WEBVTT 00:00:14.225 --> 00:00:15.245 Good morning. 00:00:21.625 --> 00:01:06.910 So typically during the season of Advent, we pause our normal preaching routines and focus on Christmas themes. This year, we're going to press on with the gospel of John, because we hope to arrive on Palm Sunday at John's account of the triumphal entry. It'll be really gratifying, I think, if we can land there. And we're gonna press on with that goal in mind. Today, we're looking at 2 stories, accounts of miraculous healing, back to back accounts of healing, that speak to Jesus power and also serve to transition us in this book of John, to a new theme, a new emphasis, the theme of conflict. 00:01:08.330 --> 00:01:42.190 The first healing takes place in the north in Gallilee. It's initiated by a request from a desperate father who pleads with Jesus to heal his sick son. And this episode closes out a section of the gospel that has focused on the launch of Jesus ministry and his debut trip up to Jerusalem for that first passover. The second account, which follows in chapter 5, occurs later in Jerusalem where, Jesus offers to help a crippled man. He heals him, and then he gets punished for. 00:01:42.365 --> 00:02:29.400 Introduces us to the theme of conflict in this gospel, a theme which is going to be developed over chapter after chapter, and it's going to intensify leading to Jesus' death on the cross. Eternally true. After the 2 days, he departed for Galilee. For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown. So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had gone to the feast. 00:02:30.420 --> 00:02:58.610 So he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum, there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. The official said to him, sir, come down before my child dies. 00:02:58.610 --> 00:03:25.425 Jesus said to him, go. Your son will live. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better and they said to him, yesterday at 7th hour, the fever left him. 00:03:25.740 --> 00:03:35.430 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, your son will live. And he himself believed at all his household. 00:03:35.430 --> 00:03:35.540 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he 00:03:35.540 --> 00:04:02.440 had come from Judea to Galilee. When he had come from Judea to Galilee. 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 in Aramaic called Bethesda, which is five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame and paralyzed. 00:04:03.060 --> 00:04:29.280 1 man was there who had been an invalid for 38 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'm going, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed, and walk. 00:04:29.980 --> 00:04:44.425 And at once, the man was healed. And he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. 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. 00:04:44.725 --> 00:05:14.315 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 and 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. 00:05:20.390 --> 00:05:54.840 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. This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. Because now, not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. 00:05:55.860 --> 00:06:19.627 This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. So the first episode has Jesus up in Galilee healing an official's son. So after a couple of days of fruitful ministry among the Samaritans, John tells us in verses 43 to 45 how Jesus was welcomed back home an odd thing inserted here by John in verse 44. I don't 00:06:19.627 --> 00:06:19.758 know if you if it 00:06:19.758 --> 00:06:54.030 stuck out to you, but it's strange to figure out how it applies. John is referencing a saying of Jesus, is not without honor except in his hometown. If you go home, you don't as a prophet, you never get the the reception of profit deserves in your own hometown. Why is John bringing this up? Because Nazareth is in fact in Galilee where Jesus is the Galileans seem happy to have him there. 00:06:54.030 --> 00:07:18.180 So how does this apply? Well, John, for his purposes, is using this in a more meta theological sense. He wants us to see and understand Jerusalem as Jesus' rightful hometown, the city of the great king, which theologically speaking, it absolutely is. That's the place Jesus has just left to go back to Galilee. And John wants us to understand that he's not really welcome there. 