Folks, as we've been working our way through our Life of Christ series, it's clear that the earthly ministry of our Lord and Savior created quite a stir. For three and a half years, he performed, think about this, he performed countless miracles, the likes of which no one had ever seen before. And those signs authenticated him as the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. And Jesus also taught the people during those three years years of public ministry in a manner unlike any teacher had done before, unlike the scribes and the Pharisees. And Matthew tells us that the crowds were amazed at his teaching. I love that at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, that's what it's in Matthew 7, 28 and 29. And then Luke tells us that they were hanging on every word that he said in Luke 19, 48. And even his enemies had to acknowledge that no one had ever spoken the way that this man had spoken before. John 7, 46. So huge throngs of people were following him or gathered around him wherever he went, but those who flocked to him came largely out of curiosity. They wanted to see a miracle. They wanted to personally get in on the healing and perhaps even get some, what our generation loves, free stuff. Like food. At one point, the crowds were so enthusiastic about what they perceived as Jesus's social welfare program that they tried to make him king. Do you remember that in John 6, 15? But that's not why Jesus came, at least not during his first advent. And ultimately, the fickle crowds, caving to the pressure of their ungodly leaders, rejected him. And what a great reference is John 6, 6, 6 for that one, right? Easy to remember. I don't think there's any significance. I'm just, John 6, chapter six, verse 66. And those religious leaders, especially the Pharisees, mounted a smear campaign of lies against our Lord. Kind of sounds familiar. You're probably gonna hear all these references. But what'd they do? They accused him of being illegitimately born, right? Born of a virgin, but hey, he was illegitimately born, John 8, 41. They accused him of being a demon-possessed Samaritan. John 8, 48. And they even accused him of using the power of Satan himself to cast out the demons, Matthew 9, 34. But the nation's ultimate rejection, their ultimate rejection came at Jesus' trial before Pilate, as the religious leaders urged the crowd to call out for his crucifixion. And at His death, Jesus only had a handful of true disciples left who believed and continued to believe in Him and follow after Him. 120 in Jerusalem, we read about in Acts 115. Probably another 500 in Galilee, where most of his ministry centered up in the north of the country, according to 1 Corinthians 15, verse six. And it's chronicled throughout all four gospel accounts, we see a continual rising tide of opposition against Jesus. All throughout the three years of ministry. And think of how quickly the last four years have gone. politically speaking, and Jesus' ministry was only three years. And Jesus said it very simply in the opening paragraph of his gospel in John chapter one, verse 11. It says this, he came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. John writes that, I should say. The Jewish people were hostile to Jesus largely for two reasons. One, because of their own legalism. Think about this. And number two, because of their own misconception of who they thought the Messiah should be and should do. And they had been longing They had been looking for and longing for a political military leader who would free them from the bondage of Rome, but when it became apparent that that was not Jesus's ministry, they turned away from him. So as we come to John chapter five, in our Life of Christ series, we find Jesus going back up to Jerusalem in order to celebrate an unnamed feast. In chapter five, Mark's a turning point in John's gospel as we see a shift away from curiosity, and now we're gonna see this from here on out. It goes from curiosity to opposition. And again, this change in attitude toward Jesus also corresponds with Jesus's further establishing of his authority as he unveils himself to be both Lord over sickness and the Sabbath. So let's stand with me, or stand with me please for the reading of God's word. It's found in John chapter five, verses one through 18. John five, one through 18. After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. And these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters. Verse five, a man was there who had been ill for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, he said to him, do you wish to get well? The sick man answered him, sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me. Verse eight, Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your pallet and walk. Immediately the man became well and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day, so the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, it is the Sabbath and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallets. But he answered them, he who made me well was the one who said to me, pick up your pallet and walk. Verse 12, they asked him, who is the man who said to you, pick up your pallet and walk? But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, behold, you have become well. