John 5:31-47 (The Testimony of Christ)

The Shepherd's Church

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There's a lot of talk lately about court cases. Perhaps the election is going to be decided by a court.

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As you think about a court, there's several different parties that are involved in it. You've got the judge, who is sitting in judgment over the proceedings, and he's listening to the evidence that's being presented.

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You also have the accuser, who's often called the plaintiff, who's bringing the level or bringing the accusation against the defendant.

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You have the one who's accused, who's trying to establish his or her innocence before a body of peers, generally a jury.

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If it goes to trial, you typically have a gamut of witnesses that will be brought before the court.

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And some of the witnesses, I would say maybe even the most powerful testimony that happens inside the courtroom is the witnesses.

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You have eyewitness testimony, expert testimony, character witnesses. All of that testimony is shared in the court to establish the veracity of innocence or guilt.

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That's what a court looks like. But we didn't invent that system, by the way. We Americans did not invent what courts look like.

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That actually goes all the way back to the time of Moses. Through the guidance of the

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Holy Spirit, Moses is the one who wrote in Deuteronomy 17 .6, in reference to capital crimes, he says, on the testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses, the condemned shall be put to death.

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He shall be put to death on the testimony, or shall not be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.

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So God is the one who established this idea of what witnesses are, and witnesses who are coming into the courtroom bringing testimony.

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But God set parameters that it could not be just a single witness because of fraud that could happen.

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That's a relevant thing nowadays. Not at all.

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People two years from now will listen to this and they're like, what's he talking about? It doesn't just apply, though, to capital crimes.

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Deuteronomy 19 .5, that we read earlier, takes this standard and it applies it to all kinds of wrongdoing.

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And it says, a single witness shall not rise up against a person regarding any wrongdoing or any sin that he commits.

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On the testimony of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be confirmed.

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Now again, as I said earlier, in the ancient world, this is one of the most just systems. In many countries in the ancient world, you could be accused of a crime and murdered the very same day.

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Not in Israel. There needed to be corroborating evidence to verify the veracity of the claim.

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You could not be convicted on the basis of a single witness. Now, Deuteronomy 19 goes even further and it adds qualifications for what a trial is supposed to look like.

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It says in verses 16 through 21, if a malicious witness rises up against a person to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both people who have the dispute shall stand before the

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Lord, before the priests and before the judges who will be in office in that day.

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And the judges shall investigate the matter thoroughly. And if the witness is a false witness and if he has testified against his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had planned to do to his brother.

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So you shall eliminate the evil from among you. And the rest of the people will hear this and will be afraid and they will never again do such a wicked thing.

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So you shall show pity, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

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I'm sure you've heard that phrase. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth has to do with integrity in a courtroom proceeding.

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It has to do with God's righteousness and holiness being lived out by his people. Now, that wasn't just the

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Mosaic standard. That was relevant in the time of Jesus. Paul appeals to this, I'm not gonna read it, in 1 Corinthians 13 one.

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Jesus appeals to this in Matthew 18 16. It was common standard practice that if you were gonna accuse anyone of anything at the time of Jesus, you had to have two or three witnesses, two being the minimum.

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Now, this standard is not applied to Jesus Christ. Remember in Deuteronomy 19, it says that you must have two witnesses, you must have faithful priest, and all of this is to happen before the

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Lord. Look at what's happening in this context. Jesus is standing before the Lord's temple, and you have the man at the pool of Bethesda who was healed by Jesus, but who went and turned him into the

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Pharisees. You have a malicious witness. And then you have judges and priests and Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes, all of them who were wicked before the

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Lord. You have a sham trial. They violated every part of the law because they hated

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Jesus. Remember John tells us in verse 16 of chapter five, for this reason, the

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Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath, AKA, he was messing with their leadership structure.

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He was messing with their religion. And after Jesus responded to them in verse 18, now they wanna kill him.

