This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to our look together at John chapter five. This is day
five of our look through this great chapter, verses 31 to 47 today. The last
couple of days have been talking about what it means for Jesus to be the son of
God.

Jesus has been teaching the Pharisees this long teaching passage. And after he's
talked about who he is, he then beginning in verse 31, shares with them some
witnesses to the fact of who he is. Witnesses to the fact that Jesus is the son
of God.

In verse 31 and 32, Jesus says to the Pharisees, 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.

He was referring here to a rule that they had about testifying concerning
yourself. It's mentioned again in chapter eight, when we get there, we'll see
it. You couldn't testify concerning yourself and have it considered valid in a
court of law.

And so Jesus says, well, since you consider it that way, then I want you to
picture in your mind a courtroom and some testimony witnesses being brought
forward to testify to the truth of who Jesus is. And I encourage you to do that.
There's this courtroom and our witnesses is going to be called one by one to come
to the stand and say, this is who Jesus is.

First witness is John the Baptist, verses 33 to 35. You have sent to John, he
says, and he is testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony, but I
mention it so that you might be saved.

John was a lamp that burned and gave light. And you chose for a time to enjoy
his light. Jesus is talking to them and he says, I don't need this human
testimony.

I mean, God is God, even if a human being doesn't testify to that. But he says,
I'm mentioning it because you had some respect for what John was doing. John's
ministry had fascinated the Jewish people and fascinated the Jewish leaders, the
Pharisees even.

He was speaking of holiness. And there was something about what he said that
they desired. He was a light, he was a lamp.

A great commendation, by the way, for a sermon of God here. He was a lamp, Jesus
said. I would like nothing more.

I think you would like nothing more than for Jesus to save your life. He lit the
way for someone. He was a lamp for someone.

And in verse 34, the words that Jesus uses here in the Greek language are
emphatic. These things I say to you that you might be saved. There's this
exclamation point behind them.

That's why Jesus is saying this. He's not just teaching the Pharisees about
himself so that he can win some argument. He really desires for them to come to
know him.

He is the savior. And so he's trying to teach them how salvation can happen. And
he says, John the Baptist was pointing to me.

He is one witness to the fact that I am all that I am in being the son of God. A
second witness, verses 36 to 38, are, Jesus says, the works that I do. In those
verses, he says, I have testimony weightier than that of John.

For the very work that the Father has given me to finish and which I am doing
testifies that the Father has sent me. You don't believe John the Baptist, Jesus
is saying to them, look at me. Specifically, look at what I do.

I said, I am the bread of life. And I fed 5,000 people with a few loaves and
fish. I said, I am the light of the world and a blind man sees.

I said, I am the resurrection and the life and I'm going to raise one from the
dead. Look at the works that I do. How can you miss who I am and what I am
doing?

That also testifies to the fact that I am the son of God. A third witness is
brought into this courtroom in verses 37 to 38. Jesus there says, and the Father
who sent me has himself testified concerning me.

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. The Father, he says, is the third one on
this witness stand, pretty powerful witness, the one who sent me.

Now the problem, he says, to these religious rulers is that you can't see or
hear God. And the reason, he says, this is incredibly important. The reason is
you do not believe.

You see, we want to excuse our disbelief by saying that God hasn't shown himself
to us clearly enough. Jesus shows us here that God does not buy that line. He
knows that the reason we haven't seen him clearly enough is because of our
disbelief.

It starts with our faith. God isn't the problem. Blaming the only one who's
holy, the only one who's perfect, the one who made everything, that's a dead
end.

Look to yourself. If I've got doubts, I need to look to myself and say, God, how
can you solve them rather than blaming God for those doubts. Jesus is teaching
them here, the Father also testifies about who I am.

And then number four, verses 39 to 44, he says, the scriptures also testify
concerning me. You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by
them, you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me.

And yet, you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept praise from men,
but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.

I have come in my Father's name, and yet you do not accept me. But if someone
else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you
accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that
comes from the only God?

Jesus, in their way of thinking, was giving progressively greater witnesses. For
these rulers, these scriptures meant more to them even than God, 'cause they
could read them, they could parse them, they could study them. And Jesus here
says very bluntly that the Bible cannot give us eternal life.

You can't get eternal life by having a Bible, by reading a Bible, even by
memorizing a Bible. Now, that may be obvious, but there are those who revere the
Word more than the writer of the Word. They worship the Word more than the one
who gave us the Word.

