We saw in this text last week
Jesus now going back to Galilee and performing yet another miracle
there. And then after this, he went
then back to Jerusalem. to engage with this unnamed man
at this pool of Bethesda in order that he might heal them, him,
and then thus cause division. Remember we talked about this
last week, cause division with the culture, with religion, and
amongst the Jews. Look at verse, let's just read
chapter 5 verses 1 through 16. After this, there was a feast
of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there in Jerusalem
by the Sheep Gate, a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda, which
has five-roofed colonnades, in these lay a multitude of invalid,
blind, lame, and paralyzed, One man was there who had been an
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? The sick man answered him, Sir,
I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred.
And while I am going, another steps down before me. Jesus said
to him, Get up, take up your bed, and walk. And at once the
man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that
day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who
had been healed, It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you
to take up your bed. But he answered them, The man
who healed me, that man said to me, Take up your bed and walk.
And they asked him, Who is this man who 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who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn as there was a crowd in the place.
Afterward, Jesus found him, the man, 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 this is why the
Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing things on
the Sabbath. But Jesus, look at verse 17, answered them, My
Father is working until now, and I am working. We will not
address that this morning, but we shall approach it next week. The very section of the end of
chapter, I mean of the end of verse 9, if you notice it's a
new paragraph, now that day was the Sabbath. These are ominous
terms. This is an ominous statement.
It's almost like if you were watching a movie and someone
said something and you heard the music in the background,
dum-dum-dum, you know? You see these expressions of
uh-oh or something bad's about to happen. That is the reason
the evangelist has written these things here. Now that day was
the Sabbath. So that the reader would understand
that something negative was about to take place. Why? Because Jesus
had done something as He was very quick to do that would violate
the law of the Sabbath. That would violate the traditions
of the Sabbath. That would violate Moses teaching
about the Sabbath. That would violate the Jews teaching
about the Sabbath. And so for us as readers we hear
these words we see this great thing that Jesus has done and
all of a sudden we see now that was the Sabbath. So we know that
trouble is coming. See, we like a narrative and
a fictitious story that teaches us something that happens and
the good comes, but there's always what? Conflict. Every good story
has conflict, has the apex of something drastic happening or
something tragic happening. And then either, depending on
the genre, is either something really good comes out of it or
it's just a tragedy, like Shakespeare loved to write. You know, I remember
one of the first movies I ever saw. I love a good movie that
has deep, deep and thick dialogue. I love movies or plays that has
interesting layers to characters. It's hard to find anything like
that these days. You almost have to look at a black and white
show to see it or read the copy of a play. But I'll never forget
one of the first movies that I ever saw that ended in absolute
horror and tragedy. where all of the resolution that
you were hoping for never came. And the credits start rolling
and you're going. Intermission? Wait a minute! No! You've robbed
me of my happiness! What are you doing? And that's
sort of what's happened in the life of Jesus. Every turn, there
was never a party at the end of anything He did. There was
never a celebration. There was never a jubilee. Everything
He taught, they wanted to hurt Him. Every miracle He did, people
wanted to kill Him. Every time He showed up into
town, people pursued Him, trying to catch Him. And that is what
we see here when we see Now that day was the Sabbath. It's almost
like as if we're supposed to plant our face into our hands
and go, oh no, not again. Not another problem. You ever feel that way in life?
You ever feel like that every turn it's like, really? Not again. What else should there be? Friends,
when we turn the corner of every day and we see pain, or we see
calamity, or we see suffering, or we see internal division in
our own mind, sometimes it's just that we're not happy. We
often think that Jesus' job is to take all that suffering away.
Friends, that is the glory that we look forward to in the future.
It is not the prescription of this day. As a matter of fact,
if we believe the Word of God to be true, and some people have
told me over the last few years, you teach too much about pain
and suffering. Well friends, if I were to eliminate
pain and suffering from the context of my teaching, I could not teach
any of the New Testament. What letter should I go to? What
gospel could I go to? Nothing. I mean, even the book of Revelation,
as glorious as it is, and as beautiful of a picture that we
see over and over again of the recapitulation of John's vision
of what Jesus has done and what God the Father has done to redeem
a people and the security of His people, it is sent in the
picture of absolute pain and suffering. The devil's preachers preach
a life of painlessness. The devil's preachers give a
hope that we're gonna live a full life to please ourselves. It doesn't happen. All who desire
to live a godly life will be persecuted. Even if our health
is perfect, and our home is perfect, and our relationships are perfect,
and our children are perfect, and our finances are perfect,
and our mind is perfect, and everything is perfect, the minute
we stand on the cliff of the gospel, of the tightrope, on
the fine fishing line of truth. All of that goodness will be
uprooted. It'll all be uprooted. Everybody
in culture loves the cosmic God that grants wishes. Everybody
in culture loves the teacher Jesus who shows the way of loving
humanity. But when we say that this man
is God and He is supreme over our lives and that His Word is
authoritative, the gloves come off. It is no longer a match
of sport, but it is a purpose to maim and hurt. Now that day was the Sabbath.
And I've got an hour's worth of thoughts about what this brings
up in my heart from the full narrative of the New Testament
and the teaching of the New Testament. What is the Sabbath? See, we
believe the Sabbath is today. It's not the Sabbath. By definition,
the word Sabbath means what? Seven. This is the first day
of the week, not the seventh day of the week. In the entirety
of the New Testament, there's not one time that the word Sabbath
was ever used with a Gentile Christian. There was not one
teaching of Sabbath observation in word or in practice for the
New Testament Church. The New Testament Church gathered
in opposition to Sabbath by gathering on the first day of the week.
