Well I want you to join me tonight in John chapter 5. 51 out of every 52 weeks of the year we gather together on Sunday morning and it is a time of wonderful refreshing. I look forward to it every week. It is the highlight of my week. I hope that it is the highlight of yours. It is the time when the Lord himself meets with his people, and I am as encouraged by your presence each week as I trust you are encouraged by the preaching that you hear. On one week a year, we don't get together on Sunday morning. Instead, we get together on Saturday night. And it got me to thinking about how frequently Saturday was a point of contention in the ministry of Jesus. Because of course, in the first century, in the Jewish culture, Saturday was the Sabbath. It was the Sabbath by divine law. God himself had told Israel that they were to keep the seventh day as a holy day. because in it they were reflecting the rest that God himself had from his creative work on that particular day. And so they were not to work. The Sabbath day, by the way, in the Old Testament was not primarily a day of worship. In fact, most of the time it wasn't a day of worship at all. It was a day of rest, a day when they would stop in their labors. By the time Jesus comes on the scene, however, the Sabbath law, which was relatively simple, had been encumbered with all kinds of rules, house rules, created by the elders and enforced by the rabbis. And Jesus ran afoul of them when he began to do things and instruct other people to do things that they regarded to be unlawful, a violation of the Sabbath commands. And that's why I wanted us to go tonight to John chapter 5, because it is instructive for us in the way in which Jesus is confronted by the rabbis and how he responds to them. So we read it a moment ago. Here is the setting. There is a feast of the Jews that requires Jesus and the other pilgrims to journey from wherever they were in the land of Israel to Jerusalem. When Jesus comes to Jerusalem, this place is full of people, and he goes to a little pool known in Aramaic as Bethesda. And there, sitting by the pool, are invalids, people that have ailments of all kinds of things. And there is this superstitious belief that at a particular point, the waters of this pool would get stirred up, and when they got stirred up, if you could get in the water first, you could get healed of your ailments. It was superstition, it wasn't true, but that's what they believed. So Jesus comes to this pool of Bethesda and he finds this man who has been lame. He hasn't been able to walk for almost 40 years, 38 years. And he says to him, do you want to be healed? And the man with this superstitious background in his mind says, I'd love to be healed. Unfortunately, I'm lame and other people get to the pool when it gets stirred up before I do. And I'm never going to be able to be healed because everybody gets there. Well, Jesus dispenses with the water stuff altogether. And he just looks at him and he says to him, get up, take up your mat and walk. And lo and behold, that's what the man does. And then in the middle of this story, John adds these words in the middle of verse nine. Now that day, was the Sabbath. You know, if the Bible came with sound effects, you would hear in the background, dun-dun-dun-dun. Because you know that when a biblical writer adds that kind of detail, it's signaling that there is a conflict that's coming. Because while that should be a time of celebration, People ought to be jumping and singing and shouting and praising hosannas and thank yous to the Lord because of what he's done. Instead, it becomes a bone of contention. Now, I want to make a point here. Of all the things that God has done for us in sending Jesus into this world, He has given us revelation. He has taught us about things that otherwise we would not know. And one of the things that Jesus teaches us when he comes into this world is that despite all of the platitudes and the slogans and all of the nice things that go on bumper stickers, God is good, God is always good, you know those kind of things, the fact of the matter is we don't really like God much. And we know that we don't like God much because when God incarnate comes to live among us, he wasn't well received. For all of the pious platitudes the Jewish leaders had about the nature of God when God himself is in our midst, we don't like him. I'm reminded of what Luther said when he's told that he needs to love God. And he says, love God? I hate him. At least he was being honest. Jesus does that to us. He reveals for us what our real attitudes are. And these Jewish leaders, they wanted to regard themselves as pious people, but when they were confronted with the reality of who God really is, they don't throw their arms and bow down before him and welcome him and worship him. They hate it. And as we read in this passage of scripture, they start plotting to kill it. So the man gets up and walks. There's a massive crowd. Jesus quickly and quietly steals away, and he grabs his cot, and he begins to carry it. He's going to carry it home. He doesn't need this thing sitting by the pool of Bethesda anymore. Those days are over for this guy, and they're over forever. I mean, can you imagine what must be going through his mind at this point? And then you hear the sound, dum-dum-dum-dum. As these guys show up, these Jewish leaders show up, and they stop him and they go, what are you doing? This isn't lawful for you to be carrying your mat on the Sabbath day. And the man speaks up and says, well, I'm not doing this on my own authority. I'm not doing this because I wanted to do it. Somebody told me I was supposed to do it. It's the guy that healed me. And they go, not who healed you. That's not the first question out of their mouth. The first question out of their mouth is, who told you to carry your mat? And he says, I don't know, he's gone, I don't see him anywhere. Later he's in the temple and Jesus sees him, walks up to him and says to him, you're well. Now listen to me and this is important. Don't go out and continue to sin. Because