Witness of Christ – Pt. 2

if God’s people would take their
Bibles and return once again to John, Chapter 5. John, Chapter 5. Jesus has returned to Jerusalem. We saw in Chapter 4 that He departed
abruptly, not wanting, essentially, to mix it up yet, but immediately
upon his return to Jerusalem in chapter 5. Not necessarily
a strict chronology of the timeline of the events of Jesus’ life,
but this is where John picks it back up as immediately upon
Christ’s return to Jerusalem. There is this healing. We admitted
it was a rather strange scene. the angel allegedly stirring
the water, there was this tradition. Jesus pulls the man aside and
heals this one particular individual, and as glorious as that was,
it generated a lot of interest on the part of Jesus’ critics,
the Jewish religious elite. Initially, there was irritation,
verses 10 through 14, That quickly degenerates into flat-out persecution
in verses 15 and 16. Jesus responds, and ultimately
the plot has already been hatched to bring about Jesus’ execution. Well, Jesus is a merciful Savior. And so Jesus is looking at those
in the eye who already have hatred unto death in their hearts. It
is already spun that far out of control that they are literally
plotting Jesus’ execution. And yet Jesus, on his part, essentially
issues a merciful call to these men, and he does it with those
three solemn declarations that we saw beginning in verses 19,
coursing all the way down through verse 30. The first solemn declaration
was, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son of Man can do nothing
of Himself unless it is something He sees the Father doing. The first solemn declaration
was to tell these men, His detractors, that He and the Father were absolutely
one in great plan of redemption and that it was absolutely impossible
for Jesus to be doing something outside of His Father’s will.
The second solemn declaration there in verse 24, He who hears
My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He
was speaking to them. And that’s why I say this was
a merciful plea. Jesus could have treated them
as the enemies that they already were. Jesus could have done completely
without them and treated them accordingly, and yet here He
essentially preaches the gospel to them. He who hears My word
and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. The third solemn
declaration we saw in verse The third, truly, truly, truly, truly,
I say to you, an hour is coming and now is when the dead will
hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. Jesus preaches to them that the
clock is essentially ticking. Already there are those coming
to Christ and already there are those who are facing judgment. People die every day, essentially
is what Jesus says. and after death comes either
eternal life or judgment. And that is a merciful plea.
He wants them to essentially wrestle with their own mortality
and the fact that they don’t have forever. But then Jesus
takes this very abrupt turn. In verse 30 he essentially summarizes
everything that he said beginning in verse 19 through 29 And he
says, I can do nothing on my own initiative, as I hear I judge,
and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but
the will of Him who sent me. And he brings forward that idea
of sentness. The Heavenly Father has sent
him. And he wants them to know that
these aren’t just his words, this isn’t just his plan, that
He stands before them as one of many witnesses. And He has
already, as we’ve studied, He’s already brought forth a number
of witnesses, and He has more to bring, as we’ll see even this
morning. If you would, read along with
me, beginning in verse 31. If I alone testify about myself,
my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies
of me, and I know that the testimony which he gives about me is true. You have sent to John, and he
has testified to the truth. But the testimony which I receive
is not from man, but I say these things to you so that you may
be saved. He was the lamp that was burning
and was shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a while
in his light. But the testimony which I have
is greater than the testimony of John. For the works which
the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I do testify
about me, that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent
me has testified of me. You have neither heard His voice
at any time nor seen His form. You do not have His word abiding
in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. You search
the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal
life. It is these that testify about Me. And you are unwilling
to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory
from men, but I know you that you do not have the love of God
in yourselves. I have come in my Father’s name,
and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name,
you will receive him. How can you believe when you
receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory
that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will
accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses,
in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you
would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe
his writings, how will you believe my words?” We began to consider
these witnesses, and I would put you in the spiritual shoes of the Jews
to whom Jesus was speaking. How much proof do you need? How
much proof do you need? The Jews evidently needed all
kinds of proof, because Jesus here marches one after another,
a witness on His behalf. But how much proof do you need?