00:07:18.440 --> 00:07:53.205 By the in contrast, he wants us to notice that he is warmly received by these rebellious half bread Samaritans and now by the yokel galleons where he's from. Jesus has his people. They just happen to not be the Jews in Jerusalem. So verse 46 tells how Jesus specifically goes to the city of Cana, the site of his first miracle. And that and there, John tells us how he is approached by an official from Capernaum, who's desperate for his help. 00:07:53.205 --> 00:08:22.130 Capernaum is a town about 20 miles, to the north, or the northeast of cana, that's latitudinally up and altitudinally down. So that's why he's talked about down number of times. Cana is up in the hills of Galilee, about a 1000 feet above sea level. And Capernaum is about 700 feet below sea level, down on the shores of the sea of Galilee. The sea of Galilee is the lowest natural water lake in the world. 00:08:22.275 --> 00:08:31.495 Really cool. There's a big differential there of altitude. Capernaum is a fishing town on the North Shores of Galilee. And it's where Herod Antipas ruled at that time. You've heard of him. 00:08:37.130 --> 00:09:19.085 The assumption then is that this official, as he's called by John, is somehow connected to the court of Herod, serves under Herod in the court there. And he's probably a Jewish man of wealth and notoriety in Capernaum. But all the money and power in the world cannot protect you from disease and death. This man's son is sick, dyne without a hope of a cure. And hearing that the famous miracle worker Jesus had returned to Cana and Galloway, this desperate father springs into action and hits the road and goes makes the hard climb up to Cana. 00:09:19.145 --> 00:09:38.360 I think any of us moms and dads would do the same. Right. Being in Cana and finding Jesus there, the official draws near and asks Jesus to come down with him to Capernaum to heal his son. That's in verse 47. Now, just for a minute, imagine, imagine that your Jesus with the supernatural power to heal the sick, feed multitudes, raise the dead even. 00:09:44.945 --> 00:10:19.185 How would you respond to requests like this? Would you cheerfully use your powers to help your fellow man? You'd be very popular if you did. Jesus did and was very popular for his little tired after a while of people always coming to ask you to fix their problems? When I was growing up, my brother, who's something of a genius, was always asked by everybody in the neighborhood to fix his their computer problems. 00:10:19.885 --> 00:10:42.830 He was a computer nerd, and they always wanted Chad to fix their computer problems. And so Chad took to wearing a shirt that said, your computer is not my problem. Is that Jesus attitude to this man as he comes to him? Well, look in verse 48. He's not entirely overjoyed to be approached at this time in this way. 00:10:42.970 --> 00:10:59.860 There's a kind of harshness off putting nature to his response. He says to the man and his response is spoken in the plural. So when he says you, it's more like you people. He says this, unless you people on earth has gotten into Jesus? Is this his version of putting on your sick child is not my problem shirt? 00:11:11.735 --> 00:11:43.385 He's shown this many times. He's going to show it again, even in the next passage. Fix their physical material problems spiritual need and to who he is in the grand scheme of things. Why he has come? What he's really there for. 00:11:43.445 --> 00:12:16.380 Do you approach Jesus like that is, are your prayers? Take stock of your prayers for a moment. Are they filled with the of physical requests, practical requests, It's good and right to ask Jesus for these things. He does it, but we do weary. Him to meet our spiritual needs. 00:12:16.380 --> 00:13:05.065 He has so much more to give practical things, physical things. He has come that we may have life in him and have it abundantly. Do you seek for that in your prayer requests of him? Things he can do for your attitude, things he can do for your desires, your character, desires, your character. I was talking to someone this week who told me that God is using serious physical suffering in their life, right now, to expose to them, to themselves, deep seated sin needs, sin problems that need his healing touch. 00:13:05.065 --> 00:13:41.050 He is using physical suffer to expose to that suffer issues, deep seated issues of sin that need to be addressed, that need his power to be over. And that's something grace filled soul? Every last person that Jesus ever healed or helped materially, even those of whom he raised from the dead, 00:13:49.245 --> 00:13:49.745 lot 00:13:52.245 --> 00:14:29.810 of people are in the same way. And so, it's a point unto man once to die, and after that, the judge, the JEUS actually to address that deeper need. That's the real need that we have, that problem. And he gets frustrated when people won't look at that problem, won't come to him to meet that need in their life. So Jesus is not ungenerous, and he is definitely not