The Greatest Tragedy of All

If you were to Google the greatest tragedies in world history, there are a number that probably you would see come up on that list. I did that in two or three different ways this week and I found one of the things on everybody's list is the bubonic plague which for four years in the 1340s killed 100 million people in the world including two thirds of the population of Europe. It's just about white Europe off the map. Incredible. You probably find on that list World War II, 71 million people killed in World War II including six million Jews in the Holocaust and nine million Russians with the invasion of Germany into Russia early in the war. You'd probably find on that list as I did World War I, 15 million killed in World War I and tacked on to the end of that the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918 attributed to the war itself spread because of that took another 50 million lives in the world. You would find floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, famines, lots of different natural disasters on a list like that. If you were to do the same thing for national tragedies you would find the Civil War, 615,000 American lives lost in the Civil War. You would find Pearl Harbor on that list. You would know about C9-11. You would see a lot of natural disasters and then there are those personal tragedies that really come home that really affect us in a more personal way. The death of a family member, a debilitating illness, a financial ruin, a family breakup and the list could go on and on. But I'm convinced that none of those are the worst possible tragedies. On an international national or personal level none of those are the greatest tragedy that can befall a person. The worst possible tragedy is not near dramatic like those. In fact the worst possible tragedy is often found in the lives of people who are outwardly calm and peaceful, even successful. The worst possible tragedy is rejecting Christ because that has eternal consequences. No matter what tragedy may befall you or some nation in this world. It only affects us in this life. But if you reject Christ that affects you for an eternity. It settles an eternity of separation from God. It seals your eternal doom if you reject Christ. And Jesus presses home the tragedy of rejecting Him in John chapter 5. Just to remind you of where we've been in John 5 we saw that the beginning of the chapter of Jesus healed a man who had been paralyzed. For 38 years he had lain at a pool hoping to be healed by bubbling waters and had been disappointed every time in Jesus healed him. But because that healing was done on a Sabbath day the religious leaders got upset with Jesus because it violated some of their man-made traditions about the Sabbath. They were incensed by what Jesus had done and so Jesus defends himself. So last time we were in John's gospel we saw his defense. He basically defended himself by saying I have the right to do what I have done because number one I am God. Number two I am the Savior. Number three I am the judge. So he defends himself by establishing his identity. He basically witnesses as to who he is. But he doesn't stop there. In the verses we look at today beginning in verse 31 he presses home the tragedy of the ultimate tragedy of them rejecting him which they are doing the religious leaders especially and they will lead the nation to do the same thing. They are rejecting Christ when they reject his miracles and he highlights for them and presses on them the terrible tragedy of rejecting Christ. He begins by pointing out the severity of that rejection in verses 31 to 39. He highlights for them the severity of the rejection of Christ. Look at verse 31. He says if I testify about myself my testimony is not true. Now that may startle you. Jesus is not saying any testimony I give would be false or would be incorrect. He is not saying that. In fact in chapter 8 and verse 14 he will say if I testify of myself my testimony is valid it is true. So obviously in this context he is saying something different. He has already given testimony as to who he is. But the Pharisees know as every Jew knows that the law of Moses said in a court of law no testimony is accepted unless there are two or three witnesses. Nothing will be validated unless there are two or three witnesses to what's happened. And so Jesus basically is saying if I just stop by giving testimony of myself then my testimony is not valid in a court of law and it would not be valid in your opinion speaking to the religious leaders. So what he is going to do is he is going to call some witnesses to the stand. And the first witness is his father and he will bring up the father later but he says in verse 32 there is another who testifies in my favor and I know that his testimony about me is true. Probably speaking of the father there because the word another is the word for another of the same kind. Another just like me. He is speaking of God the father who will come back to that in a moment but he is basically laying down the principle that I am not the only witness as to who I am. And so now he begins the official part of the trial and he calls four witnesses. And what he is going to do is he is going to show that they have rejected not only him but they have rejected four witnesses as to who he is. He is establishing the severity of their rejection of him. The first witness he calls to the witness stand is John the Baptist. They