Why Does Jesus Heal?

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John 5:1–17 Pastor Rob Kimsey July 14, 2024

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John has recorded for us, and we can think about suffering and illness and disease and various kinds of trials, and that God is the one who is sovereign over his creation.
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He allows these things, rather, we have a right understanding, he ordains these things. And then we're going to see
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Jesus, the healer, continue to reveal himself as the
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Messiah, as the Christ, in the third side wonder this morning. Why does
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Jesus heal? John chapter 5, verses 1 through 17, and I think just for the sake of the context, we'll add a verse on there as we transition out of this account into what
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Jesus is going to teach. Let's read the first 18 verses, actually. Please stand with me for the reading of God's word.
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John chapter 5, the healing at Bethesda. The historical, precise, accurate eyewitness testimony of the apostle
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John. After these things, there was a feast of the
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Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there was in Jerusalem, by the sheep gate, a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porticos.
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In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters.
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For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water.
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Whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever sickness with which he was afflicted.
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And a man was there who had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been sick a long time, he said to him, do you wish to get 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, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.
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Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your mat and walk.
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And immediately the man became well and picked up his mat and began to walk. Now it was the
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Sabbath on that day. So the Jews were saying to the man who had been healed, it is the
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Sabbath and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat. But he answered them, he who made me well was the one who said to me, pick up your mat and walk.
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They asked him, who is the man who said to you, pick up your mat and walk? But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.
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Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, behold, you have become well.
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Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you. The man went away and disclosed to the
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Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. And for this reason, the
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Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the
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Sabbath. But he answered them, my father is working until now and I myself am working.
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For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because he not only was breaking the
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Sabbath, but also was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.
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You may be seated. Why does Jesus heal?
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And as we think about that question, the spiritual truth that is displayed in the sign wonder, we can think about what's happened up till now.
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So sort of a brief recap of these first four chapters, again, eyewitness testimony.
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The witness of John the Baptist as the forerunner of the Christ, we saw the first sign wonder of turning water into wine.
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The first Passover and the cleansing of the temple marking the first year of Jesus's earthly ministry.
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The conversations with the Pharisee Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman at the well. The second sign wonder of healing the royal official's son.
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And then we find ourselves here in chapter five. In chapter five, we can think about a few things here.
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We see this mention of the feast, possibly the feast mentioned here is the second Passover marking the next year of Jesus's earthly ministry.
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In chapter five, we have the miracle first and then right away the opposition and persecution from the
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Pharisees. And what follows in the immediate aftermath is Jesus's indictment of the
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Pharisees by explaining three profound theological truths. That Jesus is equal with the
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Father. The reality of the afterlife in two resurrections. One for judgment and one for eternal life.
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And finally, the witnesses to Jesus. Those who testify about Jesus are the
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Father and the Scriptures. And that's really chapter five. And it highlights two results, really if you take everything we've learned up to this point, two results, unbelief versus belief.
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And really two avenues for each of those. Unbelief that is indifferent in being amazed at the miracles but not having a heart change.
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Or unbelief that hardens the heart and turns into outright opposition and persecution as we'll see with the
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Pharisees. The other avenue is belief. Two ways. Belief that is immediate, taking
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Jesus's words to heart. Or belief that comes in stages, in encountering
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Jesus and then eventually believing. And we can think about this as we are going to witness the third sign wonder.
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What we are witnessing this morning is the point of the sign wonders. It's not just the miracles.
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The gospel records seven miraculous signs selected by John to reveal
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Christ's person and promote belief. The first we saw in chapter two, water made into wine.
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The second, the healing of the royal official's son, we saw in chapter four. Today, the third sign wonder, the healing of the lame man.
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The fourth sign wonder is the feeding of a multitude in chapter six. And the fifth sign wonder is walking on water, also in chapter six.
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The sixth sign wonder is the healing of the blind man in chapter nine. And the seventh sign wonder is the raising of Lazarus in chapter 11.
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There is an eighth sign in the miraculous catch of fish, but not counted as one of the sign wonders during his earthly ministry.
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The eighth sign in the catch of the fish happened after Jesus's resurrection.
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That account is in chapter 21. But there's similarities in the sign wonders.
