Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: That's kind of like what Jesus is going to do in the next few verses. He's going to give us the credentials, the reasons, the proof, the evidence, the testimony, why he actually is who he just said he is.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in Biblical Studies at Biola University.

Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled, Read the Red. Bless us then as JP gives us part two of John Chapters 3 through 5.

JP Jones: Jesus is the son of God. Jesus is the son of man. Remember why Jesus is even unpacking this for his listeners? He's saying it because I have a unique relation with the Father. So when you said, "You are making yourself out equal to God," you're making an accurate assessment, and let me give you why that's true.

I have life in myself. I have this love relationship with the Father. I only do what I see the Father doing. Anyone who hears my words and believe in him who sent me has eternal life. I have the authority as the Son of Man to judge the living and the dead.

And then he says, "As the Son of Man, I will reward some to a resurrection of life and others to a resurrection of judgment." So, all of this is Jesus's response back to these religious leaders and their musing about him and their perception that he's making himself out equal with God. And in effect, Jesus says, "That is exactly what I'm doing."

And what Jesus says is that the Son of God is the unique representative of God. The Son of God is the revelation of God. The Son of God is the one through whom we come to know God. You cannot know God apart from the Son.

Now, if you step away, that is a very exclusive claim because there's a lot of religions in the world, and there's a lot of spiritual people in the world. And Jesus is saying, "I'm the only way to God."

And if you don't honor the Son, you don't honor the Father. And if you don't believe in my words, you don't have eternal life.

It'd be like us all deciding to take a drive up some mountain, and we get on Google Maps, and we look at it, and we break it down, you know how you zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, and then we see all the trails up the mountain, and we see there's one made road, and then it forks off, and then there's other trails on it.

So we get in our car, we start driving up, and we come to that main fork. And standing in the fork of the road is somebody. And so we drive up, and we roll the window down, and the guy welcomes us, and he says, "I'm the guy who put the trail on the map. I designed it. And let me tell you, the only way to the top of the mountain, you got to drive up this way. If you go this way, it looks like it's going to take you somewhere. But there's all kinds of obstacles in the road, and then the road just falls away, and you're going to drive your car off to destruction. So don't go down that path. You got to follow this path up. I'm the guy who designed it, so listen to me."

Now, we got a choice. We could say, "He's the guy who designed it. So he's the guy who knows. I'm going to follow what he just said," and drive on that path. Or we could say, "I don't like that path. I like that path. Or I don't like the way he said that to me. Or I don't know if I believe him." Or we could say all kinds of things and make our own decision to go down the other path.

But if the guy really was the guy who designed the path, and he really knew what he was talking about, if we don't listen to him, we're going down a path of destruction.

Jesus said to the religious leaders who reacted to the fact that he'd done a miracle on the Sabbath, and were all nitpicky about something that really didn't matter, and who heard what he had to say and concluded, "He's making himself out equal with God." Jesus said, "You're exactly right. I have an intimate relationship with the Father, a love relationship with the Father. I've been sent by the Father. I have all authority. I have life in myself. I judge the living and the dead. And anyone who hears my words and believes them, and believes in the one who sent me, has eternal life."

And I'm the Son of Man, and I have the authority to send people to heaven and to send people to hell. So you better listen to what I have to say.

Now, using that little illustration I gave, if we're in the car, and the guy says, "Yeah, I designed all the maps. I designed the road system up here, and that goes to destruction, but this is the one that'll really take you to the top of the mountain." You might say, "Well, how do I know you are who you say you are? And how do I know I should really listen to you? Do you have some kind of identification? Do you have some credentials?"

Well, that's kind of like what Jesus is going to do in the next few verses. He's going to give us the credentials, the reasons, the proof, the evidence, the testimony, why he actually is who he just said he is.

So John chapter 5, starting at verse 30, Jesus says, "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the one of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There's another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he's borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you might be saved."

"He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is even greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you've never heard, his form you've never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent."

