Power & Proof: Why We Affirm the Supreme Authority of Jesus

This morning we're going to be looking in the Gospel of John chapter 5 and we're going to be exploring some themes similar to that about the authority of Jesus.

John 5 · chapter mention

How many of you who lived through the 90s remember the WWJD craze?

Right?

It was a fashion statement.

I mean, it was it was kind of a good thing.

I look back on it and think it was good to see Jesus' name on people's t-shirts and wrists.

Remember, I always thought it was a positive thing.

I think it's always positive we say, what would Jesus do in my situation?

But as popular as that event was in American history, if you just changed one word, I doubt it would have been quite as popular.

WWJD, what would Jesus do?

What if it had been, what would Jesus demand?

Total different idea, right?

I doubt there'd be quite as many takers.

Because even culturally, especially back in the 90s, society would look at Jesus as a teacher, as a wise moral philosopher, as someone from whom we can learn a lot.

Maybe we could all be a little better if we were a little more like Jesus.

And so if we ask the question, what would Jesus do?

It's admitting that there's things we can learn from Jesus.

And as good as that is, and as right as that is, it's very, it falls far short of asking the question, what would Jesus demand?

In other words, not just looking at Jesus as moral teacher or example or a good guy, but Jesus as sovereign Lord, to whom we owe all our allegiance.

In our passage here in John chapter 5, you might remember from a few Sundays ago, we were breaking up, we broke up this John series with a four-part series on times like these.

John 5 · chapter mention

So you have to reach back five Sundays to remember the first half of John chapter five, um, where I think it was Pastor Jordan preached on Jesus healing a man who'd been lame in his legs for 38 years.

An amazing story.

Jesus goes to Bethesda, he sees this guy laying there, and he says, Hey, if you want to be whole.

And the guy's like, Well, yeah, but I don't have anyone to help me.

And Jesus, like, stand up.

And then take up your bed, your bed, or your mat, and carry it home.

Think about how long it had been since this guy had been home.

Jesus says, go home.

This was an amazing miracle.

It was the third miracle Jesus had recorded in the Gospel of John for us.

But it made some people really angry.

You'd have thought that Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath would be a wonderful way to celebrate the Sabbath.

What better way to celebrate our rest in God than Jesus healing someone?

But the Jewish leaders saw it differently, especially since Jesus told them to pick up his bed and carry it.

And so in John chapter 5 and verse 10, you see them complaining about this.

John 5 · chapter mention

He's telling them to pick up his bed.

And so we're told in Matthew, or in John chapter 5, verse 18, which is a transition verse between the story of the healing and our text today, it sets the tone for what we're going to learn today.

John 5:18

Verse 18 says this.

Imagine that.

Because not only was he breaking the Sabbath according to their rules, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.

You see, whenever the Jewish leaders came to Jesus complaining that he had told this guy to pick up his bed on the Sabbath day and carry it, constituting work in the Jewish, uh in their interpretation of the command, Jesus responded not by backing up and saying, you know what, you're so right.

I'm I apologize, I was out of place, I should have waited till tomorrow.

Jesus didn't do that, he doubled down and he basically said, Hey, if you have a problem with me, you have a problem with my father.

Well, that made it even more mad, as you can imagine.

I mean, because who is this guy that he can just do whatever he wants on the Sabbath day?

Well, it's the same guy who actually is equal with God.

And so he's he doubles down on his authority to do as he pleases, and in their understanding of what he's saying, by making God his father, they understand him to be making himself equal with God.

That's what you call blasphemy.

And what the Jews would do to people who are guilty of blasphemy is they would try to orchestrate their death.

John chapter 5, verses 19 through 47 is our text today.

John 5:19–47

And it's actually pretty simple.

There's a lot of complex things in our text, but the major idea is pretty simple.

It's Jesus vindicating his authority, defending his right to do the works of God and to call God his Father.

So our passage today that we're going to spend the next 30-something minutes in is a monologue.

It's kind of like a sermon.

It's a defense.

If you can just get this mental picture of Jesus standing up in a courtroom and bearing testimony, it's Jesus' defense of him not being a blasphemer.

