WWUTT 842 There is Another Who Bears Witness?

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Jesus said in John 5, 32, there is another who bears witness about me.

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And as a matter of fact, as we go through the gospel of John, he mentions seven witnesses to the divinity of Christ when we understand the text.

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You're listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry so that we may know all the riches freely given to us by God.

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For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the gospel of John 5.

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And as with yesterday, I'll start in verse 30 and read through to the end of the chapter. The apostle

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John writes the words of Jesus. I can do nothing on my own.

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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.

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If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me.

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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.

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

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

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But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the father has sent me.

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And the father who sent me has himself borne witness about me, his voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen.

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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.

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And it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

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

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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, you will receive him.

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

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God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the father. There is one who accuses you,

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Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me for he wrote of me.

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But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? So back in verse 30,

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Jesus says, I can do nothing on my own. And as I mentioned yesterday, this is another way of Jesus saying,

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I and the father are one. What the father does, I see the father doing and that's what it is that I do.

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These works that I am doing are not in contradiction with the father. They are according to his will.

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And it was Jesus saying things like this that made the Pharisees hate him because his reference to God as father was a claim of divinity, that he is the son of God and that he is equal to the father.

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As it says in John 5, 18. So back before this discourse started, this was why the

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Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath after telling the man to get up and walk and pick up his mat on the

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Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.

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That's what the Pharisees perceive every time. Jesus refers to God as father and this is why they hated him so much.

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Jesus goes on to say there in verse 30, as I hear, I judge and my judgment is just.

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All his ways are justice as described in the book of Deuteronomy. But what

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Jesus says and does in these judgments that he makes, they don't just come from him.

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They come from the will of the father. Whatever Jesus is saying is exactly what the father would say.

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And the father has given all authority and judgment to the son. Jesus is making judgments even now, both judicially and legislatively.

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As I mentioned yesterday, a judicial judgment would be declaring one person innocent and another person guilty.

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Like for example, back in chapter one, Jesus said of Philip, behold, an

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Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. That's Jesus making a judicial judgment about the condition of Philip's heart that he was not a deceitful man.

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But here he is making judgments about the Pharisees. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they that bear witness about me.

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Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. He is making a judicial declaration about the condition of their heart, the guilt that they have before God, because they will not receive

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Jesus Christ whom the father has sent. So these are the judicial judgments of Christ.

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And he also makes legislative judgments. What Jesus declares is a commandment that is a legislative judgment.

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The fact that he told a man to get up and walk and roll up his mat on the Sabbath and be healed, that was a legislative judgment from Jesus Christ.

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Go and sin no more, a legislative judgment. So this is the way that Jesus is making such judgments even during his earthly ministry.

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And these judgments are just, my judgment is just, he says in verse 30, because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

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The father testifies to the son, the son testifies to the father. So we go on to verse 31 with Jesus saying, if I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.

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Now there is a certain sense in which Jesus' claim about himself is sufficient enough and it stands true on its own.

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And we don't need the testimony of anyone or anything else. That's absolutely true. But understand that in this context,

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Jesus is trying to point to the father and saying that the father is the one who bears witness about me.

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That is the context in which we're reading. So though Jesus' claim as to who he is is authoritative enough because he is

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God, in this particular instance, he's saying that the father bears witness about me.

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And if the father did not bear witness about me, then my testimony would not be true. If it was just me without the approval of my father in heaven, then my testimony wouldn't be sound.

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It would not be legit. I would be a raving loon. It's kind of the undertone of what

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Jesus is saying here. But he doesn't just speak of his own authority. It is of the will of the father so that you may know that his testimony is true.

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And I mentioned back when we were in, I think this was in chapter one, that over the course of John's gospel, he makes mention of seven witnesses to the authority and the identity of Christ and his divine claim to be

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God in the flesh. The first testimony that we have, the first witness in the gospel of John is

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John the Baptist. And this goes back all the way to chapter one, verse six, where we read, there was a man sent from God whose name was

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John, John the Baptist. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.

