Jesus Christ - Compassionate And Controversial - [John 5:1-30]

Good morning everyone.

It's a beautiful morning to be out here and worship our Lord.

Yes.

This morning I want to pick a passage from John chapter 5 and we are going to

look at a Certain event in the life of Jesus and the teaching that

he gives Following this event but To begin with

today's class is not as interactive as I would like to be because just the nature of the Material we

have here in the text but I want to begin with a Thought and

to develop it further.

So I'm gonna say a word.

So I'm just kind of prepping you up for it.

And when you hear this word I want you to be able to think of be able to tell me what's the first

thought that comes into your mind?

Am I too loud?

So I'm gonna say a word and you probably will have a series of thoughts that come into your mind.

Just try to catch the first one that comes and I'll ask a few questions to set the stage as we get into the text

so the word that I have to say is Jesus Christ.

All right so How many of you?

Let me just ask questions out.

What was the first thought that came into your mind when I said Jesus Christ?

Redemption Savior Messiah

Glorified Holy excellent, I mean you you've seen I've

heard a number of different words talking about the work of Christ about the person of Christ in terms of who he is as

God and The two things that I was looking for which I was pretty sure I wouldn't get but you

you kind of gave me the terms.

That I could in my prerogative classify into these two groups.

One of them is the deity of Christ, you know.

When we think of Jesus Christ, we think of him as God and some of the attributes that you provided holy

Savior all into that category and the other category

that we sometimes I think don't Spend that's much time

meditating and understanding is the humanity and the Close relationship that we

have with Jesus as the man.

The perfect man and in today's passage we're going to see both of these aspects brought together in a in a very

beautiful way because this is one of those passages where Jesus is

revealed to the people of Israel as God and he begins by

An act of compassion we're going to see an event in verses 1 through 15 where Jesus is a

quintessential and understands the problems of man and reaches out to man in his

suffering and empathizes with compassion and.

In verses 16 through 30, we are going to look at Jesus teaching About who he is

as God himself and we're going to look at those two aspects of this actually John chapter 5 as a whole

if I had time we would have tried to cover together, but Verses 31

to 47 talk about the testimony to Jesus Christ and Lord willing.

We will do that another day.

So today we're going to look at two things an event in the life of Christ where Jesus is going to heal someone and

then we're going to look at the teaching that follows this healing where Jesus talks about who he is

as God himself and We are going to be looking at various applications as we

study and walk through these verses.

But the but the big question that you want to be asking yourself is You know, do I really understand

who this Jesus Christ is?

Do I really understands the excellencies of this Christ that I have been saved by

and How is it to impact my life.

And when we do that We will realize that we will be able to speak of the excellencies of Christ With even

more fervor and with even more joy.

So with that let's get straight into our text of what I'll be doing is we're going to look at a few verses at a time and

Study the passage and then look at what this means to us and I will give you some

applications as we go along.

So we'll begin with John chapter 5 verses 1 to 3.

After these things 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 porticoes.

In these lay a multitude of those who were sick blind lame and withered.

We'll stop right there.

This is gives us the background of this event that we are going to study.

What was going on when Jesus enters the scene?

In verse 1 we read that this is a feast of the Jews and this is actually the only feast which is not

named in the Gospel of John and Looking at the various events that John

covers some of the commentators think that this may be the feast of tabernacles.

That Jesus is coming here to worship.

It's one of those three festivals that the Jews in Israel would come down to Jerusalem to worship.

So that may be the feast that John is recording for us here.

And again, the main point of this thing is that Jesus used to come very frequently to Jerusalem.

And this is one of those feasts that he comes to Jerusalem.

This place the Sheep Gate a pool as you know in Jerusalem, this is if you look at

Jerusalem Am I moving around it too much?

Probably that's why I'll try to not shake too much.

If you look at a map of Jerusalem this place would be in the north east

side of Jerusalem just across outside the wall and This this part this pool

Bethesda, in fact.

Early on there were people disputing this place.

They read this verse and said, oh look the Bible must be wrong.

You know, there's no other evidence that there was anything called Bethesda.

Of course.

Then they had the dead dead sea scrolls and they had the copper scroll that actually talks about this

and of course everybody then changes their mind that the Bible is right in this instance and

Of course, we know that the Bible is inspired and this is the basis on which we believe we don't need any explanation since

to believe what the Bible says, but this was this is in the northeast corner of Jerusalem

and What we find here is this place was It actually it had two pools

and if the pool right now in Jerusalem those of you who gone I might have seen it.

