Witnesses to Christ's Deity part 1 John's Witness

I'll take your Bible with me this morning and turn to the Gospel of John, John chapter 5. John chapter 5, if you're taking notes, I encourage you to do so. We will be in verses 30 through 35 this morning. We're still in our series, Christ, the Son of God, believe and live, and we are seeing that the living Lord Jesus is exalting Himself as deity, Christ, equating Himself with God, and we see that more and more as we continue in these verses. Now, we are continuing this morning in this discourse that Jesus has been having all along between Himself and the Jewish leadership.

You know that He started right there in verse 17 in His discourse with the Jewish leadership concerning His healing there on the Sabbath. Now, you know that this has been an escalating confrontation. You can call it a discourse, a conversation, but it's been escalating in this confrontation. Jesus, He healed the crippled man there on the Sabbath, and then He made matters worse by telling the crippled man to take up His pallet or His mat and to carry it. This, of course, caused quite a bit of a stir between the Jewish leadership and Himself, and it led, verse 18 tells us, to persecution.

So when I say this was an escalating confrontation, it was definitely a confrontation. Jesus takes the situation to another level because He begins to declare Himself equal with God. Verse 18 tells us that as well. As a matter of fact, the Jewish leadership recognized that Jesus was calling God His Father, and they understood that with that language He was equating Himself with God. Verse 19 through 24, they are an explanation of Himself, Jesus, as He being equal with God the Father. And last week we saw that Jesus declared Himself as having authority over both the spiritual and physical resurrection.

So if we take a look back, we see this escalating confrontation, and Jesus turns up the heat more and more as He begins to reveal Himself to these people. Now this morning we're going to see a transition in Jesus' teaching. We are still in this discourse, really a standoff between Jesus and the Jews, but we will notice some change in Jesus' language in His teaching. The first change we will see is Jesus begins to speak in the first person. If you glance down at your Scripture, our first verse this morning in verse 30, you will notice right away He uses the word "I" and "me" in a language like that. What do we see?

Jesus is changing to speaking in the first person. Jesus had not done this previously in our other verses. Now the second change you'll see is Jesus begins to speak of witnesses. The word "witness" is an often used word in John's gospel. As a matter of fact, John uses this particular word that we will see all through the remaining verses of this chapter. He uses this word some 47 times in His gospel. Now we will see that from verse 31 until the end of the chapter, we will see Jesus focus on witnesses in His teaching. Jesus will call on four witnesses to verify His testimony. Now I don't have these on the screen, but you can write these down.

Some of your Bible translations even have them broken down for you in the text. But we will see the witness of John, that's John the Baptist. We will see the witness of His works. We will see the witness of the Father. And we will see the witness of the Scriptures themselves. The witness of John, the witness of His works, the witness of the Father, and the witness of the Scriptures. And that carries us from verse 33 all the way to the end of the chapter of verse 47. Now this morning we will deal with verses 30 through 35. And we will see that there is a transition in these verses.

Verse 30 through 32 are really a transition from the previous verses to these teachings, to these verses that deal with these witnesses. Now I will give you the title of the message. And the title of the message is "Witnesses to Christ's Deity, Part 1." Because part one will be John's witness, which is a witness to Christ's deity. Because we are seeing that Christ is elevating Himself as deity equal with God, starting with Him healing on the Sabbath all the way to the end of this chapter. Therefore this escalating confrontation with the Jewish leadership.

Now you see the title of the message on the screen, and you see the truths that we're going to look at starting in verse 30 on now to verse 35. And I would strongly encourage you to write these down. I encourage you to study during the week. Listen to the messages if you need to repeatedly. Pray over what we're learning so that you would retain all that the Lord wants to teach us. Not just this morning, but all through our studies together. So let's look at the verses together starting in verse 30. Jesus says, "I can do nothing on my own initiative. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just.