have rejected John. Verse 33 you have sent to John and he is testified to the truth. And remember they did send to John in chapter one when John begins his ministry is out preaching in the wilderness. They sent a delegation of religious leaders out to him to ask him who do you think you are? What do you think you are doing? They investigated his ministry and they were intrigued by his ministry. Verse 34 says not that I accept human testimony but I mention it that you may be saved. In other words I am not resting my whole credentials upon one testimony from one human being. That is not all. I am going to call other witnesses but I do mention this one because he did give testimony to me and it was true and you could be saved by hearing his testimony. Look at what he says in verse 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. Fascinating what Jesus says about John. He was a lamp that burned. That is talking about the inward light, the passion with which John preached and introduced Christ to the nation. He was a burning lamp on the inside. There was a fire burning in his soul for Israel to recognize that Jesus was the Lamb of God. That was a lamp that burned on the inside and it burned so brightly it couldn't help but shine the light out to other people. So he was a lamp that burned and he gave light. He showed other people who I was and Jesus says you chose for a time to enjoy his light. You were intrigued with it. You asked in questions about his ministry. You were fascinated by this prophet out in the wilderness but then when you came to understand who he was talking about and the kind of Messiah he was introducing a lamb, a sacrificial substitute, then you turned your back. Your enjoyment of John's ministry lasted just for a little while and then you rejected his testimony. So they rejected John. Secondly, they rejected Christ's works. Jesus calls another witness to the stand, his own works. Verse 36, I have testimony way here than that of John for the works that the Father has given me to finish, the very works that I am doing testify that the Father has sent me. I think Jesus is referring to the very work that they're criticizing him for. The very work I'm doing right now, the healing of the man of the pulubethesda, the one you're upset with me about, the very work I'm doing now, that's the work the Father has given me to do. And that's a testimony as to who I am. Jesus works were designed to show who he was. They were his credentials. You ask for credentials as to who the Messiah is? Here they are, my works. We've seen that John tells us that about his gospel, the theme verse, the verse that John says, this is why I wrote this gospel as we've seen before, chapter 20 verses 30 and 31, where John says there are lots of other signs that Jesus did among his disciples which are not recorded here. But these are recorded so that you may know that Jesus is the Son of God and that by believing you might have life in his name. So to no Christ and to believe in him is the purpose of the gospel. But John says, I gave these signs, these works that Jesus did to prove who he was. And Jesus or John gave seven of them, seven signs he recorded in his gospel, the turning of water to wine in chapter 2, the healing of the nobleman's son in chapter 4, the raising of the man, the healing of the paralyzed man in chapter 5, the feeding of the 5,000 in chapter 6, walking on the water in chapter 6, healing of the blind man, a man born blind in chapter 9, raising of Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11, seven signs that Jesus did. The express purpose of those signs, John says, was to prove that he was the Son of God so that you would believe in his name and have life. And Jesus is calling those very signs and the works that he's done on the witness stand. And he's saying, these works testify of me. The very works that the fathers given me to finish, they testify that the father has sent me. They are my credentials as to who I am. And basically you've rejected them. You see the works of Christ today in the lives of people who are transformed by God's grace. There is nothing else that transforms a life and gives hope in the midst of the spare, other than Jesus Christ. There is no other religion that can do that. There is no philosophy or ism that can do that. It's only Christ that can change lives. And when you see lives being changed by Christ, it is a denial of the witness of his works to turn your back on him and not trust him as savior. So they rejected John. They rejected his works. But the third witness that Christ calls to the witness stand that they rejected is his father's testimony, the Giver's 37. And the father who sent me has himself testified concerning me, you have never heard his voice, nor seen his form. The father has testified as to who Jesus is. One several occasions beginning at his birth when Jesus was born, God sent angels from heaven to tell the shepherds this day in the city of David, a savior has been born who has Christ the Lord. And the Bible says those shepherds went everywhere telling people about that. So that was the first witness from heaven, from the father, as to who Jesus was. Later on in the temple when Jesus is 12 years old, he is showing such wisdom. He talks about being there to do his father's work, another testimony from the father as to who he is at his baptism when he enters his ministry. There is a voice from heaven as the crowd is gathered on the