The Witness List - John 5:31-47 - 8/4/19

As if He was a courtroom defense attorney, defending himself, and he gave His witness list to the prosecutors, which would’ve been the Pharisees and the religious elite of his day, telling them, “these are the witnesses I planned a call to the stand to testify about me.”

 

And it’s so important that He had witnesses because in their culture you needed witnesses to prove anything. Look at the book of Deuteronomy chapter 17. God the Father gave this instruction to Moses as a rule for the Israelites:

 

Deuteronomy 17:6 Never put a person to death on the testimony of only one witness. There must always be two or three witnesses.

Deuteronomy 19:15  (NLT)

15 “You must not convict anyone of a crime on the testimony of only one witness. The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

I’d ask you to open your bibles to John chapter 5. We’re going to be reading verses 31-47 this morning in a message that I’ve titled “The Witness List”

 

 

 

Point number 1 in your notes:

The messiahship of Jesus was observed by people.

 

Explanation:

The Pharisees know whom John the Baptist was. The had sent a congregations of scribes and leaders from the Temple in Jerusalem to the river where John was baptizing to ask John if he was the Messiah. John told them that he was not the Messiah, but that he was the one that Isaiah had prophesied about when the prophet wrote,

“I am a voice shouting in the wilderness,
    ‘Clear the way for the Lord’s coming!’”