John 5:31-47
"If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true.
"There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true.
"You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
"Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.
"He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.
"But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish--the very works that I do--bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.
"And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.
"But you do not have His world abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.
"You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.
"But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
"I do not receive honor from men.
"But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.
"I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.
"How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?
"Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you--Moses, in whom you trust.
"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?"

Message:
Once again Jesus is answering the charges of His opponents. His opponents are demanding, "What evidence can You adduce that Your claims are true? Jesus argues in a way that the Rabbis would understand for He uses their own method.

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He begins by admitting the universal principle that the unsupported evidence of one person cannot be taken as proof. There must be at least two witnesses.
Deuteronomy 17:6
"On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses he that is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness."
Deuteronomy 19:15
"A single witness shall not prevail against a man for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offence that he has committed; only on the evidence of two witnesses, or of three witnesses shall a charge be sustained."
Matthew 18:15-16
"Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hear you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established."
A man's own witness is unacceptable and suspicious, thus the need for additional witnesses. This is the point that Jesus was making. Note how He was stooping down to the level of man. What He had said was true. He could not lie. HE WAS THE SON OF GOD. He was precisely who He claimed to be and the fact should have been known. However to meet their need, He would prove the fact by meeting the demands of justice. He would call forth His witnesses to prove His claim.
"There is another who bears witness of Me...." Some Bible commentators suggest that Christ is referring to the witness of the Holy Spirit, but most scholars state that Jesus is speaking of the witness of the Father.
Matthew 3:16-17
"When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.
And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Further on in His defense, Christ will enlarge upon the witness of the Father (verses 37 and 38).
He brings in His next witness and that is John the Baptist.

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"You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth" (v.33).
Here our Lord reminds the Jews how, when they had sent an embassy unto His forerunner, that he "bear witness unto the truth. This is spoken of in John 1:19-29):
"Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"
He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."
And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" and he answered, "No". Then they said to him, "Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?."
He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness; make straight the way of the Lord," as the prophet Isaiah said.
Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.
And they asked him, saying, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"
John answered them, saying, "I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know.
"It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose."
These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, BEHOLD! THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD."
Our verse says that John "bore witness." This speaks of a permanent and continuing witness. His message was not a fly-by-night witness that appeared on the scene and suddenly disappeared. His witness continued and still continues and will always continue. It was a trustworthy message, a witness to the truth.
This testimony of John ought to have satisfied them. John was an eminent man; many of the Pharisees believed on him; he was candid, unambitious, sincere, and his evidence was impartial. On this Jesus might have rested the proof that he was the Messiah, but He was willing, also, to adduce evidence of a higher order.
From the passage in John 1 which we have just quoted, it might be assumed from John’s rejection of any claim to be identified with the Messiah, with Elijah, or with

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"the prophet" that John the Baptist was also rejecting the prophetic role itself. But this is unwarranted. It is true that John refused to claim that he was "the prophet" of Deuteronomy 18:15, but this is not the same thing as rejecting a prophetic function entirely. In these denials John was denying any importance of his own. However, it is precisely in pointing away from himself and to Christ that he emerges most strongly in the prophetic role.
The passage in Deuteronomy 18:15 says: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear."
An indication of John's prophetic role is found in Jesus' reference to John as a "lamp that burned and gave light" (v.35). This lamp is not a light that shines in its own right (like the sun) but a lamp that has been kindled from a source outside itself, a "kindled light."
John is not the light. Only Jesus is the light. Nevertheless, John is important because he has been kindled by that light. Having been set on fire by God, he bears witness to Jesus.
What should we make of John the Baptist? He lived long ago. he was just one man. Still, Jesus says that John lived to verify His claim to be God, that this was his message. Jesus Himself demands that we reckon with the testimony, the witness of John the Baptist.
"Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved" (v. 34).
Jesus is saying, I do not depend for proof of my Messiahship on the testimony of men, nor do I pride Myself on the commendation or flattery of men, but if you would have believed the testimony of John, you would have been convinced of Me." If they would have accepted John's witness, they would have been saved!
Note! Men are often dissatisfied with the very evidence of the truth of religion which they sought, and on which they professed themselves willing to rely."
And Jesus says of John:
"He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light." (v.35)
The function of light is to guide, and John pointed men on the way to repentance and to God. In the nature of things a lamp burns itself out; in giving light it consumes itself. John was to decrease while Jesus increased. The true witness burns himself out for God!

