Blind, Lame, and Paralyzed (John 5:1-18)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:06.400 Morning where in John, continuing in John Now Chapter Five, John Five, 2 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:12.710 verses one through eighteen. In John Five we have an inner and introduction that 3 00:00:12.789 --> 00:00:17.149 Jesus goes up to Jerusalem at a time of the feast. It's not clear 4 00:00:17.390 --> 00:00:22.899 what the feast is and it doesn't really matter too much because John is John's 5 00:00:22.899 --> 00:00:29.980 emphasis is not on the feast itself but on the Sabbath and he as you'll 6 00:00:30.059 --> 00:00:34.579 and you'll see that in a moment. And let's give our attention to God's 7 00:00:34.579 --> 00:00:39.130 word. Now, John Chapter Five. After this, there was a feast 8 00:00:39.170 --> 00:00:44.009 of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem, by 9 00:00:44.049 --> 00:00:48.929 the Sheep Gate, a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed 10 00:00:49.009 --> 00:00:58.359 colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame and paralyzed. 11 00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:02.920 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty eight years. 12 00:01:03.349 --> 00:01:07.150 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a 13 00:01:07.269 --> 00:01:11.189 long time, he said to him, do you want to be healed? 14 00:01:11.349 --> 00:01:15.590 The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no one to put me 15 00:01:15.629 --> 00:01:19.540 into the pool and when the water is stirred up and when I have. 16 00:01:19.819 --> 00:01:23.780 Sorry, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when 17 00:01:23.780 --> 00:01:26.939 the water is stirred up. And while I am going, another steps down 18 00:01:26.980 --> 00:01:33.730 before me. Jesus said to him get up, take up your bed and 19 00:01:34.010 --> 00:01:38.329 walk. And at once the man was healed and he took up his bed 20 00:01:38.730 --> 00:01:42.769 and walked. Now that day was the sabbath. So the Jews said to 21 00:01:42.849 --> 00:01:47.090 the man who had been healed, it is the sabbath and it is not 22 00:01:47.129 --> 00:01:51.400 lawful for you to take up your bed. But he answered them the man 23 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:53.359 who healed me, that man said to me, take up your bed and 24 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:57.000 walk. They asked him, who is the man who said do you take 25 00:01:57.040 --> 00:02:01.829 up your bed and walk now? Now the man who had been healed did 26 00:02:01.950 --> 00:02:06.590 not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn and there was a crowd 27 00:02:06.629 --> 00:02:09.229 in the place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to 28 00:02:09.270 --> 00:02:14.189 him, see, you are well, sin no more, that nothing worse 29 00:02:14.310 --> 00:02:17.180 may happen to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it 30 00:02:17.259 --> 00:02:22.340 was Jesus who had healed him, and this was why the Jews were persecuting 31 00:02:22.419 --> 00:02:27.379 Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered 32 00:02:27.460 --> 00:02:31.849 them. My father is working until now and I am working. This is 33 00:02:31.930 --> 00:02:36.530 why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only 34 00:02:36.689 --> 00:02:40.129 was he breaking the sabbath, but he was even but he was even calling 35 00:02:40.289 --> 00:02:49.639 God his own father, making himself equal with God. May God's word be 36 00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:57.159 blessed to us. You may be seated. I love this passage for so 37 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:05.550 many reasons. I hope I can preach it fairly this morning. One of 38 00:03:05.629 --> 00:03:10.750 the things that is so remarkable to me about this passage is it's a case 39 00:03:10.870 --> 00:03:19.500 study perhaps in missing the point. The Jews had just seen this man who 40 00:03:19.539 --> 00:03:29.689 had been an invalid for thirty eight years, thirty eight years, a lifetime. 