While you remain standing, please turn to John chapter 5. I intend to go all the way from verses 1 to 24, but rather than read all of those 24 verses, we'll read verses 1 through 15 to focus on the account, the story, if you will, of Jesus and the lame man at the pool. So read John chapter 5, verses 1 through 15. Please hear the word of God. 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, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, and paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water, for an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. Now, a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition a long time, he said to him, do you want to be made well? Do you want to be made 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. Jesus said to him, rise. take up your bed and walk. And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked, and that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cursed, it is the Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your bed. He answered them, he who made me well said to me, take up your bed and walk. Then they asked him, who is this man who said to you, take up your bed and walk? But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn a multitude being in that place. Afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. This is the word of God. May God, by his spirit, teach us and convict us according to his will. You may be seated. You may have forgotten, but the first of the year, we said during the course of the year for Lord's Supper Sundays, which tend to be the first Sunday of the month, that we would intend to go through the book of John, maybe not covering every detail, but looking chapter by chapter in the book of John. And the first four months of this year, which happens to be 2024, we did a pretty good job. We saw the word who became flesh, became a man. We saw the wedding in Cana. In chapter 3, we saw there was a man named Nicodemus. Chapter 4, there was a woman at the well. And there's much instruction and exhortation of who Jesus is and helps given what the gospel is and how to evangelize. But we were not able to return to John chapter 5 until today. So we'll return to another interaction with an individual, Christ with an individual. Here it's the lame man at the pool who's in need of healing, who's unable to help himself. Dealing with individual contacts so far in the book of John has been the theme. But with John chapter 5, starting with this healing of the man by the pool, will now lead into conflict with more than just one, but with a multitude or even the religious leaders in particular. And we'll see a change then of opposition with the religious leaders, which hasn't been seen so much in the book of John. And that will eventually lead to Jesus' death. And what you see here with the opposition against Jesus reflects what we saw way back in John chapter one in the prologue when John wrote, he came to his own, but his own did not receive him. And we'll see some of that unfurling as we go through the book of John slowly. But first we'll learn from this next man that's given in John's account. We'll learn Christ and his power over creation and even recreation in redemption. We'll see his deity on display, and we'll see pictures of his salvation and lessons about salvation in what we see today in John chapter 5, before we see the dispute over the Sabbath, that even that leads to clarify who Christ is. He is the Son of God, the Son to the Father, the second person of the Trinity, but also the mediator between men and God. And only through Christ is there everlasting life and no judgment because he gives life and takes the judgment, and only through Christ and by his grace can one pass from death unto life, and that being eternal life. There's a very brief outline in your bulletin, and you can see that, if you will, as we walk through this. We'll look at the Lord of creation with the healing of the sick. We'll see the Lord of recreation, which might not make so much sense to you, with the healing of the sin. And then we'll see the Lord of life and death. We see the starting of the discourse of the divine son, in particular the son and the father. Those are brief outlines to help us to walk through this passage. and also help us prepare for the Lord's Supper, which is the highlight of our worship today. So if you look at verses one through nine, you see the Lord of creation. He's the one who has power over all creation, and we see him healing the sick as proof of so. And here we'll learn of Christ's deity and the salvation that he brings as well through the healing of a lame man. He is the son of God who knows men. and knows the hearts of men, and he rules creation. So verse one, it begins, after this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. The after this doesn't necessarily tell us how long it's been since what we saw in the last chapter. John has a tendency to do that. He's not giving precise timelines, but after this, we figure the feast of the Jews is one of the pilgrim feasts, Passover, Pentecost, or tabernacles. I'm assuming it's Passover, but we really don't know. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem. That doesn't mean that the disciples were not with him. It's just that they're not mentioned at this point in time. And then verse two mentions a sheep gate. Now they're in Jerusalem. By the sheep gate was a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. Now, there's some speculation, and we're pretty sure, I think, where this was at. I won't go into that because the time is limited today. But why was it called a sheep gate? Well, it's probably due to the fact that sheep would be brought through the gate as they're brought to sacrifice in the nearby temple courts. That seems befitting. Now, as Christ is there as the lamb who would be slain. And Bethesda means house of mercy, which also seems rather appropriate as someone whose lame will be healed by the lamb who would be slain. When he mentions five porches, that would basically describe covered colonnades or pillars with coverings over to make a porch, a shelter of some sort. And it seems like those who are sick or those who had afflictions could rest in the protection of these porches or these covered colonnades. So that's the picture we have here. And then verse three, in these porches or colonnades lay a great multitude of sick people. The word for sick means without strength, feeble. I think even some translations would say invalid. You can even say maybe paralyzed. It's the same root, by the way, that you have in verse five when it describes a certain man as having an infirmity. He, too, is one of those who are the worst of the worst as far as their afflictions. This is a great multitude of sick people, but also blind, lame, and paralyzed. And then in the second part of verse 3 and in verse 4, some of your translations may not even have it. Maybe there's a footnote. But it's wise to note that the latter part of verse 3 and all of verse 4 is a disputed passage. It's likely not part of the original text. I read it because most of us are familiar with it. The New King James has it so we can know about it. It doesn't necessarily mean that what's in it is not true, but it is a disputed text. None of the best and most ancient manuscripts have the account of the stirring of the water by an angel so that the first person who comes in could be healed. And so it's likely not part of the original text. It is interesting, even Tertullian, though, who was around in, say, about 150 to 220 AD, he knew of this passage. So at least the thought of it was there early on. I think William Hendrickson explains well the difficulties with this passage, verses three and four. And he says, I think rightly so, that it's more difficult to explain how this passage was emitted from the best manuscripts than it is to account on how it creeped into. It's more likely that it crept into later manuscripts rather than was taking out of the original. And how could that happen? Well, as you have transcripts being recorded and re-recorded time after time, there might be a note off to the side to try to explain it because you're thinking, why are we around this pool? And he's wanting to get in here and there's stirring of the water. And so maybe there's a legend, maybe there's a thought, maybe it actually was true that there was something supernatural happening in this place. but it makes more sense that it was something that would have crept into later manuscripts rather than be omitted from original. And it is interesting, if you take out verses three and four, there's no need to have an angel stirring waters and have supernatural healings. And John isn't necessarily saying that he thinks this is what's happening either. So again, it makes the disputed passage be unnecessary. There is a possibility, though, that it was true. Whenever God's doing wonderful things, there's an uptick of supernatural occurrences. And even during a time of Jesus' time on Earth, there were activities of the angels and supernatural activities. So it's not completely ruled out. When we find something in scripture that seems odd, it doesn't mean, whoop, can't have that, because God doesn't do supernatural things. But we do try to take our time to see what's being said. In this case, we're trying to take our time to see if it's actually part of the original. Perhaps the best explanation of verses three and four is that people thought that the stirring of the waters brought health. Even now we have, say, mineral springs. We even talked about that in the seven letters of the seven churches in Revelations. In one of the cities, there was supposedly healthy springs there that would be a help. And perhaps there's the thought that the stirring of the waters brought health. Perhaps there was a a bubbling entry of the pool from some spring that it would occasionally bubble up, and the thought was it would bring health, and so people would be hanging around there for that. It could even be that there was a string of water supernaturally, but there's no way of knowing that. I think the main thing to realize from this passage, though, before we get too far off on a rabbit trail, is that the miracle of the sick man being cured by the pool was not done by the angel, was not done in the pool, but by the power and love of Jesus Christ himself. The Lord who heals does not use a pool. He doesn't use the stirring up of waters. The emphasis on Christ and His miracle that He does by His own and by His sovereign power. Don't miss this in the midst of thinking about verses 3 and 4. So there are verse 5. Now a certain man was there who had infirmity, 38 years, and as we said, that infirmity is the same word as those who are, in verse three, the sick ones who are without strength, who are feeble, or even maybe paralyzed and could not move. It's interesting, the Book of John, the wording, now a