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you. Verse 15, the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. "'For this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus "'because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. "'But he answered them, my father's working until now, "'and I myself am working.'" Verse 18, "'For this reason, therefore, "'the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him "'because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, "'but also was calling God his own father, "'making himself equal with God.'" You may take your seats. Now go back up to verse one. Let's go through this somewhat strange account here in John's gospel. Look at the very first phrase here. John says, after these things. And that indicates that this incident took place after Christ's ministry up in Galilee had come to, at least for a short time, a close. And that's where we've been in our Life of Christ Servant series. Jesus has been focusing on his ministry up in Galilee. So chapter five begins with this introductory statement. Look at verse one again. After these things, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. John often portrays Jesus as attending one of the various Jewish feasts. And it was likely one of the three major feasts held in Jerusalem. We had Passover. Then there were tabernacles, the Feast of Tabernacles, and finally Pentecost. And John almost always tells us what feast Jesus was celebrating and the disciples usually, but for whatever reason, here in chapter five, he simply doesn't say which feast it was. Now go to verse two. John writes this, now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool. which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. Liberal scholars have long used this verse to argue that the author of John's gospel must have been someone who lived long after Jesus did, since no pool of Bethesda was known or had been found. And certainly, certainly no pool with five porticoes. Once again, archaeology has proven the skeptics wrong and the Bible right. Archaeologists have located this pool, which is now known as the Pool of St. Anne. As a matter of fact, Lord willing, when we go back to Israel next year, and I hope you all come with us, right? Start saving your shekels. The pool of Bethesda was a pair of twin pools surrounded on all four sides by covered porches with one in the middle, which accounts perfectly for the five porches or porticos. I'd also recommend a book. I just happened to, well, I read through this not too long ago, but it's called The Archaeological Evidence for the Bible. This is one of the best little books. If you just wanna dip your feet in on probably the top 50 archeological finds, it's by Charlie Campbell, and it is excellent. Very, very good, and I cannot recommend it enough. His ministry's called alwaysbeready.com, and we actually have this in our resource center, too. So just an excellent, and it highlights the Pool of Bethesda in there as being one of these neat archeological finds. But we'll go see that, Lord willing, next year when we go back to Israel. Now what was important, however, was not the architecture, but the human suffering, the untold human suffering that unfolded before our Lord's eyes. Look at verses three and four. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters. Verse four, for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. Now this is the only place in God's Word where we find any mention of an angel who would periodically give healing properties to a pool in Jerusalem, nor is there any kind of precedent for such proceedings anywhere else in Scripture. So how should we, as good Bereans, understand such a strange account? And that's a good question, thanks for asking. Well, it's very possible that this statement about an angel stirring up the water here and the first person to actually get in would be healed was most likely not, was most likely not a part of the original text of John, but was added later in the margin of a later manuscript by one of the scribes who copied that text. Now before you try to look for stones underneath your seats to stone me as a heretic, listen up. You need to understand that we don't possess any of the original manuscripts of God's word. However, having said that, we do have hundreds and even thousands of copies of all or parts of the New Testament manuscripts, not just the New Testament, copies that were carefully made in the earliest days of the church. And occasionally, very occasionally, we find manuscripts that have only slight variances in the text, variances which, by the way, never alter any major doctrine. And this is one of those instances. And the reason why I would question whether these two verses about the angel truly belong in in God's word or not is because some of the oldest and best manuscripts do not include the last part of verse three and all of part four. Therefore, if you're using the ESV or the NIV, those verses will be skipped or placed in the footnotes. My NASB, my New American Standard, puts it in brackets. In other words, the explanation in verses three and four likely reflected the belief of the people at