We invite you then to turn with us, turn with me to John chapter 5. The Gospel of John chapter 5. I'm going to read the first 17 verses today of this book. I want to go ahead and read from the passage. I have something to say prior to getting into these particular verses and I fear that I might go some time in that and so I don't want to get separated from the word of God in so doing and we want to start this morning with the scripture itself. John chapter 5 verse 1. 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 thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there 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 was the Sabbath day, so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed. But he answered them, The man who healed me, that man said to me, Take up your bed and walk. They asked him, Who is the man who said to you, Take up your bed and walk? Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, See, you are well. Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him, and this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus. because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father is working until now and I am working. The gospel of John has a number of unique, I'll use the word challenges to rightly understanding it and interpreting it. There are a number of things in the Gospel of John that, upon first inspection, don't line up well with the other three Gospels, the synoptic Gospels, as they are called. The Gospel of John, in order to rightly see and understand what's being said, is very helpful for us to always keep in mind what John himself said was the purpose for his writing the entire book. Some stumble and say that the Gospel of John, the sequence of events that occur in the Gospel of John, they're different than in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and they raise questions about the Gospel of John or the Scripture itself, and seeing what is called controversies or contradictions, and these things don't exist, and in order to rightly see what John is doing in the Gospel of John, this marvelous book, we must always keep in mind the reason and the purpose that he wrote it in the first place. And he tells us clearly, he tells us, my purpose is not to give you a complete account of all the things that Jesus did. It's not my intention, John has told us, to give you a play-by-play, a chronological view necessarily. John had one purpose for writing the gospel. The whole purpose behind the whole book is told to us in plain English, plain language, we should say in John 20 verse 30. Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but verse 31. but these 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. That's why John wrote this book. That's why he wrote everything that he wrote in this book. He did not write it to give us a as I've said, day-by-day account of everything that Jesus did. Another gospel writer says, perhaps there's not enough paper in all the world to have written everything that Jesus did, but John is writing so that you and I and all of those who would read it later would come to know God. That's why he wrote it. He didn't write it to please textual critics of our day. He didn't write it to answer every accusation that an enemy of God may put to it. This is not to excuse any contradictions because there are none, but that was the purpose that he wrote. In fact, the gospel of John, and we've looked at a number of these chapters somewhat recently, the first four chapters, we've preached through them. sequentially, and if you look at them and back away from them, it's almost like the gospel of John reads like a script of a play. In chapter one, the curtains open and John is proclaiming, the writer of John and also John the Baptist, they're proclaiming who Jesus is. Jesus is not just the son of Mary. who was the wife of Joseph the carpenter from Nazareth. He's not just a man who did wonderful, mighty works in his life. He's not just the son of David or the son of Abraham. He's the son of God. In the very beginning, opening as that curtain opens, it's John proclaiming, striking through the silence and saying, Jesus is God. He was with God. He always has been God. He always will be God. He is the Word of God made manifest among us. And John goes on to demonstrate in eloquent language the majesty of the Son of God. John the Baptist looks at him and proclaims him the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, and the curtains close on chapter one, and a few moments later, the curtains open again in chapter two. And as we see Jesus now, he's at a wedding, and he's changing the first miracle that he performs. He changes the water into wine. John is always expressing what seems to be dual imagery all through his book. He's telling us what happened outwardly, but in seeing the outward, he's telling us about Jesus and about what it is to know him. And in changing the water into wine, remember he did that and no one saw it. Jesus changes things on the inside, unseen. He makes them new altogether. And it is this imagery that John is painting of the Old Covenant, how the Old Testament