Father, we come into Your presence and thank You for Your grace, love, and mercy, that You give us Your attention, that You speak to us, and that You hear what’s in our hearts. Thank You for allowing us to worship You and seek Your face. Lord, we pray there would be no thought of self-sufficiency in our hearts, but complete and total dependence on You. We can get in our own way so much, and Jesus, You are the complete and total answer. You are our life, and we look to You alone to give us everything we need. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Today’s sermon is called “Four Witnesses and One Verdict.” Have you noticed the commercials lately? Every one of them is selling you life. This truck will free you from the confines of the paved road. This app will make you rich. And then at the very bottom of the screen, where you need a magnifying glass, it says, “Results not typical.” We live in a world full of witnesses who all want to testify about where life is found. Money says it’s over here. Fame says it’s over there. Pleasure says, “Just try one more time.” And most of them are lying.
Football fans know the moment. You think it’s a touchdown, and then the replay review starts, and it turns out he bobbled the ball or didn’t get his feet in bounds. You’d never have known without the testimony of the camera you wish had been broken on that play. “After further review, the ruling on the field is…” confirmed or overturned. It breaks people’s hearts, but the truth stands.
That’s exactly what Jesus does in our text today. He has just healed a man who couldn’t walk for thirty-eight years, and the religious leaders are furious because He did it on the Sabbath. And Jesus says something even bigger: “Yes, I did it on the Sabbath, because I am equal with God.” That’s what Jesus has been saying in all kinds of ways. Under Jewish law, a fact had to be established by two or three witnesses. So they’re saying, “You claim to be God? We don’t believe You.” And today Jesus says, “All right. I’ll give you four witnesses that prove I’m God. Then what will you do?”
We’ll hear from John the Baptist, from Jesus’ works, from the Father Himself, and from the Scriptures. From every angle, we’ll see that Jesus is the Son of God, and the ruling on the field stands.
But what amazes me is that Jesus isn’t building a case to win an argument or protect His reputation. In verse 34 He says He’s saying all this “that you may be saved.” He’s doing it so that we, and even the people He’s arguing with, can be saved. The whole courtroom scene is an act of love. It’s an argument of love. He’s laying out the evidence because He wants you to stop chasing the frauds that only steal life and instead receive the true, real life He gives. So today we’ll walk into this courtroom, hear the witnesses, and then answer the one question that really matters: will you come to Him and live?
John 5:31: “If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true.” Jesus knows He is equal with the Father and shares His life. But His own word alone doesn’t count in court. There need to be two or three witnesses, so He’s going to call four.
Why does John record this? Fast-forward to John 20:31: “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” First, so that we can believe and have confidence in Jesus. Not blind faith. We have four witnesses to base our faith on. God never said, “Just believe.” He said, “Believe, because here is this witness, and this one, and this one.”
There’s a popular idea today called relativism: what’s true for you is true for you, and what’s true for me is true for me. Truth changes depending on your perspective. But two opposite things can’t both be true at the same time. Either Jesus is God and Savior, and He rose from the dead, and all of this is true, or Jesus was crazy and we should all be committed for listening to Him. One of those is true. And we have proof about which one.
And the second reason John wrote: so that you may have life in His name. Jesus wants to share His life with you. Do you want that real life? I think you do. I think you’re hungry and thirsty for it, and it’s found in only one place, not in all the substitutes we get sold, money, fame, power, and pleasure. He is the only source of life and satisfaction.
So as you sit in this courtroom, ask yourself: What do I spend my life on? What do I pursue? Am I trying to find life in what I have or what I accomplish? Where am I getting my value and purpose? I can’t answer those for you. You have to wrestle with them in a quiet, honest conversation with God.
Jesus says, “I’m offering you a life, and you find it in moment-by-moment dependence on Me.” We call that a life of surrender. I’m not in control. God brings me a job, a family, a spouse, kids, everything that happens in my life, and I give it back to Him and honor Him, living with humility and faith. That’s the life we’re called to.
