Jesus has some compelling Witnesses John 5:31–38
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SERMON TRANSCRIPT:
I love that one line in that song, you're the well that never runs dry. It's just a great reminder that we serve the all-sufficient Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who is our everything. We just got it all in Christ and He's all-sufficient for us and we can sing those songs and remind ourselves of those great truths that we have. And one of the other blessings that we have is in the common grace side of our life. How many of you guys have been enjoying this sunny weather? I mean, amazing. Finally get your lawn mowed and maybe work in the garden or get out and just ride a bike or whatever it may be. It's a wonderful time of the year, and I just hope it stays this way until the end of September. Wouldn't that be nice? It'd be incredible.
Well, I appreciate Pastor Caleb preaching last week on a great text. about the future voice of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, when every dead will hear his voice and will be raised either to resurrection of life or resurrection of judgment. And it's a great sobering moment just to hear Jesus' words about that reality. And we're going to continue in that vein today as we talk about John chapter 5. It's an incredible chapter because it's kind of a turning point that begins to move the storyline toward the cross because there's going to be growing opposition by the religious leaders as we've already seen in chapter 5. And it's a great opportunity for us just to maybe hone in today on the compelling witnesses that are brought before us.
Now, before we get into that, I just want to say a few words. It's amazing. We're having a little baby boom here at Christ Church. We've got four of our ladies right now who are going to be having a baby beginning tomorrow through the next couple of weeks. It's an amazing thing. And we're just excited about them and their families and what they're doing. We've got the Milner family, the Dalrymple family. We've got the Yoon family, and then we've got also the Kerr family. And there may be others that I'm not even aware of, but those are the four that I'm aware of right now that are going to be taking place. So they're on the edge of their seat. I know Max, because he's working on staff, he's just totally stressed out all the time. It could happen at any moment. Are you sure I need to work at the church? Do I need to do this? And he's excited for that first-time child that God's going to bring into their life, and that's a great, great blessing.
But I also want you to know, I was gone last week, and maybe you heard, I was down in Jacksonville, Florida with Luke. We were at a Southern Baptist music conference, and we're being taught by a variety of people like the Gettys and the Coughlins and Shane and Shane and Laura Story and different men and women who are writing songs that we sing here in worship and talking about how we get the congregation to sing because it's all about singing our worship to the Lord and And it's not, it's an all participation thing. And it was an incredible conference. I wish I had time to tell you all the details, but the greatest lesson for me was staying in the same room with Luke for three or four nights and learning all about his life and how he gauges the evening and the mornings and things like that. And so we're completely opposites, but it was a lot of fun things. And I think we got along and made it. Is Luke in here somewhere? Is he? Okay, you're back there. Am I telling the truth though? Okay. All right.
Well, if you've got your Bibles open to John chapter 5, let me read our text this morning at the beginning here. Beginning in verse 31, Jesus is going to announce and invite everyone who's listening, mainly the religious leaders and the other Jews who are around them, even some of the Gentiles, that I want you to consider that I truly am the Son of God, that I am truly the Savior, that I'm truly the Messiah, and I'm gonna bring four witnesses to the courtroom of God. Now, Jewish law only required two or three witnesses. Jesus could have brought a lot more witnesses, as we're gonna see, But it's amazing he brings four and just in an economy of words, powerfully presents those compelling witnesses that testify to the truthfulness of who Jesus really is.
Now let's read this so you can kind of see this in full, verse 31. If I alone testify about myself, my testimony's not true. There is another who testifies of me and I know that testimony which he gives me is true. You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. That's John the Baptist. But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. That's Jesus. He was the lamp, that he is John the Baptist, that was burning and was shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a little while in his light. But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John, for the works, miraculous works, which the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me, he has testified of me. You neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his form. You do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent. What an indictment. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify of me. And one of the sad verses in the Bible is right here. And you, verse 40, are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. How sad that is. And here we are 2,000 years later and there are still people who are unwilling to come to Christ. Maybe you're one of them in this room. Maybe you've heard the story. Maybe you've seen the compelling witnesses. Maybe you've read through the Gospel of John, but it doesn't guarantee that God will always open our eyes to the truth. But what's interesting is that the Bible and Jesus reminds us that they were unwilling to come to have the very thing that you need the most, and that's life eternal, qualitatively, quantitative life. Amazing. Amazing.
