Well, good evening. It's good to see all of you tonight. Good to be in the Lord's house this evening, join our voices in song. Such a blessing after a long day on the road. And so good to get to be back at Grace Chapel again, such a good season of the year. And so grateful for so many, many things. John chapter 5 is where I'd like to turn. John chapter 5, so there's a story here that claims our attention this evening, and it's a well-known story. I suspect that you've heard the story read many times before and perhaps preached before. We'll try to look at it from several angles this evening before we wrap up. So John chapter 5 begins this way. After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. And whosoever, this is modern medicine, and whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of whatever disease he had. And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool. For while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, took up his bed, and walked. And on the same day was the Sabbath. The Jews, therefore, said unto him that was cured, it is the Sabbath day, it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. He answered them, he that made me whole, the same said unto me, take up thy bed and walk. Then asked they him, what man is that which said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk? And he that was healed, wist or knew not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself away a multitude being in that place." Afterward, Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a worst thing come unto thee. The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him. because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. I pray one more time. Father, thank you for the rich privilege it is now to read these words from your word in the hearing of these, your people. And we pray tonight, Lord, that many good things will happen in these few moments. You would be glorified in great ways. We would get a glimpses of Jesus that are fresh, encouraging, hopeful to us. So I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts would be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord Jesus Christ, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen. I was once listening to a man preach, and he said that he told an experience of standing in front of a display case in a museum or some such place in which, of all things, the crown jewels of the British Empire were on display. England's crown jewels inside that case. And the way it was arranged, of course, there was light positioned just so as to accent the most beautiful features of the crown jewels. And so the audience would move and rank, of course, across the lines, and move through, and the next group coming through, and so forth. And he said, I found myself standing there, and I would stare at those jewels. And then I would move my head just the least little bit to the right. Totally different view. And just the least little bit to the left. Totally different view. Now, I've never seen England's crown jewels, and perhaps some of you have, but I could see that picture in my mind of his lovely experience of the same thing before his eyes, giving him many, many different views, many, many different perspectives, different angles of glory, so to speak, just because when you look at something like jewels, light is reflected and refracted in different ways depending on your position. And so it occurred to me that a text like this one deserves more than just a straight-on look. It deserves a little tilt to the left and a little tilt to the right. And let's see if we get a little bit of a difference in refracted light that might add to the beauty, or not add to the beauty, but bring out the true beauty that is actually here. And so when you look at a text like this, of course, you're struck immediately by just the power of the story. What a grand thing that Jesus Christ would walk into a place where all these sick people were, know the one that he was going for, speak to him, and make him well on the spot. What a life-changing moment. This man had never experienced anything like it. 38 years paralyzed. 38 years beside of the pool of Bethesda. waiting for, at least a legend, we don't know for sure just what this means, perhaps it was just a local legend, waiting for an angel to come and trouble the water. And when the water would ripple in a certain way, whoever was able to fall into that pool first was made well. At least that was the understanding this man had. And there he waits, and every time the troubling of the water happens, year after year after painful and disappointing year, he's not able to make it. Somebody else gets there first. So year after year, he has to slink back into the discouragement and long wait for the next time the angel might come. 38 years he waits, no telling how many of those 38 he's been by the pool, but this is his experience. When Jesus comes on the scene, he walks straight to the man, it appears. He doesn't look around and ask generally, is there anybody here would like to be made well? He goes straight to a particular man, to the certain man, to this man. And he looks at him and he asks the question, will thou be made whole? And that's