Jesus says of His Father, “I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true.” In a world of misleading commercials, Jesus offers a simple, direct, clear truth, and He’s unconcerned with how it makes anyone feel, even though the Pharisees will try to kill Him for it. Telling the truth is easy for Jesus, because He’s just telling you what He knows about His Father. He doesn’t have to make anything up or remember the cover story. When investigators separate witnesses after a crime, it’s to keep them from getting their story straight. People who are making something up struggle to keep it together. But when you’re telling the truth, you just say what you experienced.
Jesus has a relationship with His Father. It’s not a mystery, and He isn’t selling anything. He’s saying, “This is real. My Father loves Me, I depend on Him, and He supplies everything for Me. And that’s yours too, if you want it. Depend on Him as your heavenly Father, and you’ll have the same relationship I have. I know Him, and you can know Him too. You’re invited.” That’s the simplest gospel message.
The first witness. Verse 33: “You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved. He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.”
Jesus is saying, “You sent messengers to John, and he told you who I am.” And what did John say? “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Everyone knew John. The whole nation was stirred up by his preaching in the wilderness. Even these leaders listened and liked him at first, when he said, “God is coming, the Messiah is coming to deliver us.” They thought that message meant defeating Rome. But then John told them they were the problem. “We’re not the problem, Rome is. We keep all God’s rules.” And John called them a brood of vipers and warned them they were headed for judgment because they didn’t know God or His ways. So they turned their backs on him: “Who is this crazy man in camel’s hair?” They liked him until he said their self-seeking religion was the Messiah’s first target. But John was a messenger from God. He knew who Jesus was and told everyone, and they eventually beheaded him for that testimony. In that world, he was an irrefutable witness. Everyone knew he told the truth, didn’t care what people thought, and died for it.
The second witness is the testimony of Jesus’ works. Verse 36: “But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish, the very works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.”
Remember, all of this started with Jesus healing a man who had been lame for thirty-eight years, and that was just one of many miraculous things He did. John 21:25, the very end of the Gospel, says, “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
If we had a list of every good work Jesus did, what would it testify? First, that Jesus is good. He went around doing good. You needed something, and He met your need. Second, that Jesus is God, the Messiah, the One sent from God. Most of His miraculous works were simple acts of compassion and mercy for simple, needy people. In those works He bore witness to the heart of God. If you ever want to know what God is like, look at what Jesus did and said. That’s why we study the Word and the life of Jesus. He is God, and He reveals God to us.
The leaders were looking for a miraculous Messiah who would wage war on Rome and set everyone free. They weren’t looking for someone meek, humble, and selfless, so they missed Jesus. They rejected what He was doing because He didn’t do it their way. Here’s Jesus healing a man who hasn’t walked in thirty-eight years, and they’re so poisoned by a self-centered mindset and false expectations of God that they miss the good work entirely. They thought their biggest problem was Rome, something outside them. They didn’t realize their biggest problem was their own selfishness, that they didn’t represent God and weren’t walking with Him. That’s what Jesus came to deliver them from. But to be delivered, you have to realize that’s who you are.
That’s why God gave the Ten Commandments. Not so you could try your hardest to keep them and become a good person, but to show you how self-centered you are. And what do we do with that knowledge? When we realize we break them every day, we run to Jesus and cling to Him as our Deliverer and Savior. In spite of our lawbreaking, He loves us, He washes us clean, and we receive all the benefits of righteousness. The gospel is true for us, even though we didn’t keep the law perfectly.
His works were so humble that the leaders couldn’t understand them. Yes, He did amazing things, but He chose the people they despised. “If You want me to believe, come help me with what I need.” And Jesus said, “I’ll help those with the greatest need first, the lowest first, because that’s how God works.”
The third witness is the Father Himself. Verse 37: “And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.”
