Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] But if you have been joining us for the last few weeks. You've seen that we're in the Gospel of John. A series through John called that you may believe. And today we're going to start chapter five. So I've entitled this in chapter five, verses one through 16. What we're going to read today. The man at the pool. So let's read if your Bible should be open to chapter five. And then we'll pray and move on. Chapter five starts off and says, after this. So obviously we know that this is connecting phrase from what just happened. And we talked about. Pastor Les was preaching through last week in Jesus healing an official's son. And so it says after this, and we see in verse 46 of chapter four. He was in Cana in Galilee. So now he's moving on from there. It says, there was a feast of the Jews. And Jesus went up to where Jerusalem. Cool. We're all in the same place there. Verse two. Now there is in Jerusalem, by the sheep gate. A pool in Aramaic called Bethsaida, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids. Blind, lame and paralyzed. One man was there who had been invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there. And knew that he had already been there a long time. He said to him, do you want to be healed?
[00:01:23] The sick man said to him, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. And while I am going there, another steps in before me. Some of you might have noticed I missed something there. We'll come back to that. Verse eight. Jesus said to him, get up. Take your bed and walk.
[00:01:44] And after many, many years, he finally was able to walk.
[00:01:47] But it doesn't say that. It says, at once the man was healed. Then he took up his bed and he walked. Now, that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to take up your bed. But he answered them, the man who healed me.
[00:02:04] That man said to me, take up your bed and walk. They asked him, who is this man that said to you, take up your bed and walk? Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was. For Jesus had withdrawn as there was a crowd in that place. Verse 14. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you are well. Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And we conclude in verse 16 is where we'll stop.
[00:02:36] And this is why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the what? On the Sabbath.
[00:02:46] Well, Lord, we know that you are the lord of the Sabbath, and not just of that day, but of all days and of all mankind. You are the Lord. You are the one who is sovereign over all things. And today, this morning, as we spend time in your word, we recognize you are lord over all of us this morning.
[00:03:11] And you have called us to submit to your lordship.
[00:03:16] And as we spend time in your word, Lord, you are who we want to change our heart and our mind, to be more in line with you than where we are at this moment.
[00:03:26] Change our thinking, change our passions, change our agendas.
[00:03:34] Lord, we want to submit to you as the Lord.
[00:03:37] And so, as we spend time here, we believe that you will do that. Your spirit working inside of us will teach us and guide us in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:03:47] All right, so let's zoom in and out for just a moment. So we read this passage. Let's zoom out for just a moment. If you see, we're in chapter five. If we look at the first four chapters of where we were in John, chapters one through four, one through four, we see that God is. Maybe you could flip back if you'd like. You kind of look back at some of the stories that we've seen here. We've seen that God is revealing Jesus as the word and as his son. And we see that happening in various stories in chapters one through four. You see that over and over as Jesus shows up and he says, I'm the messiah. I'm the one who is sent from God. But now in chapter five, if we zoom out here, we have a shift. Can you say shift?
[00:04:33] This is an important shift for all of us to really pay attention to, because there's not a whole lot of these shifts that happen in the book of John. First, we start off with what I just mentioned, Jesus revealing himself as the word, as the revealed person, a representative of God. And that's the purpose of what we see in verses, chapters one through four. And then we have this. What's the word?
[00:04:53] This shift that happens in chapter five. And it goes on for quite a few chapters, actually.
[00:04:58] And this is the shift that we see. Instead of Jesus being revealed, just as the revealer of God, the person, the image of God, we see something else, not just as the revealed son, but rather we see opposition coming to Jesus. In the past, we haven't had a whole lot of that. But what you're going to see now is Jesus is going to continue to share things with the people around him. And the regular response to Jesus is going to be opposition over and over again. And this may sound strange coming, talking about someone like Jesus who we know, we believe is kind, he's loving, he's healing people, but rather what we see is opposition or rejection over and over and over again. In the first four chapters of John, the author emphasizes Jesus identity. Now John shifts his focus and says Jesus is going to be persecuted. He's doing kind things, he's showing love, he's showing grace. As we see in this passage, he's healing people. But the regular response is rejection, is opposition to Jesus. So that's an important shift that we're going to see here. So kind of have your mind set there, kind of looking for ways that people are continuing to reject, to oppose what Jesus is trying to do. In the rest of the following chapters that we have now, we've zoomed out. Let's zoom back into this passage and thinking about us here today.
[00:06:25] Have you ever felt hopeless?