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In paying tribute to John, Jesus rebukes the Jews. They were pleased to take pleasure in John for a while, but they never took him seriously. They were, as one has put it, like "gnats dancing in the sunlight," or like children playing while the sun shone. John was a pleasant sensation, to be listened to as long as he said the things they liked and to be abandoned whenever he became awkward. Many people listen to God's truth like that; they enjoy a sermon as a performance. God's truth is not a thing by which to be pleasantly titillated; it is often something to be received in the dust and ashes of humiliation and repentance.
But Jesus does not even plead John's evidence. He says it is not the human evidence of any fallible man He is going to adduce to support His claims.
"But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish--the very works that I do--bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me."
The Father has given witness...the testimony of John the Baptist has given witness...now, Jesus calls forth His Works as a witness to His Deity.
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, He turned water into wine...cleansed the Temple single-handed, and fed a great multitude with a few loaves and fishes! And these miracles were performed by His own inherent power.
The late Bishop Ryle called attention to five things in connection with our Lord's miracles. (1) Their number; they were not a few only, but very many.
(2) Their greatness: they were not little, but mighty interferences with the ordinary course of nature.
(3) Their publicity; they were not done in a corner, but generally in open day, and before many witnesses, and often before enemies.
(4) Their character: they were almost always works of love, mercy and compassion, helpful and beneficent to man, and not merely barren exhibitions of power.
(5) Their direct appeal to man's senses; they were visible, and would bear any examination.

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To these we might add two other features:
(6) Their artlessness: they were not staged mechanically; they happened in the natural course of our Lord's ministry. There was nothing pre-arranged about them.
(7) Their efficacy: there was as much difference between the miracles of healing performed by Christ and those of His miserable imitators which are being so widely heralded in our day, as there is between His teaching and that given out by these pretenders who claim to heal in His name. CHRIST'S CURES WERE INSTANTANEOUS, NOT GRADUAL: COMPLETE AND PERFECT, NOT FAULTY AND DISAPPOINTING.
Concerning His works, Jesus said:
"I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work" (John 9:4).
"Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not; the works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me" (John 10:25).
"If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe the work that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in Me, or else believe Me for the very works' sake" (John 14:11).
"If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin; but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father" ( John 15:24)
"And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form." (v. 37)
God sent Christ into the world, so Christ naturally bore witness of God. The witness included all that God had ever revealed to man down through the centuries. The witness of the Old Testament prophets, the frequent mention of the coming Messiah, these gave sufficient witness to the Christ.
"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointee heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; and being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Hebrews 1:1-3)

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V. 38 "But you do not have His word abiding in you because whom He sent. Him you do not believe.
Here our Lord begins to make solemn application of what He had said to the consciences and hearts of these Jew.
Note the awful charges which He brings against them: (1) "ye have not His word abiding in you" (v.38), (2) "ye have not the love of God in You" (v.42), (3) "ye seek not the honor that cometh from God only" (v.44), (4) "ye receive me not" (v.43) (5) "ye believe not" (v.47).
But notice carefully the basic charge; "ye have not His word abiding in you." This explained all the others.
This was the cause of which the others were but the inevitable effects. If God's Word has no place in man's hearts they will not come to Christ, they will not seek the honor that cometh from God, and they will not love God. It is only as the Word is hidden in our hearts that we are preserved from sinning against God.
"You hate My instruction and cast My words behind you" (Psalm 50:17)
"Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel"(Isa. 5:24).
And Jeremiah 6:10 warns:
"To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it."
The Jews in Christ's day had not regarded His manifestations, either in the times of the old dispensation, or now through the Messiah. They did not yield to what He had said in the revelation of the Old Testament.
God had foretold that the Messiah would come. He had now given evidence that Jesus was He; but now they rejected Him, and this was proof that they did not regard the word of God.
V. 39
"You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me."
In this teaching Jesus claims that the Old Testament Scriptures are from God and are fulfilled in Him, that

