Understanding the healing on..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. And this evening we'll meditate upon this section of this gospel, but verse 17. So our meditation will be on verses 1 through 16, but we'll be reading through 17.

John chapter 5. After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there in Jerusalem, by the sheep gate, a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda. which has five roofed colonnades. These lay a multitude, oh, my apologies, in these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed.

One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there, he knew that he was 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. While I am going, another steps down before me.

And Jesus said to him, Get up, take your bed and walk. And at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. 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 withdrew. as there was a crowd in the place. Afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, See you are well, sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. That 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. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. And we've been working our way through the gospel according to John for much time now.

And this evening we find ourselves in the chapter five. We've gone through four chapters. We're in chapter five this evening. And we also find ourselves in the third of seven miracles recorded for us in this gospel. Now we know already, and we've spoken, and I've said this on many occasions, that Jesus obviously, Jesus obviously did far more than just the seven signs and wonders that are recorded for us in this gospel.

In fact, John says that if he was to record all that Jesus had done, all the world, all the books in the world would not contain what Jesus has done. But the fact of the matter is that the Apostle John has selected seven of the many miracles for a purpose. And that purpose is found for us where in chapter 20 verses 30 and 31. And we know what the Apostle says. He says he's written these things so that we would believe that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is Messiah, the Son of God, that is God himself.

And that by believing, by believing we will have, or those who believe, will have life in His name. That's the purpose. So, as Jesus reveals Himself progressively through this Gospel, it's needless to say that with that revelation, His opposition will increase also. So up until now, in the first four chapters, we could say that the resistance that Jesus endured or has received is probably more reluctancy or hesitancy. But from this chapter onwards, that becomes rampant opposition to Christ.

In fact, in verse 16 of our passage, we even hear the words, this is why the Jews were persecuting our Lord. He received continued persecution from this point on. You see, in the early days, our Lord in his ministry, he was early and people would have maybe stayed on the fence until they knew who he was and what he stood for and really understood his teaching. However, now we're over a year into his ministry and people are developing a much greater understanding of who Jesus is, a much greater understanding of who this miracle worker is and what he stands for. The excitement of these miracles that he's performed will soon give way to the radical claims of his identity and the weightiness of his teaching.

Only the true followers will remain. So it's needless to say the enemies will also increase and we'll see this as time goes on. The greatest it seems of these enemies is the Jewish establishment. The Jewish religious leaders, John calls them Jews. That's all he says here, the Jews, but he's referring to the religious leadership.

And in this chapter, in chapter five, is the first time we come across real conflict or real controversy with the Jewish leaders of the day. And the first controversy is on the matter of the Sabbath. Immediately from this point on, Jesus is put on the hit list. Because as we'll come to see in the weeks to come, not only do the miracles speak of the deity of our Lord, but his unmistakable words do also. But before we get there, This week, what we're going to do is we're going to consider the healing that takes place at the Pool of Bethesda, the healing that sparks this controversy over the Sabbath.

And in coming weeks, we will examine Christ's response to those who oppose him. So we're told that Jesus makes his second trip to Jerusalem to attend a feast. Now, there's no markers in the text. John, the apostle John, doesn't really tell us what feast Jesus goes to. He just says, a feast.

So we don't know which one it is. Now, we've said on many occasions that the Jewish men or able Jewish men who weren't living in Jerusalem would make the pilgrimage for three Jewish feasts. Now, there were more feasts in Jerusalem, but three were the ones that they were obliged to make the pilgrim for. And one was the Passover. The other is Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks, which happens seven weeks after Passover.

And the third is the Feast of the Tabernacles or the Feast of the Booths. So it's most likely that it was one of these that Jesus was attending, but we cannot be sure. In fact, it's good to put in the back of our mind, when the Apostle John does name a feast, and he does, on occasion, on chapter 2, for example, chapter 6, chapter 7, and again in chapter 11, he normally names the feast because something Jesus is about to do, or something he's going to teach, is thematically linked to that feast. He doesn't name a feast here, probably for that reason. Now the story is set in Nepal, near what is called the Sheep's Gate in the walls of the city.

