The Lord of the Sabbath

Alright. John chapter five and we will be back to verse one in a minute. We're not gonna read through the whole passage again right now. Okay? Jesus Christ is both the son of God and the son of man.

He is not half God and half man. He is holy God and holy man. Jesus is the second person of the trinity now in human flesh for over two thousand years. Jesus is deity, divine, and the eternal God. He is not lesser than the father but equal as we read in the passage this morning in every aspect including his authority and sovereignty.

While giving up his glory and position in heaven for a time to become a humble servant and a willing sacrifice, he did not cease to be divine. That is God. I do not fully understand and probably neither do you, but Jesus not only claimed it while he was on earth, but he proved it in what he said and did. The miracles that he did that only God could do. In previous lessons, we recognized his authority and power over fever, leprosy, fish, men, the scriptures themselves, and every manner of disease.

But we have just begun. There are so many more. Today, we find Jesus' declaration of his authority over the Sabbath, over the practice of the Sabbath. Though the healing of this paralyzed man is crucial to Christ's argument, it is not the it's not the focal point of the passage, but it is a miracle used by Christ to demonstrate to the Pharisees and to the scribes and to all those looking on that he, the son of God, reserves to himself alone the authority to define what can and cannot be done and by whom on the day reserved for his worship, the Sabbath. Some in Jesus' day, as many today, had forgotten the meaning and purpose behind that ordinance, allowing it to be hijacked by the world and the devil and religion not of God who would pervert it to erase its true purpose and meaning and replace it with something similar but not not the same.

For example, today, baptism by immersion in water. That's... Baptism means immersion. So... Baptism, which follows salvation as a public profession of one's faith in Christ, one's salvation, but not salvation itself.

A public sign of a child of God's new birth into the family of God. In Matthew 28, Jesus says, go ye therefore and teach all nations. Now, that word teach is not the ordinary word for teach in the Greek. It's the word that means to make disciples or to make converts. Go into all the world and make disciples.

Make converts. How do you do that? By preaching the what? By preaching the word, by giving them the gospel, by telling them about the one who invites them to salvation based on what he did on Calvary's cross and that he is the risen savior. That by grace through faith in him, they might be what?

They might be saved. So go ye therefore and teach, convert all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and the holy ghost. Teaching them, the other word for teach, to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. So what did Jesus tell his disciples? He told them to make converts by preaching the word.

And as they put their faith in Christ, they became a child of what? Of who? Of God. And then next to what? After they were converted to baptize them as a public profession of that new birth in Christ that they had already, what, received.

And then to do what? To teach them all things all things whatsoever I have what? I have what? Commanded you. This spells out the purpose of baptism.

It is by immersion. It is by immersion of someone who has already been what? Converted, been... Have already been born again through faith in Jesus Christ. By looking at other passages of scripture, the New Testament, the picture becomes crystal clear as we see over and over again baptism, following confession of faith in Christ as savior and Lord, not preceding it or as a means to attain it, but as a public confession before others, what has already occurred.

However, the Catholic church and others took it and turned it into a sacrament through which religious parents falsely hope to rid their newborns of the original sin that they passed down to them and place them into a special covenant relationship with God. So baptism, which means immersion, which was performed after salvation, was turned into something that involves sprinkling a few droplets of holy water on an infant only a few days old in order to erase their original sin. None of that is what scripture says in any way, shape, or form. Because people did not understand the purpose of baptism, it was redefined by man posing as the mouthpiece of God. And sadly, now many a person falsely believes themselves to be secure in their standing before God because along with other sacraments, they were sprinkled as an infant by a priest or dunked later in life by a pastor.

Neither of those things save your soul. Neither of those things alone change anything other than get you wet. Okay? Our sins are only washed away by the blood of Jesus, not by some supposed holy water that was chanted over by a priest. But yet, man redefined and people are lost.

No man does not have the right to redefine the ordinance of... Ordinances of God. We must look instead to God and his word for his definition as he alone has the authority to define such doctrines. It is not our prerogative to define them otherwise. But to accept by faith the authority of God on matters of doctrine.

This right authority Jesus took for himself in this passage, thereby declaring himself to share the prerogatives of God, which the pharisees and others had erroneously claimed for themselves. And as we will see in the text, they didn't like it. They didn't like it that Jesus was challenging their authority. But he was right to because he is God and they are not, nor are we. The all encompassing question we will see as we conclude is this, will you yield by faith to Christ's authority and accept by faith the way which God has provided to make us whole?

