father has sent me.”

Remember, in the gospel of John there are seven “signs” or miracles that John includes to prove that Jesus is the Son of God. We have already read about:

1 - Turning the Water into Wine ()

2 - The Healing of the Official’s Son ()

3 - The Lame Man at the Pool of Bethesda ()

As we move into , we will see two more signs, the feeding of the multitude and walking on water. Later, Jesus would heal a blind man and then in the seventh sign he would raise Lazarus from the dead. All of these miracles are pointing us to the fact that Jesus is God and this would culminate in his victorious resurrection from the dead.

We also need to remember the words of , “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,,c and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Jesus did not perform these signs or miracles to just simply be kind to people…these miracles were performed so that people would believe and have faith in Jesus.

Here is the reality, when people seek a sign though, they are seeking the wrong thing…Jesus himself stated that an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. Yet the other fact is that Jesus is still performing miracles today. I am a walking testimony of the miracle working power of Jesus. If you have been saved by Jesus, you have experienced the miracle of new life. You have experienced resurrection power. Jesus changed things and changed people. Sight to the blind, mobility to the lame, cleansing for the diseased, life to the dead. These are miracles he still performs today. I once was blind, but now I see. Like a leper, my sin disease wrecked my life, but in Jesus I find cleansing, forgiveness and power to overcome sin. I could not go to where he was, but he drew me and convicted me and moved me to trust Him.

Jesus is saying that the miracle he is performing verify he is who he says he is. When you see me, you see the Father. When you hear me, you hear the Father. Likewise, the works of Jesus are the works of the Father.

Nicodemus even stated in that the works Jesus was doing could only be done by someone sent by God.

These signs, miracles or works Jesus was performing were predicted in , “ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy, for water will gush in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.”

5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,

The last witness Jesus calls is:

and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

III. The Testimony of God’s Word (vv.37-47)

states, “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,

There is power in the word of God. He pierces our very being and performs divine surgery on our heart. Yet some people do not believe the word of God. Or others fail to receive the witness of God’s word due to a faulty approach to the bible. Jesus’ words here to the Pharisees concern the Father’s witness of who Jesus is by his word. We read of the Father’s testimony in:

, “When all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized. As he was praying, heaven opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in a physical appearance like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.’”

, “For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!’ We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.”

and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy,

12 For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Yet Jesus makes clear that Moses talked about him. Verse 46, “he wrote about me.” Moses stands as a witness here against the religious leaders. The very books of the Law (Moses) the Prophets and the writings that the religious crowd pored over spoke of Jesus and yet they rejected him. As Isaiah prophesied, “He came unto his own and his own did not receive him.”

The Jews held the words of the Torah in high esteem, in fact their scribes gave each Hebrew letter and word a numerical equivalent. Therefore each line of text formed a mathematical equation. They numbered each center letter of each line of text, the center letter in each book, and the center letter in the Old Testament.

When scribes would make copies of the scriptures, they would look at the text, write one letter, then look back to the text they were copying and repeat until the whole text was copied. Now this fact is a wonderful fact, because of this practice we have incredibly accurate manuscripts from which to translate the bible into English and other languages. Yet the focus was skewed. They believed that by memorizing the bible you had salvation…that in a sense, the word of God saved them. Note again Jesus’ words in verse 39, “You pore over the scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them...”

What they needed was to:

for water will gush in the wilderness,

Going beyond Paper and Ink (vv.39-40, 46-47)

Imagine that you are staying in a beautiful cabin on a mountain looking out a window at the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains. You are standing there at sunset, and the sun is setting over the mountains and the beauty is breathtaking. You are soaking it all in when another person comes beside you and taps you on the shoulder and says, “Wow! What a beautiful window!” Look at how wonderfully it is set in the house and how intricate the trim-work is. Look at how clear this glass is! This person then takes out a tool and cuts at the glass to get a sample of it. He looks at you and says, “I am going to take this to my lab and do a chemical analysis to see what this window is made of. If you will let me have your number I will get back to you and explain how it all works.” You would say to yourself that this person has missed the point of the window and that they really do not understand what they are missing. The window was made to allow a view into the beauty of the surrounding mountains and the sunset. The bible is a window to show us the beauty of Christ. We do need to study the bible carefully, but it should never be the object of our worship nor the source of our salvation - it points us to Jesus - it is the window that reveals the source of life to us.