People weren't at all original in those days, and when you hear the term Sheep's Gate, it's probably got to do with sheep, and it did. Sheep's Gate was a place where they would allow the sheeps to come through, and they'd lead them through into the nearby temple courts to be sacrificed unto the Lord, unto the altar. And it's probably the same sheep gate that is mentioned in Nehemiah chapter 3, and it's on the northern side of Jerusalem. Now, near this gate was a pool. And this pool had five colonnades, or five porticos, and they were all undercover.

So it was quite a big pool, and it was commonly called Bethesda. The Pool of Bethesda. Actually, for the history buffs, only about 140 years ago, this site was excavated, and they did find the pool and the porticos, or at least the foundations of the porticos. Now, we're told that many sick people lay under the cover of these porticos near the pool, hoping to be healed. A few of the afflictions are named here.

We have lame, we have blind, and we have the paralyzed. And this would be, brothers and sisters, a pitiful sight. Such affliction, such desperate need in the one place. I cannot imagine that the common person would make this on the way to and from work. They would probably want to avoid that place for many reasons, probably also that the smell would have been pretty strong in that place as well.

These people were desperate. They would have exhausted the medical treatments for the day, the salves, the ointments, any herbs, they tried them all, possibly, and they're just without hope. So what do they do? They come and they gather under the porticos of the pool of Bethesda, and they thought that this is their only hope. So they thought.

Now, after reading this passage this evening, some of you, maybe the older ones among us, probably are thinking, hold on. There's more details that I remember. There's details I remember about this story, something to do with angels. Now don't go flicking to the synoptics thinking, as we probably would do on occasion, when we see a miracle or a parable, we look at the parallel in the synoptics and thinking that maybe that detail is there. Well, no, in fact, out of the seven miracles that are listed for us in the gospel according to John, five are unique to this gospel.

And out of that five, this is one. So you won't find it listed anywhere else. And you are right if you can remember the detail of an angel. And that is because verses 4, not only verse 4, if you look in your Bibles, you look at verse 3 and it goes from 3 straight to 5 if you have ESV Bibles. Verse 4 is missing.

So verse 4 is not there. In fact, it's actually the latter part of verse 3 and all of verse 4 that is not in the text. But it is in the King James Version, if you have it. And this is how it reads in the King James Version. It reads this way from verse 3.

In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, or blind, halt, withered, waiting for the movement of the water. For, and this is what we don't have, for an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the waters. Whoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. Beloved, what we have before us is a textual variant, and it's been removed from our modern Bibles or modern translations because the text is not found in the earlier and the more reliable manuscripts. Now, it hasn't disappeared altogether.

If you look at your ESVs right at the bottom of the footnote, you'll find it's there. The text is there, but for most, most scholars and most theologians agree that the original appeared, or this appeared later, and it wasn't in the original. Probably by the scribe to answer the question he may have had in his mind, due to verse 7, when the response of the invalid man, he speaks about a troubling or a moving water. Now it's clear from the text, at least, that many people did believe that the waters of the pool of Bethesda would bring healing. Otherwise, you wouldn't have so many invalid folk nearby.

Now, I don't have a great explanation for that. One possibility could be that the water was fed by a nearby spring, and so certain times of the year, that spring may have caused bubbling up in the spring, and maybe that was troubling waters that people thought if they entered in, maybe they would be healed. I am not too sure. Some have attributed the moving waters to angels. Could have been natural.

We know that springs have therapeutical value. But beyond this, we can't really know. But I think, I think that seeing that it is most likely a later edition, that there is some superstitious belief behind this that was held in the day. But again, We cannot really be sure. Now, you may ask the question, if this was a myth, if this was superstitious, why would there be so many lying there?

Wouldn't they know it's a myth? Wouldn't they be able to go, no, this is not the real deal. All I can say to that is this. The enemy is good at deceiving people. The enemy is very good at deceiving people.