41 00:03:30.849 --> 00:03:37.129 He had been healed miraculously got up and walk. Jesus already knew this 42 00:03:37.250 --> 00:03:40.960 man. Presumably others did. Whatever this scene was that is going on here, 43 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:46.479 and I think a fairly intense scene. We have a multitude of invalids, 44 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:52.159 we have crowds, probably because of the feast that was going on. 45 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:59.069 This remarkable thing happens and they go up to the man and they say to 46 00:03:59.150 --> 00:04:02.550 him it is the Sabbath and it is not lawful for you to take up 47 00:04:02.550 --> 00:04:08.830 your bed right is that the thing that you should say to someone after they've 48 00:04:08.949 --> 00:04:15.339 just been miraculously healed thirty eight years an invalid in the first thing that they 49 00:04:15.459 --> 00:04:20.220 think to say is it's not lawful for you to be walking around with your 50 00:04:20.339 --> 00:04:34.449 bed. Now what we have here is a controversy and even, in a 51 00:04:34.529 --> 00:04:40.199 way, a kind of trial. Here at the beginning of John Chapter Five, 52 00:04:40.839 --> 00:04:45.759 we have an accusation, right, an accusation first against this man who 53 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:49.399 then kind of a cowardly way, or perhaps a wrong way. You'll have 54 00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:55.029 to think about that and compare it with another healing in John Nine, but 55 00:04:55.110 --> 00:04:59.269 either way, he sort of points away from himself and started pushes the problem 56 00:04:59.350 --> 00:05:02.350 off on to the man that healed me. I don't know who it was. 57 00:05:03.189 --> 00:05:05.509 Somebody told me to take up your bed and walk. This is this 58 00:05:05.629 --> 00:05:09.779 is his fault. I'm not doing anything wrong. In some ways, that 59 00:05:09.819 --> 00:05:15.100 the man kind of plays into the same story and the same narrative, the 60 00:05:15.139 --> 00:05:19.459 same world view that's going on here with these with the Jews, here, 61 00:05:19.899 --> 00:05:24.329 with these people that are wanting to, as we lay it learned later, 62 00:05:24.370 --> 00:05:30.449 kill Jesus over these things. They are speaking very strongly because they are feeling 63 00:05:30.490 --> 00:05:36.720 very strongly they want to kill him because of what he is doing. First 64 00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:45.000 because he is breaking the Sabbath, as they see it, and second because 65 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:49.000 he was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. The 66 00:05:49.110 --> 00:05:57.430 man, not really understanding really what it happened into him, sort of lives 67 00:05:57.550 --> 00:06:01.870 within that story that they're telling. Rather than saying, why are you saying 68 00:06:01.949 --> 00:06:05.740 such a thing to me? He didn't break the Sabbath, or can't you 69 00:06:05.819 --> 00:06:10.699 see that I'm walking now, or isn't it wonderful what God has done? 70 00:06:11.899 --> 00:06:16.740 He kind of continues in the lie. He continues in this world of pride 71 00:06:16.779 --> 00:06:26.649 and Selfrighteousness, even as one who's been healed and says answers their question in 72 00:06:26.810 --> 00:06:29.449 this way. He says the man who healed me, that man said to 73 00:06:29.529 --> 00:06:36.720 me, take up your bed and walk. Jesus doesn't answer the Jews questions 74 00:06:36.879 --> 00:06:45.759 like this. When Jesus answers questions and accusations, it's usually with another question, 75 00:06:46.399 --> 00:06:49.910 it's usually with something that undermines the way they're thinking about everything. And 76 00:06:50.110 --> 00:06:56.189 he will go on to do that and in later on in this chapter, 77 00:06:57.870 --> 00:07:02.660 witnesses to Jesus and who he is will be called. There's something of a 78 00:07:03.180 --> 00:07:09.860 judicial thing going on here in this chapter. This morning. I want to 79 00:07:10.019 --> 00:07:15.769 focus on this accusation in particular and spend some time thinking about, thinking about 80 00:07:15.810 --> 00:07:21.850 it. Is What they say true? Did the man break the Sabbath? 81 00:07:23.050 --> 00:07:27.689 Is Jesus breaking the Sabbath? And what about that's the fourth commandment of the 82 00:07:27.810 --> 00:07:30.839 Ten Commandments. What about the third? Taking the Lord's name in vain, 83 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:36.160 making himself equal with God by saying these things about who he is? He 84 00:07:36.279 --> 00:07:45.910 says, my father is working now and I am working. He says something, 85 00:07:46.069 --> 00:07:51.149 he attributes something to God and to himself that they take as not true. 86 00:07:53.230 --> 00:07:58.350 They take it as taking the Lord's name in vain, or perhaps even 87 00:07:58.579 --> 00:08:05.980 idolatry itself. What about their accusations? Well, how should we? How 88 00:08:05.019 --> 00:08:11.939 should we think about them? Well, one thing that should color the question 89 00:08:11.139 --> 00:08:16.649 of whether or not Jesus broke the Sabbath is the irony of Jesus's own accusation, 