What More Could I Have Done!

John 5:40 KJV 1900

40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

A we come to the close of the discourse by the pool at Bethesda - Jesus reviews with all the Jews and scribes what God has done to point to Christ as the:

Savior

Messiah

Redeemer

The evidence is over whelming

The love of God was so evident here as to what God had done to reveal himself to the people ....

Illustration - given opportunity but reject it .....

A Dog Animal - to be freed from flood water

a mans hand - given

A large pole was extended

A new was extended

A chain of people was connected

The dog would not accept and eventually fell into the flood waters

What more could have been done!

Jesus in this text is describing what has been done to reveal himself as the redeemer and savior ...

What more could have been done....

more here

Isaiah 5:1–4 KJV 1900

1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, And planted it with the choicest vine, And built a tower in the midst of it, And also made a winepress therein: And he looked that it should bring forth grapes, And it brought forth wild grapes. 3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, Judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, That I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, Brought it forth wild grapes?

Romans 1:20 KJV 1900

20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

What More could I have done

I. I Sent A Person

John 5:33–35 KJV 1900

33 Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. 34 But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved. 35 He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.

Having introduced the greatest of all witnesses, His Father, the Lord then turned to the testimony of John. He reminded the unbelieving Jews that they sent men to John to hear what he had to say, and John’s testimony was all about the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of pointing men to himself, he pointed them to the Savior. He bore witness to the One who is the truth.

But He introduced the testimony of John the Baptist since he was a man sent from God and since he testified that the Lord Jesus was indeed the Messiah and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Then He added, “But I say these things that you may be saved.” Why was the Lord Jesus speaking to the Jews at such great length?

Was He simply trying to show that He was right and that they were wrong?

On the contrary, He was bringing before them these wonderful truths in order that they might realize who He was and accept Him as the promised Savior.

This verse gives us a clear view of the loving and tender heart of the Lord Jesus. He spoke to those who hated Him and who would soon be seeking in every possible way to take His life. But there was no hatred in His heart toward them. He could only love them.

I sent you a person

You ignored him

You may have listened to him for a while

But ultimately you rejected what he said

My Life:

testimony as a teen

Tim Tebow’s dad in the locker room

A invite to a revival

An engineering student at Auburn

An evangelist at Haley Center

A mom

A dad

How many more people does God have to put in your path?

vs 35 - why would you accept him so warmly at first but ultimately reject him.

II. I Solved a Problem

John 5:36 KJV 1900

36 But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.

The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.” John uses the expression “the works” in his gospel to depict both the natural and the supernatural in the life of Christ—all ministered to the same end of demonstrating deity in humanity.

The “many works” of Jesus (7:3; 9:3; 10:25, 32, 37; 14:10; 15:24) were all part of the one “work” he had come to do. All added up to an impressive proof that he had been sent into this world by the Father, not just born into this world like other people.

So many and so varied were the works of the Lord Jesus, exhibiting his divine power over the elements, over inanimate objects and the ordinary forces of nature, over demons and disease, even over death itself, that unbelief was wholly without excuse.[1]

I sent you a problem

No food on the sea shore - I fed 5,000

I healed the blind

I made the lame to walk - the pool at Bethesda

The dead were raised - Lazarus, widows son, Jirus’s Daughter

I made the def to hear

The casting out of daemons

God put a problem in you life you cried and prayed and he answered ...

Then later you just say so what ...

more here

illustration - in hospital

marriage

depression

God put a problem in your life to reveal himself.

III. I Gave a Proclamation

John 5:37–38 KJV 1900

37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. 38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.

I sent you a proclamation - His Word

My Word does not abide in you .....

I gave you something and you just gave it lip service.

It really does not affect you not do you believe it.

Illustration -

lip service

LIPSERVICE: Lip-service means saying “YES” with your mouth but saying “NO” in your heart and by your actions. It is honouring God with your lips when your heart is far from him.

They said they believe the prophets and OT Scriptures but do not practice what it says ..

Money

I believe we should live on a budget

We should stay out of debt

We should tithe 10% to church

We should plan for the future.

Failing to plan is planing-to fail

God is in charge of y finances

Lip service

Bing on vacation

dont have time to write a budget

Dont have discipline to follow a budget

The credit card is the emergency fund

I can tithe because i have all theses bills

See they say they believe in budgeting and living according to their means but they just give lip service.

The unbelieving Jews had neither heard the voice of God at any time, nor seen His form.

This was because they did not have His word abiding in them.

God speaks to men through His Word, the Bible. These Jews had the OT Scriptures, but they did not allow God to speak to them through the Scriptures. Their hearts were hardened, and their ears were dull of hearing.

They had never seen God’s Form or Person because they did not believe on the One whom God had sent.

God the Father does not have a Form or Shape that is visible to mortal eyes. He is Spirit and therefore invisible.

I gave you my word!

You know its the but it has no impact on you because you do not allow it to change your life...

The spirit speaks through-the word....

1 Corinthians 2:14 KJV 1900

14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The word speaks to us God has given it to us .....

Romans 8:26 KJV 1900

26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

To believe the word requires the spirit of God to work in you ...

more her and an illustration ......

These religious rulers of the Jews, so smug and complacent in their rites and rituals, feasts and fasts, sacrifices and sabbaths, traditions and teachings, so distorted and disbelieved the Bible that they were strangers to the truth of God: the truth embodied in Christ.

God’s word did not abide in them. Had they been really acquainted with all that the prophets had spoken (Luke 24:25–27) they would readily have recognized Jesus. But “whom [the Father] hath sent, him ye believe not.”

I gave you my word and you did not believe it.

IV. I Sent a Prophet

John 5:39–47 KJV 1900

39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. 41 I receive not honour from men. 42 But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. 43 I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. 44 How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. 46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. 47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

I gave you preacher, prophets that gave out the truth .

vs 39 - just procession of the scriptures does not give eternal life.

The OT scriptures tell of the coming messiah and its Jesus ...

The main subject of the OT is the coming of the messiah if you miss that you miss it all.

I gave you messengers - Moses

Jeremiah 35:15 KJV 1900

15 I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me.

Jeremiah 44:4 KJV 1900

4 Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.

2 Chronicles 36:15–16 KJV 1900

15 And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: 16 But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.

You say you believe in Moses … if you did you would believe me ...

Look at all the pastors that I have sent your way

All the sermons

All the revival messages

All the SS teachers from a child

All the AWANA workers

What more could I have done?