my topic this evening. Will thou be made whole? Will thou be made whole? So let's remember that the Bible is not for people long ago and far away, exclusively. It was for them. but it is also for us. And so the Bible, the word of God, is living and active. It is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It reaches even into our tired hearts tonight to bring to us the precious words of life all over again. Will thou be made whole? Jesus walks in and he looks at this man and he says, will you be made whole? The man offers his complaint, which is precisely what I would have done. He offers his complaint. Sir, I have no man. I have no man to take me into the water. I'm a paralytic. I have to have help. I have no one to lift me over into the water." Of course, his complaint was, I have no man. He had the man, as it turned out, so his complaint was unfounded, just like yours probably is unfounded as well, and mine certainly. Jesus Christ will come then as the man and do exceeding abundantly above all the man could ask or think. And so as Jesus looks at him and says, take up your bed and walk, The man receives immediate strength, and he gets up and he walks. He carries the mat away, and as he's going away, of course, these hypocritical, religious leaders of the time, legalism-bound Pharisees are bothered, as they always were. It's no shock, right? They always were. They dogged the path of Jesus throughout his ministry. They're attempting to trap him every time he turns around. And they see this event and they're troubled immediately. So what's happened is, rather than an angel coming to trouble the water, Jesus has come to trouble them. He stirred up the water. He really has stirred the water in a pretty significant way. In fact, so significant that his very life now is threatened. So for healing a man, these Jewish leaders sought to kill Jesus. for healing a man. They sought to kill Jesus. Now, you know, there is one other detail, and that is that it was on the Sabbath day. And of course, we all know that the Bible had pretty strict prohibitions about what could be done on the Sabbath day, but the Bible wasn't nearly as strict as the Pharisees were. And so they had added to what God's word said over and again, these accretions, we call them. They're like layers that come up on top of the law, one after the other, after the other, added on in such a way that one was really kind of hamstrung when it came to the Sabbath day. However, Jesus will let us know that the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a gift. It's not intended to be this legalistic thing. Well, Jesus will step right into the mix. He'll stir the pot and he will then have to die. in order that this man will live. I think that's the basic story. Did you get that? That's the basic story before us tonight. It is the story of the gospel. For this man to live, for this man to live, Jesus will have to die. Well, this is not unlike the way the whole Bible goes. For us to be made alive, someone has to die. So when we think about this, we turn our head just the tiniest bit, we'll tilt off to one side, and we'll see there's actually a lot going on in this story. It's a wonderful story. Of course, it's history. It really happened. We don't come to the Bible and look at it as if it were mythological. We don't look at the Bible as if this is a sweet little story that's intended to give us a lesson, and it may or may not have happened. It doesn't matter. No, the Bible's record is a true account of what really happened. That's our belief. But notice what happens. In the middle of this, you get this amazing, I'll start with this one. You get this amazing moral lesson. Moral lesson. That is, there's a certain level of morality that is being exhibited in this story. It's on display in this story that I love. It's a good place to kind of dive in, and then we'll move some other places. So with your head tilted just a little bit, we'll look at the jewels this way. Morally speaking, what does the lesson teach us? Well, I love the fact that in Jerusalem, there is this place. This is a pretty amazing thing. In Jerusalem, there is this place where sick people resort. It's a place where sick people can go and be made well. The pool is called Bethesda. Now Bethesda simply means house of mercy. And they've erected these porches, these awnings exist around the pool so that the sick people are sheltered from the rain. They have a place there where they can be somewhat protected, somewhat cared for, in order that they might wait for the healing that would ultimately, hopefully come. Well, I think this is pretty cool that Jerusalem was a type of city that had a place where sick people could go. We have our own places, of course, in our day and time. You might visit the hospital one day and say, I don't like the company around here because everybody in here is sick, but that's what it's for. The hospital is a place where sick people gather. I remember my grandmother years and years ago, she used to get an allergy shot every Like once a week, just literally had to go to the doctor's office every week. And we always went and it was our day to go to the store and all of this since we live so far out in the country. And my mom