Liar, Lunatic, or Lord
Tom Shrader walks through John 5:17–47, where Jesus asserts His equality with God the Father in power, authority, judgment, and the ability to give life. Drawing on Josh McDowell's framework, Shrader argues that Jesus's claims leave only three possibilities: He was a liar, a lunatic, or truly Lord. Shrader closes with a call to hear, believe, and repent, grounding the appeal in the biblical teaching that spiritual death is the human condition and eternal life begins the moment a person trusts in Christ.
“Jesus claims in absolutely certain, clear terms that He is God — and as you look at this claim, you can only have one of three conclusions: He's a liar, He's a lunatic, or He's Lord.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: A Study Of The Life Of Jesus Christ (2003/2004)
Recorded: 2004 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 51 min
Themes: who is jesus, faith, eternal life, repentance, belief, spiritual death, lordship, evidence for christ, skeptic, new believer, seeker, doubting faith, questioning christianity, young adult, intellectually curious, spiritually lost
Scripture: John 5:17-47, John 1:1-3, John 1:23, John 1:29, John 1:33-34, John 11, Genesis 2:16-17, Genesis 3:1-6, Ephesians 1:1, Ephesians 2:1-8, Romans 8:1, 1 John 5:11-12, 1 Thessalonians 4, Deuteronomy 32:39, Deuteronomy 17:6, 1 Samuel 2:6, 2 Kings 5:7, Matthew 18, Colossians 1
Theological Themes: christology, deity of christ, divine authority, soteriology, eternal life begins at belief, judgment, incarnation, apologetics
Full Transcript
Introduction: The Central Question About Jesus
Open your Bibles, please. We continue our study in the life of Christ. As I said last week, we left off with "to be continued," and what we are going to do is come back and expand the spiritual side of the physical miracle we saw in the first part of John chapter 5. We need to finish chapter 5. If you have a red-lettered Bible — meaning the words of Jesus are in red — as you look at John chapter 5 verse 19 and through the balance of this chapter, you'll see it's all red-lettered. Jesus begins this discourse in verse 19, and rather than break that up, I want to complete it, go all the way through, and then come back and do some application next week.
Shortly after God saved me, I was introduced to the writings of Josh McDowell, primarily in a book called *Evidence That Demands a Verdict*. I'm sure many of you have taken a look at that book. I don't think anyone, including Josh McDowell, has ever actually read it, but you've looked at it. There's a lot of good material in it. Part of what McDowell is arguing is this: look at the evidence for Jesus. Who is Jesus Christ? What are the hard facts? And when you look at the evidence — that's the title — McDowell says it forces you to a verdict, to a conclusion about who Jesus is.
He is either one of three things. He is either a liar, or a lunatic, or Lord. Jesus claims in absolutely certain, clear terms that He is God. In fact, that is exactly what we are going to look at tonight in this passage, John chapter 5. We are going to look at verses 17 through 47 — 30 verses. As you look at this claim, you can only arrive at one of three conclusions.
You can look at it and say He knew He wasn't God and deliberately tried to deceive us — therefore He's a liar. Or you can say He is a pitiful person, that He's like the men locked up who think they're George Washington — He's crazy. Or He is who He said He was. Those are the three options. While the first time I encountered that framework was through Josh McDowell, about six months after I was converted, I have since seen it presented by many, many authors across a whole variety of works.
What Jesus Claims — and What It Demands of Us
That is what I want to do tonight. As you look at these 30 verses, what Jesus says is this: *I am God.* What I want you to do tonight is figure out whether you believe that or not. I want you to figure out whether what Jesus says is true, and if it is true, then you need to understand how to respond to it. It's not simply a matter of affirming that He claimed to be God — what does He say about you and me and our relationship with Him? What does He say about the great questions of life, especially a question like: is there a heaven, and if so, what must I do to go there? Those are big questions, and that is what is before us in this passage.
J. C. Ryle writes this: "These verses begin one of the most deep and solemn passages in the four Gospels. They show us the Lord Jesus asserting His own divine nature, His unity with the Father, and the high dignity of His office. Nowhere does our Lord dwell so fully on these subjects as in the chapter before us. And nowhere, we must confess, do we find out so thoroughly the weakness of man's understanding."