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He was not the light. John the Baptist was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. And then going on into verse 19,

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Jesus, or I'm sorry, John the Baptist is questioned by the messengers of the

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Pharisees who were sent to him to ask him, who are you? Are you the Christ? Are you the Elijah?

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Are you the prophet? And he says no to all of these things. And they say, then who are you?

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And he says, he's the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah. I am the one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the

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Lord as the prophet Isaiah had said. And then the next day when Jesus comes walking by,

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John the Baptist says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So he bears witness to who

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Jesus is and also refers to him, to his own disciples. John the Baptist saying to his own disciples that this is the bride groom.

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And I rejoice that he has come. And so I must decrease so that he must increase that his ministry would continue to flourish as it is meant to do.

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So John the Baptist is the first witness that we have in this gospel. The second one is Jesus own works.

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We have Jesus performing the miracle at Cana, turning the water into wine.

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That's in John chapter two, but not only that work in that chapter, he then goes into the temple and we have the temple cleansing, the first temple cleansing at the beginning of his ministry.

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That was also a work of Christ that bore witness to who he is because he did that by the authority of God.

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And the Pharisees even asked him, by what authority do you do these things? And Jesus is finally answering that question here, saying that he is one who is sent from the father.

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And what he does is the will of the father and the father approves of him. And the

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Pharisees hate the fact that he refers to God as his father. Because going back to chapter five, verse 18, this was why the

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Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. Because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, remember telling a man to get up and walk on the

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Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.

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That is the way that they receive his reference to God the father.

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It is a claim to be equal with God, that he is the son of God and they seek to kill him because according to them, he's speaking blasphemy.

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So Jesus' own works testify to who he is. God the father testifies to who he is.

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The voice of God that has been heard from heaven. And John the Baptist spoke about this at the start of the gospel, that he heard the voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom

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I am well pleased. There were other witnesses to that as well, not just John the

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Baptist. It wasn't just John and Jesus standing there. Although this plays into John the Baptist testimony of who

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Jesus is in the fulfillment of the Isaiah prophecy that John the Baptist would be the forerunner to Christ, to the coming of the

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Messiah. Now, Jesus even makes mention here to the Pharisees that they themselves have not heard the voice of God.

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So had they listened to John the Baptist, they would also have heard this testimony from the father.

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But he says, verse 37, the father who has sent me has himself borne witness about me, his voice you have never heard.

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So you weren't even there when this testimony was proclaimed at the Jordan. The Pharisees would have to rely on the testimony of other witnesses since they did not come out and did not hear the voice of God.

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But God the father testifies to who Jesus is. The scriptures themselves testify to Jesus claims of divinity.

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For Jesus has said here to the Pharisees, do not think that I will accuse you to the father. There is one who accuses you

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Moses on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me for he wrote of me.

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So the scriptures testify to who Jesus is. He is the fulfillment of everything that had come before him in the law and the prophets.

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Number five, Jesus testifies about himself. He is a witness to himself. Of course, Jesus would have to make a divine claim about himself.

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It's not just others who are making this claim, but Jesus says it also. He said it to Nicodemus when he would say, truly, truly,

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I say to you. Now that wasn't an outright claim of being the son of God, but it was in hindsight, certainly a reference to his divinity for he spoke with authority.

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He spoke with one who originates truth. But you had Jesus testifying to the woman at the well in John four,

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I am the Messiah. To her, he outright says that he is the Christ that is prophesied in the

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Old Testament. In chapter eight, verse 14, Jesus said, even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.

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So again, Jesus saying that his testimony would be sufficient if he made a claim to be God that his testimony would be enough.

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Number six, witness to Christ is the Holy Spirit himself. Now we don't get into this as much until we get to the upper room where Jesus tells his disciples that he will send a helper to be with them and the helper will continue to testify about Jesus.

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The Holy Spirit testifies to Christ. And then finally, number seven, the disciples themselves are witnesses to Jesus.

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And John writes about this at the end of his gospel. So there are the seven witnesses to Jesus' divinity.

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Jesus' claim would be enough on its own, but he goes on to say why he points this out to the

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Pharisees that they may hear the testimony of others. He says, if I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.