And this defense comes in two parts.

In part one, it's verses 19 through 29.

You have Jesus giving, telling us seven ways that he has union with God the Father as his son.

Seven reasons to understand that Jesus truly is the Son of God and thus has the authority to tell a guy to pick up his bed and walk.

Right?

But then the second part of our monologue is verses 30 through 47 when Jesus calls six witnesses to the stand to bear testimony about himself, testimony to his authority as God's son.

So one monologue broken into two parts, which is seven ways Jesus is God's Son, seven senses in which that is true.

And then the last part, the second part, is six key witnesses.

So, in other words, we're gonna have a lot of ground to cover.

But we're gonna do it in a kind of a unique way.

I think it'll be a little easier on you.

So the main idea of our passage is this that Jesus is in union with the Father and thus exercises the authority of the Father.

That is Jesus' case.

Calling witness 5502, Jesus of Nazareth, what is your case for you being a blasphemer and or maybe not being a blasphemer and not being put to death?

And Jesus says, I'll tell you, it's pretty simple.

I as the Son of God am in lockstep with the Father.

So if you don't like what I did on the Sabbath, take it up with him, because he and I are one.

In fact, we're told this later on, we're going to see a verse where Jesus says this very thing.

This is the main idea of the passage.

In union with the Father, Jesus exercises the authority of the Father.

Case closed.

Well, almost.

We see this happens in two ways in verse 19 and verse 30, which happen to be the two sections to the two parts.

Verse 19 is the first verse of the first part of the monologue.

Verse 30 is the first verse of the second part.

And they essentially say the same thing.

Let's read them.

So Jesus said to them, this is the beginning of his defense.

Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.

For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

In other words, the Father and I are one.

We're in lockstep.

If you're mad at me, you're mad at him.

That's his argument.

Verse 30, he restates it.

I can do nothing on my own, as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just.

Because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

You see the logic there?

I have authority to heal on the Sabbath and get this guy to carry his bed because I'm doing what God would do.

I'm making myself equal with God.

I'm in lockstep with the Father, so if you're mad at me, you're actually mad at the one who sent me.

Now it's a good place for us to ask the question of these two verses in particular, John 5.19 and verse 30.

Because throughout church history, there have been those who would take verses like this, and they would build doctrine off of them, namely a doctrine that subjugates Christ to a status below the Father.

It kind of sounds like that's what Jesus is doing, right?

Jesus here, it sounds like at first blush that he is declaring his inferiority to the Father.

Right?

He's giving us an embarrassing admission of weakness, is what it can sound like.

That's what the Arians, led by a guy named Arius, uh, in the fourth century would do.

They later in the 16th century really congregated in Poland.

They were called the Socinians then.

Today you probably know him as your neighbors called the Jehovah's Witnesses.

They'll cite these passages like John 5, 19, 30, a few others, that sound like Jesus is giving himself second-rate status in relationship to the Father.

The early church fathers who responded to Arius in the fourth century, they understood the phrase, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing, is not an admission of weakness or inferiority, but of a statement about the distinctions between the persons of the Godhead.

That there actually is in a Godhead, a sense in which the Son submits to the Father.

But it doesn't make them ontologically, to use a crazy big word, ontologically, it doesn't make them in essence lesser than the other.

The Son, they have different roles.

So that's how the early church fathers responded to that.

John Calvin came along, he and some other reformers, they said, well, yes, but actually we think that Jesus, his phrase that his dependence on the Father only relates to Jesus in his incarnate form.

That from all eternity Jesus wasn't submitting to the Father in this sense, but that as the Son of God, as an incarnate human, Jesus can say things like, the Father gave me authority, the Father has given me knowledge, he has shown me things.

And so John Calvin read this as Jesus is relating to his humanity.

I think there's some validity to that as well.

But then you have other theologians come along, like John Gill, the English Baptist uh theologian, who pointed out that this is actually Jesus claiming to be in lockstep with the Father, which is what this which is how I read it.

So I'm thankful John Gill uh came up with it before I did, or else I couldn't really rely on it.

