The Son's Witnesses

In this message from John 5:31-47, Pastor Rockhill takes up Jesus' response to the religious leaders who had charged Him with blasphemy for claiming equality with God. His central burden is that God has provided abundant, undeniable witness to the identity of Jesus as the eternal Son, so that those who reject Him are left entirely without excuse. Pastor Rockhill unfolds these witnesses, moving from the lesser to the greater. He begins with the "lesser" yet true witness of John the Baptist, that burning and shining lamp who pointed to the Lamb of God, and then turns to the greater witness of the Father Himself. The Father testifies through the mighty works and signs Jesus performed and through the Scriptures, which from Moses onward bear witness to Christ. Pastor Rockhill stresses that the Old Testament everywhere testifies of the coming Messiah, and that true searching of Scripture leads the heart to Jesus for life. The doctrine is sharpened by a sober diagnosis of unbelief. The leaders did not believe because they had no love of God in their hearts, because they craved the honor of men rather than the honor of God, and because they trusted in Moses and their own law-keeping rather than in Christ. Pastor Rockhill shows that Moses and the law, rightly understood, point to the one perfect law-keeper and accuse those who reject Him. By way of application, he calls believers to rest in God's truth without anxious self-defense, to discern when to shake the dust from their feet, and above all to humble themselves before these witnesses and come to Christ for eternal life.