Because I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. If I alone bear witness of myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness of me, and I know that the testimony which He bears of me is true." Now those are those verses that are a transition between the previous verses we've studied and verses 33 through the rest of the chapter. Notice verse 33. "You have sent to John, and he is born witness to the truth. But the witness which I receive is not from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.

He was the lamp that was burning and was shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a little while in his light." So this is none other than John the Baptist, and we're going to look at John's witness as he attests to Christ's deity. So let's look at these verses, and you see how we're going to break them down. First we'll notice verse 30, and we will look at the transition. We will look at this transition. And notice all of the language that I referred to earlier. "Ah, my." Notice, "I can do nothing on my own initiative.

As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of him who sent me." Notice, this is a change in this language, and this is a change in this complete discourse with the Jewish leadership. Now, it is a summary of Jesus' teaching on being equal with God, but also we see this wording is changed to the first person. Now, this is important to note. For the rest of the chapter, Jesus continues in the first person language as he calls these witnesses to their attention. And notice that in this verse he uses this language eight times, and he does this purposefully.

Now, I want to show you two things out of this transition. First, I want you to notice his initiative. His initiative. "I can do nothing on my own initiative," the New American says. And what we see here is the Jewish leadership were always accusing Jesus of doing things of his own initiative. Here, and in verse 19, Jesus is saying that all that the Son does is from the Father. Go back to verse 19. "Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the Father doing.'" What is Jesus saying? Jesus is saying that he does nothing of his own initiative.

When he hears, he judges. He judges only what he hears and what we are seeing here in verse 30. What does he say? "As I hear, I judge." So we see that he does nothing of his own initiative, although the Jewish leadership were constantly accusing him of doing things opposite of God the Father. The second thing I want you to see is his will. "I can do nothing on my own initiative. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just. Because I do not seek my own will, but notice, but the will of him who sent me." Jesus declares that he does not seek his own will, but the will of the Father. We see this repeated in other places.

I'll give you one example. We saw this in Jesus dealing with the Samaritan woman. He says in John chapter 4 verse 34, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." What is he saying? "His will is my will. I have no will other than his will." Jesus' will is to do the will of the Father. So what do we see? Jesus has no initiative of his own, and Jesus has no will of his own. I like how MacArthur says this. He describes this verse. He says that Jesus was always acting in perfect harmony with the will of the Father. Simplistically, Jesus acts on what he hears, and his will is the Father's will.

Again, this is a summary of what he has been teaching all alone. He does what the Father does. He only acts as the Father, allows him or calls him to act. Now, with this verse, I really have one word of application, and I really want you to write this word down, because I think you will see how this applies to us in a very powerful way. And that word I want you to write down is the word selflessness. See, amazingly, out of this verse, Jesus refers to himself eight times. In the original great language, it's nine times.

So all through verse 30, it's "I," "me," "my," "I," "me," "my." But yet, in this verse, there is nothing more than selflessness. That seems like a contradiction. It's really amazing that he can call that much attention to himself, but all along, it is pure selflessness. So my question for you, for me, is this. Are we selfless in our service to Christ? Are we selfless in our time? Jesus was. Are we selfless in our strength? Jesus was. Are we selfless in our material possessions? Jesus was. He owned nothing. He had no place to lay his head. Now, what am I trying to show you?

There are many people who claim to say that they love the Lord, but they are not selfless. A lot of people, they want to serve God only on Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings, only on Wednesdays. You know, a lot of churches are dumbing down the schedule. A lot of churches are cutting things out of the calendar. Why? Because it just isn't palatable for people these days. What am I asking you? What am I showing you? What do I want us to explore? Are we selfless like Christ was selfless? You know, we're praying for Lucas. They are in India. We know we're praying for Patrick Lee, who is with him.

That young man going to spend three months there in India, and a lot of people are, they question the safety of it. A lot of people will question the judgment of it. But really, it's being nothing more than being like Christ. He was selfless. And I'm not saying that all Christians should go and do those things, but as we walk with God, we should lead selfless lives, as Christ was selfless. And that's all we see in here. He says, "I can do nothing on my own initiative. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek what? My own will, but the will of him who sent me." Selflessness.