would take her and I was a little boy in the back seat. Doctor's office was beside of the hospital. Tiny little hospital, but it looked big to me. My grandmother would look over there at that hospital, and those cars in the lot, and she'd say, God bless all the sick people. That's all she could see. That stands for sick people. That's what that stands for. Well, Bethesda was the same. It stood for sick people. Everybody in there was ill. That's why they were there. But isn't it a cool thing, isn't it a wonderful thing, that a town would actually set aside a place where sick people could be ministered to? And yet, isn't it a little strange that the sick people are being ministered to in some measure, at least in name? But here's a man who desperately needs an assistant and has none. There are moral implications here. And without belaboring the point, we're all weary of this, we think about it this way. Every society can be measured or evaluated, its quality can be evaluated by what they do with their weakest and most vulnerable people. Every society can be measured this way. What do you do with the weakest and most vulnerable people in your town, or in your church, or in your household? What do you do with them? Now, the score is not very high in the United States these days. Here in the West, our score is not very high. We kill our babies, okay, so through abortion, which certainly has not ended. We kill our babies and we warehouse our old people. It's a shocking thing. When you look at this and think, what is the moral lesson Jesus might be helping us see here? It is that those who are the weakest and the most vulnerable also need our care, also need our attention. And so we dare not, we dare not miss that point. That's the moral lesson. But let's move on. Because this story, and by the way, you know the proverb that says, It says, withhold not thy hand from doing good when it is in thy power to do so. When it is in your power, when it is in your ability to do good, to be helpful, Brother Isaac has mentioned that this evening already, an instance or two, maybe through a four or five, and others could be brought to the floor if we took the time. Ways in which you are ministering to people who are in need when the door of opportunity is there. The moral lesson. But here's where it starts getting really sweet to me. Because whenever you look at that story, you can't help but ask yourself the question or ask someone else the question, will thou be made whole? Let's personalize it. Let's turn our head a little bit to the right now, and let's take another look at the jewels. Look right in there at that crown. Look right in there at all those diamonds. Look at all the glinting light in all the different directions. And let's think for a minute, because in reality, brothers and sisters, you and I, You and I are that paralyzed man. You and I are that paralyzed man. Maybe I should say we were that paralyzed man. It might be better because some here have passed from death into life. Some have passed from paralysis to mobility. Some of us have had that experience because of the wonderful grace of God called the new birth. But let's start right here because here's the situation. Every human being in our nature, In our fallen nature, that is, every human being is in this condition of being paralyzed, unable to get into the pool, unable to get up and walk about, unable to care for ourselves. That's where we find ourselves by our fallen nature, paralyzed. So would the request come that we stand up, be counted? Sorry, I can't do that, I'm paralyzed. Would the command come, get in the water? Sorry, I can't do that, I'm paralyzed. The command come to get up and do some good works? Sorry, I can't do that, I'm paralyzed. You see, every one of us in our fallen nature is in a similar condition to that man by the pool of Bethesda. So let's track with this for a minute. Romans 5.12 actually takes it a little bit higher than this. It bumps it on up a few notches because it says, Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Here we learn from Romans 5.12 that man isn't only paralyzed beside of the pool, he's dead beside of the pool. That's a pretty sad state, isn't it? Here we are dead beside of the pool. So this is a rough place to be in. Now, in case you're worried about this, you may know that the Bible uses a lot of different language. a lot of different language to describe the condition, the depraved condition is the word we use, the depraved condition of man in nature. The Bible will talk about us being dead, as Romans 5.12 says, Ephesians 2.1. The Bible will also talk about us being in this immobile state, or lame state, or paralyzed state, or in a state of blindness, or in a state of deafness. Okay, all of these, I used to, when I was young and trying to figure all this out, I remember thinking, well, wait, is man lame or is he dead? Is he blind or is he dead? Is he deaf or is he dead? And I would always come down on the dead side every time because that's what I'd been taught. Man isn't sick, man isn't crippled, man is dead. Well, yes, however, please know the Bible does use these different ways to help us get into an understanding of how bad off we are. So, if your frame of reference