uncaring in his response to this man. 00:14:29.870 --> 00:15:26.510 On the contrary, he cares enough to push this far beyond just the material and immediate physical need of some. As great as that is, as urgent as it is, Jesus isn't willing to just have that be all that we're dealing with together, you and me, sir. It pushes them beyond that. One commentator says that Jesus seeming harshness was aimed at not letting the man and his whole household with him remain stuck halfway down the road towards faith. Jesus' answer in verse 48 was not so much an accusation, but a challenge, a little bit of correction, a little bit of of a challenge, a little bit of pain. 00:15:27.370 --> 00:16:05.835 I want to apply this for a moment to parents, to parents, moms and dads. Are you willing to cause your children or allow your children to experience That's what biblical discipline loving biblical discipline is always about. It takes It's not pleasant for any. Acknowledges is this. All discipline, it says, for the moment, seems not to be joyful. 00:16:05.835 --> 00:16:29.540 That goes both ways for moms and kids, for dads and sons. No discipline seems to be joyful in the moment. For those who have been trained by it, afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. So yes, parents, yes, by all means, encourage, love, support, build up your children. They need affection. 00:16:33.505 --> 00:16:39.885 To cross them, to push them, to challenge them, and for you to allow life to do that too. Don't coddle 00:16:39.885 --> 00:16:40.215 your children. Don't coddle your children. It's destructive to their souls. 00:16:40.215 --> 00:16:53.390 If you're not going to your children. It's destructive to their soul. If you're not going to coddle your children, it requires sometimes somehow saying no. 00:16:55.995 --> 00:17:05.265 Come and future. It requires real 00:17:05.265 --> 00:17:30.725 faith and real love, which come and future. It requires real faith and real love, which is what Jisas had for this man. He had faced to push him, to set him back on his heels a little bit. So that a his the bigger picture of his needs pointed towards a greater end. And look what came of it. 00:17:31.345 --> 00:17:57.835 You know, important people, wealthy people, they are not used to being insulted or or rebuked or denied. Not very many of us, even unimportant people take that very well. But this man doesn't seem to take any offense at Jesus push back or statement. You people, he doesn't take any offense. He's just in too much trouble to notice. 00:18:00.855 --> 00:18:24.265 Like just about nothing else can. It can put us in that state where we can really receive the help that Jesus has to offer us. Matthew Henry says that those whom Christ intends to honor, he first humbles with his frowns. If you ever felt the frown of God in your life through circumstances or otherwise? This man is just in a desperate place. 00:18:24.325 --> 00:18:51.125 And so he just pleads with Jesus. Jesus, I'm sure you're right. But my child, my child, would you please come down before my child? So clearly, he's got some amount of trust in Jesus power to heal, but he is not yet appreciating the full power that Jesus represents. He thinks Jesus, healing touch works like Bluetooth. 00:18:52.545 --> 00:19:26.640 You gotta be he's gotta come down with him down there and be close enough to work. Strahm. JEAN: That's God's not the way he wants him. That's God's style. He is often answering our requests, our requests, and meeting our needs in unexpected ways that are different than what we thought he was going to do or asked him to do. 00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:50.595 Best. They are very much better than ours. Jesus is not going to be going down with this man to Capernaum. He is not gonna be proving or showing his power through any observable signs that day. Instead, he leaves the man with a simple word of promise. 00:19:51.295 --> 00:20:22.740 Go. Do that as a status for you. But you've accepted that cheerfully, happily, trusted, John tells us in verse 50, the man believed the word that Jesus spoke. He believed the word and he went on his way. He trusted Jesus' word for the recovery of the story. 00:20:26.640 --> 00:20:32.100 A better end than this was in store for this man and his son. And even the one that Jesus had just 00:20:32.765 --> 00:20:33.805 the father is retracing his steps down 00:20:33.805 --> 00:21:01.300 the road to Capernaum in verse 51, his servants who know nothing about has, if anything, has transpired up in Cana. They come out to meet him along the path, to find their master, and bring him the news that his son has taken a good turn and has to find their master, and bring him the news that his son has taken a good turn and is on the road to recovery. Verse 50 1. We just thought you should know, sir, because it's joyful, it's awesome. But in case that the healer is coming, you should tell him his services are no longer needed. 