John 5,39-47. 1. Sunday after Trinity

 ✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

John 5,39-47              3619

1. Sn. n. Trinitatis  046   

Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea, ✠ 379 

23. Juni 2019 

1. O Holy Spirit, the Giver of the Holy Scriptures, help us to see Christ throughout the Old Testament, so that we receive faith and wisdom to understand the words of Moses and thus understand the words of Jesus.  Amen. (John 5,46-47) 

2. »Jesus said to them: „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 draw unto Me so 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 arrived in My Father’s Name, and you do not receive Me. If another arrives in his own name, then you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that arrives 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, then you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, then how will you believe My words?“«  

  3. In John 5, Jesus accuses the Jewish leaders, most likely the scribes and Pharisees, of not believing Him. Jesus knows that they search the Scriptures, and the Pharisees were very diligent in reading and applying the Scriptures to every day life. They believe that eternal life is to be found in the same Scriptures. On these 2 points, Jesus, Christians and the Pharisees agree: 1. We should diligently study and apply the Scriptures; and 2. Eternal life is found in the Scriptures. But Jesus makes a 3. point: the Scriptures bear witness about Me; you Pharisees refuse to believe that I am the Christ promised in those Scriptures which give us eternal life.  

4. This is the great divide still today between Jews and Christians: we both affirm the 39 books from Genesis to Malachi to be the Scriptures, but the Jews refuse to see in the Scriptures that Jesus is the fulfillment of them. Jesus told the Pharisees that the Scriptures bear witness about Him. Following His resurrection, Jesus, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, interpreted to His disciples all the Scriptures concerning Himself (Luke 24,27). The Apostles continue to show Christ foretold in the Scriptures: »God foretold by the mouth of all the Prophets that His Christ would suffer, He thus fulfilled. Haven’t received Christ Jesus until the timer for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy Prophets long ago. And all the Prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who arrive after him, also proclaimed these days« (Acts 3,18.21.24). 

  5. Christians fall short just as the unbelieving Jews do. Consistent polls reveal that 52% of American Christians believe at least 1 non-Christian religion leads to eternal life. The Scriptures cannot be any clearer on this point: there is salvation only in Christ Jesus. Jesus Himself proclaimed: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one goes to the Father except through Me« (John 14,6). The Apostles Peter and John also told the Jewish leaders (Sanhedrin?): »This Jesus is the Stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the Cornerstone. And there is salvation and no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved« (Acts 4,11-12). 

6. Both the Old Testament and New Testament affirm this salvation in Jesus alone. Jesus says: »If you believed in Moses, then you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me.« Jesus has in mind here 4 specific times Moses pointed the way to the Christ: 1. the Seed of the woman who would strike the serpent (Genesis 3,15); 2. the Seed of Abraham (Genesis 22,17); 3. the Scepter of Judah (Genesis 49,10); and 4. the Prophet whom the people should look for after Moses (Deuteronomy 18,15). 

7. Jesus argues that He does not alone bear witness about Himself; Moses, John the Baptizer and the Father bear witness about Him, and therefore Jesus’ testimony is true (John 5,31-33.37). Moses and all the Prophets point to Jesus. The Jews have no excuse as to not believe. Christians have no excuse to believe Jesus is the only way to salvation. We search the Scriptures because in them we have eternal life, for it is they that bear witness about Jesus, Jesus alone for our salvation.  Amen.  

8. Let us pray. O Lord, Your testimonies are righteous forever; send to us the Holy Spirit to give us understanding of Your Holy Scriptures that point to Christ, so that we may have eternal life.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.