12 Sabbath Conflict and the Authority of Jesus (John 5)

Welcome back to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Thanks so much for listening. This is the 12th talk in my series on the Gospel of John, and today we will be studying John chapter 5. As always, we will start with a little bit of review. John wrote his gospel many years after the earthly life of Christ. At this point, many of the original witnesses to the earthly life of Jesus have passed away. John is writing to people who have to decide to believe in Jesus based on the testimony of others, particularly the writings of the apostles. Furthermore, John's audience faces the additional barrier of accepting Jesus as the Jewish Messiah when most of the Jews they know reject him. John wrote his gospel after Matthew, Mark, and Luke wrote their Gospels. He's certainly aware of the content of the other gospels, and for the most part, he chooses not to duplicate the content that's in the other gospels. In this climate, John explores how eternal life comes to those who believe that Jesus is the Christ. He's exploring the issues surrounding belief, such as the evidence that Jesus is the Christ, the importance and veracity of testimony, and the dynamics of belief and unbelief. As we get into chapter five, John widens his focus to include the growing hostility from the Jewish leadership, which is still part of this theme of belief and unbelief. Over the next several chapters, John is going to focus on how this antagonism developed among the Jewish leadership. Now in John chapter five, we have a miracle, we have a reaction to that miracle, and then Jesus gives a body of teaching. But John doesn't explore the reaction of the man who was healed. Instead, he focuses on the reaction of the Jewish leadership. This healing took place on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees are much more concerned about the fact that Jesus broke their Sabbath rules than they are impressed by the fact that he healed a man who had been sick for thirty eight years. Because this is a big picture study, we're not going to go over this verse by verse in detail, and we're not even going to spend very much time on the miracle itself. We're going to concentrate on the teaching that follows it. But let me look at the story first. Quite often John sets the stage for an event by telling us it took place during one of the Jewish feasts. He uses a feast to set the stage here again, but he doesn't identify which feast this is. A lot of people think that this is the second Passover of Jesus' public ministry, and that John has skipped ahead in the timeline. That is a very reasonable and plausible possibility, but no one really knows for sure. Let's start with John five verses one through five. After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, an Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty eight years. I just read the ESV version of the Bible. If you're reading along, you may have noticed that the ESV has no chapter five verse four, but some of you may have a verse four which reads something like this for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in, was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. Now some of your Bibles may have that verse in bracket or it's marked as different in some way. Let me explain what's going on here. We don't have the original manuscripts of the books of the Bible, they have been lost to history, but we do have hundreds and in some cases thousands of copies of those manuscripts, and many of those copies were made very early on. There's an entire science of textual criticism which looks at all those copies and tries to determine what the original manuscript said. Thanks to the fact that we have so many copies and we have a high degree of accuracy and precision among the copies, we can have a high degree of confidence that the manuscripts we have are very, very close to the originals. That said, occasionally we find some discrepancies and this is one of those places. As I understand it, the best most reliable copies of the Gospel of John do not have this verse four about an angel stirring up the water. It appears to have been added later by some overzealous monk during the copying process, which is why the ESV omits it. But if the water stirring was not caused by an angel, what was happening here? Why are these people lying by the pool? Since this is not a detailed study, I don't want to go too far down this trail and cover all that might be going on, but I also don't want to leave you hanging. So I'm just going to give you one explanation, and that is that the pool was fed by an underground spring, something like the natural hot springs that people visit today. When an influx of new water reached the pool, the waters would bubble and stir. Maybe this was some kind of hot mineral water which contained healing properties, we don't really know, but we do know that people waited there to be healed by the spring. Now moving on to John five six seventeen. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, Do you want to be healed? The sick man answered him, Sir I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going down another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, Get up, take your bed and walk. And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now the day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed. But he answered them, The man who healed me, that man said to me, Take up your bed and walk. They asked him, Who is the man who said to you Take up your bed and walk? Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, See you are well, sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him, and this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, My Father is working until now and I am working. Now I'm not going to concentrate on the story too much because I think the action is in this discussion that follows and what Jesus has to say to the Jewish leadership. It seems to me the way John tells it the story is not primarily about a man who had been sick for many years and was healed in an instant. John is interested in the way the Jewish leaders react to this healing on the Sabbath. In this particular case, we're not told whether the man who was healed actually comes to believe in Christ or not. So far we've seen a pattern. There's a miracle, somebody sees the miracle and believes. But this man is different. We don't know how he responded, we only know he was healed. The leaders confront him and demand to know who told him it was okay to pick up and carry his palate around on the Sabbath, and immediately the man points his finger at Jesus, says, Oh, that man that healed me, he's the one that told me to pick up my palate. That's why I picked it up because the guy who healed me told me to, I'm only doing what he said. When Jesus finds the man later, he says, You've been made well, sin no more lest a worse thing happen to you. And there I think Jesus is calling him to repent. He's saying, Look, you experienced a miracle. You've been healed after thirty eight years. That is a great and wonderful gift from God, but don't miss out on the bigger blessings that God has for you. Repent of your sin and turn to God lest you're condemned on judgment day. As far as we know, the man's only response was to run to the authorities and turn Jesus in. Now think about how that contrasts with the Samaritan woman who couldn't wait to run into town and tell her neighbors this man at the well might be the Messiah. In contrast to her, this healed man first blames Jesus for his Sabbath breaking and then runs back to turn him in. It seems to me this isn't a story about a man who responds to a miracle with belief. This is a story of how the Jewish leaders respond to this miracle with unbelief. Notice what John says next, this is John five, sixteen through eighteen. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, My father is working until now and I am working. This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. So the Jewish leadership is upset with Jesus for two reasons. First, he's breaking the Sabbath. Now in the history of Israel, God had judged Israel for ignoring his laws, particularly the Sabbath. God made it clear that part of the reason he sent the children of Israel into exile was based on their disregard for his law, particularly the Sabbath. After the children of Israel returned from exile, a group decided they had to take the law very seriously to avoid being exiled again, and that group eventually became the Pharisees. They emphasized the need to be ruthless in keeping all aspects of the law. They developed an oral tradition about what was law keeping and what wasn't, and that was later written down, and it went into exquisite detail about how every law should be kept in every situation. Now Jesus comes along, he claims to be a teacher from God, and yet he ignores all this careful work that the Pharisees have done in sorting out exactly what's allowed on the Sabbath. So from their perspective, he has to be a fake. Nobody could come from God and disregard their rules about the Sabbath. So they demand to know why he's healing on the Sabbath, but they probably weren't expecting the answer Jesus gives. In five seventeen he says, My Father is working until now and I am working. Alright, what's going on with that? As I understand it, the rabbis debated whether God worked on the Sabbath or not. Everyone agreed that God rested on the seventh day after creation, but was that creation rest a one time event or was it a pattern that God continued into the present day? The rabbis generally concluded that God is working today, even on the Sabbath, and Jesus seems to agree. He says I'm working on the Sabbath because God is working on the Sabbath. I'm merely carrying out the work that my Father has called me to do. It doesn't matter to me what day of the week it is. Well in response, they get offended that he calls God his Father, and that's the second reason they're angry with him, because he is making himself equal with God. Well what's that about? What are they objecting to? It is possible that they think Jesus is claiming to be divine. One option is that they understand Jesus to be saying, I am descended from God, he is my father, so I'm just like God and I can do what he does, I'm divine as he is divine. And that's a possibility, maybe that's how they understand him, but I don't think that's the most likely reaction. The evidence we have suggests that they would be very familiar with the concept of the Davidic king having a father son relationship with God. Now we've talked about this before on this podcast, but just review, when God made David king of Israel, God told David, I will be a father to you and you will be a son to me. And following David all the kings of Israel were called sons of God. The imagery derives from the typical Jewish household. The eldest son was equivalent to the father. That meant the servants and the rest of the family had to obey the son the way they would obey the father. The eldest son could speak for their father, the eldest son could do business in his father's name, the eldest son could represent his father in the marketplace, and if you disregarded the eldest son, you were disregarding the head of the house. Well, ideally, the Davidic king was to act in that role as the eldest son for God and to rule over the children of Israel as God would rule. Of course it didn't always work out that way. In fact, it almost never worked out that way. Later, after David's throne was destroyed in the exile, the prophets began speaking of a coming Davidic king who would reestablish David's throne. The term son of God came to refer to this coming king, the Messiah that the prophets talked about, and they were looking for this coming king, this new son of God, who would reestablish David's throne and rule from it