90 00:08:18.170 --> 00:08:22.290 an accusation that Jesus makes. It was just a few chapters ago, 91 00:08:22.370 --> 00:08:24.850 you might remember, that Jesus had to drive the money changers out of the 92 00:08:24.970 --> 00:08:31.360 temple with a whip. We should not think of the Jews as being extraordinarily 93 00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:37.240 pious here, right this this parallels the gospel of Matthew, where there are 94 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:43.110 these, where we find similar examples of what we might call fake piety or 95 00:08:43.269 --> 00:08:50.549 pretend piety, hypocrisy, where there is tithing, for example, but neglect 96 00:08:50.629 --> 00:08:54.899 of justice and Mirthy, mercy and faithfulness. It's in Matthew Twenty three. 97 00:08:56.659 --> 00:09:01.539 Also, Matthew Twenty three, Jesus accuses the Pharisees of washing the outside of 98 00:09:01.620 --> 00:09:07.179 the cups and plates while leaving greed and self indulgence in their hearts. These 99 00:09:09.139 --> 00:09:13.690 people here are simply using the Sabbath. They're not protecting it, they're not 100 00:09:13.929 --> 00:09:18.610 loving it, they're not treasuring it, they're not resting in it, they're 101 00:09:18.769 --> 00:09:22.769 using it. They're using it to boost their own sense of piety, while 102 00:09:22.850 --> 00:09:28.279 missing the point of it all together. And in noting this we see how 103 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:31.639 John, even before the story begins, helps us to understand the ending, 104 00:09:33.320 --> 00:09:39.110 that it is Jesus, that it is Jesus who is the truly holy one. 105 00:09:39.230 --> 00:09:41.950 Here, though, Jesus is being the one who Jesus is the one 106 00:09:41.990 --> 00:09:48.309 who is attacked. It's not Jesus who is wrong. The sut off the 107 00:09:48.389 --> 00:09:52.659 controversy begins in the first viewers versus, where Jesus purposefully sets things up, 108 00:09:52.740 --> 00:09:58.779 I think, for a showdown. Why do I think that? One thing 109 00:09:58.899 --> 00:10:01.860 is that vers is one in two tells us that Jesus performed this miracle in 110 00:10:01.899 --> 00:10:09.009 Jerusalem at a feast near the sheepgate. This may seem insignificant, but it 111 00:10:09.330 --> 00:10:15.610 becomes important later when the Jews appeal to passages like Nehemiah and Jeremiah regarding this 112 00:10:15.809 --> 00:10:22.559 man's carrying a load. NEOMIAH says in thirteen nine, I stationed some of 113 00:10:22.679 --> 00:10:28.480 my servant at the gates that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath 114 00:10:28.519 --> 00:10:35.440 Day, and Jeremiah, seventeen twenty one, says take care for the sake 115 00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:39.509 of your lives and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath Day or bring 116 00:10:39.590 --> 00:10:43.750 it in by the gates of Jerusalem. So John's not just throwing in sort 117 00:10:43.750 --> 00:10:48.230 of extra details here about this happening at at the sheep gate. It happens 118 00:10:48.269 --> 00:10:52.179 at the sheep gate because Jesus wants it to happen at the sheep gate because, 119 00:10:52.220 --> 00:10:56.299 as I said, he's sort of setting things up for a controversy in 120 00:10:56.379 --> 00:11:01.659 a way by healing this man on the Sabbath near one of the temple gates. 121 00:11:01.700 --> 00:11:07.409 Jesus is clearly challenging them to understand the law in a different way. 122 00:11:07.409 --> 00:11:11.169 Now, the key to understand this, however, is that the different way 123 00:11:11.409 --> 00:11:18.570 is not different according to Nehemiah or different from Jeremiah, but different according to 124 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:22.799 their interpretation of the law, different to how they were using it, be 125 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:28.679 different to how they were abusing it. This challenge is also evident from the 126 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:33.830 Jews reaction. They believe that he is not just challenging them, but the 127 00:11:33.909 --> 00:11:39.070 law itself, or at least their own perverted view of it. As quickly 128 00:11:39.149 --> 00:11:43.590 as the reader hears that the man was healed, they are introduced and they 129 00:11:43.669 --> 00:11:48.179 waste no time in marveling or wondering at this mirror Cole. Instead, they 130 00:11:48.259 --> 00:11:52.740 jump right to this accusation. As we've said, it is the Sabbath and 131 00:11:52.860 --> 00:11:58.259 it's not lawful for you to take up the bed. Now you can imagine 132 00:11:58.340 --> 00:12:05.009 a theological case that could have been made for this right. They could have 133 00:12:05.090 --> 00:12:09.210 appealed to the fourth commandment in Exodus Twenty and deuteronomy five, that one should 134 00:12:09.250 --> 00:12:15.720 not labor on the Sabbath, nor even anyone who is within a person's gates. 