How much testimony, how much preaching, how many books? From
time to time you’ll meet somebody who is still holding out, locate
and discover the Ark, or the Holy Grail, or whether they’re
able to verify the Shroud of Turin, or any other such relic. How much proof do you need? For many, hearing the Gospel
the very first time, and there are some in this room, they heard
the Gospel and the very first time that they really, truly
interacted with the Gospel, they took it for what it was. But upon hearing the gospel and
hearing of Christ and what Christ had done on their behalf to replace
their faith, where else could they go? They knew that they
stood condemned before a holy God. God was holding out to them
the only option, the only way of salvation. And a lot of times, many of us
practice the art of being skeptics. We want to hedge. We want to
be intelligent about this decision. And on the face of it, there’s
nothing wrong with that. So we begin to gather data. For five years, that’s what I
did. For five years, I read a little bit, studied this, studied a
little bit of that, looked here, looked there, and I remember a question that echoed in my
head. How much time do you think you
have? We don’t know. We don’t know how much time.
But we do know that God stands every day, setting forth His
Son as the only means of salvation before us, bringing witness after
witness after witness. How much proof do you need? Let’s
look again at this passage. We started last week. It’s a
continuance of the answer that Jesus began all the way back
in 19, verse 19, when the Jews were confronting Him. He knew
the hatred that they had in their heart, not just irritation, not
just persecution, but ultimately a death penalty. And Jesus begins
this merciful declaration, this threefold, essentially gospel
outline to them. That he was working in concert
with God Almighty on this great plan of redemption. That if those,
even his foes, placed their faith in him, they would receive forgiveness
and eternal life. And they don’t have forever. They don’t have forever, to think
about that. Jesus is testifying, and so in
verse 31, when it says, If I alone testify about myself, my testimony
is not true, Jesus isn’t saying that His words are suspect or
that His words are false. Otherwise, Jesus Christ would
immediately cease to be God in the flesh. What He’s saying is that His
claims don’t rest on alone. He was essentially echoing what
they were already thinking. Where are your supporting witnesses? Where is the corroboration? Jesus. So Jesus says, look, I
understand the principle off of which you operate, built essentially
into the law of Moses, that you must bring two or more witnesses. And so Jesus Jesus articulates
their point. You say that I need other witnesses. You say that my testimony is
not alone. Okay, then I’ll bring other witnesses. But make no mistake. Jesus’ testimony,
even if it were alone, is absolutely true. And Jesus’ testimony, even
if it were alone, is absolutely adequate. Not only is it true,
it’s a perfect testimony of what God is doing in and through the
world. And so Jesus hints, he alludes really, that there is
another witness. And we’ll look at that other
witness today. Look at verse 32. He says, there is another
witness who testifies of me. There is another, and I know
that the testimony which he gives is true, absolutely true. categorically
true, objectively true. It is a testimony that is inherently
genuine because it is a testimony from God himself. And how can
God possibly lie? It is truth because truth is
part of God’s very nature. And it’s God that he’s pointing
to. It’s God that he’s alluding to here as another witness And
yet he doesn’t immediately bring forth God, as it were, to put
Him on the witness stand, to allow Him to speak on Christ’s
behalf. He’s alluding to His Heavenly
Father, but he doesn’t immediately bring Him forth. What he says,
though, is that his testimony is in complete concert We left off last week considering
John the Baptist essentially as a third witness on the docket. John the Baptist, a witness who
was basically disregarded by the Jews simply because of his
style, because of his dress. He was held to be a credible
witness. His testimony was true. Verse
33, we saw you sent to John. He has testified to the truth.
They didn’t quibble over John’s words. They quibbled over his
attire. They quibbled over his mannerisms.
They quibbled over the fact that he was a quirky individual. So
they thought. They sent this delegation, and
by their own testimony, they gave him validity simply in sending
a delegation to him. They wouldn’t have done that
if he hadn’t already proven to be a trustworthy source And what
they were really seeking was his particular identity. Maybe
he’s even the Messiah. That’s how much stock they put
in John. Jesus says what they heard from
John was the truth, the absolute truth about Jesus Christ. Who
he was. He was the Lamb of God. He was
the Son of God. They didn’t quibble over that.
They didn’t call John a liar because he said that. They accepted
it as true, and Jesus points that out. He was a witness disregarded
because of his style, and his testimony, as we saw, even though
ultimately unnecessary, it offered salvation. Jesus didn’t need
John the Baptist. Jesus employed him, God put him
in that position, he was indeed the forerunner of Christ, there
was nothing wrong with his testimony, and his testimony, insofar as
he went, really did call people to repentance and to salvation. The testimony which I received
is not from man, Jesus says in verse 34, but I say these things
so that you may be saved. If you only go back and recount
John’s words, You have the offer of salvation before you. In verse 35, we see that his
testimony was just for a brief season, John the Baptist. But
even in that short, brief season, he was well received. Look at
verse 35. He was the lamp that was burning
and shining. It was a temporary light. And you were willing to
rejoice for a while in his light. You were ready to crown Him.