The idea that Jesus, in claiming to not be able to do anything of his own will, isn't making himself inferior.

It's him saying, the Father and I are so essentially tied together, united as persons in the Godhead, that I cannot act on my own.

I can't do anything without the Father, so to speak, we're joined at the hip.

And that's how that's how John Gill read it.

And I think that actually fits the argument best because Jesus is going to give us seven ways in which that, this essential union with the Father, is the case.

So I think that's a good reading, although all three responses to Arianism, I think, have their validity.

So to summarize this point, we could say that Christ's admission that he doesn't do and can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing, this is not one of inferiority, but of union with the Father.

We see that this is not a new theme in the Gospel of John.

In fact, go back to John chapter 1 and verse 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

The very first verse in John's Gospel says this.

And the word was with God.

There's a distinction of persons.

Right?

And then he says, and the word was God.

Whoa, mind blown.

How can you be with someone and be them?

Well, the answer is the way we formulate the doctrine of the Trinity, God is one in nature and three in person.

Three distinct persons in the Godhead, and they're all so essentially unified, as Jesus is going to teach us here, that they are like tied at the hip.

They are one in essence, one God in three persons.

We know that that word in John chapter 1 and verse 1, who was with God and who also was God, is Jesus Christ, because in John 1 and verse 14 he explains who the word is.

John 1 · chapter mention

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.

Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

In other words, this relationship between God the Father and God the Son is not one like your relationship with God the Father.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, God is your Father.

Jesus taught us to pray, our Father who art in heaven.

How's that different than Jesus' sonship?

It's different because you are a son by virtue of adoption.

Jesus is a son by virtue of eternal relationship with the Father, and they're essentially tied in their very nature.

Interestingly, John chapter 1 and verse 1 in a Jehovah's Witness Bible called the New World Translation, I believe, they add some words to the Greek text.

John 1 · chapter mention

The Greek text says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, the Word was God.

They add the word was a God.

Little G.

That's what their Bible reads in English.

You go to the Greek, it's not there.

They add it because it fits their theology that they base in other things.

The Greek that Jesus actually said, that John wrote, says, The Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh, and it was Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus, in his own words, said in John chapter 10, verse 30, probably couldn't be clearly stated.

John 10:30

I and the Father are one.

My point is this: Jesus, the Sabbath-breaking healer's claim to essential union with the Father, was a claim to supreme authority in heaven and earth as God's only begotten Son.

I already told you there are seven ways Jesus is unified to the Father as Son.

And then there's six witnesses he's gonna call to the stand.

So this morning I'm gonna utilize the age-old adage, a picture's worth a thousand words.

And I'm actually gonna come down here and I'm gonna use the screen to show you our text, color-coded for your convenience, and we're gonna see so that you're not completely overwhelmed by all these colors and words and points.

And that's like 13 points in a sermon.

That's like a no-no.

Three, maybe four, is kind of the usual.

There's 13 points we're gonna make, but I don't want you to leave today thinking we have to remember all these points.

The point is to follow Jesus' logic through the passage and at the end walk out the door knowing that Jesus Christ, as God's Son, has supreme power over heaven and earth.

Okay?

Alright, let's look at the first slide.

This is this is uh if you look up here at verses 19 through 29, this is part one of Jesus' monologue.

Jesus' case in this first part of the monologue is nature is that he is united with the Son, with the Father as Son.

He says in verse 19, truly, truly I see to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.

Notice also there's a couple words here that are in orange.

Four, four, four.

Five times he mentions the word four, which shows us, and these are subordinated clauses to his main claim of verse 19, which shows us he's making an argument.

It's gonna turn out to be a seven-part argument to support this idea that he and the father are essentially one.

So let's look at the first way.

The first way that Jesus is has union with the Father is in divine action.

It's in yellow here.

So the last part of verse 19, divine action, he says, for, why is verse 19 true?

Well, for whatsoever the Father does, the Son does likewise.

That's a claim that's pretty big.

Like, can you say that?

I'm a child of God, and whatever the Father does, I do.

No.

You can't work the works of God.

Only God can.