It's called the pool of st. Ann and there are two pools covered with these kind of

colonnades and.

And this is used to be a place where the Invalids used to gather and it actually says here a

multitude of Invalids a lot of people who are sick and lame used to gather around this pool.

Now what you see here in the background is a place of need a place where there's a lot of people there's

suffering there is people who are Sick.

They are gathered in this place where?

They were there for a purpose.

We will see why in a few minutes, but If you look let's now continue to see what Jesus

does when he comes into this situation.

We'll pick up with verse 5 and we'll come back to verse 4 in a minute.

I'll read from verse 5 to 9 a Man was there who had been ill

for 38 years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition He

said to him.

Do you wish to get well?

The sick man answered him Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water

is stirred up, but while I'm coming up Another steps down before me

Jesus said to him get up pick up your pallet and walk.

Immediately the man became well and picked up his pallet and began to walk.

We have one man in verse 5 if you look back at verse 3 you have a multitude of

people who are sick and Jesus finds out this one person who has been sick for 38 years a

very long period of time and Moved with compassion.

Jesus goes down straight to that person and he asks do you want a wish to be

healed?

There's something that I want us to think about here for a minute before we get into the healing itself.

We all know, you know, this is the time where Jesus is being revealed.

So the people of Israel did not really know who Jesus was.

Jesus is coming into the scene.

He's actually going to perform a miracle and in the process reveal who he is as the Son of God.

But for us looking back 2 ,000 years ago, we know Jesus was God.

Couldn't he have you know, just by divine fiat just healed everybody

there.

I mean there was a lot of people the verse says here.

Could he have.

Yes, he had the power to do it, but we see the purpose of God coming down on an

Individual and he chooses one person in fact by the description of the person

that is given here looks like this one this person was One of those extreme cases and he

has been there for a very very long time.

He has he's an invalid.

It doesn't really tell us what his illness was.

He probably was paralyzed or he couldn't use his legs.

Because he goes on to say that he has difficulty getting to the pool when the water is stirred but

God or Jesus here moved with compassion for one person goes down and heals him and we

see the purpose of God in Reaching out to the person that he chooses

to heal and Jesus approaches this person in fact in most of the events that you will see in John you will see

and Through the Gospels you will see Jesus Approaching the people that he wants to heal and there

are a few instances where it is the other way around.

But for the most part Jesus approaches the person that he's going to heal and he asks him a question now.

To us it may sound a little odd.

You know Jesus is asking him.

Do you want to get well?

Can you think of any reason why the person may say no?

We have to go back into their culture to kind of realize what actually is going on here.

So this man has been ill for 38 years.

And in fact, even in in in India you have The circumstance I'm sure in a smaller scale.

We will find this around in the US also where Especially in this

culture you had people who were sick and unable to work and people who were

poor and it was the responsibility of the rest of the people to You know give arms and

give them money while they were in there in their illness.

So to this man, it is quite possible, you know having been 38 years not having worked

receiving the arms that he had this could have been a Pretty comfortable.

What do they call return on investment?

You know you you're really not doing any work and you probably are able to support yourself with the arms that you have and

so there might be this Situation where you are actually pretty comfortable even though

you know to the rest of the world.

It may look like this is this is something that needs to be taken care of but Jesus comes down.

He asks him.

Do you want to get well and The man's response is actually quite ambiguous.

He doesn't say yes.

He doesn't say no, but he tells something that he used to do and that takes us back to verse 4.

What he says is he is trying to get into the pool this pool around which all the invalids lay

and while he's trying to get into it someone else gets before him and What he's essentially saying is

there was this Thought or this understanding that The

waters when they stirred and that's where we go back to verse 4.

When the waters are stirred there is something that an angel or somebody is doing which water some

healing Capacity and so if he were to somehow get into that pool at that time when it when it is stirred before

Anybody else does so the first person who gets into this pool would get healed.

So he he tells you know, this is what I've tried but it's never worked because I'm I'm not able to walk fast enough.

And actually right here.

We'll take a moment to examine verse 4 most of your verses most of your

Bible should have that either some of your Bibles won't have verse 4 and Others might have it within brackets

and you will see for example in my verse it says early manuscripts do not contain the remainder of verse 3

nor verse 4 and.

