Good stuff. The song, that is.
So we're in the third week of working through chapter 5 of John's Gospel, the biography of the life of Jesus.
So I want to start this morning by recapping the flow.
Catherine's already done that in part, so that's a really good help.
So verses 1 to 17 of chapter 5, the most incredible miracle.
The crowd saw before them a guy who had lain there hopelessly and pathetically for 38 years,
instantly brought back to full muscle tone, complete joint range movement, and neuromuscular coordination.
In other words, the guy went from being hopeless and pathetic to actually picking up his bed and walking away.
The response of the Jewish leaders to that?
Well, not as we might expect, delight for the man healed.
Nor total amazement at the supernatural power of Jesus just demonstrated to them,
and therefore a desire to understand them even more.
Now the response?
Rage.
Murderous rage.
All they could see was that once again, and he was making a habit of this,
once again he broke the rules regarding the Sabbath.
He worked on the Sabbath.
The rules which the Jewish religious leaders believed were essential to honouring God,
essential to having acceptance and relationship with God,
and ultimately essential to getting to heaven.
But even worse than that,
they knew and heard Jesus claiming to be equal with God.
Utter blasphemy, they thought.
And then verses 19 to 29,
Jesus really, instead of backing off at their hatred and their rage,
he's really into them.
He challenges their unbelief.
He spells out in particular and in great detail
what it means for him to be equal with God.
And he says that his total unity of nature, will, and purpose with the Father
means it's impossible to honour God
without also honouring the Lord Jesus.
That would have just blown their heads out.
And Jesus develops even more.
He said, well look, if that's hard for you to hear, listen to this.
It's the Father.
My Father has given me, says Jesus,
the primary role in achieving his salvation purpose.
That means giving life, giving acceptance and relationship
and the guarantee of heaven on the one hand
and on the other hand,
also pronouncing judgment on anybody who dares to reject me, says Jesus.
And so that brings us to the verses this morning, 30 to 47.
Jesus has just made a big thing of him being the judge.
And in these verses, I believe that Jesus is becoming even more aggressive
in response to these Jewish religious leaders.
Because he goes in these verses, I think,
and exposes the nature of their unbelief.
And verse 30 then is a bridge, like verse 18 was a bridge.
Jesus says, I can do nothing on my own.
As I hear, I judge.
And my judgment is just.
Jesus has just explained to these guys the role of judge
which his Father has given to him.
Now, I think, Jesus begins to speak as judge to these men.
Jesus actually effectively now passes judgment
on the unbelief of the Jewish religious leaders.
He's restating in verse 30 his credentials as judge.
Perfectly aligned with the Father's desires.
You can go back and see that from verses 19 and 20.
Perfectly aligned with his Father's desires, purpose, and standards.
His exposure and condemnation of their unbelief
that follows in these verses is perfectly just.
Perfectly correct.
Perfectly beyond argument or dispute.
His verdict on their unbelief.
Well, the first two-part verdict.
Unbelief is not due to a lack of evidence or testimony to me, says Jesus.
So Jesus cites four different categories of witness or testimony,
sources of validation to him and his ministry, his mission as God's Savior and King.
Now, it's important just to stop here for a minute.
It's not desperation that makes them cite these witnesses.
It's not as if Jesus is just desperately trying to make somebody believe
when he recognizes that nobody's really believing in him.
Now, it's not desperation at all.
What he's doing is he's using conventional Jewish practice of establishing truth in a law court.
You need two or three witnesses to establish the truth of a matter.
What Jesus is doing here is he's actually showing them logically and legally
that they have no valid reason for their unbelief.
They stand guilty.
Witness number one.
Jesus' own testimony.
Verse 31.
If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true.
Now, Jesus recognizes here, I think, that his own testimony, though quite legitimate,
is not going to be adequate.
Why not?
Because the Jewish religious leaders have already deemed him to be a fraud and a liar.
So they're just going to dismiss anything he says.
So he moves on.
And he talks about, verse 32, there's another who bears witness about me.
Now, the text here is a little bit ambiguous.
Most people take it to reference John the Baptist that follows.