[00:06:32] Have you ever felt stuck and no one knows what you're going through?
[00:06:46] If you have, you are not alone, even though in the moments that you're feeling that, it feels that way, that you are alone.
[00:06:57] In this passage, as we zoom in, we'll meet this man, an unnamed man who has experienced hopelessness for 38 years. That's a long time, isn't it?
[00:07:11] And in his case, it wasn't like hope was unknown, but for him, it seemed just to be out of reach. I can see it in the distance, but I can't seem to get there.
[00:07:24] Have you ever felt like you know exactly what you want, but it's just always out of reach?
[00:07:32] That's the person that Jesus approaches here. He knows what he wants. He just can't get there.
[00:07:40] As we walk through this, I want you to ask this question. I want to pose this question to you, and I want to offer an answer that I think we see through this text. The question is, what does this passage teach us about Jesus? It's an important question to ask as we approach any text in God's word. I think one thing that we can see here is this. Jesus sees the broken, he sees the hurting. He sees the hopeless. Even though there might be a cost, he wants to show mercy.
[00:08:11] If we hold on to that, I think we'll see Jesus showing up in various places here and meeting us in the questions that we have. Jesus sees the broken, he sees the hurting. He sees the hopeless. And even when there might be a cost. He wants to show mercy, that truth there is going to lead our time here and also set us up for at the end of our time in God's word here in this passage for communion as we close the service. So if you have your outline, you can write these things in. This will be important as you write things in to kind of track with where we're going. Firstly, it's important that we know in verses one through four we see that there is the setting and the situation. And you can just write those two words down. The setting and the situation. We want to know what's going on, what's the context of what we see here. So we said, as I read earlier, verse one says after this there was a feast. We don't exactly know because John doesn't tell us what feast this is. Some people think it's Passover. But because there was this feast and a few other feasts that were required for all jewish males, I think over all jewish males to go. I think it's over twelve to go to these as men to go to Jerusalem. And so they go and they come to Jerusalem. And so because of this, probably bringing family members as well. Jerusalem is packed. That's important to remember. Okay, Jerusalem. Maybe write that down somewhere. There is tons of people here in Jerusalem. So that's part of this situation here as well. Verse two says there was in Jerusalem by this gate. And what's this gate called?
[00:09:47] A sheep gate. What do you think people take through the sheep gate? Cows, cows, probably some sheep. Probably some sheep.
[00:09:59] And so there's this. And I put a picture on the screen as well just because sometimes that's helpful. I know it's kind of small, but anyway, the northern end of Jerusalem, there's this gate. It's called the sheep gate. And by this gate there's this pool in Aramaic, it's called Bethsaida, which has five Ruth colonies or porches, depending on what your version says. And in these lay a multitude of invalids. So there's blind people there. There's lame people there, there's paralyzed people there. There's people with all sorts of physical ailments. And now what's interesting here, so near the sheep gate, there's this pool. And this pool is called Bethsaida. And this word Bethsaida means house of mercy.
[00:10:46] House of mercy. And if you think Bethsaida, there's some other Beth. Other things. What's another Beth word or name of something called Beth in scripture? In Jesus time, Bethlehem, which means what House of bread. Yeah. Another beth.
[00:11:01] Bethany. Yep. Bethage. Bethany. There's Bethsaida, which we've heard about earlier on when you see Beth, it's house of something, in this case, house of mercy. So this gate actually is circled there. That's near this gate. It's been here for some time. Nehemiah chapter three speaks about it as well. So again, kind of figuring out where we are in the context of the city. Again, this shows authenticity to what actually happened, because there was a time that people didn't believe that this story actually happened and because they would read about this and they said, well, I've never even heard of this pool. We haven't found this pool. And so maybe John just made up this story and that is actually not the case. I think was 1855 or so, an archaeologist found this pool, and then later on they began to continue to uncover it. And they found five porches over this big old pool. And it continues to show that God's word is true. Isn't that neat? When archaeology just continues to show, look, the Bible was telling the truth. There's another picture there as well, of an uncovered kind of neat. You can go there today and even see this now. So kind of have a picture of where we are. The reason this pool had this name may have been because of what many believed happened at this pool. Mercy from God. We'll get to that in just a moment, so stay tuned. Remember, there's a big old festival going on.
[00:12:30] We don't know what this feast is, but remember, there's lots and lots of people. So not only is Jerusalem packed, but most likely many people have brought others to this pool, which means this pool, which means house of mercy. And these people are there because they want to get what healed? All sorts of problems. Their friends want them to get healed. Their family members want them to get healed. And so they bring others to this pool because they want them to get healed. Now, there's a lot of questions around this.
