If you do not believe Moses how will you believe me?

Dirty life comes from Dusty Bibles…..

Today in our passage Jesus is having a conversation with some extremely self righteous Pharisees and trying to get them to understand and believe that he is the Son of God. You see, in ancient times, before there were security cameras, cell phone recorders, and all the tech we have now to verify stories, the testimony of 2 other people was required to prove any debatable point true. And so Jesus is building his case as the Son of God by the testimony of John the Baptist, the testimony of God, the testimony of his works, and the testimony of the Scriptures. All of these things point to Jesus’ identity as the Son of God.

Today I want to really think about Jesus’ claims about how the Scriptures point to who he is and his ministry. Now, let’s set some context and understandings before we get started here

First, we must remember that when Jesus talks about “Scriptures” he is talking about the OT. You see, when we talk about the Scriptures or the Bible we are talking about 66 books, right? Genesis to Revelation. But when Jesus talks about the Scriptures he is talking about 39 books, the Old Testament. In fact, think of this for a moment; when someone asks me to teach them about Jesus, or why I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who offers eternal life 9 times out of 10 I open my Bible to the New Testament, I am in John’s Gospel, or Romans, or 2 Corinthians. The books that I use to prove who Jesus is were not even written when Jesus came to Earth and was testifying about himself.

In fact, I honestly cannot tell you the last time someone asked me who Jesus is and I opened to an Old Testament Scripture as a primary text----but that is the only thing Jesus used.

Second, we must remember that the Bible is one story- and it is the story of Jesus. Now, for many of us we have been operating this Bible for most of, if not all of our lives; so some of the ways it is set up for us has become second nature. But the chapters and verses were not added until 1551 by a publisher by the name of Robert Stephenus. But consider someone who has not read this book, or someone who is new the faith. It’s one book; but 2 Testaments, and there are 66 books inside of them; and those are broken down into chapters, and then those chapters have little snippets called verses. So the whole story of God’s redemption of his people has been divided into all these sections, and I am not saying that is bad; I am saying it can lend us to seeing the Bible as separate stories and teachings and forgetting that it is one big story. The Bible is to be seen as a whole. For example, the story of the Good Samaritan is not a story that should just be taught as a one time lesson; it belongs inside a whole story of God’s work in the world.

The Old Testament is not an expired text; it is a fulfilled text- the things in it are still profitable and beneficial to us as believers. We cannot just say- glad we don’t need that anymore.

As one of the authors I read this week said- the Old Testament is not just prophecy, it is preparation. The authors were not just telling people that the Messiah was coming, they were preparing hearts for his arrival.

Jesus is all over the OT. Yes, some of those are in Prophecies and predictions; but consider this for a moment. In John 14:7 “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”” and in John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”” Jesus says that He and the Father are one.

So every time God shows up in the OT Jesus is there too. We must remember that Jesus might have shown up on Earth in Matthew; but he was with God and was God in the beginning; Jesus was not waiting backstage for God to call him out.

Let me give you one of my favorite examples of Jesus in the OT and it is actually in the very next chapter.

What I love about Jesus’ teaching in this passage is he address both ends of the crazy pendulum swing that so many people have with the Bible. And I want to dig into his teaching today

The Bible Does not Save You

John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,”

The Pharisees knew their Bibles, and they obeyed them to the T. There are a lot of things that you can accuse the Pharisees of, but their devotion to the study and application of the OT Law is not one of them.

The problem is, they were looking to the law to save them. Romans 3:20 “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

Friends, you can memorize this entire book. You can comb over it with a fine tooth comb and obey every word in it in ever circumstance and still miss out on salvation; because Salvation is only found in Jesus and all of the Bible points to him. And yes that goes for both the OT and NT

It is sad, and ironic for these Pharisees; they had spent so much time and effort examining the Scriptures and when the Messiah shows up they miss him because the veil their self righteousness had created. Friends, the Bible God’s Word for God’s people; but the Bible does not save us. It points us to the one who does.

Think of it this way. You are suffocating and in need of oxygen- so you find a mask and place it on your face. You begin to breath only to find that there is no oxygen coming into your lungs- why? Because the mask is not connected to a tank- it is not the mask that saves you; it is the precious gas that comes through the mask. The Bible is the vehicle that God’s truth, God’s instruction, and God’s message of Salvation flows through.

Jesus says that it is in him that we find life.

You cannot believe Jesus and Not believe the Bible

A few years ago I watched an interview with someone who stated they were a Christian and they believed in Jesus, and a few minutes later they said they were not a “Biblical Christian” and I was really confused. Because the only kind of Christian is a Biblical Christian- Jesus says as much a few times; like in this passage in John 5:46–47 “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?””

The person went on to say that they believed in the teachings of Jesus, but that the Bible as a whole was full of errors and that the Bible was no longer relevant to an advanced society such as ours. This person then spent the next few minutes trying to disconnect the teachings of Jesus from the rest of the Bible and I was honestly flabbergasted.

But here’s the thing, this kind of thinking is not really all that uncommon anymore; and it is not just in the world- it is all over the church. Many Biblical scholars, preachers, and seminaries attempt to jettison the words of Jesus from the overall teaching of the Bible, and frankly that is impossible.

And what results is a generation of believers who say they love Jesus; but they have no love for his Word. But of course this is impossible; for as John tells us Jesus is the incarnate Word of God.

If you embrace the Bible and not Jesus you are a Pharisee

If you embrace Jesus and not the Bible you are a mystic

To be a Christian we must embrace both.

Finally-

2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,”

There are 2 things on this Earth that are said to contain the breath of God- Mankind and the Scriptures. We are made for one another. The Bible is not just a historical text or a collection of wise writings- It is God breathed- or God inspired.

That is why I often tell people; you cannot have more of Jesus in your life without more of the Bible.

Y’all know I love my coffee- and I like my coffee strong. How do you make strong coffee, friends? It’s not by adding more water; or creamer; or sugar; it’s by adding more coffee and letting it steep.

When we need more Jesus we need to steep more on God’s Word.