They’d been giving me fair warning. If I didn’t get my clergy ID badge made for the hospital, I’d be sorry. Then, I showed up at Freeman for someone’s surgery. It was getting close to the last few minutes of opportunity to visit her beforehand. I arrived at the window and asked where she was. Out of the blue, the lady asked to see my ID. “Uh, I haven’t taken care of that yet! Sorry.” Kay Reed happened to be right there. She put in a good word for me. It was a nice try, but didn’t work. Gary Thomas, head of the chaplaincy dept. walked by. She asked him to help. He looked at me. “Haven’t you gotten your clergy ID badge yet?” I looked down at my shoes. “Nope, just haven’t gotten around to it.” He said, “I’ll go talk to my supervisors and see what I can do. HIPPA regulations are pretty picky.” He led me into his little office nearby. “Here, I’ll be right back. Yeah, you need to get that ID badge. It’s going to get so you won’t be able to move around the hospital at all without your ID badge.” He closed the door. I sat down and waited, impatiently because the time for the surgery kept getting closer. A few minutes later, Gary appeared outside the door. He went to open it, and nothing happened. There was an awkward pause as he looked inside at me. I got up, tried the door, and I couldn’t get it open either. The handle was detached inside the door. I looked around – no other door! I was locked in! Gary said, “Hang on! I’ll get maintenance here.” A few more minutes. 2 guys show up outside the door with Gary. They tinkered with it a few minutes. I sat down to read. After a few more minutes, I got up, took out my trusty pocket knife, took apart the handle, and got the door open. I’ll never forget Gary’s last words before he locked me there in his office: “It’s going to get so you won’t be able to move around the hospital at all without your ID badge.”
When I go into the hospitals now, I make sure that I carry my hospital issue ID!
Hotels, utility companies, police all warn you: make sure that someone claiming to be an employee shows proper identification. There’s good reason for that.
Ill – 1990, Shortly after I graduated from college, Bill Stewart sent me a copy of an article from C Springs - an AP release about Coronado High School where I went to HS. It was about a transfer student – a 17yr old girl named Storme Aerison. She was singing soprano in the choir, and had even made captain of the cheerleading squad, where she performed during at least one pep rally. This went on for 8 days, until some students reported Storme had stubble poking through her makeup. Turns out Storme was a 26yr old man running from the law. He was arrested, and they kicked him off the cheerleading squad. I’m happy to report I never dated any cheerleaders in high school!
Identity claims need to be verified: When someone comes to your door, says he’s a policeman, and asks to come in, you want to make sure he’s a policeman. When you take your car to a man for repairs, you want to be sure he’s a mechanic. When you’re going in for brain surgery, you want to be sure that the person who’s going to work on you really is a neurosurgeon. If someone claims to be something, and then doesn’t offer proof, we won’t accept them. And when someone makes claims that will affect our entire lives and our eternity, we want to be sure about that person.
Along comes a man who makes some straightforward identity claims. They aren’t suggestions. They’re outright statements. You could approach the book of John just by examining all 10 of the “I AM” statements: Bread of Life, Light, Good Shepherd, Way, Truth, Life, The Gate, The Resurrection and the Life, The Vine. Pretty bold. He didn’t carry a Messiah Card. He didn’t wear a badge. It didn’t say it on His driver’s license. How could Jesus support His claims?
If we could chart the importance of a person’s identity, what would it look like? For instance, a young woman at the DMV is there to get her driver’s license. She’ll need some forms of identity. Driver’s licenses are pretty important, so they make sure she is who she claims to be. You go to the doctor, and he suggests you let him do surgery on you. You might want to be sure he is who he claims to be. You’re interviewing job applicants. One claims to have a master’s degree and 15yrs of experience. Depending on the business, you check into it, because the reliability of that person’s claims are important. Look around on the wall of your mechanic’s shop, your tax guy, the person who cuts your hair. They all have posted the papers that back their claim to be able to legally practice their trade. Are those important? Yes! If you don’t want to have an imposter making your car safe, representing you to the federal government, or determining how you’re going to look in public, you’re glad to know their claims are verified. We care about peoples’ claims because they affect us on a daily basis.
If it’s important for people who are just “average Joe’s” to back their claims, then that level of importance is off the charts when it comes to Jesus. Not only do we have Someone making some pretty outlandish claims to fame, but we also have the obstacles of time, language, and culture in the way. All of Christianity rests on this question: "Who do you believe Jesus Christ is?” Remember, that‘s the goal of John’s gospel, and the goal of this sermon series: that you might know Jesus.