forever. This was a very common concept among the Jews. We have seen John the Baptist refer to Jesus as the Son of God. We've seen Nathaniel call Jesus Son of God King of Israel, and we're going to keep seeing it in John's gospel. This relationship between the Son of God and the Messiah was very well established in Jesus' day. Because of that, when Jesus calls God his Father, I don't think the Pharisees would go, Oh, he's claiming to be divine. I think they'd say he's claiming to be the Messiah. He's claiming to be the Son of God, the next Davidic king. He's making himself equal with God in the same way the eldest son was equal with the Father. As the eldest son of his heavenly Father, Jesus has the authority to speak for God. Well now they're really offended because Jesus breaks their Sabbath rules and then claims to have the authority to speak for God, which means he and God think their Sabbath rules are all wrong, and that really makes them angry and convinced he's a fake. In the discussion that follows, Jesus responds to their objections. Although the problem starts with a Sabbath breaking incident, what follows really has little to do with the Sabbath and a lot to do with the authority of Jesus. Jesus responds to three ideas that anger the Jewish leaders. I'm going to give you a quick preview of those three and then read the passage. First, they don't like Jesus calling God his father, and Jesus explains the nature of this father son relationship and how important it is that Jesus is the Son of the Father. Second, they don't like him working on the Sabbath, and he's going to explore this idea of working. This healing is just a down payment on what Jesus has been called to do. And third, Jesus shows them how their rejection of him is rooted in evil and unbelief. Implicit in their anger is the fact that they reject him as the Messiah, and he's pointing out how problematic that is. I'm going to read John 5, nineteen through thirty, and as I read, listen for those three ideas Jesus calling God his Father, what it means to work on the Sabbath, and how rejection of him is ultimately rooted in unbelief. So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing, and greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly I say to you an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and come out, and those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. 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 will of him who sent me. There's a lot of stuff we could talk about in that passage. I'm not going to go verse by verse and dive into it. Instead, I want to focus on those three themes I told you about. First, there's their objection to Jesus calling God his Father. They think this man doesn't even keep the Sabbath, and yet he's claiming he's the Son of God. Clearly he's an independent operator, because he ignores our Sabbath rules. If he was really from God, he'd have told that man, sorry, I can't heal you today. Today's the Sabbath, come back tomorrow and I'll heal you then. But Jesus' response is I am the Son of God. I do nothing of my own accord, only what I see the Father doing. I think he's drawing this image from family life at the time. Jesus' earthly father was a carpenter. When Jesus was growing up, he learned the trade of carpentry by watching everything his father did. In Jewish families at the time, the son was expected to take over his father's business, he apprenticed with his father, and he learned by watching what his father did. The father loves the son and shows the son everything. The father wants him to be a good carpenter, so he shows him everything. He leaves nothing out, he teaches his son everything he needs to know. Likewise, as his heavenly father, God teaches Jesus everything he needs to know and makes sure he's prepared and equipped for the job of Messiah. And Jesus reflects that. He says, I'm not seeking my own will here, I'm doing the will of the one who sent me. If Jesus were an independent operator and decided to come up with his own independent rules about the Sabbath, we might call that presumptuous, but he's not making arbitrary rules and plans. He's the Son. He's doing the work his Father has given him to do. He's doing just what God has shown him and God has shown him big things. God is going to accomplish much greater things than healing this man on the Sabbath. He's not a stubborn, willful Sabbath breaker, he's a dutiful son doing exactly what his father wants him to do. Second, the Jews complained that Jesus was working on the Sabbath. Jesus responds, as we've seen, I'm doing the work God has given me to do, but notice he ups the ante. He basically says, You ain't seen nothing yet. I'm only getting started on the work my Father's given me to do. Today my work was to heal this man from sickness, but the Father has given me much more work than that. Just as the Father has the power of life and death, so he has given that power to me. Now we might stop at this point and remember the story of Lazarus, which John will tell later in his gospel. Jesus is going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Dead. Is Jesus referring to that sort of power raising Lazarus from the dead? Well, raising Lazarus is a demonstration that Jesus has power over death, but raising Lazarus also points to a bigger picture. I think ultimately Jesus is talking about his final power over life and death. One day Jesus will completely conquer sin and end all death. Death will be no more. Now that's an astounding claim to make. He's saying to them, You're upset that I healed this man on the Sabbath, but I'm telling you every single person's eternal life is in my hands. The dead will raise because I call them. Who will ultimately find eternal life? It is those who believe in and accept that I Jesus am the Messiah. Those are the ones who are going to escape judgment because I Jesus am the judge. God has given it to me to decide who receives eternal life and who