Or will you reject his authority over you and strike out on your own path, which the Bible says will ultimately lead to destruction and death. So let's go back to our passage. Chapter five verse one. After this, there was a feast of the Jews. Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

That feast was probably the Passover according to the law. He was supposed to do do that and he did as an adult male. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market, a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda having five porches. Now this was uncovered a few decades ago. It is off the side of the Temple Mount.

It contains several pools at different levels, and there are walkways that go from one pool to the other pool. There are colonnades or porches that cover them as you go about the Pool Of Bethesda. It's it's quite a sight. I meant to find a picture. I didn't.

Please forgive me. But if you want to go on the Internet, you can put in pool... Not right now. Not right now. You can see the pool for yourself.

Okay? And so that is the Pool Of Bethesda. In these lay great multitude of impotent folk of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. And so on these porches, these sidewalks, so to speak, all along the different pools, there were a lot of ill and disabled people who lay there waiting for, as it would seem, these waters to be stirred thinking that if they were the first one to jump in the water, they would be healed. Some Greek scholars have concluded based upon Greek manuscript evidence that the last part of three and four were not included in the original.

But for the sake of argument, we will assume that they were. This is the verses that describe the angels stirring the water and the people getting in. They were healed. These were written given to explain the words of disabled man in verse seven. The disabled man in verse seven said, sir, I have no man when the water is what?

Troubled to put me into the pool. Now there has been much debate in theological circles about the angel destroying of the water. Was it, you know, was it true? Was it something that they had convinced themselves was true? The fact is we're not given any information...

More information here, so it is not all that relevant to the rest of the story. Because the rest of the story is not about a man getting healed by getting in the what? Water. The story is about a man who is healed by who? Jesus Christ.

And whether the water had some healing ability or whether it didn't, we know Jesus did. And the man who was healed by Jesus would not need to be healed again of that particular ailment. He had something better. Like like the man at the beautiful gate who asked for silver and gold in Peter and John said, silver and gold, have we none? We don't have...

What we have, we give unto you. And it was far better than silver and gold. The scriptures tell us that Christ saw him and he knew him. He recognized him, being keenly aware of his need and situation as he does of every one of us. Praise the Lord.

He sees us and knows us. He knows you like nobody else sees and knows you. He sees your heart. And despite that, he cares for you, and he cares for me. For God so loved the world, and the world is you, and the world is me.

He knows us. He knows our darkest secrets. He knows our genuine desires. He knows us like nobody else, and he knew this man also. He may have seen him before, probably hadn't seen him standing there over him, but yet he knew this man.

He knew he had been there for thirty eight years. He knew his ailment. He knew his problem. He knew what he needed, and he cared. And then he chose to speak to him and not others gathered there.

There were many other people, many other people with disabilities, many other people with ailments. But for some reason, he chose this man. It's not stated clearly in the passage why he chose him and and not another. God doesn't have to spell out all of his choices to us. This man had been in this condition for thirty eight years.

A great number of people knew that. When Jesus healed him, the healing would have been what? Undeniable. Maybe he chose him for that. Maybe he chose him for others.

Maybe he just chose to put his grace upon this man. He doesn't have to have a specific specific reason. It is the mercy and grace of God. It is by his mercy and grace this man was healed. It is by God's mercy and grace that you're saved.

And I'm saved if we've been born again. We cannot take the credit. Only he can. Why was I born into a Christian home in The United States Of America? Why did I hear the gospel at a young age, responded to it in faith?

Why was I called in the ministry while others' situations, responses, and callings are different is not for me to question, but to be grateful and passionate in the service of the one who saved my soul and commissioned me to tell others also. It is by the grace and the power of God alone. To God be the one. To God be the glory. For some reason, Jesus chose this man.

To this man, Jesus simply asked, will you be made whole? Do you wish to be made whole? Made well? Now what was the guy supposed to say? What did you think?

No. I'm fine. I want to stay this way. I'm laying here by the water so I can watch other people get in and not me. No.

That's obviously not what he was gonna say. It's obviously not what he said. He he knew he needed something. He was desperate as we see in the passage. As God...

As Jesus asked him, God is asking you today, if you know not Christ as savior and are dead in your trespasses and sins, do you want to be saved? Do you want to be made whole? You can try as you might, but you're never going to what? To make it. To succeed on your own.

This man had been laying there for years and he never made it. And he probably never would. We're never gonna make it to heaven without who? Without Jesus. No stirring of waters, no good works or great works or or restrictions that you place upon yourself is going to make you well spiritually from sin.