The Context: Healing at Bethesda
Let me give you a backdrop and remind you of the context. Jesus has healed the man at Bethesda. He said, "Rise, take up your pallet, walk." The man did exactly that. There was rejoicing — this man had been sick for 38 years. But that rejoicing quickly changed when a group identified as "the Jews" appeared. He is not speaking about all who are ethnically Jewish; He is talking about the Jewish leaders, the group that held themselves up as, and were viewed as, the leaders of the Jewish people.
They came along and said there was a problem. They pointed out that the man was carrying his pallet, walking with it, and that this was a violation of the Sabbath law. The man understood the seriousness of this quickly, because the punishment for carrying that burden on the Sabbath could, in fact, extend all the way to the death penalty. He said, in effect, your problem is not with me — I am only doing what a man told me to do. And if that man could tell me to get up and walk and actually cure me, I concluded he must be someone special, so I did what he told me.
They asked who it was, and he said he didn't know — the man hadn't identified himself and had disappeared into the crowd. Eventually the healed man discovers it is Jesus. Jesus finds him and says he is healed, and warns him to go and sin no more. The Pharisees then discover it was Jesus, and they confront Him directly. That is where we pick up.
Verse 17: "He answered them and said, 'My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.'"
Jesus Claims Equality with God
This is the last time I'll say it tonight: the Jews — and by that we mean the Jewish leaders — didn't struggle to understand what Jesus was saying. Look at their reaction: "For this cause, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also calling God his own father, and making himself equal to God." They understood exactly what He was saying. This statement communicated to them that Jesus was claiming to be God. They decided at this point — not only because of the violation of the Sabbath, but also because of this claim to deity — that He was a blasphemer who had to be killed.
James Boyce brings this a little more to life. He writes: "This is a claim to divinity, to identity with God. It is an assertion that everything God the Father does, Jesus does, and everything Jesus does is also done by the Father. The conclusion of the matter is that Jesus is God." But there is more to this statement than that. When Jesus began His discourse with the claim, "My Father is working until now, and I myself am working," He was not only suggesting that the Father was working with Him in all the actions performed during His earthly life. He was also saying that the Father had been working with Him, and He with the Father, in all their previous actions.
In other words, Jesus was turning the mind of His Jewish listeners back to God's work from the beginning of creation, and He was claiming to have been part of that work also.
In the Beginning Was the Word
In fact, that is how this book began. Turn back to the very first chapter and the first verse — this is how John begins his gospel. John writes: "In the beginning" — and the Jewish reader would immediately think back to the very beginning of the book of Genesis, "In the beginning, God created heaven and earth." John continues: "In the beginning was the Word" — and he speaks here of Jesus — "and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things came into being by him. And apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being."
That is the very claim Jesus is making back in verse 17. He is saying: "My Father is working until now, and I am working myself — we have been working, we created all of this." It is what Paul says in Colossians: Jesus created all of this and holds it all together. And the response of the Jewish leaders is clear: we will not stand for that. Who do you think you are to say you are God?
Answering the Claim That Jesus Never Said He Was God
Let's stop there for a moment. When people say to you that Jesus never claimed to be God, you can tell them that is simply not true. Jesus claimed to be God over and over again, and here is one such claim plainly before us. It is entirely acceptable for someone to say they do not believe it — and at that point we can begin a debate and a discussion about whether it is true or not. But to say He never made the claim is utterly false. That is the issue we have before us.
Let's start with what we know. Jesus says, "I am God," and they get it. Now the question is: is it true or not? Is He lying? Is He out of His mind? Or is He God?
Absolute Equality with God in Power and Authority
Jesus begins in verse 19 to explain this claim and to detail it for us. He is going to assert absolute equality with God in power and authority. "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in a like manner."
There are several things to notice here. Verse 19 begins with the phrase "the Son can do nothing of Himself," and if you look at verse 30, you find a very similar phrase: "I can do nothing on my own initiative." What Jesus is doing is bracketing an argument. From verse 19 to verse 30, He is making the case that He is God — equal with God in power and authority. He also uses, by way of introduction, the repeated phrase "truly, truly," which you see again at the beginning of verse 24 and once more at the beginning of verse 25. Jesus is essentially saying: I am telling you the truth, listen up, what I have to say is really important, this is absolutely true, and you need to hear it.
Notice what is happening. The Jewish leaders have raised the stakes — they want to kill Him because He is a blasphemer. But Jesus does not back down. If anything, He becomes more direct. He is now spelling out precisely what they understood Him to be saying, and He wants to make sure that they — and you and I — cannot miss it.
