51
John 8:13-20 THE MINISTRY OF JESUS VALIDATED
Introduction:
In our text
last Sunday Jesus proclaimed Himself to be
the Light of the world.
The Jewish leaders knew that this
was a claim that He is the Christ. By claiming that He is
the Light of the world, Jesus was claiming that He is the
Christ. In our
text today the Jewish leaders object to His
claim. They say
that for Him to make this claim about
Himself was not a valid claim. They say that someone other
than Himself testify that He is the Christ in order for
His
claim to be valid.
In our Jesus answers their objection.
I. A quick review
regarding the setting of this text
Let me refresh
your memory regarding the situation.
Jesus and His apostles had come to Jerusalem to observe
the
annual Feast of Tabernacles. The feast itself is now over.
Jesus had returned to the temple and was teaching the
people
when a group of scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a
woman
taken in the act of adultery. They said that Moses law said
she should be stoned, but they wanted His opinion about
what
should be done.
Jesus told them to let the man who was
without sin throw the first stone to put her to death.
Nobody threw that first stone. Instead , all of her
accusers left.
Then the woman
left and Jesus got back to the task of
teaching the people.
He told them that He is the Light of
the world. This
was, of course, a claim that He is the
Christ whom the prophets of old had said would come.
II. The objection which the Pharisees raised
V. 13,
"The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou
bearest record of thyself; thy record is not
true." You
will remember that all of the Pharisees who were in the
group which accused the woman had left. But that does not
mean that all of the Pharisees left. There were still other
Pharisees were present in the crowd. It was some of those
Pharisees who were in the crowd who had heard Him claim
to
be the Light of the world who now speak up and voice
their
opposition to His claim.
They bitterly oppose the idea that
Jesus is the Christ.
They state
what they think is a valid objection or at
least it will sound like a valid objection to the crowd.
Actually, it was old hat.
Back in John chapter five at an
earlier feast at Jerusalem, Jesus had made the claim then
that God the Father had sent Him into the world. The Jewish
leaders even then understood this to be a claim that He
is
the Christ. And
even then they had said that His claim was
invalid because He made the claim Himself. They were
referring to a principle set forth in the Mosaic Law that
required two witnesses to establish a fact in a court of
law. Even back
then at this previous feast Jesus had
answered their objection.
But now they bring up that same
old objection which had already been proven to be
false. It
was not His claim to Messiahship was invalid. It was their
objection to His claim
which was invalid. However, they
now bring that same old invalid argument back up again
and
Jesus must answer it all over again. They must have figured
that the present crowd of people will not remember that
Jesus has already answered this objection and it will
sound
valid to them.
III. The
qualifications of Jesus to testify for Himself
V. 14,
"Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear
record of myself, yet my record is true..." Even if Jesus
had no had witness to His claim that would still not
affect
the truthfulness of His claim. Let me put it another way.
Even if Jesus never produced the kind of witnesses
required
in a court of law, that would still not mean that His
claim
was untrue.
Something could well be true without having
sufficient proof to hold up in a court of law. Jesus was
not in a court of law.
He was just teaching a group of
people who were gathered together. The lack of witnesses
such as would be required in a court of law were not
required in a teaching session.
The law which
required two witnesses in a court of law
was a good law. It
was designed to help prevent an innocent
person from being convicted on some trumped up charges
which
were untrue. Not
only was one witness required who could
testify that the person charged was guilty, but two
witness
were required. In
addition to that, the two witnesses must
agree in their testimony.
They must not contradict one
another in their testimony. If they did, it would be
indication that one, or both was lying. But this law did
not require one of God's prophets to have two or three
witnesses before he could utter his prophecy. The very fact
that a prophet of God said it was all the validation
needed.
The validity of the words of Jesus could be
established
somewhat like the words of a prophet of God. This procedure
was followed with all of the Old and New Testament
prophets.
Usually a prophet would come on the scene and make
certain
short ranged prophecies.
If those prophecies very shortly
came to pass, then the people would know that they could
believe the long range prophecies which he would
make. If
the short ranged prophecies did not come to pass, they
would
know that this man was a false prophet.
In certain
instances God would enable His prophet to
work certain miracles which only the power of God could
perform. Thus, God
sometimes used the miracles to validate
the ministry and the message of His prophet.
