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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Sexagesima Sunday |
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February 11, 2006 John 5 Witness, Take the Stand Who is Jesus? Son of God? Great moral teacher? Prophet? Simple Galilean carpenter? Fool? All these answers, and more, have been given, and we might legitimately ask why we should accept any of them. St. John wants us to believe He is the Son of God, and in this chapter the evangelist presents evidence in the form of “testimony” to convince us. It is as though you and I are judge and jury, and John is the defense attorney calling his witnesses to the stand. Why is this so important to John? Because the whole point of Christ is the salvation of lost people. We are caught in a living death, according to St. John. Our only hope, in this world, and in eternity, is in God. If He will not directly intervene to give life to us, we are lost. The entire New Testament was written to tell us God has acted. Our salvation has come. The Son of God has brought life to us from the heart of God. The testimony of these witnesses is presented to help us reach our verdict. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, John 5:17-18. The first witness is Christ Himself. Some believe Jesus never claimed to be Divine. They say the Apostle Paul added Divinity to the story so he could make a living selling Christianity to the Gentiles. Some living! Paul left popularity and wealth as a Pharisee to be homeless, hungry, stoned, beaten, imprisoned, and murdered. Surely he would have quit if the Gospel were a made up scam. Likewise, the religious leaders would not have crucified Jesus if He had simply been another religious teacher. There were hundreds of them in Israel, preaching their own versions of Judaism. They were branded as heretics, yes, but otherwise they were mostly unmolested by the official hierarchy. Obviously there was something different about Jesus, which turned Paul’s career goals from being a Pharisee to being a preacher of Christ. There was something about Jesus that raised the wrath of the Jewish leaders in a way that was different from their response to other religious teachers. What was that difference? Jesus claimed to be Divine. This claim to Divinity was clearly, openly, and brazenly stated. In John 5:17 Jesus called God His Father, and in John 5:25 He called Himself the Son of God. The religious leaders realized what this meant. Look at verse 18 of chapter five; “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him,
because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his
Father, making himself equal with God.” The religious leaders understood that Jesus was saying He and the Father are of the same being, essence, and substance. By calling God His Father, Jesus was claiming to be nothing less than God in the flesh. By the way, Jesus did not break the Sabbath. He kept it as God intended it, as a day of worship and doing good. He broke only the man-made rules about the Sabbath. The Pharisees’ real problem with Jesus was not that He healed on the Sabbath, but that He claimed to be God. In their minds, that was blasphemy, and the punishment for such a crime was death. So, here is the testimony of the first witness: Jesus Himself claimed to be the son of God. John
the Baptist claimed Jesus was the Son of God, John 5:32-35. The second witness is John the Baptist. John was prophet. That means he was one who proclaimed the word of God by direct revelation. There are no prophets today. They are not necessary because we have the full revelation of Christ recorded in the Holy Bible. They did not have this in the Baptist’s time, so God spoke through the prophets, and everyone recognized that John the Baptist was a prophet. Herod recognized it. John’s parents recognized it. The Jewish people recognized it. Even the Pharisees recognized John as a true prophet of God, (Jn. 5:33-35). Jesus called John the Baptist a burning and shining light in whom the Pharisees were willing to rejoice (Jn. 5:35). He said John was a witness whose testimony is true (Jn. 5:32). And what was the inspired message this prophet received from God and proclaimed to Israel? “I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God” (Jn. 1:34). John claimed Jesus is the Son of God. The
works that He did declare that Jesus is the Son of God, John. 5:36. Next is the testimony of the miracles of Christ. Jesus said, “The works … that I do, bear witness of me” (Jn.5:36). Jesus healed the sick, calmed the sea, stilled the storm, and raised the dead. Are these the works of a normal man? Nicodemus didn’t think so; “no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except
God be with him,” he said to Christ in John 3. Jesus’ miracles had convinced Nicodemus that, at the very least, God was with Christ in a unique way. Jesus’ works convinced the Baptist at a time when his faith was faltering. To me this is one of the most touching events in Scripture. Recorded in the seventh chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke, we see John the Baptist in a period of doubt and despair. He must have asked himself many times; Did I really see the Spirit descend upon Jesus? Is He really doing all those great things? Or am I deceiving myself. Am I imagining things because I want so much to believe them? And he sent a group of his disciples to Jesus, and they asked Him straight out, “Art thou he that
