Abiding Witness (Putting Christ & Mankind on the Witness Stand)
Communion Fellowship Church Podcast
John 5:30-47 (November 24, 2024)
you and preaching for you out of John chapter 5. Now we'll be finishing up this chapter today as I will be reading for you verses 30 through 47. Here now the word of the Lord. 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. 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 men, 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 life. 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, and 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? And thus ends the reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant word, may he write his eternal truth upon our hearts. You may be seated. This past week, a former pastor and advisor to politicians and social spokesperson, Tony Campolo passed away this past Tuesday. He was 89 years old. I would probably not be not as familiar with his name, but we're not some introduction that I had to him when I was in college in the early 90s. Jennifer and I were trying to determine whether or not it was Tony Campolo or his son Bart Campolo, who I think came to our campus at one time and did a convocation of some sort back in the early 90s. Tony Campolo was Bill Clinton's spiritual advisor when he was president of the United States, and he was a well-liked man both amongst liberal, progressive, evangelicals, and also conservatives, mainly because of his character and his ability to have dialogue by showing respect to people with different opinions. So even those who disagreed with him in some of his opinions about scripture, they still respected him because it was at least during a time when you could have dialogue with people that you disagreed with. There were a lot of controversial things about Tony Campolo, and I don't remember them very specifically. I know I had to read one of his books that was called "The Kingdom of God is a Party" when I was in college. I know it was in my Christianity and culture class, and unfortunately I have to say I don't remember anything about that particular book, so I can't really speak specifically of whether or not I felt that his comments were in error, but he was talking about in that book mainly about how Christian should be joyful, and there should be this evidence of the sign of the renewal of God's rejoicing inside of them, which is things that we would all agree with that should be a fruit of what Christians are doing in their life. But where he had some controversy was his criticism about the lack of participation amongst evangelicals, particularly conservative evangelicals, for not putting their money where their mouth is concerning social injustices in the world. He particularly did not think that the church was doing enough for people who were hungering throughout the world, and he would admonish them. And in many respects, if you read his particular comments, you would maybe agree with him that there were many things that the church should have been provoked and admonished for in their lack of helping people who are in need. He started a group that was called the Red Letter of Christians, and I kind of referenced this a couple of Sundays ago about the red letters of Scripture, how some Bibles will have Jesus' specific words highlighted in red or in red letters, and that some people actually adopt their kind of theology and understanding of Jesus that I like to focus on the red letters. Now, his particular organization that was called the Red Letter of Christians, they did believe that all of God's word was God's word, that the whole Bible, including the Black letters, were God's word. But as you listen more closely to Tony Campolo, you realize that he was wanting to hone in specifically on particular passages that had to do with helping people, maybe even more so than the very person of Christ. The Red Letter of Christians on their website even say, "We are convinced the whole Bible is God's word, but Jesus is the lens through which we interpret the Bible, and the lens through which we interpret the world we live in." On the surface again, that sounds pretty good, that Jesus is the defining component of everything that we understand in Scripture, but as we look at this particular passage today, it is actually Jesus who is saying that it is the word that testifies of him, that it is the word that is witness, that it is the qualifier for who he is, that it has actually the word of God that is defining for us who Jesus is and not in of himself. Again, I don't think that statement is in of itself wrong, but it is kind of saying that Jesus in himself, apart from the rest of the Bibles, how we are to define the rest of the Bible, so it resides in him, but without the word, how do we know who Jesus is? And that's why they call themselves the Red Letter of Christians, they want to narrow it down to specific sermons and comments that he made in Tony Compaulo particularly like to focus in on Matthew 25 that says that there will be judgment for those who are not serving the least of these, who did not feed and clothe the least of these. Those are Jesus's words, and it is true that there will be judgment for those where there is not the fruit of love and service, particularly for the least amongst the kingdom. He says that this is foremost in his mind, it's what Tony Compaulo said, he said this is the most important thing, my highest priority are the words of Jesus in Matthew 25, and if we look at that, if we look at those particular words, what it is actually, if we take out all of the rest that Jesus says about himself, we could be left with thinking that our hope is in what we do for one another so that we may not be judged eternally. The dangerous thing here is it