and how man broke the command of God and we became sinners. And I don't need to convince you of that. You know that. I believe that though it's important for us to proclaim and tell the world that we are sinners and that man comes forth as sinners, I believe that really that argument is done away. If anyone is being intellectually honest with themselves and anyone speaking to them about it, it's impossible for any of us to deny the fact that we are sinners, that we transgress the law of God. And the New Testament tells us if you break one of the commandments, you've broken them And Jesus, in turning the water into wine, He shows us that there's something new, that He is something different. He's not just a prophet from the Old Testament. He is telling us something new. The old covenant, there's no hope there. There's no hope in it for man, because we broke that covenant with God. But Jesus, in this turning of the water into wine at this wedding, begins to reveal who he is and his disciples. He's gathered a few disciples with him as those curtains open on chapter two, and people begin, you begin to see that this Jesus, he is something different. He's someone different. And isn't that how they responded to his preaching? They were astonished at his doctrine because he taught them not as the scribes and Pharisees, but one with authority. The curtains close on chapter two, and chapter three opens, and as the curtains open, now you see Jesus confronting a religious man, respected man, a rabbi, a teacher, a master in Israel at night by the name of Nicodemus. And he tells Nicodemus in no uncertain terms, he does not get engaged in theological debate with Nicodemus. He simply looks at Nicodemus and he says, if you want to see heaven, if you want to see God, you must be born again. Nicodemus, I want you to look past all your learning. Not that the learning is without value, but it is not enough. We see Jesus in chapter 2 as well, before not giving Himself over to all the people, because though they believed, they did not truly come to Him in repentance and faith. They knew there was something different about Him, but they didn't surrender their life. Jesus was something they wanted. The idea that they had formed of who He was, rather than Him Himself. And with Nicodemus, Jesus dealing with a man for whatever reason, and it might be more speculation on man's part to say this, and on interpreter's part, and commentator's part, and preachers of the past, of insinuating because Nicodemus came to him at night, he didn't want people to see him, It might be true, but either way, at the nighttime when no one else can see, Jesus is confronting this man, this learned Pharisee, this respected man in Israel, and he says, all of that respect that you have, all of that knowledge that you have, none of it will see you to heaven. You must be born again. You must be changed. Changed. Because as you came into the world, it's not how you can leave it if you expect to be in heaven. And he heals as well in the later part of that third chapter. He heals one, and then in chapter four, the curtains close on chapter three, and curtains then open on chapter four, and we find a very different scene. It's no longer dark. It's noon at the well of Jacob in Samaria. And rather than engaging with this respected elder in Israel, the Son of God is speaking to this lowly, immoral, despised Samaritan woman. And what does he say to her? You need to drink from the well of living water, which he said is himself. All of these sins that you've accumulated, all of this life that you've lived and led you to this place where you've had five husbands and the one you're with is not even your husband, and this life that you've lived, that you've turned into a terrible train wreck. you are being offered. If you knew who was speaking with you, you would ask him to give you the water of life. And all the way in Revelation, this same man, John, says that Jesus told him to tell all the world, come and all who will come and drink of the water of life freely must drink of the well of Christ. and he heals an official son at the close of chapter four, again, beginning to show, and there's bookends there, the miracle in Cana, the miracle at the wedding, something new, and the healing of the official's son when he wasn't even present, as you remember, the fever that left him the moment that Jesus says, go, your son is well. And now chapter five opens in all of these things. Chapter five brings some difficulty for us. Was this man saved, this invalid that is healed? Seems to be confusing. And then we have the textual issue of verse four. And I don't want to overlook that because it might be a distraction in the ESV. It doesn't exist. In the ESV we go from verse three to verse five. The King James Version there has verse four, the ASV has verse four and others as well, but the reason that the ESV has left it out is because none of the oldest manuscripts that were not available when the King James was translated, none of those older manuscripts have verse four. doesn't exist. This verse that talks about an angel coming down and stirring