[AI translation] About thirteen months ago, we began our commentary on the Gospel of John. Since then, with very few exceptions, God's message has always been based on the Gospel according to John's writing, not only on Sundays but also on feast days, and fifty-seven times including today.We have now come to the end of the series. I read the final verses. These few verses are like someone who comes to a high place, stops, turns back and looks again at the path he has taken. Such a reflection on the Apostle John's testimony of Christ is this statement, "we know that his testimony is true." Indeed, it is more than a simple retrospect - it is like a seal of authentication on a document. What a strong statement that is: "we know that his testimony is true!" There is no wavering, no hesitation! It does not say that we hope, nor that we wish it were true, if it were indeed so - but it declares with absolute certainty: we know that it is true!
Brothers and sisters, today is Bible Sunday all over the country. Sermons on the Scriptures are being preached in churches. Taking your Bible in your hand, would you dare to say before God and before the world: I know that the testimony of the prophets and the apostles written in this book is true!
Who are the "we" we are talking about here? Not the Apostle John, because then he would have written it that way: I know that his testimony is true. But it would make no sense for him to testify to the authenticity of his own writing. Here others - the first readers of the book, for whom the Apostle John wrote this work, among whom he ministered, to whom he testified about Jesus Christ - that is, the believers of the early Christian churches, testify with John that yes, everything in this book is true. The churches of Asia Minor: the churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea, join in the gospel written by John. It is as if they were saying to posterity: we too confirm the reality of all that is written here! We too have confessed as true that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; that the only begotten Son of God died for us on the cross, rose from the dead, and that whoever believes in Him has eternal life! Yes, all this is true! But how did they come to this certainty? That is the question!
Could it be that they could have done more to check the historical authenticity of the data they were given? Certainly not. After all, John himself wrote his Gospel more than 60 years after the ascension of Christ, and this authentic appendix of the churches of Asia Minor must be even later. So there were no eyewitnesses or contemporaries who wrote: "we know that his testimony is true." And they were far removed not only in time but also in space and geography from all that John describes. So they knew the truth of the testimony of Christ not because, or not as those who had historical evidence in their hands, but somehow otherwise - Moreover, they did not even see John's writing as a biography of Jesus, as a work presenting the historical figure of a man named Jesus, but as a testimony of a believer's disciple about Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, a testimony of faith about the Saviour. "This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true." (John 21:24) Testimony! So the Gospel of John, like the other books of the Bible, is not a history book, but a testimony of Jesus Christ. So anyone who looks for historical data or the context of historical events will be disappointed, and may even encounter apparent contradictions.
The prophets of the Old Testament are not writing history, but testifying to the God who is preparing the way in history for the sending of the Saviour. Nor do the apostles of the New Testament write history, but testify that the Saviour has come, has accomplished the great work of redemption by his death and resurrection, and will come again at the end of time to judge the living and the dead! That is why the writers of the Bible do not tell us many events which, if they had written history, they would have had to tell us because the context would have been clear. The churches knew this, which is why they wrote, "But there are many other things which Jesus did, which, if they were written one by one, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that they would write." (Jn 21,25) From a historical point of view, a very interesting problem could be, for example, what all Jesus did before he was thirty years old? Or: how are the events between the resurrection and the ascension related? But when one wants to testify about the Son of God and His redemptive work, these otherwise very interesting questions are not relevant! Of the many interesting historical events, he should only tell those that are necessary to testify of Christ.
But that still does not answer the question of how did those churches in Asia Minor come to be convinced of the truth of John's testimony? Simply by believing what the apostle John said about Jesus? So, as it were, they gave the apostle the gift of their trust, thinking that surely he was not trying to deceive us, he is a man of faith, he knows, he has seen: we can believe him??... If that were so, if the Asia Minor had believed him only on the beautiful, convincing words of the apostle John, they would not have expressed themselves thus: "we know that his testimony is true." Do you know why the faith of many people is so weak? It is because they just believe what others say about Jesus! They believe someone who is an authority on matters of faith. They believe an evangelist who testifies powerfully. He believes him, but he might not believe someone else! This is the belief in authority, which is not really a belief at all, but rather a credulity! The trouble with it is that it has no certainty, no strength, no firmness. It is precisely because it is unable to say, "We know that his testimony is true." Such a man, when he reads the Bible, is always caught up in something he cannot believe! He picks and chooses between events in the Bible: this I believe, this I don't believe. This is obviously not the way to become convinced. What then?