And Just a aside here to understand how our Bible comes to us.

We have our English text and as many of you know, this comes from The New Testament was written in

which language?

Greek and as many of you will also know we don't have one

Greek text that was written By the original authors which are translated into this

English version.

So what we have are many manuscripts in the in the of the originals that were

written at the in the first century AD and those copies of those

originals are what we have and so there are Quite a large volume of manuscripts.

In fact more manuscripts than any other ancient Historical document that has ever been written both for the Old and the

New Testament but specifically to the New Testament we have categories of

Manuscripts so some of these manuscripts are much closer to the original autographs

that were written so they are more reliable in terms of their Copying of the

original text into this autographs I'm sorry into these manuscripts and then over time you have more

copies of these made and those are further removed in time and Also as the word spread in distance

from where it was originally written.

So what happens is in this particular verse you see you don't see this verse in many of those

manuscripts the early manuscripts that are very close to the original autograph and as time goes

on you see some of the copies that are made they have this verse inserted and the

general understanding especially on this verse is that People wanted to explain

verse 7 where you have or verse yes 7 where the invalid is saying something

and the general understanding of that period was verse 4.

So one of the copyists could have inserted this to explain why we have verse 7.

So just a little aside to understand why sometimes you have verses like this which are missing In the

or not recorded in English or marked as not present in the early manuscripts.

So anyway, so the he he was thinking of the the thought process of that time and that was his understanding to receive healing

and in fact and one other thing I want to say is We don't take out verse 4 because that seems like a silly

superstition, you know, it's not because oh that can't have been an angel.

You know stirring the water and therefore somebody gets well, so we decide that couldn't be part of the Bible.

No, no.

No, no, that's not what we do.

The Bible says The whale swallowed Jonah.

We believe the whale swallowed Jonah and I think there was some other preacher who said if the Bible says the man swallowed the whale

We will believe that the man swallowed the whale.

We are not here to pass judgment on the text.

We take the text and we believe it.

But in this particular case, this is one of those things and the and the process that is used is called Textual

criticism which is to look at the various manuscripts and understand which are the original and which were added on later.

Okay, so here we come to Jesus now, so he sees the man he has compassion on him.

He approaches him asks him this question and although the man's responses ambiguous

Jesus now Shows his power and in verse 8 he says three things

get up take up your bed and walk.

This man obviously was an invalid Incapable of getting up and that's and actually in the original you

have here and I and even in the English it is a command.

Jesus says get up.

It's a it's an imperative it's a and when the Son of God speaks you either this is no

longer a question of option and when Jesus says get up we will find that the man actually gets healed

and gets up and then there are two other things that I said one is you know take up your bed and walk and

If you think about it 38 years man has laid here in this one spot.

He has been supported by this back bed.

In fact, this is not like a big bed that we think of it's more like a straw Mat that

you can roll and carry it's very light and.

And then he walks.

It's not just you know Psychological emotional thing that just happened for a minute and then he falls back.

He here is able to take the thing that used to support him for 38 years carry it and walk from there.

It's a healing and in fact in verse 9 We are told that the man was healed and he took up

his bed and he walked.

The first time I talked to someone who was a Liberal I was really really surprised how

they try to interpret this verse.

Can you can you just imagine what a liberal would say that Jesus did here?

Charlie that.

That's exactly right.

I mean that's you know, they have to come up.

They have to take the supernatural out and how do you do it?

So one way would be oh that guy was faking it and Jesus said get up and he said oh my my Cover

is up and I need to get up.

Otherwise, you know, he's going to expose me.

But that's not true in verse 9.

The Bible clearly says this man was healed he had a sickness and that sickness

is no more.

This is not psychological.

This is not some gimmick, but this is a full and complete healing of a man Invalid

for 38 years at that moment where Jesus says this and at

the end of verse 9 we have something a little ominous marked out and it says that day was the Sabbath and

We'll start to find out why that causes problems later on.

So here versus 5 to 9 We've seen the event which Jesus in his compassion and his power

heals a man who has been sick for 38 years.

Now, let's read verses 10 through 13 To look at the

consequences of this healing.

So the Jews were saying to the man

Permissible for you to carry your pallet.

