Jesus Is On Trial

Jesus is on trial, and you are on the jury. What will be your decision?

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At one point or another, every one of us has been in that jury just like you are today, and we’ve looked at the evidence about who Jesus is, and we’ve made our own decisions.

Some people we know who are on your jury with you do not agree with who he is. They may not have looked at the evidence, but have come in with a preconceived idea as to who Jesus is and what he expects of them. How do we know what their decision is? Because of what is going on in their lives.

They are the ones who have regrets. They’re the ones who have guilt issues. They’re the ones that have marriages and relationships that are tattered and torn.

They’re the ones whose lives seem to be so mixed up that they can’t tell one end from the other. They don’t know what right and wrong is and they keep making mistakes. They just can’t fix it.

So we know they’re not listening. But you’re on the jury today, and you can listen. Jesus was in a situation many years ago, found in John chapter 5:31-40, and in that he treats the people as though he were on trial, and he presents his evidences as to who he is.

What were the evidences, and what would you decide if you had that same information? Well let’s just look and see.

In verse 31 of this passage, Jesus says, “If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true”.

Well, that makes sense. Nobody testifies about themselves and convinces a judge or a jury not just on their own testimony alone. He said in verse 32, “There is another who bears witness about me and I know that his testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John and he has bore witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I received is from men but I say these things so that you may be saved.”

His number one witness was John the Baptist. You remember when John was baptizing people, he said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

A tremendous testimony by itself of who Jesus is and what Jesus was capable of doing. People love to listen to the story of John the Baptist. You may, but look, he said something else.

He says not only was this man important, he was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his life. But then Jesus brings up something else. He says, “But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. There’s a witness who is greater than John the Baptist. 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 works is he talking about? He’s talking about all the miracles that he did.

The water to wine. The raising back from the dead of Jairus’s daughter. The taking of the leper and healing them instantly and any and all diseases.

In John 11, he’s going to resurrect his friend Lazarus after Lazarus had been dead for four days and was stinking because of deterioration. Jesus has the very works and the works alone point to the fact that only the Divine Father of heaven could give him these jobs and could accomplish these things through Jesus. That’s a powerful witness by itself, and yet Jesus wasn’t done.

He’s going to bring up a third thing that you need to consider. He says in verse 37, “and the Father who sent me has himself bore witness about me.”

When Jesus was baptized, there was something that happened, and it could happen only from the Father. It says in Matthew’s account chapter 3:17 and it says, “and behold a voice from heaven said this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. This is my beloved Son.” Who’s talking? God the Father is, of course, and you have now heard that evidence.

That’s three witnesses, and Jesus was still not finished. He’s trying to nail this case down.

Next, we have what he said in verse 39. He says, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they that bear witness about me.”

Jesus is talking to the people of his day, and you, on the jury today, to think and consider the Old Testament Scriptures. In the Old Testament, there are almost 300 different prophecies that point to Jesus.

Those prophecies were a minimum of 400 years old. Isaiah chapter 53, for example, was written more than 680 years before it actually occurred, which makes you think that it was being recorded for the Jerusalem Herald. It was so current and so accurate. It was as though Isaiah was watching it happen, writing it down, and putting it in the paper. But he wrote it 600-plus years before it actually happened. That’s powerful evidence of its own.

So what would your decision be when you’ve looked at these four evidences?

Oh, but wait wait! Don’t be too hasty because the people of Jesus’ day were looking at all this evidence too, and they weren’t doing so good with it.

Let’s be careful now. Verse 40 says, Jesus still speaking, says, “Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

Jesus says to these people, you’ve got all the evidences and you should know that I am who I am and you should be coming to me so that you can have life.

Friend, you can have life. Your life can be so much better when we listen and pay attention to him.

When we look to Jesus as being the Son of God, who knows us and understands us, and helped create us. He knows the things that you need in your life, and he’s told you about them. Now it’s time for you to make a decision.

Will you open up and look at Jesus reading from this good book about him?

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Thank you for listening today, and until next time, goodbye for now.