Most of us in this room would recognize that there are many false healers in the world today. And they're making outlandish claims and promises to claim miraculous healings all over the world. Some big names in these circles don't have even a single verifiable documented case of a bonafide miracle. Yet, sadly, thousands if not millions around the world still go to great lengths to go and visit one of these healing services in hope of being healed. Beloved, the enemy is not called a deceiver by our Lord for no reason.

But let's get to what we do know. The man in our text was disabled for 38 years. So he was needing to be helped into the pool and back. That was his response. So it's fair to assume that this man was somehow either crippled or had some form of paralysis to his body.

But he had 38 years of anguish. That was a hard life. He'd lost his independence. Surely, as we said earlier, he'd exhausted all the remedies of the day to no avail. Now he sits by Bethesda, day in and day out, waiting.

He knew of no other way. But one day, Christ Christ Jesus makes an intentional trip to this pool and walks straight through and straight beyond the multitude of sick people and he goes straight to this man. Straight to this man. And John makes sure, if we look at our text in verse six, John makes sure to tell us that our Lord knew he'd been in the condition for a long time. He knew this man was unwell for decades.

You see, it is a possible reading that our Lord knew because someone had revealed this to Him. Some person had told Him. But it's a more natural reading, I think, of this text, and where John is trying to take us to suggest something along the lines of Jesus, as in chapter 1, where He knew of Nathanael under the fig tree. Or more recently, back in the previous chapter, chapter 4, when Jesus and the Samaritan woman, in her own words, she says, come and see the man who has told me all that I have ever done. I think that's what John is trying to say here.

That Jesus knew everything. He knew it all. There's no detail unexposed before him. There's no affliction, no anxiety, no secret. Nothing remains hidden before the all-seeing eyes of the Son of God.

And this man was oblivious to that, but Jesus, He knew him through and through. Brothers and sisters, there are nuggets like this in many passages of the Bible. They may not be the main point, But they're there to be embraced and to be enjoyed and to give comfort and rest to those in Christ. We ought to be comforted by the fact that our Lord knows all things. He knows the condition of our soul.

He's fully aware of our needs. Why is it? Why is it, I ask, that sometimes we live our lives as though he doesn't really know? as though he doesn't really understand what I've been through, what I'm currently going through. But he does.

He knew back then, and he still knows now. He understands your afflictions. He understands your anxieties. He understands your struggles. He understands your temptations.

He knows them. Whether they're physical or spiritual, he knows them all. Sometimes we tell ourselves, that's true. And we know it's a biblical truth. But sometimes it doesn't translate to the lives we live.

In other words, we too often carry this burden alone. And this begs the question, do we really believe? Do we really believe that every detail of our struggles is known to our Lord? Do we really believe that He's concerned for our good? And if we do, we need to ask this question.

Then how often, how often do we find ourselves on our knees to receive from Him the comfort and the consolation that only He can give? It reminds me of the verse of that old hymn of what a friend we have in Jesus. First verse speaks Oh, what peace we forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything, everything to God in prayer.

Beloved, these words are still true. And even when we come to Him in prayer, they're true even when He says no in answer to our prayers. So Jesus walks among the sick at the pool, and he goes straight to this man, and he asks this question, do you want to be healed? Do you want to be made whole? It almost seems like a redundant question, doesn't it?

I mean, that's why he's there. This man's been brought to the pool and back every day, possibly, for 38 years. This is why he's there. Jesus, why are you asking this question to this man? Of course he wants to be there, but it's not redundant at all.

This is the right question to ask, because Jesus wants to hear from this man's heart, in his own words, the answer. And you know what? A simple yes would have sufficed, but his answer is actually very telling. Listen to what he says. He says, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool.

When the water is stirred up and while I am going, another steps down before me. You see, he's bought into the superstitious belief of Bethesda. More than anything in the world, he wanted to be healed. And this pool, as far as he knew, was the only place he could receive the healing. If only I was fast enough to get in the pool once the water is stirred.

