The Gospel of John Lesson 13
INTRODUCTION: 1. Two weeks ago we saw that our Lord healed a certain impotent man by the pool of Bethesda (5:1-9). This should have been cause for great celebration. The man had this infirmity for 38 years (5:5). 2. But rather than rejoice, the religious leaders were upset by the miracle, especially since it happened on the Sabbath day. From this point on, they were determined to kill our Lord (5:10-18). 3. Our Lord did not argue with them over the Sabbath, but rather He stressed His authority as the Son of God. As the Son of God He was equal in power and authority with God the Father. To the Jewish religious leaders, this was considered blasphemy (5:18). 4. Last week we saw that God the Father has committed all judgment unto the Lord Jesus Christ (5:22). Furthermore, our Lord said that He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father (5:23). 5. First John 2:23 says, “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.” 6. Regarding the charge of blasphemy, our Lord defended Himself on the ground that He was not bearing witness about Himself (5:30, 31). 7. The Scofield Bible says, “In John 5:31 our Lord, defending His Messianic claims before Jews who denied those claims, accepts the biblical rule of evidence, which required ‘two witnesses’” (p. 1121). 8. Our Lord had five witnesses, including Himself. The Scofield Bible lists just four witnesses because it starts with John the Baptist (5:33). 9. Tonight we will begin with our Lord Himself, the first witness (5:31). I.
THE
FIRST WITNESS: THE LORD HIMSELF (5:30,
31). 1. Our Lord said, “I can of mine
own self do nothing…” (5:30).
Our Lord’s actions are never done independently of the Father. Jesus did
everything as under the authority of God the Father (cf.
5:19). 2. There have been many godly men
and women who have sincerely said, “I seek not my own will, but the will of the
Father which hath sent me” (5:30b).
However, even the best of men have a fallen, sinful nature. We are contaminated by our fleshly
nature and will not be totally free of it till we get to
heaven. 3. Only the Lord Jesus Christ
could truly say, “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which
hath sent me.” 4. Harry Ironside said, “The
measure in which you and I as Christians imitate our Lord in this, will
be the measure in which we too shall glorify God down
here.” 5. We should use our Lord as our
great teacher and example. It was He (in the Garden of Gethsemane) who prayed to
God the Father, “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matt.
26:39). 6. It was He who taught His
disciples to pray, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). 7. First John 5:14 says,
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any
thing according to his will, he heareth us.”
8. John 5:31 might be better
understood as, “If I (alone) bear witness of myself…” That is why He proceeded
to give four other witnesses – John the Baptist, the works that He did, God the
Father, and the Scriptures. 9. Scofield explains our Lord’s
words in John 5:31 as, “If I bear witness of myself {ye will say} my witness is
not true.” Cf. John 8:14. 10.So our Lord goes on to say,
“There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness
which he witnesseth of me is true” (John 5:32). His first witness (after Himself) is
John the Baptist. II. THE SECOND WITNESS:
JOHN THE BAPTIST (5:33-35). 1. John 1:15 says, “John bare witness of Him…” 2. Most of the people in our Lord’s day recognized John the Baptist as a prophet (cf. Matt. 14:1-5; 21:23-27). 3. Since
John was so highly esteemed, it would be appropriate for our Lord to introduce
him as a witness. 4. It
was John the Baptist who pointed to Christ and said, “Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). That is quite a testimony! 5. You
will recall that this controversy with the Jewish leaders began when Jesus
declared Himself the Son of God (cf. John 5:18). In fact, all throughout John chapter 5
our Lord refers to Himself as the Son of God (5:17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25,
26, 27, 30, etc.). 6. The
Jews considered this blasphemy. Yet
John the Baptist said back in John 1:34, “And I saw, and bare record that
this is the Son of God.” 7.
Sometimes prosecuting attorneys and defense attorneys do not
always find good witnesses.