On the first day of the week. The first day of the week is
not Monday. The first day of the week is Sunday. It is the
first, the premier. That is the attitude that the
New Testament church has, is this is day one, I shall not
work, I shall give it to the Lord. It's not the Sabbath. And if we were really to get
down to the nitty-gritty, every day is a Sabbath day for the
church. Every day belongs to God. Every
day is a day of resting in Christ Jesus. Even when we labor, we
are resting in our spirit, that which we cannot see in our heart.
in the one that we cannot now see, but we love Him with a love
that is somewhat inexpressible, with a joy that is often inexpressible. But see, the Sabbath day for
the Jews was a day that everything was a sin. It wasn't a day that
everything was holy. It was a day that everything
was a sin. You could not strike a match. You could not light
a fire. Today, today, in this present
moment, From 6 o'clock Friday afternoon to 6 o'clock Saturday
evening. People who are Jewish, who follow
the Sabbath laws. don't and cannot even turn on
a light switch or flush a toilet, for it is wicked before God in
their eyes." I want you to understand the severity of the Sabbath laws.
The Sabbath laws, as we see, I think it's in the prophet Jeremiah
and others, that God had told the prophets to tell the people,
because they violated the Sabbath, because they worked, because
they made profits, because they did these things on the Sabbath,
that God would put them into slavery. They could not even
keep the simplest of terms. And so the knee-jerk response
to that, as you look through the narrative of the Old Testament,
as you look through the history of the Hebrew people, you see
that they kept adding more and more restrictions, more and more
rules, more and more laws, more and more regulations, in an attempt
to pacify the aggressive wrath and judgment of God, so that
they would know that they would not be sinning at all if they
did nothing. Let me give you some of those
things. It was against the law to take a trip on the Sabbath.
And as we see, the scribes would be asked, what constitutes a
trip? What constitutes a journey? So
they decided, they got together, they got a committee, they got
together and they said, here's a journey. If it's a thousand yards, it's
okay. A thousand yards point beyond
a thousand yards, it's a journey, it's sinful. So the Jews were
creative and they thought, well, the law says wherever I prepare
a meal and leave that meal, it is a home for me. If my home
is greater than a thousand yards or my property is greater than
a thousand, I can stay on it. So they would take meals Friday
to each other's homes separately so that where they put their
meals the day before was considered their home so they can walk to
their homes and other places. See how this works? And if they
didn't have the space or the food to get the meals there,
they could actually tie ropes across the streets. theoretically
block off the roads and that property then became one property
so that it was a joint home so they could just journey a thousand
miles, a thousand miles, a thousand yards in any direction. It was
so common that in this day a very creative Jew could actually walk
all the entirety of Palestine without violating the Sabbath
if they did their math correctly. And they measured it and they
did it. Because it was a sin before God in their mind to walk. When the very idea of the Sabbath
is, don't carry a burden. What's a burden? Don't carry
your stuff to the market and make money. That's what it was
all about. Give up the day for trying to make a dime and just
trust in the Lord this day. Just rest in the Lord this day.
Because that's the point of it, isn't it? In creation, on the
seventh day God rested. in like manner we rest from our
work. It doesn't mean we rest from
doing anything. Now there are a lot of people, I get into debates
all the time, they're short-lived because I just go, I'm not talking
about this stupid mess with you, because it doesn't ever start,
hey, would you like to talk about this? It always starts with,
you're wicked. You ever had any problems? You know, people that
you don't even know, they catch you on the internet or catch
you in the street. Do you observe a Sabbath? Absolutely. Do you
worship on Sunday? Yeah, well, you're a liar, you're
a sinner. Well, I am a liar and I am a
sinner, but I don't think it relates to what you just said.
I don't get it. And the next thing you know,
for ten minutes they just attack you about how you're not following
the law, you're not following the Sabbath. I don't want to have this conversation,
because you're not following the law right now, see. You're
not even following the example of Christ, and that's what's
happening here. Not only was it a sin to walk on the Sabbath,
it was a sin to carry anything. Carry anything. So a handkerchief,
a scarf, a glove, if you picked it up with your hand, and walked
one step, you carried it, you sinned before God and were worthy
of judgment according to the Jews. But, if I'm wearing that, it's
not a sin to get dressed that day, so if I'm wearing it, you
know, I need to get that mattress from this side of the room to
this side, let me wear it. That dresser needs to be slid over
a little bit. That dust on the floor needs to be gotten up.
Let me wear it. You think I'm joking. They would put things
on as clothing so they could move them from one place to another
and not sin before God and sit down in their easy chair and
go, I haven't sinned. But the whole day is a day of
sinfulness. When the whole attitude is a
day of sinfulness. When every aspect of everything
the Jews ever did, ever, historically from the beginning of time to
today, is wicked before the eyes of God, and they think it's righteous.
You see what I'm saying? That's the problem. That's why
Jesus purposefully, every single Sabbath, did something to tear
them up. Did something to make them mad.
Because they did not understand the Sabbath. You might think
those are ridiculous, but let me give you one that's really
ridiculous. Of course, as a farmer, you wouldn't want to furrow the
ground in any way, right? You wouldn't want to plow or
do anything that's kind of work. But get this, according to the agrarian
society, if moisture entered the soil because of something
you did, it prepared the soil to such a degree that it was
considered work against the Sabbath. You see where I'm going? So if you spit in the dirt, you
sinned against God on the Sabbath. So how did they get away with
that one? They watched where they spit. They spit on the rocks. I'm not kidding. This is written
down. This is historical. Jews would teach their children,
when you spit on the Sabbath, son, spit on the rocks so you
don't bring the wrath of God. Now for a Jew that would ever
hear these statements, they would be offended because in some sense,
no, in every sense, I'm mocking. I'm mocking them. But so is the
Word of God mocking them. Jesus tells the Pharisees that
they have brought, that have shut people out of the kingdom
of heaven by the regulations and traditions of man. That the
Jews lived in fear, not faith. And actually, at this point in
history, we're so accustomed to following so many rules related
to the Sabbath traditions that they actually felt justified
before God with obedience of these silly traditions. The Sabbath matter here is a
gloomy distinction in the life of Israel. This Sabbath issue
is what ultimately would cause the Pharisees to first seek out
to arrest and destroy Jesus Christ. They wanted to catch him on moral
issues. They got together and they talked about these things.