certain man. You have to enjoy reading through the Gospel of John because the way he writes, it's always interesting to me. He says, now a certain man. Chapter one, it says that God, Jesus is God who became man. And then in chapter two, it ends with saying, but Jesus knew it was in a man. And then chapter three, then it begins with, there was a man named Nicodemus. And then chapter four, Jesus had to go through Samaria to see a woman. But now you have in chapter five, there's a certain man, a certain man who's to be healed. so that Christ's glory and power and grace as the God-man, as the Son of God, could be displayed. And this certain man would draw much attraction to Jesus and attention to Jesus and what he's done because he'd been lame for 38 years. That's a long time. Again, with the Greek wording there, it's not just with a limp that he's been disabled for 38 years. And so this certain man in the healing of him would show Christ's deity and show his compassion. It also shows that he's the Messiah. You might remember the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah that he would come and he would heal the sick. In Isaiah 35 verses 5 through 7, Isaiah writes, then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer. and the tongue of the dumb sing, for water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert, and parched ground shall become like a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. So all of this comes together to show Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who's the Lord of creation and recreation and redemption, but he's also the Messiah when he heals this man. So it takes us to verse six. And Jesus saw him lying there. It seems like it has the idea of not just, oh, look at that. It seems like it's a purposeful, he saw him lying there, like he's looking with an eye of compassion, probing the man's soul. It says, and he knew that he had already been in that condition a long time. He knew, again, Jesus knew something. How did he know that? Well, I guess it could be that by deduction, it could be he was told, but I think it's better to say that he knew divinely as a son of God. Maybe the father revealed it to him or his divine nature made it known, but it implies a divine cause of him knowing. He knew what was in this man. He knew what this man was going through. He knew what to tell Nicodemus. He knew of this Samaritan woman's husband's, plural, and her life. It should be a great help to you that Christ knows you. If you're outside of Christ, it should be a terror because he knows you and he knows your sin and you've not repented. But if you're his, it's a great comfort that Jesus knows you. He knows this man. He knows what he's going through. He said to him, verse six, do you want to be made well Do you want to be made well? Now, if you've never read this story before, would you have expected this? He knew this man had been lame for 38 years. Not just a little bit lame, but disabled for 38 years. He knew what was in this man and the despair that he's going through. We can see some of that later with what he says. Did you expect him to say, do you want to be made well? Like, what would the answer be? You'd like to think it would be yes. It almost seems like a question like that to a man who's been lame for 38 years would be annoying, almost offensive, like, what do you mean do I want to be made well? But I think when Jesus speaks this way, it tells us about him. Do you want to be made well? It shows his compassion, probing this man's life. Maybe he knows this man had descended into a state of despair. Maybe this man was thinking, I will never get well. I've lost the will to be cured. It's been 38 years, and he's putting his hope in this water, and he can never get there. It's kind of symbolic of putting hopes in our works, our own merits to find favor with God. So maybe by saying, do you want to be made well, the Savior is sympathizing with this man. I think a big part of this is, He's revealing something, and he's trying to reveal something to this man. These are words spoken in order to bring open acknowledgment of this man's misery and inability. He wants this man to recognize his state. Do you want to be made well? If you want to be made well, you have to first recognize that you're not well, and you can't do it on your own. You're unable. So these words are maybe spoken in order to bring about an open acknowledgment of his misery, his inability, And then the miraculous recovery would stand out all the much more as a result. I think these words were also words of encouragement. The way they're said, do you want to be made well, certainly has the hint, I can help you. I can help you. Why else would he ask? Unless he's taunting the man, I don't think Christ would be doing that. So it's compassionate, it's revealing, it's encouraging. But I think this gives us hints and lessons on the salvation we have through Christ Jesus and only Christ Jesus. Notice that Jesus takes the initiative, he moves first, and then he shines the light on the need of this lame man, what he must have. Salvation is the same way. Christ must take initiative, we cannot help ourselves. We don't have the ability. We are lost in our sin and we're dead in our sins. And the bad news of the gospel must be addressed before the good news of the gospel can be given. You have to understand, you need to be made well before you can even care about being made well. The sinner must see his sin. He must