multitude or on the side of the river. There is a voice from heaven, the voice of the father that says this is my beloved son in him I am well pleased. Numerous times the father has given testimony as to who Jesus is. They have rejected his testimony. Jesus says that this way you have never heard his voice. You didn't hear what he was saying and you have never seen his form. He is not talking about seeing God. He is talking about you didn't recognize him in me. You see Jesus is the one who declared the father, who revealed the father to us and you neither heard his voice nor have you seen him in me. You have rejected the father's testimony as to who I am. There is a fourth witness, Jesus calls to the stand and it is the witness of the word. It is the word of God itself and he says you have rejected the word. Look if you will at verse 38. Let's go back middle of verse 37 to pick up the thought. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form nor does his word dwell in you for you do not believe the one he sent. Jesus is saying the evidence that I know that his word does not dwell in you is because you have not believed the one that he sent in fulfillment of the prophecies of his word in the Old Testament. You see there were all kinds of prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament. They should have known that. There were all kinds of types and symbols that pointed forward to a Lamb who would die, one who would give his life. They should have known that but they have not received the testimony of the word and here is their problem. In verse 38, you study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me yet you refuse to come to me to have life. The reason for their problem was that they diligently studied the scriptures, the details, the technicalities of the Bible and missed the reason why the Bible was given. It was given to testify of Christ. Now remember that Jesus was speaking to Old Testament scholars. He was speaking to the religious teachers of Israel, the rabbis who had been through all the schooling and training and knew the Old Testament backward and forward. They knew their Bibles and they studied diligently the scriptures but you know what happened to them. They got so involved in the intricate detail that they forgot the purpose of the Word of God was to reveal Christ. The purpose of their Old Testament scriptures was to lead up to Christ and point the way to Christ and as Jesus says, testify of me. Here's what happened. Here's how ridiculous it got. Rabbi Hillel who was a rabbi at about the time of Christ said this, the more study, the more life. If you gain the words of the law, you gain life in the world to come. They had come to see that the very process, the very practice of diligently studying the scriptures assured you of eternal life. It didn't matter whether you believed them or not. But if you studied them carefully, you automatically got eternal life. And you know what that led to? And we know this from the writings of the rabbis, especially in the New Testament. It led to an elaborate scheme of numerology and Bible codes. You know those Jewish scholars in rabbis, they would count every letter in a book in the Bible. They would count every letter in a line of the Bible. They would count the middle letter, the first letter, the last letter. And they developed these elaborate schemes using these numbers for letters and numbers for names of people and developed these elaborate teachings based on that system of numbers. And they also developed an intricate way of using those numbers to detect codes, secret hidden messages in the Old Testament. They were so fascinated by those little intricate details, they missed the whole point. And that was that Jesus is the subject of the scriptures. And we have the same thing happen today. The same thing happen today. There are people who get all swept up in biblical numerology. There's that stand for different names or different names that have numerical significance. And let's figure this out or that out. There's been a whole Bible written called the Bible Code, which supposedly from a computer program has detected information revealed centuries ahead of time like the killing of Prime Minister Rabin in Israel and other world events. It's a bunch of garbage. Why? First of all, God never gave His Word to hide stuff. God gave His Word to reveal Himself, my hide secrets from us. And His whole purpose in giving the Word was to reveal Jesus so that we might know Christ, not that we might figure out intricate little codes to find secrets in the Bible. That is a total waste of time. People do that and miss Christ. And the whole purpose of the scriptures, Jesus says, is to testify about me. They could number every letter, number, every verse, number, every name. They knew what was on every page and where it was located and they didn't know Christ. And that's the tragedy of so much intricate study of the Bible even today. Jesus is not saying you shouldn't study your Bible. There was anyone in this building that believes you should study your Bible. It's me. I spent 17 years of post-high school education studying the Bible. I believe in studying the Bible. But not to get to the intricate little details and be able to impress people with your knowledge. The whole purpose of the Bible is to reveal Christ so that we might know Him and become more like Him and help others to know Him and become more like Him. It's all