becomes a works-centered salvation apart from a Christ-centered salvation. There's a teaching of benevolence that is where we find our hope and that is the as Tony Compaulo said the highest priority, then we are those who should be in great fear because we do fall short. Now Tony Compaulo, I know this in the introduction may go a little longer than what I should, but this is very interesting to me that he did, it even actually was called a heretic and he was tried and people like J.I. Packard formed a committee to actually try him to see where he was in his orthodox, he of faith, and they found him to be orthodox, but they said very dangerous with his words, that he would preach things that could mislead people to go away from Christ for their hope, that he wasn't necessarily wrong in what he believed, he would come back to the orthodox understanding of who Jesus is as his Savior, but that he was coloring outside of the lines and proclaiming Jesus in such a way that could be confusing, so confusing that on Thanksgiving day in 2013, his son Bart, who was a pastor who most recently I think was a humanist secularist chaplain in a college, thanksgiving 2013, he tells his family over Thanksgiving that he no longer believes in Jesus Christ. That the scriptures and Christianity seemed inconsistent with the good and the benevolent God that he had in his own mind and he could not reconcile the scriptures any longer with what he thought is true justice, he could not reconcile the scriptures definition of who God is with what he believed God should be, he says that his father responded to him at that day, you know me, I'm not afraid you're going to hell because the God I believe in doesn't send people to hell, excuse me, let me read this again, I am not afraid you're going to hell because the God I believe in doesn't send people to hell for eternity for having wrong theology, I am sad because Christianity is my tribe and I like having you in my tribe. It's a very sad response to his son who had just rejected the faith in that past year when we had all been progressing in that direction for some time and when they asked him about that response later on, thankfully Tony Compolar seemed to turn away from that statement saying I don't remember what I said and I leave that in the hands of Lord, it does seem that Tony did die holding on to Jesus as his Savior but we see that the fruit that even the things that he had taught his son not saying that whenever any child rejects the faith from their parents that it is something in the fault of the parents but it does seem it does seem consistently that Bart had turned away from God because he turned away from what the word said about God. Bart said that looking back now excuse me, Bart said that when he was young he was drawn by the sense of community and common commitment to love people and to promote justice and to transform the world, that's what drew him in as a young person to the church but that all the dogma and the death and the resurrection of Jesus, that stuff was not the attraction. He said I became very open about the fact that I would ignore certain Bible verses and underline others. I was only interested in a God who would save everybody. It didn't matter that the Bible had some verses that said something different. I started rejecting the supernatural stuff, the orthodoxy. I no longer believe God does miracles or that Jesus was raised from the dead or that other religions were false. It could be that J.I. Packard's committee was correct that maybe Tony held on to orthodoxy in his own personal faith but his ministry by dissecting the scriptures or highlighting things that were about benevolence over the person of Jesus Christ may have actually led to the confusion of his own son's rejection of Jesus Christ. Those are bold words to say but I believe that even maybe Bart would say that himself. So a tough introduction to where we're going today but what we see in these kinds of situations and I would say even personally and I know that many that are close to and I know that it is likely that all of you have often put God in the witness stand to try him about whether or not he is the just God that we think a God should be tempted or asked for a raise of hands there but I would say that we all often have encountered circumstances that we have observed that we think that just surely can't be allowed to happen by an all powerful and all loving God or maybe even in our own lives. I know with me it is regular to a point of my own concern that I constantly question God that doesn't seem fair for me Ward. Don't I deserve better than this? Here in this particular passage we are following through with where he was in verse 18 they want to kill Jesus in verse 18 because he has broken the Sabbath in their mind and he has done far worse than that he is proclaiming to be God they are going to not just want to try Jesus and put him on the witness stand they want to execute him as guilty of going against God's word they do not believe him to be one that is the very word of God himself they want to execute him for breaking what they believe to be God's word what they believe to be the absolute standard of justice they're putting God's son in the hot seat. I titled this sermon abiding witness but I thought of an alternate title as I often do of saying putting Jesus in mankind on the witness stand as if you can think about this passage maybe as being kind of like a courtroom setting where Jesus is in the witness stand witnessing about himself and testifying about himself and then mankind being put into the witness stand that would be like two points of this sermon and it might help you understand this passage it helped me as I prepare to present it to you today because