that time, reflected in the words of the man himself in verse seven, but not necessarily a part of the text as John originally penned it. Again, I took a whole class called New Testament Introduction, all right, and probably one of the most conservative theological seminars anywhere. And it was taught by a guy named Dr. Robert Thomas, who worked on the New American Standard Bible. And we would go through basically all of different manuscripts that were found, and P52, all these different names of these different papyri, papyrus scrolls. And then we also looked at some of the questionable ones. And he said if you took the entire Bible and pulled out those questionable verses that weren't in all the manuscripts that have been found, then you'd have no more than a page and a half of usually thes and buts and things like that, but there's a few words, a few little explanations, like right here in John chapter five, that would also be questionable, all right? So hopefully we're all good there. Now, having said all of that, let me ask you this. Could God have sent an angel to stir up the waters and that the first person to step in would be healed? Absolutely, of course he could. He can do anything he wants. I'm not limiting God one iota. But if the stirring of the water and the subsequent healings were not caused by an angel, possibly, then what was happening? And that's a good question. We do know that pools in and around Jerusalem were occasionally fed by artesian wells. That means water that would come up by itself. So it's quite possible then when those wells started to flow, the pools would bubble up with an influx of water, and they would actually be able to see that, much like a hot tub when you turn on the bubbles would, right? And perhaps there were healing properties in this particular pool, maybe a rich mineral content like the hot springs in Yellowstone, or even like the Dead Sea, which is in Israel, where people flock to by the millions every single year, and supposedly are cured from this thing or that thing. But whatever the explanation, the focus of the passage, once again, is not on the pool. All right, it's not on the architecture, it's not on the healing properties, but it's on Jesus, who stopped to interact with one very miserable human being. Look at verses five, six, and seven. A man was there who had been ill for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, he said to him, do you wish to get well? And the sick man answered him, sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me. We'll stop right there. This man was in a terribly needy and desperate situation for healing. He certainly believed in the powers of the pool, for he appears convinced that if only he could be the first one to get into the pool, that he would be cured. And so for almost, I want you to think about this, for almost four decades, four decades from what seems to have been some kind of paralysis, maybe a stroke victim, for instance, whatever his specific illness was, he simply could not move quick enough after the stirring up of the waters to get in before all the other desperately sick people. And what a sad picture of so many people, even today, who are searching for all kinds of miracle cures to heal their bodies, to heal their souls of the maladies, both physical and spiritual, which ail them. The older I get, the more ailments I add up. You guys know what I'm talking about? The religion of the Bible, though, is not some kind of superstitious mysticism. Rather, it's a religion of faith and obedience to a God of unlimited grace, mercy, and power, and that's a great God that we serve. And Christians, so Christians don't need to look to pools or artifacts or images or anything else like that. We don't need religious techniques or special formulas that are prayed over you from somebody who has a certain, supposed certain gift that they can heal you with their prayers, prayer cloths, you just have to send in the right amount of money, right? Or anything else like that. Those are nothing more than lies propagated by crooks, charlatans, and conmen. Biblical Christianity has never been a religion of mystical power, but one of divine grace received through simple faith, amen? My dear brothers and sisters, the only thing that you need in order to have your prayers answered, listen carefully, the only thing you need to have your prayers answered is to be His child, to walk in obedience, and to speak to him in humble sincerity. That's all you need. No doubt this poor man's time would have been much better spent in the temple beseeching God for his grace, mercy, and forgiveness, and learning to live in contentment and glorify God in his trial instead of waiting for a pool by some supposed angelic fix. But again, unless Jesus enters our lives, no saving power from God can ever be present. And the good news for this man by the pool was that Jesus did enter into his life. Jesus could very well have rebuked him for his practice of idolatry, that is seeking aid from a pool of water instead of beseeching the Lord in prayer. But Jesus also understood the plight of this man. He knew all about the four decades of suffering. He knew the type of hopeless and helpless desperation he was in. So