John 5:31-47

00:00:00:34 – 00:00:34:02
Clint Loveall
Hey everybody, thanks for joining us. Happy Monday. Glad to have you with us as we continue through the Gospel of John. In the fifth chapter, verse 30. We’re going to get a good dose of John’s version of the gospel today. And we’ll do our best to talk through it. I will I will warn you that, well, maybe you won’t feel this way, but I will warn you that I think this is one of those sections that can maybe feel a little repetitive.

00:00:34:07 – 00:00:54:51
Clint Loveall
I’ll try to read through them and read through the first half, relatively quickly, and then we’ll come back and we’ll discuss it. This verse 30, chapter five. This is Jesus speaking. I can do nothing on my own, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek to do not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

00:00:54:55 – 00:01:15:58
Clint Loveall
If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

00:01:16:03 – 00:01:38:44
Clint Loveall
But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the father has given me to complete the very works that I am doing. Testify on my behalf that the father has sent me. And the father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe in whom?

00:01:38:49 – 00:02:10:58
Clint Loveall
In him whom he has sent. So we mentioned last week that Jesus has, in the Gospel of John, the sort of, almost legal sounding arguments as, as if there’s, there’s some kind of case being made. And here that’s especially true as we talk about testimony and testifying. And Jesus is essentially saying, I don’t need to testify on my own behalf for two reasons.

00:02:10:59 – 00:02:38:15
Clint Loveall
Others have done that for me and most importantly, my works. What I do tells that story. If you would listen, and because you do not listen, it’s in. It’s an indication that you don’t know the truth, that you don’t know even the one who is the truth. He testifies on my behalf. He shows people who I am because I do his work.

00:02:38:20 – 00:02:54:37
Clint Loveall
But you don’t believe in me. Therefore you haven’t believed in him. And it’s a relatively tight case, I think. Michael, though it, as John is sometimes prone to do it. It circles a little bit.

00:02:54:45 – 00:03:16:22
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. Well, because there’s an intended audience and I think it’s easy for us to miss this as we’re going through a book like this. Because now the way that we do these studies, we, we break it down into smaller segments and we try to spend some time with each segment. And what that does really well is it helps us get into it, give a sense for what’s underneath the current and hear a little bit of those deeper themes.

00:03:16:22 – 00:03:36:32
Michael Gewecke
But let let’s get really clear here. It is not too far before I’m looking at chapter five, verse 18 here. The. For this reason, the Jews were still seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was calling God his own father, thereby making himself equal to God. Okay, so here Jesus does this healing.

00:03:36:32 – 00:03:57:52
Michael Gewecke
There’s this invective against the Jews. Things are getting heated at this point. Now. We had this talk about the authority of the Son of God. The hour is coming. Now here we are. We’re verse 30, this witness, this that’s who is the authority who speaks to who. This is going to make even more sense when we turn here in just a moment to the last part of this text.

00:03:57:52 – 00:04:28:06
Michael Gewecke
But, but say, suffice it to say, up to this point, what you need to know is Jesus is making a strong, strong case as to why some see him for who he is and why others, with the revelation of God standing in front of them, are unable to hear God’s voice and are unable to see God’s plan, that it is completely obfuscated for them, that they just do not understand what God is doing.

00:04:28:06 – 00:04:57:23
Michael Gewecke
And Clint, this whole talk about John, who is the messenger, this whole talk about human testimony, all of this is, is helping us lay a framework of understanding for the fact that some people are given occasion to know the revelation of Christ, and they don’t see it. And what John is doing for us is chronicling in Jesus’s own teaching that we shouldn’t be surprised when that happens, that some will see and understand and others will not.

00:04:57:32 – 00:05:21:09
Michael Gewecke
And especially when you remember that here Jesus is talking in the company of people who have seen a miracle, they’ve seen a sign. They’ve seen the thing that should testify to who Jesus is. They don’t understand it. And Jesus is offering a kind of way for us to, to to conceive of how these different response has come from the same revelation.