They would ask the fallen woman. They would set her up. Remember
that? They would catch him and say,
hey, what do you think about the law? What's the greatest
of all the laws? Or they would catch him and say, hey, what
do you say? Should we pay Caesar? Should
we give our money to Caesar? See, they're trying to catch
him. Because nothing Jesus says in that circumstance is right.
Either answer is going to get him in trouble. If he says, absolutely
not, Caesar's not Lord, he goes to the cross for treason. If he says, absolutely, we should
pay Caesar, then guess what? He's a blasphemer and the Jews
could arrest him. Because he's saying that Caesar
is what is due. So he answers the question this
way. Look at the coin in your hands. The money in your pocket. Whose face is on it? Is it not
Caesar's? Then you give to Caesar what
belongs to Caesar. But give to God what belongs to God. And
they're just like, what did we say? We just walk away and like,
oh, we're cool. Like, we didn't hear that. We
weren't, you know, imagine the guy actually doing the talking,
the guys around him sort of smug. And you can see this, and as
Jesus responds, they sort of just spitting on rocks so they don't
sin before God. See, the Sabbath rules were so
silly as Matthew's Gospel records Jesus and His disciples. What are they doing? They're
in the fields and they need something to eat, so they go out into the
field. Now, imagine a field, like a cornfield here, and you
get four or five ears of corn and you shuck it right there
in the field. Does the farmer even notice it? Does the crop
look damaged? It's not like you're an elephant
trampling through or a herd of deer going in there and eating
it all down. No, you just go in there and get a little bit
to eat. So the disciples and Jesus go and they take some of
the wheat and they do like this in their hands and it pulls the
chaff off the wheat and they have the pure kernel here and
however they were to eat that, they were to crush it up with
some rocks or whatever and make some paste, make some bread or what? We don't
know how they ate it because I haven't really investigated.
I'm sure I could find out. But that's what they did, they just
sort of got the chaff off of the wheat. And the Pharisees
see them and he says, how dare you work on the Sabbath? Why?
Because he separated the wheat from the chaff. I find that very
ironic. Because that's what he was doing
in real life as well, by that very act. Separating the wheat
from the chaff. The chaff being those who held
to the strictness of the Sabbath laws. And then Jesus says, well
you know me, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. You remember David,
he says. What does he say there? Do you
remember David? Remember when Absalom had tried to take the
throne from David and the people went, what, after Absalom? Was
Absalom the king? No. God had not ordained him
to be the king. David was God's man. David was
the king. Even in all of his wickedness,
he was a man after God's own heart and God had established
him to be the king. But the people thought, well, it'd be greater
to have a king. So they were running for their lives, David and his
men, and they go into the temple. and they go into a place where
only the priests are allowed to go, and they grab this consecrated
bread off the table, which is an object of worship and a picture
of purity and holiness of God. I'll be saying this morning,
holy, holy, holy. It's a picture. It's not magic. It has no purpose except to point
to God. And David goes in there and breaks
the law by entering the temple because he's not a priest, breaks
the law by grabbing the bread because he's not approved to
do so, and breaks the law by eating it, and breaks the law
by feeding it to his men. And these Jews know it in Matthew's
Gospel when Jesus says, you remember David? He went in there. He was
God's ordained king. And God did not strike him dead
from going into the temple. God did not strike him dead from
going into the area that he wasn't supposed to be. God did not strike
him dead for eating because he was hungry and he needed food. This is bread, people. That's
what Jesus is saying. It's bread. It's not some object
of divine attributes. It's bread. And He goes on to
basically teach them that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and
that God was pleased with David, even when David broke the law,
that breaking the law of bread had nothing to do with David's
disobedience to God. Because the people, in their
attempt to obey God and get upset about David eating bread, were
actually disobeying God because they were not subject to the
man that God had ordained as king. How dare they play trinkets
with their religion and their temple worship when they were
disobeying the very direct thing, and when Jesus is speaking this
way, He says, King David is greater than the temple. David is greater than the temple.
The temple is a building with pictures in it. David is my man
to rule you. Which by the way, you know, if
I were God I'd be like, you know I told you didn't need a king
anyway, right? It's your fault. It started with Saul. If you
really want to get to pointing fingers, but that's not how God
works, is it? Because God ordains and decrees
all things. The Sabbath rules were so silly. But in a sense, they had to be,
they had to follow them in their mind to be holy in the eyes of
God. But see, there's a difference. Grace is grace and works are
works. Grace and works do not complement
each other. This is a problem. People think
they understand the epistle of James. Quit pretexting scripture
and read the entire thing. Read the entire thing. Read all
of James as if it were a letter, because it is, and read all of
Romans as a letter, not as a compartmentalized study, though it's very compartmentalized
and very structured. Read it. And you see that they're
not in contradiction to one another. They're not at odds. Grace is
grace and works are works, and each of them have their place.
But they're not complementary. They're not synergistic. Neither
of them work in synergy with God. No work and no grace works
in synergy with anything. God is sovereign and He gives
grace. And man is commanded to work
and therefore he does it. He doesn't give. What is the
illustration that Jesus gives? I give this a lot. If I have
a servant and he works in the field and he works a hard day,
do I come in and tell him to kick his feet up and have dinner?
He's worked hard. I say, no slave, where's my supper? Why? Because
we don't get rewarded for doing what is required of us. Friends,
obedience is required of us. Guess what? In all the greatest
obedience, the reward is what? Death! Death! For the wages of sin is death.
For the wages of working in obedience is death. Because obedience produces
judgment, which is death. Why? Because if you violate even
one part of the law, you violated the whole law. You cannot be
almost a criminal. You are a criminal. We are sinners
against God. And get this, we sin because
we're sinners. We're not sinners because we've
sinned. Don't fall prey to what we know
as Pelagian theology. Pelagius is a heretic from antiquity
and he believed that man was inherently good and that man
was not responsible for any sin debt to God until he purposefully
and willfully rebelled against God. It has always been a heresy.
It is a heresy today. It is an anti-gospel and it is
anti-Christ. And people like to use the word
Armenian right now. I know two Armenians in the world, two.
And they're classical Armenians. They're not Wesleyan Armenians.