Sometimes God
used one prophet, whose ministry was
already validated, to recommend another prophet whose
ministry was not yet validated. Thus, the endorsement of
the validated prophet was sufficient to validate another
prophet. For
instance, Elijah was already established in
the minds of the people as a prophet of God. So God used an
endorsement from Elijah to validate the ministry of
Elisha.
So even if
Jesus had never produced two witnesses, as
would be required in a court case, that still would not
invalidate His claim.
God used all of three methods of
validating the ministry of a prophet to validate the
ministry of Jesus.
God used the short range prophecies to
validate His ministry.
For instance, Jesus told the Apostle
Peter to go and catch a fish and that he would find a
coin
in the mouth of the fish and that He should use that coin
to
pay taxes to the Roman Government. Peter went fishing and
sure enough, there was a coin in the mouth of the
fish. On
another occasion some of the disciples had been fishing
all
night and had caught nothing. But Jesus told them to go out
a little deeper and let down their net and they would
catch
fish. They did and
they caught so many fish that the boat
almost sank.
God also used
the working of miracles to validate the
ministry of Jesus.
The miracles are too numerous for me to
mention but a few of them, but I will mention a few. He
calmed the winds and waves of a storm to be calm just by
speaking to them.
He healed the sick including lepers, He
caused the lame to walk and the blind to see. He even
raised the dead to life again.
God even used
other prophets to validate the ministry of
Jesus. Two of them
identified Him as the Christ when He was
but a babe. John
the Baptist identified Him as the Christ
when Jesus came to Him to be baptized.
Furthermore,
Jesus had a knowledge of where He came from
and where He would go.
He could make that knowledge known
to the people and His witness would be true. (V. 14),
"...for I know whence I came, and whither I
go..." You see,
Jesus still had a very vivid memory of where He had come
from. He had come
to earth from heaven. He had been on the
very throne of God in heaven. He had been there on the
throne with God the Heavenly Father. These were certain
facts in His memory.
He knew whereof He spoke.
Furthermore, He knew where He would go when the time came
for Him to leave this earth. He knew that He would return
back to heaven.
Therefore, He was absolutely certain that
what He spoke was the truth whether the Pharisees
believed
it of not.
IV. The Pharisees
unqualified to judge Jesus
On the other
hand, those Pharisees were not qualified to
pass judgment on what He had said. (V. 14), "...but ye
cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go." The Pharisees
knew about the birth of Jesus that He had been born in
Bethlehem, but they did not have the foggiest idea of
where
His Spirit, which indwelt His fleshly body had come from.
They had not been able to look into heaven and could not
at
all say that He had not come down from heaven. Neither were
they able to say that He would not return to heaven when
He
would leave this earth.
If two witnesses were required to
establish any kind of fact then they most certainly could
not establish as a fact that He had not come from heaven
nor
that He would not return to heaven.
V. 15,
"Ye judge after the flesh..."
As men, the
Pharisees could carry on court cases. But they must do that
according to the rules that God had set down in the law.
But they were not able to judge Him and say of a
certainty
that He is not the Christ of God, the Light of the world.
God, Himself, must determine who the Christ is --- not
these
earthly men. They
were not at all qualified to judge Him
and condemn Him.
(V. 15),
"...I judge no man." Note that
Jesus did not
say that could not judge any man. Nor did He say that would
not in the future judge any man. Later He would declare
that in the hereafter all judgment would be done by Him.
But what Jesus said here is that it was not His purpose
in
coming to this world to judge men. He said, "I judge no
man." He had
come to save men -- not to judge men!
V. 16,
"And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I
am not alone, but I and the Father that sent
me." Jesus
could and would judge men some day and when He does judge
He
will judge with an accurate judgment. He will judge in
absolute accuracy.
He will judge in absolute harmony with
the thinking of God the Father. God the Father will approve
of every judgment that He will make because He will judge
in
absolute truth and righteousness. So what Jesus is saying
is: "You are unqualified to judge me, but I am qualified
to
judge and the judgment that I make about Myself is
true."
V. Two witnesses
for Jesus
But now let us
get back to the objection made by the
Pharisees to His claim that He is the Christ. Even under
the Law of Moses which the Pharisees claimed to hold fast
to, the claim of Jesus that He is the Light of the world,
the Christ of God, is validated.
