Witnesses for the Son of God

INTRO

We are jumping into John chapter 5. What I like about the Gospel of John is that it feels new and fresh. Yesterday we talked about Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. We saw Jesus break all the norms. He went out of His way to minister, love, listen, and respond to a woman who should not have been interacting with a Jewish rabbi at all. Jesus continued to model how He loves people. John 5:1–15 are all about signs. Jesus had performed the third sign. Remember, there are seven signs. Here Jesus was performing a miracle by healing a sick person. John 5:16–23 are all about honoring the Father and the Son. These verses serve as a transition from Father and Son to life and judgment. Remember, the phrase for the book of John is Son of God.

TEACHING

John 5:30: This is a transitional verse. Dr. Tom Constable wrote, “Jesus’ point was that He could not do anything independently of the Father (‘on My own initiative’), because of His submission to Him (‘I do not seek My own will’). His ‘judgment’ is the result of listening to His Father. His judgment ‘is just’ because the desire for self-glory does not taint it. The Son’s ‘will’ is totally to advance (‘seek’ only) the Father’s ‘will.’”¹Here you have the Father’s testimony about the Son. God said, “This is my Son! This is Whom I am proud of!” The Father is one of the three witnesses to validate Christ’s identity. (Deuteronomy 19:15.) For any claim to be considered true, two or three witnesses were required to validate it.

John 5:31–32: Jesus said, “If I testify about Myself, My testimony is not valid” (v. 31). Does this contradict John 8:14? I don’t think so. In John 8:14, Jesus was talking about His personal knowledge, here Jesus was discussing the things His Father knew. When Jesus said, there was ‘Another’ who would testify about Him, He was talking about the Father.

John 5:33–35: The first witness was John the Baptist. Keep in mind that Jesus was talking to the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus referred to the conversation that the religious leaders had with John the Baptist (John 1:7,19). John spoke the truth about the identity of Christ. Jesus was the living Lord.

When John witnessed Jesus approaching him, he instantly recognized that Jesus was the Son of God:

John 1:29: “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

John 1:33: “I didn’t know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The One you see the Spirit descending and resting on—He is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’”

John 1:34: “I have seen and testified that He is the Son of God!”

Jesus pointed out that for a season these religious leaders were willing to enjoy John’s light. (Psalm 132:17; 2 Corinthians 4:7.)

John 5:36: The second witness was Jesus’ works. He said, “John’s was good but I have a better witness! Look at My works!” (Isaiah 35:5-6; Isaiah 61; Luke 4; John 10:25; John 14:11). Jesus’ works literally pointed to the Father working through Him. Jesus was using common language.

Dr. Constable wrote, “These works included all of Jesus’ activities: His miracles, His life of perfect obedience, and His work of redemption on the cross. Miracles alone did not prove Jesus’ deity, since Moses, Elijah, and Elisha had done miracles, too. Everything that Jesus did was simply an extension of the Father’s work (vv. 19–30).”²John 17:4 said, “I have glorified You on the earth by completing the work You gave Me to do.” Everything we do should point to or testify of Christ!

John 5:37–38: The third witness was the Father Himself. Dr. Constable wrote, “Probably Jesus meant the Father’s total witness to Jesus, including: Old Testament prophecies, plus prophetic events and institutions—including His witness at Jesus’ baptism.”³I believe there is a distinction between the Father and Scripture. Constable wrote, “He [Jesus] probably meant all of God’s anticipatory revelation about Jesus.”⁴Hebrews 1:1 explains, “Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways” (Genesis 32:30-31; Exodus 33).

John 5:39–47: The final testimony is the Scriptures.

John 3:34: “For God sent Him, and He speaks God’s words, since He gives the Spirit without measure.”

John 17:7–8: “Now they know that all things You have given to Me are from You, because the words that You gave Me, I have given them. They have received them and have known for certain that I came from You. They have believed that You sent Me.”

You can see that the third and fourth witnesses definitely go together. These religious leaders believed that there was more hope in the Scripture than in Christ.

The Jewish leaders poured into the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 8:1). Your knowledge is pointless if you don’t see the love of Christ. Nelson’s Commentary states, “There are also those today who master the Scriptures, but do not allow the Scriptures to master them.”⁵Jesus wants more than Scripture reading, He wants Bible heeding (James 1:22-25). Why read Scripture if you have no love for God?

Jesus said, “Your accuser is Moses.” Moses was always pointing to the Son of God. These religious leaders were not listening to Moses. If they had believed Moses, they would have believed Jesus (Luke 24). Jesus pointed out that if these men were really in the Word of God, they would see He was the Son of God.

CLOSING

Warren Wiersbe asked, “Does our knowledge of the Bible give us a ‘big head’ or a ‘burning heart’?”⁶Paul emphasized, “We know that ‘we all have knowledge.’ Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1).

Do you have a big head or a burning heart? If it’s about knowledge, you’ve missed it. It is all about the heart change. We have only had time to literally just scratch the surface of these Scriptures. I encourage you to go back and dig into these verses.