This coming Sunday is Easter. So it begs the question, who
was this that died upon the cross and then was raised again because
of our justification? Who was and is Jesus of Nazareth? Back when our Lord came, when
he walked upon the face of this earth, to all natural appearance
and reason, he was just an ordinary man. As he walked through the
world, they called him the Nazarene. They called him the carpenter.
Many called him an evil man, a gluttonous man, a wine-bibber. Isaiah said that when Messiah
would come, he would not be an impressive looking man. He would have no form nor comeliness
to attract people to him. When our Lord was here, he did
not look majestic. As an infant, in the manger of
Bethlehem, he did not have a glow about him. There was not a halo
around his head. There was nothing that would
indicate majesty and kingship, nothing physical to indicate
that he's the son of the living God. We read that he was despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And Isaiah wrote in chapter 53,
and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and
we esteemed him not. There was nothing extraordinary
about the location of his birth. He was born in Bethlehem, but
there was no place for him and his mother in the inn. And so, our Lord Jesus was born
in a manger, born into an insignificant family, a family of poverty,
a family unknown. a family that was low in esteem
to the rest of the world. To escape the wrath of Herod,
Joseph took our Lord Jesus and Mary, his espoused wife, into
Egypt for their protection. He worked as a carpenter in Joseph's
carpenter shop. He began preaching when he was
about 30 years old. And for the most part, he wasn't
heard, at least not at first. As he became famous for his miracles,
a gathering, a great gathering of people would attend his messages. But when it became very clear
that his message was a rebuke to the self-righteous Pharisees,
and it was a message intended for poor sinners who stood in
need of the forgiveness of God, having no goodness about themselves,
when his messages became clear to them, though he had performed
many miracles, The crowds began to fade away, and in the end,
before his death, some women followed him and his disciples,
but that was about all. Everything he taught about himself,
about God, about sin, about salvation, about redemption, about righteousness,
was in direct opposition to the message of the religious leaders
of the day. Finally, our Lord was arrested
on trumped-up charges and some false witnesses were bribed to
lie against Him. And then He was in time crucified,
mocked, ridiculed, laughed at. They punished Him greatly and
then laughed and found entertainment as they watched Him suffer and
bleed to death. And this was the Son of God. They took him down from the cross,
buried him in a borrowed tomb, a tomb which was sealed so that
no one could tamper with it. And so the Jews and the Romans
thought that they were finished with Jesus of Nazareth. Oh, how wrong they were. He who
was despised, he who was rejected, he whose message was hated, that one who was the very holy
one of God, would be raised from the dead. And someday, every
knee shall bow to Him. And all of these folks who mocked
Him, who had no time for Him, who had no concern for their
souls before Him, all of those who needed not the work of Christ
for salvation, All of those who hug their self-righteous rags
a little closer to themselves, all of them will someday stand
and then fall down before this King of Glory. The question then is, who was
and who is Jesus of Nazareth? Some say he was a good man. Others say he was a great reformer. Some say he was the one who began
a new religion. Our Lord, on one occasion, asked
his disciples, he said, who do men say that I, the Son of Man,
am? And some of them said, well,
some say you're John the Baptist come back from the dead. or you're
Jeremiah the weeping prophet. He said, but who do you say that
I am? And I would take our Lord's words
and address them to each of us, to all of you who are here, to
myself and to those who are watching. Who do you say that he is? And
Simon Peter said, thou art the Christ. the son of the living
God. He is David's Lord and he's David's son. How can
that be? That greatly puzzled the people
of his day. Every week I call on you I call
on those who are watching to find your rest and your salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is oh so serious. There is no issue in your life
as important as knowing and being found in and resting in the Lord
of glory, Christ Jesus. There is no issue more important
than being bathed, washed in His sin-cleansing blood. There is no issue more important
than being found dressed in the righteousness of the Son of God,
which God freely imputes to sinners. Not because of anything we do,
Not because of anything we ask. Not because of who we are as
far as any goodness is concerned, for we have none. But God makes
us the righteousness of Christ by means of the bloody sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as amazing as it is, We stand
before a holy God tonight in the beauties of our blessed Savior. Nothing is more important than
that. And I urge you who are here and
those of you who are watching, Don't ever lose sight of the
fact that this is the most important of all the important issues of
your life. There's nothing greater, nothing