out of sheer mercy, Jesus asked him this question. I would highly encourage you to circle this one, underline it. Look what he says here. He asks him one question. Do you wish to get well? My dear brothers and sisters, this is how the Lord dealt with the lost and the lame. And we need to follow in His footsteps as well. We too need to reach out to the hopeless and the helpless all around us with that same type of love and mercy and care, something that this broken world of ours desperately needs to see and hear, amen? They need to see that from us, because they're not getting that from each other. Jesus said two things here, and both are significant. First, he said, do you wish to get well? And beloved, this is not the same invitation that Jesus holds out, in other words, is this not the same invitation that Jesus holds out to us each and every day to a lost and dying world? It is. Think about John 3, 16. Folks, do you know Jesus Christ? Do you wish to get well? I'm not talking about a physical ailment right now. I'm talking about a sin-sick, stained soul. That God says even one sin, if you have even one sin, you have to leave his presence. Go check out the Genesis chapter three, right? Story of Adam and Eve. How many sins do we have? We have a lifetime of sins that separates us from an all-holy God. And yet God reaches out and offers mankind a free gift of salvation to anyone who's willing to humble themselves, repent of their sins, and believe on Jesus Christ, and come to Him. And I love that about our great God. My dear friends, it is Christ and Christ alone that we all so desperately need. We don't need some superstitious angle. We don't need a new method of prayer. We don't need improved government programs that are promised every four years. We don't need psychological therapy or psychoanalysis or help. What we need is Jesus. Only he has the power to heal us from our most pressing problem, and what is that? Four more years of, just kidding. Eight new years of, it's sin. That's our most pressing problem. Who cares? Who cares about politics when you have a sin problem between you and an all holy God, right? Now, don't hear me say I don't care about politics, because I care very much. But I'm saying there's something that matters far more than that. Do you want your tired, sin-sick souls to be healed? Then come to Christ and Christ alone, because only He has the power to heal you. He really does. Now the second thing that Jesus said proved his authority over sickness. Look at verses eight and nine. This is what proved his authority over it. He said, Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your pallet and walk. Now look at verse nine. Immediately the man became well and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Jesus used three imperatives which express the completeness of the healing. He said, get up, pick up your pallet, and walk. Those are the three imperatives. And the man did what? He did exactly that. Just as Jesus spoke the heavens and the earth into existence by his words, he also instantaneously healed this man of whatever malady it was. And if you notice, there are several key differences between Jesus' healing and those of supposed so-called faith healers today. And we can even see it right here in just this story. Jesus' healings were always Instantaneous. One example where it wasn't, but anyway, I don't have time to get into that. Come and talk to me later if you want to. Secondly, they were complete. And third, interestingly, they were either with faith or without faith on the part of the person who was healed. Now most modern faith healers promise people that if only they have enough faith that all their physical ailments will be healed. But this account right here in John chapter five in no way supports those types of claims. This man had no faith whatsoever. Not that we can see. His response to Jesus' question, if do you want to get healed, do you wish to get well, was to mourn hopelessly that he had no one to help him into the pool. Friend, one of the cruelest lies of modern day faith healers is that the people they fail to heal are guilty of having a lack of faith. What a cruel, Cruel lie. And many of the people whom Jesus chose to heal are not described as having manifested any faith whatsoever, including this guy. These are just some of the verses in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that show healings that had nothing to do with faith on the part of the person getting healed at all. And this man was a prime example. He doesn't even seem to have any idea of who Jesus was or what he could do. Another difference is that Jesus' healings were never done for money. This man didn't win the sweepstakes or find the golden lotto tickets, right? And we know from biblical theology that he certainly didn't deserve healing. He was healed because God in His sovereignty chose to have mercy on him. And lastly, notice that this man wasn't partially healed. He was fully healed, instantly healed, completely healed, and no one could deny it. The divine words of Jesus brought total and complete healing, and praise God for that. Friend, never forget that Jesus is Lord over sickness and health. If he commands our diseases to