But he answered them he who made me well was the one who said to me pick up your

pallet and walk.

They asked him who is the man who said to you pick up your pallet and walk?

But the man who was healed did not know who it was.

But Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.

First who are these Jews that was?

10 talks about The Pharisees.

If you think about the context everybody here is a Jew if you think of it ethnically.

But John when he writes this text, especially when he uses the term the Jews and

in context you can very clearly see that these are the authorities or in this particular case most likely Pharisees

who are Trying to keep the law or observe what needs to be

done properly.

So here when it says Jews, it's talking about the Jewish authorities that are that

are trying to Establish order in this place now.

It's very interesting if you look back at verse 10, he says it says here that Jews were saying to the man

who was cured and Then it is a Sabbath.

It's not permissible for you to carry a pallet so there are two things they observe one is the healing and the other thing is the

carrying and It seems very strange that there is nothing recorded about what they

thought of this man 38 years invalid who is now doing something that it's humanly impossible to

do but they observe something else which seems in our mind, you know, so what

you know and.

But but you will we will begin to see why they have that problem and you know.

They're sometimes blind to the things that are happening.

But they zoom in on things that to us makes no sense now.

It says that it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.

Can anybody guess where they are coming up coming from this not permissible to carry your pallet?

It is work Work in the Sabbath.

Yes.

So just Expand this out for me, you know, so what is the implication?

What is the Old Testament talk about?

Yeah, and you you probably are thinking of Exodus 20 the Ten Commandments.

Okay.

Yes, that's right.

Right you have instances in the Old Testament where a person who was

doing a task And disobeying the Sabbath was actually killed and you find

this in I don't remember the reference but in Moses time.

Yes.

But Here there is very specifically the Jews Zoom in

on this one particular event and they actually have a law that they think that this

man has broken and Just just an aside, but I want us to make sure we understand this because this will help us

Understand the rest of the verses from 16 to 45.

Basically, what we have is there was a command to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy in the

sense that you know.

This day was supposed to be different than the rest of the days you needed to you had six days to work and on

the seventh day you were supposed to treat the day as Separate or different or holy to the

Lord.

But what had happened was through the Old Testament history you see how things were done

where the people obeyed where the people disobeyed and and There are

well, let me let me come back and after the Old Testament was finished.

You had the people continuing to refine the scope of this law, what does it mean not to

work on the Sabbath?

So these.

These people are the Jewish leaders.

They came up with 39 different categories of which you need to be careful about not

breaking this law and Some of it was well intentioned because if you think about the end of the Old Testament.

These people are scattered everywhere else.

It's not like in the Mosaic time where everybody was under in Israel under Israeli

Authority and you had to know how to deal with you know.

When you are in a occupied land and you were maybe forced to work seven days a week and things like that.

So they came up with these laws but what happened was this one of these 39 categories was carrying things

during the Sabbath and They probably used a couple of verses from the Old Testament one from Jeremiah

and more likely the one from Nehemiah.

Any of you remember the story in Nehemiah where people were carrying things?

They were not supposed to.

That's that's exactly right.

Here was Nehemiah.

He was bringing the people I mean rebuilding the walls and bringing the consecrating the people to the Lord taking away the

pagan practices that were there and Bringing back tithes and the Sabbath and

these people from the outside they were bringing things in and they would carry things in their donkeys

and Try to sell their stuff during the Sabbath.

They were actually doing business and Nehemiah pretty much drew the line and said, you know, you do this once more time you're going to be in

trouble and so principles there was do not work and what

actually the This is called the oral law that the Jewish people developed over time was

okay.

Let me take that principle and then make it a lot more tighter so, you know people who don't understand the principles can just kind of

Check off this list and then be sure that they have not violated God's law.

And what is that called in modern?

Christian Legalism thank you and Sadly, you know when people forget the

precepts and principles of God and rather make a checklist of things to follow.

It slides down into legalism and people think that by doing certain work or in this case not doing certain

work.

They can keep God happy and you know, they wouldn't get killed.

And in this case is a classic example where this man who has been lying in this place 38

years taking a mat which on which he's been lying and then free now to go back and

The interpretation of that law becomes as simple as okay.

You carried something are Oral law prohibits that particular act of carrying

it's not that he was doing any work with that carrying that was going on and Therefore you are in big trouble.

And so they they zoom in on him.