Now in our world of jurisprudence, the evidence that is most compelling and most authenticating is credibility, reliability, and corroboration. There are five categories of evidence that I want to share with you in order of their influence and importance in our world today. Number one is direct evidence. We know this. The testimony of a credible eyewitness is very compelling. Or maybe a voluntary admission of guilt. A confession can be very powerful if it's not coerced. Number two is a physical evidence. This involves things like tangible items like weapons and fingerprint and DNA samples and documents that haven't been tampered with. And then number three is forensic evidence. The science of DNA and analysis and ballistics and toxicology and digital forensics is very compelling. Then you can add to it the fourth one, which is documentary recording information like contracts and emails and text messages and surveillance footage and metadata, which can provide the timestamps and the intent and the consistency over time. And then the fifth piece of evidence is circumstantial. It's indirect, and it requires some inference, maybe about motive or opportunity or behavioral patterns. But one thing the court doesn't depend on in our world today is like a silver bullet. It's not going to be one form of evidence that really brings the house down and confirms guilt or innocence. The most authenticating evidence is that which is independently verifiable, consistent with other evidence, and resistant to bias or manipulation.
Now what's amazing about that is when you go to the Bible and you look at the highest court in the universe, which is God's throne, God in the Bible tells us about seven different pieces of evidence that are compelling. Seven categories. Number one, eyewitness testimony. Being verified by multiple witnesses like Deuteronomy 19 verse 15 says, by the mouth of two or three witnesses a fact may be confirmed. Secondly, miraculous testimony God uses. It's public, observable, supernatural acts of power in history. Miracles like the Moses 10 plagues. By signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will, authenticated the apostles and the message that we read in Scripture. Thirdly is prophetic testimony. Listen, this is one of the most amazing things to me because only God can predict the future. Oh, you've got all kinds of practitioners out there like the old former Nostradamus who they claim was some great, amazing prophet. But listen, if you blow it once and he's blown it hundreds of times, you're a false prophet. And the Bible has never made a false prophecy ever. When Jesus Christ, when the prophets in the Old Testament gave predictions about the future Messiah, they gave us specifically 332 prophecies in the Old Testament. 109 of them were about the first coming. And guess how many Jesus fulfilled? Every single one of them. So therefore, 224 are yet to be in the future. When he comes back, we're going to see God fulfill every single one of them because he never breaks a promise. He always fulfills his prophecy.
Number four on the list, on God's list, is the resurrection testimony, the ultimate courtroom exhibit. A public verifiable event with many witnesses and transformative consequences in people's lives. There were over 520 witnesses of that in those 40 days before Christ was ascended. Number five on God's list is scriptural testimony across three centuries and three continents and 40 authors. Scripture presents a remarkable and unified consistent message about the Lord Jesus Christ. And then on God's list is experiential testimony, which is observable transformation of the people's lives all throughout history. How do you explain, like, how do you explain Paul, who was actually persecuting the church as a Pharisee and as one who had power and great education, and yet he has this unbelievable transformation and he wrote 13 of our New Testament books and he was on fire as an apostle of Jesus Christ and willing to pay with his life. How do you explain that? Experiential testimony. And finally, on God's list is what we call subjective testimony. You might think, well, subjective is subjective. I mean, we live in a subjective world where everybody says, well, this is my feeling, this is my thinking, and this is what I believe. It's in my gut. Well, listen to this. Here's what the Bible says. The internal confirmation of the truth in following Jesus Christ comes from the Spirit Himself who bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. What a testimony.
Now here's what's incredible about those seven pieces of evidence. John, in his gospel, used every single one of them. He goes through the eyewitness testimony, the miraculous testimony, the prophetic testimony. He uses the resurrection testimony, the scriptural testimony, the experiential testimony, and the subjective testimony. And while every single one of these witnesses are very compelling and airtight, it does not guarantee that a person who uses and checks out all seven of these witnesses that God can bring to the courtroom stand on his throne will change their mind because we all, obviously, you know, conversion comes by the power of the Spirit who opens our lights, our hides, to see the light of the glory of the gospel. He's the one that resurrects dead hearts. And without him, no amount of evidence is going to be convincing. Oh, we might be convinced intellectually, but our life hasn't changed.
