John. John 5, verse 31. But before we read, let's pray and ask the Lord's blessing. Heavenly Father, we pray now that as we come to Your Word, You would speak to each one of us. Lord God, we pray that You would open our eyes, that You would give us attentive hearts, that You would help us to not be like the Israelites who forgot Your mighty works, but help us instead to remember Your great works and believe. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. John chapter 5, verse 31. This is Jesus speaking. And He says, "If I alone bear witness about Myself, My testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about Me, and I know that the testimony He bears is—bears about Me is true. "You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from men, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in His light. "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. "And the Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness about Me. His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen, 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; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life. "I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 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. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For 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?" This is the word of the Lord. Here in this passage in John chapter 5, you might have picked up some of the language that's being used. We are in a courtroom scene. Did you hear the words "witness," "testimony"? Did you hear about the accusations that will be made? The courtroom scene that we are in is not a good one. The people who are standing accused are those who have not believed in Jesus. Throughout the book of John, we've been seeing Jesus perform great signs and wonders that testify to His identity, to who He is. And yet, even in this very chapter, after Jesus has healed a lame man, we find that there are Jews who are unbelieving. Have a look at verse 16, for instance, "This was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus." And then down in verse 18, "This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him." Do you see these men who are seeing who Jesus is, seeing Jesus perform these wonders and yet not believing? Even more than that, they are seeking to kill Jesus. You see it even in our very text. In verse 40, "You refuse to come to Me," He says. Verse 44, He says, "How can you believe?" The implication is, you don't believe. And then in verse 45, we see this accusation come out. There is—Jesus is not going to accuse them, He says Moses will accuse them. The point though is that it's a trial. And the people on trial are those who do not believe in who Jesus is, in Jesus Himself. And Jesus in this passage is saying, "I am not going to bear witness about Myself in this trial. There are many other witnesses that I can call who can testify to My identity and to who I am." And so as we come into this text and seek to discover something more of its riches, I want to ask you, where are you in this scene? Are you one of those who are not believing in Jesus? You know, often in—preachers will tell you that you're going to receive a trial at the end of your life, and that is true. We will all be judged at the end of our life. We will all be called before the great judge, Jesus Christ, and we'll have to give an account for our life. But the implication of this passage is if you are not believing in Jesus now, you are already under trial. There are already witnesses that are called to testify about who Jesus is and to testify and and declare that it is evident who Jesus is, and so your unbelief is inexcusable. Is that where you are in the scene today? That is—that is one place you could be. We'll see another place you could be a little later on. But in this courtroom scene, there are three witnesses that Jesus calls up. We're going to look at two of them today and we'll look at another one in a couple of weeks. The first witness that He calls up is in verse 33. Or in verse 32, He says, "There's another who bears witness about Me," and then in verse 33, He tells us who that is. Witness number one: John. John the Baptist is who He's talking about. Witness number two is in verse 36. He says, "I've got a greater witness than John the Baptist: the works that I accomplish." They're the two that we'll look at today. And then there's a third witness. He speaks about the Father in verse 38—37. "The Father has borne witness," and the way that the Father bears witness is through His word, through the Scriptures, which you see in verse 39 and 30—31. The Father bears witness, but you don't hear His witness, you don't understand because your word—His word is not abiding in you, and you search the Scriptures and you don't see Me in them. That's what we'll look at in a couple of weeks' time. But today, John the Baptist and his witness. Look at verse 32 to 35. "There is another who bears witness about Me, 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. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light." And what I want to do is when we look at John the Baptist's witness, I want to show you exactly what what John the Baptist declared about Jesus. But first, before we get there, I want you to notice something that Jesus says there. "I say these things so that you may be saved." Yes, you are in a courtroom trial if you do not believe in Jesus, and Jesus has witnesses called up to accuse you to say you should be believing. And He's doing this now, not later, not waiting only until later, but He's doing it now so that you might believe. He wants you to believe. He wants to provide evidence and witnesses so that you would believe. And the first witness, as I've already mentioned, is John the Baptist. John the Baptist we've heard about already in John. And I want—I want this to be a little interactive. I want you to grab your Bibles and flick back a little bit into John chapter 1. I want to show you very, very quickly exactly what this witness is saying in this courtroom trial. John the Baptist is called up on the stand and we are asked, "John, tell us, who is Jesus?" This is the witness. This is the testimony. John chapter 1, starting in verse 19. "This is the testimony of John." John's literally calling it out for you. In verse 19, the Jews come and they ask him, "Who are you?" And he says, the first piece of evidence, or the first thing he declares is, "I am not the Christ." That's the first piece of evidence. I am not the Christ. And then in verse 22 to 23, they say, "Well, who are you?" And he says in verse 23, "I am the one who comes before the Christ. I am the one who's going to point you to the Christ. I'm the voice of one crying out in the wilderness." That's what—that's what my job is, he's saying. My job in this stand is to tell you I am not the important one here, Jesus is, and I'm going to point you to Him. Verse 26 of chapter 1, John answered them, "I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know." Who is this one? "Even He who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I'm not worthy to untie." He's saying, "Jesus is of utmost importance. Jesus is high and lifted up. He is more important than I am." He says the same thing again in verse 30. "After me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me." Saying, "Jesus is more important. Jesus is the one I want you to look to." And then in verse 29, he tells you something about this one who is more important, who he is pointing to. "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" That's who this Jesus is, John says. He's more important than me because He's going to come and sacrifice Himself as a lamb and take away your sin. He's the one who can save you from sin. But more than that, look at verse 33, he builds on who this person is, this Jesus. He says, "This is he," at the end of verse 33, "this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit." What he's saying there is that Jesus is not just going to save you from your sin by being a sacrifice, He's going to save you from your sin by changing you, by cleansing you from the inside out, by transforming you by the power of the Holy Spirit. Just like you when you are all dirty and you go into water and you're cleansed and you come out and you're you're made new, He's saying your heart is dirty, your soul is dirty and He's going to come and He's going to cleanse you with His Holy Spirit and make you new and give you new life. This is who Jesus is. In verse 34, John adds another element to his witness. "I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God." This man is not just the sacrifice who's going to cleanse you from sin, who's going to wash you from the inside out. He has come down from heaven. He is God Himself taken on flesh. That's John the Baptist's first declaration of who Jesus is. But John, the writer of this gospel, gives us some more evidence as to who John says Jesus is. Flick over to chapter 3, starting in verse 25. Again, we have here some Jews coming to John the Baptist and asking, "Who do you say Jesus is?" "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, look, he's baptizing and all are going to him." And John says in this passage that again, Jesus is the important one. Jesus is the one you should go to. "Yes, I've been baptizing," he says, but he says, "A person cannot receive any—even one thing unless it's given to him from heaven. I said, I told you I'm not the Christ, but I've been sent before him." Jesus, he says, is the bridegroom. Jesus is the husband to whom you should go and be married. And I am happy because He's going to increase. I want you to go to Him. He says again, and some of these are adding just a little bit more depth to things that he said before, but in verse 31 to 34, he bears witness and declares that Jesus is the one who is from above and who has come down from heaven. He says he's the one who was sent from God in verse 34. And then in verse 35, he adds something new to his witness. He says, "This Jesus, who is the Son of God, come down, sacrificing for sin, washing with the Holy Spirit, who is more important than I am, he says he is Lord of all." See that in verse 35? "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand." This Jesus owns everything. He's the king of life, the king of the world. And then in verse 36, the last point of what John's witness about Jesus was, he says that Jesus is the one who gives life. "He who believes in the Son has eternal life." And so, Jesus back in John chapter 5 is saying, "You have heard from John the Baptist who I am. I don't need to tell you. John's told you everything." And that really is, what we just went through, that really is a summary of almost everything that's really important about Jesus. That he is the one to whom we must look. And I think as we look at John chapter 5, the question for us is, is John the Baptist still the witness to Jesus? In one sense, yes, in that we can read the scriptures and see what John the Baptist is saying. But in another