About this sermon
Jesus calls four witnesses to who he is: John the Baptist, the works the Father gave him to do, the Father himself, and the Scriptures, which bear witness about him. His hearers search those Scriptures yet refuse to come to him for life; the Father’s word does not abide in them, and Moses, on whom they set their hope, accuses them. The root of their unbelief lies in the heart: they receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God. A craving for human approval, sharpened today by likes and followers, still crowds out faith, and Christ exposes it so that sinners will repent and seek God’s glory in him.
Sermon transcript
Amen. Well, if you would remain standing and turn, if you would like, in your Bibles. Our sermon text for this morning will be taken from the Gospel of John. We’re continuing our series on the Gospel of John. And we’re in chapter 5, verses 30 through the end of the chapter. John, chapter 5, verses 30 through the end of the chapter. This is God’s Word. I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not my own. But not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is 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 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. 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. 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. It is 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 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? Let’s pray. Ask the Lord’s blessing. Our great God, our Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, you who have sent Jesus Christ, your only son. Lord, we ask that this morning you would open the eyes of our heart that we might see the glory of God, that we might put aside, you might root out of our hearts the lusting after, the desiring the glory of man that blocks our belief.
But we would be able to see the glory of God. You would open our hearts this morning. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, if you notice in your outlines, there’s I’ve put there the title of the message this morning. If you didn’t get an outline, we have outlines usually in the back by the bulletins there. If you wanted an outline for this message, the title is The Glory That Blocks Belief. And just as a quick orientation, where we are in the book of John, thought it might be helpful to put a very very skeleton brief outline at the top of your outlines there of the Gospel of John. We can look at the Gospel of John as being divided into four main parts. One is the prologue that we’ve already looked at.
The second is the book of signs in which John is describing the signs that Jesus is doing as he validates his claim to be the Son of God and those specific things he’s doing. So the book of signs, and that’s from John chapter 1 verse 19 all the way through chapter 12 verse 50, the end of chapter 12. And we’ve seen already, Paul has been talking about those different signs that Jesus has been doing. Those are often separated by portions of discourse that we’re in this morning. And the second book will be the book of exaltation, which the signs have all been pointing. And then Jesus is preparing to die the death that he’s been called to and rise again. And then we have the epilogue in John chapter 21. So we’re in the middle here of the book of signs this morning.
And part of this discourse that Jesus has just healed a man in Judea, Jerusalem, in the beginning of chapter 5. He’s been having this discourse that Paul led us looking through last Sunday night, and then we’re continuing that discourse this morning. As we get into this, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to admit that you’re wrong? especially when people are watching. I’ve been in situations where the evidence against my position was overwhelming. Charts, data, people I respected, all saying the same thing. I knew they were right, but I still couldn’t bring myself to admit it, to change my mind. Later, I had to admit that I knew the truth. I just couldn’t stand the thought of looking foolish in front of the room. Kids, have you ever had that feeling?
Perhaps in school or another time. Maybe just in front of your family. Holding on to that position because you don’t want to look silly in front of others. But we still have it as adults. that quiet, powerful desire to be thought well of, to protect our image, to keep the respect of people around us, they will shut our ears to truth faster than almost anything else. And Jesus is saying the exact same thing is happening in the hearts of the religious Jews in John 5. He’s going to show them they don’t lack evidence, they lack a willingness to lose the glory that comes from others and to gain the glory that comes from God. Jesus’ point in our passage to His audience is that His audience is not rejecting Him because they lack evidence or witnesses, but because they’re addicted to the glory of man.
They’re unable to let go, and that is what’s keeping them from belief. What we have in our passage here is a stunning dissection of the unbelieving human heart. Jesus is digging in, dissecting the root of disbelief, unbelief, which was true for the Jews in his day and is still true for you and I this morning. But Jesus isn’t doing this for a fatalistic or mere informational purpose. But he’s actually, he’s exposing the root of unbelief here so that if you are unbelieving, you won’t be deceived about why you’re not believing, the reason behind your unbelief. You won’t be able to run and hide behind other excuses. and so that you’ll repent. And ask God to change your heart. And that if you do believe, when you do believe, you’ll be on guard against this subtle root of unbelief, which is a direct competition to your faith.
So we’ll look at our passage this morning, break it up into three headings. Number one, Jesus brings on, he talks about witnesses for why you ought to believe. He brings out this complete testimony to his claims of deity, his claims to who he is. But number two, we’ll see indictments that Jesus brings because you don’t believe. We can think about this as the way that God thinks about you rather than the way people might think. And number three, the reason why you can’t believe. What’s really at the root of this heart of refusing to believe in Jesus? So number one, witnesses for why you ought to believe. Jesus here presents a cumulative case of witnesses that leave no excuse for unbelief. And he opens our passage this morning in verse 30 with a claim. Jesus is speaking.