In virtually every work and word of Jesus, the Father was testifying that Jesus is His Son and His perfect representative, His life flowing through Jesus. He did it in two ways. First, through Old Testament prophecy. God said, “This is what I will do,” and then Jesus came and did it. Second, at Jesus’ baptism. John said, “I can’t baptize You,” Jesus said, “Yes, you will,” and John baptized Him. And God tore open the heavens and declared for everyone to hear, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” How could He be any clearer? Why does it matter? Because God was giving us His word, His testimony, that Jesus is His Son, so we could trust Jesus exactly as we trust God. That’s why Jesus is called the Word of God. Everything Jesus says, God says, because Jesus is God and represents the Father’s heart perfectly.
The fourth witness is the Scriptures. Verse 39 is one of the saddest and most incredible verses in the Bible: “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.”
These leaders were focused on the Bible. Many of them had memorized huge portions of the Scriptures from childhood. That’s how they were educated. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? The problem is that the promises, truth, and heart of God in the Bible can be hidden by one simple disease: pride. And it works exactly the same way today. Pride blinds anyone from hearing the real truth of God. It doesn’t matter how much you read the Bible if your heart is full of pride, because you interpret everything through your own needs and desires. Humility reads it for what it actually says.
That’s why God, in a sense, buries His truth, so that the one thing required to hear His voice is humility. In Matthew 13 the disciples ask, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answers, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” Then He quotes Isaiah: “For the hearts of this people have grown dull.”
There’s the key: their hearts had grown dull. What dulls our hearts? Pride and self-sufficiency, always. Jesus is saying, “I can speak any way I want, and you still won’t hear unless you come to Me with humility, because God gives grace to the humble.” We hear God’s Word with the heart, not just with the ears or the eyes. When He speaks through His Word, He’s speaking primarily to your heart.
Verse 40: “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” They wouldn’t accept the message of the Word, and the message is clear: Jesus is God, Jesus is the Messiah, and you must believe in Him and receive Him, which is the same as receiving the Father. They wanted to impress people. They loved hearing, “You Pharisees are so holy. Look how much you tithe, look how much you do.” But Jesus made it clear that life is found in one command: “Come to Me.” Life is in His presence. It’s His gift, received through relationship with Him. Jesus is a living person, full of power to save, and He hasn’t placed His salvation in sacraments, books, or priests. He keeps it in Himself. If anyone tells you they can dispense grace, they’re a fraud. The church doesn’t even give grace. Jesus Himself gives His life and shares it with you.
Verse 41: “I do not receive honor from men.” Jesus is saying, “I don’t need your approval. Your opinion can’t add anything to Me or take anything from Me. I’m only in this conversation because I love your souls, that you might be saved.”
Verse 42: “But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.” How do you think He said that? Mocking? Harsh? I think He said it like a good doctor delivering hard news with compassion: “I’m so sorry to tell you this.” “Look how you treat each other, how you treat the poor, how you dishonor God in your thoughts. You don’t have the love of God.”
“I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” Jesus is saying, “I come in My Father’s name. We are one. If you don’t receive Me, you don’t know Him.”
The fatal error of the religious leaders, then and ever since, is pride. They cared about what people thought and longed for prestige from one another. They were willing to sacrifice for human honor, but they disregarded what God thought, because God sees what’s in secret and they refused to deal with their hearts. The biggest obstacle between anyone and God is pride, vanity, and self-love.
They lived on each other’s praise. “I love it when someone calls me awesome. I love it when someone calls me handsome.” And they wouldn’t acknowledge that Jesus could see past all that. They hid from Him and wouldn’t admit they were dirty inside, so they couldn’t receive His love, His grace, or His power. God wanted to love them, and they traded the true love of God for the fickle love of men. That’s what you call a bad trade. Don’t make it. God truly loves you. People are fickle. Don’t base your life on what people think of you, but on what God thinks of you.
James 4 gives us insight here. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” He’s talking about people who think they have a relationship with God, but their prayer life betrays them. They’re always asking for stuff. There’s a difference between “I want stuff for me” and “I want You, my heavenly Father. I want to know You, be united to You, honor You, serve You, and hear You say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.'” That’s where life is found.