I think it's actually a bigger picture than that.
I think the other that he's talking about here is God the Father.
And God the Father bears testimony to John through three agencies.
John the Baptist, miracles, and then the Scripture.
And we'll see them as we work through them.
So witness number two.
John the Baptist.
Now, John the Baptist was an exemplary witness.
He was the sort of witness you would want in a court of law because he was from a priestly family.
His father, Zachariah, was a priest.
And not only that, but he was recognized as a prophet.
Twice in the early chapters, he's described as one who was sent from God.
He was a prophet or a prophetic figure.
And again, quoting this or citing this exemplary witness, Jesus wants to be no illusions.
He says, I don't need John as a witness.
I'm not depending on John as a witness for validation of my ministry, says Jesus.
But nevertheless, I will cite him, verse 34, as an assistance to you to believe.
In other words, it's a concession to their unbelief.
Just trying to nudge them along a bit and get them over the line.
Give them as much reason as possible to believe.
And there's a concession because Jesus describes them here as a burning, shining light.
In other words, John the Baptist is like a set of runway lights.
So bright, illuminating the path all the way to Jesus.
So if anybody's going to help you believe, it will be John the Baptist.
And the Jewish religious leaders recognized that John was a prophet sent by God.
In fact, initially in the early chapters, you can go back and check on it.
Initially, they actually went to John because they knew he was a prophet.
They knew he was doing something like prophets do, something unusual.
And so they went to John and asked, what is your word from the Lord?
And from that point on, they knew jolly well that John's word from the Lord was that Jesus,
the long-awaited Messiah, God's Savior and King, was now with them.
And it was this Jesus that they knew.
But, says Jesus, after initial delight from these Jewish religious leaders,
the initial excitement that, wow, we've lived to see a fair dingham prophet sent by the Lord.
But after that initial delight, then the Jewish religious leaders just rejected both John and his message.
Choosing the darkness of their own understanding over a word from the Lord.
Witness 3, verse 36.
The works, or miracles as Jesus calls them.
The testimony 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.
Very simply, just look around.
You've just seen me heal this guy.
Only God can do the sorts of things you've just seen me do.
And that hasn't been an isolated case, says Jesus.
I've done other miracles.
And every time it's the same message.
Only God could do the things that you see me do.
And not only that, but I think Jesus is picking up there a reference back to Isaiah.
Isaiah was very, very much in the forefront of saying,
look, Messiah is coming.
Chapter 35, for instance.
Messiah is coming.
How will you recognize the age of Messiah?
You'll recognize it because the Messiah will come doing miraculous things.
He will make the crippled to walk, the blind to see.
The age of Messiah that Isaiah was talking about, says Jesus,
it's here.
It's me.
Jesus was doing what his father loved to do and had promised he would do.
As I said last week, move people from being spiritually dead to being life, full of life, true life.
Fourth witness then.
Verse 37, 38, and 39.
The witness of the father himself through his written word, the scripture.
Now this would have been very confronting for the Jewish religious leaders.
Because Jesus here recognizes their passion for scripture.
There's no question about it.
These guys loved the scripture.
They loved memorizing it.
They loved quoting it.
They thought they had something special that set them apart from all the other nations in the world
because they had God's written word.
And they luxuriated in it.
Passionate about it, as I say.
And they believed that it would actually deliver them into eternal life.
So one of the famous priests, Hillel, they taught that dutifully obeying all God's commandments,
all God's rules, would actually earn them acceptance and relationship with God
and therefore take them into the kingdom of God, which is what they were seeking,
or what we would call the heaven.
But more than that, they said, if you want to improve the quality of life in heaven,
then the way to do that is by memorizing and reciting scripture.
So the more you memorize and the more you're able to recite,
then you'll get a payback in heaven with a better quality of life.
So you can see why they were serious about learning scripture and being familiar with it.
But then Jesus' king hits them by saying,
listen, you guys, that's all very good, but you've missed the point.
You've missed the whole point of God's scripture.
You've missed what's clear and obvious in God's storyline of salvation.