go, it has no choice but to do what? Obey him. And this is why Christians pray for physical healing all the time. If you have physical ailments and you would like us to pray as a church for you or for me as a pastor or the elders to pray for you, then come to us. We will pray for you. Sometimes he says what? Yes. Sometimes he says, no. And other times he says, wait, like this guy. How long did he have to wait? Almost four decades, 38 years. That's a long time. It isn't always Jesus' will to heal people. But if it is his will, then there's nothing that he cannot heal. Nothing can stand in his way. But often God is working, listen carefully, But oftentimes, God is working during our times of sickness, accomplishing a thousand other things in our lives and also in the lives of our families and friends and church family, things that we're often unaware of, but we pray, trusting fully that He has us sovereignly safe in His very capable hands to do, to accomplish exactly what He wants accomplished. And I could just say, thank you, Lord. Thank you. Now the story doesn't end here. Unfortunately, it isn't as simple as Jesus healing a man who then goes merrily along his way. Look at the last part of verses nine and verse 10 with me, where John mentions an ominous sign of brewing trouble. Look at the last part of verse nine, now it was the Sabbath on that day. And then verse 10, so the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, it is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet. And we'll stop right there. Now the fact that this healing took place on the Sabbath is not an incidental note from the author, but rather it is the key to this entire passage. It really is. What happened here set the stage for the open hostility which the Jewish religious elite began manifesting towards Christ. And this, the hostility fueled at this pool would escalate throughout the remainder of our Lord's earthly ministry, finally culminating in His death. Folks, we've been in the Life of Christ series now for a couple years. Do you guys realize that? And we're just coming up on the Sermon on the Mount. But don't forget, John chapters one through four was really the first year of his ministry. Then we went to the synoptics and we talked about his Galilean ministry. And now he's back up, this is, he has to go south, but then up to Jerusalem, so don't get confused, okay? Galilee's in the north, but it usually says they went up to Jerusalem because it was physically elevated. But that's where we are, and we're at this unnamed feast. Jesus' refusal, listen, to observe the man-made legalistic practices of rabbinic tradition was a major point of contention between him and the religious establishment. In fact, it's pretty easy to see that our Lord intentionally healed this man and many others on the Sabbath. in order to confront the leaders and their superficial religious system that they had concocted, that they had put together. And think about it. Was this man's situation life-threatening? No. He had been in this situation for 38 years. Or at least he'd been by this pool for 38 years, maybe even longer in this condition. Jesus could easily, listen carefully, could easily have waited a few more hours and healed him on the next day, thus escaping the Pharisees' criticism. But not only did Jesus want to show this man God's mercy, but he also wanted to call the nation of Israel to repentance by confronting the unbiblical stipulations that had contributed to their own self-righteousness. Them thinking that they were better than everyone else around them. Now let me ask you, where in the word of God does it say that a man who has just been healed of paralysis may not carry his bed on the Sabbath? And when I say bed, I mean a rolled up mattress or blanket. Where does it say that in God's word? You know the answer, nowhere. But the scribes and the Pharisees had enumerated no less than 39 specific types of work that they considered illegal to perform on the Sabbath, and the very last one on the list was carrying something from one place to another. And as a result of that man-made law, when the Jewish leaders saw this man, who had, again, been paralyzed for 38 years, walking for the first time in 38 years, carrying his mattress, they responded about as negatively as you can get. Look at verse 10. This is what they said. It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallets. How sad, how sad that instead of rejoicing with this man over his healing, this miraculous healing, rather they chastised him for breaking their rules, an attitude for which our Lord sharply rebuked them over and over and over again all throughout his ministry. And one commentator that I read put it like this. He said, the false religion of Judaism Like all false systems, cannot change the inside, so it is left to manipulate life on the outside. What do you think about that? It's a good quote. Think about all the false religions around this world. Cannot change the inside, and so it's forced to manipulate the outside. Now go back up to verse 10, and notice the term the Jews. Even though John doesn't mention the scribes or the Pharisees by name, he nevertheless used this term, the Jews, to refer to the religious leaders. He