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Seven that we have, and three out of those seven involve healing.
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And you could actually make the argument that number seven, the raising of Lazarus, is some kind of a healing event.
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He brings a person back from the dead, you can't heal anyone more than that. But either way, whatever you take it, three to four sign wonders that involve healing.
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So we see a repetition here. And so we can think about it, why does God allow suffering?
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Why does God allow suffering? I recently read this testimony from a Christian woman, and she was asking this question.
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She had a testimony of her own struggles. And she said, why does God allow sickness? Simple question.
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She said, it is something that all people wonder why. In her case, she says, in my case, my husband suffered with a very rare type of brain cancer and is now with the
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Lord. She said he passed away in April, and he was a true blessing to many people.
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She testified, she said, through his illness, his sister was released from her captivity in a cult and truly knows the
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Lord. Even though I was saved, referring to herself,
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I have a much better understanding of what it means to trust and live a righteous life. And she concluded by saying, it is truly amazing how the
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Lord uses an illness or even the death of a loved one. Why does
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God allow suffering? This question was posed in this way in an online article, quote, the issue of sickness is always a difficult one to deal with.
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The key is remembering that God's ways are higher than our ways.
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When we are suffering with a sickness, disease, or injury, we usually focus solely on our own suffering.
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In the midst of a trial of sickness, it is very difficult to focus on what good God might bring about as a result.
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It is undeniable, though, that God sometimes intentionally allows or even causes sickness to accomplish his sovereign purposes.
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Sickness can be a means of God's loving discipline. It is difficult for us to comprehend why
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God would work in this manner. But believing in the sovereignty of God, there is no other option than suffering being something
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God allows and or causes. Sickness and suffering are never easy to deal with.
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One thing is for sure, sickness should not cause us to lose faith in God.
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Very simply, without suffering, there can be no healing. Why does Jesus heal?
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In verses 1 through 17, John records the healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda so that you can understand the point of Jesus' healing ministry.
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The third sign wonder, we'll look at it in two ways, the miracle displayed and the mission statement.
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The third sign wonder, the miracle displayed in verses 1 through 9, and the mission statement in verses 10 through 17.
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Again, we'll look at verses 1 through 9, the miracle displayed. After these things, there was a feast of the
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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.
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In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters.
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For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever sickness with which he was afflicted.
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And a man was there who had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been sick a long time, he said to him, do you wish to get 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, get up, pick up your mat and walk.
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And immediately the man became well and picked up his mat and began to walk.
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John starts out by telling us the setting of the third sign wonder. And there is also a clue in an interval of time passing when he says, after these things, a specific phrase that he'll use again and again.
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And so I want to start by focusing on this and make you sensitive to the fact that all of these things are just not happening right in a row.
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There's gaps of time. And so we have this in our account this morning in the third sign wonder.
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Each time he uses that term after these things, he's conveying the thought of an indefinite interval.
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In other words, the apostle isn't stating everything that happened and he doesn't let us know how long an interval elapsed before the next account took place.
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The apostle John is pointing the readers to the things Jesus said, not always the precise sequence of time.
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He's pointing out that there was a feast. Jesus again leaves Galilee, goes to Jerusalem to attend.
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It's important to remember that each time we see a feast mentioned, then a passage of time has occurred.
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Interesting note about the apostle's gospel account. He regularly tied his eyewitness accounts to the various Jewish feasts.
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That's what he does throughout this account. In chapter two, when Jesus cleanses the temple,
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John says it was near the Passover. This is the first year. In chapter six, when
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Jesus feeds the 5 ,000, it was near the Passover. This is a new year. In chapter seven,
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Jesus teaches at the feast of booths. In chapter 10, before the death and resurrection,
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Jesus said, I and the Father are one during the feast of dedication. In chapter 11, after the death and resurrection, the
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Jewish leaders plot to kill Jesus near the Passover.
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And this is also a new year. So actually this reference in chapter five is the only instance in the gospel where John does not clearly identify the particular feast that was occurring.
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Many scholars take the position that there is another Passover occurrence in between chapter two and chapter six.
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I believe what we have here is another Passover occurrence. We have to remember the big picture of the historical record.