James goes on: “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” It’s like being married to Jesus but only wanting His stuff. “Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?” God longs for your heart. He longs for your primary love to be for Him. “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.'”
Pride makes us selfish and self-seeking. “I deserve a better life. I deserve a blessing. I deserve a happy marriage.” The root of all of it is pride. And the moment you turn from that and say, “God, Your will be done. I’ll serve and honor You no matter what comes,” that’s the path where everything you need is added to you. Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added.
“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” Stop caring so much about the stuff, the events, the circumstances. It’s the presence of God that matters. There’s the heart of God and the message of Jesus.
So we’ve been in the replay booth, looking at Jesus from every angle. John the Baptist testified that He is God. His works testified that He is God. The Father Himself testified. The Scriptures testified. Four witnesses, and every one says the same thing: Jesus is the only source of life. The evidence is in. The ruling on the field stands.
But here’s the thing about this courtroom: you’re not the judge. You’re not even the jury. You’re the one who’s been invited. Look at verse 40 again: “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” You’ve been invited to come to Jesus and have life.
These men had the Scriptures memorized. They had all the evidence right in front of them, and the very Word they studied was pointing to Jesus, who was standing right in front of them, and they still wouldn’t come. Why? Because they loved the honor of men more than the honor that comes from God. Pride kept them in their seats instead of coming to Jesus and saying, “Touch me. Be with me. Accept me. Give me Your grace.”
Pride will do that to any of us. It will keep you in your seat. It will keep you studying about Jesus without ever coming to Him. It will keep you chasing the approval of people, or the next purchase, or the next compliment, the next thing that promises life in big letters and loud noises, with “results not typical” in tiny print underneath.
But Jesus offers something completely different. No fine print. No hidden fees. No performance required. James says He gives more grace. How much grace does Jesus want to give you? More. Whatever number you just thought of, more is the answer. He doesn’t limit what He wants to give you. That’s the good news. You don’t have to earn your way into the life of God. You just have to stop pretending you can.
He says, “Humble yourself. Lay down your pride. Lay down the trying, and just come.” Don’t come to religion. Don’t come to a set of rules. Don’t come to a church or a church program. Come to a person. Jesus said, “Come to Me.” And when you come, He doesn’t send you away with a list of things to do. He gives you Himself. “I am now your life. I give you everything.” His righteousness becomes your righteousness. And every day and every moment after that, you just keep coming, keep trusting, keep depending, keep surrendering. That’s the life Jesus offers.
The evidence is in, the witnesses have spoken, and the Son of God is standing here today with open arms, saying what He has always said: “Come to Me, that you may have life.” The only question left is: will you come to Him with all your heart?
Father, Your truth is the only truth we need. You filled Jesus with life and power to do Your will. Breathe life into each of our souls, and fill each of our hearts with the very life of Jesus Christ. Your life sets us free. Your life meets our needs. Your life heals our pain and our scars. Your life is our life. We don’t have to worry about anyone else or what anyone thinks of us. Jesus, we come to You with all our hearts and souls and say thank You. We worship You and praise You, and we ask You to live Your life through us today. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
When you die and you show up at heaven, there’s a question: are you going to get in? And there’s one way to answer it. We’ve been talking about witnesses, and I want the Holy Spirit to witness to you right now. If someone asked, “How are you going to get to heaven?” is your answer, “Because Jesus alone died for me and gave His blood for me”? If that’s your answer, you can have all the confidence in the world that you are a child of God. You won’t even pass Go. You’re going straight home.
But if there’s a witness in you that says, “I trust in what I’ve done. I think I’ve been more good than bad. I trust in myself,” in any way, the Holy Spirit is bearing witness to you right now: “Come to Jesus alone. Let go of self and come to Me alone.” I want every person to have full confidence that you are born again, and that means your confidence is in Jesus alone, never in yourself. If that isn’t you today, talk with me or with someone you trust, and we’ll help you understand how Jesus freely gives His life and eternal life. Go this week in confidence that you are a child of God. Amen.