A 38 Year Malady John 5:1-15

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I can remember a couple examples in my life, one's kind of a silly example.
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A hundred years ago, last century when I played high school football, I played for a small school in the
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UP and we were playing the state champs. And first play from scrimmage,
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I was a linebacker. First play of scrimmage, our offensive line walks up to the ball and all five of them have full beards and they're all much larger than anyone on our whole team.
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And so the feeling of dread came over us and it was borne out, we lost 26 to nothing. So that was kind of a hopeless feeling, yeah, that's a silly example.
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Another example I can think of, it's more of a serious example, I remember the time when my father had heart surgery and we had thought it was a relatively routine thing, we weren't super concerned about it.
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Well, after he had surgery, the doctor came out and told us that he wasn't going to make it. And I just remember the sheer feeling of hopelessness and fortunately we had
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Christian brothers and sisters that were able to remind us that God was indeed in control and in good providence and dark providence,
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God is there and he's in control. So this morning, we're going to learn about a man who what most would consider was in a hopeless situation as well, this guy was paralyzed for 38 years.
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And we're going to learn how Jesus helped him.
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So if you would, please open to John chapter 5. If you're using a
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Pew Bible, it's on page 1057. When you get there, please stand with me, if you would, for the reading of God's word.
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This morning, I'm going to be reading from the New King James edition, which is different than the Pew Bibles and it's different from what most of you guys have.
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And the reason for that is going to become apparent in a little bit, and so it's not to throw a curve, but there's a reason
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I chose this version, but you'll see as we go. So John chapter 5.
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After this, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches.
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In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.
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For an angel went down at a certain time in the pool and stirred up the water. And whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had.
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Now, a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition for a long time, he said to him, do you want to be made well?
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The sick man answered him, sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.
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But while I am coming, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, rise, take up your bed and walk.
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And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked. And that day was the
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Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, it is a Sabbath. It's not lawful for you to carry your bed.
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He answered them, he who made me well said to me, take up your bed and walk. Then they asked him, who is the man who said to you, take up your bed and walk?
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But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn a multitude being in that place.
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Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.
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The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well. Let's pray.
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Our Father and God, I thank you for your word. And I just pray this morning that you would make me, your servant, invisible.
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That your word would change us today, that we would see more of you, Jesus. We pray that you'd give us eyes to see.
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We pray that you give us ears to hear and minds to understand. And may your name ever be praised.
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And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Please be seated. So let me begin with a few comments about John's gospel.
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So John's gospel is different from the three other gospels, the synoptic gospels,
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Matthew, Mark and Luke. Matthew, Mark and Luke, they're called synoptic gospels because they provide a summary, a biographical summary of the life and ministry of Jesus.
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John's gospel is different. It emphasizes more Jesus as Messiah, the importance of believing in that fact.
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And John uses seven signs to engender or provoke belief. And a full two thirds of John's gospel covers the last week of Christ's life.
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So as chapter five opens today, Jesus has an encounter with a man who has an infirmity.
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In today's text, we're going to see the third of those seven signs I talked about written in John's gospel.
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And I think you'll see as we get into the text, John's focus is not on the man himself, but rather he's stressing to the reader the actual purpose of Christ's interaction with this man.
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OK, so the passage begins in verse one and it begins with the setting.
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So let's take a look at that real quick. After this, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
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So after healing the nobleman's son in chapter four of John, Christ travels to Jerusalem to attend a feast.
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It doesn't say which specific feast it is. It could be the Passover. It could be the Feast of Booths.
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It's not important to this story. John continues, now there is in Jerusalem by the
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Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. So the
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Sheep Gate was in the northern section of Jerusalem. And there are actually two pools inside this gate.
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And they were side by side and they were surrounded by five columns or colonnades that surrounded these pools.
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And there was a covering that these columns supported above the pools. And people with illnesses or maladies, various maladies, would lie there in the shade and they'd wait for this unusual phenomenon to occur.
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Let's continue. In the porches lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.
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For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had.
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So I see a couple confused faces. So if you have an ESV or an
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NIV Bible, you're probably thinking, wait a minute, that's not what my
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Bible says. And you'd be correct. Verse four in the oldest and the best manuscripts is simply not there.
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So if you have a King James or New King James, you'll see verse four. If you have an ESV or NIV, it's not there. This is one of those handful of passages in the ancient manuscripts that lack continuity.
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It doesn't mean that there are errors or contradictions in the Bible. The original manuscripts were certainly inspired by God and they're without error.
