Jesus' Witnesses (John 5:31-47)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:04.240 If you would remained standing. If you're a will please do otherwise, feel 2 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:08.070 free to sit and let's turn our attention to John Chapter Five, or will 3 00:00:08.109 --> 00:00:15.189 continue. I'm hearing God's Word From this Gospel, Gospel of John. I'll 4 00:00:15.189 --> 00:00:19.070 be reading John Chapter Five, verse thirty one to the end of the chapter. 5 00:00:20.710 --> 00:00:24.219 This is the word of the Lord. It stands forever. Let us 6 00:00:24.379 --> 00:00:30.260 hear it with faith. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony 7 00:00:30.379 --> 00:00:35.380 is not true. This is Jesus speaking here. If I alone bear witness 8 00:00:35.420 --> 00:00:41.170 about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness 9 00:00:41.210 --> 00:00:45.729 about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is 10 00:00:45.850 --> 00:00:50.359 true. You sent to John and he has born witness to the truth. 11 00:00:51.079 --> 00:00:54.320 Not that the testimony that I receive is from Man, but I say these 12 00:00:54.359 --> 00:00:58.560 things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and a shining 13 00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:02.119 lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 14 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:07.109 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John, for the 15 00:01:07.269 --> 00:01:11.150 works that the father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I 16 00:01:11.189 --> 00:01:15.709 am doing. Bear witness about me that the father has sent me and the 17 00:01:15.829 --> 00:01:19.420 father who sent me, has himself borne witness about me his voice. You 18 00:01:19.540 --> 00:01:23.859 have never heard his form, you have never seen and you do not have 19 00:01:25.099 --> 00:01:29.019 his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he 20 00:01:29.140 --> 00:01:33.250 has sent. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have 21 00:01:33.370 --> 00:01:38.450 eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you 22 00:01:38.689 --> 00:01:42.450 refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive 23 00:01:42.609 --> 00:01:48.159 glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of 24 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:52.239 God within you. I have come in my father's name and you do not 25 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:56.480 receive me. If I if another comes in his own name, you will 26 00:01:56.519 --> 00:02:00.670 receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and 27 00:02:00.790 --> 00:02:06.189 you do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not 28 00:02:06.390 --> 00:02:09.389 think that I will accuse you to the father. There is one who accuses 29 00:02:09.509 --> 00:02:15.189 you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope, for if you 30 00:02:15.349 --> 00:02:19.340 believed Moses, you would have you would believe me, for he wrote of 31 00:02:19.460 --> 00:02:23.419 me. But if you do not believe in his writings, how will you 32 00:02:23.539 --> 00:02:30.449 believe in my words? You may be seated. These are strong words from 33 00:02:30.449 --> 00:02:36.530 Jesus, aren't they? It's helpful and I hope they're not true of you. 34 00:02:37.490 --> 00:02:42.650 Will start there. Jesus says you do not believe in Moses. I 35 00:02:42.770 --> 00:02:47.360 hope that's not true of you. Jesus says you do not have eternal life. 36 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:52.960 He says you have not received me, you refuse to come to me. 37 00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:57.280 I hope, as I say, that's not true of any of you, 38 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:01.069 but of course, if it is, if you do not receive God's 39 00:03:01.110 --> 00:03:05.430 word, if you do not hear Jesus and believe, if you are not 40 00:03:05.590 --> 00:03:08.270 coming to him for eternal life, then the words that Jesus says here are 41 00:03:08.310 --> 00:03:14.740 a warning for you. There are warning to everyone that, as he says 42 00:03:14.900 --> 00:03:17.460 over and over again and demonstrates with his works, that there is life in 43 00:03:17.699 --> 00:03:24.259 him, amazing life, abundant life, blessed life, heavenly life. There's 44 00:03:24.340 --> 00:03:34.409 life in Jesus, but apart from him is is death. Why does Jesus 45 00:03:34.449 --> 00:03:39.129 speak such strong words? It's helpful to remember the context in which they come. 46 00:03:40.210 --> 00:03:44.520 At the beginning of John, Chapter Five, there was a feast, 47 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:49.719 there was going on in Jerusalem. It was the Sabbath Day, and Jesus 48 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:55.710 looks out on this roofed colonnade and sees this very sorry sight, a very 49 00:03:55.789 --> 00:04:01.349 pitiful thing, a myriad. It's a John Rights, a myriad of invalids. 