135 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:20.399 Second in numbers fifteen, we read of a man whom Yahweh commands Moses 136 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:28.159 to stone for carrying sticks on the Sabbath. NEEMIAH also accuses Israel of profaning 137 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:31.549 the Sabbath and, as we've read, places guards at the gates and warns 138 00:12:31.629 --> 00:12:37.870 them not to carry a load and as we've also read from Jeremiah these words, 139 00:12:37.950 --> 00:12:41.309 to not bring a better US burden or carry a burden on the Sabbath 140 00:12:41.350 --> 00:12:46.700 Day or bring it in by the gates. Jeremiah even goes on to say 141 00:12:46.740 --> 00:12:52.500 in chapter seventeen that he proclaims great blessings for obeying the sabbath and curses for 142 00:12:52.620 --> 00:12:56.940 those who disobey it. So, for these reasons, some commentators will say, 143 00:12:56.980 --> 00:13:01.529 if you read them, that these legal rounds, for the legal grounds 144 00:13:03.169 --> 00:13:09.090 for the Jewess case are valid. From some will even go on to point 145 00:13:09.129 --> 00:13:13.120 out, for example, on this is a quote, that Jesus violated the 146 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:16.759 rules of the scribes for the observance of the Sabbath. Is is one of 147 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:22.000 the most certain and of all the historical facts about his ministry. I'm carrying 148 00:13:22.200 --> 00:13:28.230 things from one domain to another. Is the last of thirty nine works forbidden 149 00:13:28.269 --> 00:13:33.549 in the missionik track a Sabbath seven, to caring empty beds is strictly prohibited 150 00:13:33.710 --> 00:13:39.230 in ten five. So what we see here is that there is this biblical 151 00:13:39.629 --> 00:13:43.100 view about carrying loads, about doing labor, about doing work on the Sabbath. 152 00:13:43.899 --> 00:13:50.779 But we also see is that, within the tradition of that was around 153 00:13:50.860 --> 00:13:56.129 at this time of Jesus, these laws had been applied in very particular ways, 154 00:13:56.970 --> 00:14:09.799 ways which are so explicitly against what Jesus is doing here. So how 155 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:13.600 do we make sense of this? Well, really comes down to this question. 156 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:18.600 Were the Jews right? Right? Were they right in their interpretation of 157 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:24.350 the law? The law is clearly there. Where they right and interpreting it 158 00:14:24.470 --> 00:14:28.750 and applying it on this way. Some commentators will say that they were right 159 00:14:30.590 --> 00:14:35.149 and they will say that Jesus did in fact break the Sabbath. One commentator, 160 00:14:35.230 --> 00:14:39.220 for example, tries to solve this by saying Jesus is transcending the chronological, 161 00:14:39.379 --> 00:14:46.580 theological and legal Sabbath background of the reported events. Now, this may 162 00:14:46.580 --> 00:14:48.580 seem like a good solution on the surface, but at the end of it 163 00:14:48.659 --> 00:14:54.970 it only weakens John's argument. It also raises thorny issues about Jesus's relationship with 164 00:14:56.090 --> 00:15:01.049 the law, about his fulfilling it. Perfectly, Jesus doesn't say I came 165 00:15:01.169 --> 00:15:07.320 to break the law, I came to sin against the law. Jesus says 166 00:15:07.320 --> 00:15:11.080 over and over again, I came to fulfill it. As we've considered from 167 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:16.679 Psalm fifteen and other passages in scripture, our hope is in the righteousness of 168 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:24.070 Christ, not the rebellion of Christ. So how do we think about it? 169 00:15:26.230 --> 00:15:30.190 How do we think about this fourth commandment? Did Jesus break the Sabbath? 