And yet Jesus looked these Jews in the eye who were who were saying blasphemy, or whispering among themselves, trying to figure out how they were gonna bump him off because he was a blasphemer.

And Jesus claims, he doubles down and says, Hey, I'm the Son of God, and I do the works of God.

What the Father does, I do.

Second way Jesus is united to the Father, his son, the union of relationship.

There in pink you see in verse 20, he has the phrase, the father loves the son.

This is not the kind of love that God has for us where he just shows his love towards us.

This is Jesus' shorthand for the intra-trinitarian relationship the Father has with the Son.

We can't understand the kind of love that God has for his son.

But we do get some glimpses throughout Scripture.

Jesus says, and actually in John chapter 17 and verse 24, he says this when he was praying to the Father, Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

John 17 · chapter mention

The word was with God from before the foundation of the world.

The word was God, and God and the Word loved each other.

And this isn't even getting into the pneumatology of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

This is just talking about Father and Son at this point.

There's a love that the Father had for the Son from before time when there was nothing in the universe, when there was no universe, and all there was was God.

There was no space, no time, only God.

It was for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

And Jesus loved the Father.

The Father loved the Son.

Jesus points this out.

A third way that Jesus is united to the Father is a union of knowledge.

Here at the last part of verse 20, he says, And the Father shows him all that he himself is doing, and greater works than these he will show him.

There's a shared knowledge between God the Father and God the Son.

We can't say that.

We can't say, whatever God knows, he's told me.

We have what he's told us, and it's true and it's believable, but we don't have the mind of God.

Jesus said, The Father shows me all he himself is doing, and he will show me even greater things than this.

Number three.

Now before we go to number four, I think the early church fathers had a point in their response to Arius, because you see there's a tenor here, there's some themes emerging, that there's this, I don't want to call it dominance.

We can call it hierarchy of the Father and the Son.

These these roles and relationships within the Trinity, that Jesus is submitting to the Father.

That is a thing that is biblical, but it doesn't mean they're not equal in essence.

You see the language such as what the Father does, the Son does.

There's a priority there, right?

You see that the Father is loving the Son.

You see that the Father is showing the Son.

It doesn't say the Son is showing the Father.

So it is true that there is this hierarchy in the Godhead where the Son, before he goes to the cross, says, Father, take this cup from me, but your will be done.

And it's a beautiful thing.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, he argued that the head of a wife is her husband, the head of the husband is Christ, and the head of Christ is the Father.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

So this is a biblical doctrine.

It's part of our doctrine of the Trinity.

And we see that reflected here.

But the Jews understood Jesus in saying all this that he was making himself equal with God.

So we want to make sure we're getting both points.

Number four, a fourth way that Jesus is united to the Father as his son is they're both worthy of worship.

They both receive worship.

You see there at the end of verse 20, the Father shows the Son things so that you may marvel.

And then he confirms that in verse 20 the Father gives judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son.

Now we know from the Old Testament that God is jealous for his glory.

God doesn't God is up in heaven, and he is telling humans to bow down to other humans and worship them.

No, all through the Old Testament, isn't it a remain a constant theme?

Stop worshiping idols, stop fearing man, worshiping man, worship me only.

And yet we come to the New Testament, and Jesus says, the Father wants you to be to honor me.

The Father wants you to worship me, to submit to me.

So they're both worthy of worship.

A fourth case Jesus makes for his sonship.

Number five, resurrection power.

Here in blue.

Verse 21.

For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

Jesus says the Father has life-giving power, I have life-giving power.

Down here in verse 25, the hour is coming and now is.

When the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God.

And what happens when they hear the voice of the Son of God?

They live.

Why?

Verse 26?

Because the Father has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

The Father and Son have both have life in themselves, something no other human could possibly say.

As God's Son, he has resurrection power as the Father does.

Number six, judgment.

The words in red show that God, who alone is judge, the ultimate judge, that Jesus is that judge appointed by the Father.

Verse 22.

For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.

As the Son of God, he is the supreme judge over all.

Verse 27 affirms this again.

And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.

The phrase Son of Man comes from the book of Daniel.