the waters and the first person who then went into the water was healed in this idea. This was a prevalent idea of the day. There's no doubt, but I believe no earlier than 400 AD. There's no manuscript that has verse four in it. And why do we take time to say it? It's because it's very easy. I think at times to get the go to wrong places, this superstitious idea that there was an angel who troubled the waters, and seems to me that none of the rest of Scripture would support such a claim, but it was a commonly held belief in the day that that's what happened. But what are we seeing here? This dual imagery that John so often is painting, he's speaking on the surface, and yet he's telling us something deeper still. He's telling us what's happening outwardly, but the reason He tells us and He gives these accounts of these outward circumstances and these outward miracles and these outward things that happened, His purpose is so that you might know Jesus, so that you might have faith in His name, that you might have life in His name. Well, what do we learn about that from this in chapter five? What do we learn about that? Well, in verse three, it begins in these, this sheep gate, this pool with five colonnades in this place lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed. Jesus is coming to Jerusalem. And by the way, it says in verse one after this, there was a feast of the Jews. There's been a lot of debate as to what feast it was. I don't know that we could ever certainly say, and if it was important, it would have been told to us what feast it was. But Jesus comes to Jerusalem for one of these feasts of the Jews. And where does it go? Where does Jesus go? Where will you find Jesus? In the high seats of the Sanhedrin? In the respected places of the city? the place where there would be comfort? No. No, you find Jesus going to the pool of Bethesda where the invalids are, the lame, the paralyzed and the sick, the needy. Do you want to know why I think many don't ever come to Christ? It's because they have no idea how needy they are. It's one of the difficulties or the dangers of such a comfortable society that we live in. It's so easy for us to not see our need. But when all is said and done, we are a needy people. And the greatest need that we have is Jesus. We've been seeing that again and again. Even in the Gospel of John, Jesus goes unbidden. There's no evidence here that somebody said, Jesus, let's go to the pool of Bethesda. Jesus goes there. He goes to this place of brokenness and discomfort. He doesn't go where there's ease and simplicity and avoiding the difficulties of life. He goes right to the central place of need. And John is showing us that that's exactly what the Son of God, the Logos, the Word of God did in the beginning as well. He left heaven and came here to earth. He left the place of perfect peace and safety and joy and the Son of God left that home in heaven and took upon himself flesh. He became a man. This opening stage, this opening scene in chapter one, we are looking at the Son of God. taken upon himself flesh. He's fully man and fully God. And here he goes to this pool of Bethesda, where there are people that have great needs. And that's where Jesus goes. And you'll not find him if you don't first understand just how much you need him. You need him. I need him. The world, there is no hope without Him, because according to the Old Testament, man broke the covenant in Genesis chapter 3, and repeatedly they would have these symbols of sacrifices, the turtle doves, and the goats, and the sheep, and all of these things that would be brought as sacrifice, picturing this One who came into the world, Jesus, the Son of God Himself, lives a perfect life. and without him you have no hope, and therefore you have great need of Jesus. This is the spiritual state of all men. As we read Invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed, that describes absolutely every one of us spiritually without Christ. Blind, remember even read even recently that it is possible to become so nearsighted that we only see what's right in front of us, and we don't see eternity that's just on the other side. The only thing separating us from that reality is this thin veil of life, this thin thread of life, and then will be an eternity from which there will be no changing, no altering, no movement from one condition to the other and the only thing that holds us between these two eternal realities is this thing we call life that somehow the enemy convinces us is forever and that we won't have to face death until many years from now and at that point we'll have made it right with God but there's this thin thread of life that through the moments from one moment to the next may be cut and we may be in that place, and yet we don't see that and we don't realize that we are all spiritually invalids, blind, lame and paralyzed without Jesus Christ. Are you holding on that thin thread? Are you ignoring what's on the other side of this thin veil of life? Jesus would have you to know what healing is. He would have you to know Him, to be born again, to be changed, to see that He