[00:13:01] Did the healing happen all year long? Some people say that it happened all year long. Others say it was only during certain feasts that it happened. It's unknown there. Now, if you've heard this story, you know why people believe this. And if you don't, there's, just stay tuned again. We'll get to that in just a second. Remember now there's no welfare system.
[00:13:22] There's not like, I can just, you know, go over to the office over there and write my name down and someone will give me food stamps and then I can go down to the market and get taken care of, and I can just swing by the ER and somebody will help me out. Like that isn't an option for them. And so anyone who had physical ailments, it was like, well, sorry, I don't know what we're gonna do. And they might sit, and many of them would sit and they'd beg, and some of them might make a reasonable amount of income from that.
[00:13:52] Many would walk by, though, and see, oh, there's something wrong with you. You must have sinned. There's something spiritually wrong with you because there's something physically wrong with you. This would have been a very sad sight to walk into this place a couple thousand years ago and see all of the people there waiting, watching the water now. They're like, watching the water. What are you talking about here? Some of your bibles, if it's a King James Bible that you're looking at a new King James, it will add something that many of your bibles don't have written in the text, but there'll be a footnote. I'm going to read that now and then explain why it's not in many of your bibles. Later on, it's on the screen as well. The last part of verse three and then verse four says this. They were waiting for the moving of the water. Verse four, for an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. Isn't that neat? Now, if you have King James, like I said, or new King James, you'll have that there. The others, you know why it's not there?
[00:14:55] Because your bibles are wrong. That's not really. That's not true. Not true at all. You're like, oh, goodness, what happened? Here's why.
[00:15:04] This text, this portion of this verse was not in many of the earliest manuscripts, but was rather later added. Now, why? Why that? Most likely because it was a common belief at the time, as we read even in other portions of the text, that someone believed that the people there believed something significant happened. And they believed at this time, 2000 years ago, that when the water was stirred, it was by an angel. And then the first people in, they were. The first person in was healed. And so what's believed is this, is that the person writing this down, put on the side note, here's why they believe this. And over time, it was other people reading this and going, oh, well, we'll just add this, add this in as part of the text. But when we go back and look at original manuscripts, we don't see that there, but rather see it later added. And as an abundance of caution, the people putting that together, the word here that we see, that you see in many of the versions you're reading said, we're not gonna put that in the text, but rather we're gonna put a note saying, actually, this wasn't in the original text to give clarity. To give clarity there. So you can dig into this. We're not gonna do all of that right now.
[00:16:17] We asked this question, though, because we see this later on, that this was a belief. How did the waters get stirred? Maybe you have this question already. How did the waters get stirred? And what did people actually get healed? Right. Isn't that a reasonable question to ask? Like, that seems pretty. I mean, I don't know about you, when you drive by the pool, if you see some bubbling up going on, you probably don't just assume, oh, it's an angel. If I jumped in right now, I get healed. That would be pretty amazing. So why did people believe that? And how did the water get stirred? I'll offer five thoughts on this, and then we'll move to point, the next point in your outline, just briefly. Some ancient witnesses indicate that the waters of the pool were filled.
[00:16:58] Waters of the pool were filled with minerals. And so they think that maybe there was a spring underneath, and then the spring every once in a while would bubble up. And because there was a lot of minerals in the spring, then that helped people who were in the water for a long period of time, they thought, well, maybe that was what it was. Some people, that's first. Secondly, another thought is this. Maybe it actually was an angel.
[00:17:21] God can do whatever he can't, can he?
[00:17:24] And he has done stranger things in healing. People think Naaman, for example. Naaman's like, I have leprosy. No one can help me. God's like, go to the Jordan seven times and you're healed. Well, what? Like, that's. How does that work? I mean, people get bitten by snakes. You're gonna die. But don't worry. Just look over at the bronze snake on that staff and you will be healed. God does all sorts of things to bring about healing, and he can choose to do it as he sees fit. Jesus, he's like, I'm gonna make some mud. I'm gonna put on your eyes. You are blind now. You can see. He can do whatever he wants. So maybe it was an angel.
[00:17:58] Thirdly, maybe it was as I mentioned actually, thirdly, maybe it was bubbles from the spring and people thought that if they stayed in there long enough that they could have healing. Maybe nothing happened. That's another person's opinion. Maybe it was just everyone said something was going to happen with the placebo effect, right? When you just like take something, you're like, oh, you're going to get better. And then people just thought they got better.