doesn't. The Pharisees are concerned about this one little healing on the Sabbath, and Jesus raises the stakes. He says this healing is small potatoes. God has placed the destiny of every single human being on the planet throughout history in my hands. That's a little bigger than this one man who's no longer sick. If you want to be offended, you've got much bigger issues to be offended about. And then the third theme is their unbelief matters a great deal. Jesus says he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. He's making a huge claim here, and I think he's pushing all their buttons. He's saying You're upset that I'm making myself equal with God, you better believe I'm equal with God. I'm the oldest son. The way you respond to me is the way you respond to him. You can't say I love God but I hate Jesus. That's not an option, because he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. If you don't like what I'm doing or what I'm saying, then you don't like God the Father because I am doing the work he sent me to do. Ultimately, what determines whether God grants you forgiveness or condemns you is how you deal with me, Jesus, because I'm the one who decides who goes where. Now Jesus has gone from healing a man on the Sabbath to claiming that he holds the eternal destiny of humanity in his hands, and that is an astounding claim to make. You could understand why the Jews might be a little skeptical about this claim, and that's what Jesus is going to address now, this issue of why should we believe such an audacious statement? Why should we respond when Jesus makes this amazing claim to that kind of authority? Now it won't surprise you if you've been following this series that we're back again to the idea of testimony. Let's read John five thirty one through thirty five. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. Jesus acknowledges If I alone am making this outrageous claim about myself, well you'd have every right to dismiss me. You would be justified in your skepticism about anyone who comes along and testifies to himself. But the fact is there's more than my testimony. I'm not the only one saying this, there is independent testimony from mine. And now he brings in John the Baptist, but in a very interesting way. He says, I know you heard what John the Baptist said about me. You know that John the Baptist said I'm the Messiah, and he was right. He was telling the truth. John's testimony was true. If my reminding you that John the Baptist testified to me helps you realize who I am, great. He said I'm the Messiah, I am the Messiah, but that's not the only testimony I'm relying on. I've got another testimony independent from what I've said about myself. Look at 536. But the testimony that I have is 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. What is this independent testimony that's even greater than John the Baptist's testimony? It's the miracles. Jesus healed a man who was sick for thirty eight years. Presumably this man had been to multiple doctors over that time and no one had been able to heal him, and now Jesus comes along and heals him with a word. These miracles are independent testimony from God. They testify that God is with Jesus and that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. So Jesus says explicitly here what's been implied up till now. The miracles are God's way of testifying that Jesus is the Messiah. That's why they're called signs. They are signs that the Father is behind Jesus. But that's not the end of it. There's more testimony. Let's look at thirty seven through forty. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me, his voice you have never heard, his form you have 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 is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. Jesus says, The works, the miracles I do testify that I am the Son of God. But there's more, the Father Himself testifies about Jesus. The miracles testify. They show that the Father is with Jesus indirectly, but the Father has also given direct testimony that Jesus is the Messiah. Now we might think Jesus is referring to the voice at his baptism and then the voice at his transfiguration. At both those occasions, there was an actual voice from heaven that said, This is my son in whom I'm well pleased. But the Pharisees he's talking to were not present at either of those occasions, so I think he's talking about something else. He goes on to talk about the scriptures. God has directly testified that Jesus is the Messiah in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the recorded written word of God. That's where we find God's testimony, and in the scriptures, he testifies that Jesus is the Messiah. Of course, the Pharisees haven't heard God's voice or seen God face to face, but they study the Old Testament, and in the Old Testament they have access to the testimony of God. The great tragedy, though, is that even though they were avid students of the Old Testament, they didn't have God's word abiding in them. I think he means by that it didn't stick, it didn't change them. God's word didn't remain in them. They read it, but it didn't transform the way they looked at life. And we can tell that's happening because the scriptures testify to Jesus, and now Jesus is standing right in front of them and they don't see him. They don't know who he is. So the scriptures testified to Jesus and yet they were unwilling to recognize it. And that introduces this next section, which I think is absolutely crucial to understand. Jesus says here that they were unwilling to come to him, and this is one of the key insights in the Gospel of John. John explores this idea that belief is a matter of the will. Belief is not automatic. Belief is not a straight line equation of see evidence, belief results. Belief depends on what we're willing to believe. And that's what Jesus is saying here. You don't believe in me because you're not willing to believe in me. And