if you think what was bad with you before, this lameness, this being an invalid is really bad, worse things are going to happen to you if you go out and live as a sinner. And at that point, the man goes over to the Jewish leaders and says to them, that's the guy. That's the guy. Now, I want to point something out. We think, and there's a whole school of theology that actually teaches this, that if today we could do signs and wonders like what were being done in Jesus' day and in the early days of the first century church, if we could just do those things today, if today we in the middle of our service brought in invalids, people who were blind, people who were deaf, people who had all kinds of sickness, if we could bring them in here and we could see them healed, that not only would their lives be radically changed, but it would be a testimony of the power of God and massive numbers of people would come rushing into the kingdom because of that. Now God certainly uses these things as signs, and those signs do, in fact, in the Gospel of John, bring about saving faith, but it also brings about something less than saving faith. I want to point something out to you. If you'll notice verse 15. After Jesus says to him, see your well, sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you, verse 15 says, the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. This results in the Jews persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath day. Now, if you go to the end of the first major section in the Gospel of John, known as the Book of Signs, the first section of John is known as the Book of Signs. The second section in the Book of John is known as the Book of Glory. The end of the Book of Signs, chapter 11, I want you to read these words. Chapter 11 and verse 45. This is after the resurrection of Lazarus, the greatest of the signs that Jesus gave. Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went out to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done with the result that the Pharisees plot to kill Jesus. The same language is used at the end of chapter 11 as is used of this man in chapter 5. Now, what I want to point out is this. You'd like to believe that anybody who is healed of a physical malady would be spiritually regenerated. But of the 10 lepers that get healed, there's only one that comes back and thanks the Lord. Remember that? And there's no indication that this man, at least at this point, has actually become a believer in Jesus. He knows he's a miracle worker, but he doesn't know what he needs to know in order to become a true disciple of the Lord Jesus. It's instructive for us, because so incorrigible is the human heart. in its natural unregenerate state so incorrigible is the human heart that not even the resurrection of a dead man would invoke faith in the people who see it. Just think about that for a moment. If you wonder why the family members that you have spoken to about Christ for years Why church members who have heard the gospel for years, why children who grow up in Christian homes for years and hear the gospel are cold and indifferent and in some cases even antagonistic toward it? The answer is that that's the nature of the human heart. Jesus gives all of these signs and yet so many of them are missed. Steve prayed a moment ago. Lord, send the Spirit with such power that Tony's preaching will have eternal effect in the lives of the people that are here. It's a great prayer. And the New Testament teaches that it is absolutely necessary. The Word, apart from the Spirit, just falls on stony ground or hard paths or rocky ground. It is only as the Spirit does the work to open the heart that the seed of the Word is impactful for all eternity. Now, these men begin to plot and persecute Jesus because, according to verse 16, He was doing these things on the Sabbath. Here's how Jesus answers them. And I noticed that John says, Jesus answered them. Technically, they haven't even asked a question. But he knows the questions that are going through their mind. And so anticipating those questions, he decides that he's going to answer them. And the way in which he answers them is what I want to drive home to you tonight. He says two things in regard to their unbelief. and about the sign which the Sabbath, the seventh day, Saturday, is for them. He says, my father is working until now, and I am working. Did you hear that? My father is working until now, and I am working. Question. Is God a Sabbatarian? Before you answer that question quickly, I want you to think about it for a moment because this was a question that was asked a lot and debated a lot in the first century. To put it another way, does God keep the Sabbath? Now, I know that Genesis 2 tells us that on the seventh day, God rested from his creative work. But the question is, is there one day a week when God ceases to work? Or does he violate his own command? Now, that's a very important theological question, and it isn't a new one. It was a question that they were asking in those days. And the answer of the rabbis was the correct answer. The answer of the rabbis is that if God ever ceased to work, this universe, which he upholds by the power of his own being, which he upholds by his own providential work, would implode on itself and we would go into nothingness. If God on Saturday said, I'm not doing any work today, I'm not going to sovereignly uphold this place and keep the universe in place, if God did that, catastrophe would happen. And it would happen just like that. There were four very famous rabbis. By the end of the first century, codified in the Mishnah, the prevalent teaching of the Jewish rabbis in those days. Here's how they reasoned. First of all, the entire universe is his domain. So God isn't having to go outside of his house to do work on the Sabbath. Secondly, because of that, therefore, Never does he carry anything ultimately outside of that, and if he did, he is going to lift anything to a height greater than his own stature. This is the loophole, the legal loophole, that says God can require us to