50 00:04:02.030 --> 00:04:10.539 Blind people, lame people, paralyzed people are all there under this in 51 00:04:10.699 --> 00:04:16.980 this colonnade. and Jesus sees this one man in particular who's a desire some 52 00:04:17.180 --> 00:04:23.379 healing but has been unable to find it for third be eight years, lifetime 53 00:04:23.579 --> 00:04:28.970 for some people, especially in the ancient world. Thirty eight years he had 54 00:04:30.050 --> 00:04:32.850 been paralyzed. Jesus goes to him and he says to the man, he 55 00:04:32.970 --> 00:04:38.209 says, do you want to be healed? In the man he says I 56 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:44.040 basically, he says I can't, I'm unable to. There's this water that 57 00:04:44.199 --> 00:04:46.560 seems to provide some healing, but he can't get to it because he can't 58 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:50.199 walk to it. And even if he could, everybody goes before him. 59 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:55.589 Nobody's there to carry him to it. He's totally helpless, totally stuck. 60 00:04:56.470 --> 00:05:02.310 He's desperate and and hopeless. Jesus pities this man and he says to him 61 00:05:03.149 --> 00:05:09.139 get up, take up your bed and walk. It's all he says, 62 00:05:09.819 --> 00:05:14.139 just the power of the word of God and he says get up, take 63 00:05:14.180 --> 00:05:15.660 up your bed, and walk. And that's what he does, the man, 64 00:05:16.339 --> 00:05:21.970 he gets up, he takes up his bed and he walks. There 65 00:05:23.050 --> 00:05:27.290 were Jews there who saw this. You remember when we went over this passage, 66 00:05:27.290 --> 00:05:29.529 if you were with us, there were Jews there who saw us and, 67 00:05:30.170 --> 00:05:32.769 as I mentioned at the time, it was a case study in missing 68 00:05:32.810 --> 00:05:38.680 the point right, a classic right. So here is this man, thirty 69 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:43.759 eight years and invalid. The are paralyzed here and now he's walking. This 70 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:47.000 amazing miracle had been done and they say to him, who told you to 71 00:05:47.079 --> 00:05:50.430 get up your bed or pick up your bed and walk? Don't you know 72 00:05:50.550 --> 00:05:56.990 you're breaking the Sabbath, and we talked about some of that when we covered 73 00:05:57.069 --> 00:06:00.149 that passage and the nature of the Sabbath. And Jesus is work here in 74 00:06:00.470 --> 00:06:06.220 bringing out new life, in bringing in showing what the Kingdom of God is 75 00:06:06.420 --> 00:06:10.860 and new creation, and encourage you to go back and listen to that if 76 00:06:12.220 --> 00:06:16.939 you weren't able to hear that. But what we see is that Jesus is 77 00:06:17.569 --> 00:06:25.129 doing this amazing work testifying to who he is and why he's come. He 78 00:06:25.370 --> 00:06:30.410 is here to heal people in their bodies and their souls. He also says 79 00:06:30.449 --> 00:06:35.639 to the man go and send no more. Jesus is here for their bodies 80 00:06:35.959 --> 00:06:40.839 and their souls. This is the work of new creation, this is the 81 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:45.959 work of of new life, this is the resting into which we enter through 82 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:55.670 him. And that's why, Jesus says, when they accused him of being 83 00:06:55.750 --> 00:06:59.910 disobedient to God and to his law, he says, my father is working 84 00:06:59.949 --> 00:07:04.740 until now and I am working now. This gets them very, very upset, 85 00:07:05.100 --> 00:07:10.620 because he is making it self equal with God. And, as Jesus 86 00:07:10.699 --> 00:07:15.579 himself says here at the end of our passage, he says there is only 87 00:07:15.620 --> 00:07:21.410 one God, the only God. He says, Jesus is not saying that 88 00:07:21.689 --> 00:07:29.850 he he is another God, he's not saying that he has power, simply 89 00:07:29.889 --> 00:07:32.360 power equal to God, as if he were a man or some kind of 90 00:07:32.519 --> 00:07:38.040 created being which God then gave it to him this power. Now he is 91 00:07:38.120 --> 00:07:43.519 saying that, though he is distinct from the father as the son, nevertheless 92 00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:48.589 he is the only God, one God in three persons, we confess. 