sense, even Jesus places John the Baptist in the past tense. He says in verse 35, "He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light." And so, has John the Baptist been removed from the the testimony? Does Jesus have no other men who are standing and declaring who He is? No. Jesus—Jesus's plan is to have more and more people like John the Baptist. Over in John chapter 15, verse 26 and 27, Jesus says this: "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning." You see what He's saying? He's saying, "John the Baptist was the first human witness to who I am. But after John, the Holy Spirit's going to come to you disciples, the people who were walking with Jesus, and He's going to reveal to you the same things, the same truths about who I am. He's going to reveal them to you and make it really clear to you, and then you will become My witnesses just like John the Baptist was." And then in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, we see Jesus charge His disciples to go out and be these witnesses. "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." And we'll look in our next point at what exactly their witness was, but it certainly included all of these elements that John the Baptist had. But the point is this, Jesus's disciples couldn't possibly have been His witnesses all the way to the ends of the earth. So in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, do you know what Jesus is saying? He's saying, "You disciples, you're going to do this, and then the Holy Spirit's going to reveal it to people who you speak to. Go reveal My identity to them. And they will become witnesses, and they will speak to people about who I am, and the Holy Spirit will reveal to people they speak to who I am, and they will become more witnesses." Otherwise, you would never be able to get to the ends of the earth and you would never be able to get to all of time. And so, the point I'm trying to make here is in John chapter 5, where Jesus calls up these witnesses against those who are not believing, and the first one is John the Baptist, you, believer, are meant to be in John the Baptist's shoes. Could Jesus call you up in a trial against your unbelieving friend? Could Jesus call you up in a trial against your children, against your work colleagues, against your family members, and say, "Unbeliever, I placed a witness in your life who told you that I am the savior of the world, that I am the important one to whom they should go, that I am the Lord of all, that I am the one who can cleanse them not just on the outside, but on the inside with the power of the Holy Spirit." Could—could He say that about our lives? Or do we point people to ourselves instead of Jesus? You know, John the Baptist is deflecting all the time. Hey, it's not me, guys. You should go to Him. Are we saying, "Hey, you need to come to me?" Are we filled with confidence like John the Baptist was? "Behold the Lamb of God," as people come to him. That's what he's leading with. He's so excited. Could Jesus say about me, "You sent to Tom, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I say is that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. Tom was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice a while in his light." It's a challenging thought. But if you have not believed in Christ, if you are one of those people in in this room today who are on trial, know that Christ will point, I hope, to this sermon at very least. And say, "You heard who I was." You have heard a witness. That's the first witness Jesus calls. The second witness that Jesus calls, He says is greater than that of John. In verse 36, He says, "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." In this context, remember we're only in John chapter 5, John goes to 20-something chapters. In this context, Jesus has only done a few works so far. He's turned water into wine in chapter 2. He's healed an official's son in John chapter 4, and He's healed a paralytic man in John chapter 5. And it's clear that He's speaking about the miracles that He accomplishes. But even at this stage of Jesus's ministry, even at this early stage, the miracles that Jesus had done were enough. Nicodemus even knew this back in chapter 3, verse 2. Nicodemus says, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Have you—have you read the gospels and seen the works that Jesus does and see how they testify to who He is? This man was the Lord of creation. This man could command sickness to come out of people. This man could transform water into wine. We're going to see later on, he could walk on water. He could raise the dead. He could multiply bread in front of you. Who is this man who can perform these wondrous works? No one else in all of history could do this. Only the Son of God, only God Himself come down, taken on flesh. And these miracles that Jesus does, the ones He's done before chapter 5, the ones He will do after, they are all done so that you would know that he is a man sent from God, that he came down from heaven. He's not just a man, that he's the God Himself incarnate, that he's Lord of all, that he has power to give life, and even that he can forgive sins. Remember the healing of the paralytic? When Jesus forgives his sins and then and then says, "So that you would know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins, I say to you, arise, take up your bed and walk." His works testify to who He is. And Jesus, I find this this to be remarkable, but Jesus is so desirous that you would believe in His name that