John 5:31-47... Why Believe Jesus? This morning is our first sermon as we return to our series on Johnʼs Gospel. Just to remind you, the plan is that weʼll slowly go through this Gospel in detail. If we do a section each year, I think itʼll take about 5 years for us to cover the whole thing. Now you might want to re-read John chapters 1-5 this week to remind yourself of the story so far, but letʼs take minute to recap what John has been saying. He began His Gospel with the well known verse, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John doesnʼt pull any punches. His Gospel states right from the beginning that Jesus Christ is divine, that Heʼs God. Then he talks about John the Baptistʼs views of Jesus, and describes the calling of the disciples, the early miracles, and Jesusʼ encounters with people like Nicodemus and the woman at the well. When we came to chapter 5, we saw that Jesus healed a lame man at the pool of Bethesda, but He did this on the Sabbath. Now this caused a bit of upset among the Jews. So they questioned Jesus, and He made some pretty strong claims about Himself. If you have a Bible open, have a look at verse 18 please. It captures what has been happening. For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. No wonder the Jews are upset. But you know, people have been claiming to be God all throughout history. It even happens in todayʼs day and age. Have a look at this TV clip from just a few years ago. [PLAY JOSE MIRANDA CLIP 1 ] What do you think? Do you believe that Jose Miranda is Jesus? Do you tend to believe people when they say theyʼre divine, that theyʼre God? I know weʼre looking back with hindsight, but how do you think you wouldʼve reacted if you were there when Jesus said that He was God? Would you have believed Him, or dismissed Him as a dangerous liar? Well itʼs no wonder that Jesus is beginning to cause a bit of a stir. Some people are excited about Him and His miracles and teaching, and some are very upset. And so in our passage today, Jesus tells the people why they should believe He is who He says He is. He gives them proof of why they should accept His claim, that He was sent by God to bring new life. In verses 31-32, Jesus says: If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. The problem with Jose Miranda is that the only testimony he has is what he says about himself. He canʼt back up what heʼs claiming. But if we even just skim todayʼs passage, we see that Jesus offers a bunch of witnesses: the Father, John the Baptist, His works, Scripture, and Moses. So this morning weʼre going to explore some of these testimonies, as proof of who He is, and consider the reaction to them. 1 Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=037hvq1tygm. Cited 19 November 2009. Bern Merchant Grenfell Presbyterian 22 Nov 09 page 1 of 5
Jesus starts off with human testimony, with John the Baptist. He says to them in verse 33, You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Look, youʼve already heard from John. And he said that Iʼm the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and that Iʼm the Son of God. Then Jesus says, Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. I donʼt need a mere man to speak for me, but if you listened to John the Baptist, heʼs pointing you on the path to salvation. Heʼs pointing away from himself and towards me. I mention him as a witness, for your sakes. But then Jesus goes on to say, look I have an even better witness. I have stronger evidence that I am who I say I am. Letʼs move on to the second witness and read from the second line in verse 36: For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. Jesus says that what Heʼs doing is a witness that He was sent by God. In a sense, Heʼs asking here, What do you think has been happening? How often do you see miracles? I changed water to wine and healed the dying officialʼs son. Who else speaks with the authority of God? And I think Jesus is looking forward too, to the cross. I think by ʻworkʼ, Heʼs referring to all Heʼll do and say in His earthly ministry, leading to His death and resurrection. Canʼt you see by the divine in what I do, that Iʼm divine, that I have been sent by the Father for a purpose? See, Jesus isnʼt on a solo mission. He said back in verses 19-20: I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. The proof is before your very eyes. Iʼm doing God-like things because I am God and Iʼve been sent by God. My works are my witness. And then Jesus goes on to bring forward His third witness, which weʼll spend the most time on. That witness is God the Father Himself, speaking in the Bible. The written words of God are a testimony that Jesus is who He says He is. Have a look at verse 37 with me please: And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. And if we jump down to the second half of verse 39: These are the Scriptures that testify about me... The Father Himself is my witness. He has spoken through the pages of Scripture. The promises in the Old Testament are pointing to a Saviour, and thatʼs who I am. Everything God did in history, I was part of that. Every place in Scripture where you read that God was glorified, I shared in that glory. To say this in todayʼs words, the Bible is all about Jesus, because Jesus and His Gospel are the centerpiece of Godʼs plans and purposes for humankind. Bern Merchant Grenfell Presbyterian 22 Nov 09 page 2 of 5
But hereʼs the sad part. We have three witnesses. John the Baptist came and spoke clearly about Jesus as the Promised One. Jesus Himself came and did amazing things that only God could do. And we have all the pages of Scripture screaming His name. Yet how did the Jews respond? Read with me please from the second half of verse 37: You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. Here Jesus exposes their true spiritual condition. The Jews took their Scriptures, which is our Old Testament, very seriously. The rabbis and teachers of the law were held in high regard. Their whole culture, and legal and religious system, and way of life was based on Godʼs word. They were a people who were in one way or another, students of the Scriptures. So think about how damning and insulting Jesus would have been to them. What Heʼs saying is, Yes, you spend all this time in the Scriptures, but youʼre doing it for the wrong reasons. You think that by being devout, by being diligent in the reading itself, thatʼs the way to God. But thatʼs trying to