Only Jesus has the power to make that happen. This man obviously understood his physical need for healing. He desired to be healed, but he lacked the power to make it happen just as we lack the power to make it happen. Remember, Christ did not come to call the righteous, but what? Sinners to repentance.

That those were people who knew they had a what? Knew they had a problem, knew they had a need. As we see later in the text, the impotent man did not know to whom he was speaking. Therefore, was not expecting that which was to come next. His answer, therefore, cannot be said to express great faith in Christ.

He didn't even know he was talking to Christ. Christ just asked him a question. Do you want to be made well? The answer was obviously yes. And then amazingly, something followed the man, probably had never expected.

Once the man was finished with his response, Christ immediately erased any further need for the man to enter the waters for healing by commanding him to rise, take up his bed, his mat, and walk. To these words, the man immediately responded. As his bones and his muscles and his sinews and his organs were made instantly whole. He stood right up, which he hadn't done for thirty eight years on his feet. He picked up his mat and he walked for home.

You say impossible. Yes. For any man, but not for God. Not for the one who created the universe by the words of his mouth, which the scripture plainly declares. John one one.

In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. Verse three, all things were what? Were made by him. Who is that? Well, that's that's Jesus.

That's the the son of God. That's the second person of the trinity, not yet in human form, but now standing right there with him thousands of years later. And once again, he speaks. And instantly, the man is healed. When Jesus Christ saves your soul and gives you new life in him, there is nothing more to be done except to rise in newness of life.

Leave behind the old life and follow who? And follow him. Now that you've been redeemed, you've been born again, you've become a child of God, you've been made whole, your sin has been forgiven, there's nothing left to do, there's no good work you have to do because Jesus did it all. All that's left to do is get up and follow Christ, which we certainly should be doing each and every day. Still, this man did not know who made him physically whole until his second encounter with Christ.

And this time, Christ dealt with his what? His his spiritual need when he spoke of his sin. And that he should sin, what? Verse 14, behold, thou art made whole, sin no more. Now Jesus dealt with his heart problem where before he had dealt with his physical problem, now he deals with his with his sin problem.

He healed him that he might go forth and serve the Lord and send them. Or we're told in first John that if we say we have no sin, we're a liar. But if we confess our sins, he forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. He goes on to say, little children, I I I demand, I I declare, I I don't want you to sin anymore. But if you do sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous who died on the cross to pay the price for every last one of those of those sins.

Praise the Lord. We have been made whole in Christ Jesus. Now, I want you to see in verse 10 the response of the Jews. Look if you would in verse 10. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, it is the Sabbath day.

It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. I just... You know, this man for thirty eight years laid practically dead beside this pool. He could do nothing for a man and now he was walking up or standing up and walking around. He now had a life.

All they were concerned about is, what are you doing? You're walking around with your mat tucked under your arm, and it's the Sabbath day. They completely missed the boat altogether. They were so concerned about dotting their i's and crossing their t's, the ones they had invented that they didn't see a person at all. They didn't see a person.

We need to see people. People who need a savior. People who need to be made whole. And as the angels rejoice over one soul that cometh to Christ, so should we. Praise the Lord.

But but not not not these Jews. Verse 11, Jesus answered them, he that made me... The the man answered, he that made me whole, the same said unto me, up thy bed and walk. So they said, well, you can't do that. And she...

Well, the guy who healed me said to take it and... Well, you know me, he healed me, you didn't. So I picked up my bed and I walked. Then asked they of him, what man is that which said of thee, take up thy bed and walk? And of course, we learn in verse 13 that, well, he didn't know that it was Jesus.

He just knew somebody said, stand up and walk, and he stood up and he walked. Once the Jews, likely the teachers, Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, so forth, verified what Christ had done, that Christ had done this miracle, they became indignant and grew in their open hostility towards Christ. Verse 15, the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole and therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to what? Slay him because he had done these. Boy, they sought to kill him because he healed a man that had been lame for thirty years and simply told him to pick up his mat and go home.

And they wanted to kill him. Christ had performed a miracle on the Sabbath day and furthermore had commanded this man to carry his mat and activity strictly forbidden by the rabbis on the Sabbath. Not the law of God specifically but the laws of men which they had added. Matthew, Mark, and Luke record two other incidents for which Christ was further maligned by the Jews. For healing a man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the what?

On the Sabbath. And Jesus said to them, if you have an oxen that falls in a ditch and is gonna die on the Sabbath day, do you not go get the oxen out of the ditch? Certainly, did. Why can I not simply by the words of my mouth heal this man who is here at the synagogue to worship me? That's not a problem.