He is more than happy for you to believe only because of His miracles. John chapter 10, verse 37 and 38, He says this: "If I'm not doing the works of My Father, then do not believe Me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me and I am in the Father." So that you may know I am God incarnate. Even if you don't believe my words, believe the works that I'm doing. He says the same thing again in John chapter 14, amazingly, says this to His disciples. In John chapter 14, verse 11, "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or else believe on account of the works themselves." To His disciples. So my my challenge to you is if you're one of those in the room who are not a believer in Jesus Christ, read the gospel accounts of Jesus, see the works that He does, and ask yourself, who is this man? Because His works testify that he is the Son of God, come from the Father, with power over all. And you know, that's probably a good idea for us to do with our unbelieving friends as well, Christian. A great way to show them who Jesus is. Jesus wants them to believe, and He's done all these works and had them recorded so that people would see who He is. Pick up a gospel. Read it with a friend. But you know, the the greatest work that Jesus did was not the miracles that are recorded in the gospels all the way through, changing water into wine and these sorts of things. The greatest work that He did is also in the gospels, but it's right at the end. The greatest work that Jesus did was His resurrection from the dead. And in fact, this is the work that the apostles focus on in the book of Acts as they continue on the legacy of John the Baptist, bearing witness to who Jesus is. They combine that with telling you about His greatest work, His resurrection, and they say, "We want to tell you all about Jesus's resurrection and how that testifies to who Jesus is." That's the way that the apostles preach. Flick over to the book of Acts. I'm going to skim you through there as well. It's a really good exercise. I'll do it really fairly quickly, but the exercise is this: go through the book of Acts, look at every single sermon that's preached and ask yourself, what are the main points that the that the apostles as they preach these sermons, what are the main things they're trying to communicate? You'll find some interesting things. But let me show you a few. Firstly, Acts 1, verse 22. As the apostles prepare themselves for this work of being Jesus's witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, they realize they need to add someone back to their midst because Judas was gone. And so they say one of the men who has accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John until the day when He was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to His resurrection. See, that's the the key thing they wanted to declare to the world, that Jesus is risen from the dead. In Acts 2, in Peter's sermon at Pentecost, he makes this his main point. Verse 32 of Acts 2, "This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses." Peter in Solomon's Portico in chapter 3 does the same thing in verse 15. "And you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses." Acts 5, when the disciples are arrested by the high priests and have to give a defense of themselves, they say, "The God of our fathers in chapter 5, verse 30, the God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging Him on a tree. God exalted Him at His right hand as Leader and Savior." And we are witnesses to these things. Chapter 10, as Peter speaks to Cornelius, verse 40 to 42, he says, "God raised Jesus on the third day and made Him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead." And you can go on, and you'll find others. But there's a just a beginning. Now, perhaps you're thinking if you're if you're an unbeliever and you're thinking, look, it would have been nice to have been back then. You know, when the disciples who actually walked with Jesus, just weeks afterwards, after He was raised from the dead, then started telling people. Like then I then I would have believed that Jesus rose from the dead because I would have heard it firsthand from them. Well, but we live, you know, 2,000 years down the track, how can I know now? Because the disciples aren't around bearing witness to his resurrection. Well, firstly, the New Testament is that firsthand account. It is the disciples speaking to you, telling you Jesus rose from the dead. And it was written by them in the time that they were—that they were speaking. The the time shortly after Jesus rose from the dead. And you can explore the historically rely—the historical reliability of the scriptures, and you will find that they are more reliable than any other historical document. They're written closer to the time. There's more copies of them. There's more ways of checking, and there's more different accounts of the same thing than you than you'll find in any other historical account. But the main thing I want to tell you today is that the existence of the church itself testifies to you of Jesus's great work of the resurrection. Because the first Christians, that the the Christian church was built upon the declaration that Jesus was raised from the dead. It was the foundation on which the church was built. We've seen that as we've just skimmed through some of the sermons in Acts, but in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul elevates this even more, and he says, "If the resurrection didn't happen, if you can disprove the resurrection, then we're done. Christianity should not exist." 