If only someone could help me and help me into the pool. If only. If only. These words sound so familiar. If only.

I know. I know this is what needs to happen, Jesus. If only I can make it happen. I know this is what I need, Jesus. I know this is what I need.

Beloved, we would do well to constantly remind ourselves of Proverbs chapter 14, verse 12. There is a way that seems right unto them, but in the end, it is the way to death. Don't put too high a value on your opinion. You could be deceived. It's the word of God and the word of Christ that we need to treasure and place our hope in.

You can almost hear what this man is thinking. Sir, so you want to help me? Why don't you stay by my side and when the water is troubled, maybe you can help me into the pool. What a pitiful state to be in, if he only had the eyes to see who it is that stands before him. If only he could fathom that the only one, the only one able to make him whole, whether that's physically or spiritually, is right now by his side.

but he doesn't have eyes to see, for this paralytic hope is set upon the myth of pertaining to a bubbling water coming out of a hole in the ground. He thinks that would solve all his problems. You know, the beauty is that Jesus' compassion and his mercy doesn't depend on this man's understanding or this man's faith. And so he commands with these words, and these words are tremendous. Get up, take your bed and walk.

Verse nine. And at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walked. Upon receiving that command, immediately, immediately the paralysis left this man's body. And the man who'd been crippled for 38 years picks up his mat and walks. No need to wait for the water to bubble.

No need to get an assistant to put you in that water. No need for a towel. He ain't getting wet. This man, this man was healed instantly because the son of God commanded with his words and at the sound of his voice, get up, health was restored. This is a claim to Jesus's deity.

But this is the amazing thing, beloved. I want you to feel the weight of this miracle. This man was, as I said earlier, was carried to and fro to the porticos, waiting year after year after year after year, hoping. His hope was primarily in one thing, the pull of Bethesda. He was a cripple.

He couldn't do it for himself. He needed help. Now, the greatness of this miracle, we've just been through chapter four, and we've seen a few weeks ago, it should be fresh on our minds, the royal official's son, where the royal official comes and Jesus heals his son from some 25 kilometers away. That is incredible. That is amazing.

But this is even more amazing. You see, the official's son, maybe he had a high fever, but maybe weeks earlier or months earlier, he was healthy. He had strength in his body. He had strength and he was nimble in his muscles and strength in his ligaments. He may have been in bed for a few weeks or a month, but then he was healed.

But this man, I want you to think of the condition of this man. 38 years as a cripple. 38 years in the state of paralysis, needing to be transported by others from one place to another. His muscles, his ligaments were as good as jelly. As good as dead.

Even his bones were unconditioned at that point. Probably not strong enough to support his weight. 38 years, beloved. You see, John puts this detail in here so that we can think it through and meditate it through. Don't overlook the greatness of this miracle.

At the sound of our Lord's voice, new muscle fiber was built into his pelvis, into his quads, his hamstrings, his calves. His core was strengthened. His spine was strengthened. This man was made new again after 38 years. This is incredible.

This is incredible. After four decades of immobility, he's made whole. He doesn't need months of rehab. He doesn't need months of physio. He doesn't stagger and walk.

The healing is complete and it's immediate. He picks up his bed and he walks right out of there. And the bed may have not been very heavy, most likely made out of straw rolled up, but he picked up his bed and he walked. How could this be? How could this be?

Why would John put this miracle in here? What is he trying to tell us, beloved? It's because the same voice that said, let there be light. And there was light. On this day, he said, get up, pick up your map and walk.

And it was obeyed because his voice is obeyed every single time. Now you expect to see some celebration, some rejoicing. Surely this man's response would be something similar to the cripple in Acts chapter 3, when Peter and John were on their way to the temple. You remember the layman from birth. and they come and he's a beggar and he says to them he wants money and they say or Peter says silver and gold have I none but in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk it's interesting Peter says in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up on what Jesus says get up get up the power is in Jesus It's incredible.