there's a lot of things that are said there that sometimes at least for me it just kind of overlaps and it almost kind of confuses me or I have a hard time latching in on something specific that Jesus is saying. So as he's put there in the hot seat in verse 18 where he they're wanting to bestow upon him the sentence of capital punishment Jesus starts out as we did last week in verses 19 through 29 basically saying that I can't do anything apart from what my father does I am what in this saying with my father what the son does is what the father does the love and the purpose of the father is what has sent me the father gives life raises the dead and he has given that over to me all judgment has been given to him that even the father does not judge but that he himself judges so that we cannot understand judgment apart from the person of Christ we can't understand judgment apart from the grace of Christ but then he says but whoever hears and believes me whoever hears and believes my word has eternal life and that all will be raised from the dead but some unto judgment and some into eternal life in fellowship with him because life resides with the father and life resides with the son that would be enough in their minds to go ahead and they surely did want to execute him even for saying those things but Jesus is willing to take the stand further and as we see here in this language John is showing that this these words like witness and testimony it very much is a trial with Jesus being the primary witness but also being the accused think it's important for us again not to use a caricature of the Pharisees and think of ourselves beyond and better than them we also put God in that witness stand ourselves maybe even daily so in today's passage we go to verse 30 and Jesus reiterates and says once again I can do nothing on my own Jesus is pointing out not that he is it's not talking about his power it's not talking about his physical ability to do stuff he's saying that I am connected to another witness I am connected to the authority of my father I am connected to the heavenly father to God I do not work individually just in of my own person the second person of the Trinity I am connected to the power and the authority of God and the reason why this is important is because in a court type setting it is imperative and impossible that only a charge can be brought in confirmed if there is a second witness and so as Jesus is the fence he needs a second witness he needs someone other than himself he is subjecting himself what we have to understand here is that Jesus himself is subjecting himself to the rules of the courtroom that are laid out in the Bible that he is not going to stand on his own authority he is going to point to other witnesses and evidences to confirm the things that he is proclaiming if you would please turn to your Bibles to do your enemy chapter 19 in verses 15 through 21 you will see here it's important for us to bring this because John he's making assumptions for us and he's assuming you know what he's talking about and I don't want to make that assumption so I want us to go back and look at Deuteronomy and look at these protocols for a courtroom setting in Deuteronomy 19 verses 15 through 21 it says a single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed so what Jesus is doing is he is being the one who is being tried here he has to have something other than a single witness to defend himself against the charge of a crime he says only on the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses shall a charge be established if a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days the judges shall inquire diligently and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely then you shall do to him as he is meant to do to his brother so you shall purge the evil in your midst and you in the rest shall hear in fear and shall never again commit any such evil among you your eye shall not pity it shall be life or life eye for eye tooth or tooth hand for hand foot for foot this is God's own word about justice and how to purge the land of evil and it is God's own word that is speaking here it's the amazing thing that we see here is that he's talking about this shall appear before the Lord that this shall appear before the judge Jesus Christ what is amazing here he is subjecting himself to be held accountable before the Lord he is the judge that is being willing to be subject to his own judgment there's a lot here and just the whole posture of what is going on here is Jesus is subjecting himself to his own law and so he begins to make his defense in verse 30 he says I hear I judge my judgment is just because I see not my own will but the will of him who has sent me he's saying here that I hear the law of God I know the law of God I am even a judge of the law of God and I stand here as a just judge because I am not a single witness I am not here on my own authority and power and testimony there is another he starts out immediately standing before these earthly judges who are accusing him and wanting to continue him to death and saying I am going to apply the very law that you say you hold yourself to I am going to subject myself to it to prove to you that I am the very son of God in son of man the very resurrection in life verse 31 verse 32 he's not alone witness I am not a single witness there is more says 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 can you see what's going on here he's saying I am not that single witness I have another now it seems like if we look at this that we see that maybe he's calling John the Baptist to the stand and verses 33-34 we see that in verse 33 it says you sent to John and he is bore witness to the truth and so we see John kind of