[00:18:22] And maybe it was God being gracious at times because he knew that there wasn't some healthcare system out there. He wanted to show people that he was a God of mercy. Here's the reality. We don't know. But what we do know is this. People believed these waters could bring healing. People believed that these waters brought hope to the ailments that they were experiencing. They believed this is where hope was found. Now let's move on to the next portion where true hope walks on the scene. Verses five and six. The man Jesus saw. The man Jesus saw. Verse five and following.
[00:19:03] One man was there. Was there only one man there?
[00:19:07] There was so many people there, but one man was there who had been an invalid for how many years? 38 years. And the fact that we have that number given makes us assume that he's not 38 years and he was lame, for example, from birth, but rather he was able to walk for a period of time. And then something happened and then he couldn't anymore. When jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, do you want to be healed?
[00:19:40] Now we look at this, we have to ask some questions. One, why did jesus see this person? Everybody there.
[00:19:49] Imagine Jesus walking in. He sees everybody there. And he could have just said, and you all are healed. He could have done that. He is well capable of doing just that. But we don't see that he does that. And perhaps you ask this question as I do, why did he walk in and see that one man there over, it seems, or set apart from everybody else? Why did jesus pay attention to him? Here's the answer. I don't know.
[00:20:24] But here's what we do know. Here's what we do know. Love. Loving someone who is broken begins with seeing them.
[00:20:36] And jesus didn't just see a crowd of people. He saw this man, and he knew this man's story. If you and I truly want to love someone, we have to take a moment and put ourselves in their shoes. This man had lost hope. It doesn't say, like I said, he was lame from birth, only that he saw one solution out there. And that it was this pool that was the only way he could experience hope. He had been ignored, he had been forgotten, and perhaps he was in pain. We don't know. He seems to be alone as we pause here for just a moment and think about this man. Put yourselves in his shoes for just a moment in his sandals if he was wearing any different. People handle grief or depression or hopelessness in different ways.
[00:21:28] Think through maybe your life or the lives of people that you know who have experienced depression or experienced hopelessness or experienced pain, experienced great frustration. Put yourself in their shoes for just a moment. People process these things differently. Sometimes we look at them from the distance and say, look how well they're doing. And sometimes we may look at them from a distance and say, wow, they should really get help. We might make some judgments about them instead of putting ourselves for a moment in the shoes that they are in. Thinking through some text in God's word, in passages here, and some people, two people that come to mind. One, David. David was going through some really rough stuff for a period of time. And here's what he said. This man after God's own heart, he says this.
[00:22:13] My tears have been my food day and night.
[00:22:18] Now we could look on and say, wow, you should really get it together and hope in God, right? Joy in all circumstances. But here's what he says.
[00:22:27] My tears have been my food. You think about Paul, jump way forwards about the struggles that he went through. Here's what he says.
[00:22:35] Suffering to the point of despair, even of life itself.
[00:22:41] People handle hardship differently, and sometimes we can have a tendency to step back and look at a distance rather than step in to their life and see them for where they are. Jesus saw this man, and it says that he knew how long he's been lying there. Of course he does, because he's Jesus. We see him honing in on this one person, and then he asks a question, right? A strange question. We might think at first, why would he even ask this? But first we have to remember, Jesus never asks anything that's unnecessary. Whenever Jesus said something, it's important.
[00:23:16] Here's why he might have asked this question of this man and why he might ask a similar question of us. If we are struggling with something that we need healing from.
[00:23:26] He may have asked if he is okay with on some level, if he's okay with this ailment.
[00:23:32] He could have possibly made a decent amount of money from this begging. And he's like, you know what? You may want to be better, but maybe he doesn't really want to be better. This is not a trite question. Jesus wants to know if this man wants to stay in a state of dependency so that he doesn't have to stay, he doesn't have to move to a point of responsibility. And that is something that every, that shift would have happened in his life. I utilize everybody else helping me. I'm dependent on you. And now if you heal me, I'll have to be responsible for my own life.
[00:24:02] That question is that he's offering that option to this man. Do you want to be in a place of dependency or a place of responsibility? Jesus could have seen this man. Every year going by as Jesus goes up to each feast after feast after feast, looking at the crowd of people and Jesus looking at him going, I mean, literally a year earlier, Jesus could have seen that man there and thought to himself, you know, in a year, I'm gonna be back and I'm gonna heal that man.
