LOJ #24: ‘In Deep Water: Part I’
Andover Baptist Church-May 24th, 2009
Opening
A. Text for today is John 5:1-15and our sermon is titled ‘In Deep
Water’
B. Children’s Sermon(SLIDE)
1. Have the kids help me (need duck tape and a ball)
2. Need a volunteer (thanks Ian)
3. Put ball at the doors of the sanctuary
4. You guys are all going to race to that ball and the first
one to get it wins
5. On your mark get set, ….oh I almost forgot….I need to
duck tape your legs Ian
6. Today in our text we find a man that had something he
wanted very much, but because he was paralyzed he
could not get it
7. We are the same way, we can't do anything fix all the
bad things that we do, but just as this man learned today
Jesus can
C. Introduction
1. We just saw Ian struggle to get to his goal, and he was
unable
2. In a very small way this sets up our text for today
3. In it we will see a man physically paralyzed and unable
to help himself
4. To this Jesus walks in and frees him physically, but
offers him even more to free him from his spiritual
paralysis…that offer still stands for anyone who seeks
Him
Sermon
READ: John 5:1 (Scripture slide)
"Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews."
A. Not sure exactly when this incident happened in the life of
Christ, some put it after the events that happened after the
calling of Matthew
B. Jesus went to Jerusalem to attend a feast
1. Three feasts were required to be attended in Jerusalem if
possible: Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles
Dt 16:16"Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed"
2. Likely this was Passover feast
3. Given only to show why Jesus was in Jerusalem
READ: John 5:2, 3 (Scripture slide)
"2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed."
A. ‘near the Sheep Gate’
1. (SLIDE) Map of Jerusalem
2. It's significant that Jesus came via the Sheep Gate…this
is the gate the sacrificial sheep for the temple came in
through…Jesus used it to show His own mission
B. ‘Bethesda’
1. Means ‘house of mercy’ (live up to that name today)
2. Actually two pools next to each other with five porticos
(covered colonnades) surrounding it
C. ‘the blind, the lame, the paralyzed’
1. All these people were physically unable to help
themselves
2. Rumor had spread that one could get healed at this pool
so the hopeless gathered there
3. This is why I think Jesus came to them…to show that not
only could He heal those who could not physically heal
themselves, but also those who need spiritual healing
4. vs. 3 is a likely comment on the spiritual state of the
entire world
READ: John 5:5-8 (Scripture slide)
"5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
A. 'invalid…38 years'
1. Not sure if that 38 years suffering was from birth or
came latter in life
2. None the less that was a considerable amount of time to
live in that day with a disability
3. This man’s state was such that he could really do little
more than lie at this pool and wait
4. He must have some movement available to him, because
he is able to move and try to get in (must be paralyzed
from the waist down)
5. But it has turned into a hopeless situation
6. Yet he is about to meet one Who has all power, and in
whom we can place all hope
B. Jesus poses a strange question
1. Word for 'learned' means perceived or knowing, not that
He needed input from anyone
2. 'Do you want to get well?'
3. Seems like an absurd question….but we all know of
people who do not want to be helped…those people
simply need to be left to prayer
a. It is also true that spiritually some people either
do not know they are sick or don't want to be
healed
b. One can be seemingly happy in their sins until
those sins spawn consequences….even a rat trap
has some cheese
4. The question that Jesus ask was to focus the man's
attention upon Jesus
a. He likely was so intent on the water bubbling that
he probably never took his eyes far from it
b. We too can focus on things that we think are
valuable and in reality we miss out on that which
really is valuable
c. Had Jesus not asked this man this question, he
likely never would have seen Jesus walk by
C. A Desperate Answer
1. Vs. 4 is omitted from the most ancient manuscripts
before 400 A.D.
a. But it explains the custom of why people would
go to this pool
b. Does someone have that verse?