about Christ. It's not about knowledge. It's not about secrets. It's not about codes. It's about Christ. And by the way, my friend, this is the only witness we have today of the four that Jesus mentioned. This is the only one we got because it contains the record of John the Baptist. It contains the record of Jesus works. It contains the record of the Father's testimony. We don't have those anymore. We're not living in the time where we can hear those personally. We have them recorded in the witness of the Word of God. And this is the only witness God will use to save lost people. I believe to the bedrock of my soul and the sufficiency of Scripture. And by that I mean that God's Word and God's Word alone generates life within the human soul. It is the testimony and witness that we need to hear above all others. Jesus told a story in Luke 16 to highlight that. He told a story about a rich man who died and gone to hell. And his poor neighbor Lazarus had died and gone to heaven. There's an inseparable gap between the two. And the rich man realizes he cannot make it over to where heaven is. That he is consigned forever to hell. When he comes to that realization he says to Abraham, representative of the people of history, gathered in paradise. He says to Abraham, he says, if I can't be there, then please send someone back Lazarus sending back from the grave to warn my five brothers so that they don't come to this awful place where I am. And Abraham gave a fascinating answer. He said they have Moses in the prophets. Let them hear them. And the guy said, no, no, it's not enough. If someone goes back from the dead they will be convinced. Why? Because wow, that has a wow factor to it. It's exciting, it's spectacular, it's amazing. If someone goes back from the dead, surely they will be convinced. And this amazing answer comes back from Abraham. If they do not believe Moses in the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone goes back from the dead. Now, turn that one over in your brain for a little while. And what you will see is that Abraham was reaffirming what Jesus taught. The word of God is our only witness. If you don't believe this, nothing else will convince you. Nothing else will convince you if you do not believe the Bible. And so it is absolutely eternally damaging to your soul to turn your back on what the scriptures say. The purpose of the scriptures are to testify of Christ and to let him be known. I love the way Kent Hughes has illustrated this. Kent Hughes, before he retired, passed her to church outside of Chicago, Illinois in the Wheaton area, college church in Wheaton. And he's written some excellent commentaries, one of them on John. He says this, let me illustrate their problem, the problem of the Jews who knew all this intricate detail about the Old Testament. Imagine you are standing on the observation floor of the Sears Tower in Chicago, now known as the Willis Tower, but most of us would know it as the Sears Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world. If you've ever been up to the top of the Sears Tower or the Willis Tower, you know they have an observation floor up there. It's right near the top and on all four sides, there are these huge walls of glass and you can look out and see incredible vistas of the entire city. Same thing in the hand-cut building on the lake. But he says, you're overlooking the city. The sun is going down in the west. The lights are coming on along Lake Michigan. You're drinking it all in and you're caught up in what you're seeing when someone tugs on your cuff. You look to see a little man standing next to you. He says, my isn't this a wonderful window. Do you see how it is set in steel and how the glass is tinted? Then he unfolds his pocket knife and begins to scrape at a corner of the window, saying, I'm going to do a chemical analysis of this window. And if you give me your name and phone number, I'll call you and let you know what this window is made of. He says, what would you think of that man? You would think he's a little, ah, a little eccentric, maybe completely off his rocker. Why? Because he's missed the whole point. The point is not the chemical analysis of the window. The point of the window is to see the beautiful vistas of Chicago and Lake Michigan. That's the whole purpose for the window being there. It's not to study it to find out what it's made of. We sow with the scriptures. We can study them diligently and we should. But if we miss the purpose of the scriptures, we've missed everything. The purpose of the scriptures is to reveal Christ, to show us beautiful vistas of the Savior, not so that we know the chemical analysis of each verse and each word, so that we can boast in our knowledge. It is that we might know Christ. Christ is God's witness to us as to who Jesus is and it is the witness that we must give heed to. And so Jesus says, the severity of your rejection is that you've rejected all of these witnesses. Not just my word, but he leads up to the compelling final witness of the scriptures. You've rejected that one, but he's not done yet with the Pharisees, with these religious leaders. He's now going to identify for them the reasons for their rejection and he nails them on this. He penetrates deep into their hearts on this and he gives three reasons why they've rejected him. Reason number one, unwillingness. Look at the middle of verse 39 again. He says, these are the various scriptures that testify about