#DailyDevotion Can I Get A Witness?
Saturday after Trinity
John 3:11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Who is this we that Jesus is talking about? Well this reading is appointed for Trinity Sunday. Does that help? Jesus is speaking of himself, the Father and the Holy Spirit. In John, Jesus says, Joh 5:37 ESV “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 Joh 8:18 ESV “I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” How does the Father bear witness to Jesus. There is his baptism and the mount of Transfiguration where the Father spoke and bore witness, “This is my beloved Son.” But on top of that, the works Jesus did in the Father’s name bore witness to Jesus. Since they were done in the Father’s name it is as the Father was indeed bearing witness. You might remember Nicodemus saying, “We know you are from God because no one could do what you’re doing if God were not with him.
Secondly, the Spirit bears witness. Jesus said, Joh 15:26 ESV “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” So now the Holy Spirit bears witness to the same truth about Jesus. He, through the apostles bore witness to Jesus’ mighty acts, his teaching and his resurrection from the dead.
Thirdly, Jesus also bears witness concerning himself. Jesus’ teaching and Jesus’ works bear witness he is the life and light of the world. They bear witness Jesus is not of this world but was sent by the Father. Jesus taught as Moses truly taught and not as the Scribes and Pharisees who had perverted God’s law.
Now what do the Father, Son and Holy Spirit bear witness to? That God loved the world. He love the world so much he sent his only begotten Son Jesus into the world to die by crucifixion to be an atoning sacrifice. He sent his son not to condemn the world but to save the world through him. We have this promise, if we look to Jesus Christ and him crucified we shall be saved even as those Israelites were saved who believed the word of Moses and looked at the bronze serpent. Will you look to Jesus Christ and be saved today?
Heavenly Father, you have borne witness to Jesus through the works he did in your name. Lord Jesus Christ you have borne witness through your teaching and rising from the dead. Holy Spirit, you have borne witness through the teaching of the apostles. O Holy Trinity, grant us faith to believe your witness and look to Jesus Christ for our salvation and receive eternal life. Amen.