Believe His Testimony - John 5:30-47

We all know people believe conspiratorial things like the earth is flat, 9/11 was staged, the moon landing was staged, or Al Gore invented the internet.

But have you ever had a conversation with something that held a wild belief? Their whole worldview is built upon this belief. And they interpret everything through it. Every piece of evidence you present against their view somehow always ends up supporting their view. You cannot convince them otherwise. They’re totally convinced and their conviction is unmovable.

Sometimes we only want information that will reinforce what we already believe. Sometimes we’re so convinced of our view we’re not willing to openly engage new information. I think this is what’s going on in this passage.

The Jews rejected the evidence of Christ because they were only willing to consider a Messiah that reinforced what they already believed.

In verses 30-47, Jesus provides support for his own testimony. First, he cites the testimony of John the Baptist, second, he cites his miraculous signs and wonders, third, he cites the testimony of God the Father, and lastly, he cites the testimony of the Scriptures. To put it another way, Jesus references human testimony, the testimony of miracles, the testimony of God, and the testimony of His Word.

It’s always important for us to frame where this passage lies in the gospel of John. Jesus is still defending his equality with God to the Jews. Last week, Jesus went into some Trinitarian detail about his relationship with the Father. And this week, Jesus refers to various witness testimonies for additional support.

His own Testimony (vv. 30-31)

Beginning in verse 30, Jesus wraps up his previous argument: That he can do nothing on his own and that his judgment is just because he seeks not to do his own will, but the will of the Father. His judgment between those that will inherit eternal life and those that will be condemned will be perfectly just.

And it’s after articulating his status within the Godhead and pointing to it as his source of authority that he then appeals to what I’d call additional support.

So if you were going to outline what’s going on here: Main point number one is: I’m God, that’s the source of my authority. And just for good measure, here's what John the Baptist has said, the miracles, what the Father has said, and what the Scriptures said.

But before he explains subpoint A, he first acknowledges the inadequacy of his own testimony in isolation. In verse 31, when he says, “If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.”

Obviously, Jesus is not speaking literally. He’s not saying that he’s telling a lie or anything crazy like that.

Rather, he’s referring to the manner in which his words will be received. Remember he’s speaking to a hostile crowd.

I like the way one commentator puts it: “If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true in your estimation.”

In other words, y’all don’t like me so you automatically disbelieve everything I say. Just imagine Barack Obama telling a room full of Republicans that, “Joe Biden is the greatest President of al time” and then says, “but of course, y’all think I’m a liar.”

I think that Jesus is doing something very similar here. It’s a rhetorical device that he’s using, he’s certainly not saying that his testimony is untrustworthy, rather he’s saying the Jews won’t believe him no matter what he says.

We’ve all experienced this to one degree or another. Have you ever been in a room and someone’s talking but you’d never believe them no matter what they said. There was nothing they could say to change your mind.

Sometimes we just put up our blinders and refuse to trust or believe what someone says. And to be fair at times, it’s entirely justified, and other times we’re just totally biased.

I had a seminary professor that was full of pithy little statements. One of the things that he would say is, “biases aren’t bad, bad biases are bad.”

We’re all biased, right? I think we all need to have enough honesty to admit that we are naturally biased. Some of you need to get your heads checked because you like vanilla more than chocolate! Or worse, you actually believe sprinkles add flavor to your dessert.

Of course, I’m kidding. My point is that our problem isn’t that we’re biased. Our problem is that our biases can blind us to the truth. As my seminary professor said, “bad biases are bad.”

We should recognize that we are indeed biased, but we should never allow our preconceived notions to blind us to the truth like the Jews in our passage.

The Jews were so committed to their anti-Jesus philosophy that they could never hear him out. They just dismissed him out of hand because they had made up their minds about him.

The testimony of John the Baptist (vv. 33-35)

This is obviously why Jesus appeals to additional testimonies and the first one he appeals to is John the Baptist. Because there was a point in time where John the Baptist’s ministry was all the rage! Even the Jewish religious leaders wanted to see what he was doing!

That’s why Jesus said, “You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.” They investigated John’s ministry! They were curious about what he was doing! They were fascinated by him! And his ministry was exciting! People were coming out in droves.

That’s his point in verse 35. “[John the Baptist] was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.”

He was like a light and people were drawn to that light like a moth to a flame! Everyone was fascinated by him until what? He said Jesus was the Lamb of God. That Jesus was the one to take away the sins of the world. To them, John the Baptist’s big mistake was declaring that Jesus Christ was the Messiah!

They listened to John the Baptist until he pointed to Christ and that’s when they tuned him out and stopped listening.

But Jesus keeps talking to the Jewish leaders “so that you may be saved.”

Jesus wasn’t saying making a defense to best them in an argument. He didn’t want to publicly humiliate them and shame them, although, I think that happens a lot in the gospels.

But at the end of verse 34 he gives the reason why he’s willing to stand there and go toe to toe with the religious leaders… “so that you may be saved.” Isn’t that the grace of the Lord? That Christ would endure public questioning and what was likely an attempt to embarrass him so they may be saved.

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in rhetoric and the controversy of our time. Whether it’s political, cultural, church related, there’s no shortage of controversies.

They’re quite literally everywhere we look. But do we engage in controversy in order to win an argument or because we genuinely want to defend the truth of the gospel? We want to see people get saved, we want to see people grow in their walk with God, or we want to protect the church from error - those are all things worth fighting for.

But I think if we’re honest with ourselves, sometimes we engage in debate in order to win an argument or to prove someone we don’t like wrong.

I can’t remember if I read this in a book by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones or if I heard him say it in an interview, but I specifically remember that he once refused to engage in a public, televised debate with an atheist because by simply showing up for the debate it would imply that one could choose to accept or deny the very existence of God!