earn your way to God and seek His approval. Youʼre missing the point. Godʼs word is useless to you, because You donʼt see me in there! These are the Scriptures that testify about me. The Jews of Jesusʼ day had made the Scriptures and their commandments an end in themselves. They were missing the forest for the trees. The promised Messiah to come was here, yet they didnʼt accept Him when He was in their midst. Look at how Jesus confronts them. You havenʼt heard the voice of God, youʼre not hearing Him speak as I talk to you now. You havenʼt seen Him, despite the fact that Iʼm looking at you. His word doesnʼt dwell in you. How can it, youʼre rejecting the His living Word, me? If you were really listening and studying and living Godʼs words, youʼd recognise me for who I am. So Jesus goes on to say in verses 45 and 46 that Moses will accuse them. Now this wouldʼve been a slap in the face. They were so proud of being descendants of Moses. They based their spiritual health on that heritage. But Jesus says that Moses will hold them responsible because theyʼre calling him a liar. The words that Moses wrote pointed to Christ, but they refused to see Him. They preferred to keep their gaze on Moses himself. While Jesus is probably saying he wrote about me in a general sense, there were hints in verses like Deuteronomy 18:5. Moses wrote: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. But they didnʼt listen to Moses, or the Scriptures, and therefore they didnʼt believe in Jesus. And I think there are a couple of things we can learn from this. One is that we must always start with the Bible, because it is Godʼs testimony about Christ. The problem of the Jews was that they thought they had it all worked out. They put their religious structures and laws and man-made expectations first. But they should have started by listening to God Himself. Bern Merchant Grenfell Presbyterian 22 Nov 09 page 3 of 5
The thing is though, this isnʼt just a Jewish problem, or a 1st century problem, itʼs a human problem. Itʼs sinfulness when we start with ourselves and refuse to listen to Godʼs word. This is something we have to be careful about, because it can be subtle. Sometimes things that could otherwise be helpful in a sense become a religion in themselves because we hold them as sacred and no longer hear what God has to say. We sometimes have the wrong starting point. This can happen with history or tradition, the layout of a church, what happens in a service, even denominational things. We even do this with good ministries, when we stop holding them up against what God says in His Bible. The Jews were so absorbed with being the people of God that they missed who God sent. They didnʼt hear Godʼs testimony that Jesus was His Son. Are there things that we are so absorbed with in our church, or in churches today in general, that they cause us to miss Jesus? Is our gaze in the right place? We must always start with Godʼs witness in the Bible, and be humble and allow that to direct and even challenge us, and keep pointing us to Jesus. The second thing we can learn from this is how to approach Godʼs witness in the Bible. And I think this is very encouraging. As weʼve said, the whole Bible is Godʼs testimony about Jesus. And that means it doesnʼt have to be a confusing or intimidating book. I know that many people shy away from the Old Testament or the tricky bits in Scripture and put them in the ʻtoo hardʼ basket. But we donʼt have to do that. While there will be parts that we donʼt fully understand, we can know that somehow itʼs all leading to Christ. As it says in 1 Corinthians 1:20: For no matter how many promises God has made, they are Yes in Christ. Hereʼs how we can approach reading the Bible. We can pray as we read, God, if this is Your testimony, please speak to me through these words. Help me to see them as more than just religious facts and history and poetry and stories. Since they testify about Jesus, please show me Him in there. From Your revealed words, please build me up in Him and help me to see and love Him more. See, instead of not reading the Bible because itʼs too big or too mysterious, we can approach the whole thing as Godʼs message about Jesus, as a book of the Gospel, and enjoy and love Godʼs word more because we know what itʼs basically about. Instead of reading the Bible as an end in itself, or reading it because itʼs the ʻChristian thing we must doʼ, we can read it so that Godʼs word will dwell richly in us. We simply have to approach it as if itʼs all about Jesus. And so, the difference with Jesus, as compared with someone like Jose Miranda, is that He could back up His claims. This is very important. As Christians, we stake our whole lives on the fact that Jesus isnʼt a fraud. Only God can forgive sins and promise eternal life. But Jesus doesnʼt rest on flimsy evidence. Thereʼs plenty of testimony. There was John the Baptist. There were the works and words and miracles that could only come from God. And His whole ministry and death and resurrection are promised and backed up by the word of God in the Bible. Jesus had witnesses. The question weʼre left with is, do we believe Him? Or do we disregard the witnesses? Bern Merchant Grenfell Presbyterian 22 Nov 09 page 4 of 5
See, the Jews disregarded these testimonies because they already knew who they wanted. They wanted a human Messiah, a comfortable earthly King, who could give temporary glory now, rather than promising glory to come. Please look at verse 40 again. It says, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. Do you want to know what that verse says literally in the original language? Yet you do not want to come to me to have life. People disregard Jesus and all the witnesses that back Him up, because they donʼt want God. In verses 41-44 Jesus says that people donʼt have Godʼs love in their hearts because they donʼt accept Him. Theyʼre blind to the proof, because they donʼt want proof. Theyʼre happier with manʼs glory, rather than Godʼs. Listen to 1 John 4:15: If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And then it says in 5:11-12: And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. Will you believe the witnesses, and therefore see Jesus for who He is, and come to Him to have life? Letʼs pray. If you would like to speak with Bern about this sermon, please feel free to contact him on (02) 6343 2013, or bernm@iinet.net.au. Bern Merchant Grenfell Presbyterian 22 Nov 09 page 5 of 5