170 00:15:31.149 --> 00:15:35.820 On addition to the fourth commandment, the Jews also accused Jesus of breaking 171 00:15:35.860 --> 00:15:41.899 the third. This assertion is evident from the background of the story that John's 172 00:15:41.940 --> 00:15:48.139 original audience, likely located in Ephesus, would have understood. Ephesus was well 173 00:15:48.259 --> 00:15:54.809 known as a place and a people steeped and paganism, magic these kinds of 174 00:15:54.889 --> 00:16:00.769 things, and it makes sense why stay would perhaps wonder if Jesus was attributing 175 00:16:00.850 --> 00:16:06.440 some sort of magical power to God or himself. In some ways, Jesus 176 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:12.879 saw Jesus using some the Jews saw Jesus using some sort of power into pennant 177 00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:18.669 of God. Would this have been a good ground to accuse him of blasphemy? 178 00:16:18.830 --> 00:16:22.669 Perhaps, but there's a more obvious reason and that's what he says in 179 00:16:22.750 --> 00:16:27.230 seventeen. As I've said it several times, my father is working until now 180 00:16:29.110 --> 00:16:37.299 and I am working. Why was this so vexing to them? When you 181 00:16:37.580 --> 00:16:41.340 heard that, did that make you, if you are sort of to put 182 00:16:41.419 --> 00:16:45.500 yourself in someone else's shoes, go? Yeah, I can understand why they'd 183 00:16:45.500 --> 00:16:49.169 be upset about that. The first time. I mean, I don't remember 184 00:16:49.169 --> 00:16:52.730 the first time I read it, but I remember the first time it dawned 185 00:16:52.809 --> 00:17:02.639 on me that the question why would that be so controversial? It was not 186 00:17:02.759 --> 00:17:07.599 that Jesus said that God was working in spite of the fact that genesis two 187 00:17:07.720 --> 00:17:11.680 three says that the since the seventh day of creation, God had ceased, 188 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:18.630 ere ad wrested from his work. The Bible assumes that God of course does 189 00:17:18.829 --> 00:17:22.869 continue his work in some sense after creation, upholding, sustaining at these kinds 190 00:17:22.910 --> 00:17:29.630 of things. Now the concern that the Jews had was that Jesus was saying 191 00:17:30.299 --> 00:17:33.900 not that God is breaking the Sabbath. That wasn't the problem. He doesn't 192 00:17:33.900 --> 00:17:38.339 break the Sabbath. Well, if God doesn't break the Sabbath, if God 193 00:17:38.539 --> 00:17:44.259 is properly working and doing his DIV vine work even on the Sabbath Day. 194 00:17:45.450 --> 00:17:49.730 Then the problem is that Jesus is saying he is God. Right, their 195 00:17:49.769 --> 00:17:53.730 concern isn't that God. They're not saying, Jesus, why are you saying? 196 00:17:53.769 --> 00:17:59.759 God is working? That that's fine. They understand that and they they 197 00:17:59.880 --> 00:18:03.240 even agree with that. The problem is that he's saying and I am working 198 00:18:03.319 --> 00:18:11.160 and that's okay. Now, when you read verse eighteen, it's important that 199 00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:17.390 we think about this as we think about these accusations. Is Verse Eighteen might 200 00:18:17.589 --> 00:18:22.309 suggest that John himself agrees with the Jews, because it says this was why 201 00:18:22.869 --> 00:18:26.269 the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was 202 00:18:26.390 --> 00:18:30.819 he breaking the sabbath, but he was calling himself or but he was even 203 00:18:30.859 --> 00:18:37.500 calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. This, however, 204 00:18:37.980 --> 00:18:41.289 we want to be careful not to conflate the narrator's perspective with the perspective 205 00:18:41.410 --> 00:18:45.410 that he's narrating. Does that make sense? Right? So you might get 206 00:18:45.490 --> 00:18:53.410 think of a news commentator that comes on and says, you know, accusations 207 00:18:53.450 --> 00:18:56.960 being made today against such and such a thing. Right. They're not sort 208 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:02.000 of owning that for themselves, they are reporting that and we know that because 209 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:06.599 John is well, he's reporting right, he's giving this biography. We also 210 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:12.509 know from this passage and many others that John Does believes that Jesus calling himself, 211 00:19:15.390 --> 00:19:18.230 making himself equal with God, is is not a problem. Jean doesn't 212 00:19:18.230 --> 00:19:26.339 see Jesus as as doing things that are sinful or wrong. So what about 213 00:19:26.380 --> 00:19:37.259 John's vindication of Jesus? John Vindicates Jesus. Jesus vindicates Jesus by witnessing to 214 00:19:37.299 --> 00:19:41.450 the fact of this statement about himself and the father and that it is true. 215 00:19:42.529 --> 00:19:47.890 What we see in this passage is that Jesus is not breaking or transcending 216 00:19:48.009 --> 00:19:53.599 the Sabbath, he's keeping it, since indeed he was working as the father 217 