Witnesses to The Deity of Jesus

John 5:30-47

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. In this section of John’s Gospel Jesus is proving that He is God. We started this chapter where Jesus healed the disabled man on the Sabbath. We saw that rather than the religious leaders being overjoyed seeing the sign and believing, they are concerned that He has healed on the Sabbath and begin to persecute Him.

Jesus responded to that by saying, of course I'm working on the Sabbath because God works on the Sabbath and I'm God. That led them to want to kill Him. Thinking of Mark’s lesson last week, we realize these leaders have already determined what they will do with Jesus. Not based on who He is or the good He has done but based on their own concepts.

The rest of this chapter is Jesus’ testimony that He is God. Jesus showed that He is equal to the Father in person, works, power, judgment, and honor. Further, Jesus has the power to determine who will be given life and who will be raised to life or raised to judgment. Jesus rounds out His argument for His deity by presenting witnesses to His Godhood.

Let’s begin then at John 5:30-32 – “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.” Jesus changes His approach to the closed minds of the priests, still trying to induce them to believe. He can see that nothing He can say has any weight with them, but they should interpret the sign as Nicodemus did.

Then Jesus declares "My witness of myself is absolutely true, because I am doing the will of God who sent me." He knows they are rejecting His witness of Himself because He is the one witnessing. The Law of Moses called for one’s testimony concerning a crime committed be validated by two or three witnesses (Numbers 35:30; Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15). Jesus does not need to provide any witnesses for He has not committed a crime. However, Jesus is going to offer witnesses so that His testimony will not be rejected.

I. John the Baptist - The witnesses that Jesus offers are not the witnesses that we might expect. Jesus is not just going to use witnesses to prove that He is God, but to show that those people, as well as us, have an enormous deficiency in their relationship with God. Jesus does not just say let me prove to you who I am.

A. John 5:32-34 – “There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.” In verse 33 He reminds them that they sent people to John and John bore witness to the truth. Carefully look at verse 34. That's not the witness He wants to call to the stand, however. John is a witness, and that is a point that is made quite clear in John 1.

B. Remember the Pharisees send various people to John to find out who John is. We saw in chapter 1; No, I'm not Elijah. No, I'm not the prophet. I am the voice crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord.

1. That is the message that John was giving, the Lord is coming and you need to get ready. Make every way straight, get your lives in order. You sent priests and Levites to John, and He bore witness to that truth, but I don't need John's testimony. In fact, I don't need the testimony of any human, He says.

2. Then Jesus says in verse 34, “but I say these things so that you may be saved”. I bring John to the stand, not because I need John to prove who I am or to act as a witness on my part. You should have listened to what John had to say. I remind you of John and what his testimony was because he spoke about Me. He said the Lord was coming. The Lord now has come. I am the One.

C. John 5:35 – “He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.” This is a reference back to Psalm 132:17, where we read of the burning lamp that will come before the anointed. That burning lamp has come. That was John, and now the anointed has arrived, and that's Jesus.

1. You were so interested in John for a while, but something happened and you stopped rejoicing in that message. You heard John. You heard what he had to say. He's proclaiming the arrival of the Lord.

2. They heard John, listened to the message and rejoiced in it for a little while… for a little while. Then I believe as is common to the human condition, people go back doing the same things they were always doing. They heard the message to prepare for the coming of the Lord. They heard the message to get your life right before the arrival of God, and rejoiced in it for a little while. Then they stopped rejoicing in that message, stopped proclaiming what was about to occur. They forgot the witness of John.

3. I believe that is an important reminder for us. It is so easy for us to rejoice in the message of the Lord, to hear the good news of salvation, forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and the resurrection as we've seen in this chapter. We rejoice in it for a little while, and then go right on back doing the things that we've always been doing. It's life back to normal. We forget the glorious message that we have received, the great hope that we have in His Word, and we return to doing what we've always done.