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This is real. This isn't a fairy tale. It's not a myth. This isn't something for you to learn, a fable.
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This is an eyewitness account. And so the facts of history will always match up.
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According to Luke's gospel, John the Baptist began his ministry in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar's reign.
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Now the historical record tells us that Tiberius was appointed emperor in A .D.
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14. So very simply, in the 15th year, it would have to be A .D.
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28 to 29. That date is static. It can't be changed. Historical facts. Jesus began his ministry shortly thereafter, so around A .D.
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29. As for the end of his ministry, we know that it culminated with his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.
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But Jesus accomplished a huge amount of travel during his ministry, and that took time.
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There could have been another Passover not mentioned in the gospels, which fell between the Passovers of chapter two and chapter six.
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And that actually ties in with the historical record and does not contradict Scripture in any way.
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Pontius Pilate is known to have ruled Judea from A .D. 26 to 36. The gospels tell us that the crucifixion took place during a
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Passover, at the beginning of which is marked in chapter 11. That Passover event happening, and then the, of course, the death and crucifixion.
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The date John the Baptist began his ministry narrows down the date of the crucifixion to A .D.
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33. So if we add to that the 40 days between Jesus' resurrection and his ascension, we have a total length of Jesus' earthly ministry.
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From his baptism to his ascension, the late summer of 29 to the spring of 33, we have approximately three and a half years.
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And that would mean chapter two is A .D. 30, the first Passover. Chapter five is A .D.
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31, the second Passover. Chapter six, A .D. 32, the third Passover.
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Chapter 11, A .D. 33, the fourth Passover. Jesus is crucified in the beginning of the year on Friday, April 3rd,
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A .D. 33. We must never forget the historical accuracy, the precision of the
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Scripture. And whether you take it as a third Passover or the second Passover event or not, it's clearly a feast that marked a passage of time.
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So a new year has started. And that would mean chapter five and the account of the third sign would mark the start of the next year of Jesus' earthly ministry.
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Ultimately, this does not change any significant theological position. This is not a salvation issue.
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And we have to concede that because the apostle doesn't tell us which feast it is, this is an area of conjecture.
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I see chapter five as a Passover feast making a lot of sense and correlating nicely with the facts of history while simultaneously fitting with the
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Bible's perfect testimony. The Bible will always fit perfectly with the facts of history, but that's not the point.
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John points out to us that there was some kind of a superstition or custom for the
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Jewish people to gather at the pool. And specifically, those that had some kind of a deformity or infirmity.
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And the context of the first part of verse three and then really verse seven make it clear that those with bodily affirmities were waiting for healing, waiting for this certain time when the springs would be stirred up.
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There is a possibility that some springs that fed the pool could regularly cause a slight disturbance or stirring up of the water.
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Actually, in the historical record, there are witnesses from that time of antiquity that testify that the waters of the pool were red with minerals.
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So there may have been some kind of connection to a medicinal value. Clearly, there was a superstition among the
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Jewish people that there was a divine connection. The name of the place is telling for us.
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The name in Hebrew means the house of outpouring. The Jewish Aramaic literally means house of mercy.
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So God is outpouring his healing, he's being merciful and healing. But I think it's worth pointing out the second part of verse three and verse four are not in the original account in terms of the earliest and best manuscripts.
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That's important. They may have been added at some point by those in the chain of custody of the original autographs.
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Clearly, the second half of verse three and verse four are helping the reader to understand what the man was referring to in terms of the superstition or the desire to be healed there.
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These people would wait expectantly at the pool because they believed an angel would come down into the pool and stir up the water.
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The main emphasis of this first section is the gravity of this debilitating infliction or disease that the man was suffering with.
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John tells us it was for 38 years, 38 years. An important point, this man had been suffering with this affliction longer than Jesus had been alive in his earthly incarnation on the earth as a human being.
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John wants to make sure that his readers understand the gravity of the miracle. This man's sickness had been witnessed by others for almost four decades.
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And that means that when Jesus cured him or healed him, there wasn't a single person who didn't understand the genuineness of the miracle.
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It's an amazing miracle. This is no parlor trick. John is recording for us these sign wonders.