sitting in the seat but it's not really John's testimony he immediately says he's like a brilliant exhibit John John the Baptist but I want you to understand and he says right here in verse 34 not that the testimony that I receive is from man and you can almost if you know John the Baptist for more we've been so far in this gospel you would see John the Baptist saying yeah it's not me you know he's sitting there he's the witness he's the one giving testimony and Jesus saying now look at John for a second think about the testimony of John but what I'm saying here is not his testimony it's not man's testimony and and John would say amen remember everything that John says not me I'm pointing to the one that's coming is greater than me and so he points to John but then what it is he's beginning to turn the tables right here he says he was a verse 35 he was a burning and shining lamp and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light now he's saying a lot here he's saying that you kind of like some of the things that John was talking about for a season you listen to him you amen what he said but in verses 35 through 37 which we should go ahead and read here in verse I'll start with 36 and so where you read 35 says 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'm doing bear witness about me that the Father has sent me and the Father who sent me has himself born witness about me we'll stop there in verse 37 part a there for just a moment and think about what he's saying here so I'm gonna bring John here to the stand but when I bring John to the stand I'm not really bringing John to the stand he's more of a piece of evidence pointing to the greater witness which is the Father because what he was pointing to what John was pointing to was that my works confirm that my Father has sent me and that I am the very things that John is preaching about he's not even resting in the human testimony of John here as his second witness he's saying that John's witness is evidence to my greater second witness which is the heavenly Father if you would turn to second Peter chapter one second Peter chapter one Peter hashes this whole concept out a little further it's almost the commentary of of this particular statement that Jesus is saying second Peter chapter one verses 17 through 21 it says for when we received honor and glory from God the Father the voice born to him by the majestic glory this is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven for we were with him on the holy mountain and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you do well to pay attention as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts knowing this first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the holy spirit it is pointing to the very account of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus Christ and when that happened the heavenly Father spoke audibly this is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased those words echoing in the courtroom that the confirmation of everything about John the Baptist's ministry was the lost the word I'm looking for the amplification of the words of God speaking about who Jesus is had a couple of moments like that you know it's been only thought I'm saying I've got this Paul's kind of like I feel like I'm next Netflix during the Tyson's fight I'm I'm buffing a rebuffing or whatever I'm trying to get it back in I apologize for that but we see here even pointing out this lamp shining yet that John the Baptist was a light shining to the light he was a light in the darkness pointing out to the greater light in all of this even that work was done by the Holy Spirit we know that John the Baptist from the very womb had the Holy Spirit fill him but John the Baptist is just a conduit of the very testimony of God why do you think that they liked John the Baptist's testimony for a season why here we have Jesus he's already beginning to turn the tables and question me in time he says you rejoiced in his light for a season why do you think this is not a non rhetorical question you can actually answer this just thinking about what you know here's here's John think about what he's he's going out he's preaching repentance he's preaching about the Messiah why would they like why would they like what John the Baptist was saying for a season that's right we have a Messiah we'll have a Savior from the Romans that's good news we like that John was talking about the Messiah that's a wonderful thing to hear what else he did they wouldn't have liked that too much might have true true he preached repentance now sometimes we like the preaching of repentance sometimes we don't we like the preaching of repentance when it's our enemies that's being preached to right we like for people to talk about all of the wickedness of those who have harmed us or those that we do not like we tend to embrace that kind of preaching we don't like for the tables to be turned and be called a brood of vipers ourselves but here we have the Pharisees and of course there were surely things about his preaching that was yes this is sin we don't like sin you know give it to him John amen we all believe in some level of justice we want to believe in that we are always even even we like to sometimes condemn people for being judgmental we are judgmental about people who are judgmental we love to hear sermons against being judgmental because we are judgmental about those people you know what i'm saying so they would have embraced the idea of repentance they would have embraced the idea of Messiah and so for a season they would like this they would like to call the repentance and the call of salvation but look at Matthew 13 23 23 you can turn there if you want to it says as for what is what sown