[00:24:30] And he asks, do you want to be healed? Thinking about us for just a moment, are you more comfortable in your affliction than being set free?
[00:24:42] The struggle, the addiction, the pain, the conflict, the abuse, it all might be familiar, and we tend to stay with things that we're familiar with because being free of those can be terrifying, because we're so used to whatever that is for this man. He has been a cripple for 38 years. He might've gotten really comfortable with that.
[00:25:06] And Jesus asks, do you wanna stay in this place of dependency? Or do you wanna step into, courageously step into a place where if you're healed, you're, you're now gonna have to take responsibility for your life. What about you and me?
[00:25:23] Are we comfortable in the place that we are? Are we ready to change? Are we ready to experience freedom in a place that we might be in bondage today? Ask that question of yourself.
[00:25:33] On a different note, there is a reality here that we must believe. Jesus saw everyone there, and we have to believe this. Friends, just because Jesus doesn't fix our problems doesn't mean he doesn't see the pain that we're in.
[00:25:48] We have to believe that Jesus walked in and he did not ignore everybody else there and only see one person. He saw their pain, he saw what they were going through. He knows what was going on, every person there, and yet he didn't heal them all. And we can have that belief. Sometimes. Our life is so hard, so frustrating. We're feeling helpless, we're feeling hurt, hurt or pain or whatever that is. And we ask Jesus, Jesus, don't you see me. And we ask that because he's not fixing it, not necessarily because we don't actually believe that he sees us.
[00:26:21] That's a hard thing.
[00:26:23] We want to believe that if jesus sees me, then he'll make it better. But sometimes he'll see you, and he'll see you through whatever it is that's before you.
[00:26:34] You look at .3 on your outline. Jesus asked this question, this powerful, important question, and then the man replies. The sick man's reply, that's verse seven. You could write that in on your outline. The sick man's reply. The sick man answered him, sir, I have.
[00:26:52] He doesn't just say, yes, sir, I have no one to put me in the pool. When the water is stirred up again, we see this belief that the water is going to be stirred. We don't know when the water is going to be stirred. They don't know when the water is going to be stirred, but they're anxiously waiting, when's the water going to be stirred? And when that happens, I want to get in the water so I can experience this healing. And then he says, and while I am going, when I see the water get stirred, I'm trying to get there. What does he say? Another steps down into the water before me. Somebody else always gets their first. So he. There we see again. He had a mixture of hope and of hopelessness. He had enough hope to get to the pool that he knows he wants to get to the pool, but not enough hope in light of how many people around him to think that maybe jesus might have a different option. Now we see here that he didn't even know who this man was.
[00:27:49] This man shows up, he looks at him. I mean, wouldn't that be strange? The guy is just sitting there. It's been 38 years. Everyone else keeps running over. By the way, it's also strange in the house of mercy, in the house of mercy, we see a bunch of other people running to get into the water first.
[00:28:06] We don't see mercy being shown between people in this house of mercy, in this place that God seems to be showing mercy, Jesus shows up to this man, hey, do you want to be? Well? He's like, yeah, but I can't get there. He's frustrated.
[00:28:21] There's no way that I'm going to experience healing in this place.
[00:28:26] He offers an excuse. He doesn't just say, yes, you want to be better, but you're making excuses. Is that you? Maybe. Is that me? At times I want something in my life to change, but it's somebody else's fault. Don't we have a tendency to do that, blame other people for our problems? I think that started in Genesis. In the beginning, I was like, there's a problem. Well, it's not my fault. It's somebody else's. Here we see excuses being made, and maybe you're dealing with some problem, and then someone says, well, don't you? Do you like the situation you're in? No, I don't like it. You want it to be better? Yes. I can't, because whatever the excuse is, I can't make my marriage better. I can't make my finances better. I can't make my parenting better. I can't make my emotional regulation better. I can't make whatever the list is goes on and on better, because. And then we can list off an excuse. And here Jesus shows up on the scene, and he asks the question, do you want to be better? And he responds with an excuse. And Jesus says, I have the power. He doesn't say this. He just shows this in his next words. I have the power to make you better. Look what it says in verses eight and nine. Fourth point in your outline is the healing on the Sabbath.
[00:29:41] Jesus said to him, get up. Three things. Get up, take up your bed. That is like a mat or a stretcher. That's what people would have used to carry him from place to place. Take up your bed and what?
