Turn with me back to John chapter
5. remarkable discourse that we've,
well, God willing, have spent some time in over this next couple
of weeks. The Lord Jesus Christ has made
these extraordinary claims, and He speaks at the end of this
chapter in the Witnesses. The claims that the Lord Jesus
has made are extraordinary, aren't they? He says, He says, I am
God. He said, I'm one with God in
works, I'm one with God in love, I'm one with God in the purpose
of all things. I am the one who bestows eternal
life. Eternal life is in me. I am the
one charged of God with judgment. I'm one with God in honor. I'm
one with God in life. I'm one with God in his word.
I'm one with God in the resurrection. He doesn't say, I'll show you
the way to God. He says, come to me, I am God. Believe me and
live forever. Believe me and your sins, no
matter how many and how grievous are blotted out, they cease to
exist because I've borne them away in my own body on the cross. Believe me, believe on me, I
am life, true life with God because He's one with Him and all, all
that do not know Him, love Him, honour Him shall perish eternally
and their judgement will be just on that day. And the question that's before
us, the Lord raises the question and answers it. He speaks about
the witnesses and I just want to briefly look at these five
witnesses. We know from all of our reading of scripture and
from our walk in this world that the witnessing of the Lord Jesus
Christ is a witnessing to his people. It's to give his people
comfort. He couldn't have given more evidence than he gave of
his deity before those people. And we must remember that the
Lord Jesus Christ is not up for election. He's not about to try
and prove himself to those who won't believe. It's good to remember
that after the resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ did not
appear to anyone except believers. He could have. He could have
gone down to that temple and confronted Caiaphas and Annas
and all of the others. He could have gone to Pilate's
courts and confronted Pilate. He spoke and went to his own. Verse 31 of John chapter five. He says, if I bear witness of
myself, my witness is not true. We have to be careful of reading
too much into those words because in John chapter eight, verse
14, he says, although I bear record of myself, yet my record
is true. In what sense is it not true
in John chapter five, verse 31? It's under the law. It's under
the law. They were bringing law to him.
And the law is clear, isn't it? Let everything be established,
every word be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses. You can read about that in Deuteronomy
19 and Matthew chapter 18. So he's not saying that he's
telling anything other than the absolute truth. What he's saying
is, in the law, he was made of a woman and he was made under
the law. Under the law, he must have witnesses to verify his
claims. And the first witness. In verse 32, there is another
that beareth witness of me, and I know that the witness which
he witnesses of me is true. Then he speaks of their experience. You sent unto John, you went
up there to John, and he beareth witness unto the truth. And he
says, but I received not the testimony from man, but these
things I say that you might be saved. And he speaks of John,
verse 35. He was a burning and a shining
light, and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. John the Baptist. bears witness
of me, he says in verse 32. John the Baptist came declaring,
behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He
is the one that was promised. He is the one who had that miraculous
birth. And if these priests And Pharisees
had examined what happened in Jerusalem just 30 years earlier. They would have realized that
there was a miraculous event in that temple when Zacharias'
mouth was stopped and he saw an angel and he received those
remarkable promises. And then Zacharias His father,
John the Baptist's father, preached the most remarkable sermon in
Luke chapter 1, and it's worth going to look at it. And the
promise of the Old Testament was before, in Malachi was, Behold,
I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming in the great
and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the hearts
of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children
to their fathers. lest I come and smite the earth
with a curse." And the Lord speaks of him in Matthew 11. He says,
and if you will receive it, this is Elias. This is the Elijah
that was to come. And then he says, who has ears
to hear, let him hear. John the Baptist bore the most
remarkable witness to the Lord Jesus Christ in his life, in
his testimony. What a great witness, isn't it? Behold the Lamb of God. Just
gaze upon the Lamb of God. He takes away the sin of the
world. Behold Him. He is a burning and shining light. And the Lord is giving these
witnesses that you might be saved. That's why He's saying these
things. John the Baptist bore witness to Him. We looked at
that earlier, and you can read his remarkable testimony of the
Lord in those first three chapters of John's Gospel. He has a second
witness. We must hurry for want of time.