And this is a transition, because he's been elevating himself as God, equal with the Father. Now, let's continue. Let's notice truth number two. Let's notice Christ's witness. Christ's witness. That's in verse 31 through 32. He says, "If I alone bear witness of myself, my testimony is not true or not valid. There is another who bears witness of me, and I know that the testimony which he bears of me is true." Now, here, beginning in verse 31, John uses this word witness, which we will see. All of the translations that we study from, that we have before us, use this word witness. Now, this is his first... Now, listen. Defense.

This is his defense, not just of his actions. Remember, he had healed on the Sabbath. This is his defense, not just of his actions, but a defense of who he was and all that he would do. Now, I want to show you some things out of these verses. First, the truthfulness of his testimony. Look at verse 31. "If I alone bear witness of myself, my testimony is not true." That seems strange. We'll address that, but I want you to notice a key word. That key word here is the word true. Go back to the verse. "If I alone bear witness of myself, my testimony is not true." This word, it means admissible as legal evidence or established by suitable evidence.

In verse 31, it seems as though Jesus is saying that his testimony is not true, that his testimony is not admissible, that his testimony is not suitable, but that's not the case. Jesus says on over in chapter 8 of John's gospel, chapter 14, "Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I come from and where I'm going, but you do not know where I come from or where I'm going." So we must ask ourselves a question. What is Jesus saying here? Jesus is saying if his testimony is the only witness that his testimony... Excuse me.

Jesus is saying if his testimony is the only witness, then his testimony must be invalid and inadmissible. It is important to note that the Jews here would have evaluated such a situation based on the Old Testament Scriptures. Deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 15 states that in situations where verifiable testimony is needed, two or three witnesses were needed to authenticate a witness. Now listen to the Deuteronomy passage. "A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed.

Only on the evidence of two witnesses are of three witnesses shall a charge be established." Now we know Jesus is not being charged with a crime, but what I want you to see is a principle, and this principle is carried out in the New Testament. I give you two examples in Paul's ministry. Second Corinthians 3 verse 1, "This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses." First Timothy chapter 5 verse 19, "Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses." What am I showing you?

The Old Testament premise was to investigate and there needed to be more than one witness. So Jesus is not saying that his testimony is invalid. He is saying that if his testimony is the only testimony given, then it is invalid and it is not admissible. So what do we see? The truthfulness of his testimony. He's saying, "I'm giving my testimony, my witness of who I am, but there are others who are giving it as well." But second notice, the truthfulness of the Father's testimony. Look at verse 32, "There is another who bears witness of me, and I know that the testimony which he bears of me is true.

Now this witness is not to be taken as John the Baptist, but as God the Father." We see this in verse 5, chapter 5 verse 36 also. Now notice this, "This who bears witness of me in the original is in the present act of tense," meaning that this witness is ongoing. What Jesus is saying is, the Father's witness is an ongoing witness attesting to who I am. So we see that Christ's witness is true, and it is valid because it is established because of the witness of the Father, and the Father provides more witnesses, thus validating Christ from the principles in the Old Testament Scriptures. As I have shared, we will look at John's witness.

We will look at Jesus' works as a witness, and we will look at the Scriptures as a witness, and we're seeing the Father as a witness. There were plenty of witnesses to Christ's deity to satisfy the principle given in Deuteronomy, chapter 19, and that was carried all the way through into the New Testament. So Christ's witness. Now a question, an application. How often is Christ's witness attacked today? Are there people who question, even discount, even negate Christ's teaching or Christ's deity today? The answer to that question is definitely yes. There are all types of people in our society that question who Christ actually is.

Many say that He is not deity. He is not the only one true God. Many people question Christ's teaching. They negate Christ's teaching. They discount Christ's teaching. I want to refer you to something that we taught the young people the other night when we had a fellowship with our teenagers. Brother Keith and I sat down, and we looked at the creation account, and when God had created Adam and Eve, they were perfect in there in the garden, but yet the serpent came, and the serpent tempted Eve. And what we see is there are two voices right there in the garden.

