Sermon Tone Analysis

With little effort do we understand and appreciate the concept of a witness in a court case.

Every news outlet and social media feed appear to be aware of and have an opinion on Robert Mueller’s report and General Attorney Barr’s conclusion concerning President Trump and alleged Russian interference with the 2016 presidential elections.

Message 26 | | May 19, 2019

With little effort do we understand and appreciate the concept of a witness in a court case.

Every news outlet and social media feed appear to be aware of and have an opinion on Robert Mueller’s report and General Attorney Barr’s conclusion concerning President Trump and alleged Russian interference with the 2016 presidential elections.

My purpose in mentioning this case is not to offer an opinion about the investigation or President Trump.

I simply wanted to draw your attention to the numbers.

Sean Rossman, of USA Today, reported the following numbers.

34 people indicted as a result of Mueller’s investigation.

19 lawyers employed by the special counsel’s office.

40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts, forensic accountants and other staff assisted in the investigation.

More than 2,800 subpoenas with an average of four per day.

Nearly 500 search warrants.

500 witnesses interviewed.

$25 million in posted costs as of February.[1]

I dare say, most people were not wanting to get called in as a witness to the Mueller investigation.

Yet witnesses are extremely important.

As well, the quality of the witnesses is very important.

Now imagine with me, the first century Twitter feed or Breaking News for the Jerusalem Post in 30 AD. “Jesus, an Uneducated Galilean, Claims to be Messiah and Equal with God.”

As the story unfolds, we find ourselves in Jerusalem.

We’ve heard the amazing news that Jesus has just healed a lame man that had been at the pool of Bethesda for 38 years.

The context of Jesus offering witnesses.

Due to Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath (), the religious leaders confronted Jesus about his “breaking the Sabbath.”

In this conversation, Jesus makes statements that “make him equal with God” ().

As a result, the religious leaders “were seeking all the more to kill him.”

Therefore, out of some deference to the Jews, Jesus offers witnesses that confirm the statements concerning his deity ().

Witnesses for Jews sake, not Jesus.

Jesus does not offer these witnesses out of a personal need to prove himself, as if his statements would be untrue without the witnesses.

In , Jesus acknowledges, “even if I bear witness about myself, my testimony is true.”

Verse 34 in chapter 5, as well, seems to indicate that Jesus offers these witnesses for other people, not because he personally needs them.

This does, however, appear to conflict with 5:31, where John writes, “If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.”

Therefore, his statement in chapter five must be for the sake of argument.

Jesus secedes their position about requiring additional witnesses and offers a handful of additional witnesses.

John the Baptist, who they acknowledged as a prophet, attest to Jesus’ deity, all Jesus works attest to his deity, and God the Father through the Scriptures attest to Jesus’ deity.

Jews did require additional witnesses.

The Mishnah acknowledges that “a person cannot give testimony in his own behalf,” but even if “a man slave or a girl slave” have witnesses “they are believed.”[2]

Therefore, out of deference to the Jews, Jesus offers them witnesses.

Purpose Statement.

Accept the responsibility of being a witness to the deity and transforming power of Jesus Christ.

Three witnesses

John the Baptist (5:33-35).

The apostle John desires, throughout his gospel, to offer the reader witnesses to the deity of Christ.

We were confronted by the first witness in chapter one.

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.

8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” ().

Jesus reminds the Jews of a witness to himself that had been accepted by even some of their religious leaders.

John the Baptist, as one of the most significant human witnesses to Jesus’ deity, proclaimed repentance and pointed others to Jesus.

Isenheim Altarpiece.

Between 1512 and 1516 Matthias Grunewald painted the “Isenheim Altarpiece” which many consider to be his masterpiece.

The painting consists of many components and fully opens up to display even more.

While closed, the center portion of the painting depicts a crucifixion scene.

Mary Magdalene weeps at the foot of the cross while John the apostle comforts and holds the grieving and fainting mother of Jesus, Mary.

John the Baptist stands alone to Jesus’ left.

Of everything going on in the painting, John’s pointed finger and facial expression, or maybe lack of, first grabbed my attention.