The Son's Obedience Is Not Robotic Compliance
He says: "The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, the Son does." One author urges us not to be confused at this point. He writes: "We must not think that when Jesus claimed to be able to do nothing except what He saw the Father doing, that He was saying He was something like a robot or a zombie who was carrying out the directives of the Father without thinking. This is not at all what He was saying. Christ is a person. He has a personality, an intellect, feelings. He faced temptations — real temptations — there were discouragements. Nevertheless, in nothing He did did He ever disobey the Father. He obeyed Him, and He did so willingly."
This author goes on to say that so should you and I. It is an interesting point. We are studying the book of Jonah in the weekly study right now, and I have spent a great deal of time in that book preparing for it. It is something I have done before and plan to do again, and I have been reminded in the process what a tremendous book it is — what rich, practical application it contains. I am reminded of that especially when I read this author's call to willing obedience on our part.
Jonah's Problem: Knowing But Not Doing
Three verses in the book of Jonah give us an autobiographical account. Jonah said the word of the Lord came to him, and God told him to arise, go to Nineveh, and cry out against the city. But he went to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarsus, paid the fare, and got on the ship.
Some geography helps you understand what he is saying. For the sake of discussion, Jonah is standing in Gilbert. The word of the Lord came to him and said, arise and go to Nineveh — Albuquerque, that direction. But he went to Joppa and caught a boat to Tarsus — San Diego. The word of the Lord said go here, and Jonah went in exactly the opposite direction.
Here is a huge point: Jonah's problem was not lack of knowledge. Jonah tells us that the word of the Lord came to him, and it was rock-solid clear. He knew exactly what God wanted him to do.
Here was Jonah's problem, and I will confess it is the same problem I have — and I suspect it is the same problem you have. Rarely is lack of knowledge our problem. There are times when we say, I didn't know that, and somebody has to educate us, teach us, mentor us. But most of the time, just like Jonah, we know what to do — we just don't want to do it.
When I sit and talk to people who have problems in their lives, sometimes you have to instruct them and say, you need to do this, and this, and this. But it is stunning to me how frequently, when you say what needs to be done, they respond, I know, I just don't want to do it.
Jesus: Perfect Alignment with the Father's Will
Jesus is saying that is not His problem. He knows what to do, and that is exactly what He wants to do. His will and the will of the Father are perfectly in line — He and the Father are the same. If you have seen Him, you have seen the Father.
Even when we pray, I think it is okay to come to God and say, here is the deal, here is what is going on, we have this big issue, and it is either A, B, C, or D — I like B, B makes sense to me, B looks good to me. God, I love B. But more than B, I want Your will to be done. And if it is Q or Z or something I don't even know, God, I want to do what You want.
So when we pray, it is not a matter of trying to figure out how to con God into seeing it the way we see it. It is coming to Him and saying, here You are, God, here I am — bring me into alignment with You. Jesus does not have that problem. Jesus struggled, was tempted, faced discouragement, weeping, and pain, but He always did what the Father does. That is all He can do.
The Father and Son: Love, Greater Works, and Giving Life
Verse 20 tells us that the Father loves the Son — and that is a good thing, they love one another — and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing. Greater works than these He shows Him, that you may marvel, literally be amazed, filled with admiration.
There are two particular greater works mentioned. Number one: just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. That phrase — "whom He wishes" — is something we will come back to look at next week.
Here is one of the ways we know that Jesus is God: He gives life. Deuteronomy 32:39, God speaks and says, "I kill and I make alive." 1 Samuel 2:6: "The Lord killeth and maketh alive." 2 Kings 5:7: "I am God, I kill and I make alive." The giver of life is God. And Jesus is saying, I am going to raise the dead, I am going to give life. We see it physically in chapter 11, when He goes to the graveyard and says, "Lazarus, come forth," and out he comes. Only God can do that.
Jesus as Judge
The second greater work is judgment. Deuteronomy 1:17 tells us that judgment belongs to God. Jesus says, "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, in order that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him."
Jesus turns the tables on these Jewish leaders. They are saying He is a blasphemer because He claims to be God. Jesus says, no — if you believe in the Father, you will believe in the Son, and by not believing in the Son, you are the ones blaspheming the Father. Judgment has been given to Him. He is the judge, and He is a fair and perfect judge.