They're classical Armenians. And they don't believe that.
So they've got some problems. But people are like, well, Arminianism,
Arminianism. Listen, nobody, you don't even know what that
means. Joseph Arminius, Jacob Arminius, I mean. I'm writing
an article on that. It'll be posted on the church
website by the end of the week. What's the point? The point I'm trying
to make is that very few people in this world who claim Christ
understand the gospel. And even less people believe
in it. even less people believe in it.
And ultimately, it all roots back to, historically, the Garden,
which is Pelagianism 101. Adam's good, and Eve is good,
and God's withholding something, so we choose to do something
for ourselves. And that rolls right on into
what Jesus is showing us here, what John's Gospel is revealing
about Jesus and the work of the Gospel, and the work of the Gospel
ministry of Jesus. that sometimes we believe that
we can honor God by doing what we do. Grace is grace and works
are works. One is commanded and no one is
rewarded, nor can be rewarded for doing what is required. Works
show us that we are incapable of pleasing God. Grace is the
only way through which anyone can please God, by faith. We
are pleasing to God because of His mercy. We are pleasing to
God because Jesus obeyed in our place. We are pleasing to God
and acceptable to God because Jesus took the penalty of our
sin in our place. You see, it's about substitution. And this free will, man-centered,
weird doctrinal situation that we find ourselves in in our culture,
that's there. We don't know the labels, we
don't know what it's called, and people are mis... they've applied
a misnomer to these things. They've misapplied the words.
Because see, words have meanings, and meanings of words differ
between people. I want us to get the right truth.
I want us to understand the right language. Friends, there are
things that we know and have always agreed upon as Baptists,
for those of you who have an affinity as Baptists. There's
things that we've agreed upon that we are learning every moment
and every day and every week and every month and every year
that aren't necessarily as biblical as we think they are. So do we
want to be Baptists or do we want to be biblical? Do we want
to be Presbyterian or do we want to stand on truth? Do we want
to be evangelical? No. I don't, not anymore, because
it doesn't mean what I thought it used to mean. That means you don't love the
gospel. No, it doesn't mean I do love the gospel. Labels change. Words change their meaning. The
Word of God never changes, but what changes is how we interpret
it, how we perceive it. And one man's interpretation
is not okay. Two men interpreting. A thousand
men interpreting. It doesn't matter historically
what is interpreted. It matters what is being said
in it right now. And the context of Scripture
governs us as a people. Yes, and there are some troublesome
things. There's some grammar in here that even in the English,
I'm like, what in the world? Let's figure this out and we
can play with it and toy with it. But guess what? There are
some simplistic expressions of those same truths found elsewhere
that we don't have to dig so hard and long to understand.
Jesus would say, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. David was the
king ordained by God. Honoring David was greater than
obeying the rules of the temple. The people pretended to honor
God with the rules? The Jews pretended to honor God
with their rules? And what happened? They had no
love for God because they did not honor and obey God's King. And the same thing is true here.
Jesus is saying and showing, as we'll see, not necessarily
in this text, but in other illustrations of the Gospel, Jesus is saying,
when He violates the Sabbath, He's saying, honor me. Worship
me. know me, love me, honoring me
is greater than obeying my rules. And people go, wait a minute,
now you're speaking out of both sides of your mouth. Jesus says,
if you love me, you'll do what I say, right? If you love me,
you'll obey me. Yeah, but Jesus never commanded
anybody to do all these silly little rules. As a matter of
fact, Jesus does a very good job at saying what is the greatest
of all the commandments. To love the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
And to love your neighbor as much if not more as you love
yourself. And he even goes on to say that all the laws of the
prophets hinge on these. And against these there is no
what? Law. Paul would teach the people of
Rome in Romans 13 that those who do what is required by law
have no fear of the authorities. The cops come knocking on my
door, I'm not running out the back. Because I assume they're
needing my help. Not there to lock me up. Now
it may be a surprise one day. We listen to your sermon, buddy,
you're coming with us. Then I'll run out the back. Lay some cover
fire. I mean it. Throw some tomatoes. May we never see that, but we
probably will. But if we love, if we are the
people that God's created us to be, we don't have a fear of
God's judgment. Perfect love casts away all fear. Jesus is saying, and what He
will say not here, but what He's said already in other Gospels,
is, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I make these rules, and they
are not for your holiness. They're for your good. They're
for you to understand who I am. They're for your protection.
I make the rules and I do on this day what I know is right.