V. 17,
"It is also written in your law, that the
testimony of two men is true." That is, it may be accepted
as true in a court of law. So even if Jesus had been on
trial here, He still had the weight of evidence on His
side.
He had the two witnesses which are required by the Law of
Moses.
V. 18, "I
am one that bear witness of myself..."
The
law did not forbid that a man testify on his own
behalf. It
was the Pharisees who forbid a man to testify for
himself.
Indeed, a man was allowed in a court of law to testify on
his own behalf. He
still is, even in our courts today.
Jesus said, "You say that the law requires two
witnesses,
well I am One of the witnesses." For the second witness
there were a several other witnesses that Jesus could
have
cited to them. He
could have cited the prophet, Simeon, who
saw Jesus as a baby and prophesied even then that Jesus
is
the Savior of the men.
Simeon said further that this baby
is a Light to the Gentiles. Likewise, Anna, a prophetess in
the temple saw Jesus when He was a baby and prophesied
that
He is the Redeemer of whom the prophets of old had
spoken.
He could cite John the Baptist who had publicly
proclaimed
Jesus to be the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of
the
world.
But these were
all mere men and Jesus chose to call upon
a much higher witness that any human could be. He pointed
out that God the Father in Heaven was His witness. (V. 18),
"...and the Father that sent me beareth witness of
me."
God the Father had spoken from Heaven and called Jesus
His
beloved Son and recommended that men hear Him and believe
in
Him.
Now we must
acknowledge that these men who were now His
critics probably did not hear the voice of God the Father
when He spoke from heaven, but they probably did hear
about
it. Yet even if
they never heard about the voice of God
from heaven proclaiming Jesus as His Son, they most
certainly knew about the great miracles that He had
performed. On
several occasions He worked miracles in their
very presence.
Some of them were present when Jesus healed
the impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda. Some of them were
present when He healed the lame man who was let down
through
the roof. They
knew for a fact about Him healing lepers,
giving sight to the blind, causing the dumb to speak and
the
lame to walk. They
knew that He had cast demons out of the
demon possessed and raising the dead. They knew all these
things and they most surely should have known that this
was
God's way of testifying that Jesus is the Christ of God.
Actually, it
was God the Father who had used all three
of these methods of verifying the ministry of Jesus. He had
used short ranged prophecies. He had used the testimony of
prophets who were already verified. He used miracles. That
is, HE used the miracles which Jesus performed.
The point is
that since both Jesus and God the Father
have given witness that Jesus is the Christ, the Light of
the world, then the Pharisees should accept Him as such.
And since He is the Christ they should believe everything
else which He says.
VI. The Pharisees' stubborn resistance
The Pharisees
persist in rejection Jesus as the Christ.
V. 19, "Then said they unto him, Where is thy
Father?..."
They said this in mockery. They still refused to accept Him
as the Christ.
(V. 19),
"...Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my
Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my
Father
also." They
rejected Jesus because they had also rejected
the Father. It was
not that they were atheists, but they
had rejected the teachings which God the Father had sent.
If they had accepted the Father, they would have also
accepted His Son Jesus, the Christ.
V. 20,
"These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he
taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for
his
hour was not yet come." It was not yet time for them to
crucify the Son of God.
God the Father had already set the
time and they could not crucify Him before it was time.
We will also
note that there are still those in the
world who challenge the word of the Lord. Every book of the
Bible has been challenged. Every truth in the Bible is
still challenged by many today. But the words of Jesus were
true in that day, they are true now and they will remain
true forever.
Likewise, all of God's holy and inspired Book
is true. It will
stand the test of time forever. On one
occasion Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but
my words shall not pass away."
Conclusion:
If you happen to be one of those who has in
the past
challenged the Bible and its teachings, I call upon you
to
open your mind to the Bible and to the eternal truths
which
are written therein.
If you happen
to be one of those who already believe
that the Bible is the inspired word of God then I commend
you. If you
believe that the Bible is true, then you should
surely be willing to believe that Jesus is the Light of
the
world. He is the
Savior of men. If you believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Savior of men, then you should surely
be
willing to put your trust in Him to be your Savior. If you
are already saved, then you should be willing to serve
the
Christ who has saved you.
I am going to call upon you to do
so.