And so whenever we read this book, the word son of man in the New Testament, he's talking about this figure that Daniel sees in a vision in Daniel chapter 9, where he sees this man who comes.

Daniel 9 · chapter mention

He's in the form of a man, but his face is shining like the sun.

He comes with clouds, he's got all this authority, all this pomp, and he's called the Son of Man.

The Father in Daniel 9 is called the Ancient of Days.

And so one of Jesus' titles throughout the New Testament is Son of Man, and it fits the description well because he's given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.

He's that figure Daniel saw in a vision.

And then finally, number seven a seventh way that Jesus is son.

Lockstep with the Father, united with the Father, essentially one, is that they both give eternal life.

So you see in verse 24, Jesus says, Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

There's eternal life to be had in believing the words of Jesus.

And when you believe the words of Jesus, guess what?

You're believing the one who sent Jesus.

You see the logic?

It means you've passed from death to life when you believe in Jesus.

And at the end here, when he says, one of these days all the tombs are going to open, and those who've done good are going to be raised by the Son to the resurrection of life, those who've done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

So I know there's a lot on that page, it's kind of busy, but hopefully you can see based on the colors these seven points of Jesus' argument that he is one with the Father and thus has the authority, has all authority on earth.

Now we're going to transition to the second half of Jesus' monologue.

We're going to recess court, get some water, we're going to come back, and Jesus is going to take the stand again.

And when Jesus takes the stand, after Jesus gets done testifying, he's going to call five other witnesses, for a total of six witnesses, to the stand to bear witness to Jesus being God's Son.

Number one, in verse 30, Jesus speaks about his own testimony.

He's going to take the stand first.

Verse 30 says, I can do nothing on my own, as I hear I judge.

And my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.

What that assumes is that Jesus does bear witness to himself.

He does have a testimony.

In fact, that's what verses 19 to 29 were.

He gave us seven ways, he is one with the Father.

And so, but he's going to tell us that it doesn't stop with my testimony.

I'm going to call some other ones.

Other people from their own vantage point are going to bear testimony about me.

So we start with Jesus's Jesus' own self-understanding as the Son of God.

William Lane Craig in his book, The Reason for God, he works from the cosmological argument through to the defense of the of the of the uh of theism.

And then he shows a Christian argument that not only is theism true, that there's a God out there, but that Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God.

And he begins with this.

I loved it.

I read it a number of years ago.

He begins how crucial it is to understand Jesus' own self-understanding.

There are many today who would say that Christianity has evolved through the years by Christians putting words in Jesus' mouth.

Fourth century, third, fourth century, you have Constantine.

He was just trying to rule the world with book religion, so he had the Bible made up, and he had he took Jesus, this maybe prophet from the from the from the Jews who was killed, and he deified him and made him like the Son of God and stuff.

And then Christianity has been built on the shoulders of Constantine.

That's one argument out there.

It assumes that Jesus never claimed these things for himself.

But you see that Jesus claims all this for himself.

We're only taking what he said and verifying it.

But after Jesus gets off the stand, he's going to call a second witness.

Number two, the testimony, the witness of John the Baptist, which is in verses 32 through 36.

Jesus says, There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.

You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.

Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

In other words, I don't need John the Baptist to tell me I'm the Son of God in order for me to be the Son of God.

I am who I am, but for your sakes I sent prophets, namely the prophet John the Baptist, who's the last prophet before Christ, to bear witness about Christ.

For your sake, so that you may be saved, I gave John the Baptist.

He was a burning light and a shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in the light.

You liked John.

You thought he was a prophet.

In fact, on another occasion, you have in John chapter 2, I believe, some of the Pharisees sent to John and said, Hey, who are you?

John 2 · chapter mention

That's what Jesus is referring to here.

You sent to John.

John was a prophet.

The people were going in droves to be baptized by John the Baptist.

You guys like John the Baptist.

Well, guess what John the Baptist taught?

That I'm the Son of God.

And we find this testimony of John the Baptist in John chapter 1, verses 32 through 34.

John 1:32–34

Here it is.

And John bore witness.