more vital than this. Knowing Christ, or may I put it this way, being
known of Christ. This is the greatest thing. In
the passage that I have read to you, I want to identify five
witnesses that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Christ. He is the anointed
one. He is the promised one. He is
the one who was anointed for his ministry by the Holy Spirit. Anointed by the Holy Spirit when
he came up out of the waters of baptism, having been baptized
by John the Baptist. He was anointed as that prophet
that Moses wrote about in the book of Deuteronomy. He was anointed
as the true high priest after the order of Melchizedek, greater
than Aaron, one who can stand toe to toe, as it were, and eye
to eye with God the Father Himself. He was anointed to be our prophet,
our teacher, our go-between, our mediator, our great high
priest. He was anointed to be prophet,
priest, and king. He is the king. There is nothing
in existence, there has never been anything in existence that
is outside or has been outside the realm of the authority of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Upon the basis of his faithfulness
in laying down his life as the sacrifice for his people, God
has given to him all power, all authority over all things. And therefore he can give eternal
life and he will give eternal life to those that the Father
has given to him. Here in these verses, our Lord
is speaking, and He declares five manifestations, five assurances,
five witnesses that He is the Christ. I know they accused Him
of being an imposter. They accused Him of being a hypocrite. They accused Him of being the
enemy of Caesar. They accused Him of doing His
miracles. Can you believe this? By the
very power of Beelzebub. That's what they said. That's
how much they hated the Son of God. But notwithstanding all
of their accusations, He brought before them witnesses that would
testify, that did testify of who His identity truly was. He stood before these people
who were ready to kill Him. You will remember in the context
at the beginning of this chapter, He had healed a lame man. who for 38 years had laid by
the pool waiting for the water to be troubled and he couldn't
get in. And our Lord Jesus that day walked through that area
of the temple. And he could have ministered
to anyone else or he could have ministered to all of them. Our
Lord had the authority and the power to heal everybody who was
crowded around that pool. But he only ministered to one
man. Learn the sovereignty of the
mercy and grace of God. And in your case, and in my case,
There were so many around us who knew not God, who didn't
know anything about the way of redemption, the way of salvation. So many in our families, so many
in our neighborhood who had no thoughts about God, not the true
God, and no thoughts about the Lord Jesus Christ, but he ministered
to us. He did not pass us by. Oh, what
grace. Oh, what mercy. He did not leave me like He found
me. He found me wrapped up in false
religion. He could have left me there.
And I would have been very content because I didn't know any better.
But He wouldn't leave me alone. And that's the case with you.
He could have left you. Were you out in the world living
a wild life? Perhaps. Were you in church minding
your manners and living a moral life, but all the while being
a self-righteous person? He could have left you there.
He could have left you where He found you, but He did not
do that. He purposed to set us aside for
His own glory to save us by His awesome grace. Our Lord saved this lame man, and the people got mad because He did it on the Sabbath
day. And he told that man who had
been lame for 38 years, take up your bed and walk. And that man, he just started
like dancing. He was just thrilled. And those
self-righteous Pharisees, I can almost see them in my mind's
eye. Oh, who does this man think he
is? Who did this? Who told you to
pick up your bed and walk? A man named Jesus. And then they went after our
Lord. He said, who gave you the authority
to do that? And our Savior said, my Father
worketh hitherto and I work. And then they were really steaming. You could see the smoke coming
out of their ears. They're furious, furious. They thought he had insulted
God. And he said, my father worketh
hither too, and I work, and picked up stones to stone him. And our Lord Jesus now, he began
to present to them evidences of his authority, evidences of
his deity. evidences of his great power,
evidences that he was, and he still is by the way, the son
of the living God, his deity. If he's not God, he's the greatest
imposter who ever lived. If he's not the son of God, he
is indeed more than a hypocrite, he's a false prophet. But if he is God, and he is,
fall down, proud sinner, and worship him. Bow before his scepter of righteousness,
who alone can save you. He calls his first witness. It's
as though John the Baptist took the stand. You swear to tell
the truth, nothing but the truth, so help you God. And John the
Baptist, as it were, says, I will. John the Baptist was the one
Malachi spoke of in Malachi chapter four, where the Lord said, behold,
I send you Elijah, Elijah the prophet, before the coming of
the great and dreadful day of the Lord. This is our Lord's
reference to John the Baptist. In fact, he said in Matthew chapter
11, and if you will receive it, this is Elias or Elijah, which
was to come. He that hath ears to hear, let
him come. John the Baptist spoke of him.