93 00:07:48.750 --> 00:07:53.949 And here he's talking about his relationship with this father, with his father, 94 00:07:55.350 --> 00:07:58.350 my father is working till now and I am working. And then he goes 95 00:07:58.430 --> 00:08:03.420 on, as we looked at last time, to talk about the relationship that 96 00:08:03.500 --> 00:08:09.259 he has, the relationship that he has with his father. Jesus gives us 97 00:08:09.259 --> 00:08:16.610 this perspective that is very marvelous. He reveals very lofty and heavenly things to 98 00:08:16.689 --> 00:08:22.209 us, that his will is his will because it's the father's will, that 99 00:08:22.370 --> 00:08:26.399 his power is his power, because it is the father's power, that he 100 00:08:26.600 --> 00:08:31.560 judges because the father has given judgment to him, that he gives life because 101 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:35.399 the father has given life to him, and all of these things not at 102 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:41.389 any point in time, but eternally, eternal, only a giving from the 103 00:08:41.590 --> 00:08:48.070 father to the son. As I said, very lofty things, heavenly things, 104 00:08:48.149 --> 00:08:54.830 things that could never be discovered by those who are earthly minded. For 105 00:08:54.990 --> 00:08:58.820 those who are earthly minded, who are only fixed on the things that are 106 00:08:58.860 --> 00:09:01.779 here and now, these things that Jesus is saying are going to be very 107 00:09:01.899 --> 00:09:07.899 difficult to believe. That's why, in a moment in our passage today, 108 00:09:07.899 --> 00:09:13.889 he talks about witnesses, he offers proof for what he is saying. But 109 00:09:13.970 --> 00:09:18.450 I want to remind you about, to focus and pause for a moment on 110 00:09:18.570 --> 00:09:24.720 what it means to be earthly minded, to not be able to receive the 111 00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:31.360 things that are coming to us here from heaven. I'm thinking, for example, 112 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:37.960 of materialists, of people who are so focused only on the things of 113 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:43.950 this world that they refuse to look at God and Heaven and see only the 114 00:09:43.110 --> 00:09:48.950 ground and only the things around them, that refuse to give any credence or 115 00:09:50.070 --> 00:09:52.899 to believe in anything other than what they can touch and see and perhaps even 116 00:09:54.899 --> 00:10:00.220 limited to what they can experience for themselves. I'm also thinking of the self 117 00:10:00.259 --> 00:10:05.779 righteous person who is who is not only focused only on the things of this 118 00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:09.889 world, but is particularly focused on himself, his works, his wants, 119 00:10:09.970 --> 00:10:16.769 his plans. He is the chief end of himself, he is his highest 120 00:10:16.809 --> 00:10:24.120 ideal, he is the divine within himself. If he reaches in, if 121 00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:28.320 he struggles hard enough, if he optimizes everything well enough, than he will 122 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:37.750 do the great things of a God. No one offends him, he closes 123 00:10:37.789 --> 00:10:43.909 his ears. People like this are like ants. They're busy, busy, 124 00:10:43.950 --> 00:10:52.659 busy building this little kingdom of dirt without any perspective of this enormous world that 125 00:10:52.820 --> 00:10:56.460 is all around them, the world in which they are dwelling and living and 126 00:10:56.620 --> 00:11:03.340 even building in. Jesus helps us to see that when we have this kind 127 00:11:03.419 --> 00:11:09.250 of perspective, that all we're doing is building these little kingdoms of dirt. 128 00:11:09.409 --> 00:11:16.009 He is beyond us. He comes to us from another place, revealing to 129 00:11:16.049 --> 00:11:22.360 us another kind of knowledge, knowledge that can't be discovered by simply pulling things 130 00:11:22.519 --> 00:11:28.480 in from around us or pulling things out of ourselves. It's much, much 131 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:35.830 bigger. Who can know the things of the Almighty? His ways are not 132 00:11:37.029 --> 00:11:41.789 our ways, but it's good that he is beyond us. Of course, 133 00:11:41.230 --> 00:11:45.029 that it does mean that we can't control him, it does mean that we 134 00:11:45.190 --> 00:11:50.700 are required to give him our obedience, it does mean that we are lower 135 00:11:50.779 --> 00:11:54.259 than him and he is an authority over us, but it also means that 136 00:11:54.379 --> 00:11:58.700 he can save us. It means that he is powerful, it means that 137 00:11:58.779 --> 00:12:05.250 he is capable of doing the things that we cannot. And ultimately, that's 138 00:12:05.289 --> 00:12:09.570 what Jesus is about. He's not just giving us a greater perspective, a 139 