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But remember, in those days, manuscripts were copied by hand. So it's not completely unrealistic or unexpected, but it's not completely true.
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And I'm sure you're tempted to see a few minor deviations during this copying process. So without getting too much into the weeds, what you need to know this morning is that there are over 5 ,000 whole or partial manuscripts in existence today.
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And I repeat, and I say none, none of these instances where this occurred occurs.
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And there are a few that have any bearing on crucial historic Christian doctrine. Okay, that's very important.
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And it doesn't call the Bible into question in any way. Just keep in mind that the original manuscripts were copied many, many times.
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And when you're doing it by hand, it's not completely out of the realm of possibility that this would occur. In any event, regarding the stirring of the water, some
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Bible translations, like I just mentioned, say this was done by an angel and others not.
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But the context is clear from verse 7, which we'll look at in a sec, that something in the water was thought to occur and that spa -like healing qualities were thought to provide healing to the first person who made it into the water once this occurred.
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So if these healings weren't caused by an angel, what was happening? Well, sporadically these pools would start to flow and the pools would become agitated by an influx of water with special characteristics.
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And the reason we know this is that these pools in Jerusalem were occasionally fed by artesian wells.
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So something like, I guess we could compare them to the hot springs that people visit even today for therapeutic reasons, something like that was thought to have occurred.
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And frankly, for our purposes, we don't know with what certainty what was causing the stirring of the water.
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It was either angels or it was a naturally occurring thing. So that's the setting.
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That's where we're at for the setting of this passage. Now let's dig into the main body.
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Verse 5 says this, One man, or a certain man, was there who had been an invalid for thirty -eight years.
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Okay, so this man obviously believed in the healing powers of the water. He was laying there for a long time.
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The text is clear that he had suffered from some kind of paralysis which prevented him from moving quickly enough to get into the pools.
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Next, Jesus shows up at the pool and seeks out this certain man out of the crowd of many people whom he knows, through his divine nature, has been infirmed for a very long time.
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And then Jesus asked him a question. Do you want to be healed? Verse 6, why do you suppose
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Jesus asked him that question? Jesus knew that the man had been ill for thirty -eight years, and he understood that the man was laying there, hoping to get into the water.
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So why do you suppose he asked the man whether he wanted to be healed?
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Well, this is conjecture on my part. Maybe Christ wanted to make sure that the man was not so accustomed to the condition he was in that he really lacked the desire to be healed because it would cause such a drastic change to his lifestyle.
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Surely he was used to getting assistance and wasn't used to doing things by himself. And maybe he really didn't want to be healed because of that.
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We've all heard of stories, and Mark probably knows about this, but where individuals would get out of jail and they immediately go and steal something so that they can get caught and sent back to prison.
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Well, I mean, why do they do that? In many cases, these folks just can't survive outside of jail.
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In jail, they get a bed and three squares. So this man may have been,
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I say, okay in his current state, used to his current state. Again, that's conjecture, but that might have been why
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Christ asked the question. Frankly, again, the text doesn't tell us exactly why
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Jesus asked that question. Okay, in any event, verse 7, we see the man's response.
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Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I'm coming, another steps down before me.
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First thing to note is he doesn't answer Jesus' question. But evidently he was hoping that Jesus would get him into the water at the appropriate time.
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And then we'll see in a second that Jesus had other plans for him. This guy was without hope.
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And he was virtually helpless. Which, if we're honest with ourselves, it's much like us when we're trying to deal with our own sin.
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You see, before we came to faith, we had no ability to save ourself.
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Pastor Seth preached a few weeks ago, and he talked about how Christ chooses us before we choose him. We have no ability to save ourselves without Christ.
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And then once we are saved, basically, we have no ability to deal with our sin on our own either.
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We need the Holy Spirit to give us the ability. We're powerless, basically, without the
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Holy Spirit's help when we talk about our sin. So we too are in a hopeless state in many ways.
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One thing I think we should take note of is the word hope. There is a difference between when the
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Bible talks about hope and when the secular culture we live in talks about hope.
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In the New Testament, the noun hope comes from the Greek word alpis, which means a favorable and confident expectation.
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So the object in the passage that we're looking at this morning, when it talks about hope, the object in the passage is fixed.
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So if you're a Christian here this morning, you have placed your trust and your hope in Jesus Christ.
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That's the object of your hope. It's a fixed object. Now when the world thinks about hope, it means to wish for something or the feeling that events will turn out for the best.
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And Abby mentioned the weather this morning. So when we hope that it doesn't rain today, the difference is there's no fixed object in that hope.