But what happens over there? What happens to this cripple in Acts chapter 3? We're told that he was walking and leaping. And what else? And praising God.

But we're not told any of this here. Why is it that John doesn't mention any of these things here? Well, I think it's because it's not his purpose to mention that. He has another purpose in mind. I think this text has two purposes.

I think one is to speak of the powerful word of our Lord that brings life to dead limbs. To show that he is indeed God. The Son of God. God incarnate. And that's one.

But there's also something else that we need to see. And I think that's seen in the next few verses, because the next, my apologies, next few words in chapter nine, because the next few words read like this, now that day was the Sabbath. You see, you read those words in the context of first century Palestine, legalistic first century Palestine, and you know it's a buzzkill. The party's off, the celebration's off, there cannot be It's like an oh no moment. It was Sabbath.

You can mess with a lot of things in the first century Jews, but you don't mess, not with their interpretation of the Sabbath. Jesus, why? Why did you heal on that day? Why wouldn't you heal the day before or the day after? and prevent this sort of confrontation and conflict with these people.

That's silly talk, right? This is human thinking. Because this is exactly what Jesus intended to do. This is exactly why Jesus walks through possibly tens, maybe hundreds, of invalids and goes to this one man, heals him. This is exactly...

It's not because Jesus wants to instigate the confrontation. That's not at all what he wants to do. But beloved, this healing is going to be a platform for Christ to teach some of the most profound Christological truths in the whole of the gospel according to John. Truths such as His unity and His equality with the Father. Truths later on in this chapter we'll see of Jesus being the one with the authority or given the authority to judge all things.

Also, the truth that Jesus Christ claims for himself to be the source and the substance of life itself. In other words, Jesus is unmistakably making the claim to these religious leaders of the day that he is God. And we'll consider these things in the coming weeks. But in the verses we have before us, he'll first demonstrate that he is the Lord of the Sabbath. So the man looked around.

He's healed. He's made well. And Jesus is nowhere to be seen. Jesus has found his way through the crowd and he's gone. So what does he do?

Well, he rolls up his mat, properly puts it on his shoulder and walks straight out of there. And you have to feel sorry. the guy. He probably stood out like a sore thumb on the Sabbath day walking through the streets. He's probably the only person that had anything in his hands.

And so the Jews can spot him like from a mile away. It's almost like he had a flag. I'm breaking the Sabbath. And so the Jews come up to him and what do they do? They start to school him for breaking the Sabbath.

You know, it's hard for us in the 21st century to understand the severity of the charge that they make. We really don't understand the pressure that these folk were living under in this day, these man-made rules that were imposed upon them, especially in relation to the Sabbath. Now, we must understand that observing the Sabbath is good and right. It was the law of God and needed to be upheld. but its activity did pertain to labor for gain, and that was prohibited.

The warnings we find in Jeremiah chapter 17 and Nehemiah chapter 13 speak specifically of taking to and fro from Jerusalem, but it is more in the context of taking or taking or carrying burdens is the language because of gain or labor towards gain. Actually, an example is given that they should not take grain or figs or grapes or wine into Jerusalem. For what purpose? To sell in the marketplace. But beloved, picking up a mat and walking through the streets, how could that be deemed as work?

But you see, the Jews in this day made mockery of the Sabbath law. They made a mockery of the law of God. Rather than teach what is clear in scripture and leave the nuances to the person's conscience. No, they couldn't trust people's consciences. They needed to make everything black and white.

They needed to nitpick. They needed to be meticulous in their detail, hair splitting with precision, what can be done and what cannot be done. And it was their interpretation that they enforced. So they created what came to be known as the 39 classes of prohibitions. Beloved, if you read some of these rules, you'll ask yourself the question, are they serious?

Is this how they interpret the scripture? Boiling water, prohibited. Grating cheese, prohibited. Plucking an apple from a tree to eat, prohibited. Squashing a mosquito, guilty of breaking the law.

