I) Jesus Drops a Bombshell You just heard our Gospel lesson. I've never preached on it before. It never comes up in the lectionary series. I doubt you've ever looked at it in a sermon in your lifetime. Part of the reason is that it's a hard text; it says something so shocking that I think that's the reason it's left out. It's also a collection of sayings, like most of the sermons of Jesus in the Gospel of John.

When we read John's Gospel, we come to these sermons, and they are hard to understand. Finally, after 30 years of teaching John, I figured out what it was. The thought moves too quickly. It's a like reading a sermon outline. If you read it fast, without 'unpacking' each section, it's like reading an outline without taking time to flesh out the ideas- John is writing it to us to take time to stretch it out and think it through. It's very different from the other Gospels! The first part is a complicated section talking about how many witnesses would need to testify about Jesus for the people to believe. The OT had said that truth had to be verified by two witnesses; Jesus says that John the Baptist and God the Father should be enough! (One would think!) Then he drops a bombshell:

[39] You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, [40] yet you refuse to come to me to have life. Did you hear that? [39] You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. Well, don't they? [39] You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. Jesus obviously doesn't think so. What does this mean? He criticizes them because they study Scripture because they think that by them they possess eternal life. Jesus says here that the Scriptures do NOT give eternal life!!!

Does that shock you? The Scriptures do not give eternal life? Haven't we always been taught that God's Word is the key to coming to faith and receiving eternal life? Why in the world would Jesus condemn his Jewish listeners with the words, [39] You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life?

Because Jesus is the one who gives eternal life. Jesus is the Word of God, come in its fullest. Scripture's greatest purpose is showing us Jesus. Listen to the whole phrase: [39] You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me...

II) The Skeptics Attack

This verse is shocking. And if we think about it even more, it becomes THE key, in the entire Bible to understanding how Scripture functions as Scripture for the believer. When we come to the hard questions of the Bible- Like, how come the numbers in the Old Testament don't agree? How come the order of Holy Week is different in each of the Gospels? Why do the Gospels tell the words of Jesus differently? - When we come to these hard questions, that's exactly where this verse tells us what we need to know. The inspiration of Scriptures are the fact that they tell us about Jesus. That's why they're inspired. They tell us about Jesus. Jesus is Holy, Jesus is perfect, and only Jesus saves. They are Holy Scriptures only because they tell us about Jesus.

For 2,000 years, and especially for the past 200 years, the sceptics have attacked the Bible, and have wounded the faith of many who won't take the time to sit and learn and think it through. 200 years ago they didn't have the benefit of modern archeology to show the reliability of Scriptures. 200 years ago they didn't have the ancient copies of Scripture we have today, that show how carefully Scripture has been transmitted. The faith of many Lutheran college students has been shipwrecked by skeptical religion professors who wanted to 'strip them of their Sunday School faith, and make them think like adults.' That wouldn't be all bad, if they gave them the tools to understand. But so often they are much more interested in showing what bright skeptics they are! In the midst of all of these attacks, Christians have taken many forms of defense, some more helpful than others.

As we look at the Bible, the key question, the answer for which is very hard to pin down, is, 'How does the Bible function as God's Word?' As Dr. Olaf Hanson told me 25+ years ago in seminary, that is the greatest challenge to evangelicals in the Lutheran church - to faithfully explain to our generation how Scripture functions as Scripture, and why therefore it has authority. Here's one small shot at it.

III) How Does the Bible Function as God's Word?

The Muslims have a book very different from how the Bible looks at itself. Muslims hold that they have a 'perfect' book, that came in its final form, breathed right from God's prophet, 100% accurate as delivered. It was supposedly written in one shot, one time through and perfect revelation. Every sentence, every word is of equal value; it's a magic book. Islam claims to have perfect Scriptures. It is read as a perfect history and rule book.

The Bible is not that tidy, neither Old nor New Testaments. The Old Testament contains material going back to at least the time of Moses, about 1,300 BC. He tells stories about Abraham that go back another 500 years. Genesis 1-11 tell even older stories. Joshua through Esther, the stories about the history of Israel, were compiled and edited over the centuries, maybe reaching their final forms only after the people of Judah returned from Babylon about 500 BC. The Psalms are songs that come from various eras, collected for the Second Temple. The fascinating thing is that many Psalms, and most of the first 50, are 'Psalms of Personal Lament'- they are Psalms of people crying out to God in the midst of horrible emotional pain. "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" They are people crying out to God to hear them. These are human words of great suffering, and faith. And yet, they are God's Word at the same time. Think about that.

When we look at Matthew, Mark and Luke we can see times when Matthew and Luke both quote Mark verbatim, word-for-word in the Greek- even the narration. So Matthew and Luke must have had Mark in front of them when they wrote their Gospels. But at the same time, they edited Mark! They cut out parts, and added details, even editing, re-translating Jesus' own words! The Holy Spirit worked to guide these Gospel-writers and editors to give us the New Testament as God's Word. And it is God's Word. But it's not a one-time-shot magic book like that of Islam. It doesn't claim to be. It's a Divine book, and it's a human book. In fact, those inconsistent numbers in the Old Testament have been faithfully copied over and over for more than 2,000 years. Sure, somebody could have fixed them, but instead we pass on what we have received because it's more important that it is faithfully passed on than to have the numbers match.