Jesus never sinned. He didn't violate the law. He
fulfilled it. So that where it seemed different
than what Jesus did and what the Pharisees taught is because
what they taught was wrong. What Jesus did was right. So
the application of obedience in the context of the Sabbath,
which by the way was only for Jewish people, is that they had it wrong. Jesus is basically saying, you
love your rules more than you love your people. You love your
rules more than you love God. You love your rules more than
you love the fact that a man was just healed. A man's healing,
beloved, is greater than the rules. Our needs are greater
than the rules of engagement. We have a sort of a rule, we
read the Word of God, we sing some songs, we pray. This is
something we feel very strongly about what should happen in the
context of our assembly together each and every week. We're going
to sing, we're going to pray, we're going to hear the Word
of God, we're going to do the Lord's table, and on the 21st
we're going to have a baptism. Or several. And these are good. But if we show up to these things
and there's a desperate need, if there's something that needs
to be prayed for, if there's something going on in our congregation
that we need to take a week or two out of John so that we can
address it according to the Scripture, that's what we do. Why? Because
our needs as a people are greater than the structure of my planning
as your pastor. Jesus is basically teaching and
teaches that these Pharisees loved themselves and hated the
Lord at the cost of His people. See, the people of Jesus' day,
just like the people of David's day, were rejecting the King
of Kings. And instead, they cared more
about their rules and their religion and their worship than they did
about the people of God. It's sort of like legalism. It
is formalism. And it'll kill your soul. So
in verse 10, if you look there, and now I'm
getting started. So the Jews said to the man who
had been healed, Imagine this, 38 years, and he picks up a mat that literally
weighs less than three pounds. I'm talking about like a sushi
roll. Wicker roll. Keep the dirt off his back. The Jew said to the man who had
been healed, It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to take
up your bed You get that picture? He didn't
pack up a cot and put a big military pack that weighed 100 pounds
on his back and start wheeling this, you know, wheeled little
turn away bed down the streets of Jerusalem. He picked up something
that is less in size than a yoga mat. And I'm not talking about
the good ones that we like to use. I'm talking about the real
thin ones. Something that had he just sort
of put it long since on his body, he could have carried it like
this without even being noticed. He could have tucked it down
into his belt and lapped it over itself and it would have not
even been noticed. So here's this man who is known
by everyone in Jerusalem as an invalid, as a paralytic, who
sits and stays down at the Pool of Bethesda in hopes that he
would be healed by some mythological tradition. And Jesus comes to
him amongst all those people, and He commands him to get up,
and He commands him also to take up his bed and then to walk with
it. You know, Jesus could have just got down and whispered to
him, You're healed, brother. When the time is right, just
go home. But the point of Jesus' command is He wanted the spectacle
in front of the Jews to show their self-righteousness. to
show that they did not have a love for this man. And it shows right
there in verse 10. It is the Sabbath. It's against
the law for you to take up your bed. This legalism has killed
the souls of these Jews. When they cared more about what
they do than who each other are, their souls have died. This formalism,
as I like to call it, is fleshed out many times throughout all
the Gospels. Even in the context of where
Paul, who was a Pharisee and not a Pharisee anymore, with zeal persecuted the church
of Christ. What did Jesus say to Paul on
the road to Damascus when he called him and he saved him with
sovereign grace? Saul, Saul, why do you persecute
me? Jesus didn't ask him why he's
bothering his friends. Jesus didn't say, why are you
trying to hurt my ministry? Look at the reputation you're
giving yourself, Paul. Don't you know better? Don't
you want to see the Pharisees reformed? Don't you want to be
a change agent in the world? Listen, God has not called us
to be change agents. God has not called any Christian
to change the culture. And this is counter to what most
people preach. But beloved, there is a sublime,
divine, glorious kingdom at work here, and this ain't it. This
world is not the kingdom of Christ. This world is an object of wrath.
This world will be, in a word, destroyed by fire. It will be
gone. It is not for our preservation
eternally. Yes, be a good steward. Don't
throw your trash on the highway. Don't burn hairspray bottles
out in the yard. I mean, whatever it is, you know,
have some sense. Take care. We take care of our
lawns. We can take care of our environment if necessary. But
we're not going to change it. We're not here to be a change
agent. We're not here to try to create unity. There's no unity outside
of the gospel of grace. Every steeple in town, how many
are really in unity? Internally, much less in community. How many? None. That's why we're
all in different places this morning. That's why we're not together
during the week. With them. And they not with us. I'm not
saying we don't have some unifying believers. I'm not saying we
don't have brothers and sisters amongst them. But our culture has now
put us in a place where we are more divided than ever. My job
as a pastor is not to bring the brotherhood of churches and congregations
together under one umbrella. Ecumenism is wicked. And if you
don't know what that means, that means getting every denomination
and every church and every religion that claims Christ together to
do something good. What are we going to do? Sing
Kumbaya while they go to hell? No. Now we're going to proclaim the
gospel of grace with gentleness, with respect, with power, and
with authority. Not belittling, but proclaiming. And through the proclamation
of God's work through Jesus Christ, the living Son of God, eternally
the Son of God, God will, as He wishes, bring life to dead
sinners and they will rejoice and praise Him for His glorious
grace. For they have been purchased by Christ. Why do you take up your bed?
As a dad, that is my go-to. It's usually, why haven't you
made up your bed? We want our children to follow the rules more than we want to show them
Christ, sometimes. I mean, we admit that. And sometimes,
you can't do that. I was always one of my mother
could testify that I would say, well, technically, I can. Philosophically, I can do whatever
I want. Do I want to? No, because I don't
want the consequence of it. The better term would be, you
don't have to. The Jews don't have to follow
these silly rules. This man did not have to follow the rule about
picking up his bed. He could care less. You know what he wanted
for that bed? Nothing! You think he wanted to take it
home so he could lay on it tomorrow? He's been laying on it for 38 years. You
think he cared about that piece of fabric and straw? No! If God had healed me, I'd
have jumped up, kicked my heels, and left that raggedy old mat
right there where it stood. But Jesus' command was, stand
up, take your mat, and walk. Why? Because that was the purpose
of Jesus healing this man. So that the Pharisees could see
him walking with his mat, so that you and I could see that
the heart of the Pharisees had no love for God. Friends, listen
to me. It doesn't matter how religious
people are. It doesn't matter how faithful they are. It doesn't
matter how much they give, how much they serve, how much they
love, how much they feed, how much they clothe. Listen to me. The righteous morality of the
Pharisees was so strict and so perfect that no one could measure
up to them. Jesus even said to the masses,
unless your righteousness is greater than that of the Pharisees,
you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. To which people go,
oh my goodness, what the world? I'm not even allowed to do some
things that they're allowed to do. How am I ever going to measure
up? not going to measure up. It is Christ that measures up
for us. Christ that stands before God and fights for us. Christ
that's paved the way for us. Christ that satisfied the wrath
of God for us. It is Christ and His blood on the cross that paid
our debt to God the Father and we have no other thing to pay. It's against the law for you
to take up your bed. They cared more for how they
looked in their version of fearing God and worshiping God on this
special day than they did about this man being delivered from
his infirmity. No amount of right doing would
ever give them love for someone. There are people, like I just
said, that will look Christian, but if they don't have love for
you, they're not God's people. Now,
we all have moments of unlovingness. But Paul says, not let these
things be named among you. Jesus loved this man. The Pharisees
hated him. But he answered them. And by the way, how do we love?