And if we have the time to go back to John chapter one, John
the Baptist spoke of him with great intensity and honesty and
in truthfulness and in reverence. They said, are you the Christ?
He said, not me, not me. He said, I'm his forerunner. Who are you? He could have answered
this way, I was the subject of Old Testament prophecies, and
he would have been correct. I mean, he was somebody, if we
want to start talking about somebody who had authority. But you know what he said? He
didn't say, I'm John the Baptist. You know what he said? I'm a
voice. I'm a voice. Watch most of the television
preachers today. Listen to the preachers on the
radio and make sure you know their name and their address
and their 800 number where you can call and pledge so much money. Well, John, aren't you going
to give them your address so they can send you money? Aren't
you going to advertise how great you are? He said, I'm just a voice. That's all any preacher of the
gospel is, just a voice. No preachers be worshiped or
elevated to a high position that he's not entitled to because
if you put him on a pedestal, God's gonna see to it that he
falls off that pedestal and then you're gonna find out he's just
a mere man. He's God's man with God's message,
if he's the true minister. But he's not worthy of your worship. Worship the Son of God. Our Lord Jesus says to these
people, look in verse 34. But I received not testimony
from man, but these things I say that you might be saved. He was
a burning and shining light. That was John the Baptist. And
you were willing, watch it now, for a season, for a season to
rejoice in his light. But it was only for a season.
And then they got mad at the voice. Didn't like what the voice
was saying. The voice was exalting God and
debasing man. They didn't like what the voice
had to say. Herod didn't like what he had
to say. Put him in prison. And finally John the Baptist
lost his head. They didn't rejoice in him anymore. but the second witness of the
works that God gave Christ to finish. He mentions this, look
in verse 36, But I have greater witness than that of John, for
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. And He did many works. We know
that. He healed the sick. He caused
the lame to walk. He gave eyesight to the blind.
He gave hearing to the deaf. He did so many miracles, but people didn't believe Him. But the greatest work that the
Father gave Him to finish was the work of redemption. And we glory in that work. I read something this morning,
and I don't know if you got today's paper, you know, Easter's, they
got all kinds of things to say about Easter. And, you know,
he made forgiveness available for you. I'll tell you something about
forgiveness. It's ours through Christ who finished the work
of redemption God gave Him to do. Our Lord Jesus never set out
to do anything and then was hindered or frustrated from doing it.
He came to lay down His life, to give His life a ransom for
many, and that's what He did. He paid the ransom to the justice
of God. He didn't make redemption and
salvation available. He completed the work and He
said on the cross, it is finished. It is perfected. Everything I
came to do, I have finished. He never began a work that He
didn't finish. You ever start a project and
you don't get around to finishing it? or it isn't finished the
way you intended for it to be finished after it was all said
and done, that can't be said of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said in Hebrews chapter 12
and verse 2 concerning the work of redemption, this was the joy
set before Him. It was His joy, it was His delight
to give His life for us. To die in our stead so that we
wouldn't die. That was his greatest joy. To save me, that gave him joy. To save me, he wore the crown
of thorns. He felt the nails in his hand
and his feet. the spear in his side. But more
than that, because that's all that men focus on, the physical
sufferings of Christ, he bore the wrath of God in my stead. He felt the agony of being forsaken
by the Father so that I wouldn't be forsaken by the Father. He said, I thirst. He thirsted
for the presence of God so that I won't ever thirst for the presence
of God. He felt all that for me and for
you, for you. He finished the works that the
Father gave him to do. And then the third visit, third
witness was God the Father. 37 and 38, and the Father himself,
which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye've neither
heard his voice at any time or seen his shape. and ye have not
his word abiding in you. What's the evidence that they
didn't have the word of God abiding in them? For he whom God hath
sent, he said, you believe not. What's the evidence that the
word of God abides in you? I'll tell you, he whom God has
sent, we believe. We believe, not like we ought
to and not like we're going to, but we do believe him. And we
love him. Our Lord asked Simon Peter, Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? Lord, you know
all things. I do love you. And he knows my heart and he
knows your heart, but knowing that God is my witness,
I said, I do love Christ. I do believe him, don't you?