The Bible is God's Word. We hold to it very closely, and our Constitution states:

This congregation believes and confesses that the Holy Scriptures, that is, all the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testaments as a whole and in all their parts, are the divinely inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God in all matters of which they speak, and therefore also the only source and rule of faith, doctrine and life.

We believe that the Scriptures are infallible and inerrant in all matters in which they speak. But they are not a magic book. They are a book of many stories, of many cultures, of many times, of many authors, of many kinds of 'words' in the Word of God. They are a Divine Book and a Human Book. And it's all God's Word.

It gets even more surprising. Think for a moment. Jeremiah the prophet faces a false prophet, Hananiah, starting in Jeremiah 28. Hananiah stands up and says, 'Thus says the LORD'- but the LORD didn't say it! It's a lie! Hananiah's false words are there, part of God's Word. Let that sink in. The same thing is true with the words of Job's friends. They tell Job a whole bunch of reasons why all this stuff is happening to Job. But it's all false. It's a lie. But it's in there, in God's Word. Because it is a part of the story of how God, through 2,000 years of history, worked in the lives of his people- for one reason. That one reason is why the Scriptures function as God's Word. Listen to Jesus' words again: [39] You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, [40] yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

IV) Jesus Makes it God's Saving Word

Here is the main point of the sermon, the payoff for the whole thing: Scriptures function as God's Word to save us because and only because the Scriptures tell about Jesus. Jesus is the ONLY one who saves us. Only Jesus saves us, and the Scriptures have their focus and purpose because they proclaim Christ. Only in the Good News of Jesus do we have salvation. You can have the Law in any religious book of any religion, be it the books of the Muslims, the Confucianists, the Hindus or the Talmud. Those are Law, and all it tells of is the demand to 'Be Good!'

But Scripture only saves us if it has Jesus. Only Jesus died for the sins of the world, and only in hearing the Gospel can we come to saving faith, a personal trust in him. Faith come from hearing, and hearing from the preaching of Christ.' (Rom 10:17)

The Scriptures have embedded in them this 'red thread' about Jesus, this one single theme woven through them from end to end. That's what makes them true Scriptures, and that's why they can save us. Listen to what Luther said:

What a sin and shame it is that we Christians have come to be so neglectful of the gospel that we not only fail to understand it, but even have to be shown by other books and commentaries what to look for and what to expect in it. Now the gospels and (letters) of the apostles were written for this very purpose. They want themselves to be our guides, to direct us to the writings of the prophets and of Moses in the Old Testament so that we might there read and see for ourselves how Christ is wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in the manger [Luke 2:7], that is, how he is comprehended [Vorfassett] in the writings of the prophets. It is there that people like us should read and study, drill ourselves, and see what Christ is, for what purpose he has been given, how he was promised, and how all Scripture tends toward him. For he himself says in John 5[:46], "If you believed Moses, you would also believe me, for he wrote of me." Again [John 5:39], "Search and look up the Scriptures, for it is they that bear witness to me." (LW, v. 35, p.122)

Thus, Jesus is himself the Center, the key to unlocking the Scriptures. Without Jesus, it's just a religious book. Without Jesus inside of you, you can't understand the Bible in its fullest. He himself is the Truth, and he makes that Truth real in our hearts. Jesus is himself the Word of God, with skin on. The Bible is the Word of God because it tells of Jesus, not vice verse. He's the Word of God, that makes the Bible the Word of God.

Because of Jesus, the Scriptures are God's Word, law and Gospel. Because Jesus is the Truth, his Word is true. The Bible is certainly true, whether you trust him or not. But it will only be true for you when you have the Truth himself dwelling within you. Jesus is God's Word. If you have Jesus, you have the Truth. He opens Scripture to us, just as he did to his Disciples after his Resurrection. They could only believe when he opened the Scriptures. That's because he is the Center of the Scriptures.

For Christians, we approach Scriptures, not because they are a 'magic' book- the Truth is not based on some external qualities we claim for the Bible. We look in it and we even see false words, and many human words of suffering. They're there. God gave them to us in his Word. And they are part of God's Word to us. We even know that there are difficulties, but the authority of the Bible does not come some exterior perfection we claim for it. The Scriptures are the inerrant and infallible, Word of God in all matters of which they speak. They speak about life and death, about sin and grace. They speak about right and wrong. And they save us because they give us Jesus. Jesus makes Scripture Scripture.

This is a hard topic, and maybe the only sermon you've ever heard on this topic. I encourage you to get a copy and study it. And reflect on it yourself. The greatest challenge for the Evangelical church today is to clearly speak and teach about how Scripture functions as Scripture. The World is hungry; the World needs to hear about Jesus, but they have many questions. The only way we can speak to that world about the authority of Scriptures is if we recognize that Jesus is the Center of Scripture, and look at them through Jesus. Jesus saves. Without Jesus, it's just history and Law. Looking through Jesus, we find him popping up on every page- every character, every story has a place in preparing for Him or proclaiming him. As he says, [39] You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, [40] yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

Invitation, Amen.