[00:29:57] And walk. He doesn't say, well, by the way, I am God. You know, that's not what he says in response. You know, I have the power to heal me. All you have to do is whatever. Go on the list of things. He doesn't say any of those things. He simply says, get up, take up your bed, your mat, your stretcher and walk. Those three commands, he doesn't share the gospel. First, he doesn't tell them about God's plan for his life. He doesn't say that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for you. He doesn't ask him to perform some other tasks to show that he actually has faith in God. He doesn't ask him to do any of those things.
[00:30:35] He simply gives him a command.
[00:30:38] And then perhaps the man could have said something like, I can't do that. We don't see the man does that, do we? He just gets up.
[00:30:47] It's like, it's not a long process. It doesn't say, jesus is like, I'm gonna, you know, sprinkle my fingers over you or whatever he would have done. And then in a year you'll be you'll be better. When Jesus heals someone, he heals them instantly, immediately. He says, you have the opportunity. Notice what he doesn't do. He doesn't say you're healed and then walk away. He says, I want you to demonstrate the healing that just happened. By doing what? First get up. Get up.
[00:31:16] Then pick up your mat. Don't leave that here. There should be no plan for you to come back to this place. Plan to be done with this place, because I have provided mercy for you. I have provided healing for you. That's what you wanted. That's what I'm here to do, is offer that for you. If you truly believe that you're healed, you won't leave the mat there. Cause you're planning to be done with that ailment now. The same thing, that same lesson is vital for us as well. If we believe, yes, Jesus is going to and can heal me from whatever this is, I am going to leave that behind. I'm done with that, whatever that opportunity is for me to walk back into that sin or addiction or pain or whatever that is. I believe Jesus has healed me of that and I'm gonna go a different direction. I'm gonna turn around.
[00:32:05] There's an important lesson for us here. If you want your life to change, if I want my life to change, I have to change.
[00:32:15] If you want your life to change, you have to change. Sitting back and having those desires doesn't just suddenly make those things happen. It means changing your thoughts. It means changing your actions. It means changing your relationships. It means changing your time commitments. So maybe think about a portion of your life right now, in this moment. Think about a portion of your life that you're frustrated with. And then think, what do I need to change to make those things more in line with what God would have for me?
[00:32:44] So we look on, and the very voice that called creation into existence, that put creation in existence, all the things that we have in existence, calls this man to stand up and notice also what we don't see. We don't see everyone else looking on and saying, wow, look what Jesus just did. Perhaps the reason we don't see that is because their eyes were fixated on the pool looking for healing from something other than Jesus, rather than the one Jesus the healer standing before him.
[00:33:18] There's a phrase that says this, no good deed goes unpunished. No good deed goes unpunished. And that is true here. The last points, a, B and C there underneath. .4. We'll look at those briefly.
[00:33:32] There's a plot twist that happens here at the end of verse nine. Now that day was the, now that day was the Sabbath. I don't know what you know or don't know about the Sabbath. Sabbath was instituted. We can read about that in Exodus 28 and following. I'll just read that briefly and then we'll walk right through this. Here's what it says. Here's what God's word says. This is important for us to hear because later on there's some changes that happened by the people some hundreds of years later. Listen to what it says.
[00:34:05] But on the 7th day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, or you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, your livestock, or the sojourner who's within your gates. For six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is within them, and he rested on the 7th day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Now if you don't know the leaders of that day, what they did is they would take the Ten Commandments. What they did is they took the Ten Commandments and they said, all right, now here's the Ten Commandments. Our job is to teach people how to obey these things. So we read something like keep the Sabbath day holy. And here's what happened. And I'll be quite honest, on some level I can understand why this happened.
[00:34:50] Keep the Sabbath day holy. Now somebody says, well, what does that mean exactly?
[00:34:54] And they say, well, that's a good question. Let's talk about that. And then over time they began to talk more about that and they began then to define what it meant to keep the Sabbath day holy. So they said, well, we're not supposed to work. What is work? Ooh, gotta figure that one out too. Well, work means whatever it is. So they went on and on as they created different stipulations to help them understand the Ten Commandments. The Sabbath is specifically what we're looking at today. Now here's what happened is they said, for example, one of the stipulations was, you cannot carry an item from one place to another. So what was this man doing?