00:21:01.775 --> 00:21:14.355 Don't trouble him any further. Wait a second, says the father. Wait a second. Tell me when I need to know when was the moment my son took this better turn. Tell me. 00:21:15.230 --> 00:21:42.010 And the father knows. That was the. Jesus, he had been talking to Jesus. When he was busy up in his son down in Capernaum. So great, so vast yours. 00:21:42.010 --> 00:23:10.120 And so true and faithful is yours, though, as wonderful as it is, is not the greatest miracle of this story. As an ultimate savior from faith, trust, and Jesus for all that he is, for all that he that he that is the greatest miracle that Jesus ever works. Have you experienced that miracle, that miracle of trust in Jesus Christ, I, when I received this miracle, was on the road to destruction, self destruction destroying others. Destroying others. And Jesus worked a miracle of faith and trust in me. 00:23:12.100 --> 00:23:20.205 This father had he experiences this in the midst of this, miracles. John tells us that he he himself believed and all his household with him. So through this experience, this man, 00:23:31.410 --> 00:23:32.610 himself, personally, and he leads all 00:23:32.610 --> 00:24:24.165 his household with him in this, they became convinced, committed disciples of Jesus Christ. They were united to Jesus by faith, where their everlasting joy, And trust his word. And it's his word. And it's his word. When it believe on Jesus by faith. 00:24:24.625 --> 00:25:12.805 That's just why preaching of God's word is so important for us. Through the word of Christ. And the word is front and center in the midst of this miracle in a wonderful way. John tells us in conclusion of this section verse 44, that this was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. And with that signpost, he brings to a conclusion he calls curtain on a unit that's running been running from chapters 2 to 4 that has focused on the early days of Jesus' ministry. 00:25:12.805 --> 00:26:02.475 And now with this next account of healing, he moves us into a new section with a new nice miracle starting in chapter 5. Jesus by now has returned to Jerusalem for yet another feast of the Jews. This one's left unspecified probably because the Sabbath is the focal point and they don't want any other details to distract from that. Place called Bethesda, which means house of mercy, house of grace. It was located outside the city wall near a small entry point known since the days of Nehemiah as the sheep gate. 00:26:02.475 --> 00:26:28.300 Today, modern day, I think it's called the lion gate in Jerusalem. Bethesda appears to have started out many centuries before as like the city reservoir. Public bathhouse or ceremonial ritual cleansing place for the Jews. There were 2 pools in this complex. There's an upper and a lower pool. 00:26:28.565 --> 00:26:51.500 And these were divided and surrounded by these covered porches called colonnades. So 5 of them with 4 around the perimeter and one dividing in the center. And John tells us in verse 3 how these porches were constantly filled with a multitude of sick people, of invalids. Of sick people, of individs. The blind, the lame, and the paralyzed were there. 00:26:51.500 --> 00:27:31.698 And these people were drawn to Bethesda by the promise of healing, believing that the waters provided them some kind of curative power, at least at certain seasons of the year. We have places like this even in our modern day. In recent time Have you ever heard of Bath in England, in Somerset, England? Bath, the city of Bath. It's like a spa town where people used to go to, to bathe in these Roman era baths that are there, still to this day, believing even as late as the early 19th century that these place that water would help cure all kinds of things. 00:27:31.698 --> 00:27:31.783 They had 00:27:31.783 --> 00:27:32.082 long lists of things that they promised 00:27:32.082 --> 00:27:45.683 to cure if you just came for enough time and took enough baths in this special order. Believe older translations, if you've been following along in a 00:27:45.683 --> 00:27:46.117 different translation of scripture, as 00:27:46.117 --> 00:28:22.520 you've been listening, older translations include an explanatory verse here, a verse 4, which our reading did not include. And I I want it I want you to hear what it says. It says, for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. Now, the very important question is, is that scripture or not? 00:28:26.975 --> 00:28:54.620 Translators of the ESV, which we're