1 Corinthians 15:13-15 says this: "Now, if Christ is—this from 12, sorry. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised." In verse 17, he says it even more clearly, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins." Paul says this, "This is the foundation on which the entire Christian church is built. This is the doctrine on which we stand or fall." And Paul, writing just years after Jesus was raised from the dead, puts his flag right there and says, "If you can disprove this, we're done." This was what the church was built on. And more than that, just a little bit earlier in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul makes the point that you could check this out. Verse 3 of chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas and then to the twelve. Then He appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive." See what he's saying? "Hey Corinthians, I've given you names. They're still alive. You want to check this out?" And then he goes on to say, as we just read, "This is everything. If I'm wrong about this, then just ignore me." And as a result of this claim, the first Christians declaring that Jesus was raised from the dead, giving names, giving evidence and saying this is the doctrine on which we stand and fall, on top of that, in a context where to become a Christian meant absolute persecution and ostrization out of out of society, potential death, like Paul as he's going around declaring this is suffering. Every single one of the disciples of Jesus suffered or died staking their lives on this claim. This is what the church is built on. And yet the Christian church grew. And yet there are Christians around even today. Do you see what I'm trying to to get at? In this this courtroom where Jesus is accusing unbelievers saying, "How can you not believe in Me? I've given you people declaring to you who I am. I've done the greatest work you will ever hear of, the resurrection, and then I built my church on it at a time when it could be disproved. And you still don't believe?" And He's saying, "I want you to believe. Come on, check it out. You don't want to believe my words? That's fine. Look into the resurrection. Look into why the church exists. Look into Paul's claims." You've got no excuse. And importantly, in relation to John chapter 5 and to the witness of John the Baptist, the way that the apostles understand the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that it speaks directly to his identity in all the ways that John the Baptist claimed as well. Romans 1:4 says that Jesus is declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection. That's who He is. We know he's the Son of God. Why? Because He was vindicated by God raising Him from the dead. In Acts 2:36, we read a little bit of it before, but this is what Peter says about the resurrected Christ, "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him Lord and Christ," that is, king of all, king of the world. Remember that one from John the Baptist? How do we know that? Because He was raised from the dead. That's the whole point of Acts 2. Just a little bit further up in Acts 2, the whole reason Peter's preaching is because the Holy Spirit has come upon the Christians there, and Peter says, "Do you know why this Holy Spirit has come? Being therefore exalted to the right hand of God, Jesus received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit and has poured out this that you were seeing and hearing." See what he's saying? The resurrection proves that Jesus is the one who gives the Holy Spirit. It's only because of His resurrection that He can pour out the spirit on people. In Acts 3, after Peter heals a lame beggar, he says, "Do you know why I have power over health?" In verse 15 and 16, "You killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this man perfect health in the presence of you all." You see the connection? God raised the author of life from the dead, and it's his name, his risen name that gives this man health. His ability to forgive sins is even linked to His resurrection. In Acts 5, "The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging on a tree. God exalted Him at His right hand as Leader and Savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins." Every aspect of Jesus's identity is proven to us in this great work of the resurrection. So if you're here today and you have not believed on Jesus Christ, the message of John 5 to you is that He has provided sufficient witness to who He is and why you should believe in Him. He has shown you who He is through John the Baptist, through your friends and family who've told you about Him and brought you here today, and through His great work in the miracles and in His resurrection. There is no excuse for not believing in Jesus Christ. And if you are a Christian here today, I want you to have this level of confidence. The same level of confidence that Jesus has. Jesus had no interest in defending Himself, in one sense. He said, "I don't need to bear witness to Myself. I've put in—I've got all these other witnesses that I can call." And His identity as the savior of the world is worth witnessing to. His miracles and His resurrection are things in which we can have sure confidence, and we can speak to people about in the way that the apostles did, and know that if we tell people about Christ and they come to Him, they will have life. It's worth it. He is the one to whom we should point just as John the Baptist did. Let's pray.