And that is that people could never secure heaven on their own efforts.
And that the scriptures consistently point to God's gracious provision of an alternative to performance.
And that is the grace of Jesus and the gospel.
They've missed the most fundamental point of God's storyline, God's scripture.
They did not see Jesus.
Why?
Because they weren't looking for him.
Why weren't they looking for him?
Because they didn't need him.
They were totally committed to promoting their own agenda.
Promoting their own pathway to salvation, which is do this, do these religious things,
and you will have salvation.
Memorize God's word, and you will have not only salvation,
but a really top-notch quality of life in heaven.
They were so busy promoting that, that they didn't see Jesus.
They didn't need Jesus.
Even if it meant rejecting God's prophetic word, John the Baptist and all the other prophets before him.
Even if it meant ignoring God's demonstrated word, the miracles all around them.
And even if it meant distorting God's written word, the very thing they profess to love and cherish.
They would do all of that because they're so focused on their own agenda of salvation.
So Jesus declares, verse 37, and this is a damning comment to these Jewish religious leaders.
Remember, these are the cream of the cream.
Well, so-called, anyway.
Verse 37, Jesus declares that in spite of all their godly concerns,
they'd never really heard, understood, believed, or delighted in God.
Now, remember who he's speaking to.
These are Jewish religious leaders.
These are the guys that everybody looked up to as the models of godliness,
the models of passion for the Lord.
And Jesus says, there's nothing.
You've got nothing.
In spite of such compelling evidence or testimony,
which should have produced belief,
their future remains the resurrection of judgment
that we spoke about last week, verse 29.
That's a sobering thought, isn't it?
A shocking exposure.
A shocking condemnation.
They had every reason to believe,
but they refused to believe.
They refused to believe the evidence.
And so, verse 29, Jesus will be declaring as judge
that your only thing you can consider as you look to the future
is this resurrection to judgment.
And then Jesus continues to expose their unbelief
with a second part of the verdict.
So, unbelief is not due to a lack of evidence,
but unbelief now, Jesus ramps up again.
Unbelief is nurtured by unbelieving hearts
and fixed mindset.
Unbelief is not due to a fact.
Now, John identifies, and it's buried in here,
but I think this is an important point.
You can send an email to Rob if you don't,
because my email's full up this week.
So, John identifies and highlights
the key distinction between Jesus
and the Jewish religious leaders.
And it's a key distinction at the point of heart motivation.
Ultimately, self-interest explains their unbelief.
Let me try and demonstrate this.
Look back to chapter 30.
Sorry, look back to verse 30.
So, Jesus says, the second part of that verse,
which I skipped over,
Jesus says,
I seek not my own will,
but the will of him who sent me.
Everything Jesus does is motivated
by the desire of his heart to please his Father.
Now, look at the sharp contrast
that John gives us with these Jewish religious leaders,
that Jesus makes with these religious leaders,
verses 43 and 44.
Verses 44,
See, classic distinction in motivation.
These Jewish religious leaders,
when it was all boiled down,
when you get behind the facade of godliness,
when it was all boiled down,
they were motivated by desire for praise,
for validation from people around them.
They weren't ultimately driven or motivated
or desirous of pleasing the Lord.
And that means practically,
because their minds were so full of that,
that there was no room to seek God's mind,
no room to find God's pathway,
because they were following their own preferences.
And Jesus says, not only that,
but you happily gather people around you.
You reject me,
but then you'll happily gather people around you.
On what basis?
People that think the same way as you think
and people that will affirm you
in your presumed belief.
So you see, it feeds into itself, doesn't it?
Their unbelief feeds into unbelief.
Self-interest then nurtured self-love.
Again, look back at chapter 20.
Chapter 20, verse 20.
Look back at verse 20.
For the father loves the son
and shows him all that he himself is doing.
And Jesus responds in love to the father.
There is a mutual love between the father and his son,
which overflowed in Jesus' determination
to honor and obey the father in all things,
regardless of the cost to himself,
even the cost that we'll see as the story unfolds,
of going to the cross.
Again, look at the sharp contrast, verse 42.
