524: Do You Want to be Healed? | Tim Henderson

Introduction

All right well I'll tell you we really enjoyed kind of walking through Isaiah's advent over the last four weeks and I love I'm glad we did that I love that but I'm also really glad to get back to John we are enjoying this series and John hope you are as well and we are going to be this morning in chapter five which sort of is the passage that Bob just read this morning although there's some there's a bunch of asterisks to this one thing that's just kind of that one of the shortcomings of my life is that everything I do I feel like I'm in a rush I just like to get I like to finish things get to the next thing and so I have like this self-consciousness of like we're gonna be in John till the end of time and it makes me want to kind of move through it and so a couple weeks ago I was asked like hey what do you want to teach on what's the sermon title and I game the answer which was the wrong answer as it turns out so if you look in your thing the the title of the sermon and even the part of the passage that Bob read could lead you to think that we're going to talk about like the actual activity in this healing what's going on in Jesus's dialogue with this guy which is a great idea to do but over Christmas break I decided I didn't want to do that I really want to walk through the import of it like what does it mean what's the significance of all this and so that's what we're gonna do this morning which is a little bit out of order because after the first service Lupinars like man there's so much that's still in that thing we're gonna so we're gonna give this passage two weeks was just gonna slow us down and about give me a heart attack but we're gonna do anyway and we really should have had sloop do like the you know the heart of what's happening and then I'll walk through with the implications next week but we're not doing that because we're making this up as we go along so here's where we're at you guys we're gonna be in chapter 5 the passage that you just heard read sort of what's going on in John 5 is that Jesus heals a man who has been an invalid for 38 years right he's been lying near this pool hoping to be healed for 38 years and then when Jesus shows up find like in an instant what hasn't happened for almost four decades happens in a matter of seconds right it's a miracle but remember that in John's gospel miracles are never called miracles they're not just acts of kindness they're not just demonstrations of power in John's gospel what do we call miracles they are signs and they call them signs because they signify something they mean something all right next week sloop's gonna walk through the actual miracle but I'm gonna kind of cut to the chase and skip to skip ahead we're gonna talk about what they signify and what I want you to really lean in with me this is going to be a little bit academic but what does this one mean what does it signify what was Jesus trying to accomplish when he did it and what did Jesus I mean what did John mean when he wrote it down as near as I can tell John's doing three things there's at least three signy things about this sign I'm gonna give you all three I'm just gonna hit the first two really quick and we're gonna slow down and camp out on the third one because I think it's the biggest one okay so the first thing would almost be impossible to grasp if you didn't read the rest of the chapter and then the the third one though is is the biggie okay we'll get this so here's the sign itself as it happens and we'll walk through with these three things are verse two now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool an Aramaic called Bethesda which has five a five root colonnades in these lay a multitude of invalids blind lame and paralyzed one man who had been in for 38 years was there and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there for a long time he said to him do you want to be healed and the sick man answered him sir I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred and while I'm going down and what while I'm going and other steps down before me Jesus said to him well get up take up your bed and walk and at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walked okay the first signy thing about this is not obvious at all you'd have to read past verse 18 to kind of like the next chunk of of John 5 because what John is doing here is he's setting up he's almost kind of foreshadowing he's setting the sage for he's building a template for what Jesus is going to do a little bit later in the chapter okay so if you kind of like just kind of scroll down and you see this in verse 8 we'll start we'll start with our passage and we'll see where it's pointing to in verse 8 our passage Jesus says get up and immediately a man who's not been able to walk for 38 years is able to walk okay and the reason he's able to walk is really simple Jesus told him to if Jesus tells you to get up you get up and so he does okay next week well I don't know maybe in two weeks now because Dave's doing this one again so maybe eventually someday we're gonna get down to the second part of this passage where Jesus says this in verse 25 truly truly I say to you an hour is coming and is now here where the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live and then he says again in verse 28 do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in their tombs will hear his voice and come out those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment Jesus is basically foreshadowing the power of Jesus's voice right healing an invalid would literally be infinitely beyond my power you know I would have nothing to offer that but for Jesus it was inconsequential it's nothing compared to his greater ability that we're gonna see eventually where he calls everyone who