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Introduction:
One Friday night, I was out late while Marita and the kids were
out of town. At about 1:30 AM, I entered my house and walked up
the stairs. I left the lights off because I was planning on going
straight to my room and read the book I had just purchased. When I
opened the door to my bedroom at the top of the stairs in the
dark, a man was standing there. I nearly fell down the stairs in
fright. Quickly, however, I realized it was not a real man, but
rather someone (perhaps I should say some two) had snuck into my
house and staged a life size cardboard poster of a man right
inside my bedroom door. Just thinking about the shock that gave me
causes my heart to pound even now. Every now and then, when I am
reading my Bible, I come across a statement that shocks me like
this. These statements are unexpected, surprising and sometimes
even frightening. This week, as we continued our “Give Attention
to Reading” trek through the New Testament I read John
5:39-40. “You search the Scripture because you think
that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear
witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have
life.” This passage sent shivers up my spine. One thing you will
hear me preach regularly is about how we need to search the
Scriptures. I will quote Acts
17:11 to say we need to be like the Bereans who searched
the Scriptures daily. One of the most important aspects of
Christian growth is knowing the Word. This passage says we can
search the Scriptures and still not have the life God offers. Most
of you have heard me teach. You have heard the emphasis I place on
studying and knowing the Bible. Can you imagine what a shock that
was to me? How could these men search the Scriptures, believe
eternal life could be found there and yet still not have the life?
Worse, is it possible that is happening to us? To me? The fact is,
I don’t want to win any awards for most Bible knowledge. I want
eternal life. I imagine you are the same. If we truly want eternal
life above all else, we need to examine the context of this
passage lest we come to judgment and learn we searched the
Scriptures but are still dead. Discussion: I.
If you would have life, come to Jesus. A.
According to John
5:40, these Jews didn’t have life because they came to
the Scriptures, but they would not come to Jesus. If we want life,
it is not enough to come to the Bible, we actually have to come to
Jesus. This doesn’t mean we avoid the Scriptures. Rather, it
means we keep the Scriptures in their proper place. The Bible is
not the end but the means to the end. We must not study the Bible
merely to know the Bible. We must study the Bible in order to have
a relationship with Jesus Christ. B.
This controversy started in John
5:8-10 because Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and told
that man to take up his bed and walk. The Jews had studied the
Scriptures enough to delineate all manner of rules regarding the
Sabbath day. Somehow, however, it never occurred to them one who
could heal a man lame for 38 years might know more about the
Sabbath than they did. They searched the Scriptures in order to
perpetuate their rules and traditions, but they ignored the parts
that testified of Jesus (John
5:45-47). C.
We need to remember the Bible is not the way, the truth and
the life, Jesus is (John
14:6). Don’t misunderstand; I recognize we cannot know
the way, the truth and the life apart from the Bible. We just have
to keep it in its proper place. The Bible is our means to knowing
Jesus and through Him having eternal life (cf. John
20:30-31). We must not be so enamored with how much we
know the Word of God that we neglect to know God the Word (cf. John
1:1). D.
I
Corinthians 8:1
provides good insight into knowing the difference here. Knowledge
puffs up but love builds up. When our Bible study merely makes us
militant, harsh and arrogant we are spending too much time just
knowing the Word of God and not enough time knowing God the Word.
Proper Bible study should humble us and push us to serve even the
ones with whom we disagree. Proper Bible study should make us more
like Jesus. Then we are gaining life. II.
If you would have life, believe all of Jesus’ Word. A.
In John
5:46-47, Jesus rebuked the Jews because they did not
believe Moses. On a blanket level, this was not exactly true. They
knew Moses’ writings. They believed Moses. That was how they
were able to argue so vehemently about the Sabbath laws. The
problem was they were picking and choosing the parts they listened
to. They studied and hashed out the parts that displayed the
minutest details of law they could follow and look good before
men. On the other hand, passages that foreshadowed the Messiah
(cf. Isaiah
53) they overlooked. Those were not as important to them. B.
If we would have life, we have to believe all of Jesus’
Word. It is too easy to become a hobby rider. I don’t know how
many Christians I have met that every time you talk to them
somehow they get the conversation back around to their pet peeves.
They have studied the Scriptures inside and out on certain issues.
We can become experts on some issue in Scripture. However, if we
want life, we have to believe all of it. That is tough, because
there are some parts in the Scripture that we just don’t like.
Loving our enemies? (cf. Matthew
5:43-48) That’s tough. Get rid of all bitterness,
resentment, wrath, anger and malice? (cf. Ephesians
4:31) Who wants to do all that? In fact, sometimes we
convince ourselves these are practically impossible teachings we
will only accomplish one day off in the distant future when we are
super mature Christians. C.
Isn’t this at the heart of Jesus’ statement in Matthew
7:1-5? How easy it is to study the Scripture enough to see
how everyone else is wrong but not ever learn the parts of
Scripture that hit us where we need to grow. If we are going to
have life, we must believe all of Jesus’ Word and not just the
parts that appeal to us. III.
If you would have life, allow the Word to abide in you. A.
According to John
5:38, these Jews didn’t have life even though they
searched the Scriptures because they did not allow the Word of God
to dwell within them. The Jews, it seems, wanted enough of the
Word to make them good enough to be saved, but they didn’t want
enough of the Word to change them. They wanted to continue being
who they were but follow the rules enough to scrape by and get
into heaven. Thus, their big concern about the Sabbath earlier in
the chapter was more about keeping a checklist of rules than it
was about being different people. It was more about being able to
recite the instructions and less about being someone new. B.