The DA out in California was disappointed when one of his witnesses gave
a terrible testimony at the Michael Jackson trial. 8. But
our Lord’s witness was an excellent witness. Our Lord said, “He was a burning and a
shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light” (John
5:35). 9. This
causes us to stop and consider. If
the majority of people believed John the Baptist was a prophet sent from God
(and he certainly was), and if they “were willing for a season to rejoice in his
light” (John 5:35), then why didn’t they accept his preaching? 10. The answer is obvious –
John’s message condemned their sin.
This has always been the case.
Unregenerate people will often acknowledge a man of God, and they may
even enjoy hearing him preach once in a while. But they will not repent of their sin
(cf. Mark 6:14-20). 11. By the way, since our Lord
referred to John the Baptist in the past tense in John 5:35, we can assume that
he had already been beheaded by Herod. III.
THE THIRD WITNESS: THE WORKS (5:36). 1. The reason for our Lord’s
miracles was to prove that He was the promised Messiah. 2. The OT predicted that the
Messiah would heal the sick, give eyesight to the blind, and raise the dead. The lame would walk, lepers
would be cleansed, and the deaf would hear. 3. All of this and more our Lord
fulfilled during His brief earthly ministry. 4. When D.L. Moody was a young
preacher he had to conduct a funeral.
To prepare himself Moody started reading the life of Jesus. After reading all four Gospels, Moody
said, “You can’t find any direction as to how to conduct a funeral service in
the life of Christ. Jesus broke up
every funeral He ever attended.” 5. These mighty miracles were
performed to alleviate human suffering and to help mankind. And they were done so that
sinners might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (cf. John 20:30, 31). IV.
THE
FOURTH WITNESS: GOD THE FATHER (5:37,
38). 1. When our Lord was baptized in
the Jordan River by John the Baptist, God the Father bore witness that Jesus is
the Son of God (cf. Matt. 3:16, 17). 2. And up on the Mount of
Transfiguration the disciples Peter, James, and John heard a similar testimony
from heaven (Matt. 17:1-7). 3. There was a third time the Lord
spoke from heaven, and it is recorded in John 12:28, 29. Three times the voice of God the Father
was heard from heaven accrediting the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
His only begotten Son. 4. The disciples heard the voice
of God. And John 12:29 says, “The
people therefore, that stood by, and heard it…” But our Lord said to the
unbelieving Jews in John 5:37, “Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor
seen His shape.”
5. Have you heard the voice
of God? Does His Word abide in you
(5:38)?
V. THE FIFTH WITNESS: THE
SCRIPTURES (5:39). 1. When our Lord made this
statement there was no NT. Back
then, “the Scriptures” were the OT (cf. Luke 24:25-27; John 5:45-47; Luke 16:31). 2. Moses wrote of Christ (5:45-47)
– in type and in prophecy – the ark of Noah, the offering of Isaac, Jacob’s
ladder, the story of Joseph, the Passover lamb, the manna from heaven, the
smitten rock, the brazen serpent lifted up, and many other types. 3. Moses said, “The LORD
thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy
brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken” (Deut. 18:15). 4. A person cannot claim to
believe the OT and at the same time reject Christ (John 5:39,
40). 5. For example, Jews claim to
revere the OT but they are only familiar with certain parts of it. They deliberately ignore Isaiah 53 (John
5:39, 40). 6. On the basis of John 5:40 I
cannot accept the doctrine of a limited atonement. If limited atonement were true, our Lord
would have said, “And ye cannot come to me…” but instead He said, “And ye
will not come to me…” (5:40). 7. The problem is not total
inability; the problem is total depravity.
There is a difference (cf. Matt. 23:37; Ezek.
33:11).
CONCLUSION: 1. This entire passage deals with
the rejection of Christ, particularly Israel’s rejection of
Christ. 2. They did not honor our Lord
(5:23, 40-44). 3. When the antichrist comes,
unbelieving Jews (and all lost sinners) will honor the antichrist (John
5:43). 4. We are getting very close to
that day. |