own it as his own. He must realize what his sin deserves and who it is against. It's the eternal God of the universe. and what it results in, eternal damnation, undeservedly so. The sinner must know his inability to get rid of his sin. He must despair in this state and the effects of his sin. That's first. Do you want to be made well? You have to know that you are not well. And nobody likes to admit that. That's where it starts. And then the sinner must see Christ as his only hope and his Savior, his only Savior from sin, death, and hell. And sometimes it bothers people when we say Christ must take the initiative. We say, I'll just wait till Christ to take the initiative. That's never what's commanded of the sinner. The sinner is commanded to repent and believe, just like this man is commanded to rise up, take up your bed, and walk. And now through this sermon, if you're in this sanctuary, Jesus has taken the initiative to show you in the midst of his worship with his people, the word of God has said, do you want to be made well? Do you see your need for Christ? That's the initiative that's being taken. Will you listen? Do you see it? Do you own your own sin? Do you hate it? Do you want to be made well? The gospel is basically this, do you hate your sin and do you love Christ? That's the simplicity of the gospel. Do you hate your sin and do you love Christ? Before you can come to Christ for salvation, you must see your utter need for him because of your sin and him alone. Do you want to be made well? Well, the answer in verse seven, 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'm coming another steps down before me. It's interesting. It seems to be a bad situation. It's winner takes all at this pool. Whatever's going on, everyone for themselves, and obviously the one who needs it most can't have it. I do think the water being stirred up could very easily be a natural occurrence of an intermittent spring feeding the pool that would bubble up and people thinking this would be healthy for them. There could be a supernatural element there, but it doesn't have to be. But notice that though this man sees his inability, he says, I can't get into the pool. It's really only to some extent, isn't it? He's still trying to get in the pool. He's still trying to drum up some ability of his own to heal himself. It's almost as if he's saying, if only I could get into the pool, if somebody can help me to get in that pool, if you get those other people out of the way, could you trip them or something so I could get there first, then I would be good. He's still trusting in his own ability in some odd and sad way. It's just like we are when we're faced with our own sin. We cannot fathom our own inability. We decide we must be able to do something Salvation cannot be as easy as repentance and faith, can it? It wasn't so easy for Christ, but it is easy for the sinner who comes to Christ in repentance and faith. So what does Jesus say in verse 8? Jesus said to him, rise, to a man who for 38 years could not, rise, take up your bed and walk. Actually, it's in a continual form. Rise, take up your bed, and go on walking with continual walking. This bed we're talking about is probably like a camp bed, like a thin mattress that a poor person would have. He'd carry around with you so it wouldn't be so hard to lay on the ground. It was not much of anything. It was not much of a burden to carry around, even on a Sabbath day. Or maybe the man thought that Jesus was going to help him into the pool. Here, I'll get first in line. But he probably didn't expect Jesus to say, rise, take up your bed, and walk. But what does happen in verse 9? And immediately, and the word immediately is emphasized in this, the immediateness of it, instantaneousness of this. And immediately, the man was made well. Now notice, did he make himself well? So God took the initiative and made him well. As a result, he took up his bed and walked and answered the command of Christ. He was made well by the power of Christ so he could rise, take up his bed and walk. He obeyed by the power of Christ. He was healed all at once. with a purposeful emphasis on immediately, showing the sudden complete character of the cure. And once more, the glory of the Son of God is revealed. At his very word, a lame man has strength and healing, and he walks away. At his very word, the world is created. At his very word, a soul can be saved as well. It's interesting. that with the blind man that we'll eventually see in chapter nine, it wasn't immediate, was it? If you remember that with a blind man, Christ spit on some dirt, put on his eyes and has said, go wash this off in the pool of Salome. So there's something more to be done. In the old Testament, you have Naaman who is a Gentile, but he was told to wash in the Jordan seven times before he could be cleansed. It's interesting, here there's none of that. Perhaps in those two cases I've just mentioned, it was the purpose of that was not to show that you work to earn your salvation, but it was giving them a chance to show their faith, to show their response of what God had done in them. Even defend the faith, you think of the blind man who becomes more and more strong as witness for Christ as he's being attacked as a no longer blind man. But here, there is no show of faith with this man who is healed, It was all done immediately and instantaneously and completely. This is just like the salvation we have in Christ Jesus, which is instantaneous