The following sermon is by our senior pastor, Grant Castleberry of Capitol Community Church, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Capitol Community Church is a people awakened to a holy God. If you are searching for a new church home, or from out of town looking for a church to worship with, or simply seeking for answers. Please join us for worship at 9 o'clock a.m. every Sunday morning. If you have any questions, please email us at info at capitolcommunitychurch.com. We pray this sermon will help you grow deeper in your walk with Jesus Christ. So in terms of our schedule in December, we're gonna start John chapter five and study John chapter five, Lord willing, the next three Sundays. And then I'm gonna do two special Advent messages on Christmas Eve and the Sunday after Christmas. And then I'm going to do a special New Year's message the following Sunday. And then we will come back in January, Lord willing, The Lord hasn't come back by then. And we'll finish John chapter five in January and February. So that's where we're headed. If you would, open to John chapter five. We're gonna start that this morning. I'm gonna read verses one through nine. After this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, an Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids, 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 for 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 up. 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." This is God's holy word. John chapter 5, I think, is one of the most important chapters in the entire New Testament. And it begins here with Jesus going back to Jerusalem. He's been ministering up in Galilee. And he goes south for this unnamed feast. And he heals this man. And he heals this man, you'll notice, on the Sabbath. And he tells this man to take up his mat and carry it. which was against the rabbinical laws that the Pharisees had made. Now listen to that statement carefully, that the Pharisees had made. You see, they had added teaching and laws onto the laws that Moses had originally made. And they had a law that you weren't supposed to carry an object like a bed. And so when Jesus told this man, after he'd healed him, take up your bed and walk, he's essentially saying, break the law. Break the law of the Pharisees. And he does this for an important reason. It's because after he breaks that law, that man was confronted by the Pharisees. Why are you carrying your bed? Why are you carrying your mat? And that brings Jesus to an opportunity in the temple to teach about his deity. And what Jesus does in John chapter five, specifically from verses 19 to 47, is Jesus gives his own defense for his deity. And it's the greatest defense that Jesus gives in the entire Bible, that he is indeed the son of God. So you remember when Jesus stood before the Sanhedrin, right before he was crucified, and before Pontius Pilate, and before Herod, and everybody was saying, are you the son of God? If you are the son of God, tell us that you are the son of God. And what did Jesus do? He was silent, remember? He didn't open his mouth. But if you go back to John chapter five, This is his exclamation that he is indeed the Son of God. He could have just said verbatim exactly what he had already told him at least a year before right here in the temple. because here he gives his own defense that he is the Son of God. And it all begins with this specific sign. You remember John calls miracles signs, simeons, because they're meant to point to something. So it begins with this sign here in John 5 at the very beginning. And this is the third sign that Jesus performs in John's gospel. There's seven signs, eight if you include the resurrection, and this is the third. So let's look now at the context of this sign. This context is very important. If you look at verse one, it says, after this, after this. Now that phrase, after this, is a transition phrase, much like how Mark uses the word immediately. It means, this is what's next. And so if you remember from John chapter four, Jesus had begun his Galilean ministry. He had healed a noble man's son, He had begun to preach throughout the synagogues in Galilee. We know from the other Gospels, from Luke chapter 4, that he had gone to Nazareth. And what had happened at Nazareth? People tried to throw him off a cliff. We know from Mark's Gospel and Matthew that he had probably called his early disciples, James and John and Peter and Andrew, do you remember they were fishing by the Sea of Galilee and Jesus came along the Sea of Galilee and says, come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Those events have already happened. And now Jesus is going to go to this feast. Now, there is a break, really, between John chapter four and John chapter five. Commentators call basically everything before John chapter 5, Jesus' year of popularity. His year of popularity, because people were fascinated by the miracles he was doing, people were following Jesus, people were excited about Jesus. But in John chapter 5, there's a break. And now, he begins to decline in popularity. Now, confrontation begins. Now, John chapter six, we're going to see Jesus rejected by disciples. We're going to see abandonment. We're going to see the machinations that people are beginning to make regarding his crucifixion. It all begins right here in John chapter five, with Jesus' confrontation of the Pharisees. And it begins at this unnamed feast. So if you look back at verse one. John says there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, people have debated what feast this was for 2,000 years. We don't really know exactly what feast it was. What we do know is it probably wasn't the Passover feast, because John, whenever there's a Passover, he always mentions the Passover. John mentions the Passover three times, and that's how