keep the Sabbath, and yet at the same time, he continues to work. Jesus knows this, which is why he says in verse 17, The work that I'm doing is identical to the work that my father is doing. My father from the moment of creation has not ceased to work. He is working until now, and I am also working. To put it another way, as he does elsewhere, the Sabbath was made for man. It was a gift of God to humanity, to God's covenant people, to say to them, just as I took you out of the bondage of Israel and all of the toil and slavery and hard work there, I'm going to remind you of the rest that I have brought you into so that one day a week you can sit and reflect upon this rest that I have brought you upon. So if I, as the son of the Heavenly Father, Do work which benefits humanity, like healing a lame guy, then that's not a violation of that Sabbath, it is a fulfillment of that Sabbath. Because it is in keeping with the work which God himself is doing. God is holding us up every day of the week. and I'm doing that work as well." In other words, what Jesus is claiming here, and they knew it, is equality with God the Father. And they understand that, which is why in verse 18 we read, this was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, But he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. You see, his answer is I'm doing the work that the father has done and it is beneficial to humanity. Why would you be upset about that? If you understand that the father doesn't stop working ever, why would it bother you if one who is in his image would also work on the seventh day to bring great rest to a lame guy? Later in John, John chapter 9, he would echo these same words as he says about the healing of the man born blind. And the disciples said, you know, is it because he had sinned that he was blind, or is it because his parents had sinned? Was that the reason he was blind? And Jesus said, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him, verse 4. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work." Tonight, by the time we are finished, you're going to walk out here and it is going to be dark. I mean really dark. and you're going to make your way down to that campfire and you're going to be very careful. And some of you brought flashlights because you know how dark it is. And it is a reminder that long before these light bulbs were ever invented and before electricity changed the way we live, Work was done during the day, and once it got night, you went inside. You didn't work anymore. And Jesus says, the day is coming when the daylight's going to stop, and there's not going to be any necessity for us to work anymore. But while it is day, let us work the works of him who sent me. Implicit in this is a notion that is taken up in the book of Hebrews and that we talked about a lot in our study a year ago in the book of Hebrews. which is the providential work of God that continues to this very day anticipates a Sabbath that is coming and it is critically important for you to enter that Sabbath rest. There's a big theological debate as to whether or not Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, whether Saturday is the Christian Sabbath, it's not my It's not my privilege tonight to get into that theological discussion. If you want to know where I stand on this, go to those studies in Hebrews on sermon audio, and I've got messages on that whole thing. But here's what we can all agree. It's the most important thing that you take away tonight. More important than that you are a seventh-day Sabbatarian or that you are a first-day Sabbatarian. is that you are a seven-day Sabbatarian. That every day of the week you have ceased from your labors and you have rested in His. That you have put down your efforts to achieve a righteousness before God through the works of your righteousness. You have cast them aside and you have found your rest in Him. That's why the writer of Hebrews says, don't be like Israel at the threshold of the promised land, at Kadesh Barnea. Don't be like them, because they were that close to entering into the rest that God had brought for them, and then they turned around and they walked away from it. Strive to enter that rest, he says, which sounds like a contradiction in terms. To strive to rest? You rest to rest. No, he says, you don't stop. You press forward until you have entered the rest which God himself has offered to you in Jesus Christ so that every day you enjoy this rest from your works. So Jesus says, the reason why I am able to work on the Sabbath and do these things is because I'm following in my father's footsteps. This kind of reinforces what I said earlier. You would think the more we are like God, the more we would be liked by other people, right? People seem to have a high view of God. They talk about him all the time. But then when one comes who is the exact image and representation of that God, we read, they try to kill him. Not only does he say that he's equal to the father, but he goes a step further, and beginning in verse 19, he says that he is subordinate to the father. So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing. For whatever the father does, that the son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these he will show him, so that you may marvel." Now notice what Jesus doesn't do. First of all, he doesn't engage in a theological argument over the significance of the Sabbath. I would. I would walk right into that debate and say, let's talk about what the Sabbath is, when it began, who it's for, what it's all about. Jesus doesn't do that. Jesus doesn't bother to claim that his work on the Sabbath was qualitatively different than the work that he engaged in on the other six days. He doesn't say, look, on the other six days I do these kinds of things, this is what I do on the Sabbath, that's why it's different. He doesn't point out that the man was not a paid worker who was compensated for carrying mats, you know, doesn't have a business, lame Larry's, you know, cot carrying company. He's not being compensated for doing this. This