But Jesus comes forward. He presents four compelling pieces of evidence. And John is building this compelling case that, listen to this, is irrefutable evidence. I wish we had time to do this over and over again, but it's so amazing when you compare Christianity to all the religions of the world, there is no comparison. Christianity stands alone as the religion of divine accomplishment, and all the other religions of the world is a religion of human achievement. That separates them right there. Christ stands alone. Christianity stands alone because of Jesus Christ, because of His Bible, His Word that He's given us. I wish we had time to do this. I've been keeping a list, an ongoing list ever since we started in John chapter one and so far we're up to chapter five and so far I have found 35 different names as well as different descriptions of Jesus Christ. Just in those five chapters. We've still got many more chapters to go because John doesn't want us to miss the point of the scripture and the point of why we're living this life is so we can know the Lord and make him known. It's an amazing story.
And in our text today, Jesus continues His defense like a defense attorney. To the Jewish people, to especially the religious leaders who were the elite of the day. They were the educated of the day. They had the religious certificates. They were the ones who knew the Bible. They're the ones in the Old Testament who pretty much memorized the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and yet they were anti-Christ. They were looking for the Messiah, but they're saying, you're not the one, Jesus. So what does Jesus do in his ministry? He presents the witnesses. He invites them to the stand to share their testimony. And we're going to see that today. Now what's interesting throughout John is you're going to see him use words like truth, words like testimony, words like testify or witness. And it's amazing that we can have this irrefutable, airtight case about who Jesus Christ is that no mind on the earth or ever in history could ever bring him down intellectually. Can't do it. And yet it's interesting to me that while we reject Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior some do, many do actually, we so easily accept the testimony of so many other people and institutions in our life today.
Listen, think about it. You can go to the doctor, and when you meet your doctor, he gives you a diagnosis. You're like, oh, this is good to know. I'm glad I finally know what's wrong. And then he gives you a prescription. And then you go and drive in your car, pick it up at wherever place you pick it up, and you take it, and you're totally trusting your doctor's diagnosis is accurate, and the prescription he gave you was accurate without even thinking about it. When you board a plane, you totally trust the pilots have the proper training and the maintenance crews have done all the proper safety checks. You don't say, hey, can I have five minutes of your time and interview as my pilot today? Because I want to make sure you've been trained. No, you don't do that. Or maybe you go to the grocery store. You totally trust the food items have been properly packaged and safeguarded from any spoilage or contamination. You know, it's always been interesting. I've grown up in the church all my life. And I've probably been to so many potlucks, I can't even count how many potlucks I've been to. And it's only been in recent years, and you know, everybody brings food, I just love food, I just love all these different dishes that people make, and I don't even know who's made them or anything like that. But for some reason now, when I come to a potluck, I tend to stop and think, now who made this, because do they have a cat? And is there any hair shed in this thing here? And it's just a weird thing, you know? But you're not checking that thing out. You're not saying, well, I'm not going to eat any potlucks here because it could be some dog hair or whatever could be in there or things around the house or whatever it may be. No. We just eat it.
When you pay your taxes, you trust the elected government officials will use the funds appropriately. Well, probably not on that one, right? But we can't seem to do anything about it. Now, I could go on and on. Whether it's voting or driving over a bridge or weather forecasts or a friend's word or using search engines or turning on the lights or drinking tap water or believing scientific claims or reading and listening to the news, there are thousands of examples of how you and I accept the testimony of someone else that we don't even know. And yet we have Jesus Christ and we have the word of God and we have his miracles and we have these witnesses that God brings before his throne that testify of the veracity, the authenticity, the truthfulness of the person, the centerpiece of our life, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And the lineup of witnesses to me is so compelling that it's irrefutable. But again, it's not your brain power. Even if you understand all those facts, you might say, that's impressive. But even people who do that still don't come to Christ because it's a birth from above, right? John chapter 3. God crashes our life and opens up our eyes and resurrects our dead hearts so that we can see the glory of the good news and why we need it.