we mark three years of Jesus' ministry, because Matthew, Mark, and Luke only mention the Passover once. John mentions it three times. So that's where we get, okay, he probably ministered for three years. And you'll find those in John 2.13, John 6.4, and John 11, 55, and John 11 through 18 really all takes place then and around that third Passover when he's crucified. So this feast is probably not the Passover. I read a study that one scholar did this week, and he went back and he looked at all the Jewish feasts between A.D. 25 and A.D. 35, so that would circumference the years that Jesus ministered, and he basically found that there was one feast in those 10 years that fell on a Sabbath, on a Saturday, and that was the Feast of Purim in A.D. 28. You remember the Feast of Purim was when Esther was in Persia and God used her to save her people and the Jewish people started celebrating this holiday, the Feast of Purim. And it was more or less an insignificant feast compared to Passover and the Feast of Booths and Pentecost. And that's probably why it goes unnamed here. But I think it's important to notice that Jesus interrupts his ministry in Galilee to go to this minor feast. Jesus, at his heart, was a churchman. Jesus loved to go to the temple and be baptized. with his heavenly Father, and commune with God, and be with the people of God. Remember in Luke 2, when Jesus' parents left, they were there in Jerusalem, and they left, and where was Jesus? He was back in the temple, talking with the rabbis. And he said, don't you know that I would be in my Father's house? Jesus loved to be with the people of God, communing with God. I think that's an important thing to notice, and I think it's an important thing to apply in our own lives. See, we're not meant to be Lone Ranger Christians. We're meant to go to the house of God, and commune with God's people, and be where the word of God is read, and where God is worshiped publicly. You know, we're all supposed to worship God, right? We're supposed to worship God 24-7. Your life is to be a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God. This is pleasing to Him. We're 24-7 worshipers, but we're also told to worship with the body of Christ, to come together on the Lord's day, sing praises to Him, worship Him, and that's what Jesus does. If you look at verse two, now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five-roofed colonnades. Now I don't want to get into too much detail about this pool because it's not as important to know exactly the details of the architecture and archaeology. They have more than likely excavated this pool. We think we know where it is. It's by St. Anne's Church if you go to Jerusalem today. It was right outside the Sheep Gate. The Sheep Gate was just north of the temple. And it's called the sheep gate because that's where they brought the sheep and the goats in to the temple to be sacrificed So right here is the shadow of redemption where this miracle is going to take place now this this pool was a double pool. So it was, you know, you go to some pools and they have the adult pool and the kiddie pool next to it. It was kind of like that. There was a partition in the middle and it was a double pool and it was surrounded by, it says a colonnade. It basically would be a porch with columns underneath holding it up. So it was surrounded on all four sides and on that partition in the middle by a colonnade. Five porches. And if you look at verse 3, it says, So in these porches lay a multitude of invalids. A multitude. We're talking about a large number, maybe hundreds of invalids. And John gives an example of the type of people that were found there. They were blind. They were lame and they were paralyzed. So paralyzed might include both the loss of use of the legs and possibly the arms. So we're talking about people that are debilitated. We're talking about severe illnesses that lead to incapacitation. These people, would be basically completely dependent on alms and charity for their entire existence. So these people couldn't have jobs. These people couldn't work. These people, there was no welfare system. These people begged. And that's how they survived. Charity was their entire existence. And really in this day and age, you think about the medical practices then, really there was nothing that could be done for them. If something like this happened to you, your future, you were done. This was it for you. Now, here's why they're at the pool. Why are they at the pool? There was a myth that an angel would come down and stir up the waters of the pool, and when the waters would begin to bubble, the first guy in would get healed. That was the myth. Now I say myth because how many of you have verse four right following verse three? Raise your hand if verse four follows verse three in your Bible. Now raise your hand if verse four is on the bottom of the page or in the margin, okay. Many of you, most of you. So verse four wasn't in the original manuscripts of the Bible. In other words, John didn't write it. John didn't write verse four. Verse four was added later by a scribe who was trying to explain what was happening in verse seven. So if you look at verse seven, what is the sick man answer to Jesus? He says, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me. Now, a lot of John's readers didn't know. What do you mean when the pool is stirred up? Well, there was a myth. There was a story that when the pool was stirred up by an angel, you could get healed. And so later on, a scribe added that, a note, and said, the legend says that when an angel stirs the water and you're the first one in, you get healed. And over time, as people began to copy that manuscript that that scribe wrote, they accidentally added it in to the text. And so when the King James was published, the authorized version in 1611, the