and complete. And it's all because of the grace and power of God and nothing we do. Through Christ and by His Spirit who acts first to heal, the sinner then rises and walks. But notice Jesus did call the man to rise and carry and walk. There was a command given to the man And sinners are called to rise in a sense of repenting and believing in Christ. And then Christians are called to take up the cross, not the bed, and walk in Christ and with Christ and for Christ. It's wonderful Jesus is not limited by the will of man to heal. It's a glorious thing because we'd all be forever sick. He's not limited in how he saves souls, but he enables them to rise and walk. He enables them to repent and believe. and your charge is to come to Him in repentance and faith. At the end of verse 9, there's a transition. And that day was the Sabbath. So now we're back into the Sabbath and the Gospels again. That day was the Sabbath. It's really a transition to what happens with the rest of the chapter. But for us, it'll be a transition from the Lord of creation and the healing of the sick person to the Lord of recreation. the healing of the sin of that person. At least we hope. I think so. But here what you have in verses 10 through 15, you have the first open hostility to Jesus recorded in John's gospel. What happens is the Pharisees place all sorts of burdens on the Sabbath to weigh it down, even though it was meant to be a gift to men. It was meant to be a day of delight, to be free to worship, to be freed from your common labors of the week, but free to worship and to enjoy and to rest in God from your common activities, but in God and with his people. That was the point. And Christ would look to recapture the Sabbath from this abuse, including, yes, acts of necessity and mercy were not just allowed, but even encouraged on the Sabbath day. Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath. I almost want to have this second point be the Lord of the Sabbath. That would be more cute, I suppose, the Lord of the Sabbath Because he's the Lord of the Sabbath who in Mark chapter two reminds us that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath as a gift to man. It's interesting the Ten Commandments when they're given in Deuteronomy five the second giving of the Ten Commandments if you will the reason for the fourth commandment of the Sabbath day. is now changed to, you are redeemed from your slavery in Egypt, therefore rest on the seventh day. So it even changes from creation to recreation, which is part of why I call this second point the Lord of Recreation. But enough of that. So what happens in verse 10? The Jews therefore said to him, who is cured, it is the Sabbath. Now, did you catch this? A man who'd been lame, paralyzed for 38 years. He doesn't have a name. He's the man who was cured, which is enough. The Jews, which represents, I believe, the religious leaders, the Pharisees, the Jews therefore said to him who was cured, it is a Sabbath. They're not saying, look at you. I can look you in the eye. What about the Sabbath? It is not lawful for you to carry your bed on the Sabbath. It's depressing the Pharisees had superimposed hair-splitting legalism on the law of God. Instead of a day of delight, instead of having works of gratitude on the Sabbath, representing our salvation by grace, they turn it into a day of idleness from common work with a view to salvation by merit. Because you better keep that Sabbath or you'll lose your favor with God. For the Pharisees, it was all about the pressure for idleness and restriction and hardship. But for Christ, the Sabbath was for freedom to worship and for good works and rest. The Lord of the Sabbath knew the Sabbath was made for man as a gift, not man for it. And the Pharisees said, it's not lawful to carry your bed on the Sabbath. Where would they get this? Well, you assume from Exodus 20, verse 10, which when the fourth commandment is given, there's no work on it. But then Jeremiah 17 and Nehemiah 13, there's cases where you're not to be carrying burdens on the Sabbath. But those passages deal with burdens connected to labor for gain, for buying and selling and trading, being in the marketplace, burdens from those sorts of things, which are still not what the Sabbath is for. But those burdens are not carrying a flimsy mattress pad after you've been healed from 38 years of paralysis? It's ridiculous. Comparing a cured man carrying a, quote, burden of his bed to a man buying and selling on the Sabbath makes a mockery and a caricature of the Sabbath and the law of God. And it's interesting, here you had the Pharisees who placed burdens on people on the Sabbath, but what they should do and not do while claiming that a man healed was wrongfully carrying a burden on the Sabbath in this way. So in verse 11, then the man who never has a name, he answered them and said, he who made me well said to me, take up your bed and walk. I think it's nice. When you look at the commentators, some think this man is not a good guy, like he's not learned anything yet. Maybe I'm too nice. I think the other side. I think he doesn't know much. In fact, he doesn't know who Jesus is until later. But I think it's similar to John chapter 9, where the blind man gets more and more bold as the chapter goes on. I can't wait to get to John chapter 9, but we'll have to wait. He's basically saying, the one who could do such a glorious deed as to raise me up from my paralysis, he has the right to tell me I