There is the voice of God, and then there is the voice of Satan, and what I shared with the teenagers was, there have always been two voices throughout history. The voice of God and the voice of the enemy. The voice of Satan, the voice of the accuser. And what I want you to see is any voice that contradicts Christ's authority, Christ's being deity, Christ's teaching, any voice that questions Christ's teaching and negates Christ's teaching is none other than a voice from the very pit of hell. And there are people who do that today, just exactly like there were people who did that in Jesus' day. But we see Christ's witness.

It was not just of his mouth. There was a witness of the Father, the witness of his works, the witness of John, and the witness of the Scriptures. So let's move on. Let's notice truth number three. Let's notice John's witness. This is really where we're going, the title of the message dealing with John's witness, starting in verse 33. "You have sent to John, and he is born witness to the truth. But the witness which I received is not from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.

He was the lamp that was burning and was shining, and you are willing to rejoice for a little while in his light." Now, when you compare the translations that we studied together, we have the English Standard Version that we study, the King James Version. All of those versions really say the same thing in these verses. Now, we should be familiar with John the Baptist and his witness for Christ. Remember, he was the forerunner. Remember, he was the one who came to prepare the nation of Israel for the coming Christ. We started studying John in John chapter 1, starting in verse 6.

That first message was preached in the end of March, almost a year ago, as we started studying the witness of John, the office of John, and the role of John. But here we see that Jesus calls John the Baptist back as his first witness. First, I want us to notice John's witness was true. John's witness was true. Look at verse 33. "You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth." Jesus declares that John's witness about him was true. Now, what was John's witness about Jesus? We should be familiar with what John's witness was. If we've lost sight of that, we can go back to our notes and study.

But really, in a nutshell, I want you to notice the three things about John's witness. John declared that Jesus was Lord in chapter 1, verse 23. John declared that Jesus was the Lamb of God in chapter 1, verse 29, and in verse 36. And John declared that Jesus was the Son of God in chapter 1, verse 34. Of course, this right here in our verses this morning is a reintroduction of John to the Jewish leadership. They had gone out and thoroughly investigated John. Go back to the text. What does it say? "You have sent to John." They went and they investigated John, and John had a very public ministry.

So Jesus is pulling John's witness back before their eyes, a witness that they were familiar with, and he is saying John's witness is true. One of the commentators that I use said, "Although they listened to John and willingly rejoiced during this hour, his burning testimony obviously had not had lasting effects upon them." We see that. Because what does he say at the end of the verses? They rejoice for a little while, but he, no doubt, is bringing that witness back as a true witness. Second, I want you to notice Jesus, he did not need man's witness. He did not need man's witness. Look at verse 34.

"But the witness which I receive is not from man, but I say these things that you may be saved." Here in verse 34, Jesus is saying that he did not depend on man's testimony to establish his claim at being the Messiah or deity. MacArthur says he cited the testimony of John the Baptist not to make up any lack, but to confirm by the mouth of one already recognized as God's true prophet that the same truth was concerning him. You see? He did not need man's witness, but he brought man's witness to them for them. But then third, I want you to notice something out of verse 35 that you might not see. I want you to see that John was a lamp.

Verse 35, "He was the lamp that was burning and was shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a little while in his light." What do we see here? This word lamp. Now, notice this word lamp here in verse 35. You will see it in your New American. You will see it in your English Standard Version. The King James reads light, which is not as accurate when you're dealing with the original. In the original, the word here is lamp, and in that day, it would have been referring to a small oil lamp, which was a common utensil, a common vessel in their homes. Now, what is the difference here?