"You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it's they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 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 do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There's one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

So Jesus here offers testimony to prove that he's equal with God and he's the only way to eternal life. He offers testimony, he offers evidence, he offers witnesses to give us proof that he is who he says he is and that he is able to do what he promises to do. He's equal with God. He's the son of God. He's the only way to God. And when we believe in his words, we receive eternal life.

Jesus gives us six pieces of evidence. The first piece of evidence, the first testimony is the testimony of his own words. He says, "If you believe my words, if you listen to my words, and my words stand alone and that's all I have, well then my testimony isn't true." So Jesus says, "If all I have is what I'm saying, okay, then maybe, maybe you got a case." Now don't just stop there and move on to the rest of his lines of testimony.

Jesus is saying, "You have my words." In other words, Jesus clearly claimed to be God. Jesus clearly claimed to be equal with God. Jesus clearly claimed to be the only way to God. You say, "Well, why, what's the big deal about that?" Well, you know, you can go over to the university and take a course in religion, and you will hear from professors, "Oh, Jesus never claimed to be God. Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah. That was all added in later."

And then they'll come up with all these sophisticated critical techniques for analyzing the Bible to say that certain things in the Bible really shouldn't be in the Bible, and certain words of Jesus really aren't the words of Jesus. And then they'll come up with even guys with PhDs after their name who will say that that never was actually what Jesus meant or never what Jesus actually said.

It's amazing how smart people will say stupid things. Why would someone say that Jesus never said what he actually said? Because they're thinking about the implications of what he actually said. And smart people want to give smart reasons why they don't believe things. So smart people come up with sophisticated, smart systems for not believing something.

So smart people, rather than just saying, "I don't really care what the Bible says because I want to live in sin." Smart people will have to say, "I've got to give an intellectual reason why I don't believe what the Bible says." So they come up with these sophisticated reasons for not trusting the Bible and believing what the Bible says. And so you can read all kinds of stuff. It's amazing what people will say to come up with an excuse for not believing the words of Jesus.

So Jesus says, "Let me give you some other reasons other than just my words." His words should be enough, but if they're not, Jesus offers several other lines of testimony. The second line of testimony is John the Baptist, because his audience understood John the Baptist to be a prophet. They believed John the Baptist was sent from God, and he was a prophet. In fact, they believed John the Baptist fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah where he was the one coming before the Messiah to make straight the way of the Lord. And John the Baptist pointed to Jesus. And John the Baptist accepted the words of Jesus. And John the Baptist said, "People ought to believe in Jesus." So Jesus says, "You don't want my testimony? Listen to John the Baptist."

Here's a third line of testimony. Jesus says, "The works that I do point to me." The very works. See, Jesus had been doing miracles, and the miracles of Jesus pointed to the fact that he was the Messiah. He was the only way to God. And so he says, "Look at the works. Look at the miracles. Decide for yourself. My works prove that I am who I say that I am."

And if that's not enough, Jesus said, "The Father's voice." At Jesus's baptism, John baptized Jesus in the Jordan, the Father spoke and said, "This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased." And so Jesus says, "The Father's voice." But he said, "You, you've never heard it, and you've never seen his form, and you don't even know what he says in his word."

So Jesus says, "You search the scriptures because you think in them you'll find eternal life." And he says, "They are what bear witness to me. The scriptures themselves." Jesus uses the word "writing" or "graphe." And over in Luke chapter 24, Jesus in giving the Great Commission says, "All that was written about me in the Law of Moses and the Psalms and the Prophets had to be fulfilled."

In other words, Jesus says, "The whole Bible testifies about me." Did you know that Jesus is the main focus of the whole Bible? Not just the New Testament, but also the Old Testament. That Jesus is in the book of Genesis. Jesus is in the book of Psalms. Jesus is in the book of Deuteronomy. Jesus is in the book of Isaiah. Jesus is in the book of Malachi. Jesus is in every book of the Bible. And Jesus says, "You search these scriptures and they testify about me. They speak to me." It is the scriptures that is a testimony Jesus gives. And then Jesus says lastly, "Moses." He goes, "You think I'm going to condemn you? It's not going to be me. It's going to be Moses."