He said, I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.

I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water, that's the Father, said to me, Hey, listen, John, he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

And so John concludes, and I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.

John saw the Spirit, he heard the voice, it lighted on Jesus, and he says, This is the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world, this is the Son of God.

So Jesus says, The testimony of John the Baptist is a testimony that Jesus is the Son of God.

But Jesus says, the testimony that I have is even greater than John.

Number three, the works of Jesus.

The works of Jesus.

He says in verse 36, For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, they bear witness about me.

So so far we see Jesus' testimony, John's testimony, and the testimony of Jesus' works.

What were some of the works Jesus performed?

Well, there were so many works.

John the writer in John chapter 21 says, If if we were to write down all the things Jesus did, maybe a little hyperbole, he says, All the volume, the world could not contain all the volumes to be written.

John 21 · chapter mention

Right?

Lots of works that Jesus did.

But in John's gospel, he records seven of those works.

They include Jesus turning water into wine, exercising power over nature.

Jesus healed a boy on his deathbed from like miles away.

Jesus heals a paralyzed man at the Pulabethesda in this chapter.

John chapter 6, Jesus feeds 5,000 men, not counting women and children, with just a little sack lunch.

John 6 · chapter mention

Pretty impressive.

Jesus walks on water later in John 6.

Then in chapter 9, he heals a man who'd been born blind, was now a grown man.

His parents had known him all those years, he'd been blind, and now Jesus heals him by touching his eyes.

John chapter 11, Jesus takes a stinking corpse named Lazarus and raises him back to life.

John 11 · chapter mention

Seven miracles in John that we can look at and say, wow, there's something to this guy.

He's not an imposter, he's not just someone who talks a big talk.

I mean, he like raised the dead.

Like my belly's full of food that I saw him multiply from a sack lunch.

Jesus says, look at the works that I am performing.

Number four, he says, the witness of the Father himself here in blue.

Verse 37.

And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me.

His voice you have never seen, his form you have never seen.

Never heard his voice, never seen his form.

The Father on three separate occasions, as recorded in the Gospels, once in John and twice in the synoptics, the Father actually spoke from heaven and confirmed Jesus was his son.

The first and most famous is Jesus' baptism, right?

Jesus is baptized as he goes into the water, goes into the water, comes up, the spirit in the form of a dove comes out of heaven, lands on Jesus.

John's able to see it.

And it says a cloud came over, and a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased.

Little hard to pull that off in that ancient time, right?

Nowadays, maybe we could have some speakers up in a, you know, some really big speakers on a satellite no one could see.

You could might be maybe pull that effect off.

But in Jesus' day, the Father speaks out of heaven at the baptism.

Another time was in the transfiguration of Jesus in Matthew chapter 17.

Matthew 17 · chapter mention

Jesus takes three of his best friends, Peter, James, and John, into a mountain, and there before them, before their eyes, his face is transfigured, and it shines like the sun, just like the Son of Man in Daniel 9.

And a cloud comes overhead, a voice out of the cloud says, This is my beloved son, listen to him.

And then on a third occasion in John chapter 12, there were some Gentiles, Gentile dogs, right?

John 12 · chapter mention

Who were seeking Jesus.

They'd heard about him, they wanted to know if they should trust in him.

And Jesus praises the Father and says, Father, glorify your name.

And it says, Immediately a voice came from heaven that says, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.

So Jesus is calling attention to the fact the Father had multiple times confirmed the Son directly.

But he points out that they had never heard, they had never seen.

Jesus in Matthew 11 says, Father, thank you for hiding these things from the wise and the prudent and revealing them to little children.

Those who in their pride were resisting Jesus, the Father hid himself from them as a form of judgment.

But Jesus says, just because you haven't heard it doesn't mean other people haven't.

And then finally, or number five, Jesus calls the witness of Scripture to the stand.

The witness of the Old Testament Scripture.

Verse 38 says this in green.

And you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.

And it is they that do what?

Bear witness about me.

Fifth witness, the witness of Old Testament scripture.

When you think about the scriptures bearing witness to Jesus Christ, it's essentially talking about promise and fulfillment.