changes things on the inside and your heart is changed as He changed the water to wine. He comes here in verse three and He goes to this place where people need Him. Verse five, one man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him, I don't want you to miss this. It's easy to just go right over some things in Scripture, and I encourage you to just marinate in Scripture. Just let it seep in. Don't miss what it said. One man. There's a lot of people here. There's a lot. There's a multitude. According to verse three, multitudes of invalids and blind people and lame people and paralyzed people, Jesus' eyes set upon one. One man was there. I'm thankful that when I was 11 years old, there were multitudes around me. I don't know how many, more than 100, 150. There were many people around me. But for His own glory and His own purposes, God looked down on an 11-year-old boy in southwest Missouri, and His eyes settled upon me, and the Spirit of God revealed to me my need of Him." Jesus, in the midst of a multitude of needy people, and yet His eyes, though they take in all of them, they rest on one. And that's how Jesus heals. one at a time. He can heal all, but yet he sees one. Jesus saw him lying there, knew that he had been there a long time, and he said to him, do you want to be healed? Now, at first, when we read that question, isn't there something in our heart, in our mind that goes, of course he does. Of course he does. What kind of a question is that? Do you want to be healed? It is an important question. It is a necessary question, and it's a question that I would pose to you today as well. Spiritually, those of you who are broken, those of you who don't know God, and even those of us who do, but you're struggling spiritually, you're a distance from Him, I ask you, as Jesus asked this lame man, this invalid, He says, do you want to be healed? For 38 years, this man had never taken a step. We don't know whether he was born this way, whether he lost the use of his legs or his body at some point later in his life. But for 38 years, we know that he has never put one foot in front of the other and walked under his own power. And Jesus says, Do you want to be healed? And spiritually, do you want to be healed? Do you want to know God? Do you want to drink this water of life? Do you want to be born again? Do you want to be healed? It's an important question, because it needs to get the man's involvement in the process. And did you notice? You might say this was a strange question, but it actually wasn't a strange question at all, because did you notice that in verse 7 the man doesn't answer? He didn't answer. 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. This idea that the angel came down and troubled the waters, and however you want to look at that and feel about that, this man doesn't answer the question. He's almost seemingly given up hope, and yet he's there. He's there anyway. He doesn't answer the question. He'd all but given up. He didn't give Jesus a direct answer to this, and sometimes it's as though healing is right there and it is available, but we're putting our trust, you're putting your trust and your hope and your confidence in the wrong thing. Jesus is right in front of him, the Son of God. He says, do you want to be healed? It's just what maybe even there's this, this, this unstated yes, but I don't have anybody to take me down to the water. It's this idea of yes, but I, I've never, I don't have an opportunity. I don't see an opportunity. I don't think there's an opportunity for me to do what's necessary to be healed. And I would say to you, if you're saying that spiritually, yes, I want to be healed, but I don't see that there's an opportunity. I don't see that I'll ever have an opportunity to repent, whatever the case may be. There's not a setting where I see I'm supposed to be saved or whatever that it is. And I would tell you that the one who can save you is the one who's asking you the question. Do you want to be saved? Do you want to be healed? Don't be like this man and say, have in your idea, your own mind, well, this is how it's going to work. The way I'm going to get healed, Jesus is somebody who's going to get me to that water first. It's the only way it's going to happen. putting virtue in external things, or in superstitious things, or in silly things, or in people, or yourself, or some religious exercise. And Jesus just goes right to the heart of the matter, and He simply says, get up. Tells him three things, three imperative commands. Get up, number one. Take up your bed, number two. And walk, number three. get up. There's a lot, and I am treading in water that I think that theologically I'm not big enough to swim in here, was this man saved. There's strong arguments on both sides of that argument, and so we're going to deal with what's just right in front of us, this get up, take up your bed, and walk. And at once the man was healed, And spiritually, we do know that that's exactly what happens when God saves. It's not a process. It's not something that occurs over a little bit at a time where we get closer and closer and closer, and