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It says, for this reason, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Jesus because he was not only breaking the

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Sabbath, but he was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. Now, please remember here,

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Jesus was not breaking any actual Sabbath laws. We went through this a couple of weeks ago, three weeks ago, in fact, he was not breaking any

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Sabbath laws as a man. And Jesus we know is not just a man, he's also

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God. He wasn't breaking any Sabbath laws as God. The only thing that Jesus seemed to be violating was their silly man -made rules and their religion, which had no power whatsoever.

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So here's the scene, my friends. You've got a malicious witness. You've got a courtroom scene.

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You've got a wicked judge in the Pharisees, a wicked jury in the scribes.

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And you've got Jesus as the one who's accused. That is the context of this passage.

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Now let's go to the text itself. It's gonna be John 5, 17, or sorry, 30 through 40.

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I'm not ambitious enough to do 17 through 40. It's gonna be 30 through 40. And what

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I want us to see here is that Jesus does three things. The first thing that Jesus does in a trial, as one who's accused, he has to present the evidence that he's innocent.

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So he's gonna do that. He's gonna double the Old Testament standard, two witnesses, he's gonna share four witnesses.

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To show that he is infinitely innocent. After he does that, then he's gonna turn the tables.

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He's gonna call the judge down from the judge booth, and he's gonna put the judge in the witness stand, and he's gonna bring condemnation on the people of Israel, which would be pandemonium in any trial that you've ever seen.

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And then the final thing that we're gonna do today is we're gonna talk about how this passage relates to us. So let's look at John 5.

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Jesus responds, if I alone testify about myself, my testimony is not true.

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But there is another who testifies of me. And I know that the testimony which he gives about me is true.

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This is Jesus's opening remarks. He's gonna share four witnesses now. He says, you sent

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John, and he has testified to the truth, but the testimony which I receive is not for man.

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But I say these things so that you may be saved. John was the lamp that was burning and was shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

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But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John. For the works which the

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Father has given me to accomplish the very works that I do testify about me.

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And the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has testified of me.

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You have neither heard his voice nor you have seen his form. You do not have his word abiding in you.

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For you do not believe him who he sent. You search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life.

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And it is these that testify about me. And you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.

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I don't receive glory from men, but I know you. That you do not have the love of God in yourself.

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I have come in my Father's name and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, then you will receive him.

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How can you believe when you receive the glory from another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only

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God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father, the one who accuses you is

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Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believe Moses, you would have believed me.

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For he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, you will not believe my words.

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This is God's word. Let's pray and then let's unpack this passage together. Lord God, Lord Christ, we look at your word today and we look at a moment where the people that you came to turned against you.

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Where the people that you were sent to, to witness to rejected your testimony. And they accused you

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Lord, although you were perfect and holy and pure in everything that you do, they accused you of a crime.

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And Lord in this trial and at this time in John chapter five, you presented four brilliant lines of evidence to establish your innocence.

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Lord, we also know that there was a trial that looms over this narrative in which you did not speak, in which you allowed them to unjustly murder you.

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And Lord, we know that that is for our salvation and for our good.

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Lord, I pray that as we dive into these words today, that they would not just be a history lesson on what happened 2000 years ago.

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Lord, I pray that they would leap off the page. And Lord, I pray that they would inform us and that they would challenge us and they would motivate us and they would excite us and give us joy and give us just happiness in the gospel.

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Lord, I pray that your spirit would do that work, that you would guide the words that I say and that you would guide the words that we hear and that you would write this message on our hearts.

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In Jesus name, amen. Now, Jesus standing before this sham trial is gonna give four lines of evidence.

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And I want you to remember something about the scene. This is during a feast. When the feast happened, we're talking about the three high feast.

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We're talking about Passover, the day of atonement. We're talking about the feast of booths. We're talking about the three feasts where all

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Jewish males are required to come to Jerusalem. So there's millions of people in the city. People are bumping elbow to elbow, which meant that there would have been a crowd watching these events take place.

