John Chapter 5

vs 37

God did testify that Jesus is the Son of God to John TB. God did not choose to speak to the Pharisees, at least not in a direct voice as he did to John TB. The thing that always gets me about this is that when Herod asked the religious leaders where the new king of the Jews would be born, they knew the answer exactly. They knew their Bibles, and that was God's revelation to them. But they ignored it.

What does Jesus mean by "they haven't seen God's form"? Horao means "to see with the eyes", but also "to see with the mind, or perceive", but it also means "to take care, to take heed". Eidos is simpler, just meaning outward appearance.

In one sense, of course, no one has seen God (even John says it in John 1:18). But Jesus is standing right in front of them! So does he mean they don't perceive or heed who he is? That's the most obvious meaning to me.

vs 38

God's word is not in the Pharisees. They know all about it, like I said before, they ignored God's word. And this is obvious by the fact that they do not believe in what God said.

vs 39-40

See, Jesus knows what they are all about! Their eternal life is somehow tied up in their knowledge of the Scriptures. We know from other sources that the Pharisees heavily believed that their status as children of Abraham connected them to God's promise to Abraham, but Jesus is saying that he surpasses all that. He's right there, from God, and they don't believe him. The scripture talks directly about him, but they refuse to come to him and accept who he says he is.

vs 41-42

It makes me sick in the stomach to hear Jesus say these words to religious leaders. God is so important, it is a damnation of our sinful natures to see that we can manage to put him out of that place.

vs 43

And that is true - all the big-name Rabbis would tool around with a posse, just like Jesus did. Some of them were pretty radical, but they would have been more accepted than Jesus, because all of them would have kept the sabbath in that legalistic way. It had become ingrained. And even if they were teaching wierd and out there stuff (like the saducees denying resurrection) they were more accepted than Jesus.

vs 44

So often in our churches, we can get that social club mentality. We worry about the people in the group, we discuss new ideas in the group, we organise programs, we invite people to see the group grow, we do activities - all the things that a Rotary club or a social club would do - and we forget that our group is meant to be focused on God, worshipping God, and seeking to serve God. We have to worry about pleasing God more than about pleasing people (of course, most of what God wants us to do will be pretty pleasing, at least to some people).

vs 45

Jesus is getting harsh now. He is setting before them their own arguments, their own rules, and he's going to show them how hypocritical they are. Moses, the author of the OT Law, will be their judge.

vs 46

Where did Moses write about Jesus, you ask? Good question. With 20/20 hindsight, you can see Jesus pretty clearly in the Pentateuch, right? The promise to Adam and Eve, for example. The sacrificial lamb, for example. It sounds hard to us to judge them by only those first five books, but they read these things deeply, and the correct conclusions they came to out of them are startling. They put our study of the OT to shame. But yet they still miss Jesus.

vs 47

That's a slap in the face to the Pharisees. As far as they were concerned, their theology was built on what Moses wrote. Their laws were built on what Moses wrote! And Jesus says they ignore Moses. Jesus can be harsh.