So let's look together at these four witnesses and bring them up to the stand one by one as Jesus Christ does, and as John records, number one on the list is His heavenly Father. You can't get a better witness than that. You say, well, wait a minute. I've been following along what you guys are preaching here, and I noticed a couple weeks ago when you were talking in verse 19 and following that that Jesus gave his own self-testimony about how he was the Christ. He gave us six evidences that he was God. Wait a minute, you can't give self-testimony. Something's not right here. What's going on? What we've also learned since verse 19 is is that it's impossible for the Son to do anything apart from the Father, right? That's different than us giving some self testimony. Because the two share the same nature and one will. And now in verse 30, which I didn't read, let's reread that right here. It says, I can do nothing on my own initiative as I hear I judge and my judgment is just because I do not seek my own will but the will of him who sent me. In God's eternal plan, the Father sent the Son to bear our sin. And the son submitted to his father's will. And everything that Jesus Christ did on earth, he did in submission to his father. Therefore, and this is a key truth, he wasn't bearing witness of himself independently of the father. So that any Jewish lawyer that came along and said, hey, you know what the law says in Deuteronomy 19.50, that there has to be two or three witnesses for there any claim to be true about some crime or about someone's innocence. Self-evidence is rejected. That's why Jesus said what he said in verse 31. Did you see that again? If I alone testify about myself, my testimony is not true. He knows that. He recognizes that. But what they're not seeing and what they're not understanding is he doesn't do anything apart from the Father. We serve a triune God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Right? That's why they were all fired up when he claimed to be the Son of God. And they're picking up stones and stone them. That's blasphemy. We've got to kill you. Hey, they got that. They figured, hey, what he's saying was true. They just didn't accept it.
So Jesus brings forth these witnesses. And Jesus acknowledges that his testimony would be invalid if he were acting independently, but he wasn't. And so he says in verse 32, here it is, there is another who testifies of me. And I know that the testimony which he gives about me is true. Who's that another? It's his heavenly father. Notice down at the beginning of verse 37, skip on down there, and the Father who sent me, he has testified of me. Okay. How? We don't know for sure. We don't know what that testimony would have been, but it could have been the two that God did give us in the gospel accounts. You'll remember these. It could be a reference to the baptism of Jesus where the triune God showed up. The father and the son was being baptized. The spirit came down as a dove and the father spoke and said, this is my what? Son in whom I am well pleased. Maybe that's one of the things he was testifying about. Or maybe it was at the Mount of Transfiguration when Elijah and Moses showed up with Jesus crucified. And then we hear the voice of the Heavenly Father again in Matthew chapter 17, testifying about his son in whom he is well pleased.
You see, later the Pharisees, who were always criticizing Jesus, and it's going to get worse and worse and worse. They're going to get madder and madder and madder all the way through through John. In the Gospel of Counts, it says this in chapter 8. Listen to this. Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true. Obviously it is. Jesus is never going to lie. For I know where I came from and I know where I'm going. But you don't know where I come from and you don't know where I'm going. So listen, even though self-testimony may not be sufficient in the court of law, it does not mean that it's not true. This is especially true when it comes from Jesus Christ because what? He bleeds truth. I am the way, the truth, and the life. He does everything from truth. He knew that he would return to the Father after he accomplished his Father's will. But listen to what Jesus said next in his face-to-face encounter with the religious leaders who should have known better. In chapter 8, even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true, and I am he who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me. About me. Now a person's self-testimony can be compelling if the person has good character. If someone is known for lying and manipulating and trying to turn their testimony into self-serving ways, you're going to struggle to believe them even if maybe what they're speaking is the truth at that moment. You know, we have a number of law enforcement officers through the years at our church, and they would always tell me behind the scenes that we have a lie test in the law enforcement role. I said, what is it? They said, whenever anybody's mouth is moving. Because most of the people they're dealing with are not telling the truth. They're just telling a story. Well, listen, Jesus isn't telling a story. He's telling the truth. At his trial, the Jewish authorities couldn't even find witnesses to agree about the charges they were leveling against him after examining Jesus Christ. Here's what Pilate said two different times. I find what? No guilt in him. And the men closest to Jesus Christ They spent three years watching him in all sorts of circumstances and situations. And they all testified like this. There's no sin in him. One of the messages that helps us understand the gospel is that very truth. Listen, if Jesus Christ sinned once, we're playing a game here. We shouldn't even be involved in Christianity. We should just go out and do whatever we want to do. Because God required a sinless Savior to go to the cross to be an acceptable payment for our sin. And he was the only one who could ever do that. And that makes the gospel true. That makes the gospel powerful. So Jesus' point in verses 30 to 32 is the reason his self-testimony was true is because he never acted independently of the Father because the Father was his witness.