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He's demonstrating that there was specific times when Jesus did publicly display
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His deity and this was one of those times. And Jesus already knew this man.
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John uses the word to know. Jesus saw the man lying there and knew it had been for a long time.
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He knew, and this is the Greek word genosko, it means to arrive at a knowledge of someone or something or very literally to acquire information through some means.
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To learn of, ascertain, to find out. But actually the lexical meaning has an implication of knowing secret things.
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The importance is that there's an implication of supernatural knowledge on the part of Jesus about this man's situation.
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And John has now consistently recorded examples of Jesus' omniscience. Even going back to the first chapter in the calling of Philip and Nathanael, John chapter one, we see this account,
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Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said about him, behold, truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.
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Nathanael said to him, from where do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree,
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I saw you. Jesus wasn't at the fig tree, but he saw the man, he knew. John chapter two, the conclusion of the, really the miracle of turning water into wine and the cleansing of the temple, the apostle noted this at the end of chapter two, but Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them.
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For he knew all men and because he had no need that anyone bear witness concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man.
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We see it again in John chapter four, the Samaritan woman. I mean, think about Jesus' knowledge of her life.
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The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have correctly said,
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I have no husband. He already knew. His omniscience is on display. John doesn't give us the explicit reason why
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Jesus made the choice to heal this particular man. Clearly, Jesus picked this man out of a large group of many sick people.
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We don't know, but we know that the sovereign initiative of Jesus belongs to him.
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And I believe that there is a parallel to another sign recorded for us in chapter nine, the sixth sign wonder,
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John chapter nine, the healing of the blind man. It says as he passed by referring to Jesus, he saw a man blind from birth and his disciples asked him saying,
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Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?
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Jesus answered, neither this man nor his parents sin, but this was so that the works of God might be manifested in him.
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And I think that's what we're seeing here in the third sign wonder. After four decades of being lame, having withered legs, this had become the man's way of life.
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And he makes it clear in his interaction with Jesus that no one had helped him. He had no hope of being healed or at least helped by another person at the pool.
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The lame man's circumstances looked hopeless, but at the time when he didn't expect it and when things seemed to be beyond hope,
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God was there. So we can think about that in our own lives. No matter how hopeless you may feel in times of struggle, no matter how trapped you may feel, even by the negative circumstances, the very real negative circumstances, we must never forget
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God is with you. God is with you. God can and will help you in your most intense times of struggle.
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God isn't just willing to help. God is at work in the struggle and God will help.
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We should never let our trial or struggle cause us to lose hope in the goodness of God. We can't see the big picture, but God can.
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Have you ever considered that God may have a special plan for you despite your suffering?
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More pointedly, God may have a special work for you because of your suffering.
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There are many Christians over the centuries who have ministered more than effectively to those going through immense suffering, because at some point when they became dependent on God, he allowed them to triumph over their own suffering.
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When we are at our weakest, we are at our strongest, the power of Christ in us. And after the man explains his situation,
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Jesus simply just says, get up, get up, get up, pick up your mat and walk.
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And immediately the man became well and picked up his mat and began to walk. Here is the miracle.
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God speaks and creation responds. Just like the power of God's word to speak the world into creation,
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Jesus simply just had to speak. His words had the power to cure. His words had the power to heal.
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In the second sign wonder, he simply told the royal official that his dying son was healed.
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And now he does the same thing, but in person. And the man responds by doing what the
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Lord had commanded. The mat he was using was probably made of straw and would have been light enough to carry.
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The apostle recorded the simple phrase Jesus used and the man picked up his mat and began to walk.
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It brings a crystal clear emphasis on the perfection or the completeness of the cure.
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The man was healed instantaneously. The man had been looking for the wrong source of healing.
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He looked into magical superstition, superstition or myths or some kind of a hope rather than the source of life,
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God. But notice the man never got wet. He didn't have to go into the water.
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It was not the water the man needed, it was Jesus Christ and the power of God that the man needed.
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And we can think about that for our own lives. What else, who else are you looking for comfort from?
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Or how about this? What else or who else are you trying to be healed by? As we deal with various suffering, illness, sickness, various seasons of difficulty, adversity, trial, maybe even seasons of extended seasons of unrepentant sin, we're looking to fill this void that we have by worldly substitutions, earthly antidotes.
