Whether you are reading Leviticus—as we are as a church are over the next few weeks—or whether you are seeking to decide how it is you should live as a Christian, whatever it is you are doing, it has got to be focused on Jesus. That is the lesson of John 5.
Remember that whenever we see pronouncements made against the religious leaders in the New Testament, we have got to apply those to ourselves. Because the majority of us in AP are religious people. We are the Pharisees of our own day. That is where things are at now.
So we need to pay attention—and especially so if we are religious. I am religious. I am one of the religious leaders. And so I need to think through, well, how can I make sure that I am really listening to what Jesus says here?
And it is this: I need to look at Jesus. I need to say, ‘Thank you, Father, for testifying about your Son in the Bible. And thank you, Father, for the Holy Spirit who is on Jesus, who John the Baptist saw on Jesus and confirmed who Jesus was. Thank you also for the works of Jesus, which also testify to you.’
And I need to really think through my relationship with the Bible. Every time I study the Scriptures, I need not to think, ‘This is a book of methods to get me into heaven.’ Instead, I need to think, ‘This is a book that testifies about Jesus.’
And so my only conclusion from reading the Bible should be, ‘Oh, here is Jesus.’ I have read the word of God and ended up meeting the Word of God (note the capital W).
I believe in the one that the Father has sent. I have never seen the Father’s form. I have never heard the Father’s voice. But I believe in the Father, and I pray that his word would dwell in me simply because I believe in the one that the Father sent.
And in all my diligent study of Scripture, I must see Jesus. If I do not see Jesus when I study the Bible, then I have missed the whole point of the Bible.
I must come to Jesus to have life. I must ask that God put his love in my heart. I must stop looking for glory from human beings, but instead accept Jesus. I must stop looking to those who come in their own name and instead look to Jesus, who comes in the name of his Father.
Accept Jesus. He is the one who is the glory from God.
If I read the Bible and I do not see Jesus, then Moses accuses me. Or whatever part of the Bible you are reading—if you are reading Paul’s letters and failing to see Jesus, then Paul accuses you. If you are reading Matthew’s Gospel and failing to come to Jesus, then Matthew is accusing you. Whatever part of the Bible you are reading—Job, Malachi, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel—those men accuse you if you read them and do not come to Jesus as a result.
If you are not seeing Jesus in the Bible, then you are missing the whole point of the Bible. You are being accused, as the Pharisees were.
If you believed in those prophets, then you would believe in Jesus, for those prophets—and Moses especially in the context of John 5—wrote about Jesus. That is there plainly in verse 46: ‘He wrote about me.’
So believe what Moses wrote, so that you may believe what Jesus said.