00:05:21:23 – 00:06:14:52
Clint Loveall
Yeah. I think that John obsessed is too strong a word, Michael, but I think that John is extremely focused on the idea that those who should see who Jesus is, right? The religious people, those who search the scriptures, those who are Pharisees, those who have standing in the religious community, those who pride themselves on their knowledge of Judaism and on their awareness of God, are the very ones who myths over and over and over again and the way John tells the story is influenced by that, assumption that Jesus does these things that make it obvious who he is, that are clear signs, and yet the blindness of those who don’t see that is in

00:06:14:52 – 00:06:54:10
Clint Loveall
it’s chosen by them. They refuse. They have hardened hearts. And because John is also so outspoken on the unity of God and Christ, they not only miss Jesus, but by definition, then in Jesus criticism, they’re missing God. They’re missing what God is doing. And so I, I always think, I mean, this is true in all the Gospels, but I don’t know if it’s a strong if it’s if it is presented anywhere more strongly than John does.

00:06:54:10 – 00:07:26:28
Clint Loveall
And I think it always gives pause to people who live in the faith tradition, who live in a church, who are comfortable with religion. And certainly that’s not everyone, but those of us who are. I think we should never get too comfortable with the fact that Jesus fought primarily with people who were religious. Those were his most common and most,

00:07:26:33 – 00:07:27:07
Michael Gewecke
Fierce.

00:07:27:12 – 00:07:58:08
Clint Loveall
Fierce, violent enemies is the people who were sure they had God figured out and and therefore they missed this obvious thing happening in front of them. And I, I’ve always I’ve always been struck by the irony that the people Jesus had had most problems with our our people. It’s inside the circle, not outside the circle. And I think, you know, that is a humbling caution.

00:07:58:08 – 00:08:00:12
Clint Loveall
I think as we come to the faith into the.

00:08:00:12 – 00:08:23:37
Michael Gewecke
Story, another thing to not forget is that faith is built into this equation. And and we see that here, not in explicit terms, but it’s living behind the scenes. In verse 37, it’s the father who sent me, who has himself testified on my behalf. You’ve not heard his voice or seen this form, and you don’t have this word abiding in you because you don’t believe him.

00:08:23:42 – 00:08:43:57
Michael Gewecke
He has sent you that. This is clear language which should shock us. I think the danger of being within the circle, as you say, is we read words like this from a lens of faith. But what Jesus is saying is the way that you know that I’m the Son of God is that the father has testified on my behalf.

00:08:44:00 – 00:09:08:24
Michael Gewecke
Well, if you don’t believe Jesus, then you’re not going to believe what he’s saying about what the father testifies. If you don’t see Jesus, as a light, then you’re never going to see the light that’s behind Jesus illuminating in and through him. So this is the amazing moment that is being portrayed for us here in John, a kind of revelation that can only be seen if you’re willing to see it.

00:09:08:24 – 00:09:35:04
Michael Gewecke
And if you’re not willing to see it, then all of this is rubbish. None of this makes sense. It is just doesn’t follow the formula, doesn’t work out. But if you see it through the lens of testimony that Jesus is offering, if you’re willing to apply eyes of faith. Now, suddenly this begins to turn from some strange fairy tale into an amazingly deep and complex and life giving way to see God’s work in the world.

00:09:35:04 – 00:09:40:40
Michael Gewecke
That that’s really what’s at stake here. And I think as people of faith, we miss that because we do live in the circle.

00:09:40:42 – 00:10:03:51
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And to paraphrase a kind of quote, I mean, nobody is more blind than the one who thinks they see. And that describes here these Jewish leaders. So, let’s press on. Let’s knock out the rest of this passage, the rest of this chapter. Again, we’ll circle back to it. But verse 39, you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life.

00:10:03:55 – 00:10:22:50
Clint Loveall
And it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings, but I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my father’s name, and you do not accept me. If another comes in his own name, you accept him.

00:10:22:55 – 00:10:42:58
Clint Loveall
How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God. Do not think that I will accuse you before the father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.