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Whatever those things may be, it's not going to work. There's only one thing, there's only one person who can heal, it's
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Jesus. So if you're dealing with sin or you're going through a various trial and you think going and talking to an expert, the self -help support group, the drugs, whatever it is, you're not going to get a fix there because what you've done is you've actually contaminated the only cure there is.
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It's the Word of God through the power of the Holy Spirit by having faith in Christ. You don't add earthly antidotes and worldly substitutions to the
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Scripture or to Christ and it makes Christ more effective. Christ doesn't need anything this world has to offer.
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And what happens is you trick yourself into believing that there is some kind of a hope outside of Jesus.
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And let me tell you, there is no hope outside of Jesus. The only hope we have in this world is the
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Lord Jesus Christ, period. It's not Jesus plus anything this world has to offer.
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But often what do we do? We just want to get out of it. We want to have the situation fixed and that's not how
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God works. God doesn't work through that. God works through trials and through that trial we develop a strong, godly character.
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He develops in us a character of perseverance, of godliness, of strength.
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We have the Holy Spirit. We need to remind ourselves of that in various seasons of trial.
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God didn't give us a spirit of fear and timidity. He gave us a spirit of power, of love and of self -control, the
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Holy Spirit. So why on earth would we want anything more than the Holy Spirit or how has the devil tricked you into thinking that you can add something from the world and somehow make the
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Holy Spirit more powerful or more effective? These are important questions.
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What else or who else are you looking for comfort from? What else or who else are you trying to be healed by?
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It is worth pointing out that the passage does not reveal the man's conversion. The miracle was not the point.
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John is teaching his readers that Jesus not only sees our physical suffering or afflictions,
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Jesus sees our hearts as well. Jesus as the Savior is the only one who can provide the spiritual healing we need.
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Of course, being physically lame and having withered legs for 40 years would be extremely difficult.
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But eternity in hell is even worse. No comparison. The miracle leads to the mission statement.
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Jesus revealed that the man's physical healing was the secondary need.
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The healing was secondary to his need to be healed spiritually. And in these verses this morning, we see
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John recording for us the healing of the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda so that you can understand the point of Jesus' healing ministry.
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The third sign wonder, the miracle displayed. The miracle displayed that Jesus is greater than any religious superstition or man -made tradition.
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The miracle displayed that Jesus is greater than any religious superstition or man -made tradition.
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And then we see the second part of the account, verses 10 through 17, the mission statement.
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So the Jews were saying to the man who had been healed, it is the
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Sabbath and it's not lawful for you to carry your mat. But he answered them, he who made me well was the one who said to me, pick up your mat and walk.
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And they asked him, who is the man who said to you, pick up your mat and walk? But the man who was healed did not know who it was for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.
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Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, behold, you have become well.
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Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you. The man went away and disclosed to the
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Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. And for this reason, the Jews were persecuting
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Jesus because he was doing things on the Sabbath. But he answered them, my father is working until now and I myself am working.
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The mission statement is explained after the accusation. The Old Testament background of forbidding work on the
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Sabbath is what is being referred to here. This is from Exodus chapter 20.
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Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
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But the seventh day is a Sabbath of Yahweh your God. In it you shall not do any work.
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You or your son or your daughter, your male or your female slave or your cattle or your sojourner who is within your gates.
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For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day.
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Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Here's the problem.
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The scripture does not directly explain what work, quote, work is indicated.
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And that means there's an interpretation. There's an assumption of what work means here. I think it's a reasonable thing based on the plain normative use of language to assume that work was one's customary employment, livelihood, the idea of providing for your family, providing, getting food on the table.
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So this is employment, livelihood, customary employment. Seems pretty clear. But according to the
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Pharisees, they had created 39 additional activities that were forbidden regarding work beyond one's livelihood.
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Not according to the scripture, no, but according to the Mishnah, the compilation of rabbinical interpretations of scripture.
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So in essence, this was man -made law based on oral tradition. The Pharisees were at a very high level of pious hypocrisy during the time of Jesus's earthly ministry.
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They had no problem making claims on what was permissible and not permissible. And this is the hypocrisy of the
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Pharisees that is constantly called out by Jesus in all of the gospel accounts.