is vision, man by nature is blind. If your frame of reference is hearing, man by nature is deaf. If your frame of reference is mobility, man by nature is lame or maybe paralyzed. If your frame of reference is life, man by nature is dead. Your spirit before regeneration is so dead that if God were to come and God himself were to come and walk by, your spirit wouldn't even shudder because it's so dead to God. That's how bad we are off in nature. The spirit that is dead, it's like going into a cemetery or maybe a funeral home and at the point where, you know, maybe just before the funeral, provide a gourmet meal, and even though it may be the favorite food of the one who has passed away, there's not going to be the least shudder, not even the least interest, not a single finger lifted to try to partake of the food. So it is with our spirits before God gets hold of us. Our spirits are dead in trespasses and sins. God himself can walk by and our spirit won't even shudder. Here's a man who's paralyzed. And if we could use that frame of reference for a minute. Man, prior to regeneration, in his unregenerate state, so much paralysis of soul. So much death. And then some of us who, and probably I could say all of us, who feel that God has regenerated us. We feel like so much of this paralysis still clings to us. So much of this death still dogs us. You ever sung that song meaningfully? I am a stranger here below, and what I am tis hard to know. I am so vile, so full of sin, I fear that I'm not born again. You ever sing that like you really meant it? Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean. Seems like so much paralysis still clings to us, doesn't it? So much death still haunts us. So many lies of Satan. So much folklore about all of this stuff keeps bugging our minds, pulling us away. So picture yourself by that pool. Not to be melodramatic or anything, but there you are 38 years. 38 years. Put yourself there by that pool for 38 years. Let it be your sin that has brought you down to this state of paralysis. And there you are waiting for some mythological thing to happen. Somebody told me one time that the water would be troubled and I'd just get in and I would be made well. Listen, there are plenty of mythologizers today out there with all kinds of solutions to everything. All kinds of messages about how your life can be made whole, how you can be your best self, how you can finally recover who you are. All these messages that are out there. Just step in the water, they say. Just get there at the right time. Just beat out everybody else. Get into the water. When the angel troubles it, or whatever else the solution is, you can probably connect the dots. Picture yourself there, disappointed again and again and again. crushed by disappointment, paralyzed, muscles atrophied, pleasures completely forgotten. What a miserable existence. It's a sad picture, believing all the myths of the day, isn't it? I think almost every human being recognizes that something isn't quite right, and yet they believe the strangest things to try to make it right. Isn't that odd? The strangest things. You could probably make your own list. There are lots of them out there. Be true to yourself. That's the strangest thing I've ever heard in my life. Be true to who? Yourself. What in the world does that mean? Do you mean myself yesterday or myself tomorrow? Do you mean myself right now or 10 minutes ago? Who am I to be true to? Be true to yourself. Find your truth. Find your truth. And then cling to it with all your, believe in your beliefs. Or like the big poster and there's a big billboard in Roanoke for a while there that just said believe, period. That's all it said. Don't you know what a transitive verb is? Please, this is a verb that requires an object. Come on, where were your grammar teachers? It requires an object. You can't just say believe. So the strangest myths, people believe the strangest things for healing. It's not just about beliefs, it's about I've got to be made whole. People recognize the need. And yet there's so little that's given us out here in the world to actually take us there. And they tell us to avoid the things, to avoid especially these ancient wisdom traditions and especially ancient wisdom traditions if they have Christ in them. Oh, we don't want anything to do with that. We've seen where Christianity takes us and we want no more of it. This is the paralyzed man by the pool, but God who is rich in mercy. But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, hath quickened us, even when we were dead in sins, you see. But God, we were helpless to change our state. Couldn't get into the pool. Nobody to help us. No man there. Nobody cares. Really. We could be the Nicodemus of John chapter 3, the religious man. Very religious. Nicodemus, just as lost as he could be. Confused as could be. In the dark. And yet he walked away with a pebble in his shoe, didn't he, after that interview with Jesus Christ late at night that one time? You could be the religious man, Nicodemus, or you could be the irreligious woman, the Samaritan woman at the well, John 4. John 3 gives us the religious man, John 4 gives us the irreligious woman. You could be either one of those in either camp, totally following religion, dead as a doornail. Irreligious, a life totally falling apart, sin upon sin, shame upon shame, disappointment upon disappointment. In either case, Jesus picks out the one and goes to the one and gives them the words of life. But God who is rich in mercy, God shows himself and he comes and says, will thou be made whole? Would you have this? And Charles Wesley said, my chains fell off. Some of us know what that felt like. Some of us, it was more subtle. Some of us, it was a very dramatic thing. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee, he said. How glad we are when our chains begin to fall. Well, God gives life. God gives life that we may freely walk about Zion. We may tell the towers thereof. We may mark well her bulwarks. and rejoice in her palaces. God gives us life that we may walk. And so Jesus came and he said, take up thy bed and walk. Can you imagine the folly of the fellow if Jesus had said, get up and take your bed and walk away? The fellow would have said, actually, I kind of like it here. It's good company, you know, nice fellowship. Everybody's got a good thing going on. I think I'll just lie here for a while. Nobody can even imagine that, right? Some people have a theology built around that idea, that Jesus comes and gives life and then they just lie there just like they always have in the cesspool of their own sorrow and pain and wickedness and sin. That's not the Jesus of the Bible. What does Jesus do? He says, take up your bed and walk away. And the man does so. Take up your bed and walk. He did this for that man. He did for him what he could not do for himself. And then he told him to get his mat and go and sin no more. He gave mercy and he gave a command. This is precisely his word to us as well. God's mercy to you is from everlasting to everlasting. There is not a sin you've ever committed that's too big for God to forgive in Christ. Not a sin too small that he would overlook it and think, well, you need to kind of work on that one yourself. His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting. It covers everything in the life of the child of God. But the command follows, go and sin no more. He loves us, I think, too much, you see, to leave us in our condition. A few years ago, it got really popular, I guess it still is, to talk about God's unconditional love. God's love is unconditional. It's a pretty good way to talk about it. God doesn't have strings attached and all that jazz to his love. I get that. However, I read a great article one time a few years ago that said God's love is better than unconditional. God's love is better than unconditional. You see, we think about unconditional love. We say, well, you're in your situation and you're in a mess, but I love you anyway. That's unconditional love. God's love is unconditional. Yes, I love you anyway, but I love you too much to leave you there. I'm going to take you out of that mess. I'm going to lead you in the way of sanctification. God's love is better than unconditional. Well, because of this healing, verse 16 tells us, because of the healing of the man, Jesus Christ was now sought after to be put to death. So that even with the mercy of raising a man from this awful condition, Jesus must die. And friends, please understand, this is true for us. Jesus' healing of us by the pool of our own Bethesda is the result of his death. He had to die for that to happen. So this is very central to the gospel. Well, here it is. Jesus Christ sought to be, he's persecuted. They begin to shame Jesus. His name is disparaged among the people. They seek him that they might put him to death and all of this. So persecution begins here at this point. Man is made whole. Jesus now is a sought after man for his death. Well, thus it is with the Lord's Church. Folks, we sometimes wonder why it is that things get kind of rough in church. Why is it sometimes that the church has taken up so many beatings these days? Why is it that things are like this? Why is it that the world is so opposed to what we're trying to do? Well, it is nothing short of the fact that we are in the train of our great Redeemer, the captain of our salvation, the one who himself endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. Here we are, a sort of pool of Bethesda also. The church is that. Did you know that? We're kind of that. We're kind of a pool of Bethesda. You go to church and find out that the people there aren't perfect. Well, what about that? Isn't that amazing? You find out the people at church aren't perfect after all. The day I was baptized, I remember thinking, I knew all those people really well, but they just suddenly looked different. I came up out of the water and thought, man, they look like the prettiest, that's the prettiest thing I've ever seen in my life. These people must be saints. Well, they were. They are. But not perfected yet. Not perfected yet. Here we are a hospital for sinners. Here we are a pool of Bethesda, so to speak, all of our own. And so we, too, pray for the troubling of the water, so to speak. We pray for God to come down and trouble the waters, not in the way of causing us discontent, not in the way of causing us to be out of fellowship one with