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the unbelieving Jews have perverted the Old Testament and misunderstood it (just as many do today), and that the Old Testament itself will accuse those who refuse to believe it.
Jesus Christ has presented His witnesses: The Father, John the Baptist, His works, and now His next witness is the Scriptures...the Old Testament.
YOU SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES...THESE ARE THEY WHICH TESTIFY OF ME!
The primary purpose of Scripture is to point men and women to Christ. It is true that it uses a variety of means to do this. History is one of them; the communication of truth, particularly about God's nature and about man's sin, is another. But the primary purpose is to point men to Christ.
Someone might ask..."How does the Scriptures, the Old Testament, point to Him?" Is not this part of our Bible mostly history? The answer is that Jesus becomes the subject of the Old Testament in two ways: (1) by fitting in with its general themes and (2) by fulfilling the specific prophecies to be found there. He becomes the subject of the New Testament in a far more obvious way, for the New Testament tells His story and is almost exclusively about Him.
Consider the great themes of the Old Testament. One theme is the sin of man and man's need. The Bible begins with the story of creation, but no sooner is this story told than we are also told of man's fall. Instead of being humbly and gratefully dependent upon his Creator, as he should have been, man was soon in a state of rebellion against God. The consequences of the sins of man run through much of the Old Testament.
This leads us to the second great Old Testament theme; the existence of a God who acts in love to redeem sinners. This God the Father did Himself in partial ways throughout the Old Testament period. At the same time, even as He did it He pointed to the coming of His Son who would redeem His people perfectly and forever.
Take the dealings of God with Adam and Eve on the occasion of their having sinned in the garden. Sin had separated the man and woman from the Creator. They tried to hide. God, however, came to them in the cool of the evening, calling. It is true that God spoke in judgment, as He had to do. He revealed the consequences of their sin. Still, at the same time that He spoke judgment,

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he killed animals. He clothed the man and woman with skins, covering their shame. Thus He began His teaching of the way of salvation through sacrifice. In the same story He spoke to Satan, revealing the coming of One who would one day defeat him forever. "He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel" (Gen. 3:15)
Nine chapters later we find another, somewhat veiled, reference to the "seed" who shall crush Satan. This is God's first great promise to Abraham stressing that in him all men would be blessed (Gen 12:3). In chapter 22 it is restated like this, "And through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed" (Gen 22:18). The blessing foretold is that which was to come through Abraham, the promised seed, the Messiah. Thus, years later the apostle Paul, who knew this text, used it to show that (1) the seed was the Lord Jesus (2) the promise to Abraham was one of blessing through him, and (3) the blessing was to come through Christ's great work of redemption (Galatians 3:13-16).
Moses spoke of the One who would come. Speaking for God he declared, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to Him." (Deut. 18:15)
The Psalms contain great prophecies. The second psalm tells of Christ's eventual victory and rule over the nations of this earth. This psalm was a popular one with the early Christians who used it in reference to Christ, as is apparent from Acts 4. Psalm 16 foretells the resurrection (v. 10; cf. Acts 2:31).
In the twenty-second, twenty-third, and twenty-fourth psalms are three portraits of the Lord Jesus Christ: the suffering Savior, the compassionate shepherd, and the King.
Psalm 110 returns to the theme of His rule, looking for the day when Jesus shall take His seat at the right hand of the Father when all His enemies shall be made His footstool (v.l).
Dozens of prophecies concern details of Christ's life, death and resurrection. They occur in the prophetic books--especially Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Zechariah--but also elsewhere. Jesus deliberately submitted His life to the outline for it as revealed in such prophecies, and He fulfilled them in careful and specific detail. That He did do this is evidenced by His rebuke to Peter after Peter had tried to prevent