has ever lived and died to walk out of their graves okay so John is he's setting us up that this guy has an unbelievably powerful voice and you think this is something just wait towards going okay so number one this miracle sign this sign signifies the power of Jesus's voice right second thing that it does is it anticipates it sets up this enormous controversy that's been brewing about Jesus's identity John is building tension about this swirling question and controversy about the identity of Jesus over and over you guys no matter what Jesus does no matter what he says everybody's like who is this guy like what is this about who can say these kinds of things who would do these kind of things who would make these kinds of claims so John is deeply interested this just pervades his gospel and you asking the question like who is this guy what does it mean you're gonna see it in chapter 5 it's gonna build through chapter 7 chapter 9 is really a climactic moment on this question where Jesus's identity in this swirling controversy really comes to it comes to a peak and it's it's an amazing thing because what we want to see happen this controversy that begins in Jesus's life is everybody's like who is he what does he think and this kind of this double question of what is his self identity like who does he think he is and then the other question is well who is he actually and of course he's right about who he is so they're really end up being the same thing but his self-conception his identity is a huge question and it's never stopped for the last 2,000 years people still are asking that same question yeah but who is he really is he who he claimed to be what can possibly explain the things that he says and the things that he does right what we want to see happen in our own lives is that we enter into that controversy it would be amazing if it your job if in your family if on your street there was this undercurrent of like that but who is he but I really want to understand if I just take my face value what does it mean who is this guy and this miracle this sign signifies not only the power of his voice but this swirling controversy about who he is okay those are the two quick ones here's the one that I really want to get to all right not only do we see the power of his voice to raise the dead not only do we have the nature of his identity but this third thing in John 5 is where John introduces it's his version of an introduction to this massive controversy that pervades all of the other gospels pervaded Jesus ministry and I'm curious if you recognize what it is it would be helpful maybe just to keep in mind that John's gospel is what we call the fourth gospel right there's Matthew Mark Luke and then there's John and we don't simply mean that this is the fourth one printed in the book just in some random sequence like why did Matthew and Mark get to go before John right what we really mean is that John is the last one written for it was the last one written when John sat down to write his gospel Matthew and Mark and Luke we're not only written but they were in circulation and John would have been familiar with them we call Matthew Mark and Luke what what do we call those you know what the group is called synoptics right it means they look the same they write from the same vantage point and he knew all of that content and largely John is writing supplemental information you all know Matthew you know mark you know Luke but let me give you the rest of the story he was there for all of those things but he also was there for things that they didn't bother to write down or they didn't think you know central to their own particular purpose in writing and so John is going to supplement what that means is that he knew all of these things that showed up and there was a particular controversy that just ran through all of their writings and he wants to kind of jump into this alright he knew that there was a theme that had developed throughout the synoptics regarding a very significant and repeated conflict that Jesus had with the Jewish leadership of his day let me give you a list of all the times that this shows up in Matthew Mark and Luke and then we'll see what John wants to add to the party okay number one Jesus and his friends one day ate grain that they had picked in a grain field they were walking through this field and I just grabbed up that you know the head off the stock and rubbed it in their hands to get the husks off and then they ate this little like thing of the inner seeds of the grain and when he did people got all mad at him number two Jesus healed a man who had a withered hand when he did this he did it in a particularly conspicuous way they had been watching him they had grown suspicious of him and they're like I bet he's gonna heal this guy and they thought he was gonna try to do it in secret and they wanted to be ready to catch him so they could see anything that he does and so instead of being furtive and secretive he just brings this guy up in the front of the room he says hey stretch out your hand in front of everybody and this man with a crippled hand gets healed and it's just kind of a flex where Jesus says you think I'm gonna be secretive about it here it's in your face another time he healed a woman she had been bent over for 18 years right she just walked like this she just lived like this can't imagine the misery of being in a perpetual bent state and he just straightens her and he heals her and it ticked them all off and then another time he healed a man who had dropsy which I had to look up what that was drops is the kind of edema where fluid gathers in your limbs so maybe he had one giant leg or maybe his arms were significant significantly swelled for you know perpetually and Jesus just healed him and he fixed it and it was all better all right