another, but in a way that causes us to recognize the mystery, the majesty, the one who comes and does wondrous things in our midst, things beyond ourselves. Well, don't look down your nose like a Pharisee. when somebody else around you is sick, because Bethesda was where sick people went. And churches are where sick sinners go. That's what happens. Lord, help us, right? Lord, help us that we might be the right kind of Bethesda where Jesus would come in and heal soul after soul after soul. But finally, we'll tilt our head one more time and be done. Finally, I think about this too. You know, not only are these wonderful analogies there, you can take the story and just go in so many ways. So many of our old preachers used to do this. We used to call it type and shadow preaching. Just take a story and just go and it would glint in every direction possible. Just all kinds of beautiful poetic pictures here and there and everywhere. But I also like to think about that one of these days, this whole story is going to come so true for all of us in a way like we have never, never seen. The suffering church of Jesus. chosen and redeemed, plotting her way through this world, knowing that the gates of hell will not prevail against her. But the suffering church of Jesus bears the fiery darts of the wicked one and all the opposition of the world outside, marshaled and energized by the very pits of hell. The church of God marches on through this world. And here for 2,000 years, it hasn't failed. It hasn't ceased. It keeps going and going and going, despite all the ways in which she's being beaten up. And yet one of these days, here we are as a church, here we are as a church like a sick man by the pool. And I know a lot of churches that are in terrible sickness right now, terrible sickness. It's like paralyzed beside of the pool. I used to be a vibrant man and now I hear I can do nothing but just lie here and wait for help. And I know of a number of churches that could be described just that way right now, as if paralyzed, stuck, right there by the pool, waiting for the miraculous moving of the water, and it seems nothing happens. But one of these days, Jesus Christ is going to dismount that mercy seat in heaven, and He's going to come back to His suffering but beloved and blood-bought church. And He's going to see those little people, He's going to see those little churches, like paralyzed people inside of the pool of Bethesda, and he's going to say, well, thou be made whole. Would you be made whole? Rise, take up your bed, and walk. Can you imagine what that's going to be like? Here we are. Imagine being at church when it happens. The Lord comes back. Here we are. The sky is split. Great big sounds going on all over the place out there. It's not gunshots. Yeah, that'll be really nice, won't it? Something else, what is this miraculous thing? And it's the Lord Jesus saying, take up your bed and walk. Oh bride of Christ, beautiful, beloved, adorned, terrible as an army with banners, beloved, brought to the banqueting house, banner over me as love. Oh my goodness, come skip with me across the mountains of glory. Come enter in to the joy of thy Lord. come take up your bed and walk. You see, whenever you tilt your head off to the other side just a little bit, you get another glint. Like, what if we could see that story as the suffering church of Jesus? Touched by His special grace at the final day, come you blessed of my Father, enter into the joy of your Lord. An amazing day that will be. Well, I want to just say at the end, I want to encourage you to think about reading the Bible this way. I'd like to encourage you to think about reading the Bible this way. Look for the literal sense. Look for what the story's really saying. Look for the moral sense. Look to see what the Bible says in terms of your moral choices and decisions. Look for what the Bible says in analogy. Like, how does it compare to other things? What does it remind us of in our Christian experience? And then look for the future. What does the story tell me? What does the Bible tell me about what's yet to come? Oh, we need to set our sights there, right? One of our dear brothers there, White Oak Grove, loves to say, he says it all the time, he says, Lord, just please stamp eternity on my eyelids. Please stamp eternity on my eyelids. That's what I want. I want to see beyond this mess. I want to see beyond the setup that's come to be so familiar to us here. I want to see beyond that. Well, the church is our way of doing that, because in the Lord's church and in His Word, we see beyond all the way into that which awaits us. May the Lord bless you. May the Lord bless these thoughts. Thomas, since you drove all the way here to preach, I'm going to give you the selection of the last sermon you did. Can we sing one again? that we've already sung. So last summer, we had a couple of families from home here. And when we sang a couple of times, Behold the Savior of Mankind, we all fell in love with it. And we have not been to church unless we have sung that song now. It has become an absolute favorite and a staple. And man, I would love to sing that again, if you don't mind. Great. All right? Thank you. of mankind, hail to the shameful tree.