I do not receive glory from people,
verse 42,
but I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
You do not have the love of God within you.
Now remember again,
who he's speaking to?
Jewish religious leaders,
the top of the pile.
You do not have the love of God within you.
These religious leaders were devoid
of genuine love for God
and his purposes.
Their concern for scripture,
their concern for godliness,
their concern for honoring Moses,
Jesus effectively said,
well, it's all just an outside show.
It's all show.
It's all image.
There's no substance to it.
There's nothing in your heart.
Because in reality,
they were into self-validation
through their own efforts.
Verse 43 again.
I have come in my Father's name
and you do not receive me.
They don't need Jesus
because they validated themselves.
They refuse to welcome Jesus
but embrace others
who think as they do
and affirm each other
in the way that they demand.
Even if it's shallow,
and based on distortion
of truth and lies.
So what Jesus is saying here,
I think,
is that their
unbelieving response to Jesus
was very much about self-protection.
About avoidance of any suggestion
or appearance of being wrong.
Because remember,
these guys knew jolly well
what Jesus was saying.
And the next step
in their logic was,
well,
if Jesus is saying this
and we're saying that,
we can't both be right.
So what are we going to do about it?
Answer?
We get rid of Jesus.
Now that's a conviction
of unbelief,
isn't it?
If Jesus was,
if what Jesus was saying
was true,
then what they've been teaching
could not be true.
So these guys,
when you dig into their unbelief,
it's about a choice
to protect their own traditions.
It's a choice
to find validation,
to make validation
of their teaching,
their reputation,
and their authority
before the people
more important
than evidence or truth.
So they were not really concerned
for God's honor at all.
Though that was the image
they created for themselves.
Really?
When all said and done,
they were concerned
for their own position,
their own advancement.
Friends,
they were caught
in a vicious cycle
of unbelief.
Their commitment
to their own thinking
about what makes
a person acceptable to God
meant they didn't really engage
with a compelling evidence
brief for Jesus.
In turn,
this fed their unbelieving attitude
as they encountered Jesus.
And in turn,
that allowed them
to conclude
that what they'd been thinking
about Jesus
all along
was correct.
And in turn,
that gave them
an increasing freedom
because they were so convinced
they were right.
They then felt
they had the freedom
to stop listening to God.
Now notice,
they stopped listening to God,
but they didn't stop
reading the scriptures.
They still love scripture,
God's written word,
but instead of coming to it
humbly,
to be instructed
by it
and directed by it,
they came to it
as overlords
becoming the interpreters
of God's word
according to their own
understanding.
And so the desire
was to use scripture
to achieve their own ends,
their own advancement,
their own honor,
not God's honor,
God's ends.
And Jesus says to them,
look,
you guys,
you make a big thing
about Moses,
well,
I tell you now,
that even now,
Moses is standing up
in heaven
screaming at you guys
that he does not want
anything to do with you lot
because you've got
nothing really to do
what he was teaching.
Moses will condemn you,
says Jesus.
So the big question
this morning,
as I wrap up,
big question this morning,
if you're not yet
a believer in Jesus,
that is,
if you're not yet
a believer in Jesus
for your acceptance
before God,
and your place
in heaven,
the big question then is,
are you yourself
caught in a cycle,
a vicious cycle
of unbelief?
Is your commitment
to not believing
in Jesus
controlling how you
look at the evidence
and form your conclusions?
There's lots of evidence
and research
to show that the power
of existing beliefs
is more than adequate
to do that very thing.
So for instance,
a first example
I want to use,
there's research
done in,
I think it was England
a few years ago,
that said
that men
will never
change lines
when they're waiting
for the supermarket
checkouts.
Now that's a profound
piece of information,
isn't it?
But the reason
why the men
don't change the lines
is very informative.
That is,
men will survey
all the different lines
and they'll make
a decision
as to which one's
moving fastest.
They'll then
get into that line
and regardless
what happens,
that is,
regardless of the evidence,
they will stick
in that line.
Now women,
by comparison,
will jump lines
more than once
if they think
the line down there
is moving faster.