Passing from Death into Life
Verse 24: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My words and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death and into life."
When we think of death, we typically think of physically passing away — life ticking away, sometimes without us even realizing it. I was just talking with Mark Feller, who is ushering this morning over in the conference center, and he works with the Cardinals. I told him the Cardinals are my guys, and he said, you know, it has been a long seven years. I said, wait — how long have you been working with them? Seven years. Seven years? It seemed like maybe a year or two ago we were discussing whether that was the right move. Time is just blowing by, isn't it? If you have kids, you know exactly what that feels like.
Spiritual Death and Our Natural Condition
What he is talking about here is not physical death in and of itself, but spiritual death as well. I can be up here, absolutely fit like an Olympic athlete, with perfect blood pressure and all that goes with it, but I can be dead spiritually. Let us spend a moment on this.
Let us turn back to Genesis chapter 2, the very beginning of the Bible, and see how death came into the world. God has created the world, the things in the world, and He has now created man, and He gives man some instruction. He said, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely" — Genesis 2:16 and 17 — "but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for the day that you eat from it you shall surely die."
If we fast forward to Genesis 3, we see the serpent comes, the woman has now been created, and the serpent asks her a question in Genesis chapter 3, verse 1: "Indeed, you shall not eat. Did God really say this, that indeed you shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden?" The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it or touch it lest you die."
At this point the serpent is feeling very confident, so he contradicts God directly. He says, "You're not going to die. You surely shall not die." The woman then begins to look at the fruit. Verse 6: "She saw the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, that the tree was desirable to make one wise. She took from its fruit and ate, and she also gave to her husband, and he ate."
"Then both their eyes were opened, they knew they were naked, they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." And now here is the first recording of abnormal behavior in all of human history. "They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day," and the man and his wife hid themselves — they, who had been communing with Him.
Did They Die?
Here is the question: did they die? Certainly the process begins here, but they will live for hundreds of years. They are very much alive physically. They understand they are naked, they grab fig leaves, they cover themselves, and they begin to hide from God. We know they live for a considerable period of time after this.
So did God lie? Obviously God did not lie. When He said they were going to die, they began to die at that moment physically — but at that same moment they were dead spiritually. They were separated from God at that point.
Paul's Letter to the Ephesians
Now let us fast forward — through the Gospels, through Acts and Romans, through 1st and 2nd Corinthians and Galatians — and stop at Ephesians. Let us take a look at Paul's writing to the church at Ephesus. In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul identifies himself as the author and tells us who he is writing to: "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints at Ephesus." That is another term for believers.
When I was a kid, I thought a saint was somebody who lived an extraordinary life, whom the church then studied, for whom there had to be miracles, whom they then canonized — that is a saint, give him a picture and put a halo on him. That is what I thought. But what Scripture says is this: if you are a believer, you are a saint. In other words, this room right now is filled with saints — men, women, and students who know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
What We Were Before
Now here is what is important to understand. You were not always like that. In the same book, Ephesians chapter 2, Paul describes you and me — every one of us without exception. Scripture is clear: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Those of us who are saints now had also sinned. What was our condition?
Look at chapter 2, verse 1: "You were dead in your sins and trespasses in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world and according to the prince of the power of air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath."
When you are out in the world and someone says, "We all worship the same God" — we do not. That is a significant error. All these different religions are not worshiping the same God. There is one true God, who had a Son, Jesus Christ. If that is not the God you are worshiping, you are not worshiping the one true God. There is also a lie that permeates the society we live in — that we are all, in a kind of feel-good sense, children of God. But here is who we are naturally, as we just read: we were by nature children of wrath.
From Death to Life
You are a son of disobedience and a child of wrath. You are dead. You are not neutral. You hate God. You can't stand God. You love your caricature of God, but you don't love the one true God. And we are hopeless.
Verse 4: "But God." There is nothing man could do. Jesus gives life to whom He wishes — John chapter 5, verse 21. But God in His grace and God in His mercy saved the saints. He turned these sinners into saints. He turned those dead spiritual zombies into live human beings. He turned hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.
Verse 8: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."
Eternal Life Begins Now
With that backdrop, let's go back and look at John chapter 5, verse 24. He says, "Truly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." Romans chapter 8, verse 1: there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Those of us who are spiritually dead, through a work of God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — move from spiritual death to life.