Testimony and witness number two, bringing them to the stand, is his humble forerunner, John the Baptist. Now we talked about John the Baptist back earlier in the chapters, quite extensively. He was an interesting guy, wasn't he? He was pretty loud. He was pretty different. He wore strange clothes. He ate strange food. You know, he was a no-nonsense type of guy, living out in the wilderness, that kind of stuff. And yet God used him to be the forerunner to announce, hey, the Messiah is here. And people were believing it because they were amazed at the power of his message, calling men and women to repentance. And notice what it says in our text again beginning in verse 33. You have sent to John and he has testified to the what? To the truth. To the truth. But the testimony which I have received is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved, Jesus said. He was the lamp that was burning and was shining, and you were willing to rejoice, now watch this, for a little while in his light. Man, he was the hottest speaker. He was the guy that everyone wanted to hear. I mean, he could preach it up, and people were responding. Others were just wowed by his ability to preach, but didn't respond spiritually. And here Jesus marches. John the Baptist is humble, by the way. You remember what was so humble about him? Because he was always pointing to Jesus Christ. What was the famous thing he said? He must increase, but I must decrease. What a great prayer that is to pray. And here's John the Baptist praying. testifying about Jesus Christ in fulfillment of the promise of the Old Testament that he would be the forerunner to the truth. Now, keep in mind that John the Baptist is not the key witness. You know the key witness in this whole thing? It's the Father. You see, John the Baptist is just a human. He can be fallible. But the Bible says he came and spoke the truth. And the main witness being the father, John, was just a lamp, not the light. And it says he was burning and he was shining, spotlighting the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He was the ultimate deflector. In fact, that's what pastors do. We deflect, hopefully away from ourselves, so that we can let you know here's who the Lord is. Here's what the Bible says about how we honor the Lord, how we live for the Lord, how we love the Lord, how we serve the Lord, how we worship the Lord in spirit and truth. What a witness he was. John was that lamp. And if they believed what he said, they could be saved. God gave illumination through John, but many of the Jews rejected that.
And Jesus reveals something easy to read by. Look at verse 35. This is very interesting. I tried to emphasize it when I read the scripture. He was the lamp that was burning and was shining, and you were willing to rejoice. Here it is. For a little while. You see, I think God gives us windows of opportunity to respond. And God sent the forerunner, John the Baptist, to go before Christ being presented as Messiah. And he was preaching about this Messiah and probably talking about all the Old Testament passages that would prophesy about Jesus Christ. He was pointing to him. And he was the hot ticket. Everybody, his ministry was huge. People were coming. Maybe they were coming because of his style. Maybe they were coming because of his eloquence. Maybe they were coming because he looked weird and he ate weird stuff. Maybe there was a lot of different things that drew them. But more than a few walked away not understanding what he was doing and the witness that he was providing. They were like a bunch of moths, you know, who flutter near the lamp while it's burning but few, then they fly back into the darkness after it's all extinguished. when they should have followed the very one to whom John had spotlighted, and the lesson is often missed. Don't miss the opportunity to be saved when God is speaking His truth to you. That's part of the message of the book of Hebrews, is hearing the gospel over and over and over again, and you keep walking away. You've been given full knowledge, and you keep walking away.
Well, witness number one is the Heavenly Father, witness number two is the Heavenly Father, and witness number three that comes to the stand is his hyper-natural miracles, his works. We've already examined three of them, amazing, and he only gives eight of them out of 57 distinct miracles in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. an amazing healing ministry of 37 distinct healings with eight distinct healings of multitude. So Jesus did some things, and we read in John 20 a couple weeks ago how there were many other things he did, many other signs that he did, which there's not enough room to write about them. But we've already seen that he turned the water into wine, 180 gallons of water into six water pots into wine. He healed the nobleman's dying son that Jesus had never met or seen or never even went by. He healed him from a distance. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about the healing of the 38-year-old paralyzed man that Jesus said to pick up your pallet and walk, which pushed the buttons and triggered the Pharisees to get all fired up about Sabbath laws and Sabbath traditions. But here Jesus says in verse 36, but the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John for the works which the Father has given me to accomplish. The very works that I do testify about me that the Father has sent me. These works are the miracles. They're the unique signs that point to Jesus Christ as the Messiah, as the Son of God, as the God in human flesh. In chapter 10, verse 24 of John, here's when the Jews said to Jesus, hey, if you're the Christ, would you tell us plainly? Are you kidding me? What has he been telling them all along? Who he is. They were already upset here in chapter 5 and ready to stone him because they knew he was claiming to be equal with father because he's his son. So here's what Jesus said to them in return. I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my Father's name. These testify of me. And then later in chapter 15, he says this. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have not have any sin. But now they both have seen and hated me and my Father as well. His miracles were overwhelming testimony that he was the Christ, the Son of God. They were abundant. They were great. They were public. They were beneficial as works of love and mercy and compassion toward people. And they could all be examined. But you know what's interesting? The Jews never denied the miracles. They couldn't. They were irrefutable. They saw them with their own eyes. It wasn't a magic trick. But you know what they did? Instead, they attributed Jesus' power to Satan and committed blasphemy. Skeptics today would deny the possibility of miracles because maybe they've never seen one. Yet they will in the future, just as Pastor Caleb preached on last week in our text. Every voice will hear Jesus Christ raising them from the dead to judgment or to everlasting life.