wasn't talking about all of Jerusalem. He was talking specifically about these particular religious leaders, and he just calls them the Jews here. So why would these religious elite be more concerned with Sabbath laws than a wonderful, miraculous healing that I'm sure probably none of them had ever seen in their entire lives that instantly happened? Again, don't forget that the Sabbath day was to be a day of rest commanded by God in the Torah. And these Jews believed that by obeying God's law, they were able to earn their favor with God. In other words, earn their entryway into heaven. And the Sabbath was, for them, a symbol of the works-based religion that they had turned Judaism into. In other words, they were trying to be saved by keeping God's law, and that left no room for grace and mercy toward a man who, in their opinion, was violating the law. Legalists don't celebrate. Legalists observe. Neither the scribes nor the Pharisees rejoiced over God's tremendous goodness towards this particular man on that particular Sabbath because something on their list had been violated. And no one dare violate the list. One author wrote that their version of the gospel, I like this so much I had to repeat it here, would have sounded like this. For God so loved the world that he gave a list that whosoever might do the things on the list might have eternal life. Describes a lot of churches out there, unfortunately. Jesus clearly disagreed. And I want you to understand that picking up the mat on which the man had laid for 38 long years and carrying it away from the pool of Bethesda was in no way, let me be as clear as I can, was in no way breaking any of God's commandments. inspired laws, not a one. Listen to the actual words of Exodus chapter 20, which contains the fourth commandment. It says this, verse eight, remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God, on which you must not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant, or maidservant, or livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates. I'm not gonna say much about the Sabbath today, but since this issue of the Sabbath keeps coming up again and again in our Lord's ministry, we're gonna see it, I mean, one time after another as we kinda continue on up until we get to the Sermon on the Mount, that Lord willing, I'm gonna preach a whole sermon next week on the Sabbath. So if you have questions about that, then please come. I wanna show you what it says, what it means, and what it doesn't mean. What it says and what it doesn't says. Christian salvation begins with the realization that no one can achieve the perfection that God's law demands. Do you understand that? The law was given to show us just how unrighteous we are. That is just how far, how far away we fall from God's standard of perfection. How good do you have to be to get into heaven, folks? You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5.48, Leviticus 11.44, 19.2, 27. in many other places. James 2.10 puts it like this, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point has become guilty of all. It's like having a big, shiny piece of glass. And you can even write down with a sharpie, two, three, maybe a couple comms, right, commandment one, you know, first of the 10 commandments, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, first and second greatest commandments. But if you take a hammer and you just break one of those, James says, you've done what? You've broken it all. The whole thing crumbles down. So when we realize that we cannot keep God's law perfectly, we have two choices. Either we can replace the unattainable law, listen carefully, with a man-made legalism that we can keep, like the scribes and the Pharisees did, Or we can acknowledge ourselves as hopeless and helpless sinners who must run to the cross of Jesus Christ to be forgiven by God's great love, mercy, and forgiveness. Those are really the only two choices. Now look back with me at the newly healed man now accosted by the Pharisees. Since rabbinic law forbade the carrying of anything on the Sabbath, by carrying his mat, this man had broken not God's law, but rabbinic law. And imagine the fear and intimidation that he would have felt when the Sabbath police, and they did have a police force, okay, when the Sabbath police in the temple descended upon this man, demanding that he answer why he was doing what he was doing. In this, it's understandable that he pointed them to Jesus, even though he didn't know his name. Look at verses 11, 12, and 13. But he answered them, he who made me well was the one who said to me, pick up your pallet and walk. And they asked him, who is the man who said to you, pick up your pallet and walk? But the man who was healed did not know who it was. For Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. Now one inevitable result of a legalistic works-based religion is that it often treats people without compassion. Maybe you grew up in a home like that. I know a lot of people, I've met so many people over the years that say, I don't want to have anything to do with organized religion. Let me tell you my story. And they go on to tell me the story about how awful their home life was. How legalistic it was. So instead of swooping down into this man's moment of rejoicing and condemning him, they should have rejoiced with him by grabbing his mat, carrying it for him, giving praise to God alongside him who saw fit to have mercy on him after 38 long years in this malady. Furthermore, when they found out who had healed him, they should have made a beeline for Jesus, giving praise and glory to God for what God had done through him. But the Pharisees were not righteous as God counts righteousness. And it shows in their lack of concern for people whom God had created. And don't forget what Jesus said in Matthew 22 with regards to the law. He said to him, This is a great and foremost commandment. Now here's the clincher. