The Witnesses to Christ (John 5:31–47) — A Sermon by R.C. Sproul

0:01 We will continue now with our study of the gospel according to St. John. This morning we're in the fifth chapter of that gospel, beginning at verse 31, reading through verse 47. John chapter 5, verses 31 through 47. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesses of me is true. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. But I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.

1:03 He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in His light. But I have a greater witness than John's, for the works which the Father has given me to finish, the very works that I do bear witness of Me that the Father has sent Me. And the Father Himself who sent Me has testified of Me. And you have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His Word abiding in you, because whom He sent, him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life.

2:01 And these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. I do not receive honor from men, but I know you that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. And yet if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.

3:02 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words? He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let them hear it. Let us pray. Father, as we examine now so briefly this testimony of Christ, we pray that the full impact of its truth may pierce our souls, penetrate between bone and marrow, that we may be changed by this truth. We ask these things in the name of Christ. Amen. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? So help you God.

4:05 Everybody in this room knows where those words originate. Those are the words that are customarily used in a courtroom in the context of a trial when people are sworn in and by swearing an oath before God promise that their testimony will be true and not an exercise in perjury. The idea of giving true witness in a law court was so important to Israel in the Old Testament that when God fashioned the bedrock constitution of His people, He included in their top ten laws a law against the bearing of false witness. In the Old Testament, in capital crimes that were tried at the gate before the judges of the land, before the death penalty could be given, and a person executed, there had to be at least two eyewitnesses to the crime who gave testimony, and their testimony had to agree completely. And there were strong sanctions in Israel against anyone who delivered a false witness in a capital crime. That person was subject himself to the death penalty. And so great care was taken about how the truth could be discerned in the context of a trial. Now, the reason I go back over that background is that this section that I've read this morning has to do with charges that are being brought against Jesus

6:12 by His contemporaries, by the officials of the Jewish community. We saw what preceded this particular chapter in previous weeks, where He was charged with violating the Sabbath law for ordering a man to pick up his bed and to walk with it. And so the language of this text is bathed in the legalese of the Jewish community of the first century. We need to understand that lest we get confused or misled by some of the statements that we read. In fact, the first one is striking. Jesus said, if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. Now, how many times in Scripture does Jesus make statements and pronouncements about His own mission, about His own work, and about His own identity?

7:13 He does it over and over and over again. And here He says, if I bear witness to myself, my witness is not true. Is He telling us then not to believe Him whenever He declares who He is or what His mission is? Now, what he is saying here is in the context of the legal community. He's saying that legally, my testimony is not valid in a courtroom unless it is verified or corroborated by other sources. Last week at the office, I had to sign some documents for the bank, and there was a place for me to write my name at the bottom of this official document, and then on the next section over was a line for somebody to sign who was a witness to this transaction. Now suppose I would have signed my name on the left as the party of the first part, as it were, and then on the line that called for a witness, I put my name there too. That wouldn't work, would it? Because I can't bear witness to my own witness. I need somebody else to confirm that I was the one who in fact had signed on the first line. I can't sign the second line proving that I was the one that signed the first line. That's what Jesus means when He says here, if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. It's not true in the sense that it's not valid in the courtroom.

9:01 But He said, there's another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness that He witnesses of Me is true. Now, here is, of course, referring in the first instance to God Himself. Then he adds, you have sent to John, for he has borne witness to the truth. Yet I don't receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved. He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. Remember when I talked about John the Baptist, that John the Baptist at this time in Jewish history when Jesus was uttering these words was more famous than Jesus was. had created a national stir when he appeared coming out of the wilderness and baptizing people at the Jordan, because John had restored the office of the Old Testament prophet to the land after God had been silent in Israel for 400 years. So every Jew in Israel had heard of John the Baptist. And before his life was snuffed out by the whim of Herod, he was extremely popular, and Jesus described him as a burning and shining light. It was a light that brought not only illumination, but also it was a light that brought with it intense heat. So in contemporary language, we would have to say John was hot at this time in the national history. He was a burning and shining lamp before the people, and Jesus reminds these leaders of Israel, there was a time when you basked in the light of John. But remember when we started this study of the gospel of John in the

11:12 very first chapter, we were introduced to John, and we were told there what? He was not the light that lights every man coming into the world, but His task was to bear witness to the light. And so here Jesus is saying in the context of the courtroom, my primary witness in this world was John the Baptist. He bore witness to me. He announced me before you. He's the one who said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But you don't believe Him.