Exactly, and that's precisely the

point and this for us and we'll do we'll draw this application out a little bit more when we

Look at what this how we ought to live in light of what happened then but here is a very clear

Miraculous act of God and here was Burden that people had the

Jewish authorities had built upon the people and they would rather pick on this man Who is doing

something that he could not have otherwise done?

But let's continue down this passage.

So these men come and ask him.

Why are you doing it?

And This man and some of the commentators are a little more.

Some are more charitable than others to this man and One of the common thread seems to be that.

And actually if you look at John 5 and compare it with John 9 You will get to see the difference in this

man's response as compared to the blind man who gets healed in John 9.

Here is a man and actually Lord willing will look at that one other day.

You may want to go back and read John 9 to get the difference of the contrast with what John 5 this invalid

does.

He he gets healed.

Obviously, he is probably, you know Cannot believe what's happening to him.

But when they ask him, why are you doing this?

He says, you know the man who healed me told me to do it and so they asked him who is this man who

told you to do it and He doesn't even know who it was that has healed him and obviously by this man

getting up and walking.

There's a big crowd that's gathering.

You know what's going on around this guy and Jesus has slipped away in the in the process and

again if you contrast this with John 9 You will see that that man knows exactly he doesn't know all about Jesus, but he

can clearly say that what he did is Supernatural and he would lift this man up higher

than these people who are questioning him.

But but in this particular case again, this man goes away.

A he does not know who Jesus is and B He does not even want to think about

Why he is doing this act he just kind of just shifts the blame from himself to Jesus.

Now, let's read verses 14 and 15 afterward.

Again, there's no indication of how long this was after the healing afterward Jesus found him in the temple

and said to him behold you have become well.

Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.

The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well.

As I said again in verse 14 it says afterward it doesn't specify the period of time.

It could have been right after or it could have been a little while longer.

Some of the people who are more charitable to this man think that you know he may be going to the temple in order to give

an offering because of the healing that he has received and Others think you know, the pool is very close to the temple

it's right just on the northern side of the temple and he's just walking around in the area when Jesus comes and

finds him and He says something very interesting here he says see you are well,

you know, this is a healing that has been done and he is No longer an invalid and then he says

sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you.

And there is a connection here that Jesus makes that I think is interesting for us to get a good

handle on before we move on the and the connection is between His

illness and sin.

What does the Bible say about sin and illness?

Are they are they connected?

Are they disconnected?

Are they?

They are both.

In fact, if you look at John 9 Jesus very clearly says the I'm

referring to John 9 so much.

I'll very quickly tell you what happens there Jesus and his disciples walking down.

They see this man who is blind and then the disciples ask him Lord who sinned this man or his

parents that this man was born blind because you know, he couldn't have done anything sinful Before he was born that he

became blind because he was born blind and then Jesus makes it very clear, you know.

That is not the point.

This man has trial Problem a sickness in his life so that the glory of

God may be revealed through him and Jesus goes on to heal the man and the man I

Just get goosebumps thinking of him.

He goes on to glorify God in a supernatural Miracle that has happened in his life

against all odds here are the whole, you know Jewish authority lined up against him and

he is willing to stand up for Jesus and ultimately we find that this man healed Bows his knee to Jesus Christ.

But here Jesus and if you just read the verse you just cannot

Walk away from the implication the closeness between sin and Suffering in a

general sense.

We all know that is true if Adam had not fallen The world would be a much better place.

We would not have to deal with the kind of suffering and and sin and and the sickness and trials that we are going through at this

time.

And there is a general consequence to sin which all of us are very well familiar with and there is

also sometimes a consequence to Actions that are made, you know, you do certain things you are going to reap

certain things as a result.

And in this particular case and and for us, you know without going too deep into this

Subject as believers.

It's not a bad thing to ask the question when you go through a trial when you go through a suffering you know, the Bible says that

the Lord chastises his own and Chastisement is not giving a candy, you know

Chastisement means that something is painful and it could be in different forms and it is always wise for us as

believers to stop.

Think what is happening?

Is this something that you know, the Lord is teaching me through that?

I need to correct my iPhone or is this one of God's sovereign trials that he brings?

There is no connection to what I have done.