manuscript that they had, that scribal note became verse four. Make sense? Later they found the earlier manuscripts, closer to when John wrote it, and guess what? It's not in any of those manuscripts. It was just a note that somebody added later. So, most certainly, verse four is not written by John, and I don't believe part of the Bible. Now, what was happening, more than likely, was that there was a spring underneath this pool. There was a spring, and periodically, this spring would bubble up. And the explanation for it was, is that an angel was stirring the water. Nowhere in scripture Is the pool of Bethesda mentioned to have actual healing properties? Not in the Old Testament, not anywhere else in the New Testament, nowhere in Scripture. is an angel mentioned doing a continual healing ministry, right? This is nowhere else in scripture. And from my opinion, my vantage point, it seems contrary to the character of God to hold a cruel contest of sorts that he's gonna stir up the water, and oh, by the way, if you're the first guy in, you're gonna be the one healed. That's not how God operates. So that's why they're here, but they're here, and this is the important thing to note, they're here because they think that this pool is going to help them. They think that this pool is going to be their salvation, that if they can get in, when the bubbles come up, when the spring starts feeding it, that they'll be healed. And that's the context of this whole miracle. So now, let's look at the performance of the sign. And that's beginning in verse five. One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. an invalid for 38 years. That means that he had lost the use of his legs. Many think that he was likely paralyzed from the waist down and he had been in this condition for nearly four decades. So you have to take a step back and understand this man's situation. He lived a miserable existence. It's hard enough to be paralyzed now, but now we have codes, right? We have wheelchair ramps and things like that. There was nothing then for people in this situation. To move anywhere, he had to be carried on a mat or a bed, or he would have to crawl with his arms. Otherwise, he could not go anywhere. More than likely, and this is what I read in multiple commentaries, this is very graphic, but more than likely, he had lost control of his bowel and bladder functions, so this mat would have stunk. There was an incredible stench around him. He was avoided. He says later that no one is there to put him into the water. No one is there to put me into the water, Jesus. Why? Because all of his family and all of his friends have abandoned this man. He has no one there to care for him. And that's why he says there's no one to put him into the pool. He is the lowest of the low in this society. And if you read the rest of John 5, just his interaction with Jesus and the Pharisees, he's also got a pretty cantankerous personality. He's not a likable individual. And he's probably bitter from these years of paralysis, but this isn't a likable guy. There's nothing compelling about him. There's no real evidence of even faith in Christ in these verses. yet it's this man that Jesus chooses to heal. And you see in verse six that Jesus apparently is walking by this pool there in the north of Jerusalem and enters the porticos, verse six, and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, now this knowledge, Some people think that everybody just knew about this man because he had been an invalid for 38 years, so it's possibly Jesus just knew of this man. But I think more than likely this is Jesus's divine knowledge, just as Jesus knew at the well in Sychar that the Samaritan woman had been married five times and was now living with somebody who wasn't her husband. Jesus sometimes exercises this divine knowledge where he knows and Jesus knew that this man had been paralyzed 38 years and he had been there a long time. And Jesus asked him what to many of us might seem like a rather silly question. He asked him, do you want to be healed? Seems silly, right? Well, of course he wants to be healed. He's by the pool, he's been an invalid for 38 years. But the fact of the matter is, is that there's some people, and you know this if you've worked in homeless shelters and places like that, that some people have been debilitated for so long that they can't imagine any other life. And they've become so used to living off the charity of others. that they can't imagine a life where they work for themselves. So I think it's a legitimate question. Do you really want to be healed or do you just want to keep living this type of life that you're living? And the man answered him. Verse seven. Notice that this man doesn't know who Jesus is. He has no idea who Jesus is. The sick man answers him. He says, sir, that's a term of respect. But he says, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. And while I'm going, another steps down before me. He calls Jesus, Sir, a term of respect. And he says, I try to crawl over, I try to get over to the water when it's bubbling, but there's no one there to help me. I want to be healed, but this healing pool isn't working. And Jesus says to him in verse eight, get up, take up your bed, and walk. This is a command. It's not a suggestion. It's an imperative. Jesus says, Agiro, pick up your bed and walk. And at this command, the man is immediately healed. Immediately. Notice that there's no faith here on the part of this man. Sometimes we think that unless somebody exercises faith, Jesus can't perform a miracle. That's not true. Now, Jesus often performed miracles. It was His normal custom to perform miracles as a response to faith. But Jesus doesn't need your faith to do a miracle. Jesus can do a miracle at any moment He desires. This man doesn't even know who Jesus is. There's no faith. He