Look at the tense here; this is really important. Whoever hears and believes, He doesn't say will have eternal life. He says has eternal life — present, right here, right now. When we talk about eternal life, we tend to think in terms of quantity. When I say to you that you are going to live forever, that is a long time. But there is another aspect to it.
In the truest sense, every person has eternal life in terms of quantity. Every person will live forever. The question is where — in heaven, communing with the Lord, or in hell, separated from Him? That is the issue. Eternal life begins here, present, today.
1 John 5, verses 11 and 12: "This is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life."
Hearing, Believing, and Responding
What do I have to do to experience this eternal life — both in quantity and quality? I have to hear His word and believe. Now, these men heard this word audibly. The Jews were not confused about the sounds coming out of Jesus' mouth. What He is talking about is hearing and understanding. Hear, understand, believe, repent, respond. That is what He is saying.
He is saying we are dead spiritually. But Jesus said, "I am going to do something that only God can do. I am going to give you life and I am going to judge you." In this case, He passes over us — there is no condemnation. As Christians, our works will be judged as they relate to rewards for what we did as believers, but the verdict on our souls is already settled. He is saying, "I am God, and there is a way out."
The world is helpless and hopeless, and your condition is hopeless, but there is a way out. You can escape. How? Hear and believe, and you have eternal life. It is not just something reserved for the sweet by and by. All of a sudden, this world here has meaning and purpose and direction.
Purpose in the Midst of Suffering
This is a tough world. There is a lot of sorrow and pain, and Jesus was not exempt from it. He suffered excruciatingly through life and a painful death. He is not saying you are not going to have a difficult life. What He is saying is that you are going to have pure purpose and meaning and direction and understanding in the midst of it.
There is a book, and I will admit I don't know hardly any of the details — the cover caught my attention in the bookstore and I was in a hurry. It is by the young girl who was a surfer and had a shark bite off her arm. I opened it up, and she is saying, "Listen, this all happened for a reason. I am not saying God necessarily sent the shark. All I am saying is God could have stopped it, and the shark bit off my arm, and God did it for a reason. God has a purpose, and God's will be done." There are pictures in there of her surfing now with one arm.
I have talked to people who saw interviews with her a week or two after the attack, and there was no bitterness, no anger. There is something different about her. When you read the book, you understand. He is not saying that you are not going to have sharks biting off your arm. He is saying all this stuff is going to happen, but there is a purpose and a meaning in all of it. You don't have to wonder. You don't even have to understand it all. You just know that God is in control in the midst of all of it.
The Authority of the Son
Look at verse 26: "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself. And He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man." He is God. He acts in conjunction with the Father.
Now at this point — and I want to be clear that I am stepping outside the text here — I think Jesus is observing the audience. I mention it every once in a while that I know you all can see me, and I hear that from people often. I was teaching in Tucson and delivered a message, and when I finished and looked up, they were lined up as far as I could see. I thought, "Wow." And the first man came up, and I said —
Welcome to Mr. Schrader's Neighborhood
He said, "Hey, you got on a black shoe and a brown shoe." I said, "Well, thank you. Bless you, my son." The next person came up: "Hey, I don't know if you know it or not, but you got on a black shoe and a brown shoe." There were people lined up three miles down Speedway Boulevard to tell me I had on a black shoe and a brown shoe. When someone finally asked if the message meant anything, I got it.
The next hour I was in Tucson, wearing shorts and tennis shoes, and I didn't know what to do. But what I learned from the first hour was that this was going to be a distraction. So I got up and said, "Look, I got on a black shoe and a brown shoe, and I don't want it to bother you. I also got on a coat and a tie, which is bothering me." I took off my coat, took off my tie, put on my gym shoes, sat down, and said, "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Welcome to Mr. Schrader's neighborhood — I'm going to teach you in tennis shoes."
And it happens all the time. Here's what I also want you to understand: I can see you too. There was a guy this morning, ninth row, right there in the middle. I was talking along and this guy was driving me nuts — fidgeting around, his head fell back, and he was sound asleep. I can see you too.