00:10:43:03 – 00:11:04:45
Clint Loveall
But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say? I think of passages like this, Michael, we’ll get into some of the meanings, but it’s interesting if you read this carefully, and I think you alluded to this a week or so ago, you realize how deeply indebted Christian theology is to the Gospel of John.

00:11:04:50 – 00:11:34:21
Clint Loveall
Again, when Jesus is saying things here that are not said this way in the other gospels. In the other gospels, Jesus sort of dances around the question, are you the Messiah? And it seems as though the gospel authors want the reader to have to come and answer that question for themselves. But listen to the who. How come you don’t accept the glory of the one who alone is God?

00:11:34:26 – 00:12:02:38
Clint Loveall
I’m not accusing you, Moses. Moses wrote about me. This is very high affirmation of what will become doctrines about Jesus. And you realize how constant and strong those are present strongly those are presented in John. I think that I had I have maybe not been through John in a while. And so that’s a fresh reminder. John, is he he’s not holding anything back here.

00:12:02:38 – 00:12:08:36
Clint Loveall
This is straight on Christian theology. And there’s a lot of it.

00:12:08:40 – 00:12:32:34
Michael Gewecke
It’s robust. And that comes in lots of different reasons. And scholars are going to talk about, you know, that it’s likely that this book was either written in or received in Ephesus that spent a lot of time in that particular church, which was a highly theological place. John. Of course, has a lot of theological chops, as we see in other books, associated with John in the New Testament.

00:12:32:36 – 00:12:55:12
Michael Gewecke
But let’s not get into the weeds here, which I’m sometimes often to do. I think what we should do is recognize that the basic argument that Jesus is making here, which is to Clint’s point, a theological argument, is that if the Jews who are the keepers of the Old Testament scriptures we call the Old Testament, it would have been to them their scriptures, right?

00:12:55:26 – 00:13:18:03
Michael Gewecke
Because there is no New Testament at the time that Jesus is teaching this. So when he says that you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have the eternal life, when you look to Moses to be the prophet, then what you’re doing is you should be preparing your hearts. You should be preparing the soil of your soul for the revelation of God.

00:13:18:16 – 00:13:46:39
Michael Gewecke
And yet the argument drops here when he says, but if you do not believe the very words that the prophet wrote, how will you believe what I say? I might claim that’s a mic drop that that is in this argument, Jesus essentially closing the door with a robust theological frame rooted entirely on the fact that his revelation is not rooted to ideas.

00:13:46:44 – 00:14:15:41
Michael Gewecke
It’s not, rooted into written words. It’s rather completely embedded in the reality of who he is. And so if he therefore is the Son of God, which in the Gospel of John, you’ve already made the point, I think. Very well, there’s zero doubt that Jesus is the Son of God, the the revelation that human revelation of God, that if if he is that, then all of these things point to him.

00:14:15:41 – 00:14:45:42
Michael Gewecke
And if he is not that, then there is really no other way. In this gospel you either see Jesus for who he is, or you see a crazy person, or you see a false teacher. I mean, there’s just John makes it abundantly clear what Jesus claims to be because of who he claims he is. And if if you cannot see that, then John’s going to help us get some frame for what’s behind the scenes.

00:14:45:46 – 00:15:19:25
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And, you know, again, it’s clear here that John is letting us listen in on a conversation between Jesus and Jewish religious people, his primary adversaries. But as we read it for ourselves, as we think devotional, there’s a there’s a powerful challenge here. The the idea that these people take the Scripture seriously, that they come looking for truth.

00:15:19:30 – 00:15:53:04
Clint Loveall
And yet when truth stands right in front of them, they miss it. And I think that is a humbling challenge to all of us who may know the Scripture, who who may be comfortable with the faith, who may occupy the circle of religion, but do we humble ourselves in such a way? And do we present ourselves in such a way that when Jesus appears to us, when we see something of truth, we recognize it?

