John 5 (Part 3) Witness to Jesus

Witness to Jesus

John 5:30-47 

Setting the Scene

Let’s start this morning with considering a text from Deut. 19:15, 

“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.”

This verse captures the basic idea, we see unfold in the way the Jews respond to Jesus in our text today. (John 5:30-47)

We can trace the foundational reason of their thinking by seeing the instructions they were given in both the OT and the NT.

In the OT, we see scriptures like Deut. 17:6 and Num. 35:30. 

In the NT, we see Jesus refer to this concept in the gospels, John 8:17-18, Matt. 18:15-17,  and the apostles speak to it in the letters 2 Cor. 13:1, 1 Tim. 5:19, and Heb. 10:28.

Today’s Text

So this morning, as we come to our John 5:30-47 text, we see an unfolding representation of the witness that gives significant creditability to Jesus’ authority and actions.

If there was ever a person who could speak to the significance of His own authority it would be Jesus, but we don’t see Him take that course here. He directs His audience to a variety of available witness to His position of words and actions. (John 5:30-31)

So how many witness does Jesus say He has to bear witness to Him in our text today?

1-John the Baptist (John 5:32-35)

2-The Works (John 5:36)

3-The Father (John 5:37-38)

4-The Scriptures (John 5:39-40)

5-The Father’s Name (John 5:41-43a)

6-The Glory of God (John 5:43b-44)

7-Moses (John 5:45-47)

Recap of the Chapter

In this John 5 text we broke it up into 3 parts.

1-John 5:1-15 and John 5:16-18

2-John 5:16-18 and John 5:19-29

3-John 5:30-47

As we recap, the journey of the chapter, 

1-We primarily see in the first part a miracle healing that John refers to as one of the 7 significant signs in his Gospel account.

John 20

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 

31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. 

2-In part 2, we see Jesus authority questioned and His defense of that authority. He uses some key words and phrases in this paragraph which are you may marvel, do not marvel, truly truly statements, eternal life, a hour is coming and is now here, and the concept of giving life to the dead by His words or voice.

I believe it is important to see part one and two as connected. What and why Jesus healed the man who had been invalid for 38 years. It is a sign John considered as important to put forth for his readers to believe and have life in the name of Jesus.

3-And finally in part 3, we see Jesus lovingly directing His audience to 7 different witness to confirm the credibility of His words and actions.

If your remember back in John 2:18, the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” And Jesus responded with “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will rise it up” and then the text tells us in vs. 21, clarifying that in the words “destroy this temple”, He was specifically talking about His body and not the physical temple of the day. In Matt. 12:38-42, Jesus navigates through the same kind of request for a sign with the OT remembrance of the Prophet Jonah in the belly of a great fish. 

As we leave Chapter 5 of John, we see the basis for the theological hostility in the ministry of Christ. His nation was upset by (1)Him healing on the Sabbath, (2)claiming authority that belongs to God alone, and (3) the witness and signs that Jesus directed them to was a stumbling block for them, which Jesus lovingly tried to help them process the reason for their struggle with His words and actions was at the core of their desires. (Matt. 15:16-20) 

Next Week

Next week, we will look at the feeding of the 5000 in John 6:1-15. Remember that the Passover was one of the 3 key festivals that the Jews would go to Jerusalem to celebrate. It appears from the text that at this time of Passover Jesus didn’t make the trip to Jerusalem and stayed back in Galilee. So the fact that Jesus did a miraculous feeding of a great multitude at Passover adds a deeper context to all the realities that Jesus as the Good Shepherd speaks to His followers in this Chapter of John 6. Looking forward to walking through it with you next week. 

John 5 (Part 1) Festivals

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The Sabbath

Lev. 23:3 (Work)(Holy Convocation)

“no Ordinary Work” (ESV, NLT)“Customary Work” (NKJV), “Regular Work” (NIV), “Laborious work”(NASB, RSV)”Daily Work”(CSB, HCSB),

Lev. 23:7, 8, 21  (Passover, Feast of Weeks)

Numbers 28:18,25, 26 (Passover, Feast of Weeks)

Numbers  29:1, 12, 35 (Trumpets, Booths, Booths) 

The First Month (Spring Time)

Passover  (April 15-23) mo. 1, Nisan (Pilgrimage) Spring

Numbers 28:16, 14th day Lev. 23:4-5 

Unleavened Bread, 15 day for 7 days Lev. 23:6-8 

John 2:13, 23, 

John 6:4, 

John 11:55, 12:1, 12, 20, 13:1, 18:28, 39, 19:14, 19:31, 19:42, 

The Feast of Firstfruits (Resurrection)(April 16-17)

(7 weeks 49 days, April 17-June 4) (3 day from Passover)