D. Jesus tells them, I say these things so that you can be saved. Hear what John says, Jesus is God. He is the Lord who has come. Don’t forget that glorious teaching of John, of this great One who has come to save us from our sins. That brings us to verse 36.

II. Jesus’ Works Are a Witness – “But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.” His first witness to the stand is obvious and clear. He says all that you need to do is see what I'm doing. All that you need to do is see these works that I'm doing.

A. These things should be evidence to us that Jesus is clearly God. No one else can do what Jesus has done.

1. No one can do these kinds of work. If you remember the framework of this Gospel, John has written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and he has selected seven signs in this Gospel, only seven. He's neglected all kinds of signs and miracles that could have been selected and chose only seven.

2. In fact, before John tells us the reason he wrote this Gospel, he says Jesus did many other signs which are not written in this book. Then he says, but these things I've chosen that you may believe. John has selected these signs because these are to generate faith that Jesus is God.

B. These miracles we read about are not simply wow-factor miracles. Wow, He healed this guy who'd been disabled for 38 years! While certainly amazing, there's something far more that Jesus wants everybody to see. It is to generate faith that He must be God, and He is God because He's doing what only God can do.

1. His actions replicate what God has done in time past. We read about these in the Scriptures. That's one of the beautiful things that we're going to see as we continue our study through John. We are going to read about Jesus doing things that the Father had done in the past.

2. Jesus in one simple sentence, verse 36, says, I have greater testimony than John, a far greater witness, My works. If that is not enough, let's bring another witness to the stand. Verse 37.

III. The Father’s Witness – John 5:37-38 - “And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.”

A. The next one to the witness stand is the Father. Jesus says, I've got someone else who testifies as to who I am. We certainly have John, but I don't need him. First I have my works, and then I have the Father who bears witness about me as well.

1. We might think that what would happen next is John would show through the words of Jesus how the Father gives His testimony to the Son. However instead Jesus says, His voice you've never heard, His form you've never seen, and you do not have His Word abiding in you, for you do not believe in the One who was sent.

2. We read that and say, what kind of testimony is that? Where's the testimony of the Father? We expect the testimony to be what you read in John 1. At the baptism of Jesus, the heavens open and here is the Father speaking. This is My beloved Son. The Holy Spirit descends upon Him, and this is what we might think of as the witness of the Father. That is not the argument given here.

3. Instead, Jesus tells them you don't know God. You don't know who the Father is. That's why you don't comprehend the witness of the Father.
You don't even know who He is. This is a shattering, shocking declaration for Jesus to tell a bunch of Israelites, Jewish leaders, these religious leaders, His voice you have never heard.

4. Jesus saying to us, “you haven't seen Him and you haven't heard Him”, we'd probably say, we know we haven't seen Him or heard Him. However, that's not the point that Jesus is making here. The point that Jesus is making to them is you have rejected the Father.

B. Look at the three statements tied together here; “(1) His voice you have never heard, (2) his form you have never seen, and (3) you do not have his word abiding in you,” Whose voice did they hear at Mount Sinai? God’s voice. Some patriarchs saw the form of God, Jacob for example. They claimed to follow God’s word. These three things Israel held on to.

1. Yet Jesus is saying you have no relationship to the Father at all. You don't know who I am because you don't know God the Father. You aren't hearing His voice, and you aren't seeing who He is. His words are not in you. A greater messenger has come, One greater than Moses, One who is the revealer of God, and you reject Me.

2. For you to reject Me means you don't know God at all. That is a powerful statement, and in verse 38 He says, this is the reason you do not believe the One whom He has sent. You are worshiping God, believing in God, trying to do the things of God. I tell you, you don't know God. You have not heard Him or seen Him and His words are not in you. You're not children of God at all.

3. If the Father were to take the stand, His words are, you don't know me. The reason I know you don't know me is because you don't know my Son. The witness of the Father is, if you knew me, you'd know my Son. If you don't know the Son, you don't know Me.