says, Get up, take up your bed, and you walk. And remember, he's now telling him, you're gonna violate the Sabbath code that the Pharisees have put out. Pick up your bed and walk. Now, I think it's fascinating, this disgusting bed that had carried this man, that people had used to carry this man around. Now Jesus is saying, and this is such a wonderful picture of redemption, isn't it? Now you carry that bed that's carried you because you've been restored. And at once, Isn't that a great phrase? And at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walked. So at the moment, at the exact moment of Jesus' words, this man was miraculously healed. And he stood up and he took up his mat and he walked. the miracle has been performed. This sign, everybody probably knew that this man had been there for a long time. There was no doubt that a marvelous and miraculous sign had been performed. And this man then went into the temple, as we'll see next week. to basically be purified and cleansed, and we'll see the follow-on confrontation that takes place because this miracle took place on the Sabbath. But what I want to do with the rest of our time this morning is talk about the meaning of the sign. The meaning of the sign. So we've looked at the context of the sign, the performance of the sign, and now third, with the rest of our time, I want to look at the meaning of the sign. It's incredibly important that we understand what the sign points to. That's why it's called a sign. We don't want to just see the miracle. We want to see what the miracle is supposed to point us to. Remember, John says at the end of the gospel, John 20, verse 30 and 31, he says, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book. But these signs, these signs are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. So this sign is given to us so that you might believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. that he has the power to give life to whomever he will, that he has that ability in and of himself. But this sign is also important for understanding ourselves. Look, it's great to know that Jesus healed a man by the pool of Bethesda, but what does this event 2,000 years ago have to do with you? What does it have to do with you? What does this sign mean for you? That's the important thing to grasp. What does it represent? How does it show us that Jesus is the Savior of the world? How does it show us our own need? Let me just give you five ways that this sign highlights Jesus's remarkable grace. Christ lavishes his grace to us undeservedly. Undeservedly. That's one of the things that this sign shows us. What's fascinating here, I think, is the way that John describes those that are sitting by the pool. He uses a specific Greek word. This is in verse three, that word that's translated invalids, it's the Greek word asthenio, and it just means debilitated, sick, invalid, that's a good translation. I think what's fascinating is is that Paul picks up this concept and uses this same word in Romans chapter five, verse six. This is what Paul says, he says, Athenais, same root word, weak, invalid, helpless in ASB, Christ died for the ungodly. For while we were still weak, for while we were still Athenais, Christ died for us, for the ungodly. See, Paul's making a connection. He's saying, look, if you want to look at our own lives, and how we measured up before God, before we met the Lord Jesus Christ, we were just like those people at the pool. Spiritually helpless, spiritually invalids, ungodly people, Paul says. Not that we were just spiritually inept, but we were spiritually opposed to the things of God. Paul says in Romans 3.10, he says, as it is written, none is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. That was us. That was me before Christ met me. That was you. That is you if you haven't met Christ. You are a spiritual invalid. J.C. Ryle on this verse talking about us spiritually speaking. This is what he said. He says, thousands delight in things which are positively evil and run greedily after that which is downright poison. They love that which God abhors and dislike what God loves. They are like the madman who loves his enemies and hates his friends. Their eyes are blind. You see, before you can receive spiritual healing from Christ, you have to realize that this is you. You have to realize that the only thing that you contribute to salvation is the sin which makes it necessary. This is the only thing you contribute to salvation. So you have to know that before God, You are spiritually bankrupt. And that's why God gives us the law. That's why the law of God is there. You look at the law and you realize that you disobey the law. You realize that you're a sinner in need of grace. Until you're there, you will not understand the need for a Savior. And this man, he certainly knew his need. And that's where we need to be. We need to realize our need before Christ to receive grace. Second, man, this is fascinating stuff. Christ lavishes his grace discriminately. This offends, if you think about it, every one of our Western sensibilities. Why doesn't Jesus go to the pool of Bethesda and heal every single person? There's a multitude there, right? blind, lame, paralyzed. How many does Jesus heal? One. One dude out of all those people. He could have picked anybody, but he picks this one man. Why? Why would Jesus do that? Jesus, you're saying you go into the hospital and you choose out of the multitude of people to go to one ward and heal one person? What's that about? Several things. Remember, the miracle was never the end of Jesus's ministry. What was the purpose of Jesus's ministry? The preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the kingdom of God. He didn't need 100 people healed in order to preach the message he's about to preach in the temple. He needed one. The miracles