on rocky ground this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy yet he has no root in himself but endures for a while and when tribulation and persecution arises on the account of the word immediately he falls away as for what was sown among the thorns this is the one who hears the word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful as for what was sown on good soil this is the one who hears the word it understands it he indeed bears fruit in yields in one case a hundredfold in another sixty in another thirty says yeah you may receive initially the message of the gospel with joy but when it's not rooted in your heart and in yourself when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word you fall away you may be one who receives this gospel but because of the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches it chokes out the word improves unfruitful that we those where this gospel is preached often it comes to those that are wanting to use the gospel for their own selfish deceitful purposes in their own temple temporary purposes and cares for the world they are having a hard time here accepting the message of Jesus Christ because he is highlighting to them that it is me that you have a problem with this is in verse 37 the second half of 37 he says 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 the reason why they have rejected him is because they reject what the word is actually pointing to they are only using the word for their own selfish purposes they have dissected and cut out the word of God for their own selfish idolatry you reject the word you reject Jesus it says hear that they do not have the word abiding in them because they have never heard or have seen there is a lot being said here that from what I can gather in the commentaries there he starts out with I have heard the word he is basically saying I understand the law of God I hear it I understand it I am responding to it you have never heard it you have never understood it they are basically saying you have not heard what Moses is saying these are supposed to be the not just disciples of the law of Moses they are the teachers of the law of Moses and he's saying now the tables are turned he is the attorney and the people mankind the Pharisees they're in the hot seat he's saying you do not understand the law of God he says you have not seen God he could even be making references to Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32 you've never wrestled with God you've never wrestled with the word you have never held on to the true promises and declared the blessings from God you have not wrestled with the truth of God not only do you not understand the word of God you have never seen it because you do not have the word in you like Joshua in chapter one verses eight through nine meditating upon the law getting strength and courage from the very word of God like David in Psalm one nineteen eleven it says I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you Jesus now becomes the attorney and pointing to them in the witness seat and saying you don't understand the law you have not seen God in his word you do not have his word in your heart everyone that you have held on to as your patriarchs as your heroes Moses Joseph Joshua David they all condemn you you have not done the very things that they did with the word of God and then he says you search the scriptures because you think this is verse 39 that in them you have eternal life it is they that bear witness about me yes it is the scriptures that give eternal life but you can't have that without Jesus so you see how they've dissected Jesus out of the picture and they've really ultimately replaced him with themselves you're looking for eternal life but you reject me therefore you reject life altogether why did they reject the word maybe even better yet why do we reject the word imagine for yourself not being just a spectator in the the galley or whatever the back in the back of the courtroom but imagine yourself being also on that same hot seat can God say the same thing to us think about the times that we have been the accuser of God and we come to him and we say to him you are not being consistent with justice you're not being consistent with love you're not being consistent with what I believe God should be why do we reject the word what Jesus is going to tell us here it says in verse 40 that 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 the answer to why we reject God's word the reason why they rejected God's word is because of glory and authority Jesus highlights here these three points that you reject God's glory for your own glory you reject my name for another person's name a man's name and because of that ultimately in verse 42 you have no love in you your fruit is your rebellion against the glory and authority of God your fruit is your love for yourself in verse 43 he talks about the name of the father is being the name of the son and he's asking but will you receive the name of man over the name of God now let's think about this when we are putting God on trial we are assuming upon ourselves that we have the authority to judge the creator of all mankind we have that audacity have any of you ever question God's justice for one thing or the other what are you going to stand on now you may say well me and many other people maybe like Bar Camp holo they don't like what they see going on in this war so I have a second witness right can mankind be its own witness against the creator do we have that ability whose justice and standard are we going to point to to judge against God where are we going to find that are we going to invent that are we going to dig it up on some planet that he didn't create are we going to find