So witness number one is the Heavenly Father. Witness number two is the humble forerunner, John the Baptist. And witness number three was that supernatural miracles, those works that he did, those are strong, compelling testimonies. But the final witness is this, his Holy Word. It's the Scriptures. It's the Scriptures. Now look down, if you will, at the midpoint. Let's just start at verse 37. And the Father who sent me, he's testified of me. We talked about that witness. You have neither heard his voice nor did you see his form and you do not have his word abiding in you because you do not believe him who was sent. Verse 39, you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify about me. So Jesus brings to the stand a testimony about the Scripture itself, this documentary evidence. An amazing thing that points to Jesus. What a compelling testimony it is. When you continue up through verse 47, which is going to continue to talk about that, you're going to read this in verse 47, if you have your Bibles there. Here's what he says. He says, listen to verse 46. For if you believe Moses, who wrote the Pentateuch, is what he's referring to, you would have believed me, for he wrote about me. You know what's the crazy thing about that? They had memorized Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and they're missing it. Verse 47. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? What a testimony it is. What a responsibility and accountability it is when we hear the word of God to believe it and then to respond to it in our own lives.
After his resurrection, Luke records a famous narrative with Jesus Christ. You've heard of it. Two men on the road to Emmaus. They're walking along. They're talking about all the incredible things. They said, don't you even know what's been going on? The stirring of the city. It's incredible. They started to tell Jesus. They don't recognize Jesus. We don't know why. Maybe he changed his look or maybe he just dulled their understanding of who he was because he hadn't revealed himself yet. But it's interesting, when they get to the end of Luke 42, you might want to turn there. This is interesting to look at. Just a couple of pages there to the left. He says this in verse 25. Oh, foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all the prophets who have spoken. This is Jesus talking to these guys he's just first met. Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer these things and enter in his glory? Then beginning with Moses the Pentateuch, And with all the prophets, the rest of the Old Testament, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. Listen, the Bible is a compelling testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and his identity. He's the Lord.
Now, as I was thinking about how to present this this week, man, there were so many things. We could probably have a six-week series on what the Old Testament predicts about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Fascinating. It's amazing. It starts all the way back in Genesis 3, verse 15. It's the first prophecy about Christ. But rather than that, we're going to look at 10 things that you'll find in the Old Testament, and that's just only a few, okay? Maybe we won't even get through it. I got 10 minutes left, all right? Let's go through this. Number one, he was clearly predicted in prophecy. Genesis 3.15 says, That was when God was doling out the curses on Adam and Eve and Satan. And this is the curse on Satan. And here's what he says. He will first come, the Messiah is going to come as a man from her seed to bruise you on the head. That only happened at the cross of Jesus Christ, and it's Jesus Christ himself. Genesis 12, verse 3. Abraham was promised, I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you while it occurs, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. In Abraham? Yeah, because you follow Abraham's descendants. And Galatians chapter 3 tells us specifically, oh, guess who the seed is? It's Jesus Christ. He's the fulfillment of Abraham. Amazing. Amazing. Genesis 49, 10, Jesus had to come through the tribe of Judah among all the other tribes. Then he had to come through the family of Jesse. And that's exactly what happens.