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What we see again is Jewish hyper -legalism and Jesus confronting this
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Jewish hyper -legalistic just fake holiness. According to the legalist
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Pharisees, even carrying a mat on the Sabbath could be interpreted by them as work. It had nothing to do with their livelihood.
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Again, not according to the Old Testament law of Moses, but according to their traditions.
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In actuality, this act did not break Old Testament law. It only broke their interpretation of God's command from Exodus 20.
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At this point, the Pharisees' man -made journey away from Yahweh, they had actually created over 600 additional rules attached to the
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Ten Commandments of Yahweh. So this was just one of hundreds of rules pertaining to that specific command.
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Clearly, if the man had been lame for almost four decades, they would have known about him in some capacity.
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And here you have a guy who hadn't walked for almost 40 years and they didn't care. Their concern was over their own trivial rules being broken.
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The health and life of a human being didn't matter to them. It just didn't matter.
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Here you have a guy walking around 40 years. They must have seen him at some point and they're not praising
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God? What a great thing that has happened. Wouldn't you just be encouraged?
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This is an image -bearer made in the image of God and he's not sick anymore. But no, that's not their immediate response.
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And I don't think we should give ourselves a pass here. May we dare not think that we aren't like the
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Pharisees in some way. These Jewish leaders witnessed the miracle, but they were upset about the rule being broken that they had created.
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This applies to us in this church, the church at large and this church, or the practices of the local church.
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It's easy for you to get caught up in your own man -made traditions. Very easy.
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Maybe there's structures or things that you've always done. Sometimes you can elevate that above Scripture.
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Whether something is being done according to the Bible becomes a secondary issue. Because it's not the way you've always done things.
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The rule or the tradition becomes more important to you. And you forget that there are people that are affected by your attitude of grumbling and complaining, unfounded opposition and accusations that don't serve anyone's interest but your own.
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This is the Pharisee mindset. This is Pharisaical thinking. The Pharisees threw the miracle aside and they focused on the rule that had been broken.
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The Pharisees threw the good thing for God's people aside and they focused on the way things had been done in the past.
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They wanted it their way. Who cares if a person, who cares about the other people? For them, their tradition was more important than the miracle.
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Think about it like that. Are your traditions or guidelines for the church man -made?
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Are they man -made? Are your traditions or guidelines supported by the Scriptures?
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And most importantly, are they for the benefit of God's people? In other words, are they helping people?
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Or are the traditions of the church needless stumbling blocks for those who are here or new visitors
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God will bring? It is the Sabbath and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.
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Is that your attitude? Is that your attitude? Without Christ intervening, it's easy for all of us to go down that path.
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Praise God John records this exchange so we can see how Jesus responds to their accusation.
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Specifically, how Jesus treats the sinner first. There's something in verse 14
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I think it's important to highlight. Jesus says, do not sin anymore so nothing worse happens to you.
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So we have to ask, is Jesus saying that if you sin, you will get sick? Well let's think about that.
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I don't want to rush past this verse. Jesus' comments here reflect that sin has consequences, both earthly and eternally.
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Galatians chapter 6 says this, the Apostle Paul, he says to the church in Galatia, do not be deceived,
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God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
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For the one who sows in his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life.
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So clearly there is consequences earthly and eternal. Other supporting scripture makes it crystal clear that not all disease is a consequence of sin.
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Not all disease is a consequence of sin. Remember that John 9 passage, the blind man, the disciples asked who sinned, him or his parents,
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Jesus said neither. Luke chapter 13 records this exchange,
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I think this is helpful for us, Luke 13 says now at that same time there was some present who were reporting to Jesus about the
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Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, do you think that these
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Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered these things? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
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Or do you think that those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed, them were worse offenders than all the men who live in Jerusalem?
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I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
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So is Jesus saying that if you sin, you will get sick? Well, the scripture doesn't seem to support that in every situation, but Jesus is pointing the man to his need for spiritual healing.
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He's making a connection about the physical ailment to the sin in the man's life.
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Sickness at times can be directly related to a person's sin. There's a couple examples that I would like to share, 1
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Corinthians 11, we think about the Lord's table. Paul, very strong warning for us here.