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. Beloved, unless we're acting out of love for God and love for our neighbor, then whatever we're doing is not pleasing to him, nor is it in keeping with God's law. but be careful not to fall off the horse on either one side or the other. Since the Bible so clearly and forcefully condemns works righteousness, some people have wrongly concluded that we really don't need to pay attention to God's laws or God's commands. Thus, teachers and preachers who insist on proclaiming the imperatives of God's word are often accused of being modern day Pharisees. But let me be as clear as I possibly can. We can fall off the horse into either legalism on one side or lawlessness on the other side, sometimes known as antinomianism, okay? And both, both are condemned in God's word. God hates them both. To be a Pharisee is to treat people without pity and to reject God's offer of grace, mercy, and forgiveness for a pseudo-righteousness that comes through the keeping of man-made laws. But to be an antinomian is to pay no attention to God's commands, thinking that His grace and His love and His mercy are all that's important. And folks, I see society, I see Christendom falling off that horse on one side or another all the time. What's in vogue nowadays is the lawlessness, the antinomianism. And they just preach and teach grace, mercy, kindness, forgiveness. It's all that's taught. But again, both extremes are wrong, they're unbiblical. Now even though this man did not know who Jesus was or where to find him, the Lord knew where to find him. Let's look at the last verses together, verses 14 through 18. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, behold, you have become well. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. Verse 17. For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. I'll go back up to verse 14. We'll cover these pretty quickly. Jesus is not necessarily saying that the man's paralysis was God's punishment for some past sin. As a matter of fact, there are other passages in John's gospel alone, John 9, 3 and elsewhere, Luke 13, one through five, where we're warned against concluding that a certain calamity is a direct result of a particular sin. Now having said that, we shouldn't conclude that a calamity is never the result of sin. Paul warns that those who take communion in a manner unworthy may be struck with a sickness or a disease or even death. And we try to give that, really that warning every single time that we take communion in 1 Corinthians 11. But look with me more closely at what Jesus said to this man when he found him in the temple in verse 14. He said, behold, you have become well. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you. Jesus had just healed him of a 38-year malady or sickness, and now he gives him an excellent piece of advice. Having been relieved from one curse, this man would be wise to avoid sin and its possible consequences, and especially the greatest consequence of God's ultimate coming judgment. And Jesus talked to this man about his sin like no one had probably ever done before. And the light dawned and he realized that this healer, his healer was Jesus. and with what I believe was a complete lack of guile on his part, he went back to the Jews and told them that it was Jesus who had made him well, verse 15. And the reason why I don't think that this man meant anything negative by going back to the Jews can be seen in what he said and what he didn't say. Notice that he did not say that it was Jesus who had told him to carry his bed on the Sabbath. Rather, he told him that it was Jesus, look very carefully, that it was Jesus who made him well. But regardless of the man's intention in identifying Jesus, the Jews responded with hostility, saying that the healing was a violation of the Sabbath. But Jesus did not get into an argument with them about the technicalities of Sabbath keeping. Instead, he said something utterly shocking, verse 17, look at your text. But he answered them, my father, is working until now, and I myself am working. Jesus' words must have shaken these Jewish religious leaders to their core. Why? Because Jesus referred to God as his father, something that no Jew, I know we do it today, but no Jew back then would ever have dared to go there. He was putting himself and his activity, healing that man on par with God's working, on God's activity. And Jesus argued that since God was currently working on the Sabbath, who holds all things together? Aren't you