This is the sort of pressure they put on the people. And so the first of the 39 articles speaks of what is permitted to be carried on the Sabbath day. and carrying a mat is forbidden. And this is what this man who's just being healed, this is what he's confronted with. These legalistic people who bind the conscience according to their own human traditions, and he's confronted with their indignation.

So how does he respond? Well, sadly, in today's words, he literally throws Jesus under the bus. It's that man. It's the man who healed me. He's the man who healed me.

He's the one who said, take up your mat and walk. But don't blame me. It's not my fault. It's actually quite humorous when you think about it, because in trying to avoid persecution, he actually says something that is incredibly profound. You see, he is right.

Jesus is responsible for him to carry his mat and walk. But hear the logic. You probably didn't get it. I mean, he's acting as a coward and he's diverting the blame to someone else. But if you think about it, this man was invalid for 38 years.

And someone comes and does something to his body, restores his body, brings healing to a dead body. Something that only God can do. The Jews knew this. The Jews knew this sort of healing can only be done by God. So if Jesus healed this man by the power of God, if Jesus proved himself to be divine, then wouldn't you think that he, as God, has the authority to determine how his law is to be interpreted?

Is he not qualified to say what can be done and what cannot be done on the Sabbath? I beg you, he can. Of course he can. So by Jesus commanding this man to carry his mat and walk, that was no violation of the Sabbath. Now, as I said before, this man had no idea of all this.

He was probably only trying to divert blame, but in his ignorance, he's very much affirming that indeed, that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. And indeed, he is. As Lord, his command was direct, was a direct rebuke at the Jewish establishment. His command was a full-on frontal assault at the system that elevates human tradition above the law of God. You see, Jesus said in Mark chapter 2, the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

However, their system inverted that, and they really had a system in place where man was made for the Sabbath. You see, Jesus will fervently oppose this view, and verse 16 tells us that they will ramp their persecution against our Lord because of this. In fact, and this would be one of the reasons why they crucify our Lord. See, but as I was preparing this message, as I came to this point, it really saddened me. And it's the response of the Jews to the man, because this is what they say.

They said, who is this man that said to you, take up your bed and walk? You realize how there's absolutely no mention of healing? The healed man said, the man who healed me, that's how he prefaced it. The man who healed me, he said, pick up your mat and walk. Aren't you glad for this man?

Isn't this due reason to celebrate that a fellow brother, after 38 years of suffering and affliction, finally God shows mercy and compassion towards him and makes his body whole, lifts his affliction, lifts his burden, makes him whole. Are you not going to rejoice with this man? Not at all. Not at all. How about this?

Okay, you don't want to rejoice with him. I can understand that. But shouldn't you be asking some questions about who this person was that did only what God could do? I mean, you search the scriptures. You know that only God is able to do these of miracles.

Wouldn't you want to search who this person was? There was a high anticipation of Messiah to come back. Are you not eagerly expecting Him to come back? Is it not a possibility that this is Messiah who has come? None of that.

See, this they knew is the power of God, but it's evident they have no regard for this man. and they have no regard for God. All they want to do is find someone to blame for breaking their rules, under the guise, of course, of righteousness. You see, they were more concerned to uphold their own interpretation of the law than the law itself that calls them to love. You see, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and the scribes for this in Matthew 15 and Matthew 23.

And in Luke 11, this is what he writes, or what he says. Jesus speaking to these people, he says, for you low people with burdens and hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Brothers and sisters, let's not be guilty of pointing the finger at these people too quickly. This is a serious warning for all of us. We may not be so obvious in our hypocrisy, but how easy is it for us to bind our brethren's conscience with what we deem as scripture or the law of God, but in fact, we're only pushing our own preferences.

We may have preferences that we want to not only impose upon ourselves, but we may find ourselves imposing those on others, when in fact they are only our interpretation and nothing else. It's sometimes that we are more concerned with the nuances of our faith than the principles of our faith. It may be a number of things. It may be how people dress. It may be what they eat.