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And they would have been watching the Pharisees prosecuting Jesus. And they would have been watching Jesus give his four lines of evidence.

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That's the scene. The first line of evidence that Jesus gives is John the Baptist. He says, you are the ones who sent for John the

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Baptist. He's saying, you're the ones that when I was at the river Jordan, when

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John was baptizing, you're the ones who came and investigated John. He's saying that you're the ones who came to see if John was the

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Christ. And John said, I'm not. Jesus is essentially saying to them, why are you accusing me?

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You were there and you heard John's testimony. Why don't you go back and ask John because you already heard what he said.

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Some of the group in Jerusalem were the ones who were standing there when John proclaimed who

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Jesus was. And we know that from verses 19 and 20 of chapter one. Chapter one says, this is the testimony of John.

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That word's showing up a lot, testimony. When the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?

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And it says that John confessed and he did not deny, but he confessed that he was not the Christ. A delegation from Jerusalem went to John to question him.

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And it is almost certain that members of that delegation were standing there in front of Jesus, accusing him, although they had already heard the testimony of John.

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These same priests and Levites were the ones who came and who saw John the Baptist proclaiming that he is the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

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John 1 15 says, he's the one who comes who has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.

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They heard that testimony. Verse 20 says, I am not the Christ, which means John is saying,

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I'm not the Christ, but there is a Christ and I'm testifying about him. They heard that testimony. After a few of their questions,

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John responds in verse 23. I am just a voice that is crying out in the wilderness.

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Make straight the paths of Yahweh. John admitted to the people that the

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Lord God himself was coming in the flesh. They heard it. So when Jesus claims to be

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God, they have no excuse. John is telling us that Jesus is coming to make straight the crooked paths of these crooked men.

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And in their crookedness, they refuse to believe. John 1 26 through 27 says,

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I, John, baptize you with water, but one stands among you whom you do not know.

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He's talking to the crowds from Jerusalem. He's saying one stands among you that you do not know.

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These men heard that phrase. They heard that Christ is not only the Lord God, but he's bringing the Holy Spirit of God.

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And I don't know how much more clear John could have been, but he will be. He will go to the point of absolute unmistakability in verse 29, where he says, the next day

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John saw Jesus coming and he said, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

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This is he. He's pointing to Jesus in front of the Pharisees. They saw Jesus's face as John pointed his finger, the same finger that he ate locust and honey with.

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They saw Jesus's face when John said these words, after me comes a man who is higher rank than I, for he existed before me.

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If you skip down to verse 34, he says, I myself have seen and have testified that this man is the son of God.

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They heard it. They heard all of this testimony. John could not have been more clear.

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And here these Jews are accusing Jesus of a Sabbath violation, a violation that they believed was gonna lead in his death and his arrest and his murder.

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These Jews are the ones who heard Jesus declare or John declare that Jesus is the Messiah. He's the coming prophet, that John is the

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Elijah who's making straight the path to the Lord, that Jesus is the coming Yahweh from Isaiah. They heard all of this and yet they refused to believe.

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The text even tells us that the Jews went back to Jerusalem and they reported their findings.

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So no one standing in that crowd had any excuse. You had the delegation who saw it with their own eyes and you had the rest of them that heard it with their own ears.

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All of them had heard the testimony of John and all of them were without excuse. That's the first witness that Jesus appeals to,

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John the Baptist. The second witness is even more valuable than John.

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As valuable as John the Baptist witness is, the second witness is even more superior. And that's the witness of Jesus's works.

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Because you know, John could have been sharing his opinion. Jesus could have just been a delusional

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Galilean prophet who had a Messiah complex and he just believed everything that John said. That's possible.

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The Pharisees could have said that, but Jesus's works are undeniable. No one could look at what

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Jesus had done and say he is not the son of God. Jesus says it like this.

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

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But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John. For the works which the

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Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I do testify about me.

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Jesus is saying that every single thing that I have done testifies about who I am.