Secondly, he was prefigured in typology. Notice some of the people that prefigured him. Like Adam himself, Jesus Christ is called the second Adam. While the first Adam led us into sin, the second Adam brings us out of sin. We see the picture of Melchizedek in Genesis 14. And that's all we know about Melchizedek is what you find in Genesis 14. And then it's elaborated on in Hebrews. And all we know about Melchizedek, we don't know anything about his father, his mother. We don't know his relatives. We don't know about his life. All we know is this. He's the king of Salem and he was a high priest. And God says, give a tenth to me in worship. And we come to Hebrews in chapter 10. It talks about Melchizedek representing the Lord Jesus Christ as the king of glory. I mean, we could go on and on about the people. Or you could talk about the events like the Passover that represents the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what we did today. We were taking the Passover together, which is now the Lord's Supper, where we remember we take the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ, who's the fulfillment of the great Passover. And the Exodus deliverance, the bronze sermon that we talked about in John chapter 3. Maybe institutions like the sacrifices that must offer an unblemished animal or the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek or the temple himself. When Jesus predicted in John chapter 2, listen, I'm going to raise this temple in three days. And then, and what did it say in scripture? This he was saying about his own death and resurrection. So he was presented, he was prefigured in typology. He was predicted in prophecy.
Thirdly, he was presented in the Old Testament in the Psalms as the Son and the King in Psalm 2, as the resurrected one in Psalm 1610. By the way, when you read through the book of Acts, you'll be amazed at how many times the preachers in the book of Acts quote Psalm 1610 to prove his resurrection was a reality. Not only that they had the eyewitness testimony, but the Word of God, which they believe was authoritative and a great testimony, speaks to that reality. So he was presented in the Psalms in so many different, crucified in Psalm 22, a royal bridegroom in Psalm 45, a righteous sufferer in Psalm 96, and so forth.
The fourth testimony we have from Scripture in the Old Testament was he was promised through the covenants. God would bind himself to bring forth the Messiah as the seed and the blesser through the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 12 and 15 and 17, and revealing our need for a mediator in the Mosaic covenant of the law through Exodus to Deuteronomy. He was the eternal king in the Davidic covenant according to 2 Samuel 7, verse 14, and he's the heart transformer in the new covenant of which we are blessed today If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you are a new covenant believer because of Jesus Christ in transforming your heart.
Fifthly, in the Old Testament, he was previewed in the pre-incarnate Christophanies, which is a fascinating study. When you put them all together, what you see in those revelations through the angel of the Lord... Was it revealed His deity? It revealed His distinction from the Heavenly Father as the Son? It revealed His mediation as the go-between for us? It revealed His mercy? It revealed His majesty? When before the burning bush, God says, take off your sandals. You're on holy ground. It revealed his mysterious but partially veiled life. It revealed his redemptive mission. And it revealed his preexistence before Bethlehem. And by the way, in the New Testament, you will never find a word about the angel of the Lord because he no longer appears because Jesus Christ showed up.
A sixth example. Scriptural evidence is this. He was portrayed in his offices as prophet and as priest and as king. Seven, he was pictured in the symbols and the shadows like the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat in Leviticus' name, the manna that comes down out of heaven. He says, I'm the bread of life, the rock in Exodus 17, and God paints the gospel before he preaches it in its fullness. That's not all there is.
Number eight is he was personified in wisdom. As you read Proverbs chapter 8 and Job chapter 19, the ultimate picture of wisdom in personified as a person is the Lord Jesus Christ. Number nine, he was persecuted in the suffering of the righteous people. You see, the cross was not a tragedy. It was a trajectory toward the saving of those who put their faith in him. And number 10, he was preeminent in all of his reign in the promised kingdom. The Bible says in the Old Testament, Isaiah 2, the nations will be streaming to Zion. Isaiah 11, there will be a peaceful kingdom. In Daniel chapter 2, there's an everlasting kingdom with an everlasting king. And then in Daniel chapter 7, the Lord is going to be reigning over all Amazing.
The Old Testament is full of the coming of a great deliverer. Its prophecy tells of his coming. Its typology describes what he will be like. Its covenants guarantee his mission. Its sacrifices explain his total work. Its foreshadowing declares his office of prophet, priest, and king. Listen, the entire storyline of the Bible moves toward the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet the most educated, The most elite, the most privileged people on the earth were the religious leaders of their day. And watch this in verse 37 and 38. And the Father who sent me, he's testified of me and you neither heard his voice nor did you see his form and you do not have his word abiding in you because you do not believe him who was sent. What an indictment from the Lord Jesus Christ. Sad. Notice Jesus' stunning and damning phrase in verse 38. You do not have his word, right? Abiding in you. And look at verse 40. And you were unwilling to come to me that you might have life. I think, I believe the worst sin that anybody could ever commit on the face of the earth is unbelief. There's no greater sin. Because it blinds us. It keeps us in our spiritual deadness. It ultimately damns us that unbelief. Beware of being filled like the religious leaders were of intellectual pride. Like 1 Corinthians 6 says, knowledge puffs up Remember, they memorized the Scripture. They were studying all the time. They were the teachers. And yet they were blind to the reality of Christ. They put them on the cross. There are so many sad things in life, too many to list, but at the top of the list is what Jesus said in verse 40, you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. I mean, it's amazing. When you're told that the life that Jesus Christ came to bring you is the qualitative life, it's life to the full, it's satisfying, it's joy-filled, it's the ultimate experience, and it's also quantitative, it goes on forever and ever, and you say, ah, no thanks, nope, nope, don't believe you. That's the ultimate sorrow and unbelief.