He 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 will of Him who sent me. For context, earlier in our passage, in verse 19 for instance, Jesus had just been mentioning how He is imitating His Father. Whatever, verse 19, 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, that the Son does likewise. So Jesus has just been saying, the Son doesn’t act on His own accord, He’s imitating. I’m imitating my Father. God, the One whom you Jews are worshipping, the One whom you call God, the Father. He is the one I’m locked on, I’m observing. Everything I see him doing, I’m doing that myself.
I’m imitating my father, doing everything that I see him doing. And now as we come to verse 30, he says, it’s not just what I see my father doing, it’s also what I hear. As I hear, I judge. Jesus had talked about His judgment in the previous section. He talked about verse 22, For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son. So we could easily misunderstand Jesus, perhaps, and think, well, the Father just entrusts the judgment to the Son, and He goes off and He does whatever He feels like. And Jesus is saying, no, no, no, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m not saying that at all. Whatever I hear, in verse 30, that is what I’m doing. That is what I’m judging. I’m judging based on what I hear.
And my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. So once again, Jesus is saying, I’m not being independent of God. The Father and I are of one mind. Whatever I see Him doing, I’m doing. Whatever I hear Him say, that’s what I am judging. That’s how I’m judging and evaluating. I’m not judging independently, but I’m judging with right judgment because it’s exactly what I hear the Father doing. And this is another of Jesus’ many claims to deity. Jesus is saying, there’s no difference. We’re so closely aligned. It’s almost like we’re the same person, the Father and I. And yet we remain completely distinct as persons. One God, three persons, the Father and the Son. They’re listening. Jesus is listening to the Father. He’s watching the Father.
And he’s claiming, I don’t do anything on my own. My judgment is just because it’s exactly the same as the Father who has sent me. But then as he continues to explain what he means in verse 30, he mentions the subject of witnesses. Verse 31, if I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. Now at first, Jesus’ expression here can be misunderstood. And in fact, if we flip ahead to chapter 8, we’ll see that the Jews do misunderstand Jesus here. But Jesus is not saying that the number of witnesses is the problem here. When he says, if I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. He’s not saying he’s inherently suspect. He’s saying, I’m not doing it independently from the Father. I’m listening to the Father. I’m not getting this out of my own head.
I’m listening to the Father, and that is what makes my judgment, my testimony true. He clarifies himself in the next verse, verse 32. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know the testimony that he bears about me is true. If we skip ahead to chapter 8, verse 13 through 18. So if you turn a little bit ahead, you’ll see the Jews misunderstanding Jesus’ words here and bringing it back up to try to throw it in his face. John chapter 8, verse 13. So the Pharisees said to him, you’re bearing witness about yourself, so your testimony is not true. Jesus answered, even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true. For I know where I came from and I know where I am going. But you do not know where I come from or where I am going.
You judge according to the flesh, I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true. For it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. So what Jesus is saying in John 5 is not that if I were the only one saying this, that would be false. He clarifies that in chapter 8. What he’s saying is, I am speaking in accord with the Father and that is what makes my testimony true. And so he mentions, the Father bears witness about me, and I know the testimony that He bears about me is true. Jesus is speaking of His own internal assurance. He doesn’t need anyone else to talk to Him. He has the Father’s testimony about Himself. But then He goes on in verse 33 to mention a witness.
Another witness. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony I receive is from man, 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. Let’s mention John. John is someone you received. John is someone that the Jews celebrated. We find when Jesus is cleansing the temple, right before his final triumphant entry, he’s cleansing the temple near the end of his ministry, and the Pharisees confront him and ask him about his authority to be doing this. And Jesus asked them a counter question saying, let me ask you about the baptism of John. And when he asks them, the Pharisees have an internal dialogue because they realize the Jews have loved the testimony of John.
The Pharisees find themselves in a quandary. If we say John’s baptism was just for man, nothing special, had nothing to do with God, then the people will hate us. They might stone us. And they’re recognizing what Jesus is referring to here, that the people rejoiced. The Jews that he’s speaking to, you loved the testimony of John. But he clarifies why he’s bringing up John in verse 34. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man. So he says, I’m bringing up John not for my own confirmation, not for my own sake, but for your sake, so that you will understand and that you will have greater reason to believe. He says, but I say these things so that you may be saved. And if we look at John 20, verse 31, John gives us, John, the author of our book, gives us the reason that he’s written the whole thing, is that we might believe upon Jesus that he is the Christ and so be saved.