00:15:53:09 – 00:16:33:12
Clint Loveall
Again, I think that it is. It’s cautionary. Here that the the very ones who are most adamant that they know the truth are the farthest, the furthest from it, and that should give us all pause when we reflect on how confident we might be in our own abilities and our own righteousness. Because historically, certainly in the context of the gospel, those who have trusted their own righteousness have missed the righteousness of God in this case, literally standing before them.

00:16:33:23 – 00:16:53:16
Michael Gewecke
That don’t miss the words here that we have in verse 36 that are the works that the father has given me to complete the very works I’m doing, testify on my behalf that the father sent me clean. Jesus doesn’t just say, have faith in me, full stop. Jesus in John. Now how many times are we? Have we seen that?

00:16:53:16 – 00:17:16:33
Michael Gewecke
Are we going to see where his miraculous signs are pointing towards? There’s signs of who Jesus is and Jesus is the full picture. He’s the full package. He shows us what is true and what is the thing that Jesus consistently shows us. He shows us that this kingdom that he is revealing is the upside down kingdom. It’s the people who are lost.

00:17:16:33 – 00:17:47:24
Michael Gewecke
It’s the people who are least. It’s the people who are outside of societal norms and power that these things that we get accustomed to in our lives. Jesus consistently turns them on, on their head. And so ultimately, what we’ve come to learn about Jesus, I think, is that though we as people of faith today, we know Scripture. We’re seeking to to know it more, not just as an idea, but for that to live in us as a part of our lived experience.

00:17:47:24 – 00:18:18:23
Michael Gewecke
That the task then, is to orient ourselves towards how those scriptures make us to be more like Jesus, so that our actions might be paired with the very kinds of actions that Jesus had. Not that there are signs there. They’re always the work of the spirit. And that’s but friends, in the moments where we see divergence between the Jesus who proclaimed hope for the hopeless, Jesus who proclaimed liberty for the captive, Jesus who proclaimed being found for those who were lost.

00:18:18:32 – 00:18:40:03
Michael Gewecke
When we find ourselves tempted to say or to think down other paths, we’re now straying from the revelation that John is trying just to show here that this is a person, that the revelation of Christ is God embodied. And so therefore, any way that we live out our faith should, should embody that in in our limited, human, fragile ways.

00:18:40:03 – 00:18:44:03
Michael Gewecke
We should embody that same so that others might see that testimony in us.

00:18:44:07 – 00:19:18:22
Clint Loveall
And I also think it’s worth noting that the harshest criticism that Jesus gives of these people, these men, and the most significant thing they lack, is what Jesus calls the love of God. You do not have the love of God in you. Now, I, I don’t think we should read that to mean that God doesn’t love them. In other words, they somehow stand outside of God’s love that that’s not in keeping with this gospel.

00:19:18:27 – 00:19:39:06
Clint Loveall
You read first or second or third John, and you will see that John loves the word love, that it’s his go to concept. I think instead here Jesus is saying that your hearts are closed not only to me but to others. The man who was healed on the Sabbath. You care more about the rule than you do the man.

00:19:39:10 – 00:20:06:42
Clint Loveall
We’re going to see other examples of that, but it is telling that as Jesus critiques these men’s life and their stubborn refusal to see the truth, the thing that he most notices in them or calls out in them, is that they lack the love of God. And again, I think that is a sober warning to the rest of us.

00:20:06:46 – 00:20:30:43
Clint Loveall
Is our faith characterized by the kind of love we see through Christ from God? Is our life and our faith, defined by the kind of sacrificial love that we see in Christ? These men missed that, and Jesus missed it in them. And I think that’s a good call to the rest of us.

00:20:30:48 – 00:20:47:18
Michael Gewecke
I think that’ll be our last word for today. Hopefully that word is encouraging, maybe even challenging for you. If so, give it a like helps others find this study in their own way as they study the book of John later on and certainly subscribe. So you can stay with us as we continue on breaking into chapter six tomorrow.

00:20:47:25 – 00:20:48:06
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.