00:12:09.649 --> 00:12:13.450 higher wisdom, a richer life of the soul, although he is giving us 140 00:12:13.490 --> 00:12:18.480 all of that, praise be to God, but he's also giving us this 141 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:24.879 knowledge that can take us out of our slavery to ourselves and to the material 142 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:31.309 things of this world, slavery to our sins, slavery to our obsession slavery 143 00:12:31.350 --> 00:12:37.629 to our lusts and our passions, not so that we can transcend material things, 144 00:12:37.389 --> 00:12:41.309 but so that we can enjoy them as the gifts of God, who 145 00:12:41.350 --> 00:12:46.580 is above us, so that we can enjoy them as from our father who's 146 00:12:46.620 --> 00:12:50.379 taking care of us, so that we can avoid those things that would do 147 00:12:50.500 --> 00:12:54.299 us harm, so that we can love him, trust him, find him. 148 00:12:56.779 --> 00:13:00.970 This is what Jesus is doing, this is what he is revealing. 149 00:13:03.730 --> 00:13:07.889 That brings us to our passage now where he's speak. He's still speaking to 150 00:13:07.929 --> 00:13:13.200 these Jews who are wanting to kill him. They are not just a very 151 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:18.039 obvious sign that they are refusing him, not believing in him, they want 152 00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:24.399 to murder him. This is why he's speaking very strongly about their rejection of 153 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:28.029 him. And then we come to verse thirty one and he says what I 154 00:13:28.070 --> 00:13:33.190 think is a kind of a stunning thing. He says, if I alone 155 00:13:33.350 --> 00:13:39.029 bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. Now that might sound 156 00:13:39.029 --> 00:13:43.940 like Jesus is saying that he might be lying, and that's not what he's 157 00:13:43.980 --> 00:13:48.220 saying. That's not why this is a stunning thing. What he's saying is 158 00:13:48.419 --> 00:13:54.659 he's reminding us of something that we all know, but are at least perhaps 159 00:13:54.730 --> 00:14:01.169 a surprised to hear Jesus apply it to himself because he's so remarkable. And 160 00:14:01.370 --> 00:14:07.529 that's that. That the testimony of one person about amazing, remarkable, even 161 00:14:07.210 --> 00:14:16.000 incredible. I use that word loosely. There things makes it hard to believe, 162 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:22.480 the testimony of one person who says these amazing things that are very hard 163 00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:28.350 to believe, that are really out there beyond our usual experience. Me and 164 00:14:28.429 --> 00:14:33.429 spell on are the usual things we think and feel. We don't usually take 165 00:14:33.509 --> 00:14:37.620 them as credible. Right, somebody came up to you and said that they 166 00:14:37.620 --> 00:14:43.539 are the one true living God, I would hope that you would have some 167 00:14:43.700 --> 00:14:48.580 doubts. Right. And what's so amazing, I think about this passage, 168 00:14:48.659 --> 00:14:54.529 is Jesus is saying that you should even have that about him. He's saying 169 00:14:54.570 --> 00:14:58.769 if I testify, in other words, if it's just words, if I'm 170 00:14:58.809 --> 00:15:07.090 just testifying about myself, then it's not credible. It's not true that Jesus 171 00:15:07.159 --> 00:15:09.120 doesn't just say look, I said it. So believe it, though? 172 00:15:09.159 --> 00:15:13.879 Of course we still. We should. He's God, he's not lying. 173 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:20.840 Everything there is true, but notice that he doesn't require a leap of faith 174 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:24.470 in the way that people talk about it. Christian faith is not sort of 175 00:15:24.590 --> 00:15:30.549 jumping out into the darkness wondering, not, not not for no reason or 176 00:15:30.549 --> 00:15:35.820 even against reason. The Christian faith is a rational faith and, just like 177 00:15:35.940 --> 00:15:41.539 in every other situation where we don't believe extraordinary claims on the basis of one 178 00:15:41.659 --> 00:15:46.779 person's word alone, Jesus, as says, if I do the same, 179 00:15:46.980 --> 00:15:54.370 it's it's not credible. Now we get to the meat of the passage. 