They serve the Bible more than the one who gave us the Bible so that we could
serve him. And it's interesting in these verses, as Jesus talks with these
leaders, he gives us an outline of what keeps us from coming to Christ even when
we know his Word, even when we know some religious truth. What keeps us from
coming to Christ?

Our minds, our wills, and our hearts. Listen to what he said to these men. He
said, "Our minds are a problem.

"You diligently study," he says. "They've studied so much that they didn't know
the truth. "Our wills are the problem.

" He says, "You refuse to accept me. "You do not accept me. "They were making a
choice.

"And our hearts are the problem. "You don't have God's love in your heart. "
Now, by the way, the things that kept them from coming to Christ are also what
keeps us from coming to Christ, what keeps you from coming to Christ with your
daily problems, your daily decisions after you've even become a believer.

Your mind, you study other things and you don't focus on him. Your will, you
refuse because selfishness, because confusion, whatever, your heart. You don't
have God's love in your heart in that moment.

You have something else in your heart. You're following temptation and not your
love for him. And by the way, our minds, our wills, and our hearts are also the
things that allow us to come to Christ.

With our mind, we can choose him. With our will, we can say yes to him. With our
heart, we can love him.

For these leaders, it was not a lack of evidence but a lack of love that caused
them to reject Jesus. And in verse 44, Jesus outlines for them a major barrier.
What others thought of them was just too important.

You accept praise from one another, but you make no effort to obtain the praise
that comes from the only God. Now, when Jesus had set up in verse 41 that he
didn't accept praise from men, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't praise him as
a God. Of course we should praise Jesus.

He's saying here that he didn't allow the opinions of others to drive his life.
The word accept there means to receive, to take upon oneself. And he's meaning
here in a controlling way.

You don't control Jesus through your praise. You just give it to him. So he
says, I don't do that, but you do, and it's keeping you from me.

Now that's a bit of a comment that he had to the leaders in the midst of him
talking about this fourth witness to the fact that he is the son of God. The
scriptures show that he is the son of God. And then he gets to the height.

Number five, their hero, the greatest witness that could be called on for them,
Moses. Verses 45 to 47. But do not think that I will accuse you before the
father.

Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. Moses, the giver of the law.
Verse 46.

If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since
you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say? Jesus
says to them, if your hero was here, he would be pointing at me saying believe
in him.

The books of Moses, the first five books in the Old Testament are called the
books of Moses. They point to Jesus in three specific ways, in their history, in
their typology, and in their prophecy. In their history, the promise of all that
happened in the history in those books, all that they went through, the promise
of a multitude who was released from slavery to go to a promised land was all
looking forward to what God was going to do in Jesus Christ.

God chose the people then so he could look forward to the day when the Messiah
would come. In typology and the examples that are given, for instance, the
sacrificial system that was given to Moses, it all looked forward to Jesus. The
Passover celebration, the tabernacle, it all looked forward to Jesus.

And even in prophecy, beginning in Genesis three, when it's told that one will
come who will crush the head of Satan. And even God's words to Moses himself in
Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 18, 18 says, I will raise up for them a prophet like
you from among their brothers.

I will put my words in his mouth and he will tell them everything I command him.
Jesus is laying it out as clear as he can. I'm the one.

By every proof that you would have, every witness that you would want, I am the
one. So we look at Jesus' witness to these leaders. The question isn't what
happened in history.

We pray and we talk to God today. The question is my life. It's easy to look at
someone else and think, well, why didn't they believe?

But the truth is I can see in my own life. There are times, there are places
where Jesus is challenging me to believe in him, to trust in him, and he's given
me lots of witnesses, lots of testimony, lots of proofs, lots of reasons to
trust him. But still, for some reason, I'm selfishly trusting myself.

My mind, my will, my heart has not been given to him in that area. Today, today
in that area, as you hear the testimony of who he is, give yourself to him in a
fresh and new way. Just say, Jesus Christ, as I talk to you today, I give my
mind to you.

I want to think your thoughts. I give my will to you. I want to choose to do the
things that you lovingly are showing me to do.

And Jesus, I give my heart to you. Show me how to have a heart of love for you,
not a heart that forgets you, not a heart that's growing cold toward you, but a
heart of love for you. I know that that is possible today because of your love
for me, your thoughts towards me, the choices you've made about me.

I know that that is possible. And so I trust in you, Jesus Christ, today, in a
fresh, in a new way. In your name, I trust you.

Amen. Well, join us next week. We're going to continue our study together in the
Gospel of John, looking at John chapter six.