12:01 even though for a time you basked in the glory of His light. But I have a greater witness, He said, than John's, for the works which the Father has given me to finish, the very works that I do, bear witness of me that the Father has sent me, and the Father Himself who sent Me has testified of Me." And let me comment on that briefly. Jesus does something that was not strange in His day, but something that we tend to overlook every time it comes up in the New Testament, and that is the purpose and function of miracles. I've talked to you about this before because the biblical purpose of miracles has all but been eclipsed in the contemporary church.

12:59 Some people today look at the biblical miracles and they say, the miracles of the New Testament prove the existence of God. No, they don't. The existence of God is manifest and proven long before a single miracle ever takes place. In other words, for a miracle to be recognized as a miracle presupposes the existence of God because a miracle, technically and correctly defined, is a work that only God can do, such as bringing something out of nothing and bringing life out of death. That's why I, as a voice crying in the wilderness, have pled with you not to believe that Satan can do actual miracles. He can perform counterfeit tricks, but he can't do what God can do. He can't bring something out of nothing, and he can't bring life out of death. Those are things that only God can do.

13:53 And the significance in the New Testament for miracle is what the philosopher John Locke once described as the crediting of the proposer, that the presence of miracle authenticates the messenger, that the messenger has been sent from God. Again, just a couple of chapters earlier, we saw Nicodemus coming at night to Jesus, and do you remember his opening words? Good teacher, we know that you are a teacher sent from God, or you would not be able to do the things that you do. That was sound reasoning. He understood that it was impossible to perform miracles unless God was endorsing you. That's why you have to be very, very careful with your understanding of miracle in our day, because there are people running around this world who are theological quacks of the worst kind, who are claiming that they are performing miracles. And if they really are, then their writings ought to go in the next edition of the New Testament, because if they're really doing miracles, then God is authenticating them as agents of revelation, which of course He is not doing. So in any case, Jesus here appeals to His miracles as a corroborative witness to His claims. The Father is bearing witness to Me by giving me the power to perform the miracles that you have seen. If you won't believe my words, he said, believe me for my works' sake. My works ought to be enough to prove to you that I am the one that the Father sent. And notice that he's not saying that by doing my works,

16:03 I am proving that I am the Son of God. No. Doing the works that I'm doing, that only God could do, evidences God's authenticating my identity. That's the point that he's making here. And then he said, you have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form, But you do not have His Word abiding in you, because whom He sent, him you do not believe." Now, these people obviously had not been present at the occasion of Jesus' baptism, because on that occasion the voice from God was audible. Remember that when the dove came upon Jesus at His baptism, and the heavens opened, and the voice was heard from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. So that God gave audible testimony to His Son. Three times the New Testament tells us, as I've mentioned before, that God speaks audibly. And in every one of those occasions, what is God saying? He's calling attention to the identity of Jesus as His Son. This is My Son, the voice from heaven says. Hear Him. Listen to Him. But even on that occasion, not everyone who was present understood the words, because we were told some thought it was thunder.

17:54 That is, to those who did not have the ears to hear the voice of God, that voice was muffled, lest they hear. But those whose hearts were open to the things of God heard distinctly what the Father had said, this is My Son. So, so far we have John the Baptist bearing witness. We have the miracles of Christ bearing witness. We have the audible voice of the Father Himself bearing witness. And if you don't mind my repeating another point that I've made a hundred times in here, and I'll probably never get tired of saying it, because I still see the bumper stickers, they're still out there. My protest to the contrary, they fall on deaf ears, I still see them. You know what they say, God said it, I believe it, that settles it.