00:19:53.839 --> 00:20:00.279 was working. You see that point. If Jesus is working as God is 218 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:03.880 working on the Sabbath, and if God does not work on the Sabbath, 219 00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:08.230 then Jesus is not breaking the Sabbath. The things that he do are somehow, 220 00:20:08.390 --> 00:20:11.789 and that's the point we want to get to understanding. The things that 221 00:20:11.910 --> 00:20:18.029 he are doing are consonant with the Sabbath, they resonate with the Sabbath, 222 00:20:18.069 --> 00:20:23.099 they are appropriate on the Sabbath. Jesus, in other words, use the 223 00:20:23.140 --> 00:20:29.019 Sabbath for its intended purpose, and thus it is Jesus, not his detractors, 224 00:20:29.180 --> 00:20:37.849 that really wanted to keep the sabbath and the temple holy. How, 225 00:20:37.970 --> 00:20:45.130 how does this come out? One way this comes out is in the dialog 226 00:20:45.369 --> 00:20:52.519 scenes that that happen in this passage. Every scene mentions the sabbath, except 227 00:20:52.559 --> 00:20:56.160 for one, the middle scene in verse fourteen, where Jesus finds a man 228 00:20:56.279 --> 00:21:00.559 in the temple and says to him, see, you are well, sin 229 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:07.349 no more, that nothing worse that may happen to you. The Missing Sabbath 230 00:21:07.430 --> 00:21:10.589 Element here. You know, all of the other scenes having it, except 231 00:21:10.630 --> 00:21:14.990 for this one, is not an accident. By excluding it, John Marks 232 00:21:15.069 --> 00:21:18.660 it, he draws our attention to it. He also does it by a 233 00:21:18.740 --> 00:21:22.140 special phrase. After these things, which marks a high point in the book. 234 00:21:25.140 --> 00:21:27.700 In these words, Jesus, the one who has the power to heal, 235 00:21:27.819 --> 00:21:34.049 makes it clear that he also has the power to judge. He commands 236 00:21:34.089 --> 00:21:41.930 him, he doesn't suggest to him sin no more. It is in imperative 237 00:21:42.170 --> 00:21:47.319 and it is attached to a warning. Now, while it may not be 238 00:21:47.559 --> 00:21:52.559 necessary, what now? While we may not necessarily assume that some particular sin 239 00:21:52.680 --> 00:21:57.319 caused the man to become ill. Scripture does see illness, is always resulting 240 00:21:57.400 --> 00:22:03.470 from sin in general, as being a part of the curse, something that 241 00:22:03.589 --> 00:22:07.670 God is remaking, something that he promises us in our new, resurrected bodies. 242 00:22:10.349 --> 00:22:14.670 This is important because it explains why, when Jesus Looks Olad over this 243 00:22:14.789 --> 00:22:21.980 multitude of invalids, it's a sad thing. People Blind, who can't see, 244 00:22:22.220 --> 00:22:26.539 people lame who can't walk, even were some of were paralyzed, stiff, 245 00:22:27.180 --> 00:22:33.450 dried in their bodies, not able to move, not able to clean, 246 00:22:33.650 --> 00:22:40.809 dependent on everyone, and this desperate seemed to this man. Jesus comes 247 00:22:40.849 --> 00:22:42.769 to him and says, starts of this conversation. Do you want to he 248 00:22:42.849 --> 00:22:48.640 healed in the man says I can't. Some there was evidently some sort of 249 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:55.759 power in this pool of water and he's like, I can't get to it. 250 00:22:55.839 --> 00:23:03.470 It's right there and I can't. Thirty eight years I can't get to 251 00:23:03.589 --> 00:23:07.269 it. And even if there weren't all these other people that were beating me 252 00:23:07.349 --> 00:23:18.740 to the water, I'm stuck. He's stuck. Sometimes in life desperation becomes 253 00:23:18.859 --> 00:23:25.059 despair, and I think we hear that in this man's response. It's in 254 00:23:25.180 --> 00:23:32.049 this situation a sin, a situation that Jesus links with Sin, carrot connects 255 00:23:32.170 --> 00:23:41.839 with sin, death, illness, struggle, suffering. It's in that setting 256 00:23:41.240 --> 00:23:52.440 that Jesus does his work. John is helping us to see that this desperate, 257 00:23:52.200 --> 00:24:03.630 sad, tragic crowd of invalids is a depiction not just of this particular 258 00:24:03.670 --> 00:24:08.750 event, but is a is a spit picture of the spiritual state that Jesus 259 00:24:08.789 --> 00:24:14.420 is walking into and d into Jerusalem. And you know, it's not just 260 00:24:14.579 --> 00:24:22.019 Jerusalem, it's not just the Jews. Blind, lame, paralyzed. That 261 00:24:22.180 --> 00:24:26.450 describes the spiritual state of the whole world and even our physical states as well. 262 00:24:27.490 --> 00:24:33.490 Maybe we aren't