[00:35:36] Jesus said, go pick up your mat and take it somewhere, right? So Jesus just told this man to do something that these people said is against the Sabbath. Now did God say that? Was it originally written there in the Ten Commandments? No, no, it wasn't. But they said, oral tradition said, now here's what it looks like to break the Sabbath. You cannot do these things. So by Jesus doing this, we read in verses ten through 13 that by Jesus doing this, it brought revelation of these people's hearts, of the hearts of the religious leaders. You can write that down. It brought revelation, the healing on the Sabbath that Jesus did for them. It showed the hearts of the religious leaders they didn't watch on and say, if you read through that, look what it says. He says, he's carrying his mat. They say, oh, you're not allowed to carry your mat. And he's like, well, this guy said I should carry my mat and because he healed me. And then they didn't say, wait a minute, he healed you? That's pretty, pretty amazing.
[00:36:30] Did you notice that? That's not what they say. They are more focused on. We have to follow all our oral traditions because of what God's word said way back when, keep the Sabbath day holy, that they completely missed the real act of God. This man says, I have been healed. And they said, but you're carrying your mat. Like, how nearsighted are you in this situation? It revealed where their hearts truly were. They cared more about policies than they cared about people.
[00:37:00] How sad is that? And by the way, we can look back and say, wow, those people. But you know what, friends we can do, like, we can do that too. Can't we care more about policies than about people? We have to watch out for that.
[00:37:14] Secondly, our point b on your outline is not only did it bring about the revelation of the heart of these religious leaders, it also brought about a warning or a call to repent. A call to repent. Stay with your r words there. After Jesus found him in the temple, Jesus goes and finds him. Remember, there's tons of people all over the place. And he says, see, you are well, sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. Just a moment here. Now we can quickly glean from this that one Jesus is saying that because of your sin, that's why you had this problem. Now we could look at that and say, well, because Jesus says this, does that mean all physical ailments are because of sin? No. All you need to do is move over to chapter nine of John, and Jesus debunks that belief. Something happened to you, something bad happened to you. It's because it's your sin. That is not the case in this case for this person. That may have been, we don't know, most likely, honestly, there was more conversation than happened between Jesus and this man than just what we read in verse 14. But this man was warned by Jesus to trust in him, to sin no more to look to God now. What's also interesting is Jesus often parallels spiritual things with physical things. Doesn't he now notice what he says, sin no more, so that nothing worse may happen to you. He just paralleled that with you are well, Jesus thinking about spiritual things. Here's what he's calling him to do. Run back to the Lord. Go back to him. Find rest in him, find hope in him. Sin no more. Whatever may have been. You were walking in before. Whatever sin that may have been, don't do that anymore. Because here's the reality. Walking in sin is going to lead to something a lot worse than being lame for 38 years.
[00:39:02] Something worse that could happen to you. Eternity apart from God.
[00:39:07] Lastly, this brought about, and I mentioned this at the beginning, this brought about rejection.
[00:39:15] This brought about rejection. Verse 15. Such a fascinating piece here, the man went away and told the Jews. Why the Jews? When it says the Jews, it means jewish leaders, that Jesus had healed him. Literally. The guy's walking through with his mattress. They say, you can't do that. He says, jesus told me I could. Jesus finds him. He says, don't sin anymore. The guy's like, all right, sounds good. Thumbs up. And then goes back to the jewish leaders and says, oh, by the way, it was Jesus.
[00:39:43] It's like he's trying to get Jesus in trouble here.
[00:39:47] Why doesn't he just go on with his own life? He literally goes back and he finds those jewish leaders and says, you know, I was healed and I was carrying that mat. Jesus, he's the one who said, I should do that.
[00:39:57] As wonderful as this story is, friends, that Jesus healed this man. There's also a really sad part about this story.
[00:40:05] We watch a man who went away and told the Jews, jewish leaders, that it was Jesus.
[00:40:12] Here we see this surprising turn of events. This man ended up choosing religion instead of a relationship with Jesus. That is sad.
[00:40:23] Was Jesus breaking the Sabbath? No, he wasn't. But we see this man stuck in his ways. There's rather than saying, Jesus, you healed me, and I'm going to run back to you instead of these other people who care more about policies than they care about love.
[00:40:40] Conclusion here. What does this passage teach us about Jesus? I said this at the beginning. I'll say this now. Jesus sees the broken, he sees the hurting, and he sees the hopeless. And even though there might be a cost, Jesus wants to show mercy. Did Jesus know that people wouldn't like him because of this? Yes. And as we're going to see the following weeks here in a moment or in the next few weeks that there's going to be continual opposition to Jesus because of his kindness, because of his mercy. Over and over again. One application point that you can maybe that you can write down that you can practice this week because of what we saw here. Take time through your week to consider people's needs and think about how you can show mercy to them. Ask Jesus to open your eyes to their needs and ask him to lead you to the person he wants you to show mercy to. I just encourage you, friends, keep your eyes open to the people in your life that God wants you to interact with, that God wants you to show mercy, too, whatever that may look like. It might be buying them a sandwich, it might be giving them some money, it might be taking them somewhere. It might be helping them in some other way. It might be sitting down and having a conversation with them. Pray and ask God to keep your eyes open to the people in your life that he wants you to show mercy to, that he wants you to show himself to.
