The Forerunner's Witness from John 5:33-35

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/16/2016 11:23 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  The Forerunner’s Witness

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 5:33-35

            Message of the verses:  “33 “You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. 34 “But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 “He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.”

            At the end of our last SD from the gospel of John I promised that I would quote from a sermon given by John MacArthur that he gave on these verses in 2013. 

            “Here Jesus calls another witness to give testimony to Him.  Now who would be the best witness that He could call?  No question, God the Father.  He is the one they will say they worship.  He is the one they will say they know, even though they don’t.  He is the one they declare to be their God.

“So let’s go to the highest possible standard of testimony, let’s go to the one and only true God. And that’s exactly what Jesus does. So from verse 30 down into verse 40, Jesus calls on God the Father to back up His testimony. And it’s really an amazing portion of Scripture. Sometimes it’s cut up in ways that it shouldn’t be cut up, and I’m going to try to help you with that this morning and even next time.”  The point I wish to make from this quotation is that this entire testimony that Jesus is giving her is about the Father and although we will look at it from the different points found in the outline from John MacArthur’s commentary on John we have to keep that in mind.  I have mentioned that John MacArthur first began to preach through the gospel of John in 1970, then he wrote the commentary in 2006, and then after completing his study of the New Testament in 2012 he began to preach through the gospel of John again and so we have the benefit of looking at all three and there are times as mentioned in the past SD’s that he changes his mind on some minor points, which I see no problem in that as I have changed my mind about certain things from earlier times in my Christian life till now as I have been a believer for 42 years now.

Now we know that the purpose of John the Baptist’s ministry was to prepare the nation of Israel for the coming of the Messiah as mentioned in John chapter one:  “He said, "I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ’MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,’ as Isaiah the prophet said’ (John 1:23).”  “"I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water’ (John 1:31).”  Now we will look at John 1:29-34 “29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and *said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 “This is He on behalf of whom I said, ’After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ 31 “I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water." 32 John testified saying, "I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. 33 “I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ’He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ 34 “I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.’” 

Next we will look at the verses from John that show that the Pharisees had sent a delegation to John to find out who he was:  “19 This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" 20 And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." 21 They asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" And he *said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." 22 Then they said to him, "Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?" 23 He said, "I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ’MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,’ as Isaiah the prophet said."  25 They asked him, and said to him, "Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" 26 John answered them saying, "I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. 27 “It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie’ (John 1:19-23, 25-27).” 

Now as we look at verse 5:33 we see that Jesus reminds them that they were the ones who sent representatives to John and that he had testified that he was not the Christ, but that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.  The people of Israel at that time believed that John was a prophet “"But if we say, ’From men,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet’ (Luke 20:6).”  “"But if we say, ’From men,’ we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet’ (Matt. 21:26).” 

John MacArthur explains more about John’s testimony:  “The testimony from His works (v. 36) and from His Father (v. 37) was of far greater significance than that from any man.  Thus, He cited the testimony of John the Baptist not to make up any lack, but to confirm by the mouth of one already recognized as God’s true prophet that same truth concerning Himself.  He did so for the sake of His hearers—that they might be saved on account of John’s faithful witness (cf. 1:35-37).”

In verse 35 we then see Jesus testify of John the Baptist as before He spoke of John’s testimony about Himself.  He called John “the lamp that was burning and was shining.  MacArthur writes “His burning inner zeal made him a shining light in a dark world.  Unlike Jesus, who is the Light (phos; the essence of light) of the world (8:12; cf. 1:4-9; 9:5; 12:35-36, 46), John was a lamp (luchnos; a small, portable oil lamp).  He was not the source of light, but a reflector of it (cf. 1:6-8).  Just as a lamp lights the way for people, so John lit the way to Jesus (1:31).”

Jesus ended His tribute to John in verse 35 with a rebuke to the Pharisees “and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.”  The people rejoiced in the light that John was, but in time because of his rebuking of those who were not living morally like they should he ended up going to prison and eventually having his head taken off. 

            We may have mentioned this earlier, but it bears repeating as it has to do with the kind of baptizing that John was doing to those who came from Israel to be baptized by him.  MacArthur writes “The Jews baptized Gentile proselytes, but regarded fellow Jews as already part of God’s kingdom people, and hence not in need of baptism.”  I see some irony in the fact that these Jews did believe that they needed to be baptized by John even though it was believed that there was no need for them to be baptized because of who they were.  They were right in being baptized by John for repentances sake.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “On the lintel and two side posts” (Exodus 12:22).

Today’s Bible question:  “What was the name of the Jewish sect who ‘Trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others?’”

Answer in our next SD.

3/16/2016 12:23 PM