Stanley Baldwin the prime minister said, “The Bible is highly explosive but it works in strange ways. It startles the individual soul into a new life, a new world, a new belief, a new conception and a new faith.”
If we read it every day we will find that it changes us not because of our knowledge of the text and doctrines but because of the knowledge it gives us of the author. We will become more like Jesus and he will speak to us and our souls will be fed.
Jesus was talking to the Jews who were outraged by his claim to be equal to God about how they could know he was who he said he was. He had the power and authority of God to perform his signs or miracles. He says his testimony is greater than John the Baptist’s because the works that the Father had given him to do testify on his behalf.
John’s gospel contains fewer miracles than the other gospels. Each sign reveals more of Jesus’ godly character. In turning water into wine he reveals his glory turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. He heals a royal official’s son with a word and a lame man unable to heal himself, he feeds five thousand with five barley loaves and two fishes, walks on water, heals a man born blind and raises Lazarus from the dead after his flesh had been putrefying in the tomb for four days. Jesus demonstrated his power and authority over nature, sickness, the demonic depths of the sea and life and death by what he did. He shows us through his actions that he wants us to live his risen life in all its fullness. He brings us joy. He feeds and cares for us bringing us healing. He overcomes the terrors and storms of life and calls us from death into life. The finishing of the work that our heavenly Father called Jesus to do was to die on the cross. Jesus was the Lamb of God written about in Isaiah who takes away the sins of the world. The final sign that he was indeed God would be his rising from the dead three days later.
Because none of us met Jesus when he roamed Galilee, we learn about his works and how they reveal who he is by reading the Bible.
Because Jesus is alive and his character hasn’t changed, Jesus is still the all powerful Son of God. When we trust him he continues to do the works he did.
Jesus told the Jews they had never heard or seen God and they did not have God’s word abiding in them because they did not believe in the one who the Father sent.
The Jews knew the Old Testament scriptures very well and attempted to obey them. One of their criticisms of Jesus was that he didn’t.
Jesus healed on the Sabbath and put the welfare of human beings and animals before the law. He had compassion on those in pain on the Sabbath and those condemned by the law such as the woman taken in adultery.
Whilst Jesus didn’t always keep the minutiae of the commandments he kept the Spirit of them. He loved his heavenly Father with all his might and he loved those he came to save. Whilst the Jews sought to judge and kill him, he sought to love and save them but they would not come to him.
They must have felt tired as a result of having to maintain standards and keep up with the learning. They must have felt that there was something missing in their lives.
Jesus said they had never seen or heard God. They searched the scriptures because they thought they would bring them eternal life but they didn’t come to him or believe in him even though the scriptures testified of him.
The New Testament is clearly about Jesus, his followers and the beginnings of the early church. The narrative is fast moving and exciting. Jesus appears in almost every page.
Even though the Old Testament was written a long time before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Jesus says it also speaks of him. We can find in the first sacrifice to cover sin in Genesis found in the story of Adam and Eve and onwards. We see him in the temple layout, the royal psalms, the suffering servant verses in Isaiah, and in the prophecies concerning the Messiah and the future. It is one of the reasons it is important we read the Jewish scriptures. Most Jews do not read their scriptures this way. They don’t look for or find Jesus there.
It is more important when we read the Bible that we come to Jesus, trust him and develop a relationship with him. We pray as we study.
Jesus said the Jews did not have the love of God in them. They had not found eternal life, the abundant fullness of life Jesus wants us to have.
Jesus invited the Jews and invites us to trust him and invite him into our lives. He is the living word of God who was with God and is God and created all things. He desires to dwell in us and speak to us and through us.
When we invite him in the love of God dwells within us enabling us to love others and continue in the work that Jesus started. Through him the ordinary becomes extraordinary, the sick are healed, the poor are cared for and those dead in sin receive new life.