It may be what music they listen to. Now, hear me carefully. We have principles, biblical principles, that govern all these things and we must obey those. However, however, we must also understand that trying to enforce the specifics without clearly making sure they are rooted in Scripture and are by the power of the Spirit in that person, then what we are doing is we are being legalistic. And this is what the Pharisees were.

Legalistic. It wasn't the principles. It wasn't the spirit of the Lord that they were concerned with. It was the nuances. It was the hair splitting.

It was the nitpicking. It was those things, and those things are human fabrications. Those things are not of the Word of God. You see, the Pharisees were crispy clean, or very clean on the... I'm not sure if crispy clean is the right term, but that's what came to my mind.

Very clean on the outside. You couldn't fault them. They were impeccable. That's why when Jesus said in Matthew 5, that unless your righteousness unless that your life, your holiness increases or is greater than that of the Pharisees, then you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. This would have been a great shock to everyone listening, because they're thinking, we know the Pharisees, we know who they are, we've seen them live, they are pretty clean, like they're impeccable, they do all the right things, they pray in the street corners, they fast, they know scripture, how can we even compete with that?

But this is the deal. They could be squeaky clean on the outside, but dead man's bones on the inside. Why? Why and how can this be? Well, fundamentally, they failed at keeping God's law in their hearts.

And the question needs to be asked, how? Well, the summary of the law is to love God and to love neighbor. And they dismally failed in both. And beloved, we need to ask ourselves that question. Is that our drive?

Is that our purpose for living? Is that our intention in all that we do? Does it stem from love for God and love for neighbor? You see, these Jews should have fallen to their knees in gratitude to God because of his compassion and his mercy upon a brother. That's what love does.

But they weren't concerned for the brother. They were more concerned with their rules and their regulations. They were looking for someone to persecute, not someone to love. Now, right here, right now, they still don't know who to persecute, but that's coming. You see, our Lord's work is not done.

There's something more important than physical restoration, and it's a pressing spiritual matter that He will come to meet. So he seeks after the man and finds him in the temple court. Now, I don't want you reading the text and think for even a moment that Jesus just coincidentally bumped into the guy and said, hey, well, no, that's not what the text is saying. The text really does connote or suggest a searching and finding. Jesus was purposeful.

He was intentional to find this man and he found him in the temple courts. You don't just bump into another person at this time. I mean, it's a possibility, but think about it. It's the festival. It's a feast.

And at the time of the feast, we've said this before. the population of Jerusalem, which is conservatively between 25,000 and 30,000 or 35,000. That's probably the lowest number I've found. It's more like 80,000 to 100,000 this time. But let's go with a small number.

It swells to four and five times that number. The city is bursting at the seams. It reaches capacity. So you've got this many people through the city. You don't just bump into someone.

like that. You. He was purposeful. He was intentional to find this person because he had a reason to find him. So what does he do when he finds him?

Verse 40. You see? See? You are well. Sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you.

Jesus, what could be worse? What could be worse than 38 years of suffering? 38 years where one feels like his dignity is gone. 38 years where one needs to rely on another simply to do the daily activities of living. What's worse than being a cripple or paralyzed or paralytic for 34, almost four decades?

What could be worse than this Jesus? Well, we know it's to be taken or thrown into the eternal lake of fire under the eternal wrath of God for all eternity. For all eternity. That's worth worse. I do believe the conversation that Jesus had with this man was more than just a line, a sentence.

But you know what? This is all that John has written and by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, all that we need. But we must realize, we must realize this man to to some degree from his actions earlier. He thought his greatest need was just to get better. This is why he was so persistent.

After 38 years, he kept coming back to the bull of Bethesda. If only I get better, that's all I need. That is what consumed his whole mind. that consumed his whole being. I just need to go.

I'm gonna hope that I'm gonna be there, and the waters are stirred, and I'm the first in, and I get better. That's all that matters. But beloved, he is better. And he may have another 20, maybe 30 years at most. We don't know if he was born this way.

