Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Evidence*

*John 5:31-47       June 10, 2001*

* *

*Introduction:*

 

          If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

This is a standard question that we often hear tossed around in our Christian culture to get us to think about how we are living in this world around us.

          Are we living visibly any different from those around us in a way that proves Christ in us?

The flip side of this is that perhaps many of us don't want to be convicted.

Maybe we don't want to be convicted because we are not, in fact, convicted.

That is, we may not want to be convicted of being Christians because we are not really that convicted or convinced about Christ.

/We can prove our faith by our commitment to it and in no other way.

Any belief that does not command the one who holds it is not a real belief--it is only a pseudo-belief.

It might shock some of us profoundly if we were suddenly brought face-to-face with our beliefs and forced to test them in the fires of practical living.

/

/   -- A.W. Tozer/

 

          So another question we might ask is, "How much evidence do you need to become convicted about Christ?"

Maybe we just need more evidence – evidence that demands a verdict (like the book of the same name by Josh McDowell).

A court of law requires evidence in order to convict someone.

You cannot be convicted unless you are guilty beyond a shadow of doubt, or at least that is the way it is supposed to work.

Others who have witnessed the event being charged, or have pertinent information regarding it, are called as witnesses.

You can act as your own witness and call your own witnesses, but you are not required to act as your own witness unless you want to.

And if the truth be known, the impartial witness of others carries much more weight.

When all the evidence has been submitted and reviewed, the judge or jury makes a decision about your case.

One of the most infamous cases in all U.S. history will finally come to rest tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. in the federal penitentiary at Terre Haute, IN.

Timothy McVeigh will die by lethal injection for bombing the federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people (over 500 were wounded).

He was originally scheduled to die on May 16, but when the FBI turned up 4,400 pages of evidence that it failed to produce during the 1997 trial, the execution was delayed.

As it turns out, the evidence was ruled insubstantial regarding the outcome of the case and his execution will proceed.

Indeed, even McVeigh says he is ready for it to proceed – he's convicted.

All the evidence is now in, but none of us likes to be judged before all the evidence is in, and the law gave him his legal right for its review.

But the evidence was overwhelming, even what wasn't previously presented, and the verdict will be carried out.

In our message last Sunday, we learned about solving the mystery of the Messiah, that is, that he is equal with God the Father (doing what he does) and yet subordinate to him (doing only what God does), and as such he has the life of God within himself which he can give to whom he pleases because God the Father has made him the judge of all mankind as the Son of Man.

Jesus had just given the Jews, and us, a lot of his own testimony of truth about who he is.

But now in the rest of this passage, he reminds the Jews, and us, that we may not in fact be convinced by his own testimony about himself and that there is a wealth of evidence we may not have considered.

So he offers us a broad sweep of confirming evidence from the entire scope of all God's revelation to mankind.

It will not change the truth of what he has given us already, but it will certainly add to the testimony of that truth.

In John 5:16-30, Jesus gives us his own testimony, but now in John 5:31-47 he backs it up with hard evidence.

Yes, there is enough evidence to convict Jesus of being God just as he was saying in v. 18, "---but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God."

In fact, he gives us five different kinds of evidence.

What is the Big Question this passage will answer?

*Big Question:*

         

What evidence other than his own testimony can Jesus offer to prove his claims that he is who he says he is?

Or---

          How can we know that Jesus is telling us the truth about himself?

* *

*I.

Cycle One*

 

*          A.

Narrative (vv.

31-35)*

 

          Jesus acknowledges that for the legalistic Jews to have any sense of accepting his testimony about himself, he must put it in legal terms of evidence as in a court of law.

This is part of his strategy to condemn the Jews for their unbelief since in the end they will not even accept legal testimony about him.

So he gives them what they would require (Deut.

19:15) if they would accept even that.

But in doing so, Jesus categorically upholds the validity of his own testimony about himself.

/13  The Pharisees challenged him, "Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid."/

/14  Jesus answered, "Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going.

But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going./

/ (John 8:13-14 NIVUS)/

 

          In reality what he is giving them here in this extended discourse is the joint testimony of the Father and the Son.

/17  In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid./

/18  I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me."/

/ (John 8:17-18 NIVUS)/

 

          The "another" that Jesus refers to in v. 32 is none less than God the Father who testifies.

And since the Jews readily say that they acknowledge God (even though Jesus says they do not really know him), Jesus proceeds with a well-rounded body of evidence from the entirety of God's revelation.

In v. 32 we get the first of eleven stative verbs in this passage.

Recall that there were only two of these in last week's passage about Jesus' own testimony about himself.

Those were in v.22 & 24 where Jesus said he had been entrusted with all judgment and that those to whom he gives eternal life have crossed over from death to life.

The sense of a stative verb is an aspect that says the action is "complete with ongoing results."

The action is highlighted and right in front of us as assured and complete and ongoing.

The stative verb in v. 32 (I know) says that Jesus is absolutely sure of himself and his Father's testimony about him.

So the first item of evidence is John the Baptist.

"You have sent" and "he has testified" in v. 33 are two more of these stative or highlighted verbs.

Indeed the Jews had sent priests and Levites to John in 1:19 to ask who he was and received the answer that he was not the Christ but that the Christ was coming and they must prepare for him.

The verbs tell us that John's testimony still rests with them and holds them to account.

They were bound to give his testimony proper consideration.

Now Jesus puts in a disclaimer here that he doesn't need human testimony.

He is, as God, above the need for human affirmation, but he mentions it as part of his body of evidence that the Jews might turn and believe.

In a sense, they had believed John since Jesus says in v. 35 that they chose to enjoy his light for a time.

But their faith was superficial and short-lived.

Isn't it strange that at times we would rather choose to accept a person's statements about another and yet not accept the person himself that the statements are about?

It is as if we yearn for hearsay and second hand evidence.

Perhaps they are less threatening than the real person.

But to accept John's preaching, even superficially, and reject the one he preached about was hypocrisy.

It is likely that by the time Jesus spoke this that John was already in prison since Jesus speaks of him in past tense, "was a lamp that burned."

What a testimony that Jesus gives John here that he "burned out" for him.

We just got a letter from Dorothy Barnett and her husband, Paul, missionaries we support in Kenya, that she celebrated her 90th birthday in April and wants prayer that they will continue to be used by God in their old age.

Isn't that a blessing to know that there are some who have no other desire than to go to their graves serving him with all they possess?

That is a testimony that we can all give Jesus, and he can use us as evidence to the unbelieving that there are those of us who live for him alone, and it is in him alone that you will live.

We are evidence that Jesus is Lord when we burn brightly for him.

Can Jesus point to us and say, "I mention him~/her that you might be saved?"

*          B.

Implication*

 

          We know that Jesus is telling us the truth about himself because of John the Baptist's testimony about him.

/          We can also know that Jesus is telling us the truth about himself because of our own testimony about him./

*          C.

Illustration*

 

/You know what your own country is like.

I'm a visitor, and I wouldn't presume to speak about America.

But I know what Great Britain is like.

I know something about the growing dishonesty, corruption, immorality, violence, pornography, the diminishing respect for human life, and the increase in abortion.

/

/   Whose fault is it?

Let me put it like this: if the house is dark at night, there is no sense in blaming the house.

That's what happens when the sun goes down.

The question to ask is, "Where is the light?"