18:55 How arrogant is that? We're going to write a new bumper sticker, and what's it going to say? God says it. That settles it. It doesn't matter whether I believe it. It's settled long before my ascent and long before I concur with the message. If God Almighty opens His holy mouth and declares something, we don't need another witness. It's over. It's settled. But Jesus said, you have John the Baptist, but I'm not depending upon human witness. You've seen the miracles, so that doesn't convince you. My Father testified from heaven itself. but the defense attorney here has a parade of witnesses to bring before the court and he says listen to this rebuke wow this is scary You do not have His Word, that's the Word of God, abiding in you.

20:12 How do I know that? How does Jesus know that? He said, because whom He sent, you don't believe. You search the Scriptures. Do you realize He's talking now not to liberals, not to secularists. He's talking to card-carrying fundamentalists, people who wouldn't think about going to church without carrying their Bible into church on Sunday morning, people who would have with them at all times Baptist air conditioning. You know what Baptist air conditioning is? Presbyterians don't understand that. That's the air currents that are made by people leafing through their Bibles during the middle of the thing. That creates some… that's called Baptist air conditioning. That's a compliment to the Baptists, that the Baptist people, when they go to church on Sunday morning, they take their Bible with them.

21:06 And Jesus said, you people have Bible study every week. You don't just have a 15-minute daily devotional, but you search the Scripture. You discipline students of the Scripture because you think that in studying the Scriptures, you have eternal life. How can you read these Scriptures and not believe in Me? Do you remember on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection and Christ fell in with these two people who were so dejected after the events in Jerusalem that they're hanging their heads and moaning, and Jesus said, what's going on? What's the matter? And they said, don't you know what just went on over there in Jerusalem? Jesus says, tell me about it. They said, well, this Jesus, we hoped that He was going to be the Messiah.

22:09 but they killed him. Now, some of the women, God forbid, are suggesting that He was raised from the dead. But you know you can't believe old wives tales like that. What does Jesus say? Beginning with Moses, and He goes through the entire Old Testament with these people who should have known better, and explain to them how the Scriptures had testified to him again and again. But when the Messiah that the Old Testament taught on every page appeared in the midst of the people, he came to his own, and his own received him not. The light came into the world, but men preferred the darkness rather than the light. And they brought that darkness with them even when they searched the Scriptures.

23:18 Now, how easy it is for us, 2,000 years removed from that situation, to look back in a spirit of judgment and condemnation on those foolish people of the first century when we're in danger of doing exactly the same thing today. you are not willing to come to me. That's why they don't listen to His voice. They don't want to come to Him. I lectured several years ago at a college, and I was invited to lecture on the existence of God by a group on campus whose name was the Atheist Club. So it was a pleasant dialogue.

24:13 I went to Romans chapter 1 and talked about how God had manifestly, clearly, with no ambiguity, revealed Himself to every creature, and that that knowledge gets through to every person, and as much as we fight and kick against it, we can't extinguish that light or obliterate that light, and so we are left, according to the apostle, without excuse. Our problem is not that we don't know that God exists. Our problem is that we refuse to acknowledge the God whom we know to be true. And so I said to those young people who were assembled there in the atheist club, I said, I'll be glad to talk about the intellectual issues regarding theism with you, but I want you to know where I'm coming from, that I don't believe for a moment your struggle with the existence of God is an intellectual struggle.

25:11 Your struggle is a moral problem. You don't want to affirm the existence of God because you know what it's going to cost you, and so you deny it because you don't want it to be true. Now that made me very, very popular with that group. They keep asking me back every year, and I just haven't been able to get it on the calendar. But that's what Jesus is saying. not willing to come to Me that you might have life. I don't receive honor from men, but I know you, that you don't have the love of God in you. I came in my Father's name, and you don't receive Me. Now if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. Look at the art on the back of the building, how graphically Richard Serin characterizes the choice of the crowd. Within triumph in the background stands Barabbas, the people's choice, fulfilling this very prophecy that Jesus is saying here, another will come in His own name. You'll embrace Him. You'll believe Him without the benefit of these witnesses.