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Meaning that it's no longer John's opinion. It's no longer just John's testimony.

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It's Jesus's works that confirm who he is. It's his works that verify who he is and seal the case.

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You might be asking, which works is Jesus talking about? All of them. Every single one of them. And we've learned about a couple so far.

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Water into wine. Jesus turns water into wine, not just because his friends didn't have enough wine and they were in a socially awkward situation.

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That's part of it. He was being generous. But Jesus took empty, dusty water pots that were set off to the side and he created water out of nothing.

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And then he instantly turned that water into wine. Only God could have done that. Only God could have accomplished that miracle.

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So therefore, God in the flesh is standing among them. No one could have discounted it. And it even goes beyond that.

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Because if you think about the symbolic references of that miracle, the old dusty water pots represent the

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Jewish religion and how incapable it was to purify anyone. Jesus is not just bringing water. He's bringing the richness of wine.

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He's bringing a kingdom that is overflowing with God's grace and his mercy. That miracle testifies to who

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Jesus is. It tells us who he is and it's testimony to who he is. Remember Jesus flipping tables in Jerusalem at the end of John two.

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Only God would have done that unless you had a death wish. Unless you wanted to commit suicide but you were too coward to do it yourself.

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Then only God would have done this, going into Jerusalem and flipping the tables in the temple.

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And why would he do that? Because that was his house. The temple was God's house and here squatters had taken over and they had defiled

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God's holy temple. So God in the flesh comes to his house and he purifies it.

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Only God would have done that. And he did it in such a way that only he could get the glory. His works testify to who he is.

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You remember the Samaritan village in John four. Jesus heals an entire village starting with one

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Samaritan woman. Why? Because he's showing us that he's not just God over the

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Jews he's God over the entire world. His works testify to who he is.

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You remember the Galilean official servant. Jesus did not even lift a finger and he defies space and time and heals a man who's miles away from his physical location.

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Only God could do that. You remember the man at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus doesn't lift a finger again.

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He only speaks with his vocal cords showing us that he is the same God who in the beginning spoke and the world formed into existence.

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God spoke universes into existence out of nothing. Jesus spoke a 38 year sickness and killed it and healed it out of nothing but his vocal cords.

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His works testify to who he is. Only God could have done these things.

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And here's the thing. Most of the Jewish delegation would have known about these works.

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They lived in a time when they didn't have news media that was pumping into their social media accounts 24 hours a day but they lived in a time where word of mouth traveled fast.

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People lived to be able to tell the next big story. Hey, did you hear about this guy named Jesus? Especially when all of his miracles were so public standing in the center square of Jerusalem they would have known the testimony of Jesus's works.

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They just didn't believe him. Now you can imagine all of these tens of thousands of people gathered around watching the

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Pharisees. You can imagine that the scene is pretty tense. This is not an official court scene.

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They haven't pulled Jesus yet bound out of the garden and into the sham trial that's gonna murder him.

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This is an open air trial. This is an unofficial trial but it's still very tense. The crowd probably wouldn't have been on edge.

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A pin drop could have been heard in the back. If they had pins, I don't know if they did. People would have been wondering are they gonna convict

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Jesus? Are they gonna condemn him for blasphemy for calling God his father? The stakes are really high here.

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This offense could have landed Jesus dead but this is, I think, one of the most beautiful parts of the narrative.

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No one can kill Jesus unless it's Jesus's time, unless Jesus is ready. Jesus said, only

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I can lay down my life. No one can take my life up from me. Only I get to lay it down.

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Why did Jesus delay? Why did Jesus present four lines of testimony so that everyone there would have known he's true so that the

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Pharisees could not have arrested him and condemned him? Why did he do it now and he didn't do it two years later? I think because the disciples were not ready.

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The bold, lion -hearted Peter who's gonna stand up in Acts and preach the sermon that 3 ,000 people got saved.