Promises made that Jesus fulfilled, prophecies made that Jesus fulfilled, types that were made that Jesus fulfills.

In the most conservative estimates of how many prophecies and types Jesus fulfilled in the Old Testament, some theologians have counted between 40 and uh or 44 and 50 prophecies that were clear, uh, absolutely clear uh prophecies that Jesus fulfilled that directly related to Jesus as Messiah.

Others would say, yeah, but that's only things like the fact Jesus was born in Bethlehem, right?

Or Micah 5, Micah chapter 5 says the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, that he was of the lineage of David.

Micah 5 · chapter mention

That'd be kind of hard to control if you're Jesus, right?

You just happen to be born of the tribe of David in the city of David.

Your parents happened to take you to uh Egypt, fulfilling Hosea, um, that the Messiah came through Egypt, um and then uh was raised in Galilee of the Gentiles, his ministry, raised in Nazareth, and then his Galilee of the ministry was in Galilee of the Gentiles that Isaiah chapter 9 talks about.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

You have all these things that Jesus fulfilled.

Most concerted estimates is about 50.

If you include typological fulfillments, you have as much as a hundred.

Next week, Pastor Jared is going to talk to us about the feeding of the 5,000, where Jesus as the bread of life is the true and better manna, the true and better Moses.

And I just stole his thunder now.

Um you'll forget my next week, right?

Um that's a typological fulfillment Jesus fulfilled, at least a hundred of those.

Others would say, yeah, but there's even symbolic fulfillments of Jesus from Old Testament scripture.

That's three to four hundred.

And then some would estimate as many as four hundred and fifty total prophecies fulfilled.

There's a guy by the name of Peter Stoner, I'm sure he was popular in high school.

Um wrote a book called Science Speaks.

And in this book called Science Speaks, he looks at Christianity and at Jesus in particular in terms of the math.

And he looks at fulfilled prophecy, and he shows how that, like, it is absolutely impossible that a human being could fulfill all those prophecies accidentally and not be Jesus the Son of God.

He estimated that of just as uh a discrete number of prophecies, I think I want to say 15, that the likelihood of that human fulfilling 15 prophecies that are absolutely undisputed about Jesus of Nazareth, the historical man, that the likelihood of him fulfilling all those things as stated in the Old Testament was one in 10 to the 17th power.

One chance in one with 17 zeros after it.

And Jesus did all that.

And so Jesus calls the witness of his own testimony, who he knew he was, John the Baptist, his works, the witness of the Father, Scripture, and then finally, number six, a sixth witness comes to the stand in pink.

The witness of the Holy Spirit.

We see in verse 40, Jesus says, Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

You do not have the love of God within you.

There's something wrong about you that you can't receive the evidence that's there.

That's what he's saying.

It's called the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

The internal work of the Holy Spirit that frees us from our totally depraved, rebellious minds that are at odds against God, so that we receive the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Notice the very that the words Jesus is using to describe them.

He's saying, you refuse.

That's a volitional word.

It's not just that they don't, they haven't been convinced, they don't have enough evidence.

He says, you refuse to hear the scriptures, you refuse to hear my works, you refuse to hear John the Baptist, you refuse my testimony by myself.

Notice he says, you do not receive me, you don't have the love of God within you.

This is a spiritual thing.

You do not believe, you do not seek the honor that comes from God.

Without the testimony of the Holy Spirit, you can have all the evidence you want.

You'll never come to faith in Jesus because it takes God the Holy Spirit saying, Hey, this is true what you're hearing.

And Jesus calls the witness of the Holy Spirit to the stand.

The internal witness of the Holy Spirit is something that in recent days has become a lot more popular even in Christian apologetics and philosophy.

And the fact is, even apart from all the evidence and all the different classical arguments for God's existence and looking at fulfilled prophecy, just reading Scripture, millions of people have come to faith.

They didn't need all this catalog of arguments and counter-arguments and counter-counter arguments.

They just read the words and they agreed with Peter when he says, You only have the words of eternal life, the witness of the Holy Spirit.

