The testimony about Christ in the writings of Moses

Sermon for Midweek of Easter 2

John 5:31-47

In the lesson this evening from St. John’s Gospel, Jesus rebukes the Jews for not believing in Him. And why should they have believed? Not because of what Jesus said about Himself, but because of the testimony that others had given about Him. John the Baptist was one of those witnesses. But there was a much more important one. God the Father Himself had testified about Jesus. Not audibly or visibly, but in the Holy Scriptures, specifically, the Scriptures written by Moses. If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. If you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?

We’ve considered recently some Old Testament prophecies about the Christ’s death and resurrection. Let’s take a moment this evening to consider the Father’s testimony about His Son in the Torah, in the writings of Moses—testimony which people reject at their own peril.

The Book of Genesis begins with the Creation, with the power of God’s Word to create all things and to manipulate the things He created. What else is it to change water into wine but a divine act of creation? To walk on water? To calm a storm? To speak healing to human bodies that were previously diseased? What else is it to raise people to life from the dead but to do the work of God?

Adam and Eve fell into sin, and Jesus agreed with Moses that the human race has been fallen ever since. But Moses also wrote of the Seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head. What else is it to drive out demons but to show that one has power over the serpent? Isn’t it God’s own testimony that this is the Man in whom mankind was to believe?

Moses went on to write about the depravity of the human race at the time of Cain and up to the days of Noah. He shows that mankind is hopeless and lost unless God Himself steps in to save by His grace. What else was the preaching of Jesus but man’s depravity and God’s desire to save by His grace?

Moses wrote about God’s gracious selection of Abraham and his family, the miraculous birth of Isaac, God’s promise to bless all nations through Abraham’s Seed, and about Abraham being justified before he was ever circumcised, not by works, but by faith in God’s promise. Well, Jesus was a Son of Abraham. And what else did He preach but to trust in the Lord God for justification, and not in one’s own works or circumcision?

Moses wrote about Isaac, Jacob, and Judah, and how the Messiah would come from them, too, and Jesus was their descendant. He also recorded Jacob’s prophecy that the scepter wouldn’t depart from Israel until the true King and Messiah should come, and it was just prior to Jesus’ birth that the scepter had departed from Israel, God’s testimony to them that the Messiah’s coming was imminent.

Moses wrote about Israel’s slavery in Egypt, and Jesus preached about the people’s ongoing slavery to sin. Moses wrote that you can’t deliver yourselves from slavery. God alone must deliver you. He must raise up a Deliverer. Redemption is God’s work alone. If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!

Moses wrote about the Passover and the Passover Lamb. What else is Jesus but the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?

Moses wrote about Israel’s thirst in the wilderness, and how God had to provide it through Moses, His servant. So Jesus taught that God must provide the living water you need for your thirsty soul. It must come from God, through His servant, the Christ.

Moses wrote about Israel’s hunger in the wilderness, and how God had to provide bread from heaven. So Jesus taught that God alone could satisfy their hungry souls with His righteousness, with the true Bread that came down from heaven, the bread of life, Jesus Christ.

Moses wrote down God’s commandments. He explained sin and atonement through blood-sacrifice. He taught about man’s uncleanness and about God’s holiness and man’s dire need for holiness to be able to stand before God. He taught about the priesthood and the need for an Intercessor, for a High Priest, chosen by God, who could be the mediator between God and Man. Then along comes Jesus, the Holy One, who convicts all people of sin. But He also presents Himself as the once-for-all, all-atoning Sacrifice, whose blood cleanses the unclean, who is the great High Priest and the one Mediator between God and Man.

Moses wrote about Israel’s idolatry and warned them that they would die in it, if they refused to repent. So Jesus also warned the Jews about their idolatry of money and their idolatry of themselves, and warned them of their coming destruction.

Moses wrote about the bronze serpent, lifted up on the pole. That was a testimony of God to how the world could be saved, by looking to Jesus in faith.

Moses wrote about the future conquest of Canaan, and so he testified that God alone must give you victory over your enemies, over sin, death, and the devil, even as Jesus gave sinners that victory through the forgiveness of sins, through His eventual death and resurrection, and by conquering the devil through them.

Finally, Moses wrote about the Promised Land, how it was God’s free gift to an undeserving people, because of the covenant He made with Abraham. So Jesus proclaimed the first covenant fulfilled and a new covenant in place, the gift of the heavenly Promised Land and of eternal life to all who believe.

As Moses wrote, The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brothers. You must listen to Him! That Prophet was Jesus, witnessed by Moses, witnessed by God the Father through Moses and through Jesus’ words and works, which were all just the things Moses had testified about and portrayed in his writings. If you truly believe Moses, you will also believe that Jesus is the Christ, and you will put all your faith and trust in Him! Do it now! Do it continually, so that on the Last Day you are not counted among those who saw and heard God’s testimony about His Son, and yet ended up calling Him a liar. May God preserve us from such an end! Amen.