So Jesus is saying, I’m bringing up John so that you will believe what I’m saying. But the second witness he brings up is the works that the Father gave me, verse 36. The testimony I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, these very works I am doing, they bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. So not only does John come, the voice in the wilderness, but also the very works that Jesus is doing, Jesus does only what he hears from the Father. Only what he sees the Father doing, only what the Father tells him. And so these works themselves are testifying to Jesus being who he says he is. And the Father himself, in verse 37 and 38, who has sent me, has borne witness about me.
Then in verse 39, he says, you search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, but it is they that bear witness about me. You refuse to come to me that you may have life. So Jesus brings up four witnesses. And four is an interesting number. We have the four directions on the compass. We have the four Gospels. Four was seen as a number of completeness. And Jesus is saying, you have John the Baptist, Human representatives sent by God speaking as the voice in the wilderness. You have the works that the Father has given me to do. You ought to be able to look at me and see what I’m doing and no one else is doing these things. Which is the point that John’s bringing up in this book of signs.
Then he says, but the Father himself, he is speaking directly. And then the very scriptures themselves, the written word of God. So Jesus is saying, you have complete body of witnesses. There’s no reason not to believe. These form an overwhelming case. They ought to believe. And yet we see that they do not. And so then Jesus brings his indictments in Number two, the indictments because you don’t believe. And this is, in a sense, a reality check. This is Jesus bringing to bear what God really thinks of them. They were proud, thinking that God was proud of them. But Jesus is saying, that’s not exactly the way that God is thinking about you. And this hurts. This is uncomplimentary. Jesus confronts the Jews and in this confrontation He becomes increasingly harsh because eternity is at stake for them.
And they need to know their position as they stand before the living and true God. And so He starts out in verse 38, You’ve never truly heard the Father’s voice. or seen his form, because his word does not abide, and his word does not abide in you. God, John tells us in chapter 1, has no form. He cannot be seen. He’s a spirit. So the only way to see God is, in a sense, by faith. And of course, believing on Jesus, who is the manifestation of God. But the only way that you can truly see God, see his form, hear his voice, is by faith. We see that some people have said, well, if God really spoke from heaven, then maybe I’d believe. But as long as he’s just, you know, in the Word, in the Bible, that’s not sufficient for me.
Anyone can do that and read that. But we actually see in John’s Gospel later when God the Father speaks directly from heaven and the unbelieving Jews respond by saying, did you hear the thunder? Even when God is directly speaking from heaven, their closed hearts of unbelief have shut out. They cannot even hear the direct voice of God. And Jesus is saying, you cannot hear God’s voice in the Scriptures. God’s Word does not abide in you. What He means for God’s Word to abide is for it to remain, to stick into you, for it to reside in their hearts. For these people who are rejecting God’s Word, it just goes in one ear and out the other. Nothing sticks, nothing remains. And so they can’t see God and they can’t hear His voice. Because they don’t allow anything to come in and sit there and change them.
It goes in one ear and out the other. And Jesus says this is not because they’re not reading the Scriptures. Number two, they search the Scriptures for life and yet refuse the one to whom the Scriptures point. Verses 39 and 40. These people, these Jews, are actually reading the Bible. They’re reading the Scriptures. They’re searching. But they’re completely blind to what it’s saying. Because they’re not reading it to be confronted. They’re looking for affirmation for themselves. What will I hear that affirms me? They don’t want to be challenged. They don’t want to be confronted. They’re reading the scriptures and ignoring the author. Jesus says he knows this because when the author shows up and talks to them, they hate him. because they’re only reading God’s Word to exalt themselves, not to be humbled. And then number three, he says, they do not have the love of God within them.
I know that you do not have the love of God within you. And he contrasts this with, because I do not receive glory from people, verse 41, but I know that you do not have the love of God Jesus is reminding them of the contrast between them and Him. They receive glory from people. They want to receive the affirmation. They want to be justified before men. They want that approval, that affirmation. And that’s not what the Scriptures provide them. And so they have no love of God within them, he says, because that desire for the affirmation of others excludes, kicks out their ability to truly love God and His glory. Jesus is telling them that I’m not telling you any of these things to get your approval. I don’t receive glory from people. I don’t need it.