[00:41:57] We're going to shift right now our attention to communion, to considering the cross, to considering what Jesus has done. And as we do that, friends, we can't miss the parallel between this story and what Jesus did for us. We are broken and in need of help, and other people can walk by us day in and day out doing their own thing. But Jesus, if you know him, if you have a relationship with him, jesus showed up on the scene in your life. He looked at you in the eyes and asked you a question.
[00:42:33] Here's what Jesus asked every one of you. If you have faith and trust in him, do you want to be healed?
[00:42:41] You're currently living in separation and brokenness. Do you want to be healed? And today, Jesus asked that same question again. If you don't know him, he's asking that question. Do you want to be healed?
[00:42:54] The ushers are getting ready. Some music will play here in the background.
[00:42:59] Let's go back for just a moment and set the stage for this time as we remember the body and blood, blood of Jesus, the sacrifice that Jesus made as we think about the cross. The final meal that Jesus had with his disciples immediately before his betrayal and arrest was the traditional Passover meal. But Jesus infused the meal with new significance, and he tied it to his impending death. Here's what he said in Matthew 26. Now, as they were eating, here's what it says in Matthew 26, as they were eating, Jesus took bread. And after he blessed it, he broke it and gave it to his disciples. And he said, take and eat. This is my body. And then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and saying, drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus symbolically associated the bread and the cup with his body, which would soon be broken, and his blood, which would soon be shed. The blood is now the blood of the covenant, a new covenant that Jesus would institute through his death and resurrection as the Passover mirror looking back served as the foundational meal of the old covenant, taking place at the brink of the foundational act of that first covenant, that is the exodus from Egypt. So the Lord's Supper was foundational meal of this new covenant, taking place on the brink of the saving work of Jesus that he would do on the cross as the Passover meal served as a reminder of the redemption of the Lord achieved for his people in bringing his people out of bondage in Egypt. The Lord's supper, that of which we do now, becomes a powerful reminder of the redemption that the Lord Jesus achieved for his people in releasing us from the slavery of sin.
[00:44:59] This time that we have here, then, is foundational.
[00:45:03] It's an enduring symbol of the new covenant of Christ, that of which we are reminded over and over again of the freedom we have not from slavery in Egypt, but the freedom we have from sin.
[00:45:17] For those of you who have trusted in Jesus, ushers, you can walk down. For those of you who have trusted in Jesus as their lord and savior, as your lord and savior, take of these elements and as you take them and you hold them, I want to encourage you to do three things. First off, reflect on the power of sin and the division that happens because of that between us and God. Secondly, remember his sacrifice.
[00:45:45] Jesus made a way so that we could be at one with the father.
[00:45:51] And then thirdly, rejoice. Rejoice at the union that you have with Jesus today because of what Jesus has done. So as those elements are being passed, reflect, remember and rejoice. And if you've never trusted in Jesus, let those elements pass in front of you. You don't need to take, they don't have meaning there. Ushers, if you would, distribute the elements.
[00:47:48] Isaiah 53 four through 16 says, I'll just read this as you guys continue to play. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
[00:48:01] He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities his wounds. We are healed.
[00:48:14] All we, like. Sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
[00:48:19] And the Lord has laid on him, that is Jesus, the iniquity of us all.
[00:48:28] I celebrate as you do today. This morning in romans eight one, there is now.
[00:48:35] There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It is with that promise that we hold to this morning. Let's take and eat and drink together.
[00:48:51] Lord, thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for your love, for your grace.
[00:48:58] Thank you that you stepped into a world that needed mercy and needed unmerited favor. And you showed that to us.
[00:49:09] Thank you for seeing us where we are this morning.
[00:49:13] Thank you for knowing that we would be here today and providing a way that we could come before you before your throne, boldly, with confidence, and know that you have healed us of the consequences of the wages of our sin.
[00:49:31] We look to you this morning as a God who is sovereign over all things and a God who is close and near to us. Us, as we consider the cross, we consider your resurrection. Lord, we rejoice this morning that we can come before you as not only the Lord, but also our savior and our father. In Jesus name, amen.