It is not enough to study the Bible. It is not enough to
know the Bible. If we are going to have life, the Bible must
change us. As Ephesians
4:22-24 says, the Bible should cause us to put off our old
selves and put on a new self. If the only thing that is different
since we became Christians is adherence to a few new rules, then
we haven’t come to know Jesus. We haven’t believed all He has
said. And the Word does not abide in us. C.
When the Word abides in us, it governs how we live and
think. When situations come up, our first thought is what did
Jesus say about this in His Word. Our decisions will be based on
the Word. We will know the Scriptures. We will be in the
Scriptures. But more importantly, the Scriptures will be in us.
Sadly, too many Christians are satisfied with having a daily
reading program. Too many are satisfied with memorizing some
Scripture. The Bible is only doing us any good, however, when we
are applying it and living by it. We only gain life when the Word
dwells in us and changes us. IV.
If you would have life, have the love of God within you. A.
The Jews searched the Scriptures but did not have life,
because they did not have the love of God within them according to
John
5:42. They saw the rules of God’s Word, but they did not
see God’s love behind the rules. They saw God’s Word as a
standard to be measured by. They did not see God’s Word as the
means by which God lovingly set them free. B.
Consider how they dealt with the Sabbath. Instead of
allowing God’s Sabbath law of rest and rejuvenation to benefit
them, they made it a prison of burdensome rules. They didn’t see
God’s love in the Sabbath; they just saw requirements. They saw
an opportunity to make themselves look good by hashing it out to
the nth degree and displaying their submission to the world. C.
Having God’s love within us means we recognize the love
God has for us. That is, we recognize that God has not established
rules for the arbitrary sake of giving us rules. He has
established guidelines because He knows what is best for us. Matthew
6:8 shows our Father knows what we need even before we ask
Him. Further, Matthew
7:11 demonstrates our Father wants to give us the good
gifts we need. James
1:17 says every good and perfect gift comes from our
Father. That is a double-sided statement. On one side, it claims
every good thing that has ever happened to us has come from God.
On the other side, it demonstrates that everything God does for us
is good—even when we can’t always see the good. D.
Having God’s love within us also means we love as God
does. It means we love God and love those around us. Again, the
problem with the Jews is they saw God’s Sabbath law as a means
to make themselves look good. They were unconcerned with honoring
God through the Sabbath. They were unconcerned with serving others
through the Sabbath. Have you ever stopped to think how these
people could have been so dense to be so caught up in making sure
someone didn’t carry their bed on the Sabbath that they could
completely miss what it meant that Jesus took a man who had been
an invalid for 38 years and healed him? How could they not glorify
God for that? How could they not rejoice with the healed man for
that? They did not have God’s love within them. I
John 4:7-11 points out the love we should have because God
has loved us. Consider how far God’s love went for us. He was
willing to sacrifice His Son for us. How then should we love Him
and love the ones around us for whom He sacrificed so much. E.
If we are selfish and self-centered, using what we learn
from the Bible only to our own personal advantage trying to make
ourselves look good instead of honoring and glorifying God and
serving others, then we have no life. If we would have life, we
must have the love of God within us. V.
If you would have life, seek glory from God, not one
another. A.
I can’t help but wonder how these Jews could be missing
it so bad and not realize it. John
5:41, 44 explain. They were satisfied with the glory that
they received from one another. They established their own rules
and then went around patting each other on the back for how great
they were. Matthew
6:1-18 demonstrates three cases in which these Jews would
often seek the glory that came from men. They did not help others
because they loved them. They helped to receive accolades from
men. They did not pray to glorify God. They prayed to be praised
by men. They did not fast to devote themselves to God. They fasted
to be noticed by men. They were satisfied with the glory they
received from men. B.
This is so easy for us to do. I know I am guilty of it
sometimes. It is so easy to preach a sermon in light of what
certain people will think about it. It is too easy to try to gloss
over some point that I believe is truth because I know some
brother or sister I think a lot of will not like it. In those
cases, I am seeking the glory of men rather than the glory that
comes from God. How easy it is for us as a brotherhood to have
this same mindset. We develop our traditions and rules. Then
instead of being willing to question where we are because that
might bring down the wrath of the establishment, we want their
praise so we never even look at any other option. If we really
want life, we need to seek the glory that comes from God. We may
uphold all the traditions and rules of men such that our friends
and fellow church members think we are great, but that will not
give us life. C.
We need to be like Paul in Galatians
1:10. He could receive all kinds of praise from men if he
had just said that circumcision was still necessary. But then he
wouldn’t have been a servant of Christ. He would have been a
servant of men. This even led him to withstand Peter to his face
when it was necessary (Galatians
2:11ff). We can search the Scriptures all day long to
merely defend what we have always done and please the traditional
brethren around us. But that will not give us life. We can search
the Scriptures all day long to merely change everything we have
always done and please the non-traditional brethren around us. But
that will not give us life either. The only thing that will give
us life is searching the Scriptures to know Jesus and allow that
knowledge to change our lives by God’s love. If we would have
life, we must seek God’s glory and not man’s. Conclusion: As shocking as it is, brethren, we can search the Scriptures daily, seeking for life but never get it. Having life takes more than just Bible study and more than just knowing the Bible. It takes knowing Jesus through the Word and allowing the entirety of His word to sink into our hearts and transform our lives. Let us not be satisfied with patting each other on the back. Let’s get to know Jesus through His revelation and seek His glory in all walks.
Glory
to God in the church by Christ Jesus
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