are always the sign and the enablement of the preaching. They're not an end of themselves. And two, and this grates against all of our beliefs about equality and how we think God should operate. But God says, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. That's Romans chapter nine. God chooses who He will give mercy to, and we don't understand it. We're not in a position, because we all need mercy, we're not in a position to say, God, you're wrong, you should have given mercy to that person. You know what Paul says to that in Romans 9? He says, who are you, O man, to answer back to God? In other words, as Isaiah says, you are not the counselor of God. Now, why does Jesus pick this man? I don't know why he picks this one man. But I do know this, that God loves to choose the spiritual dregs of society, the down and outs, the people that are in the prisons, in the jails. that the people that our society looks down upon, why? So that the surpassing grace might be seen to come from God. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, 26. He says, for consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. Now listen, but God chose what is foolish. In other words, us, you. God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. Isn't that what's taking place here? God's choosing the weakest guy there, and he's gonna shame the strong and the Pharisees and everybody with the message. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are. Why? Verse 29, 1 Corinthians 1, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. You can't boast in the fact that you're a Christian. It's all mercy beginning to end. And so our response, you know, go read Ephesians 2 and see Paul's response to this. What is Paul's response? Praise. It's the praise of the glorious grace of God. That he chose you, if you're a believer. That he stopped by your own Pula Bethesda and picked you up and put you on your spiritual feet and gave you new life. Christ also lavishes his grace directly. So he lavishes his grace undeservedly, discriminately, and directly. This is so amazing. Look at what he does. Verse seven, what does the man want? What does the man want? He says, do you want to be healed? How does the man respond? I don't have anybody to put me in the pool. I'm trying to get to the pool. How does Jesus heal the man? Does he pick him up in his arms and tell the angel to strike the pool and put him down in the water? Is that what Jesus does? No. What does he do? Stand up, take up your bed, and walk. The pool represents any man-made religion you want to nail to the door by which you are trying to measure up. Could be politics. You know, if only we could get these bills passed, everything would be great. My life would be great. Could be education. If I could just be a little bit smarter, get a little bit more educated, then my life would be better. Could be a 12-step program. You talk about anything that people are trying to do to get their life to where they think it needs to be. They said, if only then, if only I had this relationship then I wouldn't be so angry all the time. If only I had that forgiveness from that person, then I would be a better person. If only I had this Bethesda pool, then everything would be fine. But you see, when Jesus gives grace to you and me, he bypasses all those things. He doesn't need a healing pool to give grace. How does Jesus give grace? He always gives grace to us by His word. That's all it takes. Jesus imparts grace through the word. Stand up, take up your bed, and walk. You have all these people today trying to do all these things to get close to God, to bridge the gap between God and man. Here's the thing, Christ bridged the gap. That's the purpose of the incarnation. That's the purpose of Christmas. Christ came down, took on our humanity, and he gives us this grace through his word, through the word of God. This morning, through the word of God, you are receiving the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ speaks through his word. Paul says in Romans chapter 10, he says faith comes by hearing. And hearing by what? The word of Christ. Christ gives grace through his word. And so if you want to be a messenger of grace to somebody, don't give them a healing pool. Don't come to them with another strategy or another 12-step program to clean up their life. What somebody needs is the life-changing power of the gospel. Because through the gospel comes the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to the Jew first and then to the Greek. It is the Word of Christ, friend, that brings grace to your life. And so, that means that we have to do everything to be underneath the Word of God. You get up in the morning and you hunger for the Word of God. You open the Bible, read it out loud. It's God imparting grace to you. You come to church, you sit underneath the reading and the preaching of the Word of God. It's God imparting grace to you. Christ imparts grace directly. He doesn't use end arounds like a Bethesda pool. Christ also lavishes grace decisively. He lavishes his grace upon us decisively. Now, what our world offers is a gradual transformation, right? Go into Barnes and Noble or go into the Amazon store and look at the top self-help books. You're gonna see books like Atomic Habits and things like that. It's all about, look, if you can just start doing these little habits, your life will just start to gradually get better. It'll get better over time. What Jesus is about is instantaneous transformation. And that's what the New Testament teaches, and that's what non-believers don't understand about Christianity. You see, we're not into behavioral modification. Now, we want your behavior to change, but it changes supernaturally because of the new birth. If anyone is in Christ, he is a what? A new creation. The old has passed away, and the new has come. You see, when you come to Christ, you are born again. You are transformed from the inside out. And do you remember in Romans chapter six, the question is, well Paul, can a believer keep on sinning? And Paul's answer is, may it never be, by no means, why? Don't you know that that old man is dead? Who you once were is dead, and now you're a new man in Christ. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and this life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It's a new life. And it brings complete transformation. Right? Immediately, does the man start walking with a limp and then start getting better? No, what is it? It's complete transformation right then and there. Now here's the problem with us as believers. So often, as we're living the Christian life, we convince ourselves that we're still the invalids by the pool. It's like we're sitting there and we've been given these new legs. and they work and we're able to walk and live the Christian life. And we're sitting there as if we're still spiritually invalid. And we're running back to those old sins that we used to play with. And we've forgotten that we're new men, that Christ has spiritually healed us. See, part of the Christian life is mental. It's not just experiential. It's not just turning on a good song that peps you up. It's mental. If you're a Christian, you are a new woman. You are a new man. Live like it. Know it. It's in the mind. If you're a believer, you're no longer in Adam. You're in who? Christ. Live like Christ. Follow Christ. You're a new creation. And everywhere in the New Testament, you know, you look at who Jesus interacts with, it's always like this. It's always this immediate transformation. Mark 1.42, immediately after Jesus spoke, the leprosy left the man and he was made clean. Mark 5.29, remember the woman who touched Jesus' tunic. Immediately the flow of blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed. It was an immediate thing. Jairus' daughter, Mark 5.41, taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talitha kumi, which means little girl, I say to you arise. And immediately the girl got up and began walking. Mark 1052, blind Bartimaeus, immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. It's transformation, friend. And that's the power of Christianity. And fifth, this sign shows us that Christ lavishes his grace dominantly. Dominantly. And here's what I mean by that. We buck up against authority. We don't like authority if we're honest with ourselves. I don't want anybody to be an authority over me. I don't want the governor to be an authority over me. I don't want the president to be an authority over me. I don't want the Constitution to be an authority over me. I don't want my boss to be an authority over me. I want to be my own authority. We don't like authority. But when you come to Christ and he gives you grace, guess what? He becomes your new master. In fact, He demands it. He demands to be Lord. If you don't come to Christ as Lord, you haven't come to Him at all. Jesus says, take up your bed and walk. Is that imperative? And then later, over in the temple, Jesus is going to say to this man, verse 14, afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you are well. Now notice the imperative. Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. When Christ calls us to himself, he calls us to take up our what? Our cross, and follow after him daily. He becomes our master. And James says this, James says, if you claim to have faith, and by the way, there's a lot of believers that claim to have experienced grace, there's a lot of people that claim to know Christ, but if Jesus isn't your Lord, James says, that type of faith doesn't save. He says, faith without works is what? Dead, dead. It's not true faith. It doesn't justify. Because true faith always works. We're saved by faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone. But the faith that saves alone is always accompanied and results in good works. Faith is the root of salvation and the works are the fruit of salvation. And so we are all called to follow after Christ. Now some of you this morning need to take stock of where you are. Have you been spiritually healed by the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you come to the point where you recognize that you are a sinner before God and in need of Christ's gift of salvation? He loves you. He is there at the pool this morning saying, do you want to be healed? Well, do you? Do you want to be healed? Call out to Christ in faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Wonderful news. It's the good news of the gospel, that if you trust in Christ, all your sins will be forgiven, because they are canceled out by his blood, and you will be credited with his righteous life. So when you stand before God on the judgment, God will declare you righteous and forgiven in Christ. That's the good news of the gospel. Others of you need to take stock of where you are. You're a believer, you know you're a believer, but maybe you faltered in the Christian life, and you need to remember who you are, that you've been given this new life. So live like it. Follow Christ with your whole heart. Heavenly Father, that is our desire, Lord, to love you and trust you with all of who we are. And we desire to follow after you. God, we thank you for the grace that you have given us. Oh my goodness, what wonderful, amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Lord, we praise you this morning. We praise you for the incarnation, for coming down and taking on our humanity to live this life and redeem us. What glorious news. So Lord, we worship you in spirit and truth this morning. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening. For more sermons, information, and events, check out our website at CapitalCommunityChurch.com.