You were ready to receive Him even as the Messiah. John the Baptist, he was a faithful
witness. And you were receptive to his
ministry. But John the Baptist wasn’t the
only witness. Jesus Christ is a witness. The Heavenly Father Jesus points
to, He alludes to, as another witness. John the Baptist was
a witness and a faithful one. But the Apostle John takes Jesus’
words and circles them back to the Heavenly Father. But before
he does, he brings in yet another witness. that Jesus did, as being a clear
witness to authentication by the Father. Look at verse 36. But the testimony which I have
is greater than the testimony of John. For the works which
the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I do testify
about me that the Father has sent me. Jesus doesn’t stand
alone. Jesus’ words Don’t echo alone. Jesus has other witnesses. He has the Father. He has John
the Baptist. And He has His works. Jesus reminds
the Jews how absolutely fickle they were. They were ready to
receive John’s ministry. They really wanted Him to be
the Messiah. Can you imagine that they were
actually disappointed when they realized that John wasn’t the
Messiah that another was? Yet at all this time, even as
Scripture tells us, John did no miracle. Then the real Messiah comes onto
the scene, doing miracles and mighty works, and His detractors
didn’t even show the Lord Jesus Christ the kind of attention
that they had given to His forerunner, John the Baptist. Look at verse
36, the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony
of John. He was the forerunner, and really
nothing more. He pointed to Christ, and almost
no sooner had he identified Christ, his ministry already begins to
conclude. Jesus Christ isn’t prepared to
rest His claims on the witness of John the Baptist only. The
testimony that He had was far greater than John the Baptist,
because He is the One for whom John served as forerunner. Look
at the middle of verse 36, the works which the Father has given
me to accomplish, the very works I do. What he says there is that
God had sent him for a task, for a purpose, and every single
thing that he did was exactly in concert with that purpose.
And there wasn’t anything, when he says, the works which the
Father has given me to accomplish, the very works I do, he says
that there isn’t anything that God sent him to do that was left
undone. Everything was according to the
Father’s plan. This declaration that God had
given him these things, it is such a familiar term as you step
back and look at John’s Gospel. The Father gave everything to
Christ. Think of this. John 3.35 says, that the Father had given all
things into His hand. And that all things means all
things. In John 5.22, we see that the
Father has given all judgment to the Son. In John 5.27, all authority to
execute judgment. He gave Him His followers, His
disciples, His apostles. John 6, 39. All that He has given
me, I lose nothing. Everything came to Christ from
the Father. John 17, 2. You gave Him authority
over all flesh. John 17, 6. The men whom You
gave Me out of the world, they were Yours, and You gave them
to Me, speaking of His apostles. Do you know even Christ’s message
His overall message was given to him by God the Father. I did
not speak on my own initiative, John 12, 49, but the Father himself
who sent me has given me a command as to what to say. Everything
came from the Father. The authority over all flesh,
as we mentioned, included every possible detail with regards
to God’s great plan of redemption. among all of the things that
God the Father had given or bestowed upon Christ. There were also
these works, this plan, this great task before Christ. And
Jesus says, Jesus says that the works that the Father had given
me, they are the very things that I’m doing. This healing
of this man by the pool of Bethesda, That wasn’t just happenstance.
It wasn’t just Jesus exercising some capricious, opportunistic
healing. It was all part of the Father’s
plan, even the eruption that it caused. All part of the Father’s
plan. When you begin to speak of works,
we’ve already seen this concept. Glance back, if you would, even
if you have to turn the page to John 5.20. This was part of the initial
testimony, part of that initial declaration. The Father loves
the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing, and
the Father will show Him greater works than these. God was going
to do great things through Christ, beyond just healings, beyond
just raising the dead, as in Lazarus, He was going to raise
Jesus Himself from the dead. He was going to bestow upon Christ
the authority to judge all people. But the works, quite generally,
it’s talking about God’s great plan of redemption. But here,
specifically, it’s talking about the miracles that Jesus worked.
