The Judge Calls the Witnesses

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“Universities, the traditional refuge of timelessness, nowadays look for big names, and enlarge their public relations and press relations departments to make the university itself a celebrity, known for its well-knownness.”

~Daniel J. Boorstin (1914-2004), historian and 12th Librarian of Congress

“Jesus Christ goes to the cross and dies as the perfect fulfiller of the law because the law was burdensome and we could not fulfill it. But on the other side of the cross, the redeemed of Christ say that the law no longer hangs over us, but is instead underneath us as the path. It’s the narrow path, actually, that Jesus speaks of in the Sermon on the Mount. It points us to what pleases God…. So, the law is a delight to us because it yields in us the fruit of righteousness and it forms us into the image of Christ—who was the perfect fulfillment of the law.”

~Jen Wilkin, writer and speaker

“God’s law is our pleasure when the God of the law is our God.”

~C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher

“We are glorious ruins…glorious because we were created by God for the noble purpose of being His image bearers; yet ruins because sin has marred the divine image we were designed to display, at times beyond recognition.”

~Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984), author and founder of L’Abri in Switzerland

“Though now long estranged,
Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed,
Disgraced he may be, yet is not dethroned,
And keeps the rags of lordship once he owned.”

~J.R.R. Tolkein, “Mythopoeia,” a poem written for C.S. Lewis

“That every human being possessed an equal dignity was not remotely a self-evident truth. A Roman would have laughed at it. To campaign against discrimination…however, was to depend on large numbers of people sharing in a common assumption: that everyone possessed an inherent worth. The origins of this principle…lay not in the French Revolution, nor in the Declaration of Independence, nor in the Enlightenment, but in the Bible.”

~Tom Holland, English author and historian

SERMON PASSAGE

John 5:30-47 (ESV)

John 1

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

John 5

16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

18 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.

19 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, that the Son does likewise. 20 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. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 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. 24 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.

25 “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. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

30 “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. 31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 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. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 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. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 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. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”