Verse 36 of John's Gospel is a second witness. But I have
a greater witness than that of John. The works which the Father
hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness
of me that the Father hath sent me. This man is standing there
accused of lawbreaking and yet what a remarkable witness he
gave in his works. He just speaks a word and creation
obeys. He speaks a word and man obeys. He speaks a word and new life
from heaven comes. He speaks a word. The same works I do bear witness
of me that the Father sent me." That was the purpose of the works,
that he would bear witness by his works that the Father had
sent him. He's the one that came from the
Father, the one that was with the Father in eternity. And there's
one particular work that the Lord Jesus Christ performed which
was reserved for the Messiah and you can read about the blind
man knew this in John chapter 9 that only Messiah heals the
blind and you can read of Messiah's healing of the blind in John
in Psalm 148 and in Isaiah it's mentioned on several occasions
I love what Isaiah 42 says of the Lord Jesus Christ healing
the blind. See, the healing of the blind
is a picture, isn't it, of Him opening the eyes of the blind
that they might behold the Lord Jesus Christ and behold Him in
His glory, behold Him in His covenant offices. He is the covenant
of the people and he is the light of the Gentiles. That's what
it is to see, to have your eyes open that you actually see. And
if you see, you'll see him in his glory if he gives you eyes
to see. But in Isaiah chapter 42, he
says, I will bring the blind by a way they knew not. I will lead them in paths they
haven't known. I will make darkness light before
them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them. You think of the remarkable pictures
we have in the New Testament. In John chapter nine, you think
of blind Bartimaeus, went on his way. What was the way of
blind Bartimaeus? The way of blind Bartimaeus was
to follow the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross in Jerusalem. These
are mighty works and they are proof. They are witnesses. These mighty works, he pleads
with them, isn't he? He pleads with them to look to
these works and to consider what they really mean. In John chapter
10 he says, I told you and you believed not. The works that
I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me. He says,
though you believe not me, believe the works that you may know and
believe that the Father is in me and I in him, John 10, 38. In John 14, he says, believe
me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe
me for the very works sake. It's almost as if He's saying,
believe on any basis, believe. Trust him, trust him, rest in
him. In John 15, 23, he says, if I had not done among them
the works which none other man ever did, and the blind man knew
this, he had much more interest in being healed of blindness
than anyone else in Jerusalem at that time. He had a particular
personal interest in it, so he knew exactly what the Old Testament
scriptures were saying. If I had not done the works among
them which none other man did, they had not seen. But now they have both seen."
They saw these works. Nicodemus saw them. They've seen
in their response and hated both me and my father. Once again, the witness is for
God's people to look to him and see the glory of him. And it's also, these are gospel,
all these healings are gospel pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ
dealing with sinners and bringing them to himself. The Lord's miracles
were enormous, weren't they? They were great in number. There
were many, many, many. All that had need, he said it
in the gospel, all that had need came to him and were healed.
They were remarkable supernatural acts, weren't they? The Old Testament
prophets performed remarkable acts, but the Lord Jesus Christ
acts were just great and supernatural, and they were public. They were
public. They're not done in a corner,
as Acts says. It was not done secretly. They
were public miracles for all to behold, and they were always
works of love and mercy and compassion. They were just always those things,
weren't they? They never benefited him other
than a display of his glory that the Father had sent him. He could
have healed his thirst, cured his thirst and his hunger, but
he didn't. They were real. They were real
miracles. They were visible miracles. There
were miracles to be examined. It says in 1 Corinthians that
500 saw the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ on that mount, 500.
And Paul says, go and see, go if you have any doubts about
what I'm saying, go back down there to Galilee, and the 500
are nearly all still alive, and just examine them. And they were unique, as I just
said. Only he could heal the blind. He has witnesses, doesn't
he? John the Baptist. is his witness,
his works is his witness. And I love what he says. He's
come to finish the works. He's finished the works. He's
finished. He's finished the law. He's finished
the prophecies. He's finished the sacrifices. He's finished all the pictures
of the Old Testament law and his grace and mercy to his people. He's finished sin. He's finished
death. And he has a third witness, verse
37, turn there with me in your Bibles. And the Father himself
which has sent me hath borne witness of me. You have neither
heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. But God the
Father spoke. In almost all the rest of the
Bible, when there is a voice from God, it's the Lord Jesus
Christ who visits and speaks. But at his baptism, God the Father
said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. At
his transfiguration, he again says, this is my beloved son,
hear him, hear him. At his death, the sun refused to shine. At
his birth, the angels sang, and a star was placed over the place
of his birth. In John chapter 12, the Father
spoke from heaven, and the people thought it was just a thundering. There were witnesses from heaven. The angels spoke, spoke to the
disciples of this same Jesus coming back. The Father has spoken, and men
who have heard are responsible. Listen to what the Lord says
in verse 38 in response to this. And ye have not his word abiding
in you, for whom he has sent, him you believe not. You've got to remember the context
of this. There is this man that's healed standing before them and
them coming and then taking no notice of the healing and all
they're doing is finding fault with the Lord Jesus Christ. You
haven't seen his voice at any time and you haven't seen his
shape. And then Philip asked, show us
the father and it'll suffice. And Lord Jesus Christ said, I've
been with you all this time, Philip. If you've seen me, you've
seen the father. You've seen me, you've seen the
Father. These people have the Word of
God memorized. But listen to what God says.