IV. The Scriptures’ Witness – Look back at John 5:39-44, “39. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40. yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41. I do not receive glory from people. 42. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”

A. Jesus brings another witness to the stand. Every piece of Scripture speaks to Jesus. Think about the weight of that statement. “You search the Scriptures because you think in them that they have eternal life. It is they that bear witness about me.”

1. The scriptures in Jesus’ day are what we call the Old Testament. Everything from Genesis to Malachi bears witness to Jesus. He says, you're reading looking for life and you're failing to see Me when you read.

2. The paradox of knowing the Scriptures and yet not knowing them still exists; and it is imperative for us to know the word of the Lord truly. Knowing the common traditions with reference to it is not enough. Simply knowing what is written without believing cannot avail. Familiarity with sacred words may exist in a foul and degenerate heart. Those people to whom Jesus spoke these teachings had perverted their knowledge of the word of God in such a manner as to remove all true knowledge of it.

B. How had they done this?

1. They had made the word of God of no effect by their traditions; and a perfect example of that is in his incident. These men have substituted their own petty rules in place of God's true Sabbath law.

2. They had also changed the meaning of the words God had given them. God had promised a Messiah whose qualities of glory and humiliation should have been sufficient to identify Him when He came; but some of the hierarchy instead projected two Messiahs, making one of them the lowly and suffering priest, and the other the mighty conqueror who would chase out the Romans and restore the Solomonic empire. (rabbinic literature)

3. They rejected out of hand many of the plainest prophecies, especially those projecting the call of the Gentiles to salvation (Romans 9:25-29). True knowledge of God's word is a far different thing from familiarity with Scriptural texts. The Old Testament contains hundreds of references to Christ. Scholars note at least 300-350 distinct prophecies, covering His birth, ministry, and crucifixion, with many more foreshadowing’s.

C. If we want to get to know Jesus, we need to read the Old Testament because those books testify about Jesus. One reason we do not know our Lord and why we remain weak Christians is because we do not know the whole of scriptures. We come along and decide to ignore the Old Testament and wonder why we can’t figure God’s word out. Every book is speaking about Jesus. Jesus says that you can read the scriptures all that you want, but if you do not see Me in the scriptures, then you are not going to find life.

1. Worse, we might do what these Jewish leaders did. We search the scriptures, but we do not read the scriptures for what they say. We turn the scriptures into a doctrine finding mission. We memorize places where baptism is taught or where we are commanded to assembly together. We know the places to turn to so we can have an argument with people who disagree with us.

2. We do not read and take in the scriptures to find life. We study what we think we need to know. We try to boil down the scriptures to simple statements and memorize clichés. We need to read the scriptures to get to know Jesus. We do not need to read the scriptures to prove what we have always known or see what we have always seen or confirm what we already believe.

3. These leaders are criticized for how they are searching the scriptures. There is a wrong way to read the Bible. Read to learn about your God and let His word transform your life.

D. In John 5:41 Jesus says, “I do not receive glory from people.” He is not interested in their approval, or in meeting their expectations. Jesus is not going to change what He is doing to satisfy the expectations of the religious leaders. He came in the name of the Father and does what the Father has given Him to do.

1. Then He says in verse 42, “But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.” Wow, I’m sure they were insulted. Verse 43, “I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.”

2. You have expectations of what you want your Messiah to be. I'm not here to be what you want Me to be, to meet your expectations, or to fulfill your wants and desires of this world. I have come in the Father's name, I am who I am, I am God.

3. He tells them, you’ll accept anybody else who comes along because they will tickle your ears and make you happy and give you what you want. You'll listen to other people because they give you what you're looking for in this life. I fear Jesus would say the same thing to people today.

4. I wonder sometimes if we want a Jesus who does for us, and we do not want a Jesus that we have to sacrifice for or give for or do anything for. He's supposed to do things for us.