glad that God holds things together seven days a week, 24-7? He doesn't take any days off. I certainly am. So he was arguing that since God currently works on the Sabbath and since God was his father, therefore he was allowed to do what he was going to do on the Sabbath. And he was absolutely right. God instituted the Sabbath, therefore God has the right to determine what activities are appropriate and what activities are not appropriate. And again, they come up with all these lists of things that they said weren't allowed. But God never said that. Listen to another conversation Jesus had about this matter of healing and the Sabbath. Just real quick, Matthew 10, sorry, Matthew 12, verse 10. It says this, and they questioned Jesus, asking, is it lawful to heal in the Sabbath so that they might accuse him? That was done with guile. They wanted to try to trap him. Then verse 11, and he said to them, what man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? Verse 12, how much more valuable than is a man than a sheep? So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. That's about as clear as it gets. We're gonna get to that passage in a couple of weeks, by the way. Jesus is God, and his healing of that poor, bedridden man was something absolutely appropriate to do on God's special day. In short, Jesus was making a very clear claim to deity, a claim that the Jews fully understood. They knew exactly what he was saying here. Look at verse 18. For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. This is a great text for showing the deity of Jesus Christ right here. The Jews rightly understood what Jesus was saying, and from their point of view, a more damning claim could not have been made of his own deity. And it's interesting that from this point forward, they were determined to kill him. They were going to plot his demise. So the die was cast. The showdown that had been brewing was now right before them. Jesus had not only confronted their religious legalism at its core by disregarding their own Sabbath rules himself, but he also challenged them with his true identity as God's own son. So the religious elite of Israel were faced with a decision, and here's the decision. Would they submit to the authority of Jesus, or would they rebel against him? Would they, and here's the second one, would they honor his understanding of the Sabbath as its author, who created it, or would they reject it and continue to elevate their own man-made rules above his own? And this battle would resurface all throughout the remainder of our Lord's earthly life. And it's a battle that we're all familiar with. But like the Jews, we also have a choice to make. Every single day we have to decide whether or not we are going to submit to Jesus as the Lord of our lives, or we're gonna construct our own little religious systems. The pick and choose theology. The salad bar Christianity mentality. Some of this, none of that. That's okay, I kinda like that. Oh, I agree with that. My dear friends, my dear, dear friends, Jesus is the Lord over both sickness and the Sabbath. And what that means is that Jesus can heal and he can give rest. Jesus can heal your broken bone and he can certainly heal your broken spirit. So if you're tired, if you're weary and don't have the strength to keep going, then turn to Jesus and do it today who alone can heal you and give you a Sabbath rest in him. Don't be like the man at the pool. who was fixated on the dubious solution of the water while the very author of life and health stood right before him. And don't be like the religious Jews fixated on their own rule keeping, their own set of rules while the very author and perfecter of the law stood right in front of them. Instead, see Jesus for who He is. He is the Savior who extends to you an offer of healing for your broken soul. And submit to Jesus for who He is, because He is also the Lord. not only of the Sabbath, but also of every one of your days, every one of your hours, every one of your moments of the life that God has given you, amen? Hope you never forget it, let's pray. Lord, thank you for the picture that you give us. Thank you for Jesus who can do all things, who does all things. Lord, I pray that not a single one of us would miss the great healer, the great physician, the physician of our souls who alone can heal us from all the hurts and the past sins and everything else that we've done and had done to us. Lord, you can heal us. You've healed me, and you've healed millions of others, and I pray that if there's someone here that needs that healing, that today would be the day that they're truly healed. And Lord, also I pray that you would keep us from a pride in each one of our lives that would construct his or her own religion. that we would make up our own rules, which ones we can keep, which ones we like, which ones we don't like. My God would never do that. Such a thinking, Lord, I pray that we would reject that and we would turn away from it. And I pray that we would submit ourselves to you, our only Lord, our only Savior. And we thank you, God, for being so gracious and merciful to us. Thank you for our upcoming baptism right now. I pray these things in Jesus' name. All God's people said, amen.