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And the weatherman is not a fixed object. He doesn't count. So one thing,
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I've heard this one time, the person, the individual who has this hope based in the world, the hope is similar to someone who's got his feet planted firmly in thin air.
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There's nothing undergirding hope, secular hope. Okay, enough on that.
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Verse eight. Now this is really interesting what happens. So Christ does not continue to chat with the man.
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He simply says this, get up, take up your bed, and walk. So the bed he was lying on was very likely a mat of reeds.
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It wasn't a mattress. It was a mat of reeds. He could roll it up. So he heard
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Jesus' command and immediately he obeyed. And verse nine, we're told, and at once the man was healed.
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He took up his bed and walked. Next comes the first sign of trouble.
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Starting in the second half of verse nine, we see that now that day was the Sabbath. So the
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Jew said to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath and it's not lawful for you to take up your bed.
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So now I ask you a question. Where in the word of God does it say that it is not lawful for a person who's been healed of paralysis to carry his own bed?
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You know the answer, nowhere. But the rabbis, the Jewish rabbis at that time, in their interpretation of the law, they came up with 39 activities that were illegal on the
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Sabbath. And the very last one on that list, number 39, prohibited someone from carrying something from one place to another.
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So when I first read this, it struck me as crazy. So think about the context.
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Instead of thanking and praising God for this clear miracle in 38 years, they respond by saying, hey, why are you carrying your bed?
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I just thought that's just a great example of how wicked the human heart is and can be.
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So verse 11, the man responds to the Pharisees after they questioned him and he answered them, the man who healed me, that man said to me, take up your bed and walk.
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So in short, the man who was healed was saying this, because somebody, and he didn't know what it was because there was a multitude, probably several hundred people there, somebody came in, came by, told me to pick up my bed and walk for the first time in 38 years.
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What was I supposed to do? If you got a problem with it, go talk to him. So does this guy's response remind you of another incident in the
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Bible where he had this pass -the -buck thinking? How about this?
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The woman whom you gave me, she gave me of the tree and I ate. Does that ring a bell?
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So nothing had changed from the gardening up to this point. So instead of defending the one who had delivered him from 38 -year paralysis, he basically blamed him when he got into trouble.
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Well, the story doesn't end there. Verse 14 says this, afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you are well.
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Sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you. So Christ tracks the man down and he tells him, and I'm paraphrasing here,
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I've made you well physically, but this was really about your spiritual condition. In short, wake up, stop sinning, obey my commands.
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I need to add a couple comments here just for context as well. When Christ admonishes him to sin no more, he wasn't talking about sinless perfection, which cannot be achieved this side of heaven.
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Yesterday at men's breakfast, which Mark was not at, inside joke, you should really attend these breakfast,
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Mark. Yeah, yesterday, sorry about that. So we talked about this.
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Another thing about sinless perfection, we know that it wasn't the result of sin in his life.
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The Bible is clear on this as well. There's not a one -to -one relationship between sin and physical ailments.
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Now, I'm not saying that that never occurs because it can, but the
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Bible is very clear. In John chapter 9, we read where Jesus heals a man who had been born blind. And do you remember the disciples asked him, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?
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And what was Christ's answer? Neither. It was so that God's glory could be displayed.
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So those are, it's important to realize that when you, when someone's in a condition like that, you can't make that leap that it's because of his sin.
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Okay. So Jesus warns the man, if he continued in sin, that a worse thing would befall him.
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So what do you think is, what could possibly be worse than being paralyzed for 38 years? There's not a lot of things that are worse than that.
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I think it's clear. The text is telling us, as Jesus is saying, if you turn away or if you continue in your sin, you're going to perish forever.
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You'll end up in hell. That's what's worse than being paralyzed for 38 years. Okay, finally in verse 15, we read this.
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The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had been, who had healed him. So Christ heals this man with this 38 -year illness.
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Then he gave him a really good piece of advice. Well, how does he get repaid for these things?
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Well, the man who had healed goes and tells the Jewish authorities about him. And this is, this incident was key because the
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Pharisees never forgave Christ for what he did on this day. In fact, this was the event that precipitated their rejection of Christ and ultimately led to his crucifixion.
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So there's a huge contrast between this fellow and many of the other people that Christ heals during his three -year ministry.
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Most of the people who benefited from Christ's interaction, from his healing, would do just about anything for him.
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But this man apparently never went past the physical to the spiritual.
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There's no evidence that he had any other scripture that he went on and had saving faith. All right, so far so good.
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Everybody still with me? Yeah. Verse 14 is the key passage in this text.