, “On the first Easter afternoon, Jesus joined a couple of disciples walking from Jerusalem toward Emmaus. They didn’t recognize Jesus. He asked them why they were so sad. They said, “We had hoped that Jesus of Nazareth would prove to be the Messiah, but sadly, three days ago, He died on the cross.” The Bible says: Jesus said to them, “‘How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures.”

But what we do have in the bible are over sixty Old Testament prophecies that provide details about the Jewish Messiah, and only one individual has ever lived who has fulfilled all of them—Jesus of Nazareth. This is convincing proof. That is compelling and convincing testimony.

What is the primary purpose of scripture? To point people to Jesus Christ. The bible isn’t primarily about you or what you need to do be doing, it is about God and what he has done. The bible isn’t primarily about human heroes and their stories, it is about Jesus Christ and His story of how he came to rescue people from their sin. He is the hero who rescues all who will come to him in faith.

James Boice states,

Warren Wiersbe in his commentary writes about the letters he would receive from people who disagreed with him on a point of interpretation or application from scripture and he says that:

“sometimes these letters are quite angry. (I will not quote here the language I have seen in letters from professed Christians!) It is unfortunate when our “study” of the Bible makes us arrogant and militant instead of humble and anxious to serve others, even those who disagree with us. The mark of true Bible study is not knowledge that puffs up, but love that builds up ()”

“Take care that thy faith is of the right kind—that it is not a mere belief of doctrine, but a simple faith, depending on Christ, and on Christ alone.We must immerse ourselves in the bible as God’s people. But we must go beyond paper and ink and see Christ.” - Spurgeon

It is possible to revere the bible as a holy book and yet ignore it. It is also possible to revere the bible and pore over its every detail and still miss Jesus, just like the religious people of Jesus day did. They sought personal glory from each other based on their knowledge of the bible and attention to detail. A church likewise must be committed to Christ and not personal preferences or an extreme focus on issues of secondary concern.

“sometimes these letters are quite angry. (I will not quote here the language I have seen in letters from professed Christians!) It is unfortunate when our “study” of the Bible makes us arrogant and militant instead of humble and anxious to serve others, even those who disagree with us. The mark of true Bible study is not knowledge that puffs up, but love that builds up ()”

, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

“Take care that thy faith is of the right kind—that it is not a mere belief of doctrine, but a simple faith, depending on Christ, and on Christ alone.We must immerse ourselves in the bible as God’s people. But we must go beyond paper and ink and see Christ.” - Spurgeon

We must immerse ourselves in the bible as God’s people. But we must go beyond paper and ink and see Christ.

Take care that thy faith is of the right kind—that it is not a mere belief of doctrine, but a simple faith, depending on Christ, and on Christ alone.We must immerse ourselves in the bible as God’s people. But we must go beyond paper and ink and see Christ.

, “On the first Easter afternoon, Jesus joined a couple of disciples walking from Jerusalem toward Emmaus. They didn’t recognize Jesus. He asked them why they were so sad. They said, “We had hoped that Jesus of Nazareth would prove to be the Messiah, but sadly, three days ago, He died on the cross.” The Bible says: Jesus said to them, “‘How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures.”

and streams in the desert;

If you place your hope in anything other than the finished work of Christ on the cross for your sin you will suffer judgment. The terrible verdict here is related in verse 40, “But you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life..”

When you come to faith in Christ alone you receive life. When you reject him you will face the judgment of eternal death and remain lost and without hope in this world. The sad commentary on these men who rejected Jesus is that they loved the glory of men more than obedience to God. They refused to humble themselves. Make no mistake about it, your pride will send you straight to hell. You must humble yourself and recognize your need by admitting your life is messed up and sin has broken and enslaved you and that Jesus Christ is the only one who can restore and forgive you. Will you believe in Him? Will you follow Him?

But what we do have in the bible are over sixty Old Testament prophecies that provide details about the Jewish Messiah, and only one individual has ever lived who has fulfilled all of them—Jesus of Nazareth. This is convincing proof. That is compelling and convincing testimony.