all here fully blind, lame or paralyzed, but some 263 00:24:33.650 --> 00:24:38.400 of US struggle with some of those problems, some of US struggle with deep 264 00:24:38.599 --> 00:24:44.519 and lasting problems in our bodies, and all of us will face the end 265 00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:53.710 of those things eventually death, unless the Lord returns before we die. The 266 00:24:53.829 --> 00:25:00.470 world is a very broken place. And well, the Jews are worried about 267 00:25:00.990 --> 00:25:04.269 this particular thing, in that particular thing, tithing, these little things, 268 00:25:04.349 --> 00:25:10.539 while forgetting the the very essence of the law, the raiding this man for 269 00:25:10.660 --> 00:25:15.420 taking up his bed when he'd not done anything wrong. They are missing the 270 00:25:15.660 --> 00:25:21.730 tragic thing that was around them and the most wonderful thing that had just happened. 271 00:25:22.250 --> 00:25:32.410 Jesus was in their midst. Even more prominent than this aspect of judgment, 272 00:25:32.609 --> 00:25:34.799 go and send no more that nothing worse may happen to you is, 273 00:25:34.920 --> 00:25:41.160 of course, salvation. That's the work Jesus is doing on the Sabbath. 274 00:25:41.319 --> 00:25:47.680 He's saving people. Jesus draws attention to his role as savior, first by 275 00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:52.630 saving this man from illness, but then, at another level, by connecting 276 00:25:52.829 --> 00:25:59.509 this with spiritual healing. To help us understand the reality of Jesus's saving work, 277 00:25:59.950 --> 00:26:03.349 John Spends a lot of time setting up the scene before the miracle, 278 00:26:03.299 --> 00:26:08.180 these blind and lamed and paralyzed people. The camera then zooms in on this 279 00:26:08.660 --> 00:26:14.619 man who had been there these thirty eight years. Jesus sees the man and 280 00:26:14.740 --> 00:26:22.089 asks him if he wants to become whole, healthy, healed. It reminds 281 00:26:22.130 --> 00:26:27.369 me somewhat of the situation of Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones. You 282 00:26:27.410 --> 00:26:33.000 remember that in Ezekiel thirty seven, this place where it's nothing but death and 283 00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:38.680 dryness, representing again Israel, Sin and rebellion. But what happens. God 284 00:26:38.839 --> 00:26:45.759 gives him the word and an army comes to life, or Lazarus dead in 285 00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:52.470 John Eleven, will get there. John Talks about this man Lazareth. Lazareth, 286 00:26:52.829 --> 00:27:02.660 Lazarus in a tomb, wasted away, finally completely, and then Jesus 287 00:27:02.660 --> 00:27:08.579 speaks and Lazarus gets up and and comes out. The grimness of these situations 288 00:27:08.700 --> 00:27:17.809 highlights the power of Jesus. John does this by taking these long and descriptive 289 00:27:17.849 --> 00:27:22.609 sentences at the beginning of the chapter and then giving this very quick, even 290 00:27:22.650 --> 00:27:29.009 abrupt thing that gets our attention. He goes and he describes this whole scene 291 00:27:29.049 --> 00:27:36.160 and then Jesus says get up, take up your bed and walked. And 292 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:40.079 if that's not surprising enough, the following thing that happens is even more surprising. 293 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:49.309 The man walks. This is Jesus's work on the Sabbath. My father 294 00:27:49.589 --> 00:28:00.019 is working and I am working and praise God that he is. This work 295 00:28:00.259 --> 00:28:04.259 of mercy, be this work of tenderness, not just aimed at the man's 296 00:28:04.579 --> 00:28:10.980 soul but also his body as well, exhibits what the Sabbath is all about. 297 00:28:11.339 --> 00:28:15.130 When God made man and put him into the garden and gave him and 298 00:28:15.410 --> 00:28:21.130 worked for six days and then rested. God set a pattern for man to 299 00:28:21.289 --> 00:28:26.640 follow of working and then resting, and not just in our regular everyday lives 300 00:28:26.759 --> 00:28:30.559 that of course we need to work and then rest, but this was pointing 301 00:28:30.680 --> 00:28:37.720 towards a final hope. God's resting on the Sabbath Day was holding out for 302 00:28:37.880 --> 00:28:45.789 man the promise of an eternal Sabbath, of entering into God's rest. If 303 00:28:47.029 --> 00:28:51.829 he obeyed, you shall not eat. If you eat, you die, 304 00:28:53.069 --> 00:28:57.259 but if you didn't, he would enter into this rest that God had promised 305 00:28:57.299 --> 00:29:02.940 him, a rest that was consummated