isn't earning a living on the Sabbath day. He could have said that and it would have been true. No, instead what he does is identify his work with that of the Father. To say, I am both equal with God and I am at the same time subordinate in my relationship to the Father. It isn't like Jesus' claim to be a different God. His will, his thoughts, his motivations are identical with the Father. Because the Father loves the Son, he shows him all things, even greater ones than the healing of the invalid. Fred and I played golf with our sons today, Taylor and Samuel, you know, and occasionally we would take them aside and say, hey, you know, hold your club this way, position the ball this place in your stance and so forth. Why were we doing that? Because they're our sons. What Jesus is saying here is, in my incarnation, I am learning what it is like to be the father's son. I am apprenticing as the son of God. And he is revealing to me what it means to be him, so that I can walk in his path. I can do what he does. And furthermore, he loves me so much he's going to show me even greater works than these. Now what are they? Keep reading. Verse 21, for as the father raises the dead and gives them life, the Pharisees would agree, so also the son gives life to whom he will. The father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the son, that all may honor the son just as they honor the father. Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who has sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but he has passed from death to life. Now, here's where the theological contemplation on the Sabbath as a sign begins to unfold. Jesus is doing signs, not just miracles, signs. The reason John uses that term is because he wants us to understand that each one of these acts by which Jesus takes someone and liberates them from whatever physical malady they're suffering from is a sign. The miracle is what grabs our attention, but the miracle isn't designed to have you look at it. Rather, it is designed to point towards something even greater and more significant. This is what the book of signs in the John's chapters 2 through 11 of the gospel of John is designed to do. These signs Jesus did. Some people believe because of them, some people didn't believe in them, but they were these signs. Now the sign of the Sabbath is this. There is an even greater work that is coming. It is a work that the father is going to show to the son. He's already revealed it to the son, so he knows that this is going to take place. There is an eternal Sabbath that is coming and how you know it has dawned is when the sun occupies a position in this world as the one who gives life to the dead and judges all men. This is the sign that the eternal Sabbath is beginning. When the dead hear his voice, this is what he says in verse 28, 25, truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. The Father has entrusted this to him. and those who hear will live. For as the father has life in himself, so he's granted the son also to have life in himself. And he's given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. Now please hear these words. Jesus, the eternal son of God, equal with the father in every way, subordinate to the father in his function in the economy of his sonship, has been given and granted authority by the father so that at the end of time, It is His voice that will awaken the dead. They will come out of their graves and they will stand before Him. And those who have been given life by the Son will enter into an eternal Sabbath, an eternal rest. Every Sunday we come before the Lord And we remember people within our own congregation who are sick, who are ailing, who have all kinds of maladies. I routinely go to hospitals and visit members in our church who are getting ready for surgery or have been through surgery or, you know, in sickness. So do many of you. The number of those days that are left is finite. And every day we pass, we get closer to the day when that will be something relegated to history. And we'll rest. Avery, bless her heart, will rest. Those of you who are suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, you'll rest. Those of you who haven't yet discovered but will soon discover that there is some chronic illness that is afflicting you will rest. Because you will hear the voice of the son who said to this lame man, pick up your cot and go walk on that Sabbath day. You will hear his voice, enter into my eternal Sabbath, which I have won for you by my work. And rest. Rest, my weary child. Rest, my sick child. Rest, my troubled child. Just rest. And it is why it is so important that you don't hear the words of this sign and harden your hearts to it the way these men did. He speaks today and the sound of His voice is the voice that gives life. Hear Him because there still remains a rest for us to enter and make sure that none of you come short of it. Because when he finally raises to eternal life all that have died, he says some will go along to the resurrection of life and others to the resurrection of judgment. And there will be no rest for them. No eternal rest. My friends, hear the word of the Lord. Hear the words of this passage, take them to heart, don't turn away from the offer, the free offer of rest that is given to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. College students, hear the word of Christ. Teenagers, Hear the word of the Lord. Parents, adults, children, listen to the voice of Christ and trust in him. His work, not mine. His effort, not mine. His merit, not mine, is the basis for my faith. Stop working. Start resting. Let's pray. So our Father, grant that this sign will not be wasted upon anybody that hears it tonight. That there will be children here who will have their hearts awakened to the reality of the offer of the gospel. That your spirit will not give rest to anyone until they find their rest in you. Dear Lord, press upon our hearts the eternal importance of entering into the Sabbath rest which Jesus has given to us. For it is in his name that we pray this, amen.