should come? Or look we for another?” The world hung in the balance there in the Judean countryside as the disciples waited for Jesus’ answer. The souls of untold billions of people depended on His answer. The integrity of John depended on His answer. John’s peace of mind depended on His answer, for John was probably in prison when he sent his friends to Jesus, and would soon be called to sacrifice his life for the One he has called, “the Son of God.” Listen to the words of Jesus as He answered this question. “Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen
and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached”
(Lk. 7:22). Jesus is saying, tell John about the works I am doing. Tell him about the signs and wonders that I do. Tell John that I am doing the works my Father sent me to do, and let my works convince him and comfort him, for my works testify of me, that I am the Son of God. You have noticed in your reading of the Bible that at the conclusion of narratives of Christ’s miracles you often find the words, “and many believed on Him.” His works convinced those who saw them that He was the Messiah. His works bear testimony of Him. They shout aloud to all who will hear, “This is the Son of God.” God the Father called Jesus His Son, John. 5:37. The next testimony comes from God The Father. Jesus did not let the validation of His Deity rest on the testimony of men, or even on His mighty works. Jesus said that the God of all creation, the God of Israel, the God the Pharisees claimed to love and follow, also bore witness that He is the Son of God. “The Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me,” (Jn. 5:37). I can think of two times that the Father bore witness of Jesus in an audible voice. At the baptism of Jesus His voice came out of Heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” (Mt. 3:17). Again, on the mount of Transfiguration, the Father’s voice came from Heaven to the disciples, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him,” (Mt. 17:5).
This voice was heard by the people around Jesus, and they believed
in Him because of it. The
Scriptures Call Him the Son of God, John. 5:39. Last, but not least, we hear the testimony of Scripture. When Jesus said the Scripture testifies of Him in verse 39, He referred specifically to the Scriptures of the Old Testament. He said in verse 46 that Moses wrote of Him. The sacrificial system foreshadowed Christ. He is the High Priest who offered the sacrifice for His people. He is the sacrificial Lamb, the Lamb without blemish which taketh away the sins of the world. He is the Passover Lamb. He is the Lamb sacrificed on the Day of Atonement. He is the peace offering, the guilt offering, the only offering that really matters. All the ceremonies and sacrifices of the Old Testament were symbols of His One Great sacrifice. The blood of sheep and bulls could never really take away human sin. They pointed to the dire consequences of sin, and to the sinless Christ whose sacrifice and death alone would save God’s people, and end other sacrifices forever. Jesus fulfills the prophets. He was born of a virgin. He was the One who when lifted up draws all men to Him. He was born in Bethlehem. He was of the house and linage of David. He was God with us. He was the seed of woman who crushed the head of the serpent. All of these things were foretold of the Messiah, and, time after time we see them literally fulfilled in the life and work of Jesus Christ. Anyone who reads the Old Testament and the New Testament must come away with one of two conclusions. Either Jesus worked very hard to fit into the prophecies, in which case we would have to wonder why He would do that, and why He would die for a charade, or He is truly the fulfillment of all the Law and the prophets. The witness of Scripture says, this is the Son of God. I remember hearing one of my college professors say that he kept reading in Exodus that “the Lord spake unto Moses.” Time after time he read it. “The Lord spake unto Moses. The Lord spake unto Moses.” Finally, the professor said, he began to get the message that the Lord spake unto Moses. I find myself in a similar situation in the Scriptures. I read over and over that “this is the Son of God.” I read it in the testimony of Christ and the words of John the Baptist. I read it in the miracles and works of Jesus. I read it in the words of the Father at the baptism and transfiguration. I read it in the testimony of Scripture; the Old Testament as well as the New. I read it in so many places and in so many ways, that eventually I begin to get the message; this is the Son of God. May the whole world get the message. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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