Number two, secondly, they... These people condemn Christ and his disciples because as they went through a field of grain, they plucked a few grains off the heads of the the wheat. They called that harvesting. You see, the rabbis and teachers had gone far beyond the law of Moses in defining what could and could not be done on the Sabbath. God declared in Exodus 20 this, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it, thou shalt not do any work. Thou nor thy son nor thy daughter, thy man servant, or thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth and sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day. Wherefore, God blessed the Sabbath and hallowed it, consecrated it.

By this, it is quite clear that God expected the Jews to cease their customary employment and physical labor to turn their thoughts to who? The Lord and rest their weary bodies on the seventh day in remembrance of what he did. Very simple. If your job is construction in that day, if you were a Jew, then you were to not do your construction job on that day. If your work was on an assembly line, don't do the assembly.

If your work was delivering milk or farm stuff on the Sabbath day, you cease from doing that doing that labor. You took the day off from your customary employment and you said, hey, I've got a I wanna build a fence. So I'm gonna go out and build a fence. Well, building a fence would still count as what? Was would count as work or labor.

So, no. Yeah. That wasn't the time to go build the fence. It was the time to meet with your family, enjoy a meal in remembrance of the Lord, go to the synagogue and hear the word of God spoken. But they had lost sight of this.

However, to this command, the rabbis added 39 primary works which rendered an offender subject to death, followed by dozens of secondary laws which condemned such things as plucking the head off of grain, off of wheat, which they considered harvesting. Or making a mark on the ground by dragging a chair or another object across it. That was considered digging or using a crutch to walk or even wearing false teeth as these were considered carrying a burden. That's what man did to something beautiful that God declared. We must be careful to be as broad as the word of God is broad and narrow as it is narrow.

Some so called fundamentalists, of which I call myself, but some of us, so called, have been justly derided often by others for teaching the application of God's word equal with the very words and commands themselves. We must apply the principles of God's word to our daily life for them to be of purpose, but we must never replace the teaching and principles of God's word with our particular application of it or else we may turn others away from Christ or cause Christians to carry burdens which they do not understand. Here comes my illustration. It has to do with a bottle. A brown bottle.

A brown bottle that contains what? Somebody help me out. I c... IBC root beer. Okay.

Now some of you have heard this story before. Okay. I do not go into a store, buy IBC root beer and carry it out. I do not walk around in public drinking from an IBC root beer bottle. There's a reason for that.

Okay. First, the bottle that IBC root beer comes in is what? It's brown. It's brown. It looks like, at least what used to be, a beer bottle.

And in some cases, still is. They're they're colored brown or dark. Now, there's a story behind this. When I was in high school, I went to a basketball game at my high school. And, IBC root beer wasn't very popular.

Didn't didn't many places carry it in Virginia. But there was a store by me that carried it. And I thought it would be cool because I was mister Goody Two Shoes to walk in the school with what looked like a what? A beer bottle. Okay?

Before I got in the door, people started questioning. By the time I got to my seat, I wanted to crawl under the seat. Not only that, but one of my friends, one of the more popular kids, so you might have to say more acquaintance than friend. His name was Scott. And Scott thought it was really funny because see, I had an IBC.

I had a beer bottle, quote unquote, or what looked like it with with harmless root beer in it. He had a McDonald's cup with beer in it, which, of course, was not... You know, he's he's underage. He could be kicked out of school for that. Then I really felt bad because now I just reinforced his.

So I decided I wasn't going to carry around an IBC root beer bottle. I wasn't going to carry it out of the store. Does God forbid drinking root beer? No. Does God forbid drinking liquids out of a brown bottle?

No. Have you sinned if you've done so? No. Does it make you a bad person? No.

Could it maybe affect your testimony in a bad way? Yes. As many other things could, Some of which you might refrain from that I don't. But it is not commanded in scripture that thou shalt not drink root beer out of a brown bottle. It has nothing to do with your salvation even if it was.

It is my conviction and application of a principle taught by God, not the principle itself. God says not to be drunk with wine. He warns against the drinking of alcoholic beverages in the Old Testament and he strongly condemns giving it to others on purpose to make them drunk. But he doesn't say anything about what? He doesn't say anything about root beer.

But nonetheless, it is my conviction, my personal choice not to buy and carry around a bottle of IBC root beer. Now if you invite me to your house and you have IBC root beer and you pour it in a glass for me to drink, guess what? I'm gonna drink it. Okay? But I'm not gonna carry it around because there's another principle having to do with testimony, and and that particular issue means something to me.

And so I've decided to forgo that, and it just eats at me every day that I cannot buy. I know it doesn't. It doesn't. Not at all. Not at all.