me yet you refuse to come to me to have life. You refuse to come to me to have life. Now Jesus is saying it's not that you cannot come to me, it's that you will not come to me. You see there are some people who say, well I can't, I just can't get saved. I can't believe that or I can't get saved. Maybe I'm not one of the chosen few. That's not what Jesus said. Jesus said you refused to come to me. You will not come. It's a lack of willingness. It's an unwillingness to come. Some people say, well you know John, you just don't know my business. If you knew what kind of business I was involved in, you know I couldn't really live a Christian life. I couldn't really be committed to Christ and so I can't come. No, it's not that you can't come. It's that you won't come. You will not come. You refuse to come. Some people say, well you know my family. I just can't do this. My family is involved in this or that or the other. No, no. It's not that you can't come. You won't come. You will not come. Some people say, well John you just don't know my past. You don't know what I've been through. You don't know what all I've done. Certainly God could not forgive me. I can't come. No, it's not that you can't come. It's that you won't come. Be honest. Face up to it. The Bible makes it clear that God's love and grace is great enough and wide enough to accept and forgive anyone no matter what you've done to make any provision for your life that you need, no matter where you are. And really the problem is you won't come. You will not come. You refuse to come. Unwillingness, you must. You must be willing to bow the knee to Christ and to say I am a lost sinner who needs Jesus as my savior. It is a matter of your will bending to the will of God and to the will of Jesus and trusting him as your savior. But then he says there's another problem and that's hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. Verse 41, he says, I do not accept glory from human beings. In other words, I'm not looking for affirmation from you. That's not the reason I'm saying this. That's not the deal here. Verse 42, but I do know you. I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. Whoa. Do you realize who he's saying this to? He's talking about their hypocrisy. I know you do not have the love of God in your hearts. He's talking to Old Testament scholars, the religious leaders of Israel. And you don't have the love of God in your hearts. You see Jesus can look deep into the heart beyond, beyond the surface, beyond the sham, beyond the role that we play. And he can look directly into the heart and see our hypocrisy. He knows exactly where we are. He knows exactly where you are. Jesus knows if you're really placing your confidence in the fact that you come to church, you're a pretty decent person, you're at least trying hard to get better and do better. You're willing to do anything to try to please God within reason. Jesus knows if that's really what you're basing your hope of eternal life in. Jesus knows if you think you're okay because you come to church or you're a church member or you were baptized when you were a kid, he knows that. He knows what you're placing your faith in. He knows your heart and he knows whether or not you really know him, whether or not you really trusted Christ. He knows whether or not you're just religious or whether you really have a relationship with him. It's possible to be a hypocrite. For any of us it's possible to be a hypocrite. But it's possible to hide behind a religious veneer, a religious front or a show and not really from your heart have received Christ. There are lots of people who make a great profession of religion. They come to church, they sing, they pray, they give, they teach, they preach. And don't know Jesus. The important thing is not your pedigree or your list of accomplishments on your resume religiously. The important thing is have you come to Christ as a sinner who needs to be saved? That's the important thing. And so hypocrisy keeps a lot of people away from Christ. But there's a third reason Jesus nails them on and that is pride, verse 44. How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? And oh that was so true of them. They sought glory from one another and a lot of it had to do with their religious pedigree and their teachings. Rabbi So-and-So is known for this view and he's got this many followers and Rabbi So-and-So over here is known for this view and this teaching and this study and he's got all these followers and they were looking for praise from each other and advancement in the ranks. That's all they were concerned about. They weren't concerned about the glory, the praise that comes from God for his children when he looks at us and says you're mine, you're mine. I love you, you're my child. They weren't looking for that kind of glory that comes from the only God. They're accepting glory from one another, pride. You know pride holds a lot of people back from coming to Christ. The pride of thinking, well what will people think if they realize I've never been saved. I'm a good person. The pride of even being willing to admit, of being unwilling to admit that you're a sinner, that you need Christ, that you cannot get yourself to heaven, that you need someone to do that for you. That takes humility. Anyone who comes to the Savior must humble themselves to recognize they cannot do it on their own and so for that reason a lot of people allow pride to keep them