John 5:31-46
Truth is an elusive commodity in today’s culture. Relativity seems to rule the day in the
hearts and minds of so many in our society.
Apparently, the search for truth is not a new thing. Jesus is being confronted for His claim of
being the Son of God with the authority to do the will of the Father and the
power to accomplish all the Father has sent Him to do. He is striving to demonstrate to His audience
that He is speaking the truth. He knows
that they will not accept His testimony about Himself even though He has just
healed a man that had been lame for almost forty years. In order to prove His identity as the Son of
God; Jesus calls three witnesses to testify as to who He truly is. Unfortunately, no matter how convincing these
testimonies might be; Jesus knows that the hearts of most of the people to whom
He is speaking will be closed to the truth of who He is. The same continues to be true today. People do not reject Jesus because there is
no proof that His claims are true.
People reject Jesus because their hearts are hard and they love their
sin so much that they choose to hide behind relativism.
THE TESTIMONY OF JOHN: In a court of Law people are allowed
to testify on their own behalf. However,
most lawyers realize that juries are usually not convinced by these kinds of
testimonies because most people will lie in order to save their own skin. Jesus has repeatedly proven His claims with
miracles that should have convinced people but He knows they continue in
unbelief. The first witness Jesus calls
in John the Baptist. John was a
respected member of the community who had publicly identified Jesus as the
Messiah. The Jews had questioned John in
private about who Jesus was in an attempt to discredit this testimony. John had stayed firm in his testimony. John was a light that pointed the people to
the truth and the people had received his testimony for a while but now that
Jesus was doing things that were not according to their expectations and was
offensive to their traditions; they rejected John’s testimony. The truth has a way of being offensive to us
because it challenges our beliefs and often confronts our behavior. John gave clear and consistent testimony as
to the identity and purpose of Jesus but they continued to reject Him.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHER: John was a man who was subject
to error so Jesus points to His second witness as being God the Father. The Father testified as to the identity of
Jesus in several ways. He spoke in an
audible voice when Jesus was being baptized.
There were many witnesses who heard this voice that confirmed what John
had already clearly declared. This had
only happened on one other occasion when God spoke the Ten Commandments in an
audible voice to the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. Besides this audible confirmation of the
identity of Jesus, the Father testified about the Son by sending Him and
empowering Him to do the miracles He performed.
No man could do the things that Jesus did apart from the power of the
Father. The fact that Jesus healed the
sick, made the lave to walk, the blind to see and raised the dead should have
been obvious proof that the Father had sent Jesus. If the Father was empowering the Son to do
these miracles than it should have been obvious that the Father was also
instructing the Son with His message.
Jesus condemns the unbelief of the people because they are unable to
recognize the work of the Father through the Son. They have not heard His voice or seen His
form because they are not willing to recognize that Jesus in the true
revelation of the Father. Jesus is the
Body and the Voice of the Father. He who
sees and hears the Son has seen and heard the Father.
THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURE: The final testimony Jesus
calls is the Scripture. The Jewish
leaders claimed to be students of the Scripture and defenders of the Law. They think that their understanding and
interpretation of the Scriptures will give them eternal life. The problem is that they are blind to the
truth of the Scriptures because the Scriptures testify as to the identity of
Jesus. Instead, they twist and abuse the
Scripture to support their precious traditions and maintain their positions of
power and prestige. They know nothing of
the love of God and they deny the truth of God.
Jesus has come in the name of the Father and they have rejected
Him. In the future, the anti-Christ will
come in his own name seeking his own glory and the people will fall for his
deception. The religious leaders took
comfort from their numbers and assured one another that they could not all be
wrong. But the truth of the matter is
that there might be comfort in numbers; but there is no guarantee of truth in
numbers. They are not seeking to glorify
God, they were simply taking turns glorifying one another so they could turn
their backs on the truth. Jesus tells
them in no uncertain terms that they will be condemned, not based on His testimony
against them but based on the Scripture.
Moses was the author of the Law and they claimed to be guardians of the
Law. In reality, they were ignorant of
the Law and had elevated their own traditions above the Law. Moses had never prohibited healing on the
Sabbath or the simple act of carrying one’s bed after having been healed. The Jewish leaders had decided to define work
according to their own inconsistent standards.
Just as they chose to ignore the clear revelation of Scripture in favor
of their own traditions; they were now choosing to reject Jesus because He did
not fit with their expectations or maintain their self-righteous
standards. Moses had written about Jesus
but their refusal to recognize Jesus revealed their rejection of Scripture.
APPLICATION: Testify to all men everywhere as to the true
identity of Jesus as the Son of God who has paid for our sin on the cross and
risen again so that we can be saved from sin.
Many will reject our testimony just liked John’s testimony was rejected
but that should never stop us from testifying.
Believe that Jesus and the Father are one based on the evidence of His
work and the truth of His teaching.
Study the Scriptures with and open heart and mind without imposing our
traditions and preconceived ideas on the text.
Seek to know Jesus through the revelation of Scripture.
Comments
Post a Comment