I need to be trusting him and walk through this and So I think it was CS Lewis who said, you know

pain is God's Loud speaker in our ears or something along those lines, you know when God speaks through

pain we really rarely can miss what he says and so there is a lesson there about

sin and suffering and obviously the implication that Jesus makes here is

between sin and Something worse and as you will look at the rest of the passage, he is actually going to talk

about Salvation because if you are not it's fine to be healed physically,

but if you're not Covered for your sins you are going to face a more serious consequence when

you die and you have to face the judge.

Which is Jesus Christ himself and in verse 15, we read the man went away and told the Jews It was

Jesus who had healed him.

Very interesting.

We don't hear a response back to Jesus what this man says.

But we are told what he does.

Do you think he was witnessing to the authorities about the power and the majesty of Jesus?

That's actually a very good point because the the stop sinning is is a it's a continuous present it's something

that this man has been involved in that it seems Jesus actually narrows in on a Specific thing

that he is talking about and that may well be true that you know He is just upset with

what Jesus is doing and he's a oh Who are you to judge me?

I'm gonna get you in trouble that could be the case.

But the implication of what Jesus says there is much broader and he will draw that out in one of the teaching

that comes.

Yes, my

that's an.

In this particular case there is not Sufficient evidence to know that this man was saved but his purpose I

would totally agree with you every time he doesn't heal people just I mean there is a compassion there is a

The heart of God as he weeps over the sin of the people and the suffering that the people have and he heals with the purpose that

they would Receive the eternal joys, not just the temporal joys but in this particular

passage, it is kind of hard to infer that it actually did happen and It's possible that this man

was sticking around and listening to what Jesus teaches later on as he talks to the Jewish Authorities and

may well have come to faith in Christ.

But yes Lewis

That is a good example of you know, large healing and even yes.

Yes.

Yeah, and one other example.

Yes, Karen.

That's exactly what I was thinking, too.

Yeah, so I mean I don't think this Clear example that everyone got healed but that might

have been the case in this case.

We don't know because the the text leaves it especially when it talks about authority.

If you look at the earlier and the later half when the Jewish authorities Confront him this man is

not even registering what has happened in his life and who it is He has met he just says well this man told me to do it and

therefore I've done it.

And then when Jesus comes and confronts him with his sin, he says well, you know end of the day who's going to kill me.

It's not Jesus.

It's these Jewish authorities They are the ones who have the power to you know, kick me out.

And so he says well, here's the guy that you're looking for.

You know, it's not me.

So It looks like someone who has still not processed what has actually gone on in his life and he's just

yes

you know, that's that's a very Possible explanation

because you know most of us going through suffering, you know over a long period of time Can very easily get into that attitude where

you know You know, why me God you are unjust or you know I'm so

You know, I have a situation which you know God is not in control of or something along those lines and especially

when Jesus talks to this man He is talking about something specific.

He's not just talking about something general.

He's saying stop sinning.

He's doing something here that You know Jesus with this divine knowledge and with his divine authority

Talks to him and you know, obviously he cannot hide from and you're right I don't think it's talking about something in general but something

what is actually going on in his life right now.

Yes,

and that's very true because I think I will need to move on but I would just to wrap up this.

There is a.

Specific thing that he sees here because when the man is confronted by Jesus He knows what Jesus is talking about

and in in a sense, you know being in a Jewish culture he probably should have understood the Implications of the sin

and when Jesus talks about something worse coming to happen to you he is talking about the sin nature and you know, you really

cannot escape from the consequences of The sin that is in you and you need to have that dealt with otherwise.

Your consequences are going to be worse than just sitting in one place for 38 years.

Yeah, please.

Okay, so let's kind of wrap up.

I I think we'll probably do the teaching on Jesus another day, but Let's look at some

applications here in terms of what we ought to do in response to what Jesus has done here

the first thing is and this is something that comes up over and over again, and I Really don't have time to

deal with this in extensive.

You know what?

I'll skip that.

We'll do this the next time.

Let's look at the second thing I have which is the compassion.

So we looked at Jesus moved with compassion for a person in a suffering and a person in need Goes down and

heals him and Jesus Omnisciently probably knows whether this man is going to get healed or not if he's not God, you

know still has his purpose in reaching down and touching this man in need and

You know and there in in a way The we are called to do something similar

in our lives in terms of the compassion that we have for the people around us.

Can you think of some?