Lev. 23:9-14  

(winter crop planted spring harvest, barley)John 12:20-26, John 12:24 

John 4:35, John 6:9, 2 Kings 4:42-43 

Feast of Weeks, Shavout (June 4-6) mo 3, Sivan (Pentecost)(Pilgrimage)Summer

Numbers 28:26

Lev. 23:15-22  (spring planted, summer harvest, wheat)

Exodus 34:22, The sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan

The Seventh month (Fall Time)

Feast of Trumpets, Labor Day (September 25-27)Rosh Hashanah

Numbers 29:1-6

Lev. 23:23-25  

Day of Atonement (October 4-5)Yom Kippur

Numbers 29:7-11 (work)(Holy Convoction)

Lev. 23:26-32  

Feast of Booths, Sukkot (Oct. 9-16) (Pilgrimage)Fall

(Tabernacles, Shelters, Harvest)

(Fall time)

Numbers 29:12-40

Lev. 23:33-44  

This marked the end of the agricultural year, during the harvesting of grapes and other summer crops. The feast provided an opportunity to express thanksgiving for God’s bountiful provisions of the material needs of His people

John 7:2, 37, (Teaching in the Temple)

Misc. records of feat of the Jews

John 5:1, (John 5:14, sin no more could be atonement) 

(John 5:25-29, Resurrection of life could be middle first fruits or feast of weeks)

Feast of Dedication 2022

John 10:22 (Dec. 18-26) Winter 

Dec. 18 to Dec 26, 8 days 

The Jewish Festival of Rededication also called the Festival of Lights is an eight day celebration of that falls each year on the Hebrew calender date of 25 Kislev

Commemorates the rededication during the second century B.C. of the second temple in Jerusalem 

Story found in 1&2 Maccabees, (lighting of the menorah)7 candles vs 9 candles 1 for each day and 1 to light  8 candles

John 5 (Part 1) Healing on the Sabbath

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John 5:1-18

Setting the Scene again. 

“Stirring up the waters at the Sheep’s gate pool”

Previously Jesus had come from Jerusalem to Cana and a father met Him coming from Capernaum to plead for the life of his son. And at Jesus word His son was healed in Capernaum from Cana.

So here in John 5:1-5, 

we see another feast of the Jews and Jesus going back to Jerusalem to be a part of it. The story here picks up in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate. There is a pool where invalids are waiting for a movement to restore them. The story focus in on one man who had been there for 38 years. 

In John 5:6-9  

Do you want to be healed?

Jesus ask the invalid man if he wants to be healed? This sick man identifies the hurdle to his healing as he sees it. Jesus again show us the power of His words, when He says “Get up, take up your bed and walk” by His command the man at once was healed and took up his bed and walked.

In John 5:10-15  

Is it a sin to Heal on the Sabbath?

We see the man was healed by Jesus on the Sabbath and because of this the Jews question the healed man about carrying his mat. This goes back and forth until the Jew are compelled to persecute Jesus for healing on the Sabbath.  Jesus response to this all, is My Father is working until now and I am working.

This justification for working on the Sabbath gets the Jewish leaders pretty worked up. In Lev. we have a term “do no ordinary work” on the Sabbath. As we work through the objections the Jews have towards Jesus about how He behaves on the Sabbath, we know Jesus did not sin, so therefore the perspective of the Jews was wrong. This term “do no ordinary work” proposes and pretty interesting question. Was what Jesus was doing “ordinary work” so if not was it clearly ok to do on the Sabbath. He ask is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? What is the answer.

Consider these stories

Matt. 12:9-14 

If you sheep falls in a pit on the Sabbath will you not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep?

John 7:21-24

You circumcise a man on the Sabbath and I made a man’s whole body well. What better day to do an extradinary thing than on the Sabbath.

John 4 (Part 4)

John 4:43-54 (Audio link of meeting)

Healing a son in Capernaum from Cana

• How do we understand the signs? Do they help us or hurt us?
• Interpreting correctly the intentions of the text Spiritual or Physical realities
• Stages of Belief (Surface, Rooted and fruit bearing)

John 4:43-46 

1-“Setting the Scene Geographically”

John 4:43, After two days he departed for Galilee. 

He departed from where? 

(Samaria the town of Sychar)

John 4:44, (A prophet has no honor in his own hometown)

Matt. 13:57, Matt. 13:53-58, 

Luke 4:24, Luke 4:16-30

John 4:45, Galileans welcomed Him because they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. 

For they had gone to the feast. 