could take up my bed and walk. He has a right to tell the cured person what to do. It's not going to go so well with the Pharisees, though, in verse 12. Then they asked him, who is the man who said you take up your bed and walk? And actually, literally, it's who is the man who said you take it up and walk? They didn't even mention the bed. They're not even worried about the bed, they're worried about, you better obey our commands. It doesn't even matter what it is. When they say that in verse 12, it's derisively, it's contemptuously. The idea of the man, who is this man who thinks he can abuse the law and the rules that we've laid down is what's being said here. And they didn't ask, who healed you? Did you notice that? They know this man, I'm sure. They don't say, who was it that healed you? At least they could be mad about that. But no, it's who told you to take up your bed and walk? Or who told you to take something up and walk? They were not interested in the man's recovery, but about hair-splitting man-made regulations with their so-called zeal. Their so-called zeal put blinders on them. They were proud of it, how zealous they were, but their blinded zeal blinded them from their foolishness. This was just a flimsy mat being carried by a previously 38 year paralyzed man. And they wanted to trace this awful deed of not just healing somebody, but especially telling somebody who could carry his bed to the one who commanded it. So then verse 13. But the one who was healed did not know who it was. The one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. We could speculate, we're not really told why Jesus leaves. Was it to avoid a public demonstration? Was it to make sure he could face the religious leaders later, rather than just people in general, which is what happens? Was it to give the man an opportunity to strengthen his convictions, like we see in John chapter nine? We don't know, but Jesus had departed and the man did not know who he was, which makes this a little bit odd. We're expecting people to be healed because they have faith. This man is healed, and Jesus, who is God, can do this. So then you get to verse 14. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple. Perhaps it's in the courts of the temple. We don't know if it's the next day or the same day or how much later it is. We don't know. We assume maybe he's going there to give a thanks offering because he's healed. But even that we don't know. What we do know is that Jesus seeks him out. And why does Jesus seek him out? Can you guess why Jesus would seek him out? He's healed. And what's the point? Well, nothing was said in verses 1 through 13 of a spiritual healing, of his spiritual condition being healed. And there's no mention of faith in Christ, which is necessary for this. This man's body was healed, but the divine healer desires to heal the soul. It's good to have the body healed, but without the whole soul healed, it means nothing, eventually. And just as Jesus has the power to heal the body of a man, he saves the soul as well. And Jesus had pointed out his condition when he said, do you want to be made well? And he commanded the man to rise, take up your bed, and walk. He will now point out his spiritual condition, that he's hopeless, unable, he's dependent on others for help, and he'll need to be raised from his spiritual death to be enabled to take up the cross and obey and heed the command to repent and believe. So in verse 14, then we continue. Jesus says to the man, see, you've been made well. What's implied there is you're still well. You've been well again. It's the idea that you've been permanently made well. Do you see this? Look, you've been made permanently well. And this is likely in comparison to the so-called cures of the pool. that most likely didn't last when they were in the stirrup, I'm feeling better, and maybe it wasn't so good the next day. With Jesus, it's permanent. That's what Jesus' healing does. But then he says, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you. And one thing has to be made clear. He's not saying that you sinned in a certain way 38 years ago to cause you to be in this situation. As if his sin or somebody else's sin was the cause for this condition, there's paralysis. John makes a similar point in John chapter 9 with a man being born blind. It was assumed it must be something he did or his parents did. And John makes it clear, no, it's nothing they did. It was for the glory of God that this occurred, even for the good of the person involved. And it's actually in present tense when it says, sin no more, lest a worse thing may happen to you. It's actually saying, no longer continue to sin. Jesus is not merely referring to something in the past, but what is presently this man's condition. The man has sinned, yes, and he continues to sin and he continues in his sin. The man is dead in his sin. He's unreconciled to God. He deserves wrath. And he continues to sin because that's who he is outside of Christ. And so Jesus warns him not to stay in this condition. Sin no more, that something worse will happen. And the something worse means something worse than what you've already gone through, something worse than your physical affliction that you were just delivered from. And only the physical healer before him can save him from the eternal affliction that sin deserves and will have without repentance and faith turning to Christ. And so in verse 15, I wish we knew more about this man. This man