180 00:15:56.330 --> 00:16:03.049 Who are Jesus is witnesses? Right at this point Jesus begins to marshal these 181 00:16:03.169 --> 00:16:07.399 different witnesses to say you don't have to take my word for it, because 182 00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:14.279 there are witnesses that are testifying to this so that you know they are true. 183 00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:22.389 The first witness he he brings forward to testify to the truthfulness of these 184 00:16:22.429 --> 00:16:26.389 things is, I believe, the Holy Spirit, who he refers to in 185 00:16:26.509 --> 00:16:32.110 verse thirty two as another. There is another who bears witness about me, 186 00:16:32.509 --> 00:16:37.500 and I know that the testimony he bears witness about me is true. The 187 00:16:37.620 --> 00:16:42.259 reason I believe that this is the Holy Spirit is for two reasons. One, 188 00:16:42.700 --> 00:16:47.100 it fits with the rest of the things he says here in this passage 189 00:16:47.409 --> 00:16:51.730 and also, later on in John He's going to use those exact same words 190 00:16:52.370 --> 00:16:56.250 to tea. Talks about another periclet another helper who comes and he will testify 191 00:16:56.850 --> 00:17:03.679 to you. These things concerning means very similar language, and it's specifically, 192 00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:07.359 I'm connected with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, of course, has 193 00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:12.240 not been absent up till this point in Jesus's ministry. Remember that it Jesus 194 00:17:12.359 --> 00:17:18.269 is baptism. The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus as a mark of his anointing, 195 00:17:18.309 --> 00:17:21.589 as a mark that God is. He was going into the world that 196 00:17:22.349 --> 00:17:30.819 the father had anointed him with, with the spirit, this one that testifies 197 00:17:33.539 --> 00:17:40.019 is true, Jesus says. Now what this means, then, is that 198 00:17:40.059 --> 00:17:47.450 when the father is at work, people come to believe in part. I 199 00:17:47.569 --> 00:17:51.049 say in part, not because it's a third or something like that, but 200 00:17:51.130 --> 00:17:56.450 it's one of the reasons. We might say that people come to believe because 201 00:17:56.490 --> 00:18:03.279 the spirit of God testifies to their hearts that it's true. Remember John, 202 00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:08.920 for example. John is at the Jordan, he's preaching, he's points at 203 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:12.190 Jesus and he says hair this is the one I was talking about. Here's 204 00:18:12.230 --> 00:18:15.269 the lamb of God who comes into the world. And you know what happens? 205 00:18:17.670 --> 00:18:22.630 People start following Jesus. We read about that. Is early disciples, 206 00:18:22.750 --> 00:18:27.299 including John Here who writes this Gospel. Why did John Follow Jesus? Why 207 00:18:27.380 --> 00:18:32.019 did John The Gospel writer followed Jesus? Why did Peter Fall Jesus? Why 208 00:18:32.019 --> 00:18:36.380 did others follow Jesus? Jesus is telling us that it's in part because they 209 00:18:36.539 --> 00:18:41.180 received the testimony of the Holy Spirit. And you say, well, what 210 00:18:41.490 --> 00:18:45.410 about John? Wasn't at the testimony about John that did that? Well, 211 00:18:45.450 --> 00:18:51.009 Jesus, of course addresses that. Verse Thirty Four or thirty three. He 212 00:18:51.130 --> 00:18:55.880 says you sent to John and he has borne witness to the truth. Okay, 213 00:18:55.920 --> 00:19:00.759 so yes, John is a witness, but then he says parenthetically verse 214 00:19:00.839 --> 00:19:06.799 Thirty Four, not that the testimony I receive is from Man, but I 215 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:11.990 say these things so that you may be saved. Back to John. He 216 00:19:11.349 --> 00:19:17.029 was a burning and shining light and you were willing to rejoice for a while 217 00:19:17.269 --> 00:19:21.349 in his light. A little bit of a rebuke there thirty six, but 218 00:19:21.470 --> 00:19:26.220 the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. The testimony that 219 00:19:26.259 --> 00:19:32.059 I have is greater than that of John, so something else was going on 220 00:19:32.299 --> 00:19:37.180 there. John is a witness, a burning a shining light, Jesus says. 221 00:19:37.539 --> 00:19:41.970 We likewise are witnesses, shining lights to the Gospel. But when we 222 00:19:41.210 --> 00:19:47.410 tell people about Jesus, they don't ultimately follow him because of us. They 223 00:19:47.650 --> 00:19:56.240 follow him because there's another witness working silently in the background, the Holy Spirit 224 00:19:56.759 --> 00:20:03.079 who changes hearts and minds, opens us up so that we can understand these 225 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:07.549 things, get our eyes off our little piles of dirt and up into the 226 00:20:07.630 --> 00:20:12.750 heavenly places, so that we can see the Lord as he is and turned 227 00:20:12.829 --> 00:20:19.390 to him for forget in for giveness and and for our life. He offers 228 00:20:19.470 --> 00:20:26.059 