from Christ. I remember the story of Naaman in the Old Testament, you may recall the story. Naaman is the captain of the Syrian army, the enemy of Israel, but he's the top dog militarily in that country. But he's got leprosy. That story short, there's a servant girl from Israel who knows about Elisha and says, I know where you can go to get help. And he eventually gets to Elisha to find help for his leprosy. You know what Elisha does? Elisha sends a messenger a servant out to tell him what to do. Oh, that did not go well with this high and mighty military guy. The Bible says he got raging mad. And he said, I thought the prophet himself would come out and strike his hand over the place and call down something from heaven, you know, something spectacular because I'm worthy of that. And then the cure was to go dip into Jordan River seven times and he got mad at that too. We got better rivers than Jordan. I'm not going to do that. And that old dirty stream, his problem was pride. And he was not willing to humble himself, to accept the remedy that God said would cure his leprosy. And there are a lot of people like that who are so proud they're not willing to humble themselves to say, God, I can't get myself to heaven. I am not good enough. I am a sinner and I need Jesus as my savior. Pride keeps a lot of people out of heaven and sends them to hell. Reason for the rejection quickly. I want you to notice the result of the rejection in verses 45. Greta, you're pride. Why didn't I forget about others and their opinion? Because when you stand before God, you will recognize in that they only one person's opinion counts and that's God's. The result of rejecting Christ is judgment, the judgment of God, but also the judgment of the Word. Notice he says, you're going to have an accuser when you stand before God and that accuser is Moses on whom your hopes are set. And boy, their hopes were set on Moses. They thought they were the disciples of Moses. They would say as much in chapter 9 when Jesus heals the man born blind and the man can't really tell him who Jesus is and they're questioning him. And he finally says something about Jesus and they say, you're one of his disciples. We're disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses as far as this guy's concerned, when will he know where he comes from? We're Moses disciples. Yeah. Yeah. Jesus said, you're pinning all your hopes on Moses. He said, I'm telling you, Moses is going to be your accuser in the day of judgment. In other words, the writings of Moses, the Word of God will be the accuser. Jesus will be the judge. He's already told us that in verse 27, all authority is given to the Son of Man to judge. He'll be the judge, but the prosecuting attorney will be the Word of God. It is the Bible. It is the Bible that will be the book against which we are measured in that day. Did you realize that some of you will have the very passages you're hearing in the gospel of John brought up at your judgment? If you refuse to trust Jesus, if you do not trust him and you stand before God at the great white throne judgment, you may well hear the accusation of John chapter 5, the accusation of John chapter 3, or other passages of God's Word that God used to speak to your heart and you knew he was speaking to your heart and you rejected. You pulled back. You wouldn't trust Christ. And you'll hear those very scriptures accuse you. God will say, I gave you warning. I told you. I warned you through my Word. The Word of God will accuse in the day of judgment. My friend, in that day, I assure you you will realize the worst tragedy of all, the greatest tragedy of all of eternity is the fact that you rejected Christ. No financial setback can even begin to compare. No loss of employment can begin to compare. No rack that totals your vehicle can begin to compare. No loss of a family member can begin to compare. All of those fade into insignificance when you realize that to reject Christ means you'll spend an eternity in hell separated from God. That is the greatest tragedy of all. Jesus said it best himself in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 26 when he said, what good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul or what can anyone give an exchange for their soul? Jesus is saying, even if everything goes well for you and you get everything this world has to offer, if you lose your soul, you've lost the only possession that you've lost. That is eternal. Everything else is going to pass with the passing of time and you'll leave it here on this earth. The only thing you'll carry out of the eternity with you is your soul. It's the greatest possession you have and if you neglect your soul and don't reject or don't receive Christ, if you reject Him, you will suffer the ultimate tragedy of an eternity in hell because of that. I plead with you receive Christ today so that you make sure you will not face any eternal tragedy, one that far, far outweighs any tragedy this world has ever seen. Receive Christ today, my friend. Trust Him today. Let's pray together. Father I pray for those in this building this morning who need Jesus as Savior. Lord I'm convinced that in a congregation of this size they're surely or some who've not bent the knee to Christ who've never trusted Jesus and I pray that today they be willing to do that. I pray that you would speak to hearts and draw people to yourself as Savior. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.