just kind of goes off into the sunset. I'm assuming the best, because even what happens here in verse 15, the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. I wish there were more. I'm going to assume that there is faith, that he understood what Jesus was saying. There's faith. He recognized who Jesus is. And he doesn't go to them and say, it was Jesus who commanded me to carry that bed. He says, it was Jesus who made me well after 38 years of infirmity. He made me well. And perhaps this is evidence that he placed his faith in Christ. There must be repentance and faith placed in Christ if he is saved. And so unlike the sin-enslaved Pharisees, this man puts the emphasis on the healing and not the command. The Pharisees emphasize the legalistic offense that they assumed, but he emphasizes the gracious healing of the divine Savior and Son of God. So that leads us then to the Lord of life and death in verses 16 through 24. The Lord of life and death, and the emphasis here is on the Father and the Son. It does kind of fit into our confession reading where God is triune. We worship him as such with Christ the son who's the mediator between God and man. I think the rest of the chapter then speaks on this. And in fact, soon there'll be what is called the third discourse starting up, and we won't go that far because that would take us into the chapter. The third discourse, the first discourse was you must be born again. The second discourse was the water of life in chapter four. Now you have the third discourse in the book of John, which is the divine sonship of Christ. But here, the Jewish authorities had fixed their anger on Jesus. In verse 16, it says, for this reason, the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath. How silly that is, but it shows the continued hostile activity. Their hearts were becoming hardened all the more to see Christ crucified, but not for their salvation, but for their own sin. He healed, and he healed on the Sabbath. showing that he is Messiah God and maybe even more so showing them up and they couldn't take that. But his defense starting with verse 17 and following is on his deity and his identity in his triune relationship with his father and as our mediator. So verse 17. Jesus answered them. We don't know, did they say something? Maybe something's left out, or maybe it's one of those things, again, where Jesus sees their hearts, he sees what they're thinking of, so he says, I'll just take the initiative and speak, and we don't know, but regardless, he answers and says, my father has been working until now, and I have been working. Remember the context, you broke the Sabbath by commanding someone to pick up a bed who had just been cured. It is interesting, a Jew might say, our father, maybe they would say that, And sometimes a Jewish person in Jesus' time would say, my father, but only when they are praying and only by quickly adding on my father who's in heaven. But a Jewish person would never refer to God as my father. Jesus, however, boldly calls the father, my father, and for him it speaks of an intimate relationship that's been unheard of, that he's the second person of the triune God. equal in essence and power and glory with the Father. But here he points to the unceasing activity of the Father. If the Father did not continue working, this universe would cease to exist. On the seventh day, he rested from his labors of the original creation, but he continues to work now, day by day, if you will, and it's a good thing. And since Christ, as the Son, is in a close relationship with the Father, he works in the same way as what Jesus is saying. As the Father works all the time, I work all the time, meaning I hold all things together. And we see that in Hebrews 1, verse 3, that He's the Son, who is God, who upholds all things by the word of His power. We see it in Colossians 1, verses 15 and following, where we see the Son is God, who created all things, and in Him all things consist. He holds all things together. He is God the Son. Jesus is pointing out that he acts in conformity with the example of his father, who is God, and in conformity with the mandate that he received from his father as the son. God's rest on the seventh day was a rest from his original creation, but he continues to work in grace and mercy and providence and redemption. And Christ was mandated as a son to hold to the Sabbath as it was meant to be as the Son who became man, and to work to heal on the Sabbath. His work to heal on the Sabbath was gracious and merciful and providential and unto redemption. And if the Pharisees were right about the Sabbath only being about idleness, then what Jesus is saying in verse 17 is that the Father and the Son would both be guilty of breaking the Sabbath. If the Father carrying on the work of preservation and redemption would be wrong, which it isn't, then how would it be wrong for the son who stands in close relationship to the father to do the same thing, but to do so would acknowledge that he's the son who's equal to the father who is God. The father and the son are engaged in one task in unity, verse 17 is saying. And so the Jews in verse 18 rightly understood what was going on when he says this, therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath, but he also said that God was his father, making himself equal to God. When Jesus says this, he's saying, I and the Father are one. We are equal. We are both persons of the triune Godhead. We are God. I