he talks about why. Let's look at forty one through forty four. I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of the Father 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? The issue in this section is the desire for glory from other people, and by glory I think he means reputation, honor, the approval of our fellow human beings. The issue here is what do other people think of me? And Jesus doesn't have that desire. He is not driven by this passion to have all the people around him approve of him. His self importance, his self understanding, his goal, none of that is determined by what other people think of him. These Jews he's speaking to have not recognized him. They've rejected him as the Messiah, but that doesn't bother him. What matters to him is the glory that God gives. It's God's opinion of him that's important, not what other people think. But receiving glory and honor from their peers is very important to the Pharisees. They desperately want other people to approve of them. How do they decide what person is worth listening to? They go with the crowd. If other people think person A is cool and sophisticated, then they listen to person A, and they try to be like person A so that other people will think they're cool and sophisticated too. Here I think Jesus tells us something very important to understand. Let me read John 544 again. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Remember what we've been seeing throughout this gospel. The word believe shows up repeatedly. Belief in response to testimony. Given that this is John's theme, look at how important this question is. Jesus says it's not surprising that you don't believe because you want something else. You're not looking for salvation from God, you're looking for glory from other people. You want the fame and fortune that comes with having your peers think you're great. You want to make the kind of impact that has everyone around you thinking you're wonderful and great, but you're not looking for the glory that comes from God. What your peers think about you is more important to you than what God thinks about you. It's not surprising that you don't believe the Messiah, even though he's standing right in front of you, because you don't want what the Messiah is offering. Essentially he's saying belief is a matter of the will and they are not willing to believe in him. Why? Because they're looking for something else. They value glory in the eyes of mankind, they want earthly success, earthly fame and fortune for themselves, and they want a Messiah who gives them that earthly fame and fortune. But Jesus isn't giving them what they want. Jesus isn't honored among men, he didn't study with the best rabbis, he wasn't born and raised in Jerusalem, his parentage is a little questionable, and he comes from this backwater of Galilee. Believing in Jesus is not going to win them any social points with the sophisticated hit people. In fact, believing in Jesus might make them a laughing stock. The religious elite, with the possible exception of Nicodemus, have looked at Jesus and said, This man is a fraud. He's not worth listening to. If I'm a Pharisee, believing in Jesus is not going to earn me the approval of my peers or the honor of my fellow Jews in the marketplace. They might kick me out. Following Jesus isn't going to gain the Pharisees any status at all, so they're unwilling to see Jesus for who he is because they are more interested in what their peers think about them than what God thinks. Then he concludes in five forty five through forty seven Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me, but if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? We're back to this idea of the testimony of scriptures. Jesus says what might be one of the most insulting things you could say to these dedicated students of the law like the Pharisees, he says, You don't believe Moses. Imagine their reaction. We don't believe Moses, are you kidding? We know more about Moses than you'll ever know, buddy. We've been studying Moses our whole lives while you were out making things out of wood in Nazareth. But Jesus challenges them. He says, You think that on judgment day, Moses is going to stand before God and say, hey, those Pharisees, those are my boys. They got everything right. They knew everything I wrote about the law. Jesus says, it's going to be the opposite. Moses is going to stand up and say, they got it all wrong. How do we know that? Because Moses testified to the Messiah. Jesus is the Messiah and they rejected him. If they had understood and believed Moses, they would believe Jesus. It all comes back to this issue of who do you think Jesus is and what did he do for you? Now there's a whole lot we could talk about in this chapter, but I'm trying to stay focused on the big themes and the big picture. To wrap this up, let me make a few final comments. And I want to start with this claim Jesus makes, he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. This is one of the claims that makes Christianity so offensive to the world. We get charged with being arrogant when we repeat this claim, and our arrogance goes right back to Jesus. He says how you deal with God is reflected in how you deal with me. You reject me, Jesus, you're rejecting God. When people say, How can you make such a claim? Well Jesus told us in this section, everything Jesus says and does is a reflection of God the Father. You can't say you love God and hate Jesus because Jesus is perfectly fulfilling the will of the Father. He teaches us what the Father says is true, and what Jesus does is what the Father once done. If you love God and hate Jesus, then you must love a different God because the God who is there is perfectly reflected in Jesus. As Paul says, Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. And this comes out in all sorts of ways. You might hear someone say, Oh, I love God, but I don't believe in that God of judgment. Well