I don’t need you to like me. C.S. Lewis once wrote of his own grappling with the calls to praise in the scriptures of God, like the Psalms, and he wondered Initially, if these calls to praise from the Psalms were because God was an egomaniac, that He’s simply craving our praise, that constantly telling us to praise the Lord, which is what some people today still mistakenly assume. But God’s, and this is what C.S. Lewis came to realize, God’s calls for us to praise him are not so much about God’s need, but ours. Our need to praise God is about how we were created, how we were made. We were made to see and enjoy and relish the glory of God. That’s how our spiritual selves were designed to function. But when we receive glory from people, it puffs us up.
It’s like setting up those blow-up decorations that we’re about to see taking over the neighborhoods from Halloween to Christmas. All of these massive blow-up decorations, they get more and more every year. And when we receive glory from people, towards our ego, it starts puffing us up. It’s blowing us up like those yard decorations. We’re setting up more and more, and it blocks completely, obscures our ability to see the glory of God. Some people love those decorations. They’re so convenient. They look big. They attract attention. No one can miss your house on the block. except they maybe can’t see it behind all the decorations. But honestly, they look really tacky. And that’s actually what we look like, Jesus is saying, on the outside, when we’re seeking the glory and approval of man. And he says, number four, that they’ll receive one who comes in his own name, while they’re rejecting the one who comes in the Father’s name.
And Jesus is talking about that competing glory. When you see someone, when you see the house next to you setting up all the yard decorations, that’s not a threat. You can set up your own. You can be just like them. When a Messiah comes in his own name, it’s just like us. There’s no challenge to that. It’s more affirmation when the Messiah comes in the Father’s name, confronting them with things that they don’t want to hear. When the Messiah has to die for what we have done, our sins committed, that is a Messiah that makes people uncomfortable. And then finally, Jesus brings on Moses himself, on whom they’ve set their hope. And he says, it’s actually not your friend, the way you think he is. He’s not the one on your side. He’s not the ally.
He’s writing about Christ. He is pointing to Christ. And so you’re actually found to be an enemy of Moses, which was, of course, very offensive to the Jews. We’ll find in the later chapters of John, they bring up repeatedly, pitting themselves as disciples of Moses versus disciples of Christ. And Jesus says, I don’t even have to say a word. I don’t have to accuse you. Your very own Moses accuses you. The prophet whom you revere already accuses you. So those are the five indictments that Jesus brings. But I want to circle back to verse 44 and look at what Jesus says, the reason why they can’t believe. The reason why you can’t believe. In verse 44, Jesus turns to address the deeper reason behind this refusal to believe. This whole time, Jesus has been driving to this damning rhetorical question.
How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Jesus is saying the ultimate barrier is not intellectual deficiency, but a competing love of glory. A love of the glory that comes from man. A little later, in chapter 12, in the Gospel of John 12, verse 42 and 43, we see this brought out again. John in his commentary, he says, nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it. They didn’t let anyone know, so they would not be put out of the synagogue, because they loved the glory from man more than the glory that comes from God. They were craving that acceptance. They wanted to be thought well of. They didn’t want to suffer anything for the glory of God.
All they could see, right in front of their face, all they could see was, what will others think of me? What does my reputation look like in front of others? And in Jesus’ time, craving the respect, the admiration, the acceptance of their peers meant not acknowledging or accepting Jesus. But it is also possible to go the other way in our day. There’s people that hang out with church crowd, not because they love Christ, but because they want to be thought well of. They’re still in their hearts craving the glory that comes from people. And they grow up in the church. They know all the phrases. They know how to say the memory verses. They know how to behave so that all the grandparents love them, think they’re the greatest. But inside, they still have a craving. for the glory of man and not a desire for the glory of God.
Because Jesus says they’re exclusive. One crowds out the other. And this hunger for the glory of man is deadly because it cuts us off from the glory of God. And it’s this root of unbelief that Jesus has come to expose in all of its devilish and despicable reality. We love the admiration of others. We live off of it. What do people think of me? Do people like me? How many followers do I have online? Who laughs at my joke? How many compliments did I get on my photo, or on my outfit, or on my abilities? Who’s read my book or my article? Will people be impressed with me? Will they think I’m great? Seeking the admiration of others is a desire of the human heart. But today, it has always been such, but today we have more ways than ever to obtain it.