another witness, also in verse thirty six. He says the works that might 229 00:20:26.299 --> 00:20:30.660 that thought that the father has given me to accomplish the very works that I 230 00:20:30.819 --> 00:20:37.049 am doing. Think about the man he just healed. They bear witness about 231 00:20:37.210 --> 00:20:45.930 me that the father has sent me. The father has sent me. So, 232 00:20:47.049 --> 00:20:49.960 in other words, Jesus is saying, I'm not all talk, all 233 00:20:49.960 --> 00:20:55.279 right, I'm not just saying things. This is proven by the things that 234 00:20:55.440 --> 00:21:00.680 I the things that I do. Jesus is not just saying that he is 235 00:21:00.759 --> 00:21:03.710 a God, that he is the son of God. He is demonstrating it 236 00:21:03.829 --> 00:21:11.750 as well. How well, by and healing people of incurable things, by 237 00:21:11.829 --> 00:21:18.900 manipulating creation in such a way that water turns into wine, by speaking authoritatively, 238 00:21:18.099 --> 00:21:22.660 by changing people's hearts, by forgiving sins, by raising people from the 239 00:21:22.740 --> 00:21:29.140 dead, by being a greater prophet than John These are the works that he 240 00:21:29.339 --> 00:21:33.410 says, the father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I 241 00:21:33.490 --> 00:21:37.130 am doing. Their witness about me, and this has an effect on us. 242 00:21:37.210 --> 00:21:42.170 This testimony. Remember, just before John Five, in John for Jesus 243 00:21:42.210 --> 00:21:48.599 met this woman at a well. I remember he reveals to her things she 244 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:53.039 knows about herself, but Jesus, how does Jesus know about her five husbands 245 00:21:53.400 --> 00:21:59.000 and that the one she's living with now is not her husband? She goes 246 00:21:59.200 --> 00:22:03.710 at this amazing thing, this ability of this man to say these things, 247 00:22:03.789 --> 00:22:11.309 and she goes to her townsfolk and says this one's the Messiah, and then 248 00:22:11.349 --> 00:22:15.190 they all come out and they see him and they hear him and they talk 249 00:22:15.309 --> 00:22:21.420 with him and they say we believe to Jesus does this throughout his ministry and 250 00:22:22.140 --> 00:22:25.619 he tells us things, he reveals and he shows us with these miracles. 251 00:22:25.740 --> 00:22:32.089 Jesus continues to do that today, he changes our lives, he changes our 252 00:22:32.170 --> 00:22:37.049 mind and in his word we have the accounts of all these miracles. There 253 00:22:37.089 --> 00:22:40.450 were many more, right, you remember, John, at the end of 254 00:22:40.490 --> 00:22:44.170 the book tells us there's so many things I couldn't even record them all here, 255 00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:48.880 but these things are written so that you can have eternal life. That's 256 00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:55.799 why they're here. These miracles are recorded so that you would know about his 257 00:22:55.960 --> 00:23:00.950 miracles and believe them, so that you would have an authentic witness to the 258 00:23:02.150 --> 00:23:07.829 truth about who Jesus is. That brings us, then to the third witness, 259 00:23:07.869 --> 00:23:11.910 so the Holy Spirit, and then Jesus's works, and now, finally, 260 00:23:11.029 --> 00:23:15.259 to the scriptures themselves, which you see why they're how there's overlapping these 261 00:23:15.380 --> 00:23:22.859 things. He says in Verse Thirty Seven, and the father who sent me 262 00:23:23.059 --> 00:23:27.569 has himself born witness about me. Right, so the we could talk about 263 00:23:27.569 --> 00:23:32.849 the father's witness in particular. How do we know? Where do we hear 264 00:23:32.970 --> 00:23:37.049 the father's voice? He says his voice, you have never foreheard his form, 265 00:23:37.130 --> 00:23:41.440 you have never seen now. No, he says this, not because 266 00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:45.720 it hasn't been revealed to them, but because they didn't see it when it 267 00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:49.559 was revealed. As he says in Verse Thirty Eight. You do not have 268 00:23:49.839 --> 00:23:55.750 his word abiding in you. Why? For you do not believe the one 269 00:23:55.829 --> 00:24:00.390 whom he has sent. You search the scriptures because you think that in them 270 00:24:00.470 --> 00:24:03.950 you have eternal life, and in that they're right. They will have eternal 271 00:24:04.029 --> 00:24:08.349 life from the scriptures, except that they reject the thing that the scriptures are 272 00:24:08.349 --> 00:24:15.619 about. He says. It is they, the Scriptures, Moses, that 273 00:24:15.259 --> 00:24:19.819 reveal me, the scriptures bear witness to me. Verse Forty. Yet you 274 00:24:21.059 --> 00:24:26.930 