By faith. That God loved us first. that
God would empower us in our hearts to be humble and to love each
other and knowing that we will never love each other perfectly
or fully or continually but we can be loving because God loved
us by giving His Son for us. Verse 11, but He answered them,
the man who healed me. See, why are you walking around
with your mat? Who told you to take up your
mat? You see the authority that they're
holding right there? Did we give you permission? He said, the man who healed me.
They didn't even recognize his healing. They didn't even mention
it. He mentions it. The man who healed
me. That man commanded me. Take up
your mat and walk. So I did. While the Jews focus on the sin
of the mat and carrying a piece of cloth, this man was not even
considerate. He was thinking of his healing.
This man was thinking of what Jesus had done for him and did
not even know who it was that healed him. This man is sort
of like saying, Hallelujah, I'm healed and the man who gave me
my legs told me to get up and obliged him and he told me to
carry my mat too. So here I am and I'm standing before you.
See, when someone heals you, it shows they have authority
over the rules that say not to walk, that say not to pick up
your mat. We often stand and try to hoard
our human trophies in the faith, don't we? I mean, it's an easy
thing with pastors. Well, I used to do this, and
I've done that, and I've accomplished this. It's like somebody trying to
take credit for the cold snow. Yep, you know what? We really
did a good job this year planning, and the snow came to visit. It
was like the weather development authority. We brought the nice
snow for you guys. We decorated the streets and
everything came down. Friends, we don't need trophies
in the faith. We have no reward. If we do, it's only in our own
mind. We don't go to bed at night saying, man, I am so pleasing
to God. Look at what I've accomplished.
Look at the things that I've done. Look at all of the stuff
that I've done for the Lord. Look at the ministry that I've
accomplished. Look at the teaching that I've done. Look at the certifications
that I have. Look at the seminary degrees
that I have. Look at all this stuff. Wow, look at all this. Man, look
how pious I am. I don't drink and smoke and cuss
or date girls who do or any of that kind of stuff. I mean, we're
just really, we don't do that. But there are people who do.
I'm alright with the Lord. Look how I act. Look how I live.
Look how I dress. Look how I do. And I'm not saying
that we don't look at our lives, but I'm saying we don't stand
smug and say, look, I'm pleasing to God because of these things.
We're not pleasing to God because of these things. We're pleasing
to God because of who Christ is. In other words, we would
say like the picture that Jesus gives of the Pharisee and the
tax collector. The Pharisee is, man, I'm glad I'm not like this.
Thank you, God, that you've performed this in me. And I tithe and I
do and I do and I do and I do. And yet the tax collector says,
Lord have mercy on me. He tears his clothes and he bows
his head. So we know in the inner parts of our being as saints
We're unworthy to be called saints. We're unworthy to be called the
children of God. We're unworthy to have the Gospel as our banner.
We're unworthy for the blood of Christ to be shed on our behalf.
But it was, beloved, because of the decree of God the Father,
before the world began, that He would pay for the sins of
His people. And by hearing the Word of God
and the Gospel of grace, the Spirit of God gave you life,
for you are the elect of God. You've been saved and redeemed
by the work of God. And He alone gets the credit.
He alone gets all the praise. He alone gets all the glory.
And if we have anything to do with it, it is our job to stand
next to God and sort of nudge Him. Don't forget, don't forget.
Oh yeah, we want to give a little bit of credit to James because
he did make the right choice. I mean, that would be tacky at
an awards banquet, much less before the throne of heaven. I'm unworthy. Have mercy. We
praise you for your grace. How can I serve another Lord? Do you know we're unworthy to
serve God? We're unworthy to worship. We're
unworthy to hear the Word. We're unworthy to pray. But in
Christ, we're able. So this man says, I don't know.
I was the man who healed me, told me to take it up. In verse
12, he says, who is this guy who told you to take up your
bed? See, they said, who told you to take up your bed? He says,
the man who healed me told me to take up my bed. And they said,
who is this man who told you to take up your bed? You see
how it goes? I see the bed, I've been healed. Who told you to
take up the bed? They're ignoring Him. They're
not even willing to put the words in their mouth. Well, who healed
you then? They act like they don't want
to recognize that someone has healed this man who was a lifetime
invalid. Their attention then moves toward
Jesus, this unnamed healer. But He wasn't a healer in their
eyes. He was a violator of the Sabbath. If they cannot get this
man on an infraction of violating the Sabbath, they will surely
get the one who caused it. You've picked up an item with
your hands, and not only have you done that, you have traveled
with it. And not only have you done that, you have done it in
front of people, and brother, you are not going to get away
with it. And this is what this man's hearing.
Who is this man you speak of, you wicked sinner? 13. Now the man who had been
healed did not know who it was. Why? Because Jesus pops into
there, He has this little dialogue, he commands the man, he heals
him, and then he vanishes. The Bible says there, for Jesus
had withdrawn. Jesus had withdrawn as there
was a crowd in the place. Jesus did not want the crowd
to pay attention to what he was doing. It was not for public
glory. It was for divine purpose. So, the point of Jesus' healing
was moreover not just to heal this man, but that the Jews would
say, who told you to do this? Who's done these things? Jesus
hid himself until this man had gone and talked with the Jews. He intended to stir division
amongst the legalists and the formalists, those self-righteous
of his day, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, that
they were pure in their actions and their words and deeds. And
then verse 14, it says, Afterward Jesus found them in the temple
and said, See, you are well. Sin no more, that nothing worse
may happen to you. Now, in context, we have to understand what Jesus
is doing. Many commentators say, this man
was crippled because he had sinned some way. That's not true. As
a matter of fact, we'll see in John 9 where they ask, was it
our sin? Was it his parents' sin or this
man's sin? And Jesus will say, neither. This man was blind that
the glory of God may be revealed. This man was crippled that the
glory of God may be revealed. This man was crippled that I
might heal him that the Pharisees would hate me and put me on a
cross. And even though we, like I talked
about in the beginning, sometimes we get all caught up in the idea
that we don't have a lot of happy endings. And though none of the
temporal endings of Jesus' ministry had rejoicing, oh, what a day
of rejoicing we have now. And even though the cross was
very macabre, and the cross was very hard, and the cross was
very evil, in the shadow of our temporal world, in the sense
that an innocent man died, it was a righteous judgment that
was passed upon Christ and His innocence by God the Father,
not by Rome and not by Israel. And so the good that comes out
of all of this is that we are redeemed people. That the gospel
really is good news, not just some news with a little bit of
good in it. It is the only thing that is good in the world. It
is the only truth that you can hear that has authoritative power
behind it. It is the only story that you
can know through which God the Holy Spirit will move and bring
you to salvation just by the hearing. So Jesus finds this man outside
the temple and I believe in the inner gates or around the courtyard
or somewhere. And he comes up to him and says,
see you're well, you're well, you're healed. Sin no more, that
nothing worse may happen to you. What is the much more worse?