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Peter was not ready for that yet. Jesus, it took Jesus, the Lord of creation, three years to train

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Peter the Rockhead. His name means little pebble. I'm just trying to be faithful to the

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Greek here, people. The disciples weren't ready.

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Jesus cared about the kingdom of God. He did not just come to save sinners. That is absolutely true.

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He came also to establish God's kingdom here on earth. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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God did not just come to save sinners and bring them out of earth. He came to bring heaven down to earth through the advancement of his kingdom.

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And he was gonna leave and he was gonna entrust that mission to his disciples and they weren't ready yet. So what does Jesus do?

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He stands in front of these Pharisees, these scribes, these rulers, these wicked judges and he presents the evidence necessary to prove his innocence.

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But he's not finished. He doesn't just present two lines of evidence. That's all that was required.

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And the two lines of evidence that he presented so far are unmistakable and undisputable. He could have stopped here, but he didn't.

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And I think the reason that he doubles the requirement, the reason that he gives four instead of two is not because Jesus is just superfluous, not because Jesus is extra.

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My wife accused me of being extra this week. I don't really know what that means. I think I used it in context though. I think he did it to showcase two things.

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I think he provided four examples because he wanted to showcase the depravity of their heart. They would not believe if he gave two witnesses or 2 ,000.

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That's why he doubles the witnesses because he's showing that the depravity of their heart would never allow them to believe.

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The second reason I think is to encourage all of us with his bounty. You see,

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Jesus's generosity exposes the unbeliever's plight, but it encourages all of us who feast on his bounty.

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Jesus didn't just give us an adequate testimony. He gave us a resounding, abundant, and overflowing testimony.

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Jesus doubled the requirement of the law, providing us twice the amount of attestation so that we would have this, so that we could rest in this truth, so that we could revel in this truth, so that we could praise

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God for this truth. I think he gave us more than was necessary because he's a God who just pours in more than we could ever ask or imagine.

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We come like paupers to the throne, unable to do anything, and he lavishes us with the riches of his grace.

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I think that's why he doubled the testimony. So who's the third witness then?

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It's the father. It's like in elementary school, we used to play paper, rock, scissors, and I got this cute idea as growing up as a

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Christian that I would create a new version where God was one of the options and I would always win.

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Jesus is appealing to God. No one, who's gonna say anything against him? Jesus says, and the father who sent me, he has testified of me.

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You have neither heard his voice at any time nor have seen his form. You do not have his word abiding in you for you do not believe the one who he has sent.

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Now, Jesus is certainly appealing to the father here, but I think he's appealing to two specific examples of the father, and that's

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Moses and that's Jesus' baptism. And why do I say that? Because Jesus says no one has seen the form of God and heard his voice except who?

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Moses. Moses on Mount Sinai, he climbed up on top of the mountain and God spoke to Moses like a friend, face to face.

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Moses came down off the mountain with his face shining because he'd been in the presence of God. Moses asked,

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Lord, let me see your glory. And God said, it's too much for you, Moses. I'll let you see my backside as I walk past you praising

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God. God even hid Moses in the cleft of a rock just so that he could experience what no other person had ever experienced.

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So what is Jesus saying? You Pharisees, you scribes have never seen the form of God. You've never heard the voice of God.

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This Moses that you claim to worship, you don't even follow him. You don't even love the same person that Moses loved.

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You know that when God went walking past Moses, it was Jesus? God the father is infinite, doesn't have a body.

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Only Christ the son is embodied. Christ on the mountain of Sinai walked past Moses, singing the praises of God and Moses was blinded by his glory.

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If you love Moses, why don't you love me? That's what Jesus is saying. The one who's greater than Moses, the one who walked past Moses is standing right in front of them.

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And in the hardness of their heart, they level accusation after accusation after accusation.

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They don't bow, they don't worship. And yet this is the

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Jesus who's standing before them. I found it interesting that the father, he says, has testified about me.