now these four things each one of these actions one of them honestly just an inconsequential active eating a snack and then three of them acts of kindness and mercy and power absolutely drove the Jewish leaders out of their minds it is what it is specifically what drove them to plot his murder it brought him enormous scrutiny and it brought them an enormous amount of frustration and anger so what do they all have in common what was really going on here you guys Sabbath every one of these things were done on a Saturday if he'd done it on a Friday done it on a Sunday Tuesday nobody would have blinked but they all took place on a Saturday and that drove them out of their minds all right this was a huge thing Jesus repeatedly flaunted his disregard for the Jewish understanding of the Sabbath keeping right and John knew this John had been there first of all for all of these things he was there he saw the things that Jesus did on a Saturday he saw the way the Jewish leadership responded to him and he'd read Matthew Mark and Luke right so he remembered the Sabbath activities what a big deal it was but he also knew that there were several other instances where Matthew and Mark and Luke didn't do this and so this is interesting because sometimes things are happened and John knows about he's like yeah yeah they covered it when they go cover something else this one he dog piles on this one he's like yeah yeah they were right about that Matthew Mark and Luke told you the truth about that but they didn't tell you the whole truth let me tell you even more times that this happened which is whenever John is redundant to the synoptics it's a good idea to pay attention there's something he really wants us to really get some something he wants to drive home and so in John 5 John jumps in and he just starts to add to this pile of times that Jesus got in trouble for running afoul of the Jewish expectations of the Sabbath it's the first time John does it it's not the last he's going to talk about Sabbath breaking again in chapter 7 and then again it comes to this climax in chapter 9 just notice here how much the Sabbath pervades the commentary on this sign so what draws our attention to this verse 9 says now that day was the Sabbath so the Jews said to the man who had been healed it's the Sabbath and it's not lawful for you to take up your bed but he answered them the man who healed me that man said to me take up your bed and walk so they asked him well who is the man who said to you take up your bed and walk more of that identity question now the man who had been healed did not know who it was for Jesus had withdrawn and there was a crowd in place in the place afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him see your well sin no more than nothing worse may happen to you in verse 15 the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who healed them 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 not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was even calling God his own father making himself equal with God all right here's what I want you to grasp and we've got 15 minutes left Matthew Mark Luke and John all four give a huge amount of time to the things that Jesus did on the Sabbath and a huge amount of time to how much the Jews hated it they wanted us to understand not only that Jesus did these things not only that the Jews didn't appreciate it but they wanted us to understand how Jesus responded when they did so today what I want to do is take the opportunity we're kind of double click off at off at John 5 and do a little bit of Sabbath theology because I want you to understand what's going on here this thing gets so much time and attention but I think honestly we don't generally understand it we don't know what what is the deal what's going on with this so we're gonna begin I want you to see that this third and siniest sign of all the signs here it's not just his voice the power was voice to raise the dead it's not just the nature of his identity but really what we're supposed to get is Jesus is very challenging teaching about the Sabbath he is challenged by the Jews and he challenges them right back alright this is what I want you to get so if we're gonna be fair if we're gonna be honest you have to first understand why observing the Sabbath was so incredibly important to the Jews do you think that they were making it up they were not making this up okay it was incredibly important to God there are I went through all these passages where God speaks about the Sabbath in the Old Testament in incredibly elevated language and we could we could spend so much time unpacking all these I just picked one as a representative sample but you guys they're not imagining things alright there's something here take a look at Exodus 31 I'll just read you verse 12 to 14 as a sample of the way that God spoke about the Sabbath in the Old Testament says and the Lord said to Moses you are to speak to the people of Israel and say above all you shall keep my Sabbaths okay high language for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I the Lord sanctify you look at this you shall keep the Sabbath because it is holy for you everyone who profanes it shall be put to death so when we see that they walk want to kill Jesus for breaking the Sabbath they're not making that up either right it's a big deal the next sentence whoever does any work on it that soul shall be cut off from among his people that is a euphemism for killed right it's a second time now verse 15 six days shall work be done but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest holy to the Lord whoever does any work on the Sabbath shall on the Sabbath day shall be put to death three times therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath observing the Sabbath throughout the generations