then eventually we get saved. It's this change. It's this darkness to life, death to life. It's this changed, all things become new and the old has passed away. There's an instant, there's a moment of conversion and regeneration when we become new creatures and we are healed. And for this man's strength enters into his muscles that for 38 years had done nothing but atrophy and become the weak and almost non-existent. But in a moment, this man stood up, picked up his bed and began walking because Jesus had healed him. That's what happens when we are saved spiritually. Strength is renewed. Life is renewed. We become changed from where we were before. Now this invalid begins to do exactly what he's commanded to do, and we're told in verse 9 that it was the Sabbath day, and we're going to find out that there's an impact. There's a consequence. There's a result. of Jesus' healing of this man. It's not only going to impact Him. Look, getting saved, following God, obeying Jesus here, doesn't just impact this man. It has far-reaching impact upon others. By the way, when God saves you, He wants you to tell it, to be baptized, to join his church, because he's got a work for you to do, and that work will be able to be narrowed down to one thing, it is to carry the gospel to a lost world. Maybe not as a preacher, a teacher, or whatever that you might think, but something, some way your life is then be a witness to those around you. And Jesus says, get up, take up your bed. You don't need it anymore. This place where you've been wallowing, this place of pity that you've been existing in for 38 years, get up, pick it up and start walking. I've got a place for you to go. I have something for you to do, and that's gonna have an impact. And it's the Sabbath day. And so things take a twist in this scene in chapter five, controversy. There's some preachers on the television and the radio and there's always been these kinds of preachers and I believe there always will be these kinds of preachers until Jesus comes back that will paint for you that Christianity is a bed of roses and that if you follow Jesus and do what he says in his word your life is going to be simple and easy and blessed and there'll be no trial and there'll be no trouble and nothing could be further from the truth. In fact Jesus said marvel not that the world hates you it hated me. and if it hates me, and you're following me, what kind of result can you expect? This man is healed on the Sabbath day, and Jesus doesn't do anything without a purpose, and he knows exactly what's going to happen. When Jesus saves, when he heals spiritually, he knows the end result of what he's after, and often it's going to be conflict. Jesus says, I didn't come to bring peace, I came to bring a sword. I'm gonna divide mother-in-law from daughter-in-law, and father-in-law from son-in-law. He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me, he says. Do you hear the call to surrender? And that when we are saved, when we're changed, it's gonna place us at odds with the world. It was the Sabbath day, and the Jews said to the man who had been healed, it's the Sabbath, and it's not lawful for you to take up your bed. And I'm just amazed at such a statement. This man who for 38 years, maybe they didn't know, but I have to believe they did. This man for 38 years, sitting at the pool of Bethesda, lame, unable to walk, and here he is carrying his bed, and all they see is, you didn't do this according to our rules. It's not lawful for you to walk on the Sabbath. they took the Old Testament command, which is no doubt undeniable that it's there. The Sabbath is different. It should be. And the Sabbath was made for man, Jesus clarifies in the New Testament. This is for you and me. This is not so we kind of sacrifice something and give to God one day out of seven and then the other six. We live however that we want to. And that's what makes the Sabbath unique. That's not a right view of the Sabbath at all. It's a day where God has given to us to rest and to honor, to restore a right view of our life. And the longer you go avoiding the reality of the Sabbath in your life, the further distant from God you're going to be. This Sabbath day had been twisted, though. And the Jews, the Pharisees specifically, and the scribes, they had invented from that one command, the Sabbath is unique. They had invented on their own oral traditions some 30 or more, and one of them was, you can't carry your bed on the Sabbath. Literally. And so he was breaking the law, according to them. It's just not lawful for you to do the rules that we've set down as a religious people as Israel forbid you from doing this thing. But he answered the man who healed me. He told me to get up and to pick up my bed and walk. He told me to do this. There's nothing in the text to tell us definitively, but one has to think that they knew exactly who. What they're after here is testimony against Jesus. Someone to say, it was Jesus who did this. Because they then, as we see later in the chapter, in these verses that we've read today, that's why they began to persecute him. That's why as we continue