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In this verse, we saw that in order to be in a right saving relationship with God, we must obey him.
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In order to obey someone or something, we have to know what we're obeying, right?
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So to obey Christ, we have to have a working knowledge of what his word says.
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So there's no shortcut to sanctification and to holiness. These things are called the means of grace.
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And I don't know that we have heard that phrase too often, but it's kind of an old phrase.
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It means this. It means to study God's word. It means to meet for corporate worship like this.
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It means to participate during the Lord's Supper communion and baptism. It means to pray.
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It means to love your brothers and sisters. Those are all part of this means of grace. And God has given us these means of grace for our sanctification, for our good, and also to glorify him.
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So why did Christ heal one man from among the multitudes at this place? The answer is because this entire event was not about physical healing of one man, but it was about his and ultimately our spiritual condition.
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In other words, our need to grow in righteousness and holiness. In this instance,
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Jesus was teaching about sin and its consequences. He wanted this man to understand what 38 years of suffering meant in comparison with eternity in conscious torment.
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The Puritan preacher John Owen once said this, be killing sin or it will be killing you.
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So there was an occasion, some of you may have heard this story, but there was an occasion during the times of Alexander the
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Great when his army was engaged in a very serious battle. Well, during the course of the battle, one of the soldiers fled the scene.
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He deserted. After the battle, he was captured and brought to Alexander's tent.
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And as he stood trembling before Alexander the Great, Alexander questioned him.
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Why did you leave? Why did you run? And the young soldier said, I was afraid. I was scared.
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Alexander said, I see. What's your name? And he mumbled something inaudibly.
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Alexander asked him once again. I asked you soldier, what's your name? And he mumbled, I'll run. And the third time,
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Alexander getting more and more agitated said, speak up boy. What's your name? The soldier looked up at him and told him, my name is
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Alexander. Alexander sprung from his chair, grabbed him by the collar, and told him either change your behavior or change your name.
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So if your behavior is not consistent with your profession as a
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Christian today, today is the day to change your behavior. Just as Christ sought out the invalid at the pool at Bethesda, he's seeking you out today.
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And at the end of the day, his priority is not your physical well -being. He's not your financial well -being. It's not your well -being when it comes to relationships on this plane.
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Although those are important, he does care about those things. His priority is your spiritual well -being, your sanctification, your obedience.
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I remember the story in the Old Testament story in 1 Samuel 15, and I'll close with this.
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1 Samuel 15, where King Saul is ordered by God through the prophet Samuel to go take your army and go wipe out the wicked
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Amalekites. So King Saul does that. He goes there and he pretty much destroys them.
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Although he captures the king, a guy named Agag, and he also took some of the finest livestock, cows and sheep, and brought them with him and his army to sacrifice.
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Well, a few days later Samuel the prophet shows up and King Saul greets him and says something like, see our great victory?
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God has given us victory and all these things. And Samuel's response was, well, what's this bleeding of sheep
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I hear in my ears? He told Saul, you don't understand.
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God doesn't want your sacrifice. He says God wants your obedience. And on that very day, the
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Bible says that's when King Saul lost the kingdom. Today God wants your obedience.
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He wants us to be doers of the word, not hearers, as James 1 tells us. Well, if you're a
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Christian here this morning, or if you're not a Christian, I'm sorry, this morning, a lot of this might make very little sense.
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And if you don't, haven't believed in Jesus Christ, I think the only thing
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I'd really want you to hear this morning is the gospel report. And that is
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Jesus Christ came to earth as a substitutionary sacrifice for sinful men.
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And if you would just trust in him as your only hope to be saved and that you would repent from your sinful lifestyle, you would be saved from the wrath of God which is to come.
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I would pray that God would condescend this morning and that he would show himself to you.
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I would also encourage you to give it a lot of thought, where no one's guaranteed tomorrow.
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And if you don't know where you are today in light of your eternal destination,
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I would like nothing more than to talk to you about that after the service. Nothing would give me more joy to speak with you about my
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Lord, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you.
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Let's pray. Our Father, our God, we thank you for your word. Lord, I just pray that as we looked at how you healed this man who had been paralyzed for 38 years,
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I just pray that we would realize that we too are hopeless in many ways without you. I pray that as believers we would trust in in your sovereign providence over our lives.
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I pray that we would, where we need to, we would take our walks seriously. If it means studying your word more, if it means praying more, if it means fellowship with other believers, we just pray,
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Lord, that you would guide us, that you would give us wisdom, and most of all that you would be glorified by us.