John 5:31-40 - Homiletics

The witness to the Son.

The Jews might retort that all Jesus affirmed respecting himself had no other support than his own words. His answer is that there is a threefold witness in his favour.

I. OUR LORD ADMITS THE NEED OF A DIVINE SANCTION . "If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true."

1 . This Witness is God himself, though his name is not yet mentioned.

2 . It is not John the Baptist. "Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man."

(a) John was a lamp that was joyous for a time, for the light and hope he diffused through Israel;

(b) but a dying lamp, necessarily decreasing ( John 3:30 ). The Jews regarded him with a strange curiosity, but rejected his solemn warnings of repentance.

II. THE FIRST OF THE THREE WITNESSES TO THE SON . "But I have greater witness than John: for the works which my Father gave me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me." His miracles were his first witness.

1 . The Jews could not deny the fact of the miracles.

2 . The miracles were gifts of the Father to Jesus, and yet works of Jesus himself.

3 . They were signs to authenticate the Divine Messenger.

III. THE SECOND OF THE THREE WITNESSES . "And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape." Jesus here refers to the Father's testimony at his baptism, "This is my well beloved Son."

IV. THE THIRD OF THE THREE WITNESSES . "And ye have not his Word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not." This is the revelation contained in Old Testament Scripture. Jesus implies that he is mirrored in that Scripture.

1 . Consider the importance of searching the Scriptures. "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."

(a) The way of salvation was the same under both dispensations.

(b) It was attained through knowledge; for "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

2 . There is a possibility of men studying the Scriptures and yet rejecting the salvation offered in it. "Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life." Man possesses the dread power of rejecting life.