it in some book that he didn't grow it right God's going to sit there before us and say what law are you holding me to be against what word are you holding me to be against when we do that we truly are standing in our own authority and he saying you're seeking your own glory and then he really cuts them to the core he's saying the only thing you have is Moses okay you only have the law of Moses and in verse 45 he says I'm not going to condemn you the only law that you have which is Moses he condemns you the very thing that you're trying to hold and throw at me to be in just to be breaking the Sabbath to be making proclamation that I shouldn't be saying that I am God that very word that you hold confirms for you and all mankind that what I'm saying is true you have nothing you have absolutely no evidence against me and the interesting thing is that Tony Campolo he pointed to Matthew 25 as being the most priority highest priority that feeding and protecting the poor should be our primary objective but he didn't go I don't think possibly or at least I've never seen him articulate that in Matthew chapter 26 there was one who stood up against Jesus and said don't be letting her use that ointment in preparation of death we could feed the poor with that anybody want to take a gander of who said that the very betrayer of Jesus Christ and it said the reason why John the author of this gospel says that the reason why which is God's word is because he was a thief and cared only about himself when it all comes down to it it's either choosing God to be God choosing Jesus to be God or choosing ourselves to be God see the grace here is that it's not a measure of our work it's not a measure of our own authority it's not a measure of our own personal insight to justice it's not our own righteousness that saves us Jesus says here early on in his own defense that I'm pointing to the proclamation of John in the testimony of my heavenly father because this saves you I'm pointing to all of these things not to just defend myself and to promote my own glory I am telling you these things because believing this will save you trusting me will bring forth salvation to you you don't have anything to offer to God you don't have even consistency to Moses you don't have any judgment in of yourself I am the judge I am the life I am the word I am all of these things you have absolutely nothing to try to condemn Jesus with he says but you don't have to you don't have to have it figured out you don't have to be full of justice and righteousness yourself you don't have to be a judge you just need to trust me you need to believe he says here 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 there's lots of ways it's a age old problem from the very garden that God created to twist and turn and cut pieces of God's words together in such a way where it seems like we can actually condemn God we have to go back and remember that Satan was the first one to do that all we have to do is trust him I've been told that if you can summarize all of scripture into two words it would be trust me the capital M in me meaning God not yourself or me so the question for you today as you observe this courtroom and all the evidence that's laid out before you going all the way back to Moses and everyone that has proclaimed Jesus Christ since then do you trust him do you trust his blood to be sufficient enough to wash you of your sins if so will you drink of his cup will you follow him will you follow him and not only into worship and celebration but to be willing to drink of his cup of proclaiming that truth in such a way that you may also be persecuted and hated just like he was do you trust his death and resurrection the death and resurrection of his body to be enough to give you life and resurrection from the dead if so are you willing to hold on to his living word are you willing to hold on to his body the church the bride of Christ the things that he gives us to hold on to to trust and obey him do you believe his word do you believe his name his authority do you believe his glory and do you believe his love see the thing that's interesting about the red letter christians is that the reason why they're upset with modern evangelicals they see the conservative angelicals being inconsistent you know and they're probably right they're probably right that they're not doing enough to love they're not doing enough to help people who are hurting we can look at people and we say the church is not doing enough to help the innocent in the womb they're not doing enough to help foster children all over the world we always have plenty of things to point to the church and it's point to the world you're not doing enough you can't do enough but the point is are we pointing people to Jesus and who he is Jesus says you can't do enough what the woman did with the ointment was to give glory to Jesus for what he was going to do to give glory and preparation for his death and resurrection she was pointing to Jesus and it surpassed the proclamation of Judas if you believe his word if you believe his name if you believe his glory and you believe his love then repent that's all we can do truly repent that we are incapable when we look at this we see that if we are sitting in the same seat with the Pharisees we say we're condemned we have perjured ourselves he is right the very law of God condemns us we have nothing to show for our own righteousness whenever we've tried to condemn God we have been found wrong we tried to use his very words in a dissected manner to put him in judgment but we are wrong we are condemned but then Jesus says just believe believe what I'm saying repent and believe trust that what I say I am I am let us pray our heavenly Father we thank you