Greater works, greater miracles. things that would cause them
to be utterly astounded, raising the dead and ultimately judging
mankind. There are four times in this
particular gospel that the same appeal is made. Look at these
signs, look at these miracles that Christ is doing. They are
proof of Christ as the Messiah. Think back. Remember John meets
Nicodemus, doubtful Nicodemus, Coming in the night, Nicodemus.
Nicodemus, whose heart Jesus knew, because He’s God. This man came to Jesus by night.
Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for
no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them. Nicodemus knew what Christ was
like because of His works, because of His miracles. He knew His
nature. John 10, 25 echoes the same thing. Jesus answered them, I told you
and you do not believe the works that I do in my Father’s name. Here were these miracles, miracles
that Nicodemus could look at and see were the marks of deity,
and yet there were others that saw them, saw the same kinds
of works, and Jesus indicts them for their lack of faith. I told
you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s
name, these testify of me. Every time Jesus did a miracle,
every time Jesus performed one of these works, it was as proof. John 15, 24, the fourth occasion,
other than the one before us. If I had not done among them
the works which no one else did, these were astounding miracles. walking on the water, the water
into wine, feeding 5,000 people with just a few loaves of bread
and a couple of fish. If I had not done among them
the works which no one else did, they would not have sinned. But now they have both seen and
hated me and my father as well. They didn’t receive them. So these works, these miracles,
Ultimately they point to the whole course of ministry, but
specifically here they’re talking about the great miracles that
Christ worked. As one said, the phrase is used
generally in Christ’s gospel to describe the whole outward
manifestation of Christ’s activity, but here the many works are part
of one great work. Ultimately all of Christ’s deeds,
all of Christ’s miracles point to the one work miracles. Healing of the man
at the pool was just one of them. And those works don’t necessarily
generate faith, but they’re important. They point to Christ. They’re
a seal of the Father’s approval of Christ. They’re not ordinary
works. They’re works that no one else
did. They’re the Father’s works, ultimately, testifying also of
Him abiding and working in and through Christ. Those works bore the mark of
divine origin, and they should have been received as such. One faithful pastor, glancing
at all of Christ’s miracles, noted five observations. He noted first their number,
just the sheer volume of miracles, just one after the other. Their
greatness, that these were mighty, and I love this word, interferences
with the ordinary course of nature. Their publicity, they weren’t
done in the dark, not usually, but in broad daylight, out in
the open for all to see. Not only friends, to serve as
witnesses, but even enemies who saw His miracles, their character,
their works of love and mercy and compassion, so often helpful,
beneficial to others, they were visible to the eye. People could
see them, witness them, watch changes in their life, like this
man healed by the pool, suddenly told to stand and take up his
pallet and walk. saw these miracles, saw great
numbers of these miracles, interferences, as it were, with the course of
nature. They were so steeped in their
blindness, they refused. They refused this clear witness
of Christ. The Gospels record nearly 40 such
miracles, and the Apostle John’s testimony if you remember, was
that this was only the tip of the iceberg. The 40 miracles
that the Gospels record, all the books in the world, remember,
couldn’t contain all of the accounts that Jesus did, John 20, 30,
many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples,
which are not written in this book. There was an overwhelming
mountain of evidence presented almost daily as Christ walked
about, anybody who observed Him, and then the testimony of those
whom He healed, the man born blind, went back and became a
chronic witness to those who hated Christ, because now, almost
inexplicably, He could see. Glance at verse 36 once again,
the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of
John. He’s not depreciating John. He’s just saying that ultimately
John’s testimony was merely verbal. But here Jesus in His works stands
before them and does a mighty work of God, a miracle that should
have been received as proof. The testimony which I have is
greater than the ministry of John. For the works which the
Father has given me to accomplish, The very works I do testify of
me.” That’s why they were designed. That was their purpose. The works
that he did were a testimony to others to sit up and take
note. John 10.25, I told you and you
do not believe, the works that I do in the Father’s name These
testify of me. It’s a common habit among evangelicals
to kind of back away and downplay the miraculous element of Christ’s
ministry. Walking on the water, we kind
of allow people to make fun of those
kinds of things. They mock the water into wine. They mock all of the miracles
that Christ supposedly does, and we let them. A lot of times
we even smirk at some of their comments. But those miracles
were for a purpose. They were a testimony to Christ.