Well, let's just put it this way, this man's gonna die, right?
Because Jesus didn't give him eternal, He didn't give him immortal
flesh. He gave him His flesh back. He's still 38 plus years old.
He's going to die. And He eventually did die. But
Jesus said something much more worse could happen. He's not
talking about physical problems. As a matter of fact, Jesus is
pushing those physical problems as non-essential. Jesus is saying
in this situation, listen, there is nothing. You think that being
an invalid for nearly four decades was bad? You know nothing if
you do not understand the judgment of God. That's what He's pointing
to. The judgment of God upon sinners
is far worse than any calamity that this life may have. Any
suffering that this life may give you. Sin no more. See, this man was no longer a
cripple. So Jesus wasn't going to say,
be careful now, your legs are weak. We talked about that last
week. He was fully healed, complete. But Jesus is saying, I know who
you really are right now. And though we can heal your body,
though I healed your body, your soul is still in danger, see,
because sin is a present condition. And we'll talk more about this
as the weeks progress. But this is a call to this man's
current heart and mind, not his actions, not his body. Jesus
was not discussing the consequence of sin as the 38 years of paralysis,
but his current place as a sinner as he stood before God. So when
Jesus proves himself as God by healing someone, and then he
commands one not to sin, I believe it is almost certain that someone
may trust in Jesus and then inquire, how can this be? We don't know. Because it says in verse 15,
this man went away. We don't know what happened. And a matter
of fact, I believe it's not our business to know because God
has not ordained it for us to see it in Scripture. It's not
the point. The point is that all of us should consider our
own lives. Understand the purpose of the gospel. Understand the
ministry of Jesus. And understand that no matter
what He does for us in this life temporally, what is it really?
Is it a blessing? in comparison to the blessing
of eternal life, of satisfying God's judgment on our behalf?
Nothing, nothing, nothing in this world has any comparison
to that. No amount of money, no amount
of health, no amount of life. And do you really want to live
a thousand years? No. Please, not. I want to live forever in Christ. Not in life. Not in this world,
but in the one to come. This man went away, and what
did he do? He went right back to the Jews and he told them, the man
who healed me was Jesus. This man returns, having met
and then identified his healer, and again he says, what? It was
Jesus who had healed him. Notice he doesn't leave that
mark, does he? He doesn't leave that point. You've asked me,
it was Jesus who told me to pick up my mat. Nope, that's not on
his radar. He's probably still carrying that stupid thing around,
like a kid. This is my brand new, you know,
this is my new toy. It's like we do. You ever walked
out with your hairbrush in your hand? And your keys and your hairbrush
and you're going, what the world am I doing? Toothbrush. When you're just... This man's
walking around this mat. He goes back and said, Jesus
is who healed me. This man returns. Jesus healed me. And I personally
do not believe this man had to return. I don't believe he had
to go back to the Jews. I don't think he did. I think he felt
compelled to do so because in some sense I believe he was fearful.
This is speculation, but I believe he was a little bit fearful.
They're going to find me and they're going to hold me with this. So now that I know
it was Jesus, let me go ahead and get that monkey off my back.
But at the same time, because of his language, I don't think
he was ungrateful. He continues to press the issue of being healed.
So maybe by divine ordinance, this man goes back and pushes
the envelope with the Jews. You're not listening to what
I'm saying. The man who healed me is Jesus. Why do we know this? Because it is what God ordained
through this miracle. So I'm not going to put the onus
on this man, and I'm not going to judge his heart by his actions.
I'm just going to tell you he didn't have to, but God ordained
it so he did. Because his focus was still on
his healing. But either way, the point of that return is so
that the Jews would put the light on Jesus and forget about this
guy. Because what has this guy even done? He picked up a map.
They know they're not going to... Are we really going to bring
him all over Jerusalem and punish him and fine him or whip him?
They would whip you. 40 minus 1. Lashes, or the cat in nine
tails. that would expose the muscles
on your back to the elements because you picked up a bed, publicly. And I don't know if they could
even do that in this day. I know the Romans did it, but
the Jews didn't, but the Romans did it. So if you broke a Jewish
law, the Romans found you guilty of it, they'd whip you. In verse 16, And this is why the Jews were
persecuting Jesus. Because He was doing these things on the
Sabbath. And right then they begin to
meet. They started committees and councils and group meetings
and they started to say, how can we get this guy? He's healing
people on the Sabbath. He's making us look bad. He's
destroying our religion. He's going to bring judgment. Isn't that crazy? He's going
to bring judgment against us if we don't stop this guy. He's
going to cause a whole new antinomian group of Jews around here who's
going to disobey everything. I mean, they're going to be drinking
water on the Sabbath. We're going to have kids spitting
in the dirt. God's just going to burn us all
with fire. I mean, these people were fearful of what Jesus would
do. to bring the wrath of God, but
more than that, they weren't fearful of God's judgment. They
were fearful of man's judgment. They were fearful that men would
look at them and go, they're not the leaders that we thought
they were. They've been running us ragged. We get up every day
with bleeding knees. and splinters in our eyes because
we've been reading all night and the papyrus gets in our eyes
because we're trying to please God. These people have given
us a line and run us in a rat race of unproductive works and
unrighteous efforts thinking that we were pleasing God. That's
what they were scared of. And we know that because we've
got John 12. Many people love the glory that come from man
rather than the glory that comes from God. And so when these Jews
began to meet, their motivation became more holy in His destruction. And if we know that when we get
to the crucifixion and the arrest and the trial of the crucifixion,
they followed the law as close as they could. The time frame
They wouldn't even crucify Jesus until the last hour after the
Passover was done. So they violated the law of God. They sinned against God in the
death and the trial of Jesus. But they did it in a way that
satisfied their own righteous standard and went to bed thinking,
look what we've done for God. And the same thing happens in
our house. Same thing happens in our work. Same thing happens
in our community. Same thing can happen in our
church. We persecute Jesus when we hold our traditions greater
than the people around us and their needs. Even the convictions
of our traditions and our ideals can become more important than
each other. And friends, this must not be. We need to realize
that our ministry as saints is toward each other at the cost
of ourselves. Yes, there is a lot of growth that each of us need.