using, believe that it's not. And there are good reasons for thinking that it's not. I want to share them with you today. The first one is that this verse does not appear in the earliest manuscript copies that we have of the scriptures. Okay? 00:28:54.680 --> 00:29:20.230 That doesn't say everything there is to say, but that's an important thing to start with. It's not in the earliest copies of the manuscripts we have. In a bunch of the copies in which it does appear, like 24 or something, there's asterisk by it that the copyist with his pen put in beside this verse. So we think, communicating to later copyist, this verse is suspect. I don't know that this is original, guys. 00:29:20.555 --> 00:29:46.748 And then there's several words used in this verse, which aren't found anywhere else in John's writings, and a couple which aren't found anywhere else in the new testament. So that's also maybe a clue that this comes from some other period of history, some later time. Add that up and you begin to think, well, this probably isn't an inspired part of apostolic writing. Drawing these people 00:29:46.748 --> 00:29:46.961 to this place. 00:29:46.961 --> 00:30:13.945 Something was stirring the waters. What could that be? Well, people have tried to explain it. The pools are not fed by springs normally. They they're for centuries, they have been fed by by, these channels of water that have been directed there by humans. 00:30:13.945 --> 00:30:47.665 So that's how they're normally filled and kept filled with water in this But there's a theory that at certain seasons of the year, underground springs gurgled up and affected the waters in some way visibly. And people thought if we could get whoever got in there first or among the first people were then able to receive the supposed healing benefits of this water in those situations. Of this water in those situations. These people clearly believe this. And that's what drew them there. 00:30:47.665 --> 00:31:16.715 So the Bethesda at this time is packed with sick people. Seeking relief that day is a man who John tells us has been an invalid sick, probably paralyzed, for 38 years. It's hard not to think of our dear brother departed, Bob Kaplowitz, when you think about this. 38 years paralyzed. Bob Kaplowitz suffered with cerebral palsy, dear part of this church, for our whole history. 00:31:17.850 --> 00:32:50.410 Time. Right. And it's important to remember, It's important to remember when we hit up against diseases like this, people like our brother, Bob, their plan. These things come into this world, came into this world, as a consequence of Adam's fall, Adam's fall into sin. Our bodies were not meant to die or be dysfunctional or suffer disease, cancer, fatty liver, diabetes, schizophrenia, epilepsy, ALS, MS, long COVID, these things and so many more horrible things are not part of what God looked on Why some of us suffer more than others under the weight of this is a mystery of God's providence. 00:32:51.190 --> 00:33:14.167 I don't have the answers. All of us share in death. Some of us bear the marks of that death our whole life. I know I'm grateful much, much better. Some of them even been cured. 00:33:14.280 --> 00:33:55.959 Recently, I heard from a young man of our church who he's decided thinks he's decided to dedicate his life to medicine. And I made me We need doctors to care for us and to help us with our However far we climb, with medical technology, we will not outrun or overcome or eradicate the curse of sin and death. That is reserved for the Lord Jesus Christ when he returns in glory to put the last enemy death to death. So put the last enemy death to death. Happy thought to look forward to that day? 00:33:55.959 --> 00:34:11.475 In the meantime, what can we do? Well, Bethesda and do what we can 00:34:11.475 --> 00:34:11.825 to notice and see and share love with and alleviate 00:34:11.825 --> 00:35:06.010 the suffering of people who suffer. Jesus had an eye And that seems to be what drew Jesus to. Something about this man was especially pathetic and moving to the compassionate heart of Jesus Christ. And so he goes over to him and he kneels down and he says, do you wanna be healed? Often to be the one getting down into the water. 00:35:06.550 --> 00:36:12.810 I've had to watch people all pass me by, climb in there themselves ahead of me. Nobody in my life has been able to come and help me get into the and they simply began to do just as Jesus commanded. He took up his bed and He took up his bed and wore and then an awesome story. And a powerful example of Christ's power and even more powerful example of his compassionate heart that drew him towards people who suffer physically in horrible ways. We don't have divine powers of healing. 