as a covenant forever it is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed okay they're not making it up they did not invent this and you guys they weren't exaggerating they did however misunderstand with the Sabbath met to use John's vocabulary they did not correctly understand what the Sabbath signified it meant something but they didn't really understand what and that is what Jesus is really trying to correct here it seems to me that it was incredibly important to Jesus to correct their misunderstanding and my guess would be to correct our misunderstanding as well so as we jump into what it what I think it really means just draw to your mind what you were trained as a kid did you guys grow up in a community that had blue laws is that thing what is a for the children here what's a blue law can't sell wine on a Sabbath sometimes just businesses can't be open okay the blue laws that and they don't really exist so much unless you're like, you know, like Chick-fil-A we don't really so much have that were you any of you not allowed to play on Sunday was that a thing growing up that you had very strong like Sunday rules I wonder even when you were kids and you are were any of you trained that's the set what today is the Sabbath is a Sunday but you know what it's actually not the Sabbath is Saturday the Lord's Day is Sunday it's really a different thing altogether but we have imported all we've kind of just made this assumption that all the rules about Sabbath keeping for Jews on a Saturday just kind of gets magically transferred over to Christians on Sunday it's a little little more complicated that's not quite really a biblical idea it is informed by biblical ideas and there's all these cultural trappings that Christians kind of live with but I think we live with them without a really firm understanding of what God was doing on a Sabbath on the Saturday and what the Lord's Day is on a Sunday so there's just a lot of confusion and so some of us just kind of like well we're not allowed to do anything fun on Sunday and that's good or maybe we're like well that seems like a dumb idea so we'll just disregard it and think nothing of it and do whatever we want to do on a Sunday or Saturday or so there's all this confusion and not a lot of great biblical clarity but I think Jesus wanted there to be biblical clarity so here's what we're going to do I want to walk through briefly all these different times that they came after Jesus and I want you to see how he responds I want you to see if we can't figure what it is that he's really trying to teach here because when they come after him for his supposed Sabbath violations he doesn't just blow him off he doesn't just shrug his shoulders and move on he actually teaches he corrects their misunderstanding so let's take a look at these when he straightened up the woman who was bent over he appealed to basic compassion he does a quick little story he's just said listen if you untie your ox or your donkey to lead it to water on Saturday then why can I not untie a woman whom Satan has kept bound for 18 years similarly when he healed the man with a shriveled hand he pointed out their hypocrisy and he just said listen if your sheep fell into a well on the Sabbath would you really leave it there for the rest of the day or would you pull it out would you leave it in its misery and if you wouldn't then why should I leave this man in his suffering why should his suffering be extended and what he's basically suggesting in both of those places is that we all have this set of values a sense of like you know moral or ethical obligations and he's saying you've just miss shuffled your deck you have put like ritualistic observation above loving people so like restore your deck man like your loves are all out of order he goes after that right what he ate grain on the Sabbath this was a different one he appeals to the fact I think I think his conversation there is interesting can be a little bit confusing when you each this grain on the Sabbath and they come after him hard he appeals to the fact I think I think his conversation there is interesting can be a little bit confusing when you each this grain on the Sabbath and they come after him hard he appeals to the fact I think I think his conversation there is interesting can be a little bit confusing when you each this grain on the Sabbath and they come after him hard he appeals to the fact I think I think his conversation there is interesting can be a little bit confusing when you each this grain on the Sabbath and they come after him hard he appeals to the fact I think I think his conversation there is interesting can be a little bit confusing when you each this grain on the Sabbath and they come after him hard he appeals to the fact I think I think his conversation there is interesting can be a little bit confusing when you each this grain on the Sabbath and they come after him hard he appeals to the fact I think I think his conversation there is interesting can be a little bit confusing. When you each this grain on the Sabbath and they come after him hard he appeals to the fact I think I think his conversation there is interesting. The grain on the Sabbath this was a different one he appeals to the fact I think I think his conversation there is interesting can be a little bit confusing when you each this grain on the Sabbath and they come after him hard he appeals to the fact I think I think his conversation there is interesting. Can be a little bit confusing when you each this grain on the Sabbath and they come after him hard he appeals to the fact I think I think his conversation there is interesting. It can be a little bit confusing when you each this grain on the Sabbath and they come after him hard he appeals to the fact I think I think his conversation there is interesting.