And the Jewish people of his day considered Abraham and Moses to be the most important figures of their faith. Abraham was the man of faith, and Moses was the man sent from God to deliver Israel from bondage, who was the human instrument for writing the Ten Commandments. And Jesus says, "Moses testifies about me." So Jesus gives all these lines of proof or evidence to point that he was who he says he was and that he could do what he said he could do.

This was the kind of proof, you see, that would be persuasive to his audience. Jesus used proof that would persuade his audience. I'm reading this book right now by Michael Connelly about this attorney who is arguing in a murder case. And he's developing a case. And in the book, he talks about strategy.

You know, it's unfortunate, but our legal system is built upon an adversarial system. And so both the prosecutor and the defense attorney develop strategy for their case. And sometimes the strategy actually outweighs the truthfulness or the justice of the case. So what attorneys do because of the nature of the system, they, they think in terms of, "What is the strategy that will persuade the jury for the verdict I'm trying to get?" And so the prosecutor develops a strategy for persuading the jury to come back with a guilty verdict, and the defense attorney develops a strategy for persuading the jury to come back with a not guilty verdict. And so they don't necessarily give the jury all the evidence. They give the jury the evidence that will move them to the conclusion they want them to be moved to.

Jesus, this isn't everything that proves the deity of Jesus Christ. This isn't everything that proves the fact that Jesus is the Messiah. This isn't everything that proves the fact that Jesus is the only way to God. This is the proof that would prove his audience. So in other words, based on this proof, if they didn't believe it, they were out without excuse because this was the proof that would prove it to them.

What would God have to do to prove it to you that he's real, that salvation's only in Jesus Christ, and that Jesus is the only way to God, and that you need to believe in him? If you're already a follower, what would God have to do to prove it to you that you ought to trust him for that area of your life that you're not trusting him for? If you're struggling in your faith, what would God have to do to prove it to you that you have a basis for confidence in your faith?

Do you see what I'm saying? For this audience, this was the proof. Now, what is so gracious about this is God doesn't have to give us any proof. This is graciousness on Jesus's part to his audience. In fact, if you remember, Jesus said, "I'm even saying these things to you because I want you to be saved." The point isn't, "I want to make a mountain of evidence so I can make you really feel bad when I judge you, because not only am I going to judge you, I'm going to make you feel bad because I gave you all this proof and you rejected it." No, "I'm giving you the proof so that you'll believe." God wants every person here to believe and follow him.

So Jesus makes these claims, and then he backs it up with proof. Why wouldn't we trust him? Well, Jesus gives us the answer in this whole discussion. In fact, Jesus exposes why people refuse to believe in him. In this passage, Jesus says, verse 44, "How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?"

Jesus says, "Here's the problem. It's not that there's not enough testimony. It's not that you can refute that I actually healed this guy. It's not that you've reached wrong conclusions about my claims. The problem is, you care more about what other people think than you care about what God thinks."

You know, last week if you're with us, I said out of John 3, the number one reason Jesus gives as to why people don't believe in him, it's because men loved darkness rather than their light because their deeds were evil. It's people just love their sin rather than experiencing God's love and forgiveness. Here Jesus gives us the number two reason why people don't believe. People care more about what other people think than they care about what God thinks. Pride.

It's pride. Pride will stop us from experiencing God's love and forgiveness. Pride will stop us from receiving the testimony about Jesus Christ. Pride will lead us to make self-destructive decisions. Did you know that? If you're married, you know that. Because if you're married and you're honest, you will admit to the fact that you've been in an argument with your spouse about some stupid little issue. And in the midst of that argument, you realized, "They're right." And you kept arguing. And the reason you kept arguing was pride. Your pride stopped you from going, "You know what? You're right. I'm wrong. You're right." You kept arguing because of pride.

God lays out the plan, the truth. Jesus lays it out here, "I did a miracle. I have a unique relationship with the Father. I'm the only way to the Father. Let me give you all the reasons. My words, John the Baptist, my miracles, the Father's affirmation, the scriptures, Moses." It's not enough. You know why? Because you're so prideful, you won't admit you're wrong. That's what he said to them. "You're too prideful to admit you're wrong and just believe."