00:36:13.270 --> 00:36:50.145 I wish I did. But need, people who suffer, people who are hurting, who are lonely and marginal, who don't have anybody to help them in their life. We can be lips, we can use our hands, we can use our wallets, we can help them in practical ways, and show the love of Jesus and the compassionate heart of Jesus. It's wonderful of a story as this is. It is merely John's way of introducing us to the following controversy. 00:36:50.365 --> 00:37:27.940 This is the setup to the first big controversy of John's gospel and to a growing theme of conflict. The next section begins, now that was the Sabbath day. Saturday, according to the custom of the Jews, God had decreed through Moses based on his own pattern of rest and creation back in Genesis 2, that every 7th day was to be set apart as a complete and holy rest day unto the Lord. Every 7th day A day for laying aside 00:37:27.940 --> 00:37:28.146 normal work and routines and devote to the 00:37:28.146 --> 00:37:42.172 worship and contemplation of God and the refreshment of our minds and our souls and our bodies. Dedicated to God, a life of 00:37:42.172 --> 00:37:42.390 dependence upon God for everything. 00:37:42.390 --> 00:38:29.060 If you're if you're not working, you're trusting God to provide. The Sabbath was a reminder symbolizing that. The Jews took this command of the Sabbath seriously because God had taught them to take it seriously. There was a man in their history, back in Numbers 15, who God commanded to be stoned to death by the whole congregation because he was found out in the wilderness on the Sabbath picking up wood, firewood, instead of resting with the community. And he was convict he was he was convicted to die by the hands of all the people. 00:38:30.000 --> 00:39:09.175 So they were right to take this seriously, but like so many things at this point in history, Jewish reverence for the Sabbath had been courageous penchant for religious formalism, legalism, and hypocrisy. The things that matter to God no longer mattered to them. God had given them the Sabbath to be a joy and a delight, to encourage love and awe in their hearts for him, and compassion and love for their fellow man. But they had reduced the Sabbath to an exacting list of don'ts. Nope. 00:39:09.175 --> 00:39:19.675 Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. They become experts in making petty rules and enforcing those rules 00:39:22.280 --> 00:39:22.726 particular went around the community like religious inspectors, ensuring community compliance with these 00:39:22.726 --> 00:39:39.010 minute regulations of the Sabbath. We see some of that in action here in verse 10. Jews, that's his word for the Pharisees, generally, how the Jews found 00:39:39.010 --> 00:39:39.149 the man Jesus that healed. 00:39:39.149 --> 00:40:15.075 And they said to him, verse 10, it's not lawful to take up your bed on the Sabbath. To which he replies, verse 11, the man who healed me, he told me to do this. He said to me, take up your bed and walk. So an incredible miracle of healing does not interest them. All they can see and all they can care about is the prosecuting of an in They're not curious to know how who would perform this wonderful work of healing. 00:40:15.075 --> 00:40:27.550 They just want to find and prosecute the man who had told this man to break the law. This man to break the law. But Jesus had already withdrawn. The man didn't know who he was. He hadn't had a formal introduction. 00:40:27.930 --> 00:40:45.345 There was too many people. And he so this had to be tabled. This question of who had authorized this, had to be tabled. But later, we read in verse 14, this man and Jesus run into each other in the temple. And Jesus says to him, see your well. 00:40:45.805 --> 00:41:04.630 You're well. Notice your well. Sin no more. That nothing worse may happen to you. Whatever else you're going to say about that, it's clear that people aren't just as Pastor Baker said, meat suits. 00:41:04.895 --> 00:41:45.280 People aren't just meat suits to Jesus. They're embodied souls. And once again, Jesus pushes beyond the physical benefits of his healing power to the deeper realities of spirit, of judgment, of sin to come. But something worse that can happen is ultimately being weighed in the balance of God's judgment and found one team. If this man doesn't deal with that problem appropriately, loved Jesus. 00:41:45.420 --> 00:42:15.670 He had to have loved Jesus. How could he not love Jesus? So what he does next then is very surprised. He goes and he turns Jesus in to the religious authorities, verse 15. He says, that, John says, he went away and he told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 00:42:15.970 --> 00:42:41.900 What on earth? Why did he do that? Well, probably he was just naively trying to be a good conscientious citizen. I doubt very much that he's tracking the politics of this situation and plotting treachery against Jesus Christ. But regardless, this is how this is what gets Jesus on the naughty list of the Pharisees. 