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And again, that's pointing to the father. Verse 32, there is another who bears witness about me. And I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.

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Now, initially when he says this, we're tempted to believe that he's referring to John the

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Baptist. And that's what the Pharisees think. For Jesus goes on to say in verse 33, you sent to John and he has borne witness to the truth.

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

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So first of all, Jesus is saying, I don't need the testimony of man, but I am saying these things to you that you may be saved.

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Now, what does that mean? Well, remember we're saved by the word of Christ. That's how we come to salvation.

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Romans 10, 17, faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

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So it's the fact that we've heard his word, his gospel proclaimed as the apostles shared it and then has gone out from his disciples ever since the establishment of the church.

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It is through the declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we would turn from sin and we would come to salvation.

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And this is the gospel that was first proclaimed by Jesus. Romans 1, 16,

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I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

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So it is by the word of Christ that we come to salvation. So Jesus is saying, there's these testimonies that bear witness about me and I don't need the testimony of man, but I am saying these things to you that you may be saved, that they could hear the word of Christ and believe it and be saved, but they won't listen to who he is.

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He goes on to refer to John the Baptist in verse 35, he was a burning and shining lamp and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

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There were some among them there that were intrigued by John the Baptist, but not just because of their own interests, the very fact that they were there to hear the word of the man who was prophesied by Isaiah would be the voice in the desert saying, make way the coming of the

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Lord. Just the very fact that you got the chance to witness this, you were able to receive his light from a little while, a burning and shining lamp and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

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They sent messengers to John the Baptist, they heard and saw the things that he did, but then Jesus goes on in verse 36 to say, but the testimony that I have is greater than that of John, because ultimately what

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Jesus is pointing to here is not the testimony of John the Baptist, it is the testimony of the father.

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And he's just further elaborating on this point that the Pharisees hate and it burns within their hearts to hear him say it, but nonetheless, this is the greater testimony to who

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Jesus is. The father bears witness to the son. The testimony that I have is greater than that of John for the works that the father has given me to accomplish.

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The very works that I am doing bear witness about me that the father has sent me.

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And there, that's ultimately the answer to the question that was asked of him back in chapter two when he had cleansed the temple.

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Chapter two, verse 18, the Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things?

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By what authority do you do them? Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and in three days

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I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days?

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But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, the disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus has spoken.

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So he gave them something to consider in hindsight after he had died and rose again from the grave, which the disciples understood.

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Here, he directly responds to the Pharisees question in saying, it's by the authority of the father that I do these things, that I say to you that you have turned the house of God into a den of robbers.

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That's the very word of God himself that I have said. So the works that I am doing, they bear witness about me that the father has sent me, the miracles that Jesus does.

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He would not be able to do those miracles if he himself was not God, if he was not the son of God who had been sent by the father to accomplish the will of God, to do all things according to the will of God.

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As it says in Philippians 2 .11, that Jesus has done all things, that he humbled himself and became obedient even to the point of death on a cross.

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He did all of this ultimately to the glory of God the father. And as Jesus has done all things to the glory of his name, so must we as well.

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We must be imitators of Christ and do all things to the glory of our father in heaven.

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It is not for our glory that we do these things. It is not for the recognition of man.

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So lest you feel like you're not getting what you deserve because nobody is giving you the proper respect or the recognition for the things that you say and do, well, understand the words of Christ to the apostle

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Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, my grace is sufficient for you.

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You don't need the approval of man for if you are in Christ Jesus, you have the grace of God and that is sufficient.

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The apostle Paul said to the Colossians that they do all things to the glory of God, work first as for God and not for man.

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This is Colossians 3, beginning in verse 22, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the

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Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the

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Lord, you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

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It is said to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 10, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything to the glory of God, giving thanks to God the father through our

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Lord Jesus Christ, who is our benevolent heavenly father, who has considered our need for a savior and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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So that by faith in Christ, we are no longer separated from God, but we have been adopted into his family.

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And this is all according to the love of God the father. Worship him, pray to him today and thank

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God in everything that you do for he is good. Amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues.

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You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com. Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word, when we understand the text.