They don’t prove the existence of God. They weren’t designed
to do that. But the biblical miracles, the
miracles that Christ works, they were set. as a corroborating
witness of who Christ was, that He was sent by God Himself. John records this many times. The Pharisees observed it. John
records one of the first Nicodemus recognizing these words. The
chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council in John 11,
47. What are we doing? This man is performing many signs.
Even they were reticent to take action against Christ because
of the miracles. Jesus pleaded, pleaded with those
who were his detractors. pleading with them, saying, believe
that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe
because of the works themselves. Do you hear the merciful call
of Christ in that? Don’t negate these works. These works are proof of who
I am. In Matthew chapter 11, There were those that were still
not sure who Christ was. And they came to Him and they
said, are you the expected one or should we look for someone
else? Look, we’re tired of being duped.
We were John the Baptist followers and now we’re yours. Are you
real? Are you the real guy? Or is there someone else? Jesus
answered and said to them, go report to John what you hear
and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor
have the gospel preached to them.” Not only John’s followers, but
John himself was doubting, and Jesus says, Look! Look at the
works that I do! In fact, the church is planted,
the church is off and running, and Jesus has ascended to heaven
in Acts chapter 2 in one of the first sermons ever preached,
these words are recorded. Men of Israel, listen to these
words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested
to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed
through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know. There
was proof, there was abundant proof, given. How much more proof
do you need?” Those works, as one pastor said,
had been an unmistakable witness to him. He gave hearing to the
deaf, speech to the dumb, sight to the blind, cleansing to the
leper, deliverance to the captives of the devil, life to the dead.
He walked on the waves, stilled the wind, calmed the sea, turned
the water into wine, cleansed the temple, fed a great multitude
with loaves and fishes, and these miracles were performed by His
own inherent power. And they were all designed to
prove this one thing, that the Father has sent me. That God
is real, and that God in His plan of redemption has sent me. That was God’s purpose. John
3.17, we read 3.16 quite frequently, but John 3.17 is an important
testimony as well. God did not send the Son into
the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved
through Him that served the purpose that God had sent the Son. John
5.30, I can do nothing of my own initiative, which passage
we just read, as I hear I judge, my judgment is just, because
I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. It was important that people
know that God was acting in concert, that God had sent the Son, and
the Son was doing exactly what God wished. The Heavenly Father, as He alludes
to, is a witness to the truth. John the Baptist was a witness
to the truth. These works that Christ did were
a witness to the truth. But He wants to go back and drive
home the point that the Father, the Father is a witness. We would refer to Him as witness
number two. But Jesus now comes back in verse
37 and drives the point home. Look if you would. And the Father
who sent me, he has testified of me. You have neither heard
his voice at any time nor seen his form. Those are familiar words to us.
We’ll get there in a moment. Jesus points to this other witness
in verse 32 and now he wants to dwell on the Heavenly Father
as that witness. There can be no doubt that Jesus
Christ is pointing here in verse 32 to the Father, because that’s
exactly where He lands on verse 37. The Father who sent me is
born witness, and not just a recent witness, as we’ll see next Lord’s
Day. Through the testimony of the
Scriptures, the Father has been bearing witness since man could
understand and communicate with God. The Father has testified,
and if you note the form of that, He has already given His testimony. He’s borne witness as it were
in the past, and yet that testimony is still just as valid now as
it was then. It stands the test of time. The
witness is no new thing. It’s not a new testimony. It’s
not a recent or fresh testimony. But it is still a valid testimony. We’ve had testimonies of a variety
of kinds from the Father. Ultimately, it’s the testimony
of Christ to our own heart. It’s the testimony of the Father
bearing witness to Christ. Look at the very end. You’ve
neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. Well,
they could have said right there, then, how can you prove that
we have the Father’s witness? You know, the Father had spoken
on a number of different occasions, and there were a lot of commentators
that wanted to go in that direction. The Father spoke audibly at Jesus’
baptism, right? So there were those that said,
well, maybe these weren’t actually there physically present at Jesus’
baptism. He must be talking about something
else. He also spoke at the transfiguration, remember? Except there were only
three human witnesses to that scene. Certainly the Jews weren’t there.
So maybe that’s what he’s alluding to, that you haven’t heard his
voice. You weren’t at his baptism. You weren’t at his transfiguration.
forgetting completely that it hadn’t happened yet. He’s not saying that they missed
these events, because it’s quite possible that
some of them could have actually heard the baptism of John. So what is he saying here? Do
you haven’t heard his voice, or seen his form It reminds us of Psalm 19, doesn’t
it? Let me read it for you for the sake of time. That Psalm, that beautiful Psalm
talking about God’s creation and God’s witness in creation
that He never stops talking. His witness is constant. It is
a constant declaration of God at work. The heavens are telling
of the glory of God. All we have to do is stand back
and watch. As the clouds course across the sky during the day,
we see God’s great hand in the patterns of weather on Earth.
The water comes, the water goes. The heavens are telling of the
glory of God. All we have to do is look up,
gaze up into the night sky and see that the star patterns change
and just the sheer number of stars is a testimony to the fact
that there is a designer God. The heavens are telling of the
glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of His
hands. Day to day pours forth speech. Night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there
words. Their voice is not heard. That’s essentially the same thing
that Jesus says here in John chapter 5. You’ve neither heard
His voice at any time nor seen His form. There is no speech, nor are there
words, their voice is not heard, and yet Psalm 19 says, the heavens
are telling of the glory of God. You’ve neither heard His voice
at any time nor seen His form, and yet Jesus says, the Father
who sent me has testified. them to hear. It wasn’t a visual
representation of God that they needed to see sitting, as it
were, on the witness stand. What they needed to recall was
that God had testified already, and His testimony was standing
right before them. All they had to do is stop and
look and listen. Hebrews 1 says it so clearly,
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets
in many portions and in many ways, in these last days, has
spoken to us in His Son. It was a silent testimony, but
it was a crystal clear testimony that God was testifying by way
of His own Son. He has spoken to us in His Son,
whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He
made the world. And He is the exact radiance
of His, that is, the Father’s glory, and the exact representation
of His, that is, the Father’s nature. And He upholds all things
by the word of His power. When He had made purification
of sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
In other words, God tells These fickle people, always demanding
more evidence, more evidence, more proof. Here’s your proof. It’s the very Son of God Himself. The voice of God is Christ. John
14, 24. You know the passage, he who
does not love me does not keep my words. The word you hear is
not mine, but the Father’s who sent me. Jesus was a mouthpiece. Jesus was a servant of God. And
you know what? He’s also the form of God. That’s
what the Scriptures say. 2 Corinthians 4-4, in whose case
the godless world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving,
so they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God. that would close with one final,
clear piece of evidence. Jesus Christ is standing right
in front of them, saying that essentially God was constantly
bearing witness. It’s a silent testimony, as it
were, but that testimony is standing right before them in flesh and
blood. Colossians 1, he is the image
of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, By Him all things
were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All
things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before
all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is the head
of the body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place
in everything. was the Father’s good pleasure,
for all the fullness of the Deity, all the fullness to dwell in
Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having
made peace through the blood of His cross. Through Him, I
say, whether things on earth or things in heaven, the greatest piece of evidence
that the world has ever seen to the fact that there is a God,
that that God is a God of mercy, that that God is a God of redemption. He stood before them pleading
with them to repent, to merely consider the evidence that not only Jesus himself was
testifying to, that John the Baptist had pointed
to, that is very worse pointed to, and that the Heavenly Father
had so faithfully and clearly testified. Jesus Christ is God
in the flesh. Jesus Christ is the only means
of redemption. And I would ask you again, how
much proof do you need? How much more testimony do you
need? our merciful God. We have no
doubt, knowing human nature, knowing our fallenness, that
there are those in our midst, no different than us, no accolade
to go to us because we have placed our faith in Christ. You drew
us to yourself. We were hopeless and helpless,
sinners, dead in our transgressions. You opened our eyes. You brought
us to life. You breathed that life into us.
We could not help but place our faith in Christ. And yet still there are those
mulling, gathering evidence, considering Christ, considering
the claims of Christ, Thinking about Him, pondering, how much
evidence do we need in the face of so many witnesses? Father, we pray that any in our
midst, You would humble them and that You would bring them
to faith this very day. Lord, we thank you and we praise
you. We praise you for our own salvation, undeserved as it was. We took the witness for what
it was. We could not but place our faith in Christ. It’s in
Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen. As we close,