refuse to come to me that you may have wife you. There's this great 275 00:24:27.049 --> 00:24:32.009 irony here. Right you're going to the scriptures, you're searching the scriptures, 276 00:24:32.130 --> 00:24:34.450 you're trying to find all of these things out so that you can have eternal 277 00:24:34.490 --> 00:24:38.880 life, and then, when it offers you eternal life, you reject it. 278 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:45.079 When you when you hear the very thing to which they speak, to 279 00:24:45.200 --> 00:25:02.589 which they testify, to which they witness, you reject it. You remember 280 00:25:02.630 --> 00:25:07.900 the parable of the seeds and the soil, that perhaps you know this parable 281 00:25:08.019 --> 00:25:14.579 that Jesus tells about a sower scattering seeds on the soil. A lot of 282 00:25:14.660 --> 00:25:19.900 those seeds never come up. Why? Blows away, birds eat it, 283 00:25:21.019 --> 00:25:26.930 it gets choked out, by weeds, these kinds of things. It didn't 284 00:25:26.930 --> 00:25:30.849 take root. That's what Jesus is saying here. The word was given to 285 00:25:30.930 --> 00:25:33.569 you, but it didn't take root. The Old Testament was given to you 286 00:25:33.890 --> 00:25:38.960 as a witness to me. That didn't take root. As he goes on 287 00:25:40.079 --> 00:25:44.759 to say, I don't have to accuse you. I don't accuse you. 288 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:49.109 Moses accuses you. You say that you follow Moses, you say that you 289 00:25:49.150 --> 00:25:55.630 are you're accusing me of disobeying the Sabbath, you're accusing me of blasphemy. 290 00:25:56.269 --> 00:26:03.109 You yourselves are rejecting Moses by rejecting me. First Forty six if you believed 291 00:26:03.299 --> 00:26:08.380 Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. Where 292 00:26:08.420 --> 00:26:15.619 did Moses ride of Jesus? All over the place, on every page, 293 00:26:15.579 --> 00:26:21.089 in some very prominent and obvious sections, like Deuteronomy Eighteen, where he says 294 00:26:21.130 --> 00:26:26.730 a prophet will come after me that's greater than me, like in the garden, 295 00:26:26.970 --> 00:26:30.369 where he records after the garden of Eden and the fallen to sin, 296 00:26:30.450 --> 00:26:36.440 where God makes this promise to the world that he will bring, through the 297 00:26:36.599 --> 00:26:41.880 seed of the woman, a son who would crush the head of the serpent 298 00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:48.630 and bring blessing and restorations, all things would bring life, in the covenants 299 00:26:48.710 --> 00:26:52.670 made to Abraham, recorded there, that we have in Genesis, in the 300 00:26:52.750 --> 00:26:57.150 promises of a new kingdom that will be established and and the kings that were 301 00:26:57.190 --> 00:27:04.059 rule, eventually revealed to be David and others. All of these things testified 302 00:27:04.220 --> 00:27:08.099 in the law and the prophets and the psalms. All of it about Jesus. 303 00:27:11.660 --> 00:27:15.730 So, going back to what I said earlier about a case study in 304 00:27:15.809 --> 00:27:21.329 missing the point with the paralytic, it didn't begin with him. It began 305 00:27:21.809 --> 00:27:25.890 long time before they ever saw this miracle in their own hearts, with their 306 00:27:25.890 --> 00:27:30.759 own relationship with the Bible, with the Old Testament and with the law of 307 00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:37.200 Moses and the Prophets. But thinking about our own lives, if you've ever 308 00:27:37.319 --> 00:27:41.000 struggled to read the Old Testament, if you ever have had trouble seeing salvation 309 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:45.829 in it as clearly as the Gospels, then this is why. It's because 310 00:27:45.910 --> 00:27:51.589 you are not reading or you are struggling to read, with Jesus as the 311 00:27:52.390 --> 00:27:56.430 key reading principle, as the thing to which they all point. And that 312 00:27:56.549 --> 00:28:03.539 takes time and experience and searching the scriptures to see how that works. But 313 00:28:03.660 --> 00:28:07.059 what we have testified so clearly to us by Jesus here in John and many 314 00:28:07.140 --> 00:28:11.890 other places in both the old and new testaments, is that God gave this 315 00:28:12.170 --> 00:28:21.289 word, like shadows, to a body connected but different, realized fully in 316 00:28:21.329 --> 00:28:25.890 Christ. These things and Moses and then the rest of the Old Testament. 