The Resurrection of All Who Are in the Tomb
I'm not suggesting this is necessarily true of Jesus at this moment, but I get the sense that the people He is speaking to are kind of responding — communicating through body language. We had a dog named Rudy, and Rudy was just as dumb as a cup. You could talk to him, sit and talk to him, and the longer you talked, Rudy would just tilt his head. I get the sense that Jesus is talking to these people and they're doing the Rudy on Him, because He says in verse 28, "Don't marvel at this." Close your mouth, straighten your head up, and listen closely — because if you think that was something, He has something really special now.
"There's an hour coming in which all who are in the tomb shall hear His voice and come forth. Those who did the good deeds to the resurrection of life, and those who committed the evil deeds to the resurrection of judgment."
Let me deal with that last part quickly, because one could read that and say, "There it is — I just have to do good deeds and I get the resurrection of life." But Scripture is clear. We looked back at Ephesians chapter 2: "I'm saved by grace through faith, that not of yourself, not as a result of your works." What Jesus is saying is that you'll see people doing good works — those are people with hearts that are transformed, and they have the resurrection of life. The others move to judgment.
There is a day coming when all those who are in the tombs are going to hear His voice and respond. That's what we see in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, where Paul describes Jesus coming again and those who are dead — he uses the phrase "in Christ" — those who are in the tomb will come out. Those who are alive will meet them and be with Him forever. "Comfort one another with those words." That is what Jesus is talking about here.
A Perfect Judgment
Verse 30 closes that first section: "I can do nothing on my own initiative. As I hear, I judge. My judgment is just." There is no court of appeals here — no one is getting out of this deal. "My judgment is perfect, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent Me."
Verse 31: "If I alone bear witness of Myself, My testimony is not true." Now, Jesus is not saying here that He lies. What He is acknowledging is the standard they themselves had learned from Scripture. Jesus uses this same standard in Matthew 18: "By the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact is confirmed." Deuteronomy 17:6 likewise states: "On the evidence of two or three witnesses." So what He is saying is: I am telling you the truth, but I understand that you need other witnesses — and that is fine.
Four Witnesses
"There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the testimony which He bears is true." As if in a court of law, Jesus now calls four witnesses. He appeals first to John the Baptist and his testimony in verses 32 through 35, then to the works He Himself has done in verse 36, then to the testimony of the Father in verses 37 and 38, and finally to the testimony of the Old Testament itself.
He says in verse 31: "There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the testimony that he bears is true. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. The witness which I receive is not from man, but I say these things that you might be saved." He is saying: I don't need this — everything I'm saying to you is accurate — but I'm going to go ahead and speak to it for your sake.
Verse 35: "He was a lamp that was burning and shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light." Go back to the very first chapter of John's Gospel. John the Gospel writer — distinct from John the Baptist — highlights the testimony of John the Baptist, the same witness Jesus has in mind here. John the Baptist comes on the scene and everyone is confused: Who are you? Are you the Christ? Are you the Messiah? His answer in verse 23 is the first testimony: "I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord." He was saying: I'm just a bulldozer clearing a path. That's all I am. That was John's testimony.
The Testimony of John and the Works of Christ
Verse 29 offers a powerful testimony. John declares, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." That is Jesus. He is the ultimate sacrificial Lamb who takes away sin, and no further sacrifice is needed. Jesus is the sacrifice. In verse 33, John says He will baptize with the Spirit, and in verse 34, that He is the Son of God.
Jesus appeals to the custom that truth must be established by two or three witnesses, and He calls John the Baptist as the first. John's testimony is that he himself is not the Christ, but is preparing the way of the Christ. He declares Jesus to be the Lamb of God and the Son of God.
Then Jesus appeals to the very works He has done. Verse 36 reads, "But the witness which I have is greater than that of John the Baptist, for the works which the Father has given me to accomplish, the very work that I do, bear witness of me and that the Father sent me." He says, look at what I do. At the point in the narrative where He is speaking, He is referring to Cana and the healing of the nobleman's son, but as we sit here and look back over the whole Gospel, we see the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus walking on water, the blind man receiving sight, Lazarus rising from the dead, and Jesus Himself dying, being buried, and rising from the dead.
No One Else Does What He Does
There were many men in that day and age claiming to be the Messiah. The claim to Messiahship was not unusual — there were lots of people floating around making that assertion. But Jesus said none of them were doing what He was doing.
Then there is the testimony of the Father. In verse 37 Jesus says, "The Father who sent me, He has borne witness of me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor have you seen His form." The problem, He explains, is that His Word does not abide in them. At Jesus' baptism, recorded in all four Gospels, the Father speaks and says, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" — but they do not receive it. Why? Because they do not believe. The Word does not abide in them. Their minds are shut; they refuse and push away the gift of eternal life.