Probably unlikely. But even then, the average Jew in this day would get to 60, maybe 70. So 20, 30 years left if his fortunate but then after that after that if his body body has been restored but his spirit has not he will spend all eternity in hell and the thing that is far worse is that beloved what he experienced and with all due respect to those who are suffering amongst us and in our world, but what he was experiencing in 38 years of being crippled is like a pinprick compared to the torment he will experience in the eternal fires of hell. So what does Jesus say? Go and sin no more.

Go and sin no more. Now, we know our Lord and our Saviour has a perfect, perfect theology. And so we know that He knows that one cannot sin unless he's... One cannot refrain from sinning unless he's been given a new nature. So we know, we don't know what conversation was had, we don't know any of this.

But beloved, we must believe according to the theology of our Saviour that He intends to say, or He has already communicated somehow, that He is to believe in Him. That He is to believe in the One who will die on the cross for the salvation of many. We must believe that he says that not only to believe but repent upon, repent from his sin and turn away from his sin to be given a new nature and the Spirit's power. So now he no longer desires to be a sinner, no longer desires to enjoy the pleasures of the world, no longer bound. Because Jesus says, he who sins or he who makes a practice of sinning is a slave to sin.

But that can be broken by believing in Jesus Christ. And once that's broken, you become a slave to God, a slave to righteousness, and now you can sin no more because you have the power and the desire that God has given you to overcome sin. Abstain from sin is to believe in Christ. It's to trust in Him. It's to be born again, to use the words that Jesus used with Nicodemus.

But to our amazement, as best that we can tell, this man rejects Jesus. And he chooses to be allies with the Jews instead of the Son of God. He doesn't heed the words of our Lord, nor show any indebtedness for his mercy, for his compassion, or for him healing his body that was as good as dead for 38 years. None. Instead, he speaks to Christ, he makes an about face, and he makes a beeline to the Jews.

And what does he say? I know who you're looking for. I have a name now, and his name is Jesus. I know who he is. I can give you the name of the one you need to persecute.

Remember the other day I was carrying the mat? It's his fault. Now you can go after this Jesus. Are we in the good books? Am I?

Am I back in your good books? Are we okay? Are we okay? You see, this is what Jesus speaks of in chapter 12 when he says, they love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. This man exchanged the savior of the world for his sin.

is sin. How powerful is sin that embraces, that catches onto someone, and doesn't let go? How powerful is sin? How can a man who has experienced this choose sin over the Savior? Beloved, look at the contrast.

In the previous chapter, the royal official Jesus speaks a word and the man believes. He makes an about face and starts heading back home, 25 kilometers back to Capernaum. And he has no evidence that his son is getting better. He only has the word of Jesus Christ. He believes and begins the journey home.

Believing this man, this man has experienced a miracle of epic proportions in his body. You know, we've heard of faith healers, and we heard of some testimonies, and we're always in the back of our mind, did that person really have arthritis? Did that person really have this ailment? We're humans, and we ask these questions. This man needed not ask a question to a single person.

He had the evidence in his body. And yet, he's still denied the Savior. Beloved, what does it take to break the grasp of sin upon our life? What does it take? It takes nothing less than the infinite power of God Almighty.

Because unless He regenerates the soul, unless He opens the eyes, unless He takes you from being in the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, nothing you do can break the power of sin. Nothing. Nothing you can do. Beloved, this is the greatest devastation for this man. It is that he took the gift, but he rejected the giver.

And you see, you see the problem there. The treasure is not in the gift. The treasure is not in the healing. The treasure is in the giver. And beloved, we need to ask ourselves this question, and I want to end with this.

Do you believe this? Is Jesus the treasure of your soul? And if he is, if you answer, yes, he is the treasure of my soul, then everything else matters not. Because you'll give it all up for the treasure of your soul. Is he first?

Is he above all? Or is he anything else that we hold in our lives that takes precedence? Beloved, he who finds solace in Christ, he who has Christ as the treasure of his or her soul, is willing to abandon self and everything else and follow Christ, there must be a change. And one of the first changes is this. You turn your back on sin.

And this man could not turn his back on sin.