(What Jesus claimed about Himself)
We wouldn’t need to pursue this if Jesus hadn’t made any particular claims about Himself. In fact, He probably wouldn’t have been crucified if He had just taken back what He claimed to be. Instead…
1. The Father Sent Him
v36b “the Father has sent me.” v38b “you do not believe the One He sent.” Jesus claimed to be sent by God - 36x’s in the book of Jn Jesus says so!
The word for “sent” means that Jesus bore the full authority of the One sending Him. I’m going to guess that no one here this morning would make such a claim – that God has sent you, and that the words you speak carry the same weight as His.
2. He’s equal with God
10:31-33 Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."
Philip in ch14, "Lord, show us the Father. That will be enough." Remember how Jesus responds? “If you have seen me, you’ve seen the Father.”
3. He’s the source of Life
v40 “you refuse to come to me to have life.”
Ill - This past week, scientists were predicting that they will someday, in the next 10 years or so, be able to “create artificial life.” Interesting. As it turns out, they were talking about being able to put together a cell – a membrane, a nucleus, and the other parts that make it “live,” all in the right proportions, and then just “letting evolution take over.” “Making life from scratch,” they called it. Of course, all of the chemicals that make up a cell have to be used to do this. It sounds to me more like a boxed dinner than “from scratch.” Where’d all that stuff to “create life” come from in the first place??
Jesus claimed to be the source of life – that thing that scientists can’t put into a test tube or a Petri dish. Jesus claimed to be the way a person can live forever. No one has tried to re-create that one yet.
You see, Jesus made not just some pretty big claims, but the biggest claims, about Himself.
So what? A lot of people have made big claims throughout history and even today. Sun Yung Moon. Rashneeshee. David Koresh. But there’s something that makes the claims of Jesus different. You see, these guys all offer their “proof” in secret - very few, if any witness it. Jesus took up the subject of Who He is and said, “Here’s the proof!”
Ill - It wasn’t enough that Jesus made this claim for Himself. I had an uncle who, when asked to identify himself, took out a mirror and said, “Yep, that’s me.” But, like it says in v31, giving a testimony to our own credibility isn’t enough. In a human court, we would call witnesses to give a testimony about ourselves, and that’s what Jesus was doing in this chapter...
I. What Testified Then
A. The Witness of John 5:31-34
John 5:31-47
If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved.
This is John the Baptist. Sure enough, clear back in ch 1 of this book, JB was speaking up about Jesus. Before He hit the scene, JB said that One was coming Who was greater. Then, he pointed his followers to Jesus. After that he said,
John 1:34 I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God."
If a character witness matters, if an eyewitness matters, then the testimony of JB matters.
B. The Witness of Works 5:35-36
Ill – When God first called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt, Moses was afraid. “What if they won’t listen to me?” So, God gave him signs; He allowed miracles from the hand of Moses to validate his message. Having someone’s testimony is a good thing. In the case of JB’s testimony, there was something even better:
John 5:35-36
John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me.
I can get up and speak and say I’m somebody, but if I get up, and make a blind person see, a lame person walk, and raise a dead little girl, you’d be more likely to believe me. In ch3, Nicodemus understood that. In ch7, Jesus’ brothers understood that. So, after Jesus had gone back to heaven, when Peter stood up to preach on the day the Church began, he said,
Acts 2:22
Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him...
C. The Witness of the Father 5:37-38
John 5: 37-38
And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.
That left-hand side of your Bible is called the OT. You might think it’s all about Israel, or all full of “begets” and lists and things. It’s really about Jesus. It’s full of God’s testimony about the arrival of Jesus.
If there was writing in there that said, “In 1966, in Joliet, IL, at Silver Cross Hospital, there’s going to be a son born to a mother of 5. He’ll be handsome, and become a preacher, and you should listen to him.” Well, I’d expect you might want to listen to what I had to say today!
God the Father had testified concerning Jesus. If the Jews had just listened carefully to what God had already said, they would have recognized Jesus. When Jesus was baptized, God spoke out loud from heaven that Jesus was His Son. He’d witness about Jesus again at his death, and again through His resurrection.
When God puts His stamp of approval on anyone, we should listen.
D. The Witness of Scripture 5:39
John 5:39-40
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
The Scribes (and these doubting leaders) searched the Scriptures! They knew their Bible. They’d numbered every letter of the OT; identified the center letter of the whole OT, because they wanted to be so precise when it was hand copied. They claimed Moses as their spiritual father. After all, he wrote the first 5 books - but they couldn’t see the forest for all the trees.