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If Moses is the one who was on that mountain and saw the form of God and heard the voice of God, he's also the one who wrote the first five books of the word of God.

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They don't follow that either. They're the ones who are, Jesus says later, they're the ones who adore

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Moses. But yet the prophecy in Genesis 3 .16, that a son would rise up and crush the serpent's head, they didn't believe that.

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When it says that an ark was prepared by God so that sinners could be made well, they didn't see

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Jesus as the true and better ark, the one who would save his people from their flood of sins. The Tower of Babel, all throughout the

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Old Testament, the gospel is littered in every single page. The Tower of Babel, where all the nations were confused.

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In Christ, all the nations will be made well. He's the true child of Abraham, like Derek was talking to us about earlier.

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He is the inheritor of the promise. But instead of Isaac on top of the mountain and God saying no, and he holds back his father's hand of wrath,

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Jesus is gonna climb up that exact same mountain on Calvary and the father will not hold his hand back and the knife will come down onto Christ.

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They didn't believe that. They didn't believe that he was the star that was gonna rise up out of Judah. They didn't believe that he was the true and the better Moses from Deuteronomy 18.

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They didn't believe that he was the paschal lamb from Exodus 14. Every word of every single page in all of the first five books and in all of the

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Bible is all about Jesus. And their hearts were so hard, they could not receive it. Jesus is essentially saying to them, do not be so dull.

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The same father that you say you believe in, believe his word. Believe Moses, the one who wrote about me.

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That's the first thing I think Jesus is appealing to when he says, God, the father is his testimony. The second

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I think is Jesus' baptism. John doesn't write about this in his gospel, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke do.

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John writes about the delegation that was sent to John the Baptist, who were gonna investigate John the

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Baptist. Jesus, the very next day, is baptized by John.

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And do you remember what happens? It says, a voice spoke from heaven.

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As soon as Jesus was going down into the waters and came back out, the Holy Spirit descends, and God the father spoke from heaven.

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This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. If they were standing there, they should have heard it.

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If they were standing there, they should have seen the form of God descending in the form of a

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Holy Spirit, of a dove. They should have heard the voice of God, but Jesus says they didn't.

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They didn't see that. They didn't hear that because they were so blind that they couldn't see.

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They were so blind a supernova could have been inches away from their face and they wouldn't have seen it or felt it or heard it.

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That's how dead in their sins that they were. They could not even hear the voice of God thundering from the clouds.

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And think about that. The people in the Bible, the Old Testament, when Moses goes on top of the mountain, when

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God's voice thunders, they hit the deck. They planted their faces in the earth because they understood the holiness of God.

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And here these people are standing in front of Jesus, mocking him. That's the third witness, the witness of the father.

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The fourth, the final witnesses, the scriptures themselves. Jesus says it like this.

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You do not have God's word abiding in you. For you do not believe him who sent me or him he sent.

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You search the scriptures because you think that you have eternal life. And in these, they testify about me.

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Jesus is saying that any reading of any scripture that does not rest upon, give glory upon and magnify

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Jesus Christ is a failed reading of scripture. He's saying that you memorize all of these verses.

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He's saying that you study them ferociously and you look so smart in your little robes as you walk around in front of all of the people.

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And you think that you're the ones that have eternal life, but you're dead wrong because you've missed the point of it all.

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It's all about Christ. Jesus says, you were unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.

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Why were they unwilling? Because they didn't know God. They knew a form of God that they had created called religion and it damned them.

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They didn't know the word of God. They didn't see the form of God. They didn't hear the voice of God. They didn't understand the works of Christ.

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And they did not believe the testimony of John. They rejected all four of Jesus's witnesses.

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And the only reason that they didn't kill him now because they've already shown that they don't care about honoring Deuteronomy 19.

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The only reason they didn't kill him now is because the crowds. Now this is where the transition in the text happens.