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For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.
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For this reason, many among you are weak and sick and a number have died.
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That's the apostle Paul telling the believers in the church of Corinth, if you take the communion bread and the communion cup in an unworthy manner, you will get sick or you will die.
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You had better take this seriously. That's what Paul is telling the church in Corinth. There's another scripture in James, the half brother of Jesus wrote this,
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James chapter five, and the prayer offered in faith will save the one who is sick and the
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Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Jesus says, do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.
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Is Jesus saying that if you sin, you will get sick? Not in every case, but sometimes there is a correlation.
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Not just getting an illness or disease, but death. Consider the words of King David, Psalm 32.
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When I kept silent about my sin, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
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For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as with the heat of summer.
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I think the better question is why did God allow this to happen? Jesus is pointing out our need to be healed from the disease of sin.
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Our greatest need is the forgiveness of sin, not physical health. That's the spiritual truth and the sign performed.
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King David will go on to say this in Psalm 32. He says, I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity
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I did not cover up. I said I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
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Like the blind man, it seems very probable that Jesus chose this man in order to highlight this point.
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Ultimately, the need for the sinner is not to be healed physically, it is to be healed spiritually.
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It's incredible for us to read that a person who was lame, possibly paralyzed, a man with withered legs, suddenly and instantaneously could walk.
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What an amazing miracle. But the greatest miracle that could ever take place that we get to experience is when we see a sinner who has his sins forgiven.
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And you think about that, the need to see miracles and have these divine things happen. We have it.
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We get to experience, and if you're a believer, you've already experienced the greatest miracle you could ever witness.
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The greatest miracle that you'll ever experience is when God forgave you of your sin.
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And that's what Jesus is explaining to him. Of course, the lame man was ecstatic to have been healed.
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But Jesus is telling him that he had to turn from his sins, that he had to seek
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God's forgiveness, that he had to be spiritually healed. God's grace in forgiving sinners is the greatest gift any human being will ever receive, period.
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The miracle led to the persecution, and the persecution led to the mission statement.
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And for this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the
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Sabbath. And notice the tense of the verb. This was implying the Jews repeatedly persecuted
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Jesus. This is the start. We have something new that has now happened. Unbelief that has turned into a hardened heart of opposition and persecution.
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And from this point on, we'll just see it again and again. In other words, they became hostile in their activities toward him.
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And this is actually the Greek word meaning to pursue. They pursued him. It means to move rapidly and decisively toward an objective.
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This is to hasten, to run, to press on. There is a haste or intensity implied in the repeated action.
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And here John is using the word to describe to harass someone, especially because of beliefs.
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This is to persecute with an urgent hastening, a pursuing. Of course, we know that this was not an isolated incident in their hatred towards Jesus.
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Actually, he had done nothing wrong because there was no prohibition of doing good on the Sabbath. It just said, do not work on the
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Sabbath. It didn't say, you can't do good on the Sabbath. They're just mad because he disregarded their oral laws, man -developed traditions or laws.
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And we see the term the tradition of the elders in the Gospel of Matthew to describe these man -made traditions of the
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Pharisees. In actuality, this was very deliberate on Jesus's part. Jesus's comments and actions provoked confrontations with the religious elite of the day.
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The hypocritical legalist that were blinded from the true worship of God. Remember, in the greater context of chapter five, we see that Jesus will use this incident to springboard into theological truths opposing the
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Pharisees directly. And that's the mission statement. Jesus is God.
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In other words, Jesus is equal with the Father. Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah.
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The rest of chapter five is just him making these statements. Jesus is equality with the
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Father, the two resurrections, witnesses to Jesus, the Father and the
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Scriptures. And so as we can continue forward in chapter five, Lord willing, we'll just see these theological truths that Christ is revealing.
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The mission statement is that whether Jesus broke the Sabbath or not, and he didn't, that God the
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Father was continuously working for good for those who are the elect.
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Those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Just like God the
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Father was working, Jesus himself worked continuously. And this statement is a clear declaration that Jesus must be
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God. And we can think about this idea of rest and working and continuously working.
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Well, we understand the Sabbath, we understand the seventh day was rest, but we ought not to import our own human element in that, that we're tired and we need rest.
