The Witnesses-Part II

John 5:32-47

Introduction:

Jesus Christ is either who He said that He was or He is a liar, those are the only two choices that people have. If there is ever a doubt in anyone’s mind as to the veracity of the claims of Christ’s deity, they should be laid to rest. As I said last week to you, the words and the testimony of Christ are enough for the believer, but it will not be and has never been enough for the unbeliever. And Christ realizes this and that it why He said what He said in verse 31. He knew that His own words would not be enough for the unbelieving Jews, so brought in some witnesses, other than Himself, that gives evidence of the facts. In a court of law, when a jury is faced with a case of either acquit or convict, there must be what is called “the preponderance of the evidence”, in other words there must be little to no doubt, based on facts, as to why I came to the conclusion.

That is what Christ is doing here with these Jews. He gives them something better than “the preponderance of the evidence”; He gives them the immutable, omnipotent, sovereign testimony of His works, the Father, and the Scripture. He goes beyond the well meaning testimony of John to the fact that the Father speaks to the facts of His deity, The works that He has performed speak to the fact of His deity, and the Holy Scriptures speak to the facts of His deity. This is a fascinating passage and every believer, upon careful study of this text, should be able to defend the deity of Christ because there is undeniable evidence to the facts of His deity, notice:

I. The Finished Works (vs.36)

Now secondly the testimony of the finished works, verse 36. Christ says I'm going to bring another witness in here to show you that I'm God and this one's even greater than John. Verse 36, "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."

You know what Christ said? John's testimony is fine. You know what's more effective than John's testimony, Christ says? My own life and works. The glorious life and works of Christ speak of His deity. Nicodemus came to Jesus in John 3:2 and said, "We know that Thou art a man sent from God because nobody can do the things that Thou doest except...what?...God sent Him." He was sent by God. You can't do the things Jesus did and not come from God. Nicodemus recognized that. It's all over John's gospel. Over in chapter 10, over in chapter 14, again and again and again he says His works declare who He is. Start looking at the life of Christ, you can't help but see that He's God.

But not everybody does. Isn't it amazing? Not everybody does. I meet people all the time with their little books announcing to the world that Christ is not God. Blasphemy. Listen, you see Him create wine and then tell me He's not God. You see Him heal from a distance of 20 miles somebody that He's never seen with a visible eye and then tell me He's not God. You see Him speak to a man 38 years impotent, tell that man rise up, take up your bed and walk, and the man does it and then tell me He's a man. You hear Him call the dead to life as they come out of the graves and then tell me that's not deity. You see Him touch deaf ears so that where there was never hearing there's crystal-clear sound and tell me that's not God. You see Him touch blind eyes so that they see in complete focus, leper's skin so that it becomes pure and then tell me that's not God. You watch Him take a handful of loaves and a couple of fishes and feed approximately 15,000 people and then tell me He's not God. See His feet as they touch the troubled waters of the Galilee Sea and He walks undisturbed across its waves and then tell me He's not God. On second thought, don't tell me, I won't believe it, the incomparable Christ, the Son of the living God is so obvious you have to be blind and that's exactly what men are not to see it.

Notice in verse 36 an important word, and there are so many key words in the Bible. The word "given" in the middle of verse 36, it says, "The Father hath given Me to finish certain works." Now does this mean that Christ didn't have the ability to do them until God gave Him the ability? No, we talked about this last week, here's just a refresher. When Christ was with God in heaven in eternity past He was equal, right? In every way. In Philippians 2, "He thought it not robbery or something to hold onto to be equal with God," totally equal. "But He stripped Himself and gave it all up and became one of us." When Christ came to earth He set aside all of His attributes, set them aside, all of them. Then in effect He said this, "God, I'll only use the ones that You give Me to use." He restricted Himself in humility to the operation of subordination to God. That's what His humility was. He said, "God, I'll only use the ones You want Me to use." So here you have that right here. The Father has given back to Me some of My own powers to do some things that He wants Me to do.

It wasn't that He was not omnipotent, what did He say when He was standing right there in the garden and He said, "If I wanted to I could call 40 legions of angels," right? Why didn't He? Cause the Father hadn't given Him to do that. He could have done anything but He didn't because He restricted Himself to that operation of the divine will of the Father. And so God gave Him certain works to do. You remember His works, we've just gone over them; the healing, the walking on water, the feeding the multitude, the touching of the lives of people, all the works of Christ. You can't look at those and not conclude that He wasn't the Son of God. And then over in John 17:4, I just love this, He was praying that glorious prayer. He says, "I'm done, Father, I'm ready to come back." He did the works God gave Him to do; the works of Jesus Christ are testimony to who He is.

Think of His resurrection, fantastic miracle. It always amazes me when some pea brain character comes along and says, "Well He didn't rise, the disciples stole His body." Sure. When He died they scattered all over the place, eleven disorganized, crying, weeping, lost individuals tiptoeing through the whole Roman army, rolling away the stone and stealing the body. And then after they stole the body eleven out of twelve of them went out and died as martyrs for a stolen body. Sounds to me like a band of half wits to pull something like that. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Everything in the world gives evidence of it. Most of all the empty tomb. See the works of Christ and tell me He's not God, I don't believe it.