None of us are mature in every aspect of our lives spiritually.
None of us. No man or woman or child could raise their hand
in this room and say, I am mature in every level of my being and
I walk with God accurately and holistically. That's just arrogant. None of us. We know that we're
in need of grace every single day. And more importantly, not
more importantly, but just as importantly, that grace that
God has given us, we must also give to each other. We need to
be careful as we look at our lives. We easily I thought about
this this morning. We can easily go play in the
snow and we're outside in this weather like, man, it's not even
cold. We don't even notice the cold. But we get up to go to
work tomorrow morning, we're like, man, it's freezing, I need
to stay home. Same temperature. Because the joy of what we're
doing and engaging, we don't notice the pressure of the uncomfortable
circumstances. The same thing is true sometimes
in our ministry, in our church family, in our homes. That's
why Paul says to always keep our eyes on what is eternal,
not on what is temporal. And if Christ is truly our joy,
we need to strive to keep poking our eyes and peering our eyes
and pushing our lives to look to Him by faith. How? Through
the Word of God. If I say it now, I've said it
a thousand times, get in the Word of God. You cannot exist
without true food. And don't do so out of fear.
Do so out of pleasure. out of joy, out of love and affection,
for the sake of God growing you that we, each other, might be
a benefit and a ministry to one another. The Jews thought that
they dressed well during their services, and spoke well, and
sacrificed well, and prayed well, but ultimately it was nothing.
It did not honor God in any way. We must put the commands of God
in their correct place, their meaning in place among us. What
are they supposed to teach us? Giving the day to the Lord in
worship is good and necessary and beneficial, but we are not
to fear and ask the question over and over and over, am I
sinning by putting my feet up? Am I sinning by taking the trash
out? Am I sinning because I don't have the right attire? I had a man ask me the other day
when he walked into the building, does it offend you that I have a hat
on in the house of the Lord? Not if it doesn't offend you
that I'm wearing jeans and tennis shoes. But see, we're so conditioned,
just like the Jews. It's not as extreme, but we're still so
conditioned to think of these things. If you really think about
working on the Sabbath, it is about giving up that ability
to strive for income and to labor for profit. Sometimes we have
to do that. Those who serve us in law enforcement
and medical and things of that nature, they have to do it. But
there are many of us who know that from time to time we have
to work. It's not wicked. when we have
to go and do things sometimes. What would be wicked is if our
heart is, you know, instead of going to church, I'd rather make
a dollar. That's where we have to be careful. For 21 years,
I have worked every Sabbath for 21 years. And I've even had a
gentleman back six years ago, we were meeting in my living
room, say to me, Pastor, aren't you supposed to observe a Sabbath?
Do you observe a Sabbath on Saturday or Monday? I said, no. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.
Jesus worked to heal people. Jesus worked to feed people. Jesus worked to teach people.
So Jesus worked on the Sabbath, for that's what the Lord of the
Sabbath does. So for me, as an under-shepherd,
my role is to work for you. And in doing so, honor the Lord,
because my labor is for your joy. My labor is for your growth. And it's my joy, because it's
what I'm called to do. Each of us then in like manner
are also ministers one to another. As Paul would teach the church
of Ephesus in chapter 4 to equip the church pastors to do the
work of the ministry amongst each other. Are we not to work for each other's
joy today? Are we not to labor in prayer?
You think there's a harder job than praying? No, I'd rather
dig a thousand holes. and go home at night and put
Mercurol or whatever it is that's on my hands for their bleeding
and pain and my knees hurting and lay down and go, wow, I accomplished
much today. But sometimes when you pray,
not only is it difficult, it is almost impossible to see the
immediate fruit and you wonder, what am I doing wrong? And then
God reminds you through his word, you're not doing anything to
begin with. You're trusting in me to do everything.
So be quiet, be still, and know that I am God. There's a great
disturbance in the culture right now of Christendom. And as we
see this unfold in the next few months, most of you will see
it, some of you will not see it. Realize that we are free
by the grace of God through Jesus Christ. We are not bound to the
traditions of men. You're not bound even to my nuances
in my ecclesiology. We are bound to the grace of
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And in that the Son has
set us free, so we are free indeed. I pray that you would rejoice
with every fiber of your soul in that this morning. Let's pray.
We thank You, our Father, Lord, as You sit in the throne of the
cosmos, Father, and You look at us, You see us, and You are
pleased with us, and You love us with an everlasting love and
a joy that is absolutely eternal. You are satisfied in us because
Jesus Christ, Your Son, has given Himself for us. So let us rejoice. Let us be kind. Let us be long-suffering. Let us work in such a way that
would reflect Your power in our lives. And when we fail, when
we sin, when we seem to have fallen away or have little faith,
Lord, we know that You will be glorified in our restoration
and in our lifting and in our building. And Father, that You
will use Your Word, that Your Holy Spirit will pray for us,
and that Your people will minister to us on Your behalf. I pray
that we would be a church that way. I pray that we would have
the mind of Christ who became a slave, who subjected himself
to wicked men by the decree from all of eternity that you would
save a people and purchase them for yourself. Lord, I praise
you for that. Let our worlds and our lives
and our hearts not be troubled as we trust my faith in you and
your sovereign hand. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.