It's not abiding in you. The Word of God abides in His
people. Our God speaks, there is a witness
of John the Baptist, there's a witness of his works, there's
the witness of God the Father speaking, and there is a fourth
witness. Verse 39 is remarkable, isn't
it? Listen to it. Search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life. But they, and they
are they, which testify of me. See the Jews, like lots of people
in religion, think that they have eternal life because of
their knowledge of the scriptures. But they are they which testify
of me. Everything in the Old Testament,
every picture, every picture, every type, every prophecy is
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sufferings, as Peter summarises
it in 1 Peter 1.11, it's the sufferings of Christ and the
glory which should follow. These men
brought the law of God to the Lord Jesus Christ and hated he
who was the Sabbath. They thought they were honouring
the written word of God in their hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but they despised the living word who was standing before
them. They were, in reality, idolaters, and they refused to
worship the Lord Jesus Christ. They are they which testify of
me. Testify of him as God, the Son
of God, the mighty God of Isaiah chapter nine, the prophet of
Deuteronomy 18, the priest and the king, the one and only God. For Herm, all of the Old Testament
scriptures gave such an extraordinary narrative that it was almost
as if, in that last week of his life, they actually had a script
written from the Old Testament for every act that they performed. And it was written, and then
on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ led them to Psalm 22,
and he asked them to recite it with him while they were performing
Psalm 22 right before their own very eyes, and they were so blind,
they couldn't see it. And then verse 40, he says, you
search, he says you search the scriptures. You think you have
eternal life for your knowledge of the Bible. But the Bible,
this Bible, this book before us is all about him. It's a hymn
book, it's a hymn book. In verse 40 he says, and you
will not come to me that you will, that you might have life. I receive not honor from men,
but I know you, God in you. I come in my Father's
name and you receive me not. If another shall come in his
own name, him you will receive." Such is the state of man, isn't
it? How often have we been led astray by putting our trust in
man. It's not ever good to put your
trust in man, brothers and sisters. No matter how esteemed, no matter
how much we might like and appreciate the ministry, we esteem one,
the Lord Jesus Christ. you'll take honour from another. How can you believe which receive
honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from
God only? And lastly, let's just look at
the fifth witness in verse 45. Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father. There is one that accuses you,
even Moses, in whom you trust." They'd begun this by going back
to Moses and going back to the Sabbath, and they'd shown very,
very clearly they had no idea what Moses wrote about the Sabbath. They had no idea of who was standing
before them. May God preserve us and protect
us from the blindness of Pharisees. Moses in whom you trust, verse
46. For if you'd believe Moses, if you really believe what Moses
wrote, you wouldn't believe me. If you'd believe Moses, you wouldn't
believe. For he wrote of me. What are the first five books
of the Bible all about? The Lord Jesus Christ. In the
beginning, God created. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Every picture, every type, it's all the Lord Jesus Christ. And
if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my word? May God cause us, as we come
to the scriptures, to find a hymn book. The Lord Jesus Christ is
saying that And he calls on us, doesn't he?
He says, as he says to us, as he says to that woman at the
well, believe me, believe me, believe me. There is no shortage
of evidence that believing is an act of God, a grace gift. May God be pleased. to reveal
himself to you in such a way that we'll just have a simple
childlike faith in who he is and what he said and that we
will find the scriptures. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank you again that you've promised to be the teacher of
your people and you'll teach them to profit. You'll teach them of your dear
and precious Son and the blessed Holy Spirit has promised to come
and take the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, all the glorious
things that we just seem to touch on, Heavenly Father, but have
such a depth of meaning. when we think of who he is and
what he's done and what agonies he went through as he bore our
sins in his own body on the tree. Oh, our Father, we pray that
you'd grant us faith that we would have the faith of children,
children who are dependent, children who look up, children who simply
trust the Lord Jesus Christ. And may we, Heavenly Father,
in his shed blood and his broken body, find rest for our eternal
souls. Find him the rest, both now and
eternally. For we pray in Jesus' name.