Please don't miss Jesus' point in this discourse. Like he said in verse 34, I say these things so that you may be saved. And because Jesus Christ is God and is our only Savior, he can say, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. And maybe you're here. And you've never yet said yes to Jesus Christ. I mean, you've seen four compelling testimonies today, and then some. And God wants to use those testimonies to let us see and engage and allow His Spirit to open our eyes so that we can come to Him, because whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. But then you see the word down there, unwilling, unwilling, unwilling. Unbelief, unbelief, unbelief. But the same one who says, unless you believe you will die in your sins, unless you believe that I am, you'll die in your sins, is also the one who said, I came that you might have life and you might have it abundant to the full. Don't be like the Pharisees with intellectual pride and say, well, I've grown up in the church all my life. I've got scripture, memory, verses, and I've done all the things they want me to do. I've checked them off all the boxes. Well, they did the same thing. And there was never really any reality change.
Let's pray. Father, we are always thankful for your amazing word, its truthfulness, its pointedness, its power. It's living and active as a two-edged sword. And Lord, we pray that you allow your word through your spirit to apply the truths that we need to hear today. Maybe it's just learning to love Jesus Christ more and worship him more faithfully and truthfully. But maybe for some who are here or watching today, it's saying, Lord, I confess I'm a sinner. I want to cry out to you with saving faith as my Savior and my Lord. Lord, open up hearts, stir our lives. In your name we pray, amen.
Explicitly Mentioned or Read:
John 5:31-47 - Main sermon text (extensively quoted and discussed)
Deuteronomy 19:15 - Two or three witnesses requirement
Matthew 17 - Mount of Transfiguration
John 3 - Born from above; bronze serpent
John 8 - Jesus' testimony about himself
John 10:24 - Jews asking Jesus to tell them plainly if He's the Christ
John 15 - Jesus' works that no one else did
John 20 - Many other signs Jesus did
John 2 - Jesus predicting raising the temple in three days
Genesis 3:15 - First prophecy about Christ (seed of woman)
Genesis 12:3 - Abraham's blessing
Galatians 3 - Abraham's seed is Christ
Genesis 49:10 - Messiah from tribe of Judah
Genesis 14 - Melchizedek
Hebrews 10 - Melchizedek representing Christ
Psalm 2 - Son and King
Psalm 16:10 - The resurrected one
Psalm 22 - Crucifixion psalm
Psalm 45 - Royal bridegroom
Psalm 96 - Righteous sufferer
Genesis 12, 15, 17 - Abrahamic covenant
Exodus through Deuteronomy - Mosaic covenant
2 Samuel 7:14 - Davidic covenant
Exodus 17 - The rock
Proverbs 8 - Wisdom personified
Job 19 - Wisdom
Isaiah 2 - Nations streaming to Zion
Isaiah 11 - Peaceful kingdom
Daniel 2 - Everlasting kingdom
Daniel 7 - Lord reigning over all
Luke 24:25-27 (Luke 42 mentioned, but likely meant 24) - Road to Emmaus
1 Corinthians 8:1 (mentioned as "1 Corinthians 6" but the quote "knowledge puffs up" is from 8:1)
Romans 10:13 - Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved
Romans 8:16 - Spirit bears witness with our spirit
Alluded to or Thematically Referenced:
John 1:29 - "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world"
John 6:35 - "I am the bread of life"
John 14:6 - "I am the way, the truth, and the life"
John 10:10 - "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly"
Acts (general reference) - Preachers quoting Psalm 16:10
Leviticus - Mercy seat, sacrifices
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John - 57 distinct miracles mentioned
Hebrews (general reference) - Warning about hearing the gospel repeatedly
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy - The Pentateuch