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His arrest in Gethsemane. Jesus said, "Put your sword back in its place...Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?" (Matt. 26.52-54)
After His resurrection the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to two of His disciples, a man and his wife, who were on their way home from Jerusalem following the Passover during which He had been killed. The disciples were Cleopas and Mary. They were dejected. Mary at least had seen the crucifixion, and when Jesus had died her faith in Him and her hope had died also. Neither of them had any understanding that Christ needed to die and rise. Thus, even when reports of the empty tomb reached them early on that first Easter morning neither of them was able to take in the news.
As they went on their way Jesus appeared to them, but He had changed Himself so that they could not recognize Him. He could have revealed Himself to them at once. Instead He revealed the purpose of the Scriptures and so taught both this couple and ourselves a great lesson.
The Bible says that He "opened" the Scriptures to them. The opening itself takes place in the midst of the story, but the phrase does not occur until the end. In reporting their encounter with Jesus they said, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road, and open the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32).
As we read on in the story, however, we soon find that this initial "opening," the opening of the Scriptures, is followed by another "opening." This is the opening of their eyes. We read that as consequence of His teaching and as He sat with them and broke bread in their home, "Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him" (v. 31). Finally, at the end of the story we read that Jesus again appeared to them in the presence of the other disciples and "opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures" (v.45).
Please observe! When Jesus makes reference to the Scriptures, He is talking about the Old Testament, for the New Testament had not yet been written. In the passage in John which we are studying, Jesus has said: "You search the Scriptures...and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life." (v.38.39)

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It is not lack of evidence but perversity of will which kept these Jews from coming to Christ. And it is still that way!
The Lord Jesus stands ready to receive all who come to Him; but by nature men are unwilling, unwilling to come to Him that they might have life. But why is this? It is because they fail to recognize and realize their awful peril: did they but know that they are standing on the brink of the Pit, they would flee from the wrath to come. Why is it? It is because they have no sense of their deep and desperate need: did they but apprehend their awful condition--their wickedness, their blindness, their hardheartedness, their depravity--they would hasten to the great Physician to be healed by Him. Why is it? It is because the carnal mind is enmity against God, and Christ is God!
Though the Old Testament bears evidence that I am the Messiah; though you professedly search it to learn the way to life, and though My works prove it, yet you will not come to me to obtain life.
Life is to be obtained in Christ...He is the Way, the Truth, the Life. But in order to have life, we must come to Him--that is, we must come in the way appointed as lost sinners, and be willing to be saved by Him alone.
The reason why sinners die in their sins is because they will not come to Christ...IT IS NOT BECAUSE THEY CANNOT, BUT BECAUSE THEY WILL NOT!
Our passage in John continues:
"I do not receive honor from men. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? (verses 41-44)
Here again the Lord maintains His dignity and insists upon His Divine self-sufficiency. Listen to His heart: "When I state My claims, and complain that you disregard them, it is not because I wish to ingratiate Myself with you; not because I covet your approbation or that of any man, or set of men."
He did not need their sanction: He could receive no honor from their applause. His object was to secure

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the approbation of His Divine Father, by faithfully executing the commission with which He was entrusted; and so far as they were concerned, His desire was not that He should be applauded by them, but that they should be saved by Him. If He regretted, and He did most deeply regret their obstinate unbelief and impenitence, it was for their sakes, and not for His own.
He who searcheth the heart knew the state of those Jews. They posed as worshippers of the true and living God. They appeared to be very jealous of His honor. They claimed to be most punctilious in the observance of His Sabbath. But Christ was not deceived. He knew they had not the love of God in them, and this was why they refused to come to Him for life.
Oh! to be religious, but have not the love God. What a tragic misrepresentation of Christianity. And yet, the religious world is filled with people who do not have the love of God within. Pharisees! Hypocrites! Children of the devil! Paul states that a person who is really a Christian is one in which the love of God is very visible because of the work of the Holy Spirit working through their lives.
Our Lord concludes by intimating to those Jews that they would yet have to give an account of their rejection of Him before the tribunal of God, and there they would see as their accuser the great legislator of whom they boasted, but whose testimony they rejected.
"Do you think that I accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me." (verses 45, 46)
We have made reference to what Moses said concerning the coming Prophet in Deuteronomy 18:15.
Jesus is saying: "If you do not credit what he has written which you profess to believe, it is not to be expected that you will believe my declarations.
Jesus has taken His defense and has presented His witnesses: The Father, John the Baptist, His works, the prophecies of Scripture.
All the witnesses are rejected...Christ is rejected, condemned of blasphemy, nailed to the cross, buried in a tomb. But He rose triumphant, victorious, and He is Lord of lords and King of kings. He is God Almighty, Creator, Saviour and someday...THE JUDGE!