and full. There was holy with an 306 00:29:03.019 --> 00:29:07.460 H and holly with a double. Holy in the sense of set apart and 307 00:29:07.619 --> 00:29:12.970 sacred and to set apart under God, but holly with a double you in 308 00:29:14.049 --> 00:29:21.529 the sense of holistic body and soul, all made perfectly well, forever, 309 00:29:22.329 --> 00:29:27.559 complete with no more death, normal, no more sorrow. This is the 310 00:29:27.720 --> 00:29:33.039 Gee, this is the work that Jesus is doing. He's anticipating it, 311 00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:37.630 he's bringing it about. Jesus is doing what on the Sabbath? He's forgiving 312 00:29:37.789 --> 00:29:45.589 sins, he's making people's bodies well, he's showing us what heaven is like. 313 00:29:47.230 --> 00:29:52.789 He's doing he's he's doing the work of God in bringing us out of 314 00:29:52.859 --> 00:29:57.900 our sin and misery, out of the curse, into a state of rest, 315 00:30:00.259 --> 00:30:06.740 of peace. My father is working and I am working. That's one 316 00:30:06.819 --> 00:30:14.890 reason we call it the Lord's Day. Belongs to the Lord who makes the 317 00:30:15.049 --> 00:30:25.119 Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was set up 318 00:30:25.160 --> 00:30:33.559 as this promise of rest. Here we see Jesus fulfilling that promise, doing 319 00:30:33.799 --> 00:30:41.549 what man had was unable to do. And so, as if all of 320 00:30:41.670 --> 00:30:48.630 Jesus is miracles, when Jesus heals this invalid on the Sabbath Day, he's 321 00:30:48.670 --> 00:30:52.420 not just doing a trick, nor is he even just showing his power. 322 00:30:53.900 --> 00:31:00.380 Miracles are signs that point us to Spei civic things about the Kingdom of God, 323 00:31:00.339 --> 00:31:04.450 about who Jesus his, who Jesus is, and that's what he's doing 324 00:31:04.690 --> 00:31:11.170 here. He's telling us that he is doing the work that the father had 325 00:31:11.250 --> 00:31:15.329 given him to do as the son of God. He gives signs that point 326 00:31:15.369 --> 00:31:22.680 to his identity as one who whose relationship to the father is one that is 327 00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:30.119 also of equals, of judge, of Savior. And so, by putting 328 00:31:30.279 --> 00:31:34.869 all of this in this context, Jesus is showing us that he is vindicated 329 00:31:34.950 --> 00:31:41.069 from their claims. It's not there, it's not him who's breaking the Sabbath, 330 00:31:41.869 --> 00:31:48.539 it's them. It's them by being concerned about all the things that are 331 00:31:48.700 --> 00:31:52.380 contrary to the Sabbath. The Sabbath is about righteousness. The Sabbath is about 332 00:31:52.420 --> 00:31:56.259 resting in the work of God. The Sabbath is about belonging to him. 333 00:31:57.339 --> 00:32:05.170 But after the fall, there's no entering that without forgiveness. That's what Jesus 334 00:32:05.289 --> 00:32:09.970 brings. When Jesus came into the world, he came to bring us into 335 00:32:10.130 --> 00:32:15.490 this sabbath rest, and that, my friends, is what we enjoy every 336 00:32:15.569 --> 00:32:22.160 Sunday. We enjoy it on Sundays because that is when the Sabbath itself came 337 00:32:22.319 --> 00:32:29.680 into consummation. The Sabbath moved by the very will of God from Saturday to 338 00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:36.150 Sunday because of the resurrection of Christ, because that is when all was finally 339 00:32:36.190 --> 00:32:45.259 accomplished and we were brought into this rest. We celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday 340 00:32:45.779 --> 00:32:51.740 because of what the Lord did on the Cross. We come to the Lord's 341 00:32:51.819 --> 00:32:57.380 House on the Lord's Day, we worship him, to celebrate these things, 342 00:32:58.690 --> 00:33:04.210 to celebrate the victory that is already happened and the glories that are yet to 343 00:33:04.329 --> 00:33:08.890 be revealed. That's why we spend time and doing things like hearing the word 344 00:33:08.930 --> 00:33:14.920 of God, being encouraged by him and what he is doing in the world 345 00:33:14.960 --> 00:33:20.160 and in our lives, by being assured of his promises, by taking time 346 00:33:20.359 --> 00:33:27.630 to stop and rest in those things. If you struggle in your body, 347 00:33:28.549 --> 00:33:37.150 if you struggle in your soul, then rest in Jesus enjoy that rest in 348 00:33:37.230 --> 00:33:40.619 him, particularly on the Lord's Day. It's a day that he gives to 349 00:33:40.660 --> 00:33:47.900 you not to not to be filled with pride and self righteousness, but to 350 00:33:47.980 --> 00:33:54.180 be filled with the joy of him who has come. Let us pray