26:33 How can you believe who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? Last week somebody asked me, how in the world can you get a person who is famous, who is busy to include time in their schedule to come and speak for you or come and visit you. I said, that's easy. Give him an honor. Promise him an honorary degree or give him a great big monument or plaque and invite him to come to be part of this presentation. Jesus understands human beings.

27:27 You love to honor one another. But you refuse to honor the Son of God. Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for He wrote about Me." Boy, is that a controversial text? Those of you who are students of theology, biblical studies, you know that higher critical theories deny that Moses wrote anything. They say that the Pentateuch was compiled over many, many centuries by different editors and redactors, and that Moses didn't have anything to do with it. But the four authors, J, E, D, and P, put it together, and so on. And that, of course, provoked a crisis, not only with the credibility of Moses in biblical scholarship, but also with the credibility of Jesus. And you ought to see the gymnastics people go through to get around this text, where our Lord himself pronounces publicly, Moses wrote of me.

28:51 We have Jesus' declaration that Moses wrote the authority, the Graf-Wellhausen theory to the contrary, and the point is that now they have to say, well, Jesus was wrong in what He taught about earthly things. He couldn't possibly know the truth, that it wasn't Moses that did it. So we have a whole generation of scholars who don't believe Jesus concerning earthly things, but do believe Him concerning heavenly things, the very thing that He Himself announced as foolishness. But here we have a dominical affirmation of the authorship of the Pentateuch by the hand of Moses. And he turns this on his critics. He said, you call yourselves the disciples of Moses. You trust in the teaching of Moses. You exalt the Torah. It's Torah this, Torah that, Torah, Torah, Torah. But you don't believe it, because what Moses was writing about was me.

29:55 Don't you understand when he described the tabernacle, he was describing me? Don't you understand that when Moses said in Deuteronomy that there will come another prophet like unto me, he was referring to me, Jesus is saying. But if you don't believe His writings, how are you going to believe mine? And so when the question of Jesus' testimony comes up in the law court, four witnesses come forth. John the Baptist, the works of Jesus, the audible testimony of the Father, and the testimony of sacred Scripture through the authorship of Moses.

30:49 If that's not enough to convince people, what is? What's the end of this? Well, I don't think the last of this is heard until we go to the book of Acts, where when Paul addresses the philosophers at Mars Hill at the Areopagus in Athens… And he sees them worshiping an altar to an unknown God. Paul makes this comment, he said, truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now. Do you see the change in historical circumstances? Paul is saying there was a time when God was forbearing with your pagan religion and with your ignorance.

31:48 God was long-suffering, He was merciful, He was patient, He put up with this stuff for a long, long time. NOW God, listen to this, commands all men everywhere. to repent. How different that is from modern techniques of evangelism. Essential to modern evangelism is the invitation. Notice that the apostle doesn't say, but now, God invites all men to repent, because an invitation is something you can decline with impunity. You know, you send it back, you RSVP, and say, I cannot come. You know, I bought me a horse or a cow. Sorry, I can't make it. God commands all men everywhere.

32:48 to repent because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He has ordained. And He has given assurance of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead. you want more testimony than that, you want more evidence than that, you want more proof than that, you're not going to get it. God said, I've made it clear to the whole world that this is my begotten Son. And the days of patience and forbearance are over. Now I command you all, to come to Him, because I'm going to judge the whole world through Him, and I have proven Him to be the judge by raising Him from the dead. Let us pray.

34:03 Our Father and our God, we are so often like those of olden times who are stiff-necked, slow of heart to believe all that is declared to us by Thy Son. We thank You that You have proven to the world that He is Your Son and that You are the one who sent Him. Give us hearts inclined to receive Him, that in Him we might have life. We ask it in His name. Amen.