The Witness of Scripture
The fourth and final witness comes in verse 39: "Search the Scriptures. That is what you do. You think you are going to find life. It is these that bear witness of me, and you are unwilling to come to me that you might have life." Again the charge is the same — you will not come, you will not hear, you will not believe, you will not respond.
In verse 41 He says, "I do not receive glory from men," and then, "I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. 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." Verse 43 is somewhat difficult to interpret, but some suggest it refers to the Antichrist or to these other self-proclaimed messiahs — the point being that they can be easily persuaded by false claimants while rejecting the true one.
The irony is striking. These men are the keepers of the Law. They do not merely read the Old Testament — they study it, memorize it, and commit it to their hearts. They are the experts. Yet they read those Scriptures thinking they will find life in them, while refusing to see that the Scriptures point to Jesus and that He is the one they must come to.
The Accusation of Moses
Jesus closes this section with a piercing question. Verse 44: "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?" He continues, "Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope." Moses is the author of those five books of the Old Testament, and they are pushing his teaching away and refusing it.
His conclusion is this: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" The witnesses are in place. The claim is clear. The evidence has been presented.
Liar, Lunatic, or Lord
At this point I think the claim is indisputable. I cannot imagine how we could disagree that He at least makes the claim, and His claim is that He is God. It seems very clear, and we will see it confirmed in other passages throughout our study of these Gospels.
Now, setting aside the Jews in the story and turning to the question that faces each of us — how do you see Him? There are only three alternatives. He is either a liar, trying to mislead and deceive you and put you on a wrong path. Or He is out of His mind, because if He is not God and genuinely believes He is, He is simply crazy. Or He is exactly who He says He is.
What we looked at tonight is compelling. He claims to be God, He claims equality with God in power and authority, and the Jews understood this clearly enough that they wanted to kill Him. And He responds by saying: I understand you need witnesses, so here they are — John the Baptist, my works, the Father, and the Old Testament.
How Will You Respond?
So who do you say that He is? If Jesus says He is God and He really is, that drives you to a decisive question: how do you respond? It means that what He says about your condition is true. What does He say about your condition? He says you are dead in your sins and trespasses. But He, and He alone, can give you hope — the hope of moving from death to life. How? By hearing His word and believing that it is true, by coming in repentance and faith.
If you are here tonight and have never had to wrestle with this before — perhaps you have never heard it, or perhaps you have heard it but the gravity of it has never weighed upon you until this night — the claim stands before you. The witnesses have spoken. The only remaining question is what you will do with it.
The Choice Before You
You can never walk out this door and say to somebody, "I never heard the truth." You've heard it now. You need to respond. You need to take the burden of declaring Him a lunatic or a liar, or you come to Him as Lord, Master, Savior. One of the two — which one is it?
It is our prayer that God would open your eyes and your heart, and that you would see the reality and the truth of that. Talk to the person who invited you, or to the people who will be up front here in the chapel after this service, who would love the opportunity to talk to you about what it means to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior. To commit your life to Him, to understand that truth, to see your life transformed.
Understand this: you have eternal life right now if you hear and believe. It is a great truth. It is a message of hope.
Hope in a Dark World
It is a dark world, isn't it? Did you hear the news on Thursday from Chicago? It was a huge story. For the first time in almost two decades, they reported that on the previous day — that Wednesday — there had not been a shooting or a murder in the city of Chicago. That was the news. That was the story. Dateline, Chicago: no one shot or killed.
Are we telling ourselves things are getting better? In a world that is looking and grabbing for hope everywhere, there is hope — in one place: Jesus Christ. Do you know Him? If not, you can. What do you have to do? Come, hear, believe, repent.
Closing Prayer
Father, we pray tonight that to those of us who have seen these truths and understand them, there are words of praise — thanking You for opening our eyes to see and to understand. For others who are here, perhaps hearing this for the very first time, sensing You working in their heart and wondering what to do — God, move their heart. Move their feet.
May they come seeking an answer, to talk to the person who invited them here tonight, to call us here at the church and ask what it means to be a Christian. God, we pray that tonight hearts and minds were opened to hear and believe. Father, we pray this to You here tonight. In Jesus' name, amen.