He argues that the Old Testament allowed and even required that the temple priests would do work on the Sabbath that would for other people it would be work but for them it was a required obligation right you can think of it like this if you even if we just accept like that Sunday has somehow become the Sabbath which against not an accurate understanding but if you just say nobody does work on Sundays except sloop and I right I mean are we gonna come after Barb for like shown up early to kind of get things set up it could be ridiculous right he's saying okay maybe maybe other people aren't allowed to do work but some people it's not just you're allowed to do work you're required to do work right and what he argues is that the temple priests did things on the Sabbath and in fact among the things they were obligated to do was not only offer sacrifices but literally bake bread right he went on to say that he himself is greater than the priests he is greater than the temple that he himself is Lord of the Sabbath and if they could make grain of bread on the Sabbath that he could certainly eat raw grains on the Sabbath and share them with his disciples because he's greater than all of them and how could he not be allowed to do that right but here in John 5 at the healing at the pool he offers a completely different argument take a look at what he says all right he says and this is why the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath watch his answer verse 17 but Jesus answered them my father is working until now and I am working NIV captures the essence of this it's just a little bit punchier in the NIV they have Jesus saying my father is always at his work to this very day and I too am working okay that's a radical statement on at least two levels first because of what he's saying about the father and second because of what he's saying about himself so he says listen my father works 24 hours a day seven days a week do you really think that he has like an answering service that listens to your prayers on the weekends like round the clock he is working some 121 says behold he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep it's not as if Jesus that the father has been taking a day off from the beginning of time the Lord is your keeper the Lord is your shade on your right hand the sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night because he's attending to you day and night verse 7 the Lord will keep you from all evil he will keep your life the Lord will keep your going out and you're coming in from this time forth and forevermore the father works around the clock attending to the needs of his people and then Jesus kind of turns the knife right more distressingly to them he includes himself in the divine community that never stops working he says he is my father he works all the time and I work all the time to Jesus is constantly working and he has been for all eternity Colossians 117 says that in him all things hold together Jesus maybe is literally the strong nuclear force he supervises gravity there's not been a day or a second since he and the father invented time that the divine son has not been sustaining creation and this is the claim that drove them crazy now this is where we're getting to the point where I really want you to pay attention so if you're like blah blah blah he never stops talking yes I know but come back because I have a few more things to say this is the money part okay this is really really important all of this all of this I are drawing all of this frustration it was not an accident it was on purpose Jesus was trying to draw the foul he wanted them to come after him the righteous son of God was born to die he had come to be crucified and part of his work was to be so obedient so perfect so strategic at disclosing his union between the father and himself that it would drive his opposition crazy and it would compel them to put him on a cross we could he could absorb the sins of man and the wrath of God and so that is what he did he was teaching these things he was tweaking them he was running a foul not of what God has commanded but of their man-made religion they had overlaid it on purpose so they would come after him right and this brings me to my real final point this is why this really matters God instituted Sabbath keeping it was his idea he was dead serious about it he did it for a reason but they misunderstood the reason and I haven't shared it with you yet most people don't know this but this is what I want you to get God's purpose in instituting one day a week of rest was to train his people to know the life would not merely come through work but paradoxically through rest let me be more explicit salvation would not come by work but through resting in the finished work performed on their behalf you guys the very thing that was meant to teach Israel that they should rest in God hope in God depend on God trust God to be their provider had become for them one more way to earn points the day that was designed to give them time to peel their eyes and their effort off of themselves and on to him had become a scorecard but like literally everything else in the Old Testament the Sabbath points to Jesus there is something about it he wanted him to learn to internalize the Sabbath points to Christ for he is Lord of the Sabbath he is the bringer arrest and it is only you guys it is only when we trust in him when we trust that he can take away our sin trust that he can credit us with the perfections of his righteousness that we can finally restroom his work the purpose of the Sabbath was to point you to the cross you don't have to strive you don't have to earn you do not have to perform the whole point of the whole story is that we would receive his grace and that we would live lives of love and obedience and response to his love Jesus did not profane the Sabbath he is the Sabbath he is the rest to which the Sabbath points and according to Hebrews 4 you guys the most urgent thing in your life is to enter into that rest here I'm gonna real quick this would be so fast go to if you go to Hebrews 4 you can even just listen I don't have a slide for this Hebrews 4 says this therefore while the promise of entering his rest still stands let us fear list any of you should seem to have failed to reach it for good news came to us just as to them but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened for we who have believed enter that rest to enter the rest is to believe then you stop depending on your righteousness your labor your work and you trust his that is actual Sabbath keeping and Jesus was constantly kicking over their tower of performative rest he intentionally repeatedly and flagrantly violated their misunderstanding of the Sabbath so as to destroy the edifice of man-made religion he did so as a calculated ploy to draw their ire so that they would kill him and he did so so that he could purchase with his blood the deeper rest to which the Sabbath points his invitation to you this morning in particular for those of you that you grew up in like saboteurian homes is to stop trusting in performative rest and come to him for actual rest he loves you and he died so that you would not work concern yourself with scorecards and try to collect points he has all the points and he gives them to you as a gift that you would receive by faith in the one who loves you that's what this happens about I'm out of time Lord Jesus we love you and we thank you that you bring real rest yet you do not intend to give us one more way to credit ourselves with self-righteousness but rather one more lesson that we should abandon both our unrighteousness and our self-righteousness and trust that you have done everything everything all of it and that you give us credit for your life Lord would you help us to rest in you to delight in you to love you in response to the enormity of your gift well we love you love you love you help us find our rest in you amen