II. The Father’s Words (vs. 37-38)

Verse 32 connectes with 37, verse 32, "There's another that beareth witness of Me, besides Myself, and I know that the witness which He witness of Me is true." Now verse 37, "And the Father Himself who has sent Me hath borne witness of Me." In other words, He is saying here God Himself, His own word. Now I'm not talking about Scripture here, but God's word bears witness.

You say, "Well what is God's word if it isn't Scripture?" Oh, here's a fabulous truth. I really got blessed on this one. He says the Father word witnesses as to who I am. You say, "What is this?" Listen, this is conditional. Look at verse 37 in the middle, He says to these Jews, "You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His shape and you have not His word abiding in you." Ouch! Oh, what a shot to the hearts of legalists who made their boasts in the knowledge of the Word. He said you don't even have His Word in you. Why? "For whom He hath sent Him ye...what?...believe not."

What is this all about? Listen to this, do you get the message of that statement? He says to these Jewish leaders who had spent all their lives studying about God, "You don't know anything about God cause you don't know Me." Whew, that's blasphemous egoism or it's true. They prided themselves, they boasted themselves in the knowledge of God and here Jesus says you don't know anything about God. Why? Because you don't know Me, you don't believe in Me. And there are people all over our world in all kinds of religions and all kinds of denominations and all kinds of systems who think they know God but they don't because they don't know Jesus Christ. And listen, Christ is the theme of all God's revelation, isn't He? He's the embodiment of all God's person, the expressed image of God's person. And if a man rejects Christ he has no knowledge of God. Jesus is the only source of knowledge about God. John 14:6; you don't know Me, you've got no way to God, no truth and you're dead, ignorant and lost without Christ. That's them.

But for the believer who believes in Christ, he hears the Word of God in his heart doesn't he? Giving evidence that Christ is God. Let me show you this, 1 John 5:9 and 10, "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater," right? John the Baptist's testimony was good, but how about having the direct witness of God that Christ is His Son? Fabulous. Watch this, "This is the witness of God which He's testified of His Son." Now here comes the key. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness...where?...in himself." Now you see what He's saying here?

Now go back to John 5, focus back on verse 37 and 38. He's saying, "Listen, this is not an external witness," right? It's internal and it comes only to those who love Christ. Isn't this what Paul meant in Romans 8:16 when he said, "We have the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God"? In other words, for the believer there's the internal, inside voice of God corroborating who Christ really is. What a tremendous evidence. But He says to them, "You wouldn't know that because you don't believe in Me.

III. The Faithful Writings (vs. 39-47)

The climax is the faithful writings, number four testimony, the faithful writings. And this refers to the Old Testament. Notice verse 39, the word "search" in the Greek can either be an indicative or an imperative, it can either be a command...search the scriptures, or it can be indicative; ye search the scriptures I think it makes a little more sense to say it's indicative. In other words, it would read this way, "Ye search the scriptures," in other words He's not saying do it, He's saying you're doing it, you are doing it, and they did, the Jews faithfully searched the scriptures, "Ye search the scriptures...now watch it...for in them...and here's the key...ye think ye have eternal life." You know what that is saying in essence? You don't have it, you just think you do. You search the scriptures and in them you think you have eternal life. But have you ever stopped to realize, you know what those scriptures are talking about? Look at the end of verse 39, "They are they which testify of...whom?...of Me."

Now in the next verse, verse 40, read "but" instead of "and," same word chi, "But you will not come to Me that you might have life." In other words, He's saying look at the faithful writings of the Old Testament, they from one end to the other end talk about Me, Me, Me on every page and you don't see it. And you won't come to Me. All the Old Testament types, all the Old Testament prophecy, all the Old Testament patterns, all the Old Testament pictures, all the Old Testament period pictures Christ. And He says you don't see it and they testify of Me on every page.

Isn't it amazing how you could look into the Word of God and be so ignorant? But, you know, that's going on today. You know, all these strange groups and cults and all, they spend all their time studying the Bible and I'll tell you, they never come out with a messier mess, it's impossible to understand it. In fact, you can't understand it on your own, you've got to have "Science and Health," and "Key to it," or something. They've got it all confused and they study the Bible all the time and come up with all the wrong answers. Why? Because it's just ink and paper without the living Spirit of God within the believer to teach them. So He's saying you search the scriptures because you think just by searching the scriptures you have life, but you don't because life is in Me and you won't come to Me. You think you have eternal life in verse 39 but you won't come to Me that you might really have life.

Isn't that a sad, sad thing? God blessed those dear lost people, the tragedy, the broken heart of God over Israel thinking they had eternal life and refusing it when it stared them in the face. He says I was all through the Old Testament, you read it but you didn't get it, you didn't read the message. You wouldn't come to Me. Oh, this is exactly the plight of Israel.

