Disciples for Christ International Ministry

C. Paul Wooderson

John 5:39-46

In the 1980s, a hit song by Johnny Lee was “Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places.” Well, the Pharisees were guilty of “looking in all the wrong places” to find eternal life.

5:39 – 40You search the Scriptures.They believed the Scriptures would lead them to eternal life. To the Pharisees, the Scriptures were all in all. He who has acquired the words of the Law has received eternal life. The Pharisees failed to recognize Christ when he came. They were conscientious about the details in the Scriptures but rejected Jesus Christ. How could that happen? They were looking for a Messiah with political and military power.

5:41-42 – I know you don’t have God’s love in yourselves. 1 John 5:3 says, for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. 1 John 3:23 says, His commandment is that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. John 2:25 says Jesus knew what was in man. He knew the Pharisees’ devotion to God was not genuine.

5:43-44 – If another comes in His name, you will receive them. (Why don’t you) seek the glory that comes from the only God? Mark says for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he’ and will lead many astray (Mark 13:6). “There were several pretenders (men who claimed to be the promised Messiah) in the period between AD 30 and 70” (F. F. Bruce).

5:45 – There is one who accuses you, even Moses, or whom you have set your hope. They were devoted to Moses and his writings (The Pentateuch – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). The scribes and Pharisees also had another problem. They could not listen to the voice of God because they compared themselves to their fellow man. That made them self-satisfied.

5:46If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me. They searched the books of Moses and believed they would find life. But Yahweh (the Lord) said to Moses I would raise them a prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him (Deuteronomy 18:18).There are seven ways Moses can be compared with the Lord: (1) His life was spared when he was an infant, (2) Moses identified himself with his enslaved brothers, (3) He was a man filled with love

and he was compassionate, (4) Moses spoke to God face to face, (5) He was a great prophet, (6) Moses was a mediator of the covenant, and (7) He was a leader of the people.

We need to ask ourselves, Lord, what do we look like compared to you? If we feel self-satisfied, it kills faith. It is because faith comes out of a sense of need, for they loved men’s praise more than God’s praise (John 12:43).

          -All Scripture passages are based on the World English Bible (WEB)-

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