Again, there are hills that we should be willing to die on, but we should take regular inventory of our motives. Why are we doing what we are doing?

Our reasons for engaging in debate must always be centered on Christ and the gospel, because that was his why, that was his reason.

The testimony of miraculous signs and wonders (vv. 36)

But it wasn’t just the testimony of men that the Jewish religious leaders ignored. It was the miraculous signs and wonders they ignored as well. Really verses 30-47 are logically connected to Jesus healing the lame man who lied by the pool in Bethesda (Ba-thes-da).

Which is why he brings up the miraculous signs and wonders in verse 36. The miracles of Christ did automatically produce faith in people. We even saw that earlier in chapter 5. Rather, they served a different purpose, to point to the truth of his Messianic claims.

And as one commentator put it the miracles had an “evidentiary” value. Nicodemus makes this point in John chapter 3, “No one can do these signs which you do unless God is with him.”

The signs and miracles demonstrated the approval of the Father. This is exactly what Jesus is referring to at the end of verse 36, “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.”

But the Jews were so violently opposed to Jesus they couldn’t even acknowledge the undeniable good he was doing. They didn’t celebrate that the man at the pool was healed. Remember what they did? They instead accosted Jesus for healing on the Sabbath.

They ignored the miracles because they wanted to deny that the Father had commissioned his work.

Isn’t this still true today? People today deny the miracles of Christ. People flatly deny the miracles of the Bible.

If Christ is truly, really, performing miracles, you can’t ignore it. But they certainly tried, right? People have invented all sorts of ways to deny the miracles of Christ.

Thomas Jefferson went so far as to cut out all the miracles of Jesus from his Bible. Jefferson “condensed” the gospel accounts by excluding all miracles by Jesus and most mentions of the supernatural, including sections of the four gospels that contain the Resurrection and most other miracles, and passages that portray Jesus as divine.

He liked some of the teachings of Jesus, but to recognize the miracles would be to acknowledge his divine authority. And submission is required to divine authority.

Because that’s the real problem isn’t it? That’s the real issue.

People deny aspects of the Bible, its inspiration or Christ’s divinity all in an effort to avoid submitting to God.

It’s what Jefferson wanted to avoid, it’s what so many people still avoid today, and its certainly what the Jews wanted to avoid.

The testimony of God the Father (vv. 37-38)

But the support for the authority of Jesus is so undeniably strong. It’s not just John the Baptist, it’s not just the miracles, it’s the testimony of God the Father as well!

Verse 37, “...the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me.” The Lord testified of Christ in many ways: the audible voice at his baptism that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Or the fact that the Spirit testifies in the hearts of believers. But what Jesus really has in mind is the fact that the Old Testament Scriptures bore witness of him.

And that’s why he offers this incredible rebuke! “His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.”

No doubt this is a reference to himself. He is the voice of the Lord, he’s the incarnation or form of the Lord, but they refuse to listen to him!

The testimony of the Scriptures (vv. 39-47)

But the greatest indictment against the Jews was that the Scriptures bore witness against them.

And it was the greatest indictment because they thought they had the Bible figured out. They thought they knew it frontwards and backwards.

There’s a great sense of irony in the fact that the very thing that they claim to be experts in is the very thing that testifies against them.

How so? Because the Scriptures bore witness to Christ! Verse 39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.”

Their issue was that they believed their biblical knowledge was what would save them instead of who the Scriptures pointed to. They thought their command over biblical content was all they needed. But it’s not your command over biblical content that will save you, it’s what the Biblical content points to that saves you!

It’s an incredibly important distinction, because you can miss the forest through the trees.

And yet, at the same time Jesus never denies the importance of the Scriptures. Rather, he corrects their view of Scripture. It’s not knowledge for knowledge’s sake, it’s content that helps you and me see our need for a Savior.

Your understanding of the Bible should drive you into the arms of Christ!

But again, what’s Jesus’ point in engaging the Jews. It’s not to humiliate them. It’s not to show them that his knowledge is superior to their knowledge.

The whole point for bringing this up? Look at verse 40. “...yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” The Jewish leaders refused to go to Christ for life, for eternal life.

All because they thought they knew the Scriptures. That’s precisely why he said, “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. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

Moses wrote the Pentateuch which is the first five books of the Bible, and yet they failed to see how Moses pointed to a Messiah in several places. Like Deuteronomy 18:15, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—”

But if they misunderstand Moses, how will they understand Jesus? If the very thing they say they’re experts don't fully understand, how can they understand the words of Christ?

Do you see the issue there?

They were so into their paradigms they couldn’t see out of them. All the Jews were looking for was something to fit their preconceived notions.

Jesus wasn’t what they thought the Messiah would look like. He wasn’t a great military leader. He wasn’t going to liberate the Jewish from Roman rule. He didn’t fit their paradigm. He didn’t fit into their schema.

The Jewish leaders were so ingrained in Jewish culture they couldn’t see out of it. Everything that they did simply reinforced what they already believed, which only hardened their hearts.

It’s a scary warning to each of us today.

It is very possible to live a life saturated in Christian culture and language but never encounter Christ.

You can get so wrapped up in what a Christian is supposed to look like and how you’re supposed to live that you’re not trusting in Christ. For many that’s all Christianity is! But they never put their faith in Christ!

We had our first Bible study this past week in the book of Judges. We had a great time together. But something from the commentary we read has been seared into my brain all week. One of the reasons Dale Ralph Davis said the people of Israel experienced a generational decline was because the Israelites knew about God, but they didn’t know God.

This is the issue in our passage. You see, the Jews knew about God, but they didn’t know God. How can I say that? Because had they known about God - they would have recognized him in Jesus Christ.

When you boil it all down the thing that matters most is are you trusting in Christ, to use his words, “so that you may be saved?”