Paul paints this so beautifully in Romans 10:1-2. They were so wrapped up in the legalism of it all that they missed the person that was there, Jesus Christ. They were so busy taking care of the little tiny details of the law that they missed the Christ. They're in the scriptures, they're searching the scriptures, they think they have eternal life, they have a zeal for God, "But not according to knowledge." And here's their problem. Romans 10:3 “They being ignorant of God's righteousness go about to establish their own righteousness." That's the problem. They miss the point. Instead of taking what God has provided in Christ as the way of righteousness, they try to establish their own. This is what people are doing today, trying to work their way into heaven. Sad thing.

And so the same challenge that Jesus, in effect, rather subtlety throws at these Jewish people, we give to you this evening. If you desire to know the truth, if you desire to experience abundant and eternal life, then look in the Word of God and discover the Christ that's there. For Peter said, Acts 4:12 "Neither is there salvation in any other, there's none other name under heaven given men whereby we must be saved."

Verse 41 then, He says, "I receive not honor from men." Now why would He say that? Well He's reading their minds. Remember back in John 2 where we saw that He doesn't need to have told to Him what men are thinking, He can read their minds. And in their minds undoubtedly they're thinking something like this, "Oh, I can't take this." Here they're standing there with Jesus and they're saying, "Oh this man's got a monstrous ego problem. He wants us to believe that He is God. Unbelievable. He's telling us that we don't know the Scripture. He wants us to bow down to Him." On the contrary, He says in verse 41, "I receive not honor from men." I don't want your honor. I'm going to say this and take it as it's said, listen to this, glory from unsaved people Jesus doesn't want. Did you get that? Do you know why? Because it's the infinite point of hypocrisy. You say why. Listen, for you as an unbeliever or for any unbeliever to give some kind of token homage to Jesus Christ while refusing the message which He came to bring is some kind of hypocrisy, isn't it?

He says I don't want your honor. You say, "Doesn't He want anything from men?" Yeah. "What does He want?" Look at verse 42, I'll tell you what He wants, "I know you that you have not the..." What? You know what He wants from men? What? He wants love, first love. He says I'm not going to receive your praise because it's loveless...it's loveless. I want your love and then your praise. And do you know what Christ wants out of the believer? Does He want praise from us? You better believe it. Does He want glory from us? Yeah, everything, not from the world, from us. Why? Because it's the offspring of what? Of love. I want the praise of love, Christ said, not self-centered egotism.

So, in verse 43 He says, "I am come in My Father's name, I came in God's name and you received Me not. If another shall come in his own name, him will you receive." Isn't that amazing? They wouldn't receive the true Messiah but do you know since that day until the present day there have been 60 plus Messiahs in Israel that some number or more of the Jews have received? Simon Barkokba in 132 to 135 was acclaimed as Messiah and people began to die for him. And you know, there's one other one that's going to come, too, and he's called the Son of Perdition in 2 Thessalonians and he's called the Antichrist, the Beast, the World Ruler, the Prince that shall come and you know, they're going to think he's their Messiah, too. Isn't that sad? They would accept every Messiah but the one that is their Messiah. That's what Jesus said prophetically, verse 43, "I came in My Father's name, you didn't receive Me. But if another comes in His name, you're going to receive him," and they have.

And then He kind of pensively says in verse 44, "How can ye believe who receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that comes from God only?" In other words, you're so caught up in self-esteem and seeking glory from each other that you couldn't see glory from God if it hit you in the face cause here it is right in front of you. Here was the Son of God standing there. They were so busy praising each other and trying to build up their own glory, they couldn't see the glory of God when it came.

Then in verse 45 He sums it up. You know, when you live like this there's going to be a judgment. Ignorance is judged. Verse 45, "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father," watch this, "There is one that accuses you, even Moses in whom ye trust." Now this absolutely must have been a destroying statement by Christ. I don't know what happened but I can imagine them tearing their hair out when He said this. Their Moses was the one that everything revolved around. They were in love with Moses. Everything Moses said and did was gospel to them. Moses was their author, Moses was their father spiritually. Moses was everything to them. And He says, "Moses on the contrary is going to be your accuser." Verse 46, "For had you believed in Moses you would have believed Me." Why? "For he, what? Wrote of Me." If you don't believe in Me then you don't believe in Moses either because Moses was writing about Me. Oh what an indictment.

Can you imagine the tragedy in their hearts of the life time spent learning and then finding out they knew nothing? If you would have believed Moses you would have believed Me, he wrote about Me...all the types, all the pictures of the lamb, all the suffering, all Christ; Christ, Christ, Christ on every page. But He says, "How could I expect you to believe Me if you didn't even believe Moses?" Verse 47, "If you believe not his writings, you love him, you worship him, you believe not him, how should you believe in My words whom you hate?" What a shot. They thought that Moses was their Savior. They thought they prided themselves on keeping Mosaic Law and He says Moses is going to condemn you. If you don't believe Moses' words whom you love, how can I expect you to believe Mine?

And that's the confrontation right there. It ends in verse 47 on a tragic note. Jesus declares "I'm God." The Jewish leaders conclude, "Not You're not, You're a blasphemer." And they stand apart. And I give you the same choice this evening. He's either God or He's a blasphemer. If He's God, give Him your life. If He's a blasphemer, get out of the church, it's a mockery.