You know who was a guy like that in the Old Testament? Saul. Saul was the first king of Israel. I mean this dude was sharp. He was head and shoulders taller than everybody, a good-looking guy. They voted him in as king. He was a warrior. He defeated the Philistines. But he had half-hearted obedience to God. And he really was all concerned about what everybody thought about him as a king. He was very insecure. And so God gave him some clear directions in a particular battle, and he didn't do what God said.

And so Samuel, the prophet from God, shows up because one of the things he was supposed to do is just wipe out all the livestock. And so Samuel shows up, and he's hearing in the background, and he knows, "He didn't, we didn't wipe out the livestock. I can hear all the animals." And he was supposed to kill the king. And he walks into the tent, and instead, Saul has his arm around him, you know, and they're having drinks together. And so Samuel says, "What are you doing? God says, 'Wipe out the livestock and kill the king.'"

And then Saul tries to come up with some excuse. "Oh, well, you know, I want to do a, you know, sacrifice these animals. Yeah, that was it. Sacrifice them, and so the honor of the Lord, and I wanted everybody to see how I had, you know, defeated the king here." And he was just all making it up on the spot because he didn't obey God. And so Samuel said, "Forget it, you know what? God's taken his blessing off of you. He's, he's rejecting you." And he leaves. And Saul goes chasing after him, "No, no, no, please, come back, come back, come back."

Not, "Come back because I'm going to repent." But, "Come back because I want the people to believe that God is still with me. Will you just come back because I don't want to, I don't want to be humiliated in the eyes of the people?" Think about that. He didn't even care what God thought. He was more concerned with, "What do the people think?"

Could it be that you're stuck where you are spiritually because you're more concerned about what people think than you are with what God thinks? Could it be that you haven't yet crossed the line into a relationship with Jesus Christ, have all your sins forgiven, receive the gift of eternal life, have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, all because you're more concerned with what your neighbor might think, or your spouse might think, or your parents might think, or the people at work might think? You're more concerned about what people think rather than what God thinks.

Could it be you haven't taken that step of obedience in your Christian life not because there isn't enough evidence to trust God, but because you're more concerned about what other people think? You see, that's what Jesus says is the reason why people won't believe and follow him. They're seeking the glory from other people rather than seeking the glory that comes from the one and true God. This is the red. This is Jesus Christ speaking. And Jesus says, "I have this unique relationship with the Father. I am equal with the Father, and I can give eternal life to whoever believes in me." And there's all kinds of reasons and proof and evidence and testimony for why you ought to believe in me. But if you don't, it's because of your own pride. What are we going to do with the words in red? What are we going to do with what Jesus Christ says to us?

Guest (Male): What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we would like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250.

For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or check us out on the web at CrosslineChurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in a series called Read the Red, and we're looking at the actual teachings of Jesus. And today we're looking at John chapter 5, this great discussion that Jesus had with some of the religious leaders. Here's what Jesus says. He says there's more than enough evidence to prove that he is the son of God. The scriptures back up his claims. Moses backs up his claims. John the Baptist backs up his claims. His miracles back up his claims. Jesus claimed to be the son of God, equal with the Father, the only way to God, the only way to eternal life. And what he says is this: The problem is not that there's not enough evidence. The problem is pride.

When people's pride get in the way, it distorts their understanding of reality. It distorts their ability to enter into a relationship with God. Pride kills our relationship with God. Pride will stop us from coming to Christ for salvation, and pride will stop us from taking the next step as followers of Jesus Christ. So let me ask you, is pride stopping you in getting closer to God? If it is, turn from it, repent of it, humble yourself before God. Is pride stopping you from knowing Christ and salvation? Turn from that, humble yourself, repent, ask Jesus to forgive your sin. Wherever you are in your spiritual life, don't let pride stop you from growing closer to Christ.

Lord, thank you that you give grace to the humble. Thank you that you can overcome our pride. And so help us humble ourselves before you and receive salvation in Christ, and receive new life in Christ, and receive the power to live as you've called us to live in Christ. May we come to you with humble hearts and may the grace of God fill our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Guest (Male): We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at CrosslineChurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to CrosslineChurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.