(Signs in Jerusalem) John 2:23, John 3:2, 

4 General Areas 

(Galilee, Samaria, Judea, Trans Jordon, Upper Bethany (John the Baptist baptizing) Lower Bethany (Rise Lazarus from the dead) (Area of travel to avoid Samaria)

John 4:46, Cana, where Jesus was and in Capernaum there was and officials son who was ill

(Two different graphical locations) 

John 4:47-49, 

2-“A Father’s plea for his son”

Jesus comments on how their belief was too dependent on physical signs. 

That they were missing the bigger picture of the spiritual signs or heavenly signs. 

They were fixating on the wrong things.

So consider these text, which should be interpreted as physical, literal and which ones should be considered rightly  as spiritual and heavenly?

• You must be born again? (John 3:3) 

• If you knew who was asking you for a drink you would ask Him for a drink? (John 4:10) 

• I have a food to eat that you do not know about? (John 4:32) 

• Did Jesus actually feed 5000 people from a boy’s lunch? (John 6:9-13) 

• Did Jesus actually walk on water? (John 6:19)

• Did Jesus actually want us to eat of His flesh and drink of His blood? (John 6:52-59) 

John 4:50-52  

3-“Go; your son will live” (Part 1)

(Surface Belief that produces questions)

The man believed the word the Jesus spoke to him and went on his way

• Jesus made a command

• The man quit pleading with Jesus because he believed

• He walked out that belief by leaving and return home, trusting the word of the Lord

John 4:53-54 

4-“Go your son will live” (Part 2)

(Rooted Belief that produces fruit)

The father knew that was the hour when Jesus has said to him, Your son will live. 

(He himself believed and all his household)

• The seed of  the father’s belief took root when he realized the Word of Jesus was able to produce the life it confessed

• The fruit of the father’s rooted belief produced fruit within His household. (Those who knew him were changed by the harvest they seen produced in him by belief in Christ)

-Like with the Samaritan woman this interaction with Jesus affected the person so much that the change in his perspective effected others. 

It says all his household believed because of his belief. 

In the John 4:39 text, it says many Samaritan’s from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony

“Take Aways”

(Matt. 15:21-28)(Luke 7:1-10)(John 4:46-53)(John 11:43)  

• Jesus doesn’t have to physically be there to heal (John 4:51-52)(Luke 7:10) (Matt. 15:28)(John 11:14-15) 

• Jesus can seem rude to grieving parents (John 4:48)(Matt. 15:22-26)(John 11:20-27)  

• Him not being there can further one’s belief in Him (John 4:53)(Luke 7:6-10)John 11:39-40)

• At His word mighty things happen (John 4:50)(Luke 7:7)(John 11:43-44)

(Matt. 15:21, She was from the district of Tyre and Sidon, Matt. 11:21-22, This in relation to the importance of how we perceive the signs)

(The sign are important here, because the Jews request a sign for authenticity that a person is from God, they do not trust one who does not have a sign of verification of authority) John 2:18, they asked for a sign and He said you destroy this temple and I will raise it up again in 3 days. They considered 46 years to build and that would be impossible to do. )

1 Cor. 1:22-25, For Jews demand signs, Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the Jews, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Geographical Locations

John 1:28, These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

John 1:43, The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Follow me.

John 2:1, On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee

John 2:11, This is the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee

John 2:12, After this he went down to Capernaum with His mother and His brothers and His disciples and they stayed for a few days 

John 2:13, The Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 

John 2:23, Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 

John 3:2, This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with Him.

John 3:22, After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judea countryside, (Rejoined with John and baptizing)

John 4:3-4, He left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he pass through Samaria

John 4:43, After two days he departed for Galilee

John 4:46, So He came again to Cana in Galilee

John 4 (Part 3)

 

From Spiritual Water to Spiritual Food

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John 4:31-34 

“A Spiritual Food”

“urging Him to eat”

I have food to eat that you do not know about

Spiritual Food

Disciples are thinking physical and earthly, Jesus is talking spiritual and heavenly. 

My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.

(Moses 40 days twice on the mountain to receive 10 commandments)

John 4:35-38 

“A Spiritual Harvest”

To understand this passage in a physical sense, it would be nonsense. There is not physical harvest fields for them to harvest. When Jesus tells them the harvest is before them, it is a harvest of seekers to know more about God’s ways. 

Their is at times a lot of spritual seed sowing that takes place before a person comes to a point where they want to know more about God. Here is an audience that has come to the spiritual harvest point of their life and they truly want to know more about the Lord.

John 4:39-43

“Because you knew a life that was changed”

Many give the Lord a consideration because He radically changed a person’s life we knew. A person we thought had no hope for amending their ways and doing right.

John  4:41-43

“Because of two days with the Lord”

But our faith should not be piggy backed off of another person’s experience. We need our own experience with God. We need to ask Him to stay with us for two days.