Sermon Tone Analysis

Christ: The Content of the Mosaic Corpus

*/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?”

\\ *John 5:45-47 (ESV)*/

I)       Introduction

(none)

II)     Main Body

A)    Main Point

Follow along with me if you would and let’s begin by walking through the text together this morning.

Jesus begins…

1)      (v.45a)/

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father./

Jesus’ main objective was not to bring judgment but rather salvation.

(1)   Scripture:

If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

\\ *John 12:47 (ESV)*

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

\\ *John 3:17 (ESV)*

Judgment, condemnation, is unquestionably a consequence of Christ’s coming – as men saw his miracles and heard his words and yet rejected him, they inevitably incurred the wrath of God, brought upon themselves a more severe judgment, a deeper condemnation - judgment is unquestionably a consequence of Christ’s coming, but, As Christ himself reminds us, it isn’t his primary objective or the reason for which he was sent.

(2)   Context Reminder:

The reason that Jesus makes this statement becomes quite apparent as we consider the context again.

The Jews may be prone here to think that he is bringing accusations against them.

He has explicitly stated that the Father has borne witness to him, John the Baptist has borne a witness to him, the Scriptures bear witness to him, his own works bear witness to him, and so it may seem as if he’s building a case, sort of like, “Look at all the evidence I have collected, just wait until you stand before the bar of my Father and I disclose all of this to him.”

But, of course, that was not at all the case.

And it seems he makes this statement to make that clear.

And really, when it comes down to it, he has no need to bring accusations against them.

For, as the latter half of v.45 says…

2)      (v.45b)/

There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope./

(1)   Not Moses properly.

Now, as Jesus will make clear here in a moment, he does not intend us to think here of Moses properly understood.

The picture that he paints, though vivid and no doubt affective, of Moses standing before the tribunal of God and accusing these Jews, is only that: a picture.

We are not to think that Moses really and truly, as a person, stands before the judgment seat of God accusing these Jews.

Rather, Jesus uses the word /Moses/ here, as is often the case in the New Testament, to refer to his writings(that is Moses’ writings): the first five books of the Bible; the Law, as it is sometimes called; or the Pentateuch.

(2)   The irony.

The irony is so thick here you can taste it.

Jesus says to them, “Don’t think that I’m bringing accusations against you.

I have no need to.

For the very one in whom you have placed your hope and trust does so for me.”

It is as if they stand before the judgment seat of God, on trial, awaiting the arrival of the attorney whom they believe has been provided to defend them, and in walks Moses, and their faces light up as they elbow each other and begin to whisper “Here he is, watch him work his legal magic, we’ll be declared not guilty in no time” and much to their dismay he instead turns and points his finger and cries, “Your honor, these men are guilty!”

The very object, in which they had placed their hope of salvation, is instead, the damning evidence of their condemnation.

And then, in vv.46-47, we have this authoritative statement about the inseparable connection between Moses’ writings and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3)      (vv.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?/

It may be helpful for a moment to consider this word /belief/:

(1)   (the term /belief)/

(a)    The Greek word translated here belief is a form of the word [/pisteuo/ ~/pist·*yoo*·o~/].

It is a quite common word in the New Testament showing up some 245 times, 98 times in John’s gospel alone.

And the majority of those instances are in reference to belief in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

(i)      Dr.

Vines tells us it means:

/“to believe,” also “to be persuaded of,” and hence, “to place confidence in, to trust,”[it] signifies, in this sense of the word, reliance upon, not mere credence./

(b)   In other words, belief, true belief, is more than just mental acceptance.

It’s more than just an intellectual assent to the facts.

One can believe wholeheartedly that Jesus was a historical figure who physically walked the streets of Palestine.

One can even believe that he was a miracle worker who fed 5000 people with five loves and two fish.

One can even, in some sense, believe that he was the Son of God, born of a virgin, sent by the Father to bear the sins of the world on cross, and that he was raised again three days after his bloody sacrificial death, and yet still not have belief such as the Scriptures demand for salvation; i.e. true belief.

For true belief, as defined by the Scriptures, is much more than just an intellectual understanding and acceptance of those facts.

Multitudes of people intellectual understand and accept those things as fact and yet remain lost and destined for Hell.

James tells us demons, in that sense, believe in Jesus Christ.

But true belief has as one of it’s necessary components a personal reliance upon, a trust in, a laying hold of the person and work of Jesus Christ with the unwavering trust that he is able to do and be all that he claimed: to save you, to be your Savior.

(c)    (Illustration of D. James KennedyJ

One of the better illustrations I have heard concerning the nature of true belief is one given by the late D. James Kennedy.

He tells the story of a man speaking with another man about a chair.

The first man said to the second man, “Do you see that chair over there?”

To which the second man replied, “Yes.”

The first man then asked him, “do you believe that chair can hold you up?”

And it seemed like a sturdy chair and so the second man replied, “Yes, I do believe it can hold me up.”

To which the first man replied, “No you don’t.”

And the second man responded, “Well, I guess I do, I said I did, didn’t I?”

“No you don’t,” said the first again, matter of factly, and they went back and forth like this for a moment until finally the first man said, “You don’t /really/ believe that that chair can hold you up until you have trusted yourself to it and sat yourself down in it.”

You see, that’s the kind of believe we’re talking about.

Dear friends, merely knowing the facts about Christ, or giving mental assent or even verbal testimony to their truthfulness doesn’t, in and of itself constitute saving faith.

You haven’t really and truly trusted Christ, believed on Christ, until you have sat in his lap if you will, raised your arms and legs in the air, and declared I have nothing else that can hold me up.

Unhesitant utter dependence; the gospel demands nothing less.

(d)   Four times in these two verses Jesus uses this term /belief/.

*/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?”/

Jesus exposes here a significant relationship between himself and Moses, between Moses’ writings and his words; and the nature of the relationship is not a difficult one to determine.

It is a matter of cause and effect:

/…if you believed Moses, you would believe me…if you do not believe his writings [you won’t] believe my words.

/

(2)   Jesus again here, as has done repeatedly, denies the validity of their own religious claims.

The Jews, no doubt, believed themselves to know quite well the word of God - having read it many times over and memorized it - and they would have no doubt asserted that they had it abiding within them, living within them, enduring within them, but Jesus tells them explicitly otherwise in v.38 …/you do not have His word abiding in you/…

The Jews furthermore undoubtedly claimed to have a great love for God.

They above all people loved God for they above all people had been chosen by him and virtually alone knew the one true God.

But Jesus tells them in v.42 …/I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

/

You see, as I pointed out a couple of weeks ago now, Jesus looks past the façade, he sees past their professed love for the Scriptures and says, “You don’t love the Scriptures.”

He sees past their professed love for God and says, “You don’t love god.”

And likewise, he sees past their professed allegiance to Moses and says, “Dear religious men, contrary to your profession, you haven’t got a clue what Moses wrote about.”

For, to use his very words, /if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me./

B)     Application (any or all in an appropriate order)

1)      How so?

How is it that if one truly believes, truly trusts, wholeheartedly assents to the veracity of Moses’ writings that they will inevitably believe in Jesus Christ?

(1)   (The promised seed)

(a)    (Genesis 3:15)

Well, let us consider some of what Moses wrote about.

And let us begin at the beginning so to speak.