to read in this chapter, it's gonna go from persecution. So that's why they wanted to kill him. Who is this man who said, do you take up your bed and walk? And the man in verse 13, it tells us just plainly, he didn't know who it was. Didn't know. Because Jesus had withdrawn himself. There was a crowd in the place, but then we see this coming together again. In verse 14, Jesus finds him in the temple. It's a good sign. It's a good sign for the man. He's in the temple. But this was a place of secular gathering as well as religious at the time. But Jesus finds him and he says to him, See, you are well. I've healed you. I've made you well again. Sin no more. Something worse happened to you. Something worse than what? What is Jesus talking about? What worse is He talking about? Sin no more, let something worse. Worse, I think most clearly, most directly, something worse than 38 years of being an invalid. Something a lot worse could happen to you than that. There's something worse that could... Whatever that you think bad can happen in this life, there's something worse. That's not going to fill sports stadiums. It's not going to fill church pews, because most people in our culture, they want to hear how God just wants to bless their life here. And then if you just live according to these principles and say that you're a Christian, that your life will be blessed, but Jesus is telling, we learn more about the place that we call hell from Jesus than any other writer in the New Testament. Did you realize that? Now, all kinds of people, we just want to talk about the love of Jesus. We don't want to talk about sin and hell. Well, if you want to talk about Jesus, you can't avoid hell and sin and the need to repent. That's the first thing Jesus proclaimed. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. sin no more, he says to this man, unless something so that nothing worse may happen to you. Whether this man was saved or lost, I think there's some application either way. God comes and he speaks to you and convicts you of your sin. You must come to him completely in repentance and faith because they'll be worse if you don't. If he is a saved man at this time, I think there is an application here where we could say that to be saved and yet not to walk the life that God has given us to walk thereafter would be a terrible, terrible waste of a life saved. Yes. But to what end and to what purpose did you spend the remaining days of your life? This man doesn't give himself... There's nothing here in the text to give us any insight specifically into the mind and the heart of this man who's healed. We see his actions and therefore we can draw a number of conclusions. But what did happen was this man then went to the Jews and said it was Jesus. It was Jesus. There's nowhere in this place where Jesus says anything like, your faith has made you whole. There's nowhere in here where there seems to be repentance on the part of the man necessarily. But at the end of this, he goes and he tells the Jews it was Jesus, and he calls him out. In verse 16, this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. It is an undeniable reality, I think, that man's religion has probably been the greatest hindrance to men finding God than just about anything else. I'm not talking about religion that is sincere and real. I thank God for The fact that he brings churches together and that those people as a society of people establish traditions that are good and wholesome and helpful. But Satan has twisted religion in so many places and in so many ways where there's just not an awareness. any longer of the fact that Jesus works in the heart and he changes inwardly and all things become new and that reflects itself in outward realities. The Jews here are stumbling at this and they begin and they just label Jesus a blasphemer. They label him a heretic. And they do so because Jesus isn't following their rules. Sometimes I think people don't come to God because they're waiting for him to operate in the context of the way they think he should operate. God, you're supposed to convict me during a revival service, and I'll go to the front, and I'll repent, and I'll believe, and I'll get saved. Maybe he will. Maybe he's going to deal with you tomorrow in the middle of your work day. Maybe he's going to deal with you tonight because you don't have it tomorrow. Maybe he's going to have somebody say something to you that you don't even know but is going to show you who you are, who he is. Maybe he's going to do it in a way that you're not expecting at all. Don't let that be the reason you don't follow through in obedience and faith. because the end of that road is something worse. But the end of the road of faith and belief is eternal life with Him. And according to John 20, verse 31, that's the whole reason that He wrote it, this whole book, that you might have life in His name. This invalid gets healed. Jesus, the Son of God, has come. And he has shown us once again, both outwardly and inwardly, the reality of what it is to know him. I pray that God will bless his word in your heart this morning. Let's have a song.