The true characteristic of Scripture, its importance above all other writings, is precisely that it is not simply a testimony of Jesus Christ, but a testimony which is also a means of God's personal speaking. So in this Gospel of John, too, it is not only the Apostle John who bears witness to Jesus, but Jesus himself who speaks personally to those who read or listen to him. He does not speak of the past, but through the Bible the living word of God is spoken into the present. And this is what the churches of Asia Minor have experienced. That as they read and listened to the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ himself was in their midst in his invisible reality. And so they did not believe John, that Jesus had died and risen again, that he was indeed the living person of God the Saviour - but directly Him, the Lord Himself, who had addressed them in John's words. That is how they knew that John's testimony was true. This is the secret of the Bible: the living presence of God. What Paul expresses is that the gospel is "the power of God for the salvation of all who believe" (Rom 1:16), and the power of God. What is interesting is how quickly the enemies of the gospel sense that there is some secret power at work in this book. A typical example is the remark of a Mohammedan who ordered the New Testament to be taken away from a newly converted ex-Mohammedan: "Burn that book," he said, "it is a book possessed by some dangerous living spirit, it draws its power from it; burn it! Some years later he brought the book back, and confessed that he dared not burn it because of the spirit that lived in it. This Mohammedan, if with superstitious fear, had sensed something of the mystery of the Bible.
The son of a brother, who has recently come under severe trials with his family, is also coming close to discovering this secret, and a few days ago wrote of himself. I had often turned to the New Testament before, but now the sombre words of the Old Testament have come closer to me. There's hardly a part of the Bible now where we don't cry out: this is about us!" It is a great thing when one turns the pages of the Bible and knows oneself. But that's still not the point. It's that someone turns the pages of the Bible and recognizes God. When you lean over the pages of the Bible, your heart leaps: God has found me, the Lord has spoken to me, the Almighty has set me before Him, He is standing before me, looking at me, His gaze penetrates my innermost being. He is addressing the captain of Capernaum, but I am there before him. He addresses his question to Peter, but it hits me. He comforts Mary and Martha, but his voice warms my heart. He raises Lazarus up, but I am not the one who gives him new strength. He dies in Jerusalem, but he takes away the burden of my sins from my heart. He shows Thomas the wounds in his hands and in his side, but I am sure of the reality of his resurrection. Today I hear his voice, his words of that day.
That is how I know and that is how I know that John's testimony, for example, is true! I know it because he forgave my sins with the same power as he forgave the sins of the woman in Simon's house, because by the power of his word he cleansed me, he raised me up, he raised up new life in me. "We know that his testimony is true", say the Christians of Asia Minor. Yes, they do, because they have come to know the power of the gospel of Christ, its regenerating, saving power in themselves.
Today, the same power, the same authority is in the gospel of Christ. But it is not the power of Christ in the testimony about Him, in the written Word, in the same way that, for example, steam is in the boiler or electricity in the wire. You can't just turn it on or release it. He alone can only make the human words of Scripture, such as the testimony of the Apostle John, His personal, living Word to you, by the all-surpassing work of His Holy Spirit. But it is precisely because it depends on Him that you can ask, demand and expect His personal word. When you open your Bible, hold on to it and do not rest until the Lord Himself speaks to you personally. This is how the Bible becomes a precious treasure, a daily nourishment, a constant source of strength!
This is the fifty-seventh and last sermon based on the Gospel of John. If there are any souls here who have heard, through these testimonies, the personal call of the living Jesus Christ to repentance, faith and obedience, let them join the ranks of the grateful witnesses, and tell the doubters, the seekers, the wavering, the unbelievers: We know that the testimony of the Bible is true!
It is true, as our good old hymn puts the testimony into our mouths. Let us therefore bear witness together, as this:
The Word of God stands,
And no man can stand against it,
The great God is with us,
And his Holy Spirit dwells in us.
Canto 171, verse 1
Amen
Date: 7 October 1951.
Lesson
Jn 21,20-25