00:42:42.880 --> 00:43:14.070 It says John says, this is why the Pharisees were per persecuting Jesus because of this. And because of other things that Jesus was doing on the Sabbath that was rocking their world and challenging their moralistic traditions. And challenging their moralistic traditions. So the Pharisees come to Jesus. They're wagging their tongues, pointing their fingers, and they're trying to browbeat, shame him, rebuke him into submission, And down, giving it up, packing it, and going back to Galilee or whatever. 00:43:15.490 --> 00:43:38.870 What does Jesus do? He doubles, triples, quadruples down. That's what Jesus does. He turns it up to 11 with one simple, brilliant, inflammatory defense. He says, my father is working until now, and I am working. 00:43:40.210 --> 00:43:59.975 What's the significance of that? Well, at this time, for generations, Jewish scholars have been weighing a philosophical question. Does God obey his own Sabbath rule? Does God rest on the Sabbath like we do? After all, he's the one where he tells us to pattern our lives after. 00:43:59.975 --> 00:44:11.210 Does God rest? Who keeps the world going if God takes a day off? That's their philosophical question. It's been going on for a couple of centuries at this point. And around about this time, it's been settled by the rabbis. 00:44:11.210 --> 00:44:29.700 They think they've got the answer, God, who fills all things and is every it is above all things. No, he doesn't obey the Sabbath. He keeps No, he doesn't obey the Sabbath. He keeps working. So Jesus, in his reply, he takes their true opinion of God. 00:44:29.780 --> 00:44:56.835 He agrees with their premise, and he applies it to himself saying, my father is working until now, and I am working. In other words, I'm doing what I'm doing, and I'm exempt from your laws because I and the father are 1. That's a nuclear statement. 00:44:58.470 --> 00:44:58.577 John says verse 18 00:44:58.577 --> 00:45:25.291 that they were seeking all the more to kill Jesus. Because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, now he's even calling God his own father and making himself equal with God. That is exactly what Jesus was doing. And they hate him for it. 00:45:25.291 --> 00:45:25.469 They're scandalized by it. They're scandalized by it. They're scandalized by it. They're scandalized by it. They're scandalized by it. 00:45:25.469 --> 00:45:25.505 They're scandalized by it. 00:45:25.505 --> 00:45:44.545 They're scandalized by it. They're scandalized by it. They They're scandalized by it. And this is John beginning to open up that. Unsettling theme, ominous theme from the beginning of his, the prologue to his gospel where he said, Jesus came to his own and his own received him not. 00:45:47.485 --> 00:46:29.740 But Jesus is not done rubbing their noses in this. He didn't just leave it at this pithy statement. He goes on and the rest of chapter 5 is an extended speech from Jesus, where he capitalizes on this moment and expounds the exact nature of his relationship to his father in heaven, and why it is that these people are persecuting him and hating him. This is a this is something that's a feature of John's gospel, where the miracles don't stand for themselves. Jesus goes on to talk about the miracles and intensify the conflict as he does. 00:46:30.680 --> 00:46:50.235 That the rest of chapter 5 is glorious and it's hair raising. We're gonna come back to it next week and finish out this chapter. I'm going to close this in a word of prayer and then we're going to have communion. Let's pray. Gracious heavenly father, your word is wonderful. 00:46:51.510 --> 00:47:17.809 Your word is true. Your word glorifies you. It exposes us. And we ask, Lord, that we would be the kind of people humbled by you, to see our need and agree with your diagnosis and to trust in your solution and cure, which is the salvation provided in Jesus Christ, 00:47:17.809 --> 00:47:17.937 our Lord. I pray 00:47:17.937 --> 00:47:34.030 that we would be a believing that we would be a believing that faith would be exhibited in our lives. And that we like Jesus would love and have a compassionate heart 00:47:34.030 --> 00:47:34.158 for those who suffer. It's to not be 00:47:34.158 --> 00:47:52.041 scandalized by Jesus. The Help us to not be scandalized by Jesus, the hard edges of his ministry, by his boldness, help us to love him for it in the days to come. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.