Better Than Scripture
Notes
Transcript
John 5:30-41
Is He Talking About Me?
Is He Talking About Me?
Useful question I have learned to ask myself: “Maybe I am the idiot in this conversation.”
Trying to do my taxes last year, asking about re-characterizing part of Roth IRA funds as a regular IRA. Escalating through support. This is supposed to be simple. And they just aren’t listening.
And I keep getting higher and higher, and they just don’t get it. Finally, I am on the phone with the CEO of Lincoln Financial. Not really, but some super smart, super competent, very patient person, you can just hear it coming through the phone.
And I thoroughly explain my situation and what I want to do. She calmly repeats what I think the situation is… and then tells me what the situation actually is.
And then I remember my question: “Maybe I am the idiot in this conversation.” See our plan isn’t a Roth IRA at all, it’s a Roth 401k and that’s a totally different thing.
I kind of think they were trying to explain all along… and I’m the idiot in the conversation.
But, just so you know… that is absolutely the only time I was ever wrong or an idiot in any conversation. Since that day.
When we come to the stories of Jesus, we get a lot of stories of people being idiots. John loves to show us people showing faith… but partially. People getting it… and then showing how little they fully understood. And we get to laugh with the studio audience as the disciples stumble and fail, as people misunderstand Jesus, as the Pharisees and other religious experts just bumble and bungle their way through every Jesus encounter.
Jesus and the Religious Experts
Jesus and the Religious Experts
Recap, Healing at the Pool
Then Jesus lays out his claims: Son of God and Son of Man. Does what the Father does, has the power of life and death, has the power of resurrection and will judge all mankind.
Then he turns to the idea of credibility. Of witness. Why should one believe all his crazy claims? His extreme claims? The miracles aren’t enough to justify everything that Jesus is claiming, his words aren’t enough.
But Jesus doesn’t step into a vacuum. He comes to his own people… and they knew him not. God has been preparing his people for thousands of years for this moment. He called out a people, he shaped them as a family. He shaped them tribally. He shaped them into a nation. He
John 5:30-47
30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
John was the epitome of the prophet. He really is the capstone on everything leading up to Jesus, he is the prophet proclaiming the coming Messiah, he is calling God’s people to repentance as all the prophets do. He is a voice from God when many believe that God has been silent to them for centuries. And he is popular and people are flooding to him, and being baptized for the forgiveness of sins… but you won’t listen to his main message, his main teaching, it is all about Jesus.
36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.
And you’ve seen the miracles, the signs and wonders! They just saw an invalid be healed and they were just upset about him carrying his mat on the Sabbath. Jesus is performing miracles that back up his testimony and John’s testimony… but it’s even bigger than that.
37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen,
How has the Father been bearing witness to Jesus? For thousands of years he has been preparing his people. All the way back to Eve at the Fall, Abraham in the Promise, Job saw his redeemer, David’s child of promise, the Messiah of the Prophets… the Father has been bearing witness, and those words and those scrolls are there… and these are the people who have been studying…
But they do not recognize Jesus.
38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
This is a terrifying idea.
41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 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. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
He is speaking to the religious experts of the day.
This is a room full of religious experts. We search the Scriptures. We study the Scriptures. We put a huge value on the Bible, that is such a big part of who we are.
I get all the reasons we immediately think this doesn’t apply to us… they are the ones who don’t get it. They are the ones who don’t understand.
They read and they read. They studied. And they thought they understood. And if you wanted to impress someone in the Synagogue you probably cited something obscure and how it related to something else obscure. Or talked about the origin of some word. Or how Israelites five hundred years ago were in this situation and so this reference refers to this King or that ancient custom.
Guys, I DO THAT STUFF ALL THE TIME!!! That’s like my thing.
And I asked myself this week Maybe I’m the idiot in this conversation with Jesus. Should I be convicted here? And maybe just asking that question is the definition of feeling convicted.
I am studying the Scriptures. And you are too, just sitting here counts. And as we study we are forming some strong opinions about who Jesus is and our expectations of him. Our understanding of God and our expectations of what he is going to do. God does this, he doesn’t do this. Jesus likes this and not that. Jesus would never do that, he would never vote that way, he would love them, shun them and be really proud of ME!
We have expectations based on Scripture. That’s just true.
And if someone shows up claiming to be Jesus… how am I going to test that? I am going to see if it lines up with the way I expect Jesus to show up. And do his words line up with what he said before?
But I have to ask myself: maybe I’m the idiot in this conversation.
So how do we do it differently?
Getting to Know You All About You
Getting to Know You All About You
Memoires of my great grandfather. It is cool. It is interesting. It is my past, so it kind of effects how I got here… but it is at a remove. It is history.
Getting to know my Dad through stories about him growing up. Stories about him meeting my Mom, about him as kid learning to be a sorcerer. Magician. That is his story.
Story of my Dad in King and I, body paint as a Siamese bodyguard. Now you know something about him. But he and my mom have their house in escrow and will be spending a lot more time out here soon… so you are going to go with that mental image next time you meet him. You see how that’s different thing? Now it’s personal. A little too personal.
Coming to Scripture to know Jesus. This takes some Godly imagination. We read this chapter… but we believe that that same Jesus is alive today, has given us the Holy Spirit and that we are alive in him. So there is this sense in which, even now, by faith, unseen, we are connected. And so I think this can transform our reading of Scripture. When we read the story, like of Jesus healing the blind man, we read not just about Jesus but with Jesus.
You can call this prayer, you can call it imagination, the movie in our minds, but in the same way I might ask my Dad, asking Jesus to fill in the story. How many people were there? Why heal that guy? And what a jerk that guy was, Jesus, he didn’t ever thank you, got you in trouble…
And what would I have done if I was there? If I was that guy? If I was watching? Would I have been like the Pharisees?
Finally, this is why we study Scripture communally. This is the Body of Christ. And he has called some to be students of the word, preachers and teachers… and that feeds and prepares the rest of the body to also be tongues and hands and feet and legs and all of the things to be and bring Jesus to a world who desperately needs Jesus.
We come to His word in the Community of Christ that we might be the Body of Christ and see his word made Living among us. If it’s just History than its dead and buried. But if Jesus is alive, then he says
I don’t want to set my hope on Moses. I will not depend on law keeping.
I don’t want to set my hope on Scriptural knowledge. I do not have this thing memorized. I do not understand everything it says… and I don’t measure up to everything I do understand.
I don’t want to miss Jesus. I only want to read and study Scripture as and because in it I get to know and better follow Jesus. This is his story. We read with him not about him. With His Spirit. With His people.
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
Let’s continue to follow, continue to come to Jesus that we may have life in him.
