According to John 5:31-47 [NLTse]

³¹ “If I were to testify on My Own behalf, My testimony would not be valid. ³² But Someone Else is also testifying about Me, and I assure you that everything He says about Me is true. ³³ In fact, you sent investigators to listen to John the Baptist, and his testimony about Me was true. ³⁴ Of course, I have no need of human witnesses, but I say these things so you might be saved. ³⁵ John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his message. ³⁶ But I have a greater witness than John—My teachings and My miracles. The Father gave Me these works to accomplish, and they prove that He sent Me. ³⁷ And the Father Who sent Me has testified about Me Himself. You have never heard His voice or seen Him face to face, ³⁸ and you do not have His message in your hearts, because you do not believe Me—the One He sent to you.

³⁹ “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to Me! ⁴⁰ Yet you refuse to come to Me to receive this life.

⁴¹ “Your approval means nothing to Me, ⁴² because I know you don’t have God’s love within you. ⁴³ For I have come to you in My Father’s name, and you have rejected Me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them. ⁴⁴ No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the One Who alone is God.

⁴⁵ “Yet it isn’t I Who will accuse you before the Father. Moses will accuse you! Yes, Moses, in whom you put your hopes. ⁴⁶ If you really believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me. ⁴⁷ But since you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”

Sermon

Deuteronomy 17:6 says, “Never put a person to death on the testimony of only one witness. There must always be two or three witnesses.” This requirement for always having two or more eyewitnesses to a capital offense was originally established to protect the Israelites from unverifiable accusations. After all, what better way to get rid of an enemy or competitor or to get somebody’s land or wife or other things you’d like of theirs than to make up a story about something they supposedly did, accuse them in such a way that they can’t defend themselves, get the community stirred up against them, have them put to death, and then move in?

And so, though it is first mentioned in the Book of Numbers, Deuteronomy 17:6 codified for Israel this practice of requiring two or three eyewitnesses to any crime that would result in the death sentence.

We see this requirement invoked during the Lord Jesus’ trial, when Matthew writes: “The leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find witnesses who would lie about Jesus, so they could put Him to death. But even though they found many who agreed to give false witness, they could not use anyone’s testimony. Finally, two men came forward who declared, “This Man said, ‘I am able to destroy the Temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’” (26:59-61)

The apostle Paul expands the use of this requirement to non-death penalty-related offenses when he writes to Pastor Timothy, saying, “Do not listen to an accusation against an elder unless it is confirmed by two or three witnesses.” (1 Timothy 5:19) And it is likely behind the picture, in chapter 11 of The Revelation, of the Two Witnesses ministry of signs and wonders and proclamation to the peoples of the earth, making clear that God’s judgment of unbelievers – those who’ve rejected the testimony of the Two Witnesses – is fair and just.

In our reading this morning, the Lord Jesus, aware that the religious leaders had begun plotting His death, seems to be alluding to this practice, too, when He says, “If I were to testify on My Own behalf, My testimony would not be valid.” And so He goes on to point out three eyewitnesses – John the Baptist, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, and the Scriptures themselves – that prove His innocence.

John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry proclaiming Him to be “the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world”; to be “the Son of God”; and, to be “the Lord / Adonai / Yahweh Himself! Jesus describes the religious leaders’ response to John, saying, “John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his message.” But the religious leaders didn’t believe that God had sent John: They were excited to follow and be a part of the crowd John was calling to Christ and calling to repentance, but they refused to obey the truth of John’s message and repent!

The second witness Jesus called to His defense was God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, Whose presence with Jesus was demonstrated in His many healings, exorcisms, and miracles.

When Elder Nicodemus, who was a part of the Jewish Ruling Council, came to meet Jesus at night he said to Him, “Rabbi, we all know that God has sent You to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with You.” So the religious leaders knew that God was with the Lord Jesus, and yet they didn’t believe Jesus’ claims to be “God with us”. Of course, these religious leaders would have known that God had granted others before Jesus the ability to perform healings and wonders and drive out demons, and those folks hadn’t claimed to be God! And yet, perhaps that’s just the difference: That just as the works and words of the prophets showed that God was with them, and they never claimed to be God; surely the works and words of Jesus, showing that God was likewise with Him, should have equally demonstrated that because He did claim to be God that He truly was!

The Scriptures themselves were the third witness Jesus called upon in His defense.

The Bible of Jesus’ day was simply the Old Testament writings, of course. And these were recorded on scrolls since the idea of books was only then, in the first century, just being invented. The religious leaders of Jesus day were known for knowing the Scriptures so well that it was said that if you pierced a biblical scroll with a pin and told any religious leader what the first word was that you stuck the pin through, that they could tell you every other word that pin went through as it penetrated the scroll. Clearly an exaggeration, but it makes the point of how well these leaders were reputed to have known the Word of God! And yet clearly they didn’t know the God of the Word.

Books have been written about all the Messianic prophecies from across the Old Testament that have been fulfilled by Jesus Christ: Prophecies of His pre-existence; prophecies of His ancestry; prophecies of His birth; prophecies of His character; prophecies of His ministry; prophecies of His dual nature (as fully God while fully human); prophesies of His death; prophecies of His resurrection; prophecies of His ascension and exaltation; prophecies of His second coming; symbols of Jesus seen in the lives of various individuals across the Old Testament and offices mentioned across the Old Testament and from historical events mentioned there and from religious rituals and levitical offerings and from Israel’s various feasts and festivals. As Jesus Himself said, “The Scriptures point to Me!” And later Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) And these religious leaders knew the Word but didn’t recognize Christ in it nor the Father in Christ.

A commentator once said of such leaders: “It is unfortunate when our study of the Bible makes us arrogant and militant instead of humble and anxious to serve others, even those who disagree with us. The mark of true Bible study is not knowledge that puffs up, but love that builds up. (1 Corinthians 8:1)” And the Lord Jesus said to these leaders, “You don’t have the love of God in you.” They enjoyed being honored by others but did not seek the honor that comes from God alone.

As we come to celebrate the Lord’s Supper this morning, let’s ask ourselves these questions:

• Have we committed and begun living our lives in obedience to God’s message, repenting of our sin out of gratitude for the good news of Jesus Christ? Have we?
• Have we committed to taking God at His Word and believing all He’s said about Himself there, and believing all He’s said about us there, and believing all He’s said about eternal life and Heaven, and all He’s said about judgment and sin and Hell, and letting such truth shape our thoughts and how we respond to events and experiences, to use Paul’s words, “Taking every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ?” (2 Corinthians 10:5) Have we?
• Lastly, have we committed to let the Holy Spirit fill our hearts with God’s love? To see in every page and parable, in every psalm and statute, in every offering and historical account, even in the proclamations of judgment and wrath, God the Father’s love for the peoples of the earth for whom He sent Christ to die? Have we?

Perhaps, if we’ve ignored these things or taken these things too lightly or rationalized to ourselves that these things don’t matter, perhaps we should not participate in the Lord’s Supper today and perhaps eat and drink God’s judgment upon ourselves. And yet, perhaps we see our failure in some or, perhaps, every single one of these areas today. But the Holy Spirit is moving us to recommit to these things today, and yet we know that apart from Him we can do nothing. So, perhaps, even so very aware of our unworthiness, we come forward this morning and eat and drink, trusting Christ that His grace will indeed be sufficient!