317 00:28:25.970 --> 00:28:32.400 They are models pointing, types and shadows pointing to his reality. And that's 318 00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:37.599 why the New Testament often explains these things, Jesus mission, the nature of 319 00:28:37.680 --> 00:28:42.390 the church, our life in him, in Old Testament terms. If you've 320 00:28:42.390 --> 00:28:47.190 ever wondered why that is, that's because there's a unity between the old and 321 00:28:47.269 --> 00:28:52.390 the new, connected and all unified in the one to which all the scriptures 322 00:28:52.430 --> 00:28:56.900 speak, Jesus. So that's why in the new testaments we read things about 323 00:28:56.059 --> 00:29:02.619 kingdoms and priests and sacrifices and temples in relationship to what's going on now. 324 00:29:03.980 --> 00:29:07.460 The point is this. The scriptures, old and new, Bare Eternal Life, 325 00:29:07.579 --> 00:29:12.970 witness to to eternal life. Why? Because they witness to Jesus. 326 00:29:15.490 --> 00:29:22.690 The scriptures testify to Christ, and so this is obviously I hope and encouragement 327 00:29:22.730 --> 00:29:27.359 to all of us to search the scriptures if we want to know Jesus, 328 00:29:27.400 --> 00:29:33.240 if we want to believe him more. He's telling us here is the witness. 329 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:37.670 Pay attention to the witness. If you don't read your bibles, if 330 00:29:37.670 --> 00:29:41.950 you don't search the scriptures, if you don't understand how they work, then 331 00:29:41.990 --> 00:29:48.230 you will have trouble with faith. You will struggle to believe because the witness 332 00:29:48.349 --> 00:29:52.099 that is given to you you're ignoring. And then, of course, if 333 00:29:52.140 --> 00:29:56.140 you are searching, but you're not searching in the way in which they were 334 00:29:56.180 --> 00:30:02.099 written, if you're not searching to see Jesus and him revealed from beginning to 335 00:30:02.220 --> 00:30:07.049 end, genesis to revelation, then again your struggle. You will struggle because 336 00:30:07.130 --> 00:30:17.130 you are missing the point. All that to say, what we have here, 337 00:30:17.289 --> 00:30:22.400 then, are true witnesses. I love what Jesus says in Verse Forty 338 00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:29.079 One. I do not receive glory from people, says in Verse Forty Three. 339 00:30:29.079 --> 00:30:33.440 I have come in my father's name. He says. You willingly receive 340 00:30:33.640 --> 00:30:41.069 other people's testimony. I'm giving you the testimony of God, his spirit, 341 00:30:42.670 --> 00:30:49.900 the scriptures. I'm giving to you the power of my works, demonstrated, 342 00:30:49.940 --> 00:30:56.299 the works that the father has given to me. John is great, John 343 00:30:56.500 --> 00:31:02.220 is a burning shining lamp, your friend, your neighbor, your pastor these 344 00:31:02.259 --> 00:31:07.410 are all important people that God brings into our lives to testify to the truthfulness. 345 00:31:07.690 --> 00:31:12.529 But ultimately, Jesus does not receive his glory from men. Jesus, 346 00:31:12.769 --> 00:31:18.490 our hearts are not changed because that the of the power inherent in a preacher 347 00:31:18.529 --> 00:31:22.880 or the power inherent in some other place or in our knowledge or in our 348 00:31:22.920 --> 00:31:32.950 discovery. All of it always rests in God, in God who saves us, 349 00:31:33.230 --> 00:31:38.829 in God who testifies to these things. And so as he's testifying to 350 00:31:38.910 --> 00:31:42.990 you this morning through me, through the scriptures, I pray, through the 351 00:31:44.069 --> 00:31:48.700 spirit working in your heart. Let me ask you, why fix your eyes 352 00:31:49.059 --> 00:31:53.299 on the things of this world and be busy about building your little mound and 353 00:31:53.740 --> 00:32:00.099 focused entirely on yourself and on your will and your ways, when God is 354 00:32:00.259 --> 00:32:07.490 speaking to you and saying follow me and you will have eternal life better than 355 00:32:07.529 --> 00:32:14.170 the paralytic had? Eternal Life, life where we stand up and we walk 356 00:32:14.369 --> 00:32:20.240 in the strength of Christ, out of death, out of suffering and into 357 00:32:20.279 --> 00:32:25.640 places where we are securely with him. Beloved. God does not require us 358 00:32:25.720 --> 00:32:32.230 to go searching for some hidden truth the can only be revealed in some secret 359 00:32:32.710 --> 00:32:40.390 formulaic way. He reveals to it, reveals it to US freely. He 360 00:32:40.509 --> 00:32:46.460 reveals it to you this morning. So will you believe him or will you 361 00:32:46.579 --> 00:32:52.500 refuse him? Will you hear the scriptures in vain, like writing on a 362 00:32:52.660 --> 00:32:57.299 sand, on sand, and let it blow away, or will you hear 363 00:32:57.539 --> 00:33:01.970 his word and trust and what he has said? If you believe him, 364 00:33:04.210 --> 00:33:07.369 if you hear his words, get up, take up your bed and walk. 365 00:33:08.650 --> 00:33:15.279 Then you will walk, because he's God. Amen. Let us pray. 366 -->