I believe him. I'm not ashamed of that. The father acknowledged who he
was at his baptism. This is my beloved son, whom
I'm well pleased on the Mount of Transfiguration. And in the
totality of all of the word of God, God's word is all about
his son and his sacrifice for his people. And Christ said to
these people, you have not the word of God in you. You memorize
it. You read it. You read it every
Sabbath day, but you don't have the word of God
in you because if you had the word of God in you, you'd believe
the incarnate word, the incarnate word. You'd believe him. The
scriptures, the fourth thing, fourth witness. He says, search
the scriptures, or literally, you do search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they
which testify of me. All of the book of God's about
him. He says, for in them you think
you have eternal life. The Jews of our Lord's day, like
the religious folks of our day, They presume that by memorizing
parts of the Bible that prove they're God's children. I'll
have you know I can quote the Ten Commandments verbatim. Good
for you. Do you know why God gave them?
Not so you can brag about quoting them and then say, well, I keep
them all. He gave the Ten Commandments
to shut your mouth and tell you you're guilty. People don't see
that. Let's run the country according
to the Ten Commandments. That's not why God gave the law.
I think I'll be in every courthouse in the country. That's not why
God gave the law. He gave the law to pronounce
all of us guilty as charged. The law's given to shut your
mouth. We think we're good, we think we're righteous, think
we're faithful, think we're wonderful people. The law of God says nothing
good about you. That's what the law of God says. The scripture is all about him.
You see, these Jews, they adored the Scriptures they said, but
they despised the Savior of whom the Scriptures speak. They reverenced the written Word,
but they hated the incarnate Word. And they made idols of the ordinances. I was reading in the paper this
morning Easter sunrise service. Whoopee. Go ahead and get up early if
you want to and worship the sun that rises. I don't know what
the purpose of that is except it is a show of religion. And God's not impressed with
that. I never have been for a sunrise service. Because my experience
from hearing about them and people telling me about them is that
it's only about the S-U-N and not about the S-O-N and the reason
he came into this world, which was to lay down his life, a sacrifice
for sin. They don't know that. It's really
a sad thing. The ignorance that pervades religion. Christ said, they testify of
me. And then the fifth witness is
Moses and the law. Our Lord points to Moses and
the law as the fifth witness to him. Everything Moses wrote, every
prophecy, every precept, every promise, every pattern, every
picture, pointed to Christ. They didn't have a clue what
Moses was talking about. They didn't know that Moses was
writing of Christ. You know that, don't you? Why do you reckon we have an
understanding that all the scriptures are about Christ Jesus? Who made
the difference between us and mere religionists? Well, you
know, the Lord makes a difference. He just set us aside. Here we were going with the crowd,
rushing toward hell, not even knowing it. And the Lord stepped
in among the oceans of people around us and said, I want you. And He set you apart. He showed
you something of your sin. And He showed you who He was.
Who He is. He gave you a new heart. A new mind. New desires. New wants. I want what He wants,
don't you? That's what I want. Thy will
be done. That's what I want. Not my will. Well, I hope that'll help you
a little bit. Let's get our psalm books. Hymn number 184, a glorious church
without spot or wrinkle. And listen, that's us. That's
us. A glorious church, 184.