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God needs no rest. God needs no rest. He is continually working, but never tiring.
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The prophet Isaiah said it like this in Isaiah 40. Do you not know?
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Have you not heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, the creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired.
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His understanding is unsearchable. So if these factors apply to God, then
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Jesus is saying they apply to me as well. My father is working until now, and I myself am working.
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Remember, Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. He doesn't need the permission of the
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Pharisees to do anything on the Sabbath. He's the Lord of the Sabbath. We have this account in Matthew 12, just a small section.
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I think this is so great. It says that at that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the
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Sabbath, and here he'll deal with another accusation. It says his disciples became hungry.
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They began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, look, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a
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Sabbath. But he said to them, have you not read what David did when he became hungry?
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He and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone?
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Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?
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But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means,
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I desire compassion and not a sacrifice. You would not have condemned the innocent, for the
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Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. And amazingly, even the
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Jewish rabbis conceded that God's work does not cease on the
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Sabbath. It does not cease after the Sabbath. So this persecution and accusation does not come from a place of honesty.
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They were jealous. They had false motives. They had bad motives, and they didn't have a pure heart.
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They didn't care about the Scripture. They just wanted their way. They acknowledge that God's work doesn't cease after the
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Sabbath because God continually sustains the universe. They believe that, yet here they are accusing
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God of healing a man that had been crippled for four decades because they wanted their way.
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Think about it like this. If God stopped working, what would happen? Well, very simply, the natural world would fall into chaos.
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Creation would cease to exist or unravel. The sin of humanity would overrun the world.
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Just because God rested on the seventh day doesn't mean that he stopped doing good. Jesus is intentional and does not act without purpose.
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And I think there's an obvious parallel in this healing to the healing of the blind man later in chapter 9.
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Our Lord wanted to teach his disciples then and his disciples now that when the opportunity to do the right thing comes along, it should not be ignored.
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It should not be ignored. Another interesting thing to point out, nine of the
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Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament. There is only one of the Ten Commandments that is not repeated in the
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New Testament, and that is the command to rest on the Sabbath because our rest is now in Jesus.
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So why does Jesus heal? The third sign wonder. The mission statement by Jesus that he is equal with the
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Father demonstrates the purpose of Jesus' ministry in saving sinners from hell and doing good continuously for God's elect.
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The mission statement by Jesus that he is equal with the Father demonstrates the purpose of Jesus' ministry in saving sinners from hell and doing good continuously for God's elect.
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The third sign showed that Jesus is the ultimate healer. Jesus is not just capable of healing our physical afflictions,
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Jesus heals our hearts. He makes something that's dead alive. By telling this man to sin no more,
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Jesus had revealed that the physical healing of the ailment was the secondary need.
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Like all of us, the lame man's ultimate need was to be healed spiritually. Jesus Christ is the
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Son of God, the only exclusive Son who is able to provide the spiritual healing of sin that we all need.
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While the reality of being sick with an illness for four decades is extremely difficult, an eternity spent in hell is much worse.
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May we not be like the Pharisees. May you not have hardened hearts when
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God is doing good things just because it is not the way you would like things to be done, not according to your customs or traditions.
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The Word of God is greater than man -made laws or traditions. May we look to the words of Christ and understand that the immediate result of the healing is that Jesus is greater, greater than any superstition, greater than any man -made rule, greater than any worldly wisdom, greater than any tradition.
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If you want lasting peace and healing as his followers while you're here on earth, may you seek
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Christ and him alone. Above all other earthly antidotes or worldly substitutions,
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Jesus is the ultimate and only healing you need. It makes me think of the hymn,
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In Christ Alone. Christ commands your destiny. He knows it from the beginning to the end.
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The hymn writer says that his strength, his hope is in Christ alone.
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Jesus commands your destiny. In these verses this morning, John recorded the healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda so that you can understand the point of Jesus' healing ministry.
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The third sign wonder, the miracle displayed that Jesus is greater than any religious superstition and man -made tradition.
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The mission statement by Jesus that he's equal with the Father demonstrates the purpose of Jesus' ministry in saving sinners from hell and doing good continuously for God's elect.