With social media, with being online, there’s now a pervasive temptation to not just live life, but to document and publicize ourselves living life so that others will know how great we are. So that others will praise us for craving the glory of man. Because it feels so good. It’s addicting to be admired, to be praised, to be thought well of. What will people think of me? But that craving shuts the door to faith. It blocks our ability to appreciate value even see the glory of God. Because when we’re admiring ourselves through the praise of others, we lose sight of the glory of God. In our series of Hebrews, if you were with us, even if you weren’t, you might remember the famous Hebrews 11 verse 1. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
And we saw there that faith is like these night vision goggles showing you realities that were otherwise invisible. Author Tony Reinke puts the situation this way. He says, faith is a gate that opens up, opens us up to a world of invisible eternal realities. But self-glory shuts and padlocks that gate, confines us to the visible world, the world that’s expiring and passing away as we feed ourselves on Twinkies of self-affirmation. In other words, says Jesus, to be consumed with self-glory is to be blind to the glory of Christ. Faith shows you the mind-blowing, dazzling beauty of Jesus Christ in all his glorious humility and love by coming to die for wretched rebels like you and I. But self-glory is embarrassed by that humility. It’s offended. Jesus Christ, the final complete image and revelation of the eternal living God, came down from glory to live in obscurity and die in agony for crimes he never did or ever would commit. before rising again in power to never die again, and all out of selfless love for others.
But a love for the glory of man says, yuck. What if he wants me to follow him in that humiliation? What about my glory? What would become of what others might think of me? What might such a savior ask me to follow him into? Self-glory, the self-glory consumer in the light of Christ never looks up from his phone. How many likes can I get for following Jesus? When I’m sharing the gospel with people on the boardwalk, as I was this summer, I often start by sharing them that it’s good news. God made three amazing promises, which I actually outlined this morning earlier in talking about baptism from Ezekiel chapter 36. And most of the time when I tell people I’ve got great news, God made three amazing promises, and start to describe those promises People give me a little bit of a bored look.
I thought you said they were great. I thought you said they were amazing. Sometimes they’re a little puzzled. But this summer, on the evening of August 21st, I met a young man who was different. I was about to go in for the evening, about to walk back, and one more guy said, hey, I want to ask you, what are you out here? What are you doing? I said, I’m sharing good news. His name was Myron. And I started to share with him the problems, the promises. Before I could even mention it, he said, wow, those are amazing. And the more I shared. the more of that good news that Jesus came to make good on God’s promises, to give us a new heart, to wash us clean, and to give us the Holy Spirit, the more excited he got.
I asked him if he had ever heard of such things before. He had never been to church, never read the Bible. He knew nothing, but he knew how bad he was. He had a taste of that. He had a sense when he came, I don’t deserve to go to heaven. There’s something wrong with me. And so when he heard those promises, that’s amazing. That’s great news. He didn’t have a heart that was puffed up full of the admiration of others, full of the glory of man. He knew how bad a shape he was in without Jesus. And if you and I don’t know that, then Jesus is saying we won’t come. We’ll take the admiration of others, puff us up, and think it doesn’t matter what God thinks about us. And you and I need to understand the desperately dangerous drag of self-glory and its consequences.
There’s a battle raging in our hearts. Self-glory says you’re fine. Look how much everyone loves you. You can always find someone who will appreciate you, admire you. Don’t worry about what God thinks. He’s probably as impressed with you as you are of you. But Jesus came to break that open for the Jews, and he comes to break it open for us as well. And the beauty of this self-glory, God’s glory, not being able to reside in the same heart, is that it works the other way as well. And a love for the glory of God will displace a craving for the glory of man. Jesus didn’t tell us that the root of unbelief is all about the addiction to the glory of man so that we could throw up our hands in despair. This is Jesus’ mercy to you and I.
He told us these things so that you and I would come face to face with the real reason that we don’t believe. No more hiding behind flimsy excuses. But His real intention in this is to call you to repent. To stop running after what can’t satisfy. So whether you’ve never truly believed in Jesus before, or whether you’ve been walking with him for years, this still is for you. You weren’t made to run on the fuel of human approval. You were designed specifically for a relationship with God. So come to God by coming to Christ. Cast yourself upon his mercy. gaze upon his beauty, drink deeply of his thirst-quenching satisfaction, become a seeker of the glory of God. There’s nothing else like it, because there’s nothing else like him. Amen. Let’s pray. Our great God, our Father in heaven, Lord Jesus Christ, We thank you for the glory that you have revealed in your son, Jesus Christ, and that he came, not for people that didn’t need him, not for the healthy, but for the sick, for those that are in desperate need of salvation.
And that when we humble ourselves in repentance and open ourselves up to your glory, you fill us with new desires for Jesus and his glory. and we stop caring what the world thinks of us. So Lord, we ask this morning you would give each one of us that new heart that craves only the glory of God. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen. In response, let’s stand and sing hymn 494. O Jesus, joy of loving hearts. Hymn 494, and let’s stand as we sing.
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