But it is not a command of scripture. Okay? You see the difference between the principle and the command and a personal application. We must not make the mistake... The same mistakes the fat...

The Pharisees and the Sadducees made. We must be clear about the commands and principles of scripture, and then we must do our best to apply them to our life. By the way, does the Sabbath apply to us today, speaking of commands? The the Sabbath, specifically, as it was specifically given here, in Exodus 20 is part of the covenant of Moses between God and who? Israel, not God and and us today.

Is Sunday the Sabbath? No. Sunday is not the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the seventh day. Sunday is the first day.

So, no, Sunday technically is is not the Sabbath. So does it apply to us today? Well, in principle, yes. That is in honoring the Lord and setting aside time to worship him privately and publicly and remembering the completion of his creation and our need for rest. Yes, it does apply.

As a rule, no. Why? Right here. You wanna know what God thinks, well, read his what? Word.

Colossians one sixteen. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or drink or in respect to any holy day or of the new moon or of the what? Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. This this covenant was made between God and who? Israel to to keep the Sabbath day in this strict fashion.

We as the church today are not commanded. We're not under the old covenant. We're a part of the what? Part of the new. In principle, yes.

We are to honor God. We are to spend time with God. We're to set aside time for rest. And every time you look at a seven day week calendar, you recognize that in six days, he created the world and on the seventh day, he what? Rested.

But I'm gonna finish with verses 17 through 24. Let's look at Christ's response very quickly in closing. Jesus answered them, my father worketh hitherto and I work. But his father works on the what? His father works all the time.

Okay. Now he ceased his creative work on the seventh day but he is working today whether it be Saturday or Sunday and so Christ does also. Jesus says, because he is God. Therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him because he had not only broken the Sabbath day but said also that God was his what? Father making himself what?

Equal with God. K? In our modern thinking, we think father, son, not equal. In Jewish Hebrew thinking, father, son, very much what? Equal in their thinking.

They equal in in every way to God. He was deity. He was God. Therefore, they got very angry because he was declaring himself to be equal with God. A horse reproduces a horse.

A man reproduces a man. If someone is the son of God, then they are by definition, God. So Jesus says the son of God is God. Jesus is the son of man is man. He is the only person who has that claim.

He He is unique, but he is God. He declares his equality in his person. They are one and the same. John ten thirty, I and my father one. He declares that he is the same in his work, that the works of Christ were performed, were equal in every way to the father.

They were exactly the same and in sync with one another, he declares here in this passage. He declares that he is the same equal in his power and sovereignty. As the father had power to give life, so does the son. And he proved it. He raised Jairus' daughter back to life.

He raised the widow's sons back to life, and he raised Lazarus back from the dead. And then he raised himself from the dead. But it's not just physical life that Christ came to give. It's what? Spiritual, eternal life that he came to restore.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. First John five eleven and twelve. I love this passage, And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his son. He that hath the son hath life. He that hath not the son of God hath not life.

He goes on to say, these things have I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. Jesus desires to give you life and life more abundantly as he did this lame and lame man and more. But you must respond to his question. Yes. I see the need.

Yes. I desire to be made whole. Jesus goes on to demonstrate that he is equal in his judgment, that the father hath turned over judgment to who? To the son. And also in his honor.

The same honor that is to be given to the father is also to be given to the son. Why? Because they are equally deity, equally holy, equally loving, equally powerful. Thus, Jesus' invitation and warning. Look again at verse 23, that all men should honor the son even as they honor the father.

He that honoreth not the son, honoreth not the father which has sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life. This is the invitation that also comes with a warning. As we read in John three, he that believeth on him is not condemned, But he that believeth not is what? Condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.

Howbeit the leaders of the Jews didn't see that... See it that way and so they sought to kill him. This is often the attitude of the world when confronted by the authority of Christ. Some yield to his authority while others reject and rebel against it. Those who by faith receive him are made whole, forgiven all their sin and given the gift of everlasting life, while those who reject him will, as John the Baptist said, not see life but experience the full wrath of God.

Which will it be? Will you be the man laying beside the pool that says, no, I'm fine. Just let me be. Someday, I'll get there and never make it. Or will you be the one who says, okay, I admit, I'm a sinner.

I can't get there. I need Jesus. Will you accept him today? Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for your demonstration of your authority and power, your love and compassion, your mercy and grace upon this man and upon us. And we pray, Lord, if there's one here today who has yet to receive Christ as savior, that today would be their day of salvation, That they would come as we sing this hymn of invitation today and receive him. In Jesus name we do pray. Amen.