E. Then in verse 44 Jesus askes a question. “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” How can you believe when all that you're concerned about is what everybody else thinks? They want the glory of other people. We will see in John 12:42 that "They loved the glory that is of men more than the glory that is of God."

1. I suspect sometimes that is one of the reasons that we fail to draw closer to God. We need to find Jesus in the Scriptures and belong to Him. Instead, we seek the glory from people rather than the glory from God.

2. We are concerned about the approval of others—family, friends, or our community. We want everybody to pat us on the back, and we will do whatever it takes for them to approve of us.

3. The ways of God are not the ways of our family, our friends, or our community. Too often we can become so focused on being people pleasers and not realizing that our effort to please people is keeping us from pleasing God. We're trying to do everything else for everybody else and not seeking the approval and glory that comes from the only God. It is easy to slip into, easy to focus on, all the wrong things.

V. Moses’ Witness - The final witness is Moses, John 5:45, “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father…” I'm not going to be your accuser, Jesus says. Remember He's already preached about the resurrection, that one day the graves are going to be opened and everybody is going to be raised either to resurrection of life or to a resurrection of judgment.

A. Jesus says, I'm not the one pointing the finger at you. “… There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.” The great leader of Israel, the great giver of the law, Moses is the one who accuses you.

B. John 5:46-47, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” For Moses to be the accuser of the people is unbelievable.

1. Read Exodus through Deuteronomy. What is the role that Moses played on behalf of the people repeatedly? Intercessor. He always stood and protected the people and would pray to God on their behalf over and over again. Jesus says, He's not your intercessor, he's your accuser.

2. How strange that those leaders, thinking so strongly that they had eternal life through Moses, were unbelievers of the writings of the great lawgiver. Such is the deceptiveness of sin, that people who truly imagine themselves to be believers are in fact no such thing! There were many prophecies in "Moses," regarding Christ. As Hovey said: "This is a perfectly clear testimony on the part of Christ to a Messianic element in the Pentateuch, as well as to the Mosaic authorship of the same."

3. Moses wrote about Jesus through direct prophecies, symbolic types, and foundational stories in the Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy). Some key references include the promised "Seed" who crushes the serpent (Genesis 3:15), Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22:1-18) the prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15), the bronze snake (Numbers 21:4-9) the Star from Jacob (Numbers 24:17) and the Passover Lamb (Exodus 12).

C. The significance of the testimony of Christ here is great. God is the author of the Old Testament, no less than of the New Testament; and there is no way by which a true believer in Christ can avoid full acceptance of God's word as revealed in the Old Testament. It is true now, as it was then, that if men do not believe Moses, they will not believe Christ either.

CONCLUSION: It's a frightening warning to us that it is entirely possible for us to be able to quote this Bible backward and forward and not know one bit of our Lord and not see Him for who He is.

Well, the witnesses have been presented. Jesus is God according to John the Baptizer, according to His own miraculous works, according to the Father, according to the scriptures, and according to Moses. We must search all the scriptures, not just the New Testament, and find Jesus to which all of God’s word points. Then with open hearts we see the glory of God, not the glory of people, so that we will believe in Jesus and put our hope in Him. He is the giver of life and His very words will give life to those who hear Him and obey Him. Today is the day to accept Jesus as the Lord and submit to His words to receive life.

Pull your song books out. We'll sing the Invitation Song. We're inviting you to come to Jesus. He is God. He came to this world and He died for sins. God came in the flesh and died because of our sins.

He allowed that to happen so that we could have forgiveness of sins, so that we could be reconciled back to Him, and so that we could be redeemed, that we could have hope. One day we'd get to be with God and see Him as He is. What a great blessing that He was willing to do this. God takes on the form of a servant, and human flesh, and dies for the people that He created. There’s no greater love.

Turn to Him by repenting of your sins and be immersed in water to have your sins washed away and walk in newness of life with Him until the day that He calls you home.

Won't you come while we stand and sing?

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Reference: Brent Kercheville, James Burton Coffman