So these are six witnesses Jesus calls to the stand to help us understand that he is the authoritative Son of God.

And that as Son, he is one with the Father in those seven ways.

Court is adjourned.

And so I ask you today as we close this message, what is your verdict?

When it comes down to it, do you believe the testimony of Jesus?

Not did your parents teach you to believe this and do you go along with it?

Or maybe your family is so caught up in the subculture of Christianity you couldn't imagine getting out of it like I'm a Christian.

Well the question is, do you receive the testimony of Jesus this morning?

Or do you think Jesus was an imposter?

A liar.

C.S.

Lewis said there's only three possibilities, right?

Liar, lunatic, or lord.

He was either out of his mind, or he was a really terrible liar, or he's actually Lord.

And John the Baptist was correct.

And the Father was correct.

And the works of Jesus were true, and the witness of Scripture found this fulfillment in Jesus, and the witness of the Holy Spirit has confirmed for you that it's true.

Where are you at this morning?

What's the verdict for you as a person?

Do you believe in the Son of God?

Do you marvel at Jesus' authority over the universe and over your life?

Many of us, I think, let God, so to speak, into the living room of our life.

Come through the front door, hey, sit here in the parlor, we'll chat for a little bit.

But we don't let him into the bedroom.

Don't tell me how to live my life, my personal things.

You definitely don't let him into the closet.

What Jesus is doing this morning is he's telling us that he is the Son of God, the authoritative Son of God, one with the Father, and He has all power in heaven and in earth, and that includes your life.

Do you marvel at this?

Do you receive his testimony and that of the other five witnesses he calls upon?

Do you honor this son as your only hope in life and in death?

Here's the kicker.

We are living in a day of deconstruction, right?

And if you don't know the term deconstruction, how it relates to this, I hope you remain blissfully ignorant about that.

Don't Google it.

If you do know what deconstruction is and it's troubled you, or you yourself have felt like you've gone through deconstruction where you're questioning everything about your faith, then I want to say this.

Jesus is very tender with people who are struggling with their faith.

You think about Thomas.

Thomas is like, I'm not going to believe unless Jesus comes and appears before me and I can see the holes in his hands and his side.

Jesus comes eight days later to Thomas in John chapter 20 and he says, Hey Thomas, you see my side?

John 20 · chapter mention

You see my hands?

Look at my feet.

And Thomas falls to his knees and he says, My Lord and my God.

Jesus could have kicked him out of the apostleship.

Judas had already gone and hung himself.

Peter had denied Jesus three times only a few days before.

And then in John chapter 20, when we find Jesus, Peter's gone fishing, he's stopped preaching the gospel, he's just done with this thing.

John 20 · chapter mention

And then Jesus is on the shore, makes some fish up for breakfast, and says, Peter, come sit with me.

And as they sit, Jesus tenderly looks at Peter in the eyes and says, Peter, do you love me?

Think about the tenderness of Jesus towards those who are struggling in their faith.

But also, I don't want you to miss the toughness with which Jesus relates to those who've hardened their hearts and absolutely refuse the testimony of Christ.

You're calling me a liar.

You're calling John the Baptist one of the greatest prophets, you're calling him a liar.

You're blaspheming my Father.

You're calling all the Old Testament scriptures and then being fulfilled in Christ a bunch of hogwash.

And you know what happens when we do that?

Eternal judgment.

For refusing the testimony of God through Jesus Christ.

This isn't a theory that we can sort of take it or leave it, go through life, we're all gonna die and figure it out one day.

Heaven and hell relate and hang upon Jesus' words and on your reception or your rejection of it.

I close with John chapter 5 and verse 24 from our text.

John 5 · chapter mention

Jesus says this whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life.

Do you believe the words of Jesus this morning?

It's been said before that Jesus not only divides history, before Christ, BC, AD, year of our Lord, Ano Domini, he divides history, but he divides humanity.

There are only two kinds of people in the world: those who submit their knee to the true God and his Son Jesus Christ, and those who refuse and they trust in anything else for a right standing with God.

Jesus calls upon us unequivocally to bow the knee to his authority today.