you can see that Jesus believes in a God of judgment and he represents a God of judgment. He tells us in this section, God is going to judge, and Jesus is going to be the one who judges for him. There is life to be found, but there is also condemnation to be found, and which one you find depends on how you respond to God, which is reflected in how you respond to Jesus. Others claim they love God and they show that love by their obedience to his religious laws, and that's kind of a universal religious phenomenon. The world is filled with religious people who are proud of their religious performance and think it is their diligence that marks them as a person of God. But Jesus makes it clear that we are all guilty before God. We all need mercy. The cross is not a stamp of approval for our superior performance. The cross itself is evidence that we need forgiveness for our sin and guilt. If we don't like the Jesus who tells us we are unworthy sinners and need a savior, then we're not going to like God. Well next, Jesus has a lot to say about testimony, and we see a lot of different kinds of testimony in this section. Jesus testifies to himself, which isn't bad, it's just not enough. If his testimony was the only testimony we had, then we would be right to be skeptical. Now think about that point with the other major world religions. It seems to me that in all the other world religions we are asked to take the word of one man and one man only. No one else backs up his testimony. But in this section, we see the testimony of the prophet John the Baptist. John the Baptist, this important figure that many at the time knew, said, God told me what to look for in the Messiah, and I saw it with Jesus. I know that that guy, Jesus over there, is the Messiah. Next, hugely important, the miracles of Jesus testify that he's the Son of God. Jesus heals people, no doctor can heal. He turns water into wine. He knows things about people, he has no way of knowing. In the next chapter, we're going to see him walking on water and multiplying the bread and the fishes. These miracles testify to what God thinks about this man Jesus, because only God could be behind those events. And then we see that the Old Testament scriptures testify about Jesus. They don't say in bold letters Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, but if you look at them fairly and you let them speak for themselves, they paint a picture of the Messiah. If you then compare that picture to Jesus of Nazareth, you see they match. And all of this testimony is there for us to consider. You and I believe that Jesus is the Messiah because of testimony like this, and all of that testimony was there for the Jews to consider. It was right in front of them, and they didn't believe. Which brings me to my last point in this passage, the way Jesus connects our belief and our will. The Pharisees didn't believe because they were unwilling to believe. They didn't want to believe because they wanted something different than what Jesus was offering. They seek the approval of their peers, which is not something you typically receive following Jesus. This resonates and reinforces what Jesus said to Nicodemus in an earlier chapter. There he said people don't believe because they're unwilling to come into the light. He was shining the light of truth on them, but many would not come to him because they didn't want to face that truth. They wanted to cling to their lies. The light of truth would reveal that they are sinners, not heroes of the religious elite that they claim to be. And so they stayed in the darkness. So far we've seen two reasons people refuse to believe. They don't want to admit their sinners, and they care more about what other people think than what God thinks. This is one of the reasons Jesus claims unbelief itself testifies to the fact that we are sinners who reject God. What we believe is a symptom of who we are inside. The gospel confronts us in many ways. It confronts us with our sin. It confronts us with the question of what we truly want in life and what we want God to do for us. It takes the work of the Spirit of God to bring rebels like ourselves to the place that we can look at the truth and say, Yep, that's true. God is right, I'm a sinner, I need his salvation. Unbelief that is not ignorance, but clings to lies reflects a fundamental hostility to God. I think it's very important for us to understand that. Not that we're in a position to make immediate judgments about each other. I don't think we can look at each other and know ooh, that person's not saved and that person is. We don't know what God is doing in another person's life. So we need to have patience with each other. But it is a truth of human experience that belief is tied to the will. We believe what we want to believe, and we disregard and reject what we don't want to believe. And if you don't believe that's true, just do a little study of American politics. But unlike politics, whether we believe in Jesus is crucial. The gospel is not an arbitrary story or an extra credit philosophy that we are free to indulge in or to ignore. Whether or not we believe the gospel, that Jesus is the Messiah, is the factor that determines our eternal destiny. And it's crucially important that we get that question right. Explain not only what a passage means but how we figure it out. The blog version of this episode is on the link below this podcast. You can also find that at wednesdayintheword.com/slash John 12. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please support the show by following it and leaving a positive rating wherever you listen to your podcast. But most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates. You can find his wonderful music at heartfeltmusic.org. If you want to find out more about Bible study, the gospel, or hear previous episodes in this series, please go to wednesdayintheword.com. Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.