Three Witnesses That Prove His Identity

We live in a world where it’s getting harder and harder to know what’s real. AI-generated deepfakes are dominating our social media feeds. Sometimes it’s obviously made up. Sometimes it’s harder to know what’s genuine and what’s fake. I’ve even had someone impersonate me through email, creating an address with my name on it and asking church members to go buy gift cards. When a church member reached out and asked, “Are you sure you really want me to buy that many gift cards?” I had to tell them — that wasn’t me.

Identity matters. A lot. It’s important in banking, in legal matters, in voting. But today I want to submit to you that there’s no identity that needs to be identified more accurately than the identity of Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus? Who did he claim to be? Did he exist, and what did he actually say about himself?

Authority and Identity Must Match

Think about it this way. Imagine you’re driving down the road and you see flashing sirens in your rearview mirror — but they’re yellow. You pull over, and instead of a police SUV, it’s some old beat-up car. The guy who walks up is wearing basketball shorts and a vest, and his badge is plastic. When he says, “License and registration, please,” you’re going to say — what? No. Because authority and identity have to match.

That’s exactly what’s at stake in John chapter 5. Jesus is in the middle of a heated argument with the religious leaders of his day. It started when Jesus walked into a place called Bethesda, a pool where sick, blind, and disabled people gathered, believing that when an angel stirred the water, the first person in would be healed. Jesus walked past all of them, went right to one man who had been disabled for 38 years, and said, “Rise, take up your bed and walk” (John 5:8). The man immediately did it.

The problem? Jesus did this on the Sabbath — the Jewish day of rest. The religious leaders were more concerned that someone carried a mat on the Sabbath than they were with the fact that a man who hadn’t walked in 38 years was now walking. And when Jesus told them, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (John 5:17), they wanted to kill him — because, as John 5:18 tells us, “he had not only broken the Sabbath…but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.”

Jesus claimed to be equal with God in his identity, equal with God in his works, and equal with God in his judgment. He even said in John 5:28-29, “The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”

This 30-something-year-old man in robes and sandals was saying: I am equal with God, and every person who has ever lived will be resurrected and judged by me. If you believe in me, it’s to life. If you don’t, it’s to damnation.

That kind of claim leaves you with only three options. He’s either a liar — he knows it’s not true and says it anyway. He’s a lunatic — he believes it’s true even though it’s not. Or he’s actually going to back up the claim. He’s Lord.

The Witnesses Who Confirm Jesus Is Who He Says He Is

In Deuteronomy 17, God established a legal principle that still shapes our justice system today: “At the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.” One person can’t just make a claim — there has to be corroborating evidence.

Jesus understood this. In John 5:31, he says, “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.” He’s not saying he could lie — Jesus claimed to be “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). He’s saying: I’m not the only one making this claim. And then he brings the witnesses.

Witness #1: The Forerunner — John the Baptist

Jesus says in John 5:33, “Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.” John the Baptist was a real historical figure, foretold in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, who came before Jesus specifically to prepare the way. And the very Pharisees arguing with Jesus had already sent priests and Levites to ask John, “Who are you? Are you the Messiah? Are you a prophet?” (John 1:19-21). They were already recognizing that God was up to something.

John’s testimony? “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). As John 1:6-9 tells us, John “came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.” Jesus says John was like a burning and shining light — pointing to him.

And here’s what strikes me about this whole argument. Jesus says in John 5:34, “These things I say, that ye might be saved.” Even as he’s arguing with the Pharisees, he wants them saved. Don’t mistake disagreement for hatred. If someone is believing the wrong things about something that’s destroying them, to be for that person means being against the thing that’s hurting them. Jesus wasn’t arguing with these men because he hated them. He came to save them.

Witness #2: The Works — Miracles That Can’t Be Denied

Jesus says in John 5:36, “The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me.” The man who hadn’t walked in 38 years — there he was, walking. That’s Exhibit A.

There’s another story that makes this point powerfully. Jesus was teaching in a packed house when four men carried their disabled friend on a mat to get to him — but they couldn’t get through the crowd. So they went up on the roof and tore it open, lowering their friend down by ropes. Jesus, seeing their faith, said something unexpected: “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark 2:5). The Pharisees were furious — because only God can forgive sins. So Jesus asked them: Is it easier to say your sins are forgiven, or to say rise, take up your bed and walk? And then he told the man to get up — and he did.

The works you could see substantiated the authority you could not see. Why did Jesus rise from the dead? So that we would know that when he died on the cross and paid for our sins, God accepted it. Nobody gets up out of the grave by themselves.

Witness #3: The Word — Scripture Points to Jesus

Jesus says in John 5:39, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” The religious leaders knew the Scriptures well enough to read and memorize them — but not well enough to submit to the truth of them. To read the Old Testament and reject Jesus is to misunderstand Scripture entirely.

Moses himself wrote in Deuteronomy 18:15, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken.” That’s a direct prophecy about the coming Messiah. And as Galatians 3:24 tells us, “The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” The law wasn’t meant to save us — it was meant to show us we can’t save ourselves, and point us to the one who can.

After his resurrection, Jesus walked with his disciples and, beginning with Moses and going through all the prophets, “he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). The whole of the Old Testament proclaims the identity and authority of Jesus.

Why This Matters — The Four Consequences of Getting Jesus Wrong

So what happens when you deny that Jesus is God? There are four real consequences.

First, you can’t properly interpret Scripture. The testimony of the entire Bible is that Jesus is the Son of God — corroborated by prophets, spoken of hundreds of years before he arrived. To get Jesus’ identity wrong is to get the Bible wrong.

Second, you cannot love God. Jesus said plainly in John 5:42, “I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.” If you reject the Son, you don’t love the Father.

Third, you cannot honor God. There is no other way to God but through Jesus.

Fourth, you cannot avoid judgment. Jesus said in John 5:45, “There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.” You have the ability to reject Jesus — but you do not have the ability to reject Jesus and spend eternity in heaven. You have the freedom to choose. You do not have the freedom to choose the consequences of your choice.

Putting It Into Practice

So why does any of this matter for your life today?

Romans 5:6-8 says it plainly: “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly…God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus is the only one who kept the law you couldn’t keep. He’s the only one who paid your debt. He was condemned so that you wouldn’t have to be.

There will be a resurrection. Those who believe — to life. Those who don’t — to condemnation. Choose life.

Here’s how:

• Examine the witnesses honestly. Don’t reject Jesus because of what other people might think. As Proverbs 29:25 warns, “The fear of man bringeth a snare.” The Pharisees rejected Jesus not because there was no evidence — but because accepting him would cost them their reputation and position. Don’t make the same mistake.
• Search the Scriptures. The Bible — Old Testament and New — tells one unified story, and Jesus is at the center of it. Start reading, and ask God to help you see it clearly.
• Choose Jesus. Not a religion. Not a set of rules. The person of Jesus Christ, who is exactly who he said he was — God in the flesh, who died for your sins and rose from the dead.

How do you choose life? You choose Jesus.