John appears emotionless in contrast to the figures on the other side of the painting.

Ironically, while John the Baptist’s figure first grabbed my attention, this figure seems to be the least dramatic in the whole painting.

He offers no drama so as to draw attention to himself.

Instead, he simply points to the crucified Savior.

One author, in his exploration of Grunewald’s masterpiece, characterized John the Baptist as one “who wears the expression of a calm and fearless ascetic that possesses a knowledge of predestination, where grief has no meaning.”[3]

Grunewald scrawls on the painting behind John the Baptist, in Latin, his proclamation, “He must increase and I must decrease.”

On the right, John the Baptist assumes his biblical role as a contemporary prophet heralding the Messiah.

Since John was dead by the time of the Crucifixion, his appearance here works both as a foil to the human mourners at the left and as a witness standing outside natural time and space whose miraculous appearance invites a deeper understanding.

With a tranquil though serious demeanor, he points out the hidden divinity of Christ with the inscription, ``He shall increase, but I will decrease.''

[4]

Jesus’ own works (5:36).

When Jesus says, “the very works I am doing bear witness about me” (5:36), he probably primarily refers back to the miraculous healing he had just performed, that being the healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda.

Yet John considers this miracle to be one of the many signs that Jesus performs throughout John’s gospel.

(1) Turning water into wine in Cana (2:1-11).

Jesus reveals himself not only to be God but as well the long-awaited Messiah who would be characterized by lavishly providing for His people.

(2) Healing an official’s son in Capernaum (4:46-54).

Christ reveals his ability to overpower sin and heal disease.

(3) Healing an invalid at the Pool of Bethesda (or Bethsaida) in Jerusalem (5:1-18).

In this narrative, Jesus heals a completely disabled and helpless man, and in so doing reveals his ability to overcome our sinfulness and brokenness and heal our spiritual sickness and bondage.

(4) Feeding the 5,000 near the Sea of Galilee (6:5-14).

Jesus reveals not that he can simply multiply bread but that he can satisfy the hunger of our souls.

(5) Walking on the water of the Sea of Galilee (6:16-21) in which Jesus displays his power over nature.

(6) Healing a blind man in Jerusalem (9:1-7).

Similar to the invalid at the pool of Bethesda, who only was healed physically, this blind man displays the spiritual condition of all mankind.

Jesus, in this sign, heals not only his physical blindness but as well his spiritual blindness, once again displaying his ability to restore broken and spiritually blind people.

(7) Raising dead Lazarus in Bethany (11:1-45).

In heightened fashion, John leaves the most jaw dropping sign to the end of his list of seven signs.

Christ has progressively displayed his power over sickness, nature, and sin.

In this last of the seven signs John reveals that Jesus is “the resurrection and the life.”

Christ is the source of eternal life.

In similar fashion, Christ will raise us up, not to die again as Lazarus did, but to live eternally.

The Father, through the Scriptures, corroborated by Moses (5:37-47).

My initial overview of the passage revealed three separate witnesses in verses 37-47.

(1) In verse 37, we are told that “the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me.” (2) In verse 39, we are told that the Scriptures “bear witness about me.” (3) And, in verse 46, John writes, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.”

Upon further inspection, I hesitantly offer that the three of these witnesses work in harmony with one another, offering the reader one witness.

The Father witnesses by means of the Scriptures which are corroborated by Moses.

John writes, in verse 37, that the Father bears witness concerning Jesus but doesn’t initially explain how the Father bears witness.

Commentators offer many possibilities.

I offer three, even though there are a few others.

Barclay considers that God’s witness “refers to the unseen witness of God in the heart of every individual,” [5] and Pink proposes that “the witness which the Father had borne to His Son through the prophets during Old Testament times.”[6]

In no way do I dismiss these men, but I do want to move past them to what appear to be the most prominent interpretations.

First, God bore witness of Jesus through Jesus’ works.

Many (if not a majority) of commentators contend that the Father’s method of witness is through the works of Jesus.

Barnes writes, “The Father himself—hath borne witness of me . . .

By the miracles which Jesus had wrought, and of which he was conversing.”[7]