"paralyzed—and they waited for the moving of the waters.From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had."
c. They would go down to this pool in hope of a
cure, supposedly if the water stirred the first one
down would be cured
2. So here this man was trying on his own to get in
a. Others were not sympathetic and pushed this man
aside for their own healing
b. Now it is possible that this man simply expect
Jesus to help him down into the water….he must
not have known Who Jesus was or he would have
likely beseeched Him for aide
c. The last paralyzed man we saw had four friends,
this man has no one to bring him to Jesus so
Jesus went to him
3. We too don't have anyone other than Christ who can
truly help us in our spiritual need
a. How many years had this man wasted trying to
do what he could not do on his own?
b. Same for you and I in the seeking of making our
relationship right with God….we can't do it
c. But Jesus can
D. 'Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.'
1. This healing was not done at any request, it was done
out of Jesus' mercy and compassion
2. Now when Jesus tells someone to do something He
enables them to do it…cf. Lazarus (11:43)
Jn 11:43-44"When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
3. Jesus words are backed with the almighty power of God
4. But He expects us to act upon His commands
(faith requires action…action requires faith)
a. That man could have sat there in disbelief and
never received the healing that Jesus had in store
for him, it takes faith to pick up your mat and
walk
b. Jesus gives us a similar command: take up your
faith and walk
READ: John 5:9-13 (Scripture slide)
"9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” 11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” 12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there."
A. Immediately 'cured'
1. In that moment paralysis gave way to power
2. Jesus showed absolute grace to this man, even thought
he did not deserve it Jesus healed him
3. This miracle was a sign from Jesus showing that He was
God's promised Messiah
Is 35:3-7"3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow."
B. Jesus good deed causes a legalistic problem
1. The man obeyed Jesus….at least initially (but as we
will see it was not a saving faith)
2. Once push comes to shove the man abandons Jesus
3. It was the Sabbath when Jesus healed the man and told
him to take up his mat and walk
a. The Jews had taken God's command to not work
on the Sabbath and perverted it's meaning to
exclude a whole host of things
b. In fact there was one specific law of the Rabbis in
the Mishna…Shabbath 7:2 that forbids the
carrying of one's bed on the Sabbath
c. So picture this: here he is carrying his mat, just
walking around carrying a mat, but this was the
Sabbath and legalistic Jews would have seen him
carrying something and would have known he
was 'breaking' their interpretation of a Sabbaths
rest, been just like carrying around a neon sign
saying 'I'm A Sabbath Breaker'
d. He stuck out just as much as Dale if he wore a
tutu to church today (by the way please don’t)
4. .I fully believe that Jesus purposely had this man
break a well known, manmade law because it was
detracting from the real meaning of God’s Law
B. The blame
1. This carrying of the mat could have serious
consequences for the previously paralyzed man
2. If someone carried something intentionally on the
Sabbath they were seen to deserve death by stoning, this
man was in danger of loosing his life
3. So this man tried to weasel his way out of their
questions blaming Jesus for making him do it and then
eventually going as far as betraying Jesus to save his
own neck
4. (contrast this story with the man who was blind and
healed and then thrown out of the Sanhedrin opposite
stories)
5. We see here the first Judas, who would have been well
to heed Jesus’ advice that ‘whoever loves his life will
lose it’
C. Jesus knew the heart of this man so He had 'slipped away' from
him
1. The man did not even know who He was
2. The man did not even know Jesus by reputation, good
indication this is early on in the ministry of Jesus
3. And Jesus had slipped away before others could catch
on and tell the man who had healed him
4. Like a drive by healing: the man was likely so excited
that he could walk that his attention left Jesus
READ: John 5:14, 15 (Scripture slide)
"14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well".
A. The man had gone into the temple and Jesus found him while
looking for him
1. Likely no longer carrying his mat
2. Unlike other healings we find no record of the man
thanking Jesus or even seeking Jesus out
B. Jesus scolds him
1. With healing comes responsibility
2. Jesus knew this man's heart and knew that he was intent
on turning Jesus in
3. The sad reality is that if this man would not come to
Jesus he would never be spiritually healed, and 38 years
of paralysis has nothing on eternity spent separate from
God
C. By healing this man Jesus set the events of the cross on
course…by going to the cross He healed us (next week we will
see the consequences of this healing)
Application (slide)
A. This Memorial Day weekend let us not forget what Jesus has
done for us and let us not forget to help get those who have yet
to be healed by Him
B. Jesus asked the paralyzed man a question that was to the point,
that pierced the heart of the issue, and now I ask you the same
question…..Do you want to get well?
Invitation
Let us sing our last song #,
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