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This is where things get really interesting. Imagine today, if you were watching a murder trial and the murderer is not only acquitted or the one who's accused of murder is not only acquitted, but he tells the judge to get down off the stand and get in the witness box because he's the one who's guilty.

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That's what's happening here. Jesus has been acquitted. Now he's gonna bring charges against the

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Pharisees, the Jews, the scribes, the Sadducees, all of them. And he's gonna bring three accusations against them.

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The first is that they are lovers of men, not lovers of God. They're lovers of men.

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And this of course is true. All throughout the Gospels, we hear stories about how they pray these loud prayers so that they can be noticed.

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How they fast so that their faces will be shrunken in so that people will think how holy they are.

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They were lovers of money. They were lovers of the praise of men. They were lovers of themselves, not lovers of God.

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And this accusation is particularly powerful because it's true. You see, the accusation they brought against Jesus that he violated the

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Sabbath could only be true if they followed their sham law that they had created. It was false.

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This accusation was true and the people knew it. The Pharisees were lording their prideful, arrogant religion over everyone and they craved the praise of men instead of the praise of God.

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That's the first accusation Jesus levels at them. The second is that they're not lovers of God.

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Jesus said, but if you, but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourself.

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He's saying that you don't really love God. Jesus is saying that he actually knew their hearts.

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John 2, we already seen that he knew what was in man. And he wouldn't entrust himself to men because he knew what was down inside of them.

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They didn't have the love of God inside of them. They loved their traditions. They loved their religion. They loved their ceremonies, but they did not love

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God. That's the second accusation. The third and final accusation is that they didn't receive

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God's one and only Christ. Jesus says, I have come in my father's name, which it means in all of my father's authority.

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And you did not receive me, which means you did not receive God. If another comes in his own name, then you'll receive him.

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But how can you believe when you receive glory from one another, but yet you don't seek the glory that is from the one and only

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God? Jesus is asking questions that are making them squirm upon the witness stand.

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He's asking them things like, how can you believe? How can you have eternal life if you reject the testimony of John?

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How can you believe if you reject the testimony of my works? How can you have eternal life if you reject the testimony of the father?

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How can you expect at the end of your life that you are going to spend an eternity with God if you don't even believe the scriptures?

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Because the scriptures testify about Christ and they've rejected him. The shocking finale in this courtroom drama is that Jesus turns to them and he pronounces the verdict.

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And the verdict is everlasting. This is what he says.

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Do not think that I will accuse you before the father, the one who accuses you is

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Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed in Moses, you would have believed in me, for he wrote about me.

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But if you don't believe his writings, you don't believe my words. What Jesus is saying is that condemnation is coming to the

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Jews. It's gonna come in two waves. Small group and I have been looking at the downfall of Jerusalem in 80, 70.

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That's one way. The Romans are gonna come in and they're gonna burn the city of Jerusalem to the ground. They're gonna utterly destroy it.

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In 40 years from this event, the Jews who crucified God's one and only son will be found guilty and their city will be taken away from them.

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That's one judgment that's coming. But the fires of Jerusalem pale in comparison to the fires of hell.

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And that is the ultimate judgment that is coming. And that is the judgment that anyone, not just the

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Jews, anyone who does not believe in the testimony of Jesus Christ, who doesn't accept the testimony of John, who rejects the testimony of Jesus's works, anyone who doesn't believe the father or the scriptures will face the eternal judgment that Jesus pronounces and that is the fires of hell.

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Now, you may be asking yourself, how does a passage like this apply to us?

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It was a courtroom scene that happened 2 ,000 years ago. I think it's actually very relevant to our lives.

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And I think there's two applications. The first is that this courtroom scene doesn't just, it's not just a courtroom scene.

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It actually looks beyond itself to a final courtroom scene that Jesus is gonna face. All the elements are there.

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Jesus is betrayed here in John five. He's gonna be betrayed later by Judas. The Jews are coming against him.

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The Jews are gonna come against him again later, right before his death. This is a false trial.