Jesus said they really didn’t even believe Moses. If they had, they would have believed Jesus because Moses spoke of Jesus (vv46-47)
The Scriptures testify - Jesus is the Messiah through Whom all families of the earth are blessed.
They all testified to the claims of Jesus. "Yes, what He’s saying about Himself is true."
John the Baptist. Miracles. The Father. The OT. All of those helped verify Jesus’ claims. You’d think that would be enough…for then.
But, honestly, it’s easy to dismiss things that seem so far removed from us. What about now? What about us, here, today? What do we have to support our faith in Jesus, and what do we have to prove Him to others today? We have no prophet in the wilderness; no spectacular miracles; no voice from heaven. Why should I believe it? The 2nd part of what I want us to do this morning is to quickly add and highlight some evidences that today help verify Who Jesus is…
II. What Testifies Today?
A. The Scriptures Testify - more than ever! No one can honestly accept the Bible and say that Jesus was just a man! If the Bible testified to the claims of Jesus before the NT was written, how much more does it now?! Now, we can read the prophecies that were written hundreds of years before Jesus and see how they were all fulfilled by Him. Now, we have a Bible that has withstood the ravages of time without changing or being disproved. More than ever before, this Book tells us that Jesus is God in the flesh! Everything about the Bible that verifies it to be true helps verify that Jesus’ claims were true.
B. History Testifies
Even the enemies of Christianity throughout history have confirmed that this man Jesus lived and died. Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and others who were not Christians, all wrote before the year 110 AD about the origins of Christianity.
In fact, if we didn’t have the NT at all, what we could know about Jesus from other writings gives good evidence about Him? Listen to what one scholar said, based on writings apart from the NT:
“We would know that first, Jesus was a Jewish teacher; second, many people believed that he performed healings and exorcisms; third, some people believed he was the Messiah; fourth, he was rejected by the Jewish leaders; fifth, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius; sixth, despite this shameful death, his followers, who believed that he was still alive, spread beyond Palestine so that there were multitudes of them in Rome by A.D. 64; and seventh, all kinds of people from the cities and countryside—men and women, slave and free—worshiped him as God.”
History is another witness that testifies to the life and identity of Jesus.
C. Changed lives Testify
No one can deny the lives that Jesus has changed. No one can deny how 11 ordinary guys were turned around into spiritual supermen who turned the world upside down for Jesus.
No one can erase the history of thousands and thousands who gave their lives rather than deny their obedience to Jesus.
No one can deny the people you know whose lives have been completely changed for good because they began a relationship with Jesus, and now they’ll never be the same again.
Those changed lives are each a testimony to the claims of Jesus. By themselves, they don’t prove anything, but alongside the rest of the evidence, changed lives are another reason to accept that Jesus’ claims are true.
He has left no alternative. In spite of all the objections, all of the excuses people come up with, all of the false religions that deny Him, Jesus has proven Himself to be the Son of God.
Application and Conclusion
We don’t have time to read vv41-47. Strangely enough, with all of it right in front of them, there were people who still found it in themselves to deny Jesus. Even though they had all the evidence, there was still the matter of the heart. So, we can’t stop with the facts and fail to see why it matters in the first place. Let’s finish by just revisiting what it matters that Jesus’ claims are true.
1) It means that Jesus’ death was sufficient to save us from our sins. No one else’s would be.
Remember the neurosurgeon? Why would it matter to you that his claims were true? Because you might be trusting him with your life! A policeman? A mechanic?
What about the person with whom you’re going to trust your eternity?! Jesus said, “No man comes to the Father but through Me.”
A lot of people are trusting their eternities to other things. Some are trusting themselves to be good enough. Some, political reform to save the world. Some are counting on prosperity. Some, on human relationships. But Jesus says there’s only one way to life, and that’s Him.
2) It means that Jesus’ commands for us are commands we must obey.
Is Jesus really the Son of God or not? He claimed, "All authority has been given unto Me in heaven and on earth."
The major reason people deny is because if He really was the Son of God, we’re obligated to do what He taught. Maybe you’ve heard the old adage: f a cow has 4 legs and a tail, and you call the tail a leg, how many legs does she have? 4. It doesn’t matter what you call it, it’s still a tail!
Jesus is still Lord, whether we call Him that or not. We’re still obligated, whether we want to accept Him or not. One step from Jesus is still a million miles from heaven.
Who do you believe Jesus was? If you believe He’s the Son of God, we invite you to give Him the obedience you know He deserves....