Jesus was the light of the world, chapter 8, verse 12, while John was a lamp that simply reflected the light. You see? Jesus is saying that John was a lamp. And then fourth, notice Jesus' purpose for John's witness. For that, we will go back. We'll backtrack to verse 34. "But the witness which I received is not from man, but I say these things that you may be saved." This portion of verse 34 can be overlooked, and we see that Jesus gave John as a witness, not only as the first witness, but to be a means to save people. His purpose was salvation for people.

So here we see Jesus' first witness, John, who had such a public and very impactful ministry among the people of Israel. He, that's John, declared Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He was that lamp. He was a reflection of the true light, the real light, which was Jesus. Jesus was the light of the world, God in the flesh, but John was that small earthen vessel that was a lamp that reflected the true light, and he was that first witness. Now, a question in application. Are we not supposed to be lamps ourselves? Isn't that what a true witness is? Nothing more than an earthen vessel, which is a lamp.

But see, I want you to notice two things about John the Baptist being a simplistic earthen vessel who was a lamp, a reflection of the true light. First of all, a lamp is no good. It is useless unless it shines in the dark. Do you get that? That's what John the Baptist did. That's why he stood on the banks of the Jordan and he cried out, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." See, do not lost people need us? Do not the lost people around the world need us? Do not the lost people down the road from our homes and our churches need us? Yes.

The living Lord Jesus wants us to be lamps, earthen vessels who will simply reflect the light of Jesus. And that's exactly what John did. He had no agenda of his own. He came to be a forerunner, to be that first witness, and Jesus says he was a lamp, a reflection of the true light. But the second thing in application is a lamp is no good if it is not a reflection of the light. A lamp is no good unless it's a reflection of the light. Too many people today reflect everything but the light. There are people in the life of the church, all they reflect is missions, missions, missions, missions.

Too many people in the life of the church, all they do is reflect theology, theology, doctrine, doctrine. Too many people, all they reflect is a certain pastor, a certain teacher, a name. You see where I'm going? All those things are good. All those things have their place. But if we do not reflect the true light, the living Lord Jesus, we have no power to affect the lost and dying world. And John the Baptist came as a reflection of the true light. That's why he could be that first light, that first witness, that forerunner. So my question for you is this. What do you reflect to the lost and dying world?

Now as we continue in conclusion, I want to remind you the title of the message. Witnesses to Christ's deity. And it's part one because we're examining John's witness. And I want to declare to you that the church must be a witness for Christ. And I want to tell you that too many churches today invalidate the witness of Christ because they do not reflect Christ. John did not. He validated Jesus. Do you get that? His witness validated Jesus. Jesus could call before the Jewish leadership, before those who are persecuting Him. Jesus could reach out and pull John's witness right before their eyes. And he could say, "I am deity. I am Jesus.

I am the Savior of the world." Not only because of my testimony, because of John's. And John is none other than what the church should be today. A small earthen vessel glowing in the darkness reflecting the light. And we either validate the testimony of Jesus or we invalidate the testimony of Jesus. I'll tell you this story and then we'll close. Years ago when I left full-time ministry, I was working in the secular workplace. And I was working around individuals that did not claim Christ, did not act Christian, and had no affinity for the things of God or the church.

And I'll never forget one day those men began to talk about one of the local churches in our community. And it happened to be the church that I had just come from. And I'll never forget those men began to discuss certain individuals in the life of the church, certain leaders in the life of the church. They began to discuss them by name. And they began to discuss the things that went on in the life of the church. They begin to discuss the actions of those leaders and they begin to discuss details, details, details. And in my mind I thought it's almost as if they were in the meetings which I was in on.

And as they begin to discuss the behavior of those individuals and the things going on in the life of that church, they would look at me and say, "Isn't that right preacher man? Isn't that right preacher man?" All I could do was shrug my shoulders. You see that church, listen, they did not validate the witness of Christ. They invalidated. You see, John's witness validated Christ's deity.

And let me tell you something, every minute of the day our prayer should be, "Lord Jesus, may the witness of Nola Baptist Church, may the witness of our lives be a true reflection of Jesus." "Lord Jesus, I know that in many ways this is a review because we studied in depth the witness of John."