Now what's the driver?
Well the research
showed that men
would rather suffer
the consequences
of making
a wrong decision
rather than
be embarrassed
to move lines
and thereby admit
to everybody around
that they had made
a wrong decision
in the first place.
Now that's only some men,
it wouldn't apply to me.
Some men are pretty stupid.
Present company accepted.
Scarcely believable,
isn't it?
And yet that's
this vicious cycle
of unbelief.
I think that's how
some people deal
with Jesus.
As adults,
they've lived their lives
in a certain line
and now
to change lines
and serve Jesus
and honour Jesus
and put their trust
in him
would be to admit
that what they've been doing
for the last 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years
has been wrong
and some men
would choose
to live with the consequences
of their error
rather than change for truth.
Some people,
not just some men.
My brother-in-law
is a good example of this.
He's a brilliant history teacher.
He's just retired.
He loves examining
historical sources
and evidence
for all sorts of
great ones in history.
I love history as well
so we have
terrific discussions.
He can speak authoritatively
about pretty well
any period in history.
I can't.
I'm very limited.
He's a very proud man
and what he's done
over the years
is validated himself
through his own
learning and achievement.
So he refuses,
therefore,
to give serious effort
to examining
the claims of Jesus.
At that point,
this brilliant history teacher
has a closed
or fixed mindset.
Why?
Because I believe
for him to admit
that his 60 years
of self-validation
was wrong.
Not only wrong,
but worthless.
He would have to do that
if he gave Jesus
serious consideration.
And so what he does
is he continues to use
a childhood experience.
He went to a boarding school
in England
where it was a church
boarding school
and they beat him
to within an inch
of his life.
And he's bitter
about that.
And rightly so.
But he uses,
now this is a history teacher,
he uses that
childhood experience
constantly
to this very day
as his excuse
for not believing
in Jesus.
See how it works?
It's not
logic or lack
of compelling evidence,
but his cycle
of unbelief.
It's his heart
which is getting
in the way
of his unbelief.
teaching scripture
at Edwards Heights
Primary School
a few years ago.
I was constantly amazed,
I always got to teach
years five and six,
sorry,
ten and eleven
year old children.
And I was always
constantly amazed
that these children
would hear,
because they didn't
have a Bible background,
and I would teach them
things from the gospel
and just listen
to them,
totally reject it,
and back their own
beliefs.
That's ten year olds
and eleven year olds.
They would actually say
to me,
that's rubbish.
The cycle
of unbelief.
So I'll finish
on this note.
As you consider
that cycle
of unbelief,
if you're not yet
a believer here
this morning,
consider also
what you're going
to say
on that
resurrection
day of judgment.
Well,
Lord,
I'm sorry,
but I
simply didn't
know about Jesus.
The Lord's
going to say to you,
well,
that's just
nonsense.
I'm sorry,
Lord,
but the evidence
was not that
convincing.
The Lord will say,
well,
that's just
ridiculous.
Well,
Lord,
the evidence
was compelling,
but I didn't
want to change
lines.
It was going
to be embarrassing.
The Lord will say,
really?
Or will you say,
I was determined
to be fair-minded
when I heard
about Jesus.
I realized I
needed to read
the Bible,
to hear what it
says about him,
what he claims.
I need to get it
sorted out in terms
of what he says
about my life
and life everlasting
and how to deal
with my sin
and be accepted
by the Lord.
And as I came
to the Bible,
I didn't initially
believe it was true,
but as I came to it
and prepared to give
myself in fair-minded
thought to it,
Lord,
it just seemed
to open up
before me.
That,
what started out
as ill-defined,
gradually became
more clearly
marked,
and suddenly
I was led
to Jesus,
and now I've
made it all
the way home
to heaven.
Thank you,
Lord,
for breaking
through my
cycle of
unbelief
and show
me the
runway lights
that brought
me all the way
home to heaven.
Let me pray.
Lord,
help us to hear
your word.
Genuinely
hear it.
Because in the
hearing of it,
Lord,
there will be
belief.
In Jesus' name
I pray.
Amen.