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It's gonna be a false trial. This time though, Jesus presents evidence so that he can be proven innocent. There will come a trial where Jesus is gonna be totally silent.

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And the greatest act of injustice and violence that has ever been perpetrated in human history is gonna be rained down on Jesus's head.

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That's what makes this relevant. Because this scene looks past this courtroom to a bigger and better courtroom where Jesus takes the punishment that you and I deserved.

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Jesus willingly laid down his life. Jesus willingly allowed them to do the absolute worst to him.

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And what they did paled in comparison to what God did when God poured out his wrath upon Christ on the cross for you and for I.

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You and I were supposed to walk into the courtroom of God at the end of our life and be held accountable for every sin, every way we're thought, every time that you have ever thought anything impure or you've ever lied or cheated or stolen or murdered or whatever it is.

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All of that was supposed to be come to account before a holy and righteous God. We have rebelled against our maker.

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And if it were not for Jesus standing in our place, taking the wrath that we deserve, you and I would be condemned as well.

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And that's where I think this applies most fully is that because of what

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Jesus has done, we can be saved. We can be spared the wrath of God.

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And it doesn't just stop there. How do you apply this text if you're a Christian? If you're not a

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Christian, repent and believe the gospel. How do you apply this text if you're a Christian?

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Believe the testimony of Jesus Christ. Believe what he said. Believe the testimony of John the

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Baptist that Jesus is our King, that he's the lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world.

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That means us. Believe that we've been baptized in the spirit of God by Jesus Christ.

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Believe that we're not worthy to tie his sandals just like John, but Jesus has made us worthy.

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He's elevated us so that he no longer calls us slave, but friend because of what he's done.

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Believe the testimony of John. Believe the testimony of Jesus's works.

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What's the greatest work that Jesus Christ ever did? He rose from the dead. He didn't stay in the grave, he rose.

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And he rose so that he could bring life to all of his people. Romans 6 .4

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says, for all of us who were spiritually dead, it says, therefore, we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the

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Father, we too might walk in the newness of life. Because of what

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Jesus has did in his greatest work of all, raising from the dead, we have been raised. We have been raised to life in Christ so that spiritually we're a new creation right now awaiting the final day when

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Jesus returns and he unites our broken body with our purified perfect spirit and we live forever and ever with Jesus Christ.

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Believe the testimony of Jesus's works. Believe the testimony of John. Believe the testimony of the

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Father who sent his one and only son for you because he loves you. Believe the testimony of the scriptures.

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Cling to the gospel. Hold fast to the truth. Study the word of God because we live, my friends, in uncertain days.

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2020 has been a crazy year. It's no wonder that the election looks like it does because hashtag it's 2020.

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But while these may be tough years, believe the testimony of Jesus Christ. It does not matter if we wake up tomorrow and Joe Biden or Satan himself is president of this country.

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Jesus Christ is still on the throne. Jesus Christ is still reigning. And Jesus Christ loves you enough to die on the cross for you believe that testimony and it will lighten your heart and it will lighten your load and it will make you a witness for Christ.

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Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for the fact that your life echoes far beyond itself, that the things that you did for us 2 ,000 years ago didn't stay there in a history book, but your testimony, your works, what

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John said that you were gonna do, you did it. And because you did it, Lord, you saved us and you rescued us so that we don't have to face the judge.

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You face the judge. Lord, I pray that for all of us who are here today, that we would rest in the finished work of Christ, that would lift our hearts and that we would praise you because of what you've done.

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And that Lord, as we live in this crazy world that we live in, that Lord, we would have a hopeful, joyful outlook.

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That Lord, we would not allow this world to weigh us down and that we would not allow the events of this world to break us.

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But Lord, we would be the most joyful people on planet earth, so much so that the world would look at us and say, why are you so happy?

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Why are you so joyful? Why are you smiling? The world around us seems to be burning down and we can say, we have

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Jesus Christ. Lord, thank you. It's in your son's name we pray, amen.