am God. And they start to stone him because that would be blasphemy. They'd already determined to kill him over the Sabbath. but now even more so because he's making himself equal with God. Jesus knew that claiming to be the son of God was the same thing as saying that he is God. He's claiming to have the same essence of the father, that he partook of the same nature of the father. And this would be blasphemy to the Jew, punishable by death. In fact, in John chapter eight, when he says, I am, they tried to stone him then again. It reminds us of one of the purposes of John's gospel is that in chapter 20, By Christ's signs recorded, you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. This also shows the depth of human depravity. The Jews knew that Jesus had just done the impossible by healing the lame man. And he just showed his deity. He just showed that he was the Messiah. But rather than receive him by faith and unto life, they desired his death. I thought about connecting this verse to 24 by walking through verses 19 through 23, but looking at the clock, we'll pick it up next week to finish the rest of the chapter. But understand this, starting with verse 19, now you have the third discourse of John starting where he promotes, Jesus promotes himself as the divine son of eternity. We'll come back to that next week, but I want you to go down to verse 24 as we close. Go back to verse 24 as we close. What we've missed in those connecting verses is Jesus puts forth the unity of the Father and Son in their essence, in their works, in their life, in their being the Lord over life and death and judgment, and their being honored in their unity in the salvation of souls. So in verse 24, Jesus says, most assuredly, I say to you, And by the way, I might add, since I'm skipping things, in verse 23, it says, And so the question is, Why was he sent? Why was he sent? Well, verse 24, most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life. If you believe in God, you believe in Christ. If you believe in Christ, if you believe in the father, it's the same. But he who hears my word and believes in me who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come unto judgment, but is passed from death to life. I want us to close with this. to remind us he was sent that he might give life to those who would believe his word and in him. And the scripture plainly says if you do believe in Christ, which means you come into repentance and faith, you have eternal life now. You have the quality of eternal life, but the quantity, it never ends. And you will not come into judgment. Christ takes the judgment for you so that your sin does not cause you eternal judgment. You will not come into judgment. And Christ, it says earlier in the verses we skipped, that he has power over life, death and judgment. And so you can trust in him. And if you put your faith in Christ, you have then passed from death to life. Now, it's not something that will hopefully happen later. It happens now. Christ is the son of God. He's eternal God who's equal to the father of the same essence, equal in power and glory. He took on flesh to be a perfect man, to live a perfect life according to the law. He died a perfect death to pay the penalty of his people who broke the law. And he rose to new life and ascended to glory on the throne. And now as the God-man, he has power over life and death and judgment. And he is equal to the Father. And he took eternal judgment of those who would believe to give them an everlasting life. So unlike the Pharisees, we charge you to hear his word and to believe in him. The question is, do you want to be made well? Do you want to be made well from your hopeless, paralyzed, sin-filled state? Do you want to be healed from sin now and kept from something eternally worse later? If so, then heed the words of Christ and go to the cross with your wrath deserving and now acknowledge sin by repentance and faith. and rise with Christ and take up his cross and walk with him in newness of life and obedience with the salvation he gives. Believe and have the everlasting life and no judgment will come upon you and you pass now from death to life. But beware the hardening of your heart as the Pharisees had. by waiting or finding excuses and beware of the pride that does not acknowledge your sin and therefore your need for Christ. It's deadly. You need to come to Christ now. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I do pray, Lord, that we could learn from this, this account of Jesus with the man at the pool and his healing of him and his interaction with the Pharisees. And certainly we see the depravity of man with the Pharisees and the determinedness to to not acknowledge Christ or their sin. With a lame man, he's given the chance to be raised by the power of Christ and commanded, in a sense, to repent and believe lest something worse will happen. It seems to be indicative of the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus. We pray, Lord, that those who are in Christ would rejoice in the salvation that is brought and bought by Christ and nothing we have done that we have the ability to rise to take up our cross and follow Him and live for and with Him. We pray for those who are outside of Christ, Lord, that they would see their sinful state and they would say, yes, I want to, I need to be made well and I can't do anything on my own. I need Christ Jesus and Him alone. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.