Bible verses that actually call Christians to have that kind of a compassion toward people in need

that's a That's a great passage actually I

what Dallas just said was Philippians 2 where the Christ's humility and actually if you think about this whole

passage That should watch it grip your mind.

Here is Jesus a full and complete a man who was also God who if he chose to like I said,

he could have just Waved his hand and healed everybody else, but here he comes down participates in

the suffering that is going around around him with compassion moves and heals and Such should

be our Thought also, you know No matter where we are in station in our life that our

heart should be moved for the people around us who are in Suffering and we need to do that with humility realizing that

you know God is the one who has given us whatever we have and we need to move with compassion towards those who

don't.

Charlie.

That's exact and those are imperative.

So there James comes around and says well, you know if you believe Jesus and you believe that there is a God and you

don't live a life that Shows its compassion to the people around you.

You're really fooling yourself.

Great verse.

Yes and

That actually talks about the love that the believers have for one another and actually that's where I was going with this and

we'll probably conclude with that.

There are many verses that talk about the love and compassion that we ought to have for fellow

believers.

The one that really really struck me when I studied it was 1 John 3 16 and 17 and

It talks about actually, let me just read that.

I know we are getting late, but we'll finish with just this application.

1 John 3 16 says we know This that he laid down his life for

us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren and He there he gives the general picture, you know, that should

be our attitude similar to Philippians 2 We should be willing to give our lives.

That's the extent to which we would go but most of us won't be called to do that when you look at verse 17

Whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him how does the love of

God abide in him and that I think gets to the heart of the matter, which is and actually

closes his heart and I think the word that use that is like stomach or Splegna it

it's visceral it is, you know.

You look at somebody who is a brother or sister in Christ in need and you're you just don't your stomach doesn't tighten.

You just don't think you know, what can I do to help my brother or sister in need?

There is a problem and it says the problem is with the love of God in our hearts if God's love has transformed us has

changed us inside out and he over and above that has blessed us with the things in this world and

we look at a brother or sister in Christ and our Heart just doesn't break a heart just doesn't you know get

gripped the it shows that there is a more serious problem that we need to deal with in our heart and

Just so what does that mean, you know when we think brothers and sisters in Christ I normally think of my brothers and

sisters in Australia and Africa where you know, yeah, you know, I'll really pray hard on my knees for them.

No, no.

No, that's not what this is talking about.

This is talking about here, you know where you are.

This is about your local body when you look at your brothers and sisters in Christ here.

You should be part of and that's what a body in Christ mean that's what a church a

family of God means where we are in each other's lives and we can make and

Show compassion in the lives of those around us and be the instrument of God in their particular

Circumstance and in fact one thing that I think we really struggle with and I struggle with this.

You know, I see problems around me all the time and After a time I just kind of get immune to

problems.

It's you know, that's that's life.

Everybody has problems and you know, we just kind of move on we'll figure out what?

They'll find out what they need to do and I'll if I remember I'll pray for them and In fact, if

you look at this particular instance This pool had multitudes of people all having sickness and many of them,

you know may actually be there Faking things or you know doing things just because they're getting the money

there and don't really want to even move out of that circumstance but Jesus here comes down with compassion and deals with this

person and You know our love for God should be moved with the same kind of compassion for the

people.

I really feel bad we didn't get through the rest of the passage because The event by itself doesn't

convey as much as you understand who it is that did this event and if I would encourage all of You when you go back to read

John 5 1 16 through actually the rest of the passage or at least till 30 to look at who this Jesus is

and what he Did and who he is and when we are gripped with the person and the power of

Christ and his actions.

That is a model for us and the rest of the Bible that talks about how we ought to show our compassion We would

realize What a Christian ought to be in his walk with the Lord and especially as he walks

towards his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Any questions before we close?

Let's pray dear God our Heavenly Father.

We thank you for Coming down to earth

2 ,000 years ago living a life that you did not have to

Living a life and dying on the cross on our behalf that we may be Restored into fellowship

with you and that we may experience the love that you have for us and Lord

Be able to live out that life of love here on earth that we may be witnesses to you

in our words and in our deeds Lord even as we

worship the rest of this morning, we just pray for your spirit to be with us a lot as we Read the

scripture as we sing songs and as we Hear your message.

May your spirit work in us convict us changes that Oh Lord.

We would Reflect your glory here on earth while we are given the time to live.

We ask all this in Jesus name.