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Reading through the Gospels #97

 

WITNESSES TO JESUS

John 5:30-47

This is all red text, so Jesus is speaking to the Jews (see verse 18) who want to kill him. They do not believe Jesus is who He says He is and so Jesus would as a human feel a need to prove Himself, but as God, have no need to prove Himself. A "witness" is someone who has actually seen with their own eyes who can testify by mouth to prove a fact or what has taken place. To prove Himself, Jesus needs witnesses that are believable.

 

Not much gets my dander up more than when someone manipulates my words or my actions to be something it is not to take a personal attack on my character. My character is who I am. I take my character importantly and try to hold to my own standards. When someone accuses me of being a character trait that I know I am not, my mind does not let it go. Sure, I have character traits that are not so good, such as I am often a few minutes late, and if someone points out those negative character traits, it does not bother me because the facts are true. It is when someone attempts to ruin the traits I value highly that get under my skin. Some call this character assassination. Some call this defamation of character. When this attack on character is an attempt to influence others to falsely influence my character, that is a double-edged sword. Rumors, gossip, and spreading misinformation through manipulation of facts just to play lends to a sorry sort of human. If you want to push my buttons and make me defensive to see someone I am usually not, then try attacking my character. Society would say that I should be able to stand on my own character without becoming defensive because I know who I am and I should know it really does not matter what others think. To me that is just a calming technique because everyone knows that reputation does matter.

 

This is my pondering on attempting to identify with the feelings of Jesus when He discusses witnesses for 'who He is." Some might say Jesus is rejected and identify with that feeling. I do identify with being rejected, but in my pondering I feel this is more a story of Jesus defending 'who He is" and His character by the use of witness or testimony. It is shameful that a person would even feel a need to defend themselves, but that is a product of sinful man. Jesus, of course, never sinned, but He came to earth as a man and knows how we feel when we feel a need to defend our character. Another important mention is that 'who I am" is ultimately as a child of God, so if someone is attacking Jesus' character, they are attacking the whole of the Kingdom of God.  Ultimately as a child of God, when someone attacks my character, they also attack God. For people to see my character as a child of God is to see me as a forgiven person for those character traits whereby I fail.

 

Jesus states that he hears God the Father and does nothing on His own but that which is the Will of the Father.  The Will of the Father is that all men be saved. It is nothing more and nothing less than that. In today's culture I hear all of the time people praying that they know what God's Will is for them. It is a 'new age religion' concept that puts the focus of scripture on people and takes it away from God. Yes, we pray for wisdom to make decisions, to know the path in life we are to take, but that is not regarding God's Will other than what we do in daily life should be used by God to build God's Kingdom by saving people. Whenever I read about God's Will in scripture, I always insert extra words: God's Will that all be saved. In this way I read and understand scripture rightly. Anytime people make scripture about "me" instead of about Jesus, it is a red flag waving a warning to stop and rethink. Today's culture is focused on Path Theology which is about 'me.' I heard someone state, "but we do not know God's Will," because he was praying to know what it was to make decisions in life's path. I replied, "Yes we do! We know what God's Will is and it is that all be saved." The devil's will is that no one be saved.  We pray in the Lord's Prayer "Thy Will be done" because we too join in God's mission that all be live eternally with Him.

 

1. Jesus bears witness of Himself. (vs 30-31) In the middle of the statement in verse 30 about following God's Will, Jesus states "As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just."  He is saying to the Jews that He is qualified as the righteous judge to prove Himself. We see  a "who He is" characteristic in that Jesus is the righteous judge who will Judge everyone when He returns again and those who believe in Him will be judged blameless. The problem is that the Jews do not believe who He is as a righteous judge because Jesus testifying about Himself is meaningless to them. A person cannot simple claim things about himself and needs others to prove it for him.

 

2. John is a witness. (vs. 31-35) This John is John the Baptist, not John the disciple. The Jews would have known about John the Baptist. Jesus calls John a burning and shining lamp that the Jews were "willing to rejoice for a while in his light." This implies that the Jews Jesus is speaking to no longer believe the testimony of John.

 

3. The work of Jesus witnesses. (vs. 36) This whole conversation started with Jesus healing the man paralyzed for 38 years on Sabbath and the Jews calling Him out for breaking God's laws of working on the Sabbath. For all the many miracles and healings that Jesus did while on earth, this should alone testify about who he is, but in this case it is a futile testimony.

 

4. The witness of God the Father (vs. 37-38) In Luke 3:22, the Holy Spirit (the Trinity) testified at Jesus's baptism, "You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased." People actually heard God with their own ears testify about Jesus. Jesus states that  the Jews do not have "His Word" in them and that is why they do not believe God the Father. In John 1:1 we read that God is The Word.  God's Word is a means of grace that saves us. The Jews do not believe God's Word that saves.

 

5. The witness of Scripture (vs. 39-40) The Jews search the Old Testament Scriptures because they believe that they give eternal life, and as God's Word, they do give eternal life, that is, if one believes that this eternal life is through Jesus Christ. The Jews did not make the connection between God's Word and Jesus, refusing to acknowledge that the Messiah in Scripture is Jesus, still looking for it to be someone else. The Old Testament being referenced by Jesus as giving eternal life is an important scripture to believe that all of the Bible is "Scripture is breathed out by God" (2 Tim 3:16) although written by a man's hand.

 

41-42  Jesus states He does not receive glory from the people who do not have the love of God in them. The opposite of that would be that He does receive glory from those who do have God in them.  Who I am is a testimony and a praise to who Jesus is.

 

43-44 Jesus states that He has come to them in His Father's name and they have not received Him (rejected Him) and yet someone else will come along self-testifying and they will receive that person as the savior. Jesus questions how they can believe in Him if they are accepting glory from one another instead of from Him. How people think mattered more to them than what Jesus thinks.

 

45-47 Jesus states that they believe Moses's law which convicts them of sin and yet are not worried about Jesus pointing out sin to God the Father. If only they would realize that if they believe in Moses, they would believe in Him because the first 5 books of the Bible are written by Moses and are about Jesus. Jesus states that Moses' words in scripture are His words. This is an important verse in the Bible as it connects Jesus to the Old Testament in that the Bible is God's Word, inherent (